Third chapter of my AU fic
Title: These People I Can’t Stand
Rating: T
Warnings: Sasuke maincharacter-ing (in every chapter), major waff, and drugs other than fanfic crack (in later chapters)
Other pairings: Mention of Jiraiya/Tsunade somewhere in the background, if you even recognize them
Setting: School AU, they're 12-13 years old
I think I'm done with editing this into even worse than it was when I started. xD
Chapter One, Chapter Two
Chapter Three: Family
The library had worse air-conditioning than the rest of the school, but it was worth every drop of sweat.
How did your average elementary school students spend their recess anyway, by running head-first into walls and screaming? Whatever the case, Sasuke had always been certain he wanted no part in such nonsense, and what better way to avoid it than making use of the least popular room in the school. At least here he didn’t have to tolerate feeling badly mascara’d eyes on his back and practically hearing the hissing when Sakura clung to his arm and stared back at them.
At the moment she was -possibly aware of that Sasuke was a cat person, because any information people could use against him, they of course found a way to get access to- reminding him of a much less hostile feline sound, as she sat much too close for comfort again and he mentally congratulated himself for yet another benefit of their group’s momentary isolation. Nobody could see him needing help with his homework.
Well, except for Naruto, who was immersed in studies of his own, apparently thinking his school book was doing a good job hiding what he was reading between it.
It wasn’t that Sasuke considered it his business what kind of magazines some people let their adopted sons have, but he did wish they would consider the collateral damage done to the minds of these sons’ friends who stumbled on them when they came to visit. The school’s sex education classes were traumatizing enough.
(On second thought, perhaps they could be more informative. After all, one of the increasingly ridiculous hearsay theories on why Gaara and the three of them tolerated each other was that somehow, as a result of their unsupervised detention time, he was pregnant with Naruto’s child, and obviously whoever had come up with that one was missing some vital details about human reproduction. And here he had though the rumor of Naruto having some mysterious power that enabled him to instantly befriend anyone had been unreal.)
And yes, Gaara was there, too. Still.
Now that it had been established he wasn't going to kill you on a whim, though, he was pretty low-maintenance. Content to just mind his own business while you minded yours somewhere within his earshot, the somewhat tamed monsterboy was curled up next to a wavering tower, sampling its topmost building block. A quick glance identified books on astronomy, demons in different mythologies, skeletal structures of animals, and ornamental plants.
All of a sudden a cell phone beeped, and to Sasuke’s mild surprise it was Gaara who reached into his bag and checked his messages.
No need to ponder who it was from, though. Apart from the three of them, he had only seen Gaara initiate any interaction with the two teenagers who had started picking him up at school more and more frequently. ‘Family’, he had introduced them as.
Naruto put down his book, and looked at Gaara expectantly. Gaara looked back, almost… embarrassed? Naruto smiled. Sasuke didn’t get it.
“Uh, so I was thinking… what do you guys say about staying over at my place tonight? I’ve got this, well, cool new movie I’d like to show you.”
“Naruto, we just had a sleepover at your place on Monday,” Sakura said. “You know my parents don’t like the idea of me spending nights at a boy’s house.”
Naruto shrugged. “Don’t spend the night, then. We can watch it in the afternoon and get you home before dark. Sasuke?”
“No.”
“Why not? We cleaned up my room and everything!”
‘We’? Couldn’t Naruto keep his room in an inhabitable condition without the help of his latest (and permanent, he insisted) parents? The strange old couple didn’t seem the type to bother with picking up other people’s mess from the floor just because their son was too lazy, though.
“I’m busy.” And that should qualify as the end of the discussion, Sasuke decided. Naruto disagreed.
“If you’re gonna miss your brother so much, bring him along. You can take a day off from your pissing contest every once in a while.”
Sasuke just stared at him, appalled. How dare that moron refer to his quest of surpassing Itachi at school work, sports, video games, holding your breath underwater… -hell, just surpassing Itachi at anything- like it was something trivial and childish? Naruto clearly didn’t understand. His brother was one up on him at staring without blinking again, and revenge is serious business. Whether Itachi knew there was a contest or not was irrelevant.
Naruto looked back to Gaara. “But you’re coming, right?”
Gaara nodded. That was a given.
What was this sudden pajama party phase Naruto was going through, anyway? He kept coming up with the stupidest excuses to invite them over -on Monday it had been to help him eat some food he didn’t like because it wasn’t in noodle form.
And Gaara always accepted. He practically lived with Naruto.
Before Sasuke managed to sink low enough to actually gain interest in solving this mystery, he noticed an approaching familiar face out of the corner of his eye.
“Hello, children. Studying hard, I see.”
Sakura chirped ‘Hatake-sensei’ a greeting that would give any thrush and nightingale an inferiority complex, Sasuke sunk further into his chair, Naruto instinctively hid his cover-up book (not that Kakashi was likely to say anything about it), and Gaara glanced up from his own reading material and went back to ignoring his surroundings. Just as Sasuke hoped Kakashi had been passing by and would be on his way now, the mismatched eyes of his teacher saw through his attempt to blend in with the furniture.
“I’d like to borrow Uchiha-kun for a while before your next class. Come with me?”
Sasuke got up, grumbling, and followed the man. As soon as they left his friends behind, he could feel Kakashi’s cheerful mask start to drop. Was he in trouble? He had done nothing to get into any, but he could sense their conversation would be very serious.
He had had a ‘man-to-man’ talk with Kakashi on a few occasions before, and his prematurely graying teacher seemed to take monitoring his wellbeing rather personally. Mostly he got asked how he was doing, with badly disguised enquiry on whether everything was okay.
It was understandable, Sasuke supposed. Their first talk had been after Kakashi had found out another teacher had offered to give Sasuke a higher grade from his classes in exchange for favors that would most definitely have been inappropriate, and though the man(?) had quickly gotten fired (for reasons never made public), that sort of thing could make you protective of the already targeted.
Not that he couldn't take care of himself. He had just come to accept that Kakashi trying to play father figure was something he would have to tolerate to avoid attracting more fussing.
He knew this time he wouldn’t be hearing lame chitchat about Kakashi’s pet dogs or birdwatching hobby, when the door to the empty classroom opened and another familiar face was waiting for him.
“Hi, Sasuke. Sorry I'm late, I... helped an old lady with her luggage...”
The old excuse his uncle gave when he had gotten caught up at work for longer than promised seemed out of place to say the least. What had he been late for now? The Vice President of Uchiha Copiers sat in a small chair with his shoulders hunched, and without the smile that was about as annoying as Naruto’s. The lack of it was suddenly far more unpleasant.
“What’s happened?”
Kakashi brought him a chair so they could sit in a circle. Both men were waiting for the other to start talking.
“It’s about Itachi,” Obito finally told him. “When is the last time you saw him?”
At the beginning of his next class, Sasuke was aware of three new things.
One. His uncle and teacher were childhood friends, and Obito had even saved Kakashi’s life once (in the accident that had caused one of Kakashi’s eyes to go blind and look the way it did). Kakashi was keeping his seeing eye on him because Obito thought he reminded him too much of his friend in their younger days to not get into trouble.
So Sasuke had at least been right about there being a conspiracy.
Two. Itachi was gone. He had always been secretive about where and with whom he spent his time, but Sasuke would never have expected him to run off and join a gang.
Had he no sensible bone in his body? Who not only shows no interest in, but downright throws away a legally guaranteed place in the sun to live with a bunch of criminals, looking over his shoulder? Itachi Uchiha does.
Three. Sakura’s much dreaded hug could actually make you forget for a while about your big brother having dumped you for a more interesting life, even if you didn’t return it. Naruto knew a look that said he understood and that he wouldn’t dump you no matter how boring you got. And Gaara did nothing to show it, but he understood.
The world must have come to an end, but sometimes they truly did.
For the next weeks and eventually months, there was no escaping the Fussing. Everybody was spending more time at his house all of a sudden; his uncle because he felt guilty or something, his friends because they thought that having caught him receptive to comforting once meant he now needed them around to kiss away his boo-boos, and Sasuke himself because school just didn't seem to be getting him anywhere that mattered and so he didn't think it was necessary for him to attend every day.
One evening, when an attempt at a cheer-up visit had ended particularly late and his friends needed a ride home, a fourth new thing came to his attention.
Gaara did live with Naruto.
Or, Naruto had landed himself the questionable honor of having the runt of the Sabaku litter pick him as his 'friend to go to on days when it's not a good idea to go home', and for the past month or so Gaara had simply not gone home at all anymore. A week and two days before the summer vacation, they helped him pack his things so he and his siblings could move to the relatives who had finally realized to take them in. If they couldn’t wait until the end of the school year to go back to Suna, things must have been pretty messed up.
Gaara got his first Sakura-hug, and he didn’t return it either, but she didn’t mind. She gave him her email address and told him he had better write to it.
Naruto gave him a crushing, intruding, teary Naruto-hug and told him he would write and call him every day (Gaara already had his address and number, of course). As far as his limbs were motile at all in that rib-breaker squeeze, he made a commendable attempt to hug back.
Sasuke nodded at him and made a vague grunt he hoped was interpretable as something. That gesture Gaara returned like a mirror.
Chapter Four, Chapter Five
Chapter Six, Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight