Ｉｎｓｅｃｕｒｉｔｉｅｓ

Sixteen

Sasuke woke up the following morning in the worst state he could ever imagine.

Never mind the late hour he'd woken up, but he had the biggest headache he'd ever experienced in his life.

The night before had been too much and coming home at god knows what hours of the night didn't seem to make things better as he had very little to no sleep. Even the sound of the alarm seemed to be amplified.

He woke up smelling like shit—feeling like shit, too.

Not only because he had stayed up, but because many things happened at that party that he knew he was going to be very pissed off about once he recollected himself.

Naruto.

Most of what went wrong last night had been because of Naruto.

He couldn't exactly remember, but everything was ruined because of him—Sakura had been this close to falling for his charms, close to completely giving herself to him when the moment had been interrupted by the sounds of people downstairs shouting.

The two had been surprised by the shouting, Sakura being the most curious as she had stopped what she was doing to walk out of the room and look over the balcony towards the bottom floor. "There's blood!" He could hear someone shout. "Run!" Others adviced. But the most intriguing part of it all—the part that truly gave Sasuke chills was seeing how, while everyone ran or began fighting, Naruto was the only one standing still as he locked eyes with whomever the intruder was.

Gaara had been sitting calmly on a couch, drink in hand as if there wasn't about to be a fight in the middle of his own living room, as if an entire gang hadn't just busted through his front door talking shit and starting a fight and Neji simply sat on the armrest of said couch, arms crossed and eyes simply observing.

"Fuck," Sakura had said under her breath. "We have to get out of here."

And Sasuke knew he was freaking out. He didn't know what was happening, but he knew what kind of altercation this was about to become. He'd seen it before: Karin. She used to lead her people into all kinds of trouble and they welcomed it with open arms. He knew this was about to get ugly and he hated it.

He hadn't even noticed when Naruto had left or returned. All he knew was recalling seeing Naruto one moment and the next, he had appeared out of nowhere with blood stains on his shirt. Sasuke didn't have to question it. He'd unvoluntarily hung out with Karin and her gang one too many times to even ask. It was obvious Naruto had messed around and fucked with another gang, and the dumbass brought it here.

Still, to see Gaara and Neji all calm... Gaara almost seeming godly and Neji almost like a vile pet, a guard dog ready to attack should Gaara say so. Fuck, it was terrifying.

There wasn't much he recalled after that. He does remember following Sakura out of the house where the street seemed odd to look at considering it was full of people running away. He remembers running, seething at the fact that he was so close with Sakura and it had all been ruined by the unreal antics of an idiotic blond.

Now, he sat in class with both temples aching with every tap of the pen. He could hear everything around him amplified times a million, and the throbbing on the back of his head would not stop. Just as he thought things were settling down in class and everything was quieting down to begin, Naruto walked in. Nothing could have prepared Sasuke for the cheery blond who walked in with—surprise: Neji—walking right behind him.

"Good morning!" He shouted, and in that second, Sasuke winced at the overly happy tone lacing Naruto's greeting to the entire class. Even Neji, the hot mess walking behind him seemed to not enjoy the loudness of his voice and silently glared at the back of the Uzumaki's head. "Sakura, how are you doing today? Shino, looking good." It was odd, Sasuke thought. "Hina~" The Uzumaki smiled though the girl only sent him a glare. "Looking mighty cute, the usual, no?" Why was Naruto being so loud? So out of character? Sasuke watched from the front of the class how the boy walked happily to the back of the classroom, taking his seat and—

"Hey," Sasuke finally spoke for the first time upon entering. His words were directed towards the grey-eyed hottie taking his seat next to the blond. "That's my seat."

Neji, confused, scoffed and pretended to look aorund. "Excuse me?" He asked, sounding as moody as he looked.

"You heard me," Sasuke replied, mildly annoyed and tired. "Go find your own."

"That is his seat," Naruto said, so matter-of-factly.

"You want to mess with me, Uchiha?" Neji asked, leaning back on the chair and crossing his arms, brows furrowed into a scowl. "Or are you looking to get beat?"

Sasuke frowned. He was too tired to deal with any of this, but at the same time, he was annoyed that Neji was actually in class for once, not only that, but also tkaing his seat right next to Naruto.

"That's what I thought," Neji snapped him out of his thoughts. "Run along and go sit with your girlfriend or something."

To this, Sakura only looked back over to Neji and smiled awkwardly. It was odd that she'd do that, Sasuke thought. He'd figure she'd be chirphy at the comment.

"Can both of you just take your fucking seats and shut up?" Ino intervened, walking over and standing next to Naruto's desk.

"Fuck off, Uchiha." Neji warned. "I'm being nice."

The two glared at each other, the class looking at them as they settled in and waited for Azuma. Sakura rolled her eyes, turning her attention away from the two and isntead initiating a talk with Shino, who happened to accidentally drop his pencil on the floor.

"Can you two snap out of it?" Naruto, annoyed now, asked. "Neji sits here. This is his seat."

"He's going to skip class anyway," Sasuke argued. "What's the point of him even sitting here if he's probably just going to sleep?"

To this, Neji laughed. "Shit, you got me figured out, huh?" He joked. "I guess if you really want this seat," He said, standing up and grabbing the chair. "You can have it." He pushed it over to Sasuke. "Naruto and I will just go sit somewhere else." And then Neji once again challenged him, knowing fully well how the Uchiha wanted to sit next to Naruto.

"Alright, you three. Knock it off." Azuma walked in before anyone else could say more. "I can hear you from the halls."

"Nothing going on here, Sir." Neji said, all while maintaining eye contact with the Uchiha, a side smirk on his face. "We're just moving a few things around. Shino," He called, looking over Sasuke's shoulder towards the boy sitting by himself. "mind if we sit by you?"

The boy blinked in surprise, but nodded before really thinking too much of it. Without further ado, Neji and Naruto walked over towards the boy, Neji roughly brushing past Sasuke with a look of accomplishment on his face.

"Before you take your seat, Mr. Uzumaki," Azuma said as he proppped his messenger bag on top of his desk. He reached for his back pocket, taking out a pink slip and placing it on the top right corner. "Iruka's calling for you."

And while Azuma continued setting up his things, Neji taking his seat next to Shino and starting conversation, and Sakura and Ino gathering together at their seats, Sasuke watched as the blond stopped what he was doing and stared in surprise at the slip laying upon Azuma's desk. He noted the hopeful look on his face, noted the wide-eyed stare Neji was giving him and noted the silent excitement the two exchanged between looks.

Naruto was acting weird, Sasuke thought. For a kid who went through what he did every day of the school week, being looked down upon by everyone and all, he was acting too happy and too... normal? What exactly was it? Too cheery? Whatever it was, it all started since last night after Naruto met with Gaara. It all started back then and Sasuke didn't know whether or not he was interested to know what it was.

Obviously it did, because as soon as Naruto left the room, Sasuke found himself looking for an excuse to go after him.