A Tale of Three Best Friends

Naruto Uzumaki hated school. He had always disliked being cooped up indoors, and he had a lot of bad memories associated with school. He was a week into tenth grade at Konoha High and was already wondering how he would survive the year. At least after starting high school last year, things had been a bit better for him. Before, most people either hated him or were afraid of him because of his being the vessel for the Nine-tailed fox demon, Kyuubi, that had terrorised Konoha in the past, and that, combined with his hyper personality, meant that the blond Jinchuuriki had few friends.

Despite this, there he was, sitting in a classroom with too much A/C and wondering when the day would be over. After this class, math, there was only one class, English, left until he could get out, but it just felt so long. He dropped his messy blond head on his folded arms and closed his eyes, tuning out his math teacher's voice.

He didn't know that he had been sleeping until a pale hand flicked him in the head. "Wake up, dobe."

"What? And don't call me that, you teme." Naruto lifted his head out of tan arms; narrowing bright blue eyes at the boy who had woke him up. Sasuke Uchiha had dark, almost black eyes and midnight black hair that framed his face in the front but stuck out at the back, contrasting sharply against his milk-pale skin.

"Class is over, dobe. Everyone's gone already. Now come, we're going to be late." Sasuke turned to walk out of the classroom.

"Like I care", Naruto grumbled, standing up to follow his friend to their next class.

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When school was over for the day and for the week, since it was Friday, Naruto grabbed his things and rushed out. He had barely made it out of the classroom before he was waylaid by Sasuke. "Dobe."

"What is it teme?" The two used the insults almost subconsciously when talking to each other.

"You need to focus on school. If you keep on like this, you're never going to finish high school."

"Yeah, well, who says I'm not? And stop acting like my damn mother," Naruto grumbled, knowing that the raven was right. He had barely scraped through grade 9 the previous year.

Although the two didn't act it, they were best friends. Sasuke was Naruto's first friend, when no one else had wanted anything to do with him, and Naruto was Sasuke's only friend. They fought and argued constantly, in fact many would say that they enjoyed it, but they had always and would always remain best friends.

"Who are you staying with tonight?" Sasuke asked. Naruto usually slept at one of his friends' places because of the treatment he received from his foster-father, Danzo Shimura. His mother and father had both died shortly after his birth, and he had no living relatives left.

"Huh? Oh yeah, Gaara," Naruto replied. "I ain't stayin' with that creep Danzo, that's for sure, and Kiba and Shikamaru are busy." Gaara was perhaps Naruto's oddest friend. Very few people willingly had much to do with the redhead – most people were afraid of him, and he made little effort to dispel that fear. Gaara had transferred to Konoha in the middle of the previous year from his school in Suna after he got into some kind of trouble, though Naruto didn't know what.

Sasuke never invited anyone to his house. Even Naruto had only been there twice, and he knew why. Sasuke's family, the Uchihas, were one of the richest and most influential in Konoha. Perhaps because of this, they expected their sons, Sasuke and his older brother Itachi, to be close to perfect. Sasuke hated this, especially as he was always being compared to Itachi. Although Sasuke had never actually told anyone any of this, Naruto had understood after he visited the first time, hearing Sasuke's father criticizing him. Naruto had gone there only once after that and after that, never again – the tension in that household was just too great. When Naruto stayed with one of his friends, he usually stayed at Gaara's although about a third of the time he stayed with one of his other friends, but never Sasuke.

"Dobe. Are you listening?"

Naruto realised that he had been spacing out, and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Oh, yeah. What didja say again?"

"Hn." Sasuke arched an elegant eyebrow. "Dobe. I asked whether you were staying with Gaara for the weekend."

"Oh, yeah." Sasuke had already started walking down the hallway towards the school entrance before Naruto finally figured out that he had been insulted. "Hey! I'm not a dobe!" he yelled after the retreating raven, who turned to smirk at the angry blond. "Teme!"

"You know, quite a few people would say you're dead last, Uzumaki," a voice drawled behind Naruto, making him jump.

"What the hell Nara! What'd you hafta sneak up on me for?" Naruto turned to glare at the tall brunet who had not, in reality, snuck up on the blond. Naruto had just been too busy yelling at Sasuke to notice Shikamaru Nara. "And I'm not dead last."

"How troublesome." Shikamaru shook his head and walked off.

On his way out, Naruto saw two dark-haired males having a heated conversation just outside the school building. Curious, he went closer so tht he could hear what the Uchiha brothers were arguing about.

"I'm going to be leaving soon, little brother." The cool voice belonged to the older Uchiha, Itachi.

"Nice," came Sasuke's slightly sarcastic voice. "Is this something else you have to do for the sake of the village or something equally heroic?"

"Someday you'll understand, little brother." Although his tone had not changed, there seemed to be some heaviness in his voice, as if the weight of the world rested on his shoulders, and then it was gone. "Until then..." Itachi made a motion with his hand, although Naruto could not see what exactly he did.

Naruto could make no sense of the exchange, especially since he had not heard the whole thing. Didn't Sasuke hate his brother? When the brothers had been younger Sasuke had almost worshipped Itachi, but as Sasuke had gotten older, the realization that their parents loved Itachi more had turned Sasuke's love for his brother into jealousy and eventually to hate, or something resembling hate. But now it seemed that the brothers didn't hate each other as much as supposed.

And Itachi doing something, or somethings, for the sake of Konoha? For Konoha was good, wasn't it? Naruto thought. But then how come Sasuke was so angry?

Naruto resumed his journey out of the school. When outside, he made for the place that he spent most of his time in: the long pier overlooking a nearby pond. It wasn't hidden, but it was difficult to find if you didn't know about it, and apart from Naruto, very few people did. Only his friends knew to find him there when he disappeared for a few hours.

He dropped his bright orange backpack at the spot where the grass of the fields that he walked across to get there met the solid wood of the pier, pulling out an iPod and a pair of dj-style headphones – both orange – before walking down the pier. He lay down, taking off his t-shirt and folding the soft orange fabric under his head.

Contrary to his hyper personality, whenever he was alone there, he was calm. Only a few people had ever seen flashes of this Naruto, mainly his friends, and no one saw it for long. Most people still saw as either the Kyuubi holder or that loud, hyper kid; he guessed that he never really relaxed enough around people for them to see him like this, even around his friends, who had been the only people to look past the Kyuubi and his loudness.

He was so deep in thought that he didn't notice that his eyes had closed and he was slowly drifting to sleep until a sharp pain in his side woke him. Naruto's eyes snapped open, blue meeting a pair of expressionless green eyes. "What the fuck Gaara!"

Gaara flicked a piece of dark red hair out his eyes, revealing a tattoo on his forehead. "Come on, you're coming to my place."

Naruto stood up, rubbing his side. Whatever the redhead had done had hurt. "Ya know, you didn't hafta kick me." He picked up his bag from where he had left it, pulling off his headphones before stuffing them and the iPod into the bag.

"I didn't." Gaara started to walk up the pier after Naruto.

"Then what did you do? Dude, that hurt." They walked across the fields, but went a different way from where the blond had come earlier.

"Naruto, shut up." Gaara turned to glare at the jinchuuriki.

"Dude, you're my best friend and all, but you're, like, really freaky sometimes." Although Gaara was the same age and size as Naruto, he had an aura that promised a slow and excruciatingly painful death to anyone who tried to mess with him. Because of this he had no friends apart from Naruto, and people generally left him alone.

"Shut up."

Naruto blinked a couple of times, and, surprisingly, fell silent. He was perhaps one of only two people, the other being his sister Temari, who could provoke Gaara without sustaining severe injuries, and that was only because he knew exactly how far he could go without getting hurt.

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Gaara lived in a small apartment around ten minutes' walking distance from Konoha High. Although, like Naruto, he had no parents, he had escaped living with a foster family due to the intervention of his older siblings, Temari and Kankuro. They rented the apartment, but Gaara rarely saw them – Temari checked up on him every three months, and Kankuro visited him any time he felt like it. Secretly, Naruto was glad, because Temari and Kankuro scared him slightly.

The apartment had only four rooms – a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and a living room. When Gaara unlocked the door and stepped in, followed by Naruto, they first went into the tiny living room, which contained only a chair, desk, and a couch. The boys took off their shoes, leaving them and their bags at the door, and walked through the living room, to the almost microscopic kitchen, which had barely enough room besides the stove, fridge, microwave, and cupboards for one boy, let alone two. Pushing open a door at the back of the kitchen led the boys to Gaara's bedroom. The room was bare, but neat: the single bed against the back wall had neatly folded beige sheets; the wardrobe next to it was closed; the shelf on the right had Gaara's possessions stacked neatly on top of it; the carpeted floor was clean. A door in the left wall of the room led to the bathroom.

"Go shower," Gaara ordered.

"Why?"

"Because you stink."

"I do not. C'mon Gaara, loosen up. You're like a fucking woman."

"You can shower, or you can sleep in the hallway. Your choice." Naruto fell silent, remembering what had happened last time Gaara had made that threat. He found some sleeping clothes and a pair of boxers (he had some of his clothes at most of his friends' places) and went to take his shower.

The bathroom, like the rest of the apartment, was tiny. When Naruto closed the door, he could touch the shower door while standing, back against the door. If he sat on the toilet, the sink was close enough for him to wash his hands at the same time. The shower was not for the claustrophobic – the knob to turn on the shower was right at the very back, but Naruto could still turn it on without actually stepping into the shower.

Gaara ignored the blond when he came out of the bathroom; the redhead was sitting on his bed cross-legged, hunching over a shiny black laptop computer, intent on whatever he was doing on it.

"Whatcha doin' Gaara?" Naruto said loudly, craning his neck to look at the computer screen.

The redhead jumped and snapped the laptop closed. "God, Naruto, do you have to be so loud?"

"Where you looking at, ya know, dirty stuff?" the blond crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes, staring down at the other boy, who glared at him. "So you can look at your dirty stuff but I can't play PWI? How's that fair?"

"First, this is my computer, second, your stupid MMO-thing slows down my computer and takes too long to download, and third, I don't need you in my business." With each word, the redhead's glare seemed to get even stronger.

Naruto shrugged and wandered into the kitchen. He found a pack of instant ramen, the food of the gods, that he had left at Gaara's, and sat down on the couch in the living room to eat the noodles.