Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Runaway Train	By : fieldofsnow Category: Naruto AU/AR > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 1142 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Naruto and I get no profit from this fanfiction

Chapter List
- 1-Runaway Train 1
- 2-Runaway Train 2
- 3-Runaway Train 3
- 4-Runaway Train 4
- 5-5
- 6-6
- 7-7
- 8-8
- 9-9
- 10-10
- 11-11
- 12-12
- 13-13
- 14-14
- 15-15
- 16-16
- 17-17
- 18-18
- 19-19
- 20-20
- 21-21
- 12
- 13
- 14
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Naruto was experiencing something that had only happened to him on a handful of occasions before. He was in a state that could only be described as half asleep, half awake. The reason he recognized this and knew that he had experienced it before is because he was, for all intents and purposes, asleep and dreaming and yet he was conscious enough to know that he was lying dreaming in his bed and not in fact standing where he appeared to be right at that moment.
Which, to his surprise, turned out to be an empty street.
The street was decent enough. It was lined with apartment blocks that, due to being well taken care of, looked more dignified than old and he could see a few nice looking stores on some of the ground floors. It wasn't exactly a rich neighborhood but it was definitely in one of the better parts of town. On a busy day when the sun was shining and people bustled about it would probably look much nicer but the sky was a strange shade of gray and there was not another person in sight. If Naruto would have to describe his surroundings he'd have to say that everything looked dead. Like something ominous had passed through here and sucked all the life out of the atmosphere.
He looked up at the bus stop sign at the edge of the sidewalk where he had materialized and got an odd sense of arriving home, like he'd just stepped off of the bus and knew he only had to walk a short distance before he arrived at his front door. And, just like that, he started walking down the street. He didn't really know where he was going but he could feel where he needed to be, like some unseen force was pulling him towards it.
On the way to his destination he experienced more unexpected sensations. He walked passed a small convenience store and got the faint tasted of sugar coated candies in his mouth, a boutique store for women made him feel restless and fidgety and a small hardware store reminded him of warm hands, a dark suit and the faint smell of cigars. He paused slightly when he spotted a tree between two buildings, a small scar on his back stung slightly and he rubbed at it absentmindedly before he looked up at the apartment building he'd just reached.
It was a tall elegant structure made of dark gray bricks but instead of a store on the ground floor, like many of the surrounding buildings had, this one had a solid oak door. Naruto glanced at the door buzzers momentarily before he tried the handle, it opened with a faint creak that sounded eerily familiar.
Naruto soon found himself standing in a small hall, he laughed softly when he walked passed an elevator with an "out of order" sign on his way to the stairs but couldn't figure out why he found it amusing. Not that it mattered; he got slightly claustrophobic in small spaces and therefore stayed clear of elevators whenever he could. With no specific floor in mind he started ascending the stairs, slowly walking with no thought at all apart from the need to go up and mindlessly putting one foot in front of the other.
On the sixth floor he stopped. He didn't know how he knew it, the hallway didn't look much different than the ones bellow, but somehow he knew that this one was the one he had been dreaming about all these nights recently. It wasn't because of fear or dread� or anything else for that matter. He didn't really feel anything clearly. If he really had to describe the feeling at all he would have to say that it was a sense of "Ah here we are." Like when he walks down the hallway at school and knows that he's at his locker without having to count five lockers from the left� or like the feeling you get when you arrive at your own front door. You don't have to think anything about it, you just know it's there.
But that was it now wasn't it� Naruto had just arrived home, a home he hadn't seen for little over ten years but a home none the less. Right there, down the hallway, his old front door, 608.
Eighth door from the end.
And just opposite it was his only safety. The door to his salvation. So close and still out of reach. Too close to his end and still not close enough.
An odd number� just like the occupant of the room.
Naruto walked up to the door. He didn't run. He didn't drag his feet. He just walked. Until he was standing in front of the door, looking up at the crooked nine that was missing one of its nails.
He tried the door handle but nothing happened. The door was locked. Funny, he thought, for some reason he never kept it locked. Something about good people not needing to be locked out and locked doors not stopping bad people from getting in. The guy really was weird sometimes.
"You can't get in there yet."
Naruto whirled around to face whoever had spoken. He didn't see anyone but still asked. "How come?"
"Because," Said the little child he could just make out now, sitting in the shadow up against his old front door. "You have to go through hell before you can seek salvation." It said, pointing its little fingers at the door handle behind it.
The sentence sent chills down his spine.
Naruto looked between doors eight and nine. He didn't want to go in there but it was what he had come here to do. He needed to know. Needed to know the beginning in order to make it all end. This was what his mind was trying to show him night after night.
But he couldn't get in.
He put his hand on the handle and turned but nothing happened. The door didn't budge.
"That's ok. I can let you in." The child said as it stood up and stepped into the light. "I have the key."
Naruto stared at himself as he'd been 12 years ago. Blond hair, blue eyes, green goggles and orange jumpsuit. Only one difference that he had no memory of.
It was the gaping hole in his chest where his heart had been carved out. Little blood-soaked hands reached up and opened the door.
Naruto woke up screaming.
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When he finally managed to calm down Naruto spent what felt like hours listening for any signs of movement in the house. Terrified that he would hear the pounding footsteps of one of his dads running to his room to check on him. If he'd been thinking clearly he would have known that if anyone was in the house they would certainly have been in his room within a minute of his first scream. He also would have remembered that since Iruka could move around much better now he had started working again and was therefore with Genma at the youth center before the latter of the two would drive him to work. But his mind was a far cry from tranquility.
He slowly got out of bed, trembling from head to toe, and grabbed the first clothes he could find lying on the floor before making his way to the bathroom. Once there he locked the door and then looked around frantically for something he could use to barricade it, which he knew somewhere in the back of his mind was completely insane since he could hardly drag the toilet or bathtub up against the door. Not that it wasn't crazy to think he'd need to barricade a locked door, in a locked house in which he was the only occupant, to begin with.
He was completely losing his mind and when the feeling of someone watching him wouldn�t go away he dug through the drawer under the bathroom counter and took a couple of painkillers, hoping that they would help him calm down a bit before he went over to Kiba�s house.
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Kiba was out in the front yard with the little Chihuahua again when Naruto came around the corner from the back of the house. He bent down and picked up the small dog before he made his way over to the blond, all the while never taking his eyes off of his friend.
Naruto looked a bit tired and tense but he thought it was pretty understandable considering everything that was going on in his life right now.
It wasn�t such a long time since Naruto had joined the martial arts club, which could be really tiring on occasion, and he knew his friend normally didn�t sleep well. Plus he now had to spend his weekends training kids at the center because of Iruka�s broken leg and all the commotion that was happening around him because of Ino and Sakura must be getting to him.
Therefore Kiba didn�t think much about it and decided to not hassle Naruto with any petty concerns. He knew his friend hated that and if something was really bothering him Naruto would tell him soon enough, even though he threatened to tell Iruka when Naruto was being stubborn he usually told Kiba everything and if it was something really serious Kiba always managed to convince him to talk to one of his dads as well.
When Kiba got close enough Naruto noticed that the Chihuahua's head was covered in bandages.
"What happened to him?" He asked his friend.
Kiba raised the tiny black and brown dog a little higher while he checked that the bandages were still fine. "Well this little one here somehow managed to get outside and into the fence with the other dogs, thought it was a great idea to piss off a Rottweiler but thankfully Cuddles is well trained. He picked him up by the head and handed him to my sister who happened to be outside at the time."
Kiba held the dog out to Naruto, who got the hint and took the dog from his friend's hands.
"He got a bit scratched up by it; we put the bandages on so the wounds wouldn't get infected and so he wouldn't be able to make them worse by scratching them with his paws." Kiba said as he walked to his front door, reached in and grabbed his school bag.
Naruto looked down at the little dog he was holding up against his chest.
"You really should learn to pick your battles." He told it sarcastically.
The pup only looked at him with curious eyes and then bumped his head under his chin and licked his cheek.
"You wanna keep him?" Kiba asked him all of a sudden. At Naruto's surprised look he went on. "He seems to like you, and believe me that's a privilege. We've been trying to find an owner for him but everyone who comes to look at him only gets growled at and although he doesn't do that to us you get the feeling that he barely tolerates me, my sister and mom.
Naruto looked down at the tiny dog, which was now busy cuddling up to his neck. He'd never really wanted a pet since he was younger, and when he had moved in with his dads later there had always been enough dogs in his backyard to satisfy that need. But this little creature seemed different somehow.
"Well I'll have to get permission from my dads first but sure, he seems alright."
He took one last look at the dog before Kiba took it from him and placed it in a little pen in the front yard. Although he still felt on edge the dog had managed to help ease some of the uneasiness Naruto had woken up with, hopefully the painkillers would help more once they kicked in.
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Nothing out of the ordinary happened until lunch that day. Naruto went to class with Shikamaru, painting taught by Aoba who, like so many other of their art teachers, was a bit weird. He wore sunglasses inside at all times and Naruto would have thought he was somehow related to Shino if it wasn't for the fact that unlike his straight forward and serious class mate Aoba seemed to be constantly distracted and usually blurted things out without thinking first.
Kakashi had been nowhere to be found when he walked into his class, which Naruto didn�t know if he should be glad or disappointed about and Sai had given him an awkward smile and a stiff wave as a greeting, but since Sai was always pretty weird and stiff with anything social that was rather normal.
Naruto could still feel the after affects of the accusations from Ino and Sakura. People stared at him as he walked down the hallways, more than usual that is, and although most of them seemed either indifferent or downright hostile there were some who smiled encouragingly at him, but those were few and far between. Thankfully his art classes were all around 4 hours or so each so he didn�t have to go anywhere during his breaks and just spent the time in the classroom hanging out with Shikamaru.
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Sasuke was pissed off. That was the only way you could describe the mood he had been in for the last two days. He was pissed off that Ino and Sakura had gone behind his back and done something so outrageous in his name, he was pissed off that some people at school actually believed the crap they had said and he was pissed off that Naruto now had to be escorted all over the place by either his friends or some weird ass substitute teacher. It didn�t help that the guy just kept on smiling like he didn�t have a care in the world. But most of all he was royally pissed off because he shouldn�t fucking care about any of that!
Uchihas just did not give a damn about anyone but themselves.
So why the hell did he care now. He'd been in the same class as the dobe since they were about 9 years old and he'd never given the slightest crap about what on earth kind of trouble the idiot got himself into.
He glared at the lunch lady as she personally handpicked the best food for him and gave him a bit extra of everything.
Fucking ass kissers the whole lot of them, he thought.
He was sick and tired of people treating him like royalty just because of his family name. Fed up with people constantly fawning over him because they all expected such great things from him. All of them drooling over the Uchiha name and hoping they would get something in return.
HA! Like he would ever give them anything, fucking idiots all of them.
No wonder his older brother had bailed as soon as he could. The Uchiha prodigy! The perfect son, with the perfect grades, the perfect manners and the perfect brains to take over the family company. Well since Sasuke, who had never been anything but second best and was still being compared to his "lost" brother, was being treated like he was he thought Itachi had probably made a very wise decision when he told their father to go to hell and moved out to do his own thing.
Not that Sasuke really cared. His plan, unlike his brothers, was to take over the company after his father stepped down and changing it into his own. He wasn�t stupid and as much as he hated the attention that came with his family name he knew it would get him what he wanted.
Sasuke took his tray and made his way to his usual table, where he sat down between Juugo and Suigetsu. He didn�t touch his food and instead glared at a table in the back corner, where a certain blonde dobe was now laughing with his friends while he ate his lunch out of a brown paper bag.
A paper bag? Who on earth did that these days? Sasuke wondered.
"What are you thinking now?" Came the calm voice of Juugo from his right.
Sasuke smirked. It was a sure sign that he was pleased about something and the closest he would ever get to smiling. Which usually meant that you should say your prayers, kiss your loved ones goodbye, make sure your last will and testament were taken care of and that you didn�t have any unfinished business because someone was going to be in deep shit and it just might turn out to be you.
"Hn." Was all Sasuke said as the smirk reached his usually cold emotionless eyes.
"You know, I think I have to agree with you on that one." Juugo said as he looked over at Suigetsu.
The white haired boy grinned, showing his unusually sharp teeth. "Oh I�m in, wouldn't miss this for the world."
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Naruto was sitting between Kiba and Shikamaru at their usual lunch table. Chouji was sitting on the other side of the table facing Shikamaru and Shino was quietly reading a book at the end. Hinata had come down with the flu and was therefore absent from school that day.
So far his day had been pretty normal. The painkillers had managed to calm him down for a while but they had stopped working about an hour ago and he was now left with a slight headache. He was, however, still pretty calm� well as calm as he could be anyway.
Little did he know that that was all about to change in just a few minutes.
Chouji, being the only one on his side of the table and facing towards the room, was the first one to see them. They had all been busy listening to Kiba chattering on and on about yet another Anima show he had found online and hadn't been paying much attention to the people around them but something made Chouji look up from their table. Maybe he had been able to taste Armageddon coming.
"� And so the weapons, who are actually these kids who turn into weapons for the other guys to fight with, they eat the souls after they�ve killed the bad guys�"
"Uhm� guys." Chouji tried to interrupt but once Kiba got on a roll he could get kind of loud and over excited so the attempt went unnoticed.
"� and so you need to get 99 souls or whatever and then they turn into an even better weapon�"
"Guys!" Chouji stated a little bit louder this time.
"� And they go to this school you see and� What!" Kiba asked annoyed that Chouji had interrupted him in the middle of a story. They didn�t get a time to hear what he would have answered because almost right after Kiba had asked that pale hands reached in between Naruto and Shikamaru and deposited a lunch tray on the table.
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Sasuke stood up, picked up his tray and made his way over to his target without caring if the other boys followed or not. Juugo he knew he could always count on and although Suigetsu seemed to thrive on chaos he'd never failed him before so even if they'd probably think he had gone completely insane for what he was about to do he knew that they would either stand with him or keep out of his way. Juugo would follow because of friendship and loyalty, Suigetsu would follow because whatever ulterior motive he had seemed to always coincide with Sasuke's own. Although Sasuke would never mention this, and Suigetsu would never admit it, the white haired boys motives were probably not so unlike Juugo's.
When he reached his destination he put his food tray down next to the blond dobe and then turned and glared one of his deadliest glares at the ponytail haired boy sitting next to him. Thankfully the guy lived up to his reputation of being a genius and moved over one seat. Sasuke sat down in the now empty seat while Juugo and Suigetsu took seats on either side of the fat boy at the other side of the table.
For a few seconds you could have heard a pin drop in the cafeteria. Until a pretty loud voice broke the silence by bursting out.
"What the hell do you think you are doing Teme?"
Sasuke looked up from his food tray, which he had just started on, and looked at the occupants of the table. Shikamaru looked thoughtful, Chouji had choked slightly on his food and was being helpfully patted on the back by Juugo, Shino� well Shino didn�t look different at all and Kiba was probably speechless for the first time in his life. Lastly he looked at the blond boy who he was now sitting besides. Sasuke turned slightly in his seat and looked at the boy. Naruto looked like he hadn�t slept properly for days, his eyes were glazed over and a little bloodshot but somehow Sasuke got the feeling that it wasn�t just because of sleep deprivation.
"Bastard! I said what the hell do you�" Naruto began again but was cut off by Sasuke's quiet but demanding voice.
"Shut up dobe." When Naruto looked like he was going to blow up at that point Sasuke continued. "I�m not here to cause any trouble. In fact I�m here to fucking help you! So just shut the fuck up, put on your fake little smile and pretend nothing out of the ordinary is happening. I�m sure even an idiot like you can handle that."
"What on earth�" Naruto began to holler again but stopped when he received one of the bastards trademark glares. "What on earth makes you think that I need your help?" Naruto continued in a much lower voice. Finally realizing that they were getting enough attention as it was without him broadcasting it all over the food court.
"Fine, don�t accept my help. Just wait until the next fucking idiot who thinks he�s doing me a favor comes along and either beats the living crap out of you or actually manages to frame you with something believable. Because believe me, although there aren't many people out there as stupid as those cockroaches, there are plenty of idiots out there who might get the same idea as them but actually manage to execute it."
"And we�re just supposed to believe you're doing this out of the kindness of your heart? Bullshit" Kiba growled from the other side of Naruto.
"First of all" Sasuke said, turning over to look at the dog boy. "Those idiots did what they did under my name! And no-one uses the Uchiha name to get what they want and gets away with it unless they are a fucking Uchiha themselves. Especially not for idiotic stunts like this. But since they did I am going to make damn sure that people know that I had nothing to do with it and to make sure that the people involved get what they deserve. And although I couldn�t care less about what happens to this idiot over here" Sasuke said as he pointed his thumb at Naruto. "I'm not going to let it be because of me."
At this point Sasuke turned around and glared at the room in general, making the curious people on the neighboring tables quickly find something else to do besides trying to listen in on their conversation.
"But sure, I won�t lie to you." He said as he turned towards their table again. "I won�t walk away from this empty handed."
"What on earth could you possibly gain from sitting with us?" Naruto asked, but before the bastard could answer he was interrupted by another commotion.
"Sasuke-Kuuuun." Two voices called out at the same time before pink and yellow haired tornadoes came running up to their table.
"I believe you'll be an excellent pest repellant." Sasuke said tonelessly, if Naruto didn�t already know he didn't have even an iota of emotion he would have said that Sasuke cringed.
"Yes well I'm glad I can help you but.. Oofff." Naruto finished as the wind was knocked out of him when Sakura and Ino came crashing into the back of his chair, so Naruto got squished between it and the table.
"Sasuke-kuun, why are you sitting over here?" Sakura said with a pout. The unsaid words with these losers clearly visible in her tone as she turned and sneered at the other occupants of the table.
"Yeah, why don't you come sit with us at our usual table?" Ino said.
"Hn." Was Sasuke's comment as he lazily looked up from his food, gave the girls a quick glance and then pointedly ignored them again. "I�m fine where I am."
The girls hesitated for a second before Sakura burst into action again. "Well if you really want to sit here that�s cool, we�ll just clean up the table a bit and sit with you." At this point Sakura leaned over Naruto and glared at him. "Get lost."
At this point Naruto had had quite enough. He didn�t know what Sasuke's plan was and how on earth he thought this would help him but he didn't want to have anything to do with it. The whole cafeteria was sneaking glances or outright staring at them again, which was doing nothing to help the feeling of paranoia Naruto had been fighting all day.
Therefore Naruto was gladly about to stand up when he was yanked back into his seat again. "Me and Naruto here are having a little talk so he's not going anywhere." Sasuke said calmly. "And I believe Ibiki-Sensei gave you clear instruction to stay away from Naruto unless you're in class."
"What� You're going to sit with these annoying�" Ino began but was cut off when Sasuke turned around quickly and glared at them.
"Let me make this perfectly clear." He said sternly. "Because obviously you need to have it spelled out for you before your idiotic little brains can understand it. You, Are, Annoying. I don�t like you, I never did like you and I never will like you, either of you. And you flirty and clingy behavior isn�t appealing� it's pathetic."
Now it was Naruto's turn to cringe, this was not going to end well. For the second time in a few minutes the whole food court went absolutely silent. And then the silent was broken simultaneously by a few people.
"You.. you asshole!" Sakura shouted as she ran out of the room crying.
"This is all your fault!" Ino yelled at Naruto. "This isn't over." She growled at him before she strutted out of the room after Sakura.
"Well fuck." Kiba said with a bewildered look on his face.
"That's gonna be troublesome." Shikamaru said thoughtfully.
Sasuke looked over the table again. Juugo and Suigetsu looked quite normal, one of them grinning like a mental patient and the other one quite calm. Chouji had actually stopped eating at some point and was looking like he didn�t know what on earth was going on. Shino had stopped reading his book and now sat with his arms crossed over his chest but nothing could be seen from his face. Shikamaru looked like he was in deep thought and Kiba was about as out of sorts as Chouji.
Sasuke smirked; his plan was going along pretty well he thought.
That is, until Naruto put his hands on the table and slowly pushed himself out of his seat. "I don�t know what the hell you are playing at Teme." He said in an unusually calm voice. "But if you call that help you must be seriously fucked up in the head."
"What?" Sasuke began but was cut off when Naruto looked at him. The eyes that usually showed everything showed absolutely nothing. They looked dead.
"I�m glad we could help you get rid of your pest problem but I would have thought that a genius such as yourself could have figured out that by doing that you've actually made my situation much worse." Naruto sighed as he turned and picked up his bag. "I don�t know if you actually were trying to help or if this is just your twisted idea of fun but�" Before Naruto walked away he turned his head back and said almost dejectedly. "Just do me a favor and don�t do me any favors."
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Sasuke was walking out of one of the side entrances to the school when he was stopped by a calm voice. "You better know what you are doing." When he turned around he spotted Shikamaru sitting on the wide cement railing of the steps, leaning his back against the wall and staring up at the sky.
The stoic Uchiha had thought about following the blond boy out of the food court when he had made his exit but pride had kept him sitting in his seat. Uchihas did not go storming after people, it would imply that they actually cared� and as much as Sasuke's newly developed conscience was telling him that he'd screwed up and he had to go make sure the boy was alright his Uchiha upbringing was a much older and stronger force. It wouldn�t have been a good idea anyway since Naruto's friends had soon followed the boy out. All of them giving him dark looks� except Shikamaru, who had only looked at him with that customary thoughtful look on his face� Well and Shino, you couldn't exactly see if he was giving him a dark look or not but there was a definite feeling of something dark coming from the boy.
Well they might not have realized it but just by sitting with them Sasuke had actually managed to smooth things over for Naruto a little and probably prevent any more idiots from doing something stupid.
Sasuke studied the boy who was lazily reclining against the wall. This boy who was supposed to be a true genius, much smarter than Sasuke would ever be� probably smarter than his prodigy of an older brother even. Out of all of Naruto's friends this one should have been the one to notice anything off about him and yet the boy had done nothing that Sasuke could see to help him. How many danger signs did the boy have to send out before this supposed smart ass finally got a clue and realized that something was wrong?
"Is that a threat?" He finally asked after he finished scrutinizing the boy. He could have chosen to ignore him and continued walking to his car but miracles seemed to be happening all around Sasuke these days� seriously, he should have been proclaimed as a saint by now� and he actually stopped and decided to hear him out.
Shikamaru lazily glanced at Sasuke before he slowly looked up at the sky again. Their next class after lunch had been philosophy, a class neither Sasuke nor the girls were in, and since Kakashi hadn't showed up all day and they had a free period before their clubs started they had decided to go and hang out at the library once the class had finished. Shikamaru had told his friends he needed to take care of something and said that he'd catch up with them later before he'd made his way over to this entrance and waited. The Raven haired boy usually parked his car at this parking lot and Shikamaru thought it was high time to find out just what the normally closed off and private Uchiha was planning.
"Che� I've got no intention to tell you what you can or cannot do, threateningly or otherwise." He said in a bored tone. "Although I do warn you that if you ever did do anything to hurt Naruto you'd have to answer to Kiba� and believe me his bite is far worse than his bark and we both know just how loudly and how much he can bark." (1)
"Hn." Sasuke said and crossed his arms over his chest.
Shikamaru eyed him again. "I've seen the way you've been watching him lately. And sure I could sit around all day and come up with hundreds of theories as to why you are so interested in him all of a sudden but that would take time and most of them would be wrong. I could also warn you off, threaten you and try to make you mind your own business but that's going to be about as effective as trying to hammer a nail in with your own head, bloody stupid and probably painful with absolutely no results."
This time Shikamaru locked eyes with the raven haired boy. "So I�ll just tell you again, you better know what you are doing. And judging from your attempt earlier I'd say you don't have much of a clue."
Sasuke barely managed not to grind his teeth; he wouldn't give the guy the satisfaction of seeing how much his blond friend was affecting him. Too bad Sasuke didn't realize he'd been clenching his fists for a while now.
"Oh and I suppose you know everything don't you!" He said quietly. Uchihas did not raise their voices to be heard, they didn't have to. Their quiet, hard voices did a whole lot more damage than any yelling could ever do. "Have you looked at your friend lately? If you're observant enough to notice that I've been looking at him I find it extremely hard to believe you haven't noticed how your own friend looks like he's this close to snapping and doing something crazy." Sasuke glared at the boy as he lifted his right hand and indicated just how far away from the edge Naruto was with the space between his thumb and index finger.
"And you have the audacity to tell me that I don't have a clue, at least I'm trying to do something to help him."
Shikamaru sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose "That's the reason you don't have a clue." He said. "You don't try or offer to help Naruto; you have to wait for him to come to you."
Sasuke snorted "What the hell kind of logic is that, the guy is a walking cry for help."
"I don't expect you to understand this." Shikamaru said. "Naruto's always been a complicated guy and the situation now is one I haven't seen for years. Yes, I have seen the danger signs lately, but there is something about Naruto that you have to understand. After his parents died and before he was adopted Naruto was sent between foster homes regularly and the few foster families who took him in got rid of him almost right away. His last name was enough for people to treat him like he had the plague. Thankfully Naruto finally got a family who supports him but even after all these years his name is still enough of a reason for people to treat him like shit."
After a slight pause he continued.
"You don�t offer Naruto help. You wait for him to ask for it, no matter how bad the situation is. He learned the hard way not to trust anyone but himself and after years of neglect, abuse and betrayal any offer no matter how good or bad will be met with either distrust or scrutiny. The more you ask him if something is wrong the more he tries to convince you that nothing is, which only serves to lengthen the time it actually takes for him to finally admit that he's not alright."
"So you're just going to wait until he finally cracks and asks for help?" Sasuke asked perplexed. "What if he never does?"
"Oh he will� in his own time." Shikamaru said as he swung his legs off the cement rail. "One of the reasons Naruto doesn't ask people he knows he can trust for help is because he doesn't want to worry or disappoint them. But that's exactly the same reason why, sooner or later, he will come to them for help� because he knows that if he doesn't he'll worry or disappoint them even more."
"So you're telling me to back off?"
Shikamaru gave Sasuke an annoyed look. "Che� I've already told you. I've got no intention to tell you what you can or cannot do and you probably wouldn't listen to me even if I tried. All I'm doing is giving you a little more information to work with so your next attempt won't backfire in your face."
"But whatever you do, try not to get Kiba involved too much. He tends to get over protective and I'm not sure that's exactly what Naruto needs at the moment." Shikamaru said as he jumped off the wall and made his way back to the school door. Sasuke's quiet words stopped him.
"You're wrong you know." Shikamaru turned and looked at the emotionless boy who was standing stoically looking over the parking lot, facing away from him. "I know all about how it feels to be treated differently because of your last name, how you never know who to trust because everyone's got an ulterior motive� What it feels like to be constantly told that you're not good enough and that you will never amount to anything just to have them turn around and tell you the exact opposite."
Sasuke tilted his head up and to the side so he was looking at Shikamaru over his shoulder. "My name might open up a lot of doors for me, but it also closes others."
As Sasuke made his way down the steps and towards his car Shikamaru could swear he heard him mumble. "Some doors you really want to open� others are better left closed�"
Shikamaru chuckled slightly and shook his head. Despite looking and acting like complete opposites they really weren't all that different, Sasuke and Naruto. "Troublesome." He mumbled and then made his way inside again.
According to his calculations the only thing they could do now was to just let nature take its course and see what happened� the only problem was that it would either blow over quietly or blow up in their faces spectacularly.
x.x.x.x.x
x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x
x.x.x.x.x
Ok this is the best place to stop for now� I know not much happened in the chapter but I promise that the next chapters will have more action� There is definitely more Kakashi coming and the smut is on its way! This chapter was just important to show a bit of what Naruto's friends are thinking� Because personally I thought Shikamaru was just way too smart to not notice something was going on with Naruto.
Anyways� hope it wasn't too much of a letdown� I can just imagine you were all excited to read a new chapter and then you get a long chapter with practically nothing in it� -sweatdrops-
(1) Yes I do know I switched it around, that was done intentionally to show that Kiba isn't just all talk and no action� he's in the martial arts club and knows how to do more than just talk someone to death.
(2) If you haven't read the note about Sasuke on my profile I suggest you do. All I'll say here is that no, he does not have a crush on Naruto and there will be no love triangle in this story.
(3) I know the half asleep � half awake thing at the beginning of the chapter sounds weird but believe me it can happen. I'm a very light sleeper and have many other sleeping problems and sometimes I can be dreaming about something but still be aware enough to know that I am in fact sleeping and what I am doing isn't real. It's kind of like that split second you get when the alarm starts blasting and you think "did that black cat just meow Mozart in ringtones" before you snap out of the dream and realize it's your alarm, but this state just goes on a lot longer.
- 12
- 13
- 14
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Runaway Train