Sadness and Sorrow

"Drop It!"

~before class~

Sasuke eyed the marks and the weariness in his best friend's demeanor as he came in. "Okay, what happened?"

Naruto sighed, slumping into a seat next to the raven and rubbing a bruiselike hickey on his neck. "I keep telling you, I got into a fight."

"You've been getting into a lot of fights, dobe," Sasuke replied skeptically.

The blonde's brow furrowed in frustration. "Will you just drop it? Geez," he snapped, and Sasuke leaned back in surprise. Naruto never does that, he thought, trying not to be hurt. Despite the indifferent mask he wore, he actually did have feelings.

"Okay, class, let's get started. Hello, everyone," said Iruka, walking in just as the bell rang. The class answered in one voice: "Good morning, Sensei."

One sultry voice rang out above all the others. "Hello, Sensei." Twenty-three pairs of eyes swiveled to look at the speaker.

Iruka facepalmed. "Kakashi-senpai, what are you doing here? I thought you had classes!"

Kakashi grinned under the surgical mask he wore most of the time, already thinking up lies to say to his students at the college. "They'll survive," he said simply.

Naruto smiled. Kakashi-san did this every week with his younger boyfriend (by two years, you IruKakashi perverts) and always managed to disrupt their teacher's teaching, usually in very intimate ways, effectively ending class for that period.

And he was going to do it today. Most of the class had already started to vacate the classroom. It had just become routine.

"Oi, Naru-dobe. You wanna head to the library?" Sasuke said, shoving some papers into his binder hurriedly as the teachers started to make out.

"Let's go, let's go now," Naruto agreed, and they ran out of the room, shielding their eyes.

*awesome page break *

~in the library, studying~

"Seriously, Naruto, what happened? I don't believe that you got into a fight."

Naruto sighed, irritated with the Uchiha. "For the millionth time, I got into a fight." Then he grimaced. The bruises on his jaws made talking painful.

"Lies."

"Anyway, I asked you to drop it. Can you do that? Please?" Naruto shoved his face in a book.

"Fine," Sasuke conceded. For now, he added in his head.

The period continued, with Sasuke attempting to teach Naruto the basics of tenth-grade math. When the blonde's mind would drift(which was frequently; math is boring), he'd ask about the injuries. With ten minutes left, and already being frustrated with the confusing problems Sasuke was showing him, Naruto snapped.

"Stop asking me about this! Who and why I'm fighting are none of your fucking business!" he yelled, standing up suddenly.

Sasuke ran a distressed hand through his hair, then got up too. "I'm only asking because I care about yo-"

Naruto's eyes filled with angry tears. "I don't need you to care about me! No one's ever cared! Just leave me alone!" He grabbed his bag and backed out of the library, remorse on his face.

Sasuke let a few tears fall. Naruto, you've got to let me in.