Under The Enemy's Roof

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Under the Enemy's Roof
chapter viii
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"Hey Gaara!" shouted a bubbly blonde as he stood at the foot of the building, staring up with blue eyes, squinting at the redhead the roof. "Whatcha doing up there?"

Green eyes peered down at the speck of sunshine grinning up at him from below. It had been a few weeks now since Naruto's school attendence had stabilized and the entire student population had already been split into two halves in the Uchiha-Hyuuga war, though, at this point, it was much more an arms race. It wasn't exactly clear what the two were bickering about, although the redhead suspected that it had something to do with one hyperactive bonde classmate turned adoptive little brother. Of course, neither side would admit to it, which, naturally, resulted in Naruto beng completely oblivious to the entire situation. All the boy knew at this point was that it was practically hazardous for him to go anywhere Neji in public, which, upset him greatly.

As for Gaara, he was entirely neutral. It was none of his concern who was fighting over what. After all, he had everything that he could ever want by way of his bursting bank account and lofty inheritence. Inheritence and a taste for blood. That usually did it. However, the particular boy standing before him, now huffing from the exertion of racing up the stairs, was one thing that he couldn't just have his way by an impressive check or brute strength. Then again, how could you possibly try to bribe someone whose only want in the world costs ten yen a pop? The young millionare regarded his companion cooly.

"How've ya been?" asked the blonde as he slapped his stoic classmate on the back. "I haven't seen you around in a while! Not since the principle started making Kakashi-sensei actually attend class." The shorter boy chuckled at his eccentric new teacher with a taste for porn and a distaste for the attendence policy.

"Hn."

"Aw, come on, what did I tell you last time? You oughta lighten up!" said Naruto cheerfully, completely undetered by his companion's silence and pointed glare. "And just when I thought I was getting you out of the monosyllablic phase too! So, really, how've you been?"

"...Fine."

The blonde sighed in exasperation and rolled his eyes, though not without a playful grin plastered on his face. "So...It's finally friday! What are you going to do over the weekend?"

Gaara paused as he stared suspiciously at the boy. No one had ever asked him what he was doing over the weekend before. They had simply accepted whatever decision he might make. It wasn't as if either of his siblings were going to bar him from leaving the house or make worried phone calls about his whereabouts. It stunned Gaara to hear someone wanting to know details of his personal life.

"I'm...going to Shibuya."

"Whoa! Are you serious?! That so cool!" exclaimed Naruto. Although he had been to Shibuya before, he had never been one to buy clothing from any of the stores, considering that his family was never wealthy enough to afford the overpriced clothing. They, his father and himself, had relied mostly on his mother to make clothing for them, save for his father's business suit, which his mother had kept neatly pressed and preserved at all times. The blonde remembered revelling in the silky feel of one of his father's two neckties before his mother had taken it out of his grasp, examining it to make sure that it wasn't damaged. Appearances were important in the course of keeping one's job, and jobs were hard to find nowadays in Japan. "So...are you going to shop?"

"Hn."

"For what?"

Now it was getting a little annoying. The redhead had never had enough people to talk to him enough to know that some forms of communication would be so irritating, especially when they were actually addressed to him. Sure, he knew that speech could be distracting or overly-loud. However, that was all from second-hand experience and concerned people who were talking to other people who weren't himself. "CDs, clothes, stuff."

"What sort of stuff?"

Gaara could feel his left eye twitch. And repressed the childish urge to retort with a sharp, 'stuff stuff.'

"Piercing."

Naruto's eyes almost popped out of his head.

"H-holy shit! Are you serious!?"

A thick silence lingered between the two of them.

"THAT'S SO COOL!" gushed Naruto finally.

Suddenly Gaara wished that he hadn't said anything.

"Where are you gonna get it? Will it hurt? Is this your first? Are you gonna be able to take it out?! You'll be so cool! Like a rock star! You'll look like Die from Dir en Grey with your red hair and eyeliner, though, he doesn't have any piercings. Do you listen to Dir en Grey? I did until their 'Vulgar' CD, then they went sort of sour. Oh hey! You should pick up 'Kisou' when you're down in Shibuya! It's their best CD! And Gazette! They're pretty good too! Though that one guy's nose bandana is sort of freaky..." the blonde went on, completely oblivious to the glare being sent his way.

"Oh! MUCC's new CD came out a few weeks ago and I really wanted to buy it, but I didn't have any money! Ack! I wish I could go to Shibuya with you! It's been so long since I last went... I want to go to that huge CD shop and pick up some foreign CDs by some American indie bands. Gah! And I need a new bag because my BASTARD brother," he said the last word with great distaste, "ACCIDENTALLY," again, said as if he had just sipped mercury, "ripped it when he tripped over it."

At this point Gaara had turned and was about to leave unnoticed by his babbling classmate.

"H-hey!" shouted Naruto after the laconic boy as he grabbed the strap of his messanger bag. "Wow! Cool bag! I wish I had one just like that!"

"Hn," grumbled the redhead, unhappy that his attempt at escape had been twarted. He supposed that he could use force and snap the boy's neck, but it would have been a great loss for him to do so to one of his own kind.

"Where'd you get it?" asked Naruto as he inspected the backpack and its intricate stitching over the layers of imported leather. "It looks way expensive."

Gaara sighed impatiently, "Shibuya."

"R-really? I would have guessed Ginza by how...leather...it was." Naruto, who was used to attending schools in the countryside rarely saw leather incorporated in schoolbags, which were usually canvas.

Again the redhead rolled his emerald eyes at how uneducated his companion was. "It's nothing special, and, they don't sell much in the way of schoolbags in Ginza, unless if I wanted to come to school with a diamond-encrusted Chanel handbag. This bag is just from some no name independent brand located in England. The leather is only of medium quality and the bag was only 90,000 yen (roughly 900 USD)."

"N-NANI!?" screeched Naruto. "What do you mean ONLY!? That's enough to feed my family for A MONTH."

"Well your family must not eat very well then," mumbled Gaara under his breath. Luckily his companion did not manage to hear the insult over his own ranting.

"I wish I had enough money to go shopping in Shibuya," lamented Naruto as he finally calmed down. "I only have barely 10000 yen saved up from before the accident...and I still have to find an apartment and pay Ms. Uchiha back for everything she's done and then keep up payments for my medicine."

"They're not going to continue to house you?" asked the redhead, shocked almost unable to believe his luck.

"Ah, well," began the blonde, "they said that I could live with them, but...I feel bad about it, you know? I want to be able to depend on myself and not trouble the people around me."

Gaara visibly relaxed even though it was purely due to disappointment.

"Well," said Naruto, once more chipper, "I have to get going! I'll see you around!"

The boy gathered his books into his arms as he made his way to the door, struggling to balance the load he was carrying while trying to open the door. Watching the blonde grappling with the slipping books made something in Gaara's chest stir.

"Naruto."

The boy turned to look at his classmate. "Yeah, Gaara?"

"Would you..." Gaara trailed off as he tried to think of a good way to say what he wanted to say. "Would you like to...come with me to Shibuya?"

"R-really?! Are you serious!? Of course I'd love to go!" exclaimed Naruto enthusiastically, smile plastered on his face. Suddenly the door flew open from the inside, knocking the happy blonde down and causing his books to fly everywhere. "Oomf!"

"Ah, sorry about that, I didn't think there'd be anyone on the other side of the door," came a familiarly polite voice. Looking up, blue eyes met blank ones.

"It's okay, Neji," said Naruto uncomfortably. He knew that he'd be going home to an icy glare and a cold shoulder if he were caught being in the company of the Hyuuga. The blonde watched as the older boy knelt to help pick up the fallen books and shivered as the wind picked up unexpectedly. Naruto scurried to his feet after the last book was picked up and thanked Neji with a rigidly formal bow. "T-thanks Neji-sempai...I...uh...I have to get going."

The white-eyed boy gave the other a curt nod as Naruto slipped through the door in a hurry and made his way quickly down the steps. Turning his head, he then acknowledged the other individual on the roof.

"Sabaku."

"Hyuuga."

The air was thick was tension as the two boys regarded each other with cold glares.

"I'll make this quick. Just what interest do you have in Naruto?" glowered the dark-haired boy as the skies darkened with an impending storm.

"I think we both know why I'm interested, Hyuuga," growled the redhead ferrally. "The real question is, why are YOU so interested? He's already been made, what more do you want to do with him?"

The other simply snickered.

"There's so much more to do with a kid like Naruto than just his making, tanuki," he stressed the word maliciously. "Naruto's not perfect, that we can both be sure of. He will provide a great deal of profitable information on the dynamics of his kind, something that the Hyuuga are more than ready to capitalize on...as you should know firsthand."

Gaara growled. "You won't get your hands on him, Hyuuga."

"And what would YOU do with him, Sabaku? Auction him off to the highest bidder? Or perhaps mate with him? After all, there are only nine of you in the world and I'm sure that you're just dying to mate with one of your own." drawled Neji. "Once a guinea pig, always a guinea pig, Sabaku. When you finally break down from the cravings of your birth condition, something that medicine cannot curb, we'll be there to watch and observe."

"And profit."