A Tale of Three Best Friends

Naruto’s weekend passed uneventfully. He had passed the time either on the pier or hanging out with a couple of friends, shooting hoops.
When he returned to school the next day, nothing short of actually knowing what was to come could have prepared him for the events of the day.
At first, the day seemed the same as any other. During lunch, Naruto sat with a bunch of friends, Kiba, Shikamaru, and Choji.
While at lunch, Kiba suggested that they come up with the animal that each in the group of friends was most like. All agreed that Naruto was the fox – the whisker-like scars on his face and the fact that he was the vessel for the nine-tailed fox left no room for any other animal to be considered. The boys also agreed that that Kiba would be a dog – he had shaggy brown hair, fang-like markings on his cheeks, and a fierce love for dogs, especially his dog, Akamaru. They had more trouble with Shikamaru and Choji; as Kiba put it, “you guys just aren’t really animal-ey people.”
“I guess Shikamaru could be an owl or something like that,” Naruto decided, tilting his head to one side as he considered the brunet in question. “I mean, owls sleep all day and they’re supposed to be smart like you.” Shikamaru, although extremely lazy, was extremely smart –he had skipped a grade, and so, despite being the same age as Naruto and his other friends, was a grade above them.
Shikamaru lifted his head out of his arms, where he had been sleeping. “Troublesome.” Having shared his opinion on the matter, her lay his head back in his arms and went back to sleep.
Choji had also not really participated in the conversation, being more interested in the food he was cramming into his mouth. When Naruto and Kiba turned their attention to what animal he was, he ignored them and carried on eating.
“Dude, he’s gotta be like a hyena or something. I mean just look at how he’s devouring those wings!”
“Hey! That’s my wings!” Naruto glared at Choji, and snatched the rest of the wings from under the other boy’s nose. Choji glared back and snatched a couple more wings off the plate. Naruto growled and turned away from Choji, keeping his body in between the plate and the wing-thief. Unfortunately for the blond, he turned towards Sasuke as he passed by, who smirked and took a wing off the plate, licking his fingers. Naruto’s tan face turned dark red with anger, while Kiba barked with laughter. The angered boy growled again and shoved the few remaining wings into his mouth, without bothering to chew in between.
“Dude, slow down, you’re gonna choke or something,” Kiba said.
Naruto shrugged, having already gotten over his brief anger. “Won’t.” He swallowed a bit of the food in his mouth, and on seeing the yeah, right look on Kiba’s face, elaborated. “Kyuubi wouldn’t let me.”
“Oh, yeah.” Kiba looked like he wanted to say something else, but stopped. “Hey, isn’t that Uchiha? What happened to him, he looks like his best friend just died. Naruto? Where are you going?”
Naruto had gotten up from the table and was turned the way that the raven had gone. “Oh. Yeah. Sorry guys, gotta go, see ya later!” Then he was striding off after Sasuke, pushing past people to get to him.
He found Sasuke in an almost deserted corridor, bent over a water fountain. “Teme,” the blond called, skidding to a halt a few feet from the other boy. The raven raised his head. His face, although he tried to keep it impassive, was showing the most emotion Naruto had ever seen: a mixture of sorrow, revulsion, anger, shock, and disbelief. “What’s wrong?” Naruto asked, worried. “What happened?”
Sasuke looked as though he wasn’t going to say anything for a while, until he muttered something so softly that, had Naruto not had enhanced hearing thanks to the Kyuubi, he would have missed it. “I-I can’t go back home.”
Naruto blinked. Was an Uchiha, who always believed in doing things themselves and who had enough pride to rival ten of any normal person, asking for something? “Why not?” the blond asked, confused as to what terrible thing could have led an Uchiha to have to ask for something.
The raven’s usual mask of stoic indifference was slowly being put back into place, but as if with great difficulty.
“Umm,” Naruto scratched the back of his head. “I guess you could sleep with me ‘n’ Gaara. I’ll just have to ask him, but he’ll probably say yes –,” he stopped, confused. “What?”
Sasuke’s cheeks had a faint dusting of pink, but he quickly shook his head when Naruto looked at him questioningly, as much to try to dispel the blush as to ward off Naruto’s questions.
Naruto looked at him for what seemed like a long time, as if trying to figure something out, then shrugged and started to walk. “C’mon, let’s ask him.”
They were held up by what seemed like the school’s entire female population Naruto’s age and younger rushing towards Sasuke.
“Oh, great, the Sasuke Fanclub is here,” Naruto rolled his eyes. The girls gathered around the raven, fussing over him. Feeling that, right then, Sasuke did not need a bunch of rabid fangirls accosting him, the blond grabbed his friend by the wrist and dragged him away from the pack of girls.
A number of angry screeches heralded this action. “Get your hands off him, you dirty monster!”
A surge of anger welled inside Naruto when he heard them, and his eyes flashed red, but he continued to steer the raven away from the fangirls to find Gaara.
“Dobe, you can let go now,” Sasuke said dryly.
Naruto, not having realised that he was still holding Sasuke’s wrist, let go abruptly. The blond pushed open a door and the two boys emerged outside the school building, into the staff parking lot. Gaara was sitting on the curb, back resting against a grey Audi A3, staring at the painted lines on the parking lot.
The redhead looked up as Naruto and Sasuke approached, the dark rings around his eyes highlighted in the sunlight.
Although he had been visibly upset a couple of seconds ago, Naruto was suddenly cheerful. “Hey, Gaara,” he said brightly, “teme wants to know if he can sleep with us.” Gaara turned red, raising an eyebrow; Sasuke’s cheeks were dusted with pink again. Naruto looked from one to the other, confused. “What? What’d I say?” However, the other boys just shook their heads, leaving Naruto to figure out what he had said wrong. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, Naruto’s cheeks turned bright pink. “Oh. Well, what I meant was, can Sasuke stay with us?”
Gaara looked curiously at Sasuke, who although his mask of indifference was back, his body language was clearly saying don’t ask. “Yeah, whatever,” the redhead shrugged and left.
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Naruto was lying down on the pier, hanging off the edge on his stomach, trailing his fingers through the semi-clear water of the pond, with his iPod next to him, music turned up high enough that he could hear the music clearly through the headphones without having to put them on. Footsteps on the pier behind him made him look up: Sasuke was walking down the pier, face unreadable, with his hands in his jeans pockets. Naruto sat up cross-legged, propping his chin on his hand to look at his raven-haired friend.
“Teme? What are you doing here?” Although Sasuke was one of the few people that knew to find Naruto there – apart from Gaara, Shikamaru was the only other, though going there was “too troublesome” – he did not go there often.
Sasuke stood staring silently out over at the pond, hands still shoved as deep as they would go in the pockets of his close-fitting jeans. Finally he spoke, as if to himself, his voice slightly hoarse. “He killed them. Itachi, he killed our whole family. Everyone except for me.” His voice was betrayed none of the emotions that his face had shown earlier, when he had been told what happened. Now he just sounded helpless.
“Sasuke,” Naruto began, and then stopped. What did you say to a guy whose family just was murdered by his older brother?
The raven just stood there as if Naruto had not said anything. After a long while – it seemed forever to Naruto – he looked up at the sky, noting that it would be getting dark soon, and started to pick up his things, tossing them into his orange bag. He stood up and walked up behind Sasuke, who was still standing motionless at the end of the pier, and put a hand on each of the raven’s shoulders, who jumped slightly. Softly, he said, “C’mon teme, it’s time to go.”
Naruto walked up the pier silently, followed equally quietly by Sasuke, who looked ghostlike in the fading light. Sasuke, who never followed people, followed the blond all the way to Gaara’s apartment.