Title: Life Cereal
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto; if I did it would be considered porn w/ plot.
Okay everyone, this'll be my first non-one-shot Naruto fic. I've done longer fics before but none for the ever-loveable ninja series.
I just want you guys to know that this chapter is written from Naruto's POV so obviously the vocabulary isn't the best, nor the sentence structure but I wanted it to be true to our lil' knuckle-head. This idea came to me because I'm always reading fics where Sasuke is the calm collected one and Naruto's the one in trouble, well I DARE TO BE DIFFERENT!!! Ahem anyways reviews are appreciated and flames will be laughed at then used to roast my marshmallows.
Naruto's POVThere's this kid that rides my bus, and I see him from time to time. I never really noticed him until about a week ago. I was sitting in detention, nothing unusual, when he came in. If I hadn't stretched out I never would've noticed him. Just as I leant backwards he slid through the door and into the first desk he saw. It was right next to the door, which is the worst seat. Sitting there means every delinquent, bully, and bastard is going to come right by you and vent some anger. I sat there once, ONCE, and I will never no matter what sit there again.
Now I'm a pretty nice guy and all but usually I wouldn't go through the trouble to defend someone stupid enough to sit there; interfering means trouble for me ya know. But this guy, he looked so frail I felt obligated to help him. So I crumpled up some paper and threw it at his head, which was in his arms at the time. Bad move, not five seconds after it bounced off his head he retaliated with his math book. And of course, it made a big smacking sound and everyone looked at me and I felt embarrassed. So I decided to just leave him there, and I was going to, if I hadn't noticed the tears. I stopped to take a good look at him and I could see it. His shoulders were shaking just slightly and his eyes were wetter than they should've been, he was even clenching and unclenching his hands on his arms.
I couldn't just leave him there, even if he had acted like a bastard it was probably because he was upset. When I pass him on the bus he's always alone, no one will sit with him. And he always looks like one good wind will knock him over. Thinking about it, I do remember seeing him change during gym once. He always manages to disappear when everyone's shedding clothes but I caught a glimpse of him. He was skinny, too skinny, and maybe I'm just over thinking it now but I think I saw some bruises and stuff like that on him.
Anyways, back to our detention, I walked up and sat in the desk next to his. "Hey, you do know that sitting here is like gluing a 'kick me hard' sign to your back right?" No response. "I sat there before and I got screwed over, anyone who sits there gets it bad. Come on, sit with me. I'm a regular so you shouldn't be bothered if-" He stood up, eyes locked on his knock-off converse and sat in the desk next to where my stuff was. He put his head back down and stayed that way all through detention.
Now seeing as how I ride a bus home after school detention should be avoided at all costs. But if I just can't help myself, like today's food fight, or last weeks 'lets dye Ino's hair', or last months mustard in tuba incident, I can get a ride with Iruka. He's a history teacher here and I've known him since I was a little kid. He use to work at my orphanage until he got a job at KHS (1). Getting a ride home with Iruka's fun so I was about to book it in the opposite direction when I heard a locker close, that kid's locker. He didn't have another way home, and I felt bad because he just looked so defeated. "Hey kid, if you want a ride home I've got connections."
"No thanks." I felt like throwing something else at him! Here I was trying to help him out, for the second time mind you, and he has to say 'no thanks' in a condescending defensive tone. Well excuse me for trying to be a good citizen. It was freezing outside; school had just started after all, and just had on a thin long-sleeve and ratty demins. After that little episode though we parted ways for a bit. I went to Iruka's office and begged for a ride. In the end, like always, he caved with a sigh and gathered up his papers. The two of us made it out to the parking lot, into Iruka's mini-van and to the gate before I remembered about that kid from detention. I remembered because just when we were about to turn he fell into a puddle right in front of the car.
Iruka skidded to a halt and jumped out of the van quicker than I'd ever seen before. I was right behind him. When Iruka tried to help him up the boy yanked his arm away and tried his hardest to run away. I only saw his face for a minute but he looked scared, and not like roller-coaster scared, it was more like 'oh shit, they're gonna beat me to death' scared. I probably should've let him get away but Iruka started yelling 'Sasuke, Sasuke wait.' And my feet suddenly started moving; I caught up with him in no time. It turns out he scrapped up his knee in the fall. My arms wrapped around him from behind and he started jerking and flailing around to get away.
"Let me go! Let me go! OFF ME! LET go…just let me go…please." He started out screaming, then screaming louder, then…it all just trailed off and if my face weren't pressed right against his I wouldn't have heard that whispered please. He stopped struggling and sank to his knees, dragging me with him; that was around the time Iruka made it over to us. He got on his knees too and tried to brush aside Sasuke's bangs. Instead he whimpered and turned his head away, he was crying. We all stayed still for a few minutes, only Sasuke was moving, his shoulders were shaking, and then Iruka helped us to our feet and made Sasuke take a ride with us.
Right now I'm in bed at the orphanage, my roommate Gaara's just staring out into nothing while drumming his painted nails against his leg. He'd been quiet the whole ride. He didn't look out the window to keep himself occupied or fidget with his book bag, he just sat there, back completely straight, eyes down, completely quiet. Gaara does that sometimes too. Only he does it because it was conditioned into him. Before he got shipped out here he lived with his dad. He has two other siblings but they were lucky enough to live with their mom. Gaara says he learned that 'obedience' position from his dad, whenever Mr. Sabaku demanded it Gaara would sit that way and wait for punishment, however cruel and painful it would be, he would have to just sit still and wait for the blows to come. I just hope that Sasuke sat that way because of a fluke and those bruises I thought I saw weren't there.
I can tell Gaara's agitated with me, I have no idea why though. I'm being all quiet and thinking about Sasuke, usually I'm so hyper I'm practically radioactive and Gaara yells at me to calm down, honestly there's no pleasing this guy. "Uzumaki." Short, creepy, and to the point, that's my roomy for ya.
"You called?" I've got my usual cheeky grin in place but it's not real, and we both know it. He sat up and faced me, still on his bed. Then he started leaning forward, since I was sitting on the floor he was able to get his face pretty close to mine. You see, Gaara understands personal space is valued when it's his own, otherwise he knows no boundaries and just keeps coming until you fidget and he feels in control.
"Something's off." Heh, no kidding. I'm practically ripping my hair out over some kid I recognize from the bus. Wait, the bus, Gaara rides the bus, maybe he knows Sasuke.
"Yeah I know. Hey do you know a kid named Sasuke. He rides our bus, kinda skinny, duck-butt haircut, pale, skittish maybe. He's what's bothering me." Gaara blinked, and it wasn't a thoughtful blink or a surprised blink, just a blink.
"Uchiha, I know of him. He's in my math and history classes. Strange boy."
"Strange boy, come on Gaara, take a look in the mirror lately."
"Yes." I think that was an attempt at humor but I'm not sure, he may not have noticed the insult. It's better that way though; I'd rather not spend the rest of my evening with a limp. "Has Uchiha done something to you?"
"Nah, he just…I dunno I feel worried about him. I've noticed some bruises and he's way too skinny and today in detention he was crying, and he cried again later. In the car he was doing that 'obedience' thing you do sometimes. You have classes with him, what do you think?" Gaara lay back on his bed again before answering me.
"He's quiet, intelligent, frail but stronger than he looks. Neji with a cold perhaps, if you erase all that tripe about fate." Okay so Gaara thinks he's like Neji a little. Neji's on the student council…I think he's a president but I'm not sure, I don't really care much for politics, no matter where they are. Well if that's his personality I wonder what his life's like. I doubt him and Gaara chat about junk like that. Seems to me like the two of them would 'hn' at each other and go about their business rather than gossip.
"Know anything about his home life?" He took a deep breath, which means I'm annoying him I think.
"He seems to have an abnormal amount of bruises that he's rather good at hiding. He's reclusive already but when a discussion turns to home life he tends to make himself invisible. Is that any indication?" Big words…but I still get what he's saying. Sasuke's probably beaten and/or neglected at home. Isn't that just wonderful?
"Thanks Gaara."
"Hn."
It's short isn't it? Sorry about that, it's just that I wanted the chapter to end neatly, not with a bunch of POV and scene changes ya know.
Okay the title is "Life Cereal" Well I chose this because (well yes I do love Life the cereal but that's not it) you know how when you pour out cereal all the pieces that look perfect on the box are all wrong in your bowl? And how there are all kinds of brands and flavors of it? And there's other little metaphors/similes I'll get in later but that's the gist of it.
KHS: Konoha High School, bet you didn't see that one coming. Heh.
Next chapter: Sasuke's POV, be prepared, be very prepared…sorry, it's really early here.
This chapter was brought to you by hot chocolate mixed with non-dairy creamer, hope you enjoyed it. I'll update as soon as possible so please bare with me m'kay.