High Expectations (sasunaru)

7.

"Then what's this?"

I shrugged against my seat and nonchalantly spread my legs as my hot-headed teacher turned his computer screen towards me. I bucked my hips forward and tapped my hands against my thighs, turning towards Naruto who immediately covered his face away in embarrassment with the palm of his hand.

"Mmm, I'm not sure, may I get a better look please?" I furrowed my eyebrows and puckered my lips as I slightly pushed my head forward with a tilt.

"Don't act so smart with me boy, a closer look won't assist you in distinguishing these two bodies," he argued with an intimidating glare.

"Hmm," I smiled ever so cunningly, "I guess you're right," I lowered my vision and analyzed the video clip projecting against the screen. The video I laid my eyes upon was the undeniable footage of Naruto and me in our breakout room. Fortunately, there was no audio, or else we would've heard the blond's muffled moans against my hand. If I had the courage, I would've asked for a copy of this footage, for personal reasons of course.

"Would one of you like to explain yourselves?" He pulled me away from my thoughts as his obnoxious voice resonated in my ears.

The room was incredibly silent, even the sound of a feather hitting the ground could've been heard. I took a second to ponder my response as I crossed my arms, knowing that Naruto would've been too frightened and embarrassed to utter a single sentence. Quite frankly, I was one to talk. I've come to terms with this bottled-up anxiety of mine, therefore, it was easier to manage situations like these. Although I was sitting in my teacher's office with the blond by my side, it felt like I was sitting in a jail cell with hundreds of interrogators hitting me with dreadful, disgusted, and hateful glares.

I wasn't entirely sure if this was a fear of mine, where everyone finds out about my sexuality. I felt at ease with Naruto potentially figuring it out because he appears to take a liking to my sexual behavior. He seems like the type of person that's open to other possibilities but I shouldn't take my word for it.

The number of times I've looked in the mirror and cried, yet still do. I couldn't understand what's burdened me to be this way, it must have been a curse. It was difficult keeping this to myself, for years and years. No one in my hometown was accepting of romanticizing relationships between the same gender which usually brought me to tears since I thought I wasn't normal.

The only thing that changed was coming to terms with my sexuality. I now knew that I was normal and loved the same things everyone else did, in just a slightly different context. I could've sworn that every individual on this boat was a homophobe, it was a gut feeling. When I attempted to cover up my blatant lies in front of Sakura, she held a face of disgust and confusion every time I mentioned Naruto in a romantic way. I deeply apologize Sakura, for falling in love with your boyfriend and dry fucking him during a quiz.

"I started it," the blond uttered quietly. The teacher and I turned toward him as he calmly shut his eyes and took a deep breath. I wanted to reassure him, hold him, kiss him and tell him that everything was okay but I knew I couldn't, which hurt me the most. "Sasuke and I got into a fight earlier, well- I...I started it back then too. I lose myself when things begin to fall apart, which explains why I hurt him," he paused and looked my way, immediately averting his eyes. "It's rather personal so I won't get into details. When we were separated into breakout rooms, I forced myself to ignore him and focus on the quiz but I-...I couldn't. I got frustrated and fought him until-"

"I punched back, making the situation worse. When Sai got back, I felt guilty looking down at a red-faced Naruto, that is, blood of course," I chuckled under my breath. The blond shook his head from left to right and ran his fingers through his hair.