SN

Sasuke is embarrassed to admit he doesn’t know exactly where the auditorium is, so Naruto offers to meet him at the lockers. Still, at the end of the day Sasuke is surprised to find Naruto leaning against his locker, engaged in an animated conversation with a bored-looking boy with a ponytail.

“And there was, like, no way it was gonna end well, so Kiba said ‘Oh yeah? Bet your bugs couldn’t --’ Oh hey! Sasuke!” Naruto waves frantically. “Sasuke! Do you know Shikamaru?”

“Yeah, I know him.” The ponytailed boy rolls his eyes. “He’s in my science class. And my Lit class. And my gym class.”

“Right.” Sasuke nods in what he hopes is a casual way. He has absolutely no clue who this boy is. Maybe I really should start to pay more attention. “Hello.”

The boy -- Shikamaru -- crosses his arms. “See you later, Naruto.” He turns to leave, but pauses. “Sasuke.” He narrows his eyes for a moment, and Sasuke gets the strange feeling that Shikamaru is trying to tell him something -- and then the moment passes, and he’s gone.

“He’s a nice guy, huh?” Naruto is smiling, oblivious to whatever just passed between Sasuke and Shikamaru. “He’s the smartest person in the whole school. Honestly, if his mom didn’t bug him, I don’t think Shikamaru would even come to school. Anyway --” Naruto grabs Sasuke’s hand “Let’s go! Gaara’s waiting for us.”

Naruto seems to know his way around the school, which is a relief. Sasuke made sure to memorize the location of his classrooms, the bathrooms, the main office and the exits, but he never bothered with the rest of the building. He had thought it would be a waste of time.

“That’s the teacher’s lounge,” Naruto points out as they pass. “Over there is the art classroom -- hey Sai! -- and that’s the tutoring center and the vending machines with the good snacks, and there’s the band practice room and that’s the Latin class with the water stain on the ceiling that looks like a tiger, and over there --” Naruto knows these places, the classrooms and the people, and greetings fly after him as he and Sasuke race down the hall. His charisma, his willing smile, his profuse enthusiasm all seem to shine out at everyone -- not just me, thinks Sasuke. He wasn’t taking pity on me the day we met in the cafeteria -- just being his usual outgoing self.

“Gaara!” Naruto skids into the auditorium. “We’re here and ready to -- mmph!”

“Shhh!” Gaara practically sprints to meet them and presses his hand over Naruto’s mouth. “You have to be quiet. They’re doing sound checks.”

The auditorium is mostly empty, but still manages to be chaotic. Kids are swarming over the stage in bizarre clothing, tapping mikes, and the stage lights are flashing on and off crazily like there’s some sort of strobe light dance party going on. Right in the middle of it all is Gai, wearing a black beret tipped dramatically over one eye and holding a megaphone in one hand -- unnecessarily, because even at the back of the auditorium, Sasuke can hear him without it.

“Karin, your costume change will take place after -- I said, immediately after -- the big ensemble number -- no, no, you do not put your microphone on like that! Under your shirt -- the tape needs to -- TENTEN! Excellent, you’re in position, but you must be careful with your skirt, you nearly knocked over Suigetsu --he wasn’t looking down your dress, he’s a gentleman trying to help you with your microphone --”

“This looks like chaos,” Sasuke says with a frown, and Gaara snorts in agreement.

“Oh, absolutely. From what I’ve heard, they’re nowhere near ready. This is going to be a really rough dress rehearsal.”

“Oh, dear. And Gai promised me they’d all worked so hard, too.” Sasuke whirls around at the sound of the unfamiliar voice and finds himself face-to-face with a slouching, masked man, a shock of brilliant white hair sticking up on his head.

“Kakashi-sensei!” Naruto beams. “Why are you here? Do you want to watch the play?”

Kakashi’s one visible eye curves up in a smile. “I would hope so. I wrote it.”

Naruto’s eyes grow big. “Really?” he gasps. “I had no idea you were a writer!”

“I’m not, really. Gai challenged me to write a play for his drama students, and I agreed, mostly to get him to leave me alone during my free periods. So now…” he gestures to the stage. “These students have been roped into performing Icha Icha the Musical.”

“Huh?” Naruto scowles. “A play about those pervy books you’re always reading?”

“A musical adaptation,” corrects Kakashi. “And unless I’m mistaken, I think it’s time to sit down.” The house lights were beginning to dim.

Gaara gestures to three seats close to the front and Sasuke slides into place next to Naruto. “Who was that man?”

“Just my gym teacher.” Naruto shrugs. “He’s always hanging around with Iruka-sensei. He’s weird, but he can be okay sometimes.”

Sasuke nods, but something else is bothering him. “What did you mean by pervy --”

“Shhh!” Gaara shushes him as the curtain begins to rise. “It’s starting!”

A single spotlight lights up the stage. Standing there, wearing a ridiculously bright, low-cut dress, is Tenten. Her hair is loose down her back, and she’s fluttering a fan in front of her face.

“Dang,” whispers Naruto. “Tenten is actually hot.”

Sasuke scowls. He hears a soft intake of breath from Gaara’s seat, and his scowl deepens. Figures. Even Gaara is attracted to her. He glances over at the redhead, expecting him to be gazing admiringly at Tenten, but is startled by the look on Gaara’s face. He looks… sad.

“Shou! Where are you?” Tenten’s cry startles Sasuke out of his thoughts. “I’ve been waiting for half an hour!”

“Sorry, Nanami.” A tall, spiky orange-haired boy steps out onstage, wearing a suit and carrying a bouquet of fake flowers. “I’ve been… busy.”

“I know you’ve been busy!” Tenten slaps him with her fan, in an obviously fake pantomime of violence (the boy takes a moment to react). “You’ve been spending your days with every girl in the village. Well, I’m sick of it!” She strikes a pose, and the music begins.

Sasuke doesn’t know what exactly is supposed to happen after that, but this is what he sees on the stage: Tenten -- or Nanami, Sasuke reminds himself -- sidling up to the orange-haired boy, dancing around him and singing about love and betrayal and obsession. After a couple minutes of sickly sweet lines about things like the thorns of roses and poisonous love, the song finally ends with Tenten… for lack of a better word, launching herself at the boy. He catches her with an oomph, and lifts her up, starting to twirl her in the air - but the sharp edge of Tenten’s heels catch on the lower button of his suit, causing him to flinch back from the offending stilettos.

The boy drops Tenten, and she falls to the floor with a thump. She skids backwards across the floor, heels making a sharp screeching noise against the stage. Sasuke might not like Tenten, (or really even know her), but he can’t stop himself from wincing in sympathy.

The room holds its breath. Then -- “We’re o-ver!” Tenten ends the song with a flourish, throwing her arms out, even as she topples awkwardly to the side.

There’s a beat of silence, then the auditorium erupts in thunderous applause. Sasuke feels… a grin, tugging at the edge of his lips, and claps along bemusedly.

The next scene begins with Neji, in ripped jeans and a gray hoodie, slouching on the side of the stage. Neji looks up, and his demeanor is casual, confident -- his hair is tied back, and even though Sasuke’s just a simple member of the audience watching Neji, he feels like he could trace the lines of his cheekbones through the air. Neji’s eyes speak of endless horizons, of the bottomless ocean, but still glitter like stars in the sky, unreachable and beautiful. Sasuke feels close enough to Neji to brush the remaining strands of hair from the sides of his face that escaped from his ponytail, to try to reach for those moonlit eyes --

Sasuke shakes himself. Tenten is posturing on the other side of her stage, bemoaning her lost love -- the orange-haired boy… Shou? -- and sighing grandly. Sasuke’s eyes are inevitably drawn back to Neji, a moth to a flame, when he steps forward. Tenten falls silent, and Sasuke knows it’s because Neji commands attention -- every eye in the room is drawn to him, every person holds their breath. He speaks, and his voice is smooth and musical, the low baritone sending shivers down Sasuke’s spine. Neji as a person is closed off and quietly kind in his own way; Neji as an actor takes his buried qualities and flings them to the air like confetti, falling over awestruck audience members in multicolored flashing pieces.

Sasuke blinks his way back to the play. Tenten is fluttering her eyelashes coyly, twirling her hair around her fingers as she giggles at something Neji is saying.

“You are as beautiful as the orange-hued sunset sparkling over the waves,” The boy recites stiffly, mouth twisting in a near-grimace. A stifled laugh ripples through the crowd. Sasuke doesn’t think that that’s exactly how the line is supposed to be delivered, but this play so far seems like romantic satire, anyway. Sasuke hopes that Kakashi had written the play with the intention of making it a parody.

“Oh, you are too blind -- kind, I mean,” Tenten replies coquettishly. “Oh, how the miraculous rays of sunlight from… um... heaven...” A pause. Tenten flicks her fan in front of her face, “...do shine upon me tonight! My heart, my love!” She snaps her fan shut with a click.

Neji steps closer to her, his pale hand fluttering up to settle on her cheek. “I...” he says quietly. There’s a stretch of loaded silence, heavy and charged, before Neji brings his head down --

Neji’s and Tenten’s kiss is searing. It scorches Sasuke’s insides, cutting open his abdomen like a blade of fire. Tenten’s hands lock themselves around Neji’s neck. Their kiss is something sharp and stinging; Sasuke feels hot all over for a second, like he’s been hit by a bolt of lightning that withers into little volts of charged electricity dancing on his skin. Sasuke can’t look away -- then Tenten breaks away, and Sasuke can suddenly breathe again.

Tenten leans her forehead against Neji’s, and Sasuke doesn’t feel hot all over anymore -- instead, he just feels cold, like he’s been dunked in ice cold water and is coming up, dripping wet and shivering. His hands are clammy. He grips his forearms so hard that he leaves white finger-shaped marks on them.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke sees Gaara turn his head, giving him a questioning look. Sasuke shakes his head mutely. I’m fine, he tries to communicate. Gaara gives him a long stare, obviously not satisfied, but then turns back to the play.

After the kiss, Sasuke watches the play with a sort of disconnected, clinical view -- he can’t look anymore at Neji without seeing Tenten kissing those pale lips and threading her fingers through that long hair, and he can’t look at Tenten without seeing Neji leaning down, fingers caressing her cheek --

He settles for staring at a spot in the back, on the wall, where he can only see Neji and Tenten as blurs in his peripheral vision. Sasuke detachedly notes the (lackluster) plot - Neji and Tenten meet up for passionate rendezvous a couple more times (Sasuke averts his eyes, but they don’t end up kissing again) and there’s a conflict with a jealous ex-lover, etc. -- Tenten forgets her lines a couple more times -- but Sasuke doesn’t really pay much attention. When it’s time for the cast to take their bows, Sasuke claps halfheartedly with the rest of the audience. Naruto is whooping loudly next to him, and when he notices Sasuke looking at him, he turns and gives him a blinding grin. The corners of Sasuke’s mouth tweak up a little at that. Naruto’s enthusiasm for life is infectious, and even though Sasuke feels like he’s been dragged through cold slippery mud, he can’t help but be drawn into the boy’s warmth.

Naruto grabs Sasuke’s arm and pulls him towards the stage. “Come on, Sasuke, let’s go congratulate them! Gaara, you too, come on, I know you want to talk to Lee --”

Sasuke feels like he’s underwater, Naruto’s words flowing around him in slow-motion, and slipping away into the depths before he can grab at them. He doesn’t register the rest of what Naruto says, just briefly notices Naruto letting go of his arm to pull Gaara to the stage, the rest of the meager crowd dispersing and heading to the exits behind him. He looks up, and the first thing he sees is Neji, strands of hair coming loose from his ponytail, milky eyes meeting Sasuke’s. Neji’s eyes brighten, and he starts walking towards him -- but Sasuke only gets an anxious, skittering feeling down his body.

He doesn’t want to talk to Neji -- no, he can’t talk to Neji, he can barely look at him without getting an indecipherable sinking feeling, weighing him down like a stone, in the pit of his stomach. He subconsciously takes a step back, creates distance, and Neji stops suddenly. “Sasuke?” Sasuke hears him say, as if from a great distance, as if Neji is calling for Sasuke above the water, but he is only sinking further.

Sasuke swallows heavily. “I-- I have to go,” he says stiffly, forcing his legs to move, to carry him away from Neji, out of the suffocating auditorium, out of his own murky subconscious. “Sorry,” he adds quietly, because the air is stifling, and he feels like it needs to be said. To whom, he doesn’t know. “Sorry.”

Neji doesn’t move as Sasuke brushes past him, and Sasuke doesn’t stop and look back until the front doors of the school swing closed behind him. The cool night air feels cleansing, in a way, and Sasuke breathes in deeply, closing his eyes.

There are a few quiet moments where Sasuke is by himself. He can hear the night winds rustling the leaves, the soft buzzing of the lights in the buildings around him. It’s soft, and it’s peaceful. Sasuke feels the tension of the day leaving him, feels his muscles relax into the crisp air --

The door bangs open violently. Sasuke spins around, startled, and finds that Tenten, no longer in costume but with her hair still loose over her shoulders, is stomping angrily down the steps leading to the pavement.

“No, I’m not overreacting,” she spits into the night, and it takes Sasuke a moment to realize she’s not talking to him -- there’s a glowing cellphone pressed to her ear -- and another moment to realize that she hasn’t even seen him, standing out in the darkness. “No --  I don’t -- what? Are you serious? Am I -- okay, well, what do you think? In your expert opinion, please tell me, why am I confused? Huh? Maybe it’s my fucking dysfunctional family life.”

Sasuke is inching towards the door. Clearly he’s not supposed to be here, not supposed to be hearing these things -- he is briefly reminded of Neji’s house and its thin walls -- and then Tenten yanks the phone away from her ear. “I HATE YOU!!” she screams at the device, hurls it into the bushes, and plops down on the steps.

Okay. Definitely time for Sasuke to leave.

But as soon as he reaches the door, his fingers closing around the handle, he hears it. Soft sobs, coming from the hunched-over form of Tenten, curled into herself in the dark.

Again, Sasuke is reminded of Neji and the day they first met, and the thought of those quiet, hoping-not-to-be-heard tears is what makes him release the handle and turn around.

“Are you okay?”

Tenten jerks up. “Oh my god.”

Sasuke kneels, holding his hands up to show he means no harm. “It’s fine. I’m just… I just want to help.” He hesitates. “But if you’d rather be alone, then --”

“No.” Tenten shuffles her feet -- normal sandals, no longer her awkward heels -- and draws in a shaky breath. “I -- can I just say something to you?” She tilts her head, and Sasuke catches the reflection of the lights in the trails of tears on her face.

“S-Sure.” Sasuke swallows, audible in the silence. “If you don’t mind -- me being a stranger, I mean --”

“It’s actually better this way.” Tenten smiles sadly into the night. “If you were someone I knew, it would be awkward.” She takes a deep breath and lets it out in a whoosh.

Sasuke stays quiet. Whatever she’s about to say is obviously important to her.

“So -- my parents are assholes.” Tenten’s voice doesn’t crack, but it does wobble a little. “They’re probably the least accepting people you’ve ever -- okay, that’s unfair. But they’re pretty close-minded. About everything. We’ve been going to the same barber shop for, like six generations.” She laughs, but it’s not a humorous laugh. “And when I told them --” she catches her breath. “When I -- I told them I’m -- I like girls --”

“Girls?” Sasuke should not be interrupting, he knows, but he’s not sure he heard her right. “As in, like-like --”

“As in I’m gay, okay?” Tenten blows the bangs out of her eyes with a huff, and looks him right in the eye. “I like girls. As in like-like. Like, for real.”

“Oh.” Sasuke has no idea how he’s supposed to be reacting to this, but the first thing that pops into his head is the image of her rolling over and burying her face in Neji’s stomach, of her braiding Neji’s hair, of her kissing him onstage -- So they’re not dating.

“And I told my parents, like…” Tenten rolls her shoulders back. “A month ago? And they were, well, less than enthusiastic. ‘It’s just a phase, honey,’ ‘High school can be difficult, we know you’re just trying to figure out who you are,’ ‘Maybe you should talk about this with someone --’ Like I don’t fucking know what that means.” She sighs and slumps forward. “I mean, they didn’t kick me out of the house. They didn’t send me away to a freaking boarding school for nuns, or anything. I just wish they’d be more… supportive. Like today. I told my parents we were having a dress rehearsal today, and they practically fell over themselves to come up with excuses. So… I don’t know. I called my dad to ask why he’s been avoiding me lately, and I kinda, um, lost it.” She laughs again, only this time it sounds more like a sob. “I don’t know what’s going on, okay? My friends don’t even know. I didn't tell them. I wanted my family to know first, and now I just --” she breaks off, her shoulders shaking as she’s wracked with sobs. “What if they react like that? Like they don’t even know me? I don’t think --” Tenten’s wiping furiously at the tears streaming down her cheeks, but they aren’t stopping, “ -- I don’t think I can handle that. Just everyone I care about just fucking disappearing.”

And Sasuke isn’t thinking -- he’s just moving, reaching out, wrapping his arms around Tenten, and she leans into him gratefully, even though they’re practically strangers, even though this is weird and the pavement is digging into Sasuke’s thigh and Tenten smells like cardboard and theater makeup and she was kissing Neji less than an hour ago and Sasuke’s older brother is no longer there, is not there to hold him the way he is holding Tenten right now, and maybe Sasuke is crying a little bit too.

They stay like that for a long time, two kids more alone and more alike than anyone else might think, and Tenten is the first to pull away, sniffing and wiping at her nose. “Sorry. I don’t usually just… like, dump all that on random strangers, you know.” She laughs a little in the darkness, but this time, there’s more humor in it. Sasuke gives her a half-hearted smile and quickly brushes away his own tears.

“It’s okay. I kind of get it. Not everything, I mean, I have no idea what you’ve had to go through, but… yeah. I’m sorry. It’s not fair.” He bites his lip. “It really isn’t.”

“I know.” Tenten is quiet for a moment. “Anyway, thank you. For just… listening.”

Sasuke shrugs. “It’s the least I could do.”

A pause. Then:

“I’m glad you were here, Sasuke. It’s Sasuke, right?”

“Yeah... Tenten.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.”

“So… I’ll see you, I guess. At school.”

“Oh. Right. We have school tomorrow.”

Tenten laughs at Sasuke’s dismayed expression. “Cheer up. At least you have your friends.”

Oh. Sasuke blinks at her. How strange, to think that two weeks ago, he didn’t really have friends.

“I mean -- I’m your friend!” Tenten quickly adds, misinterpreting his sudden change in expression. “And Neji, and Naruto, and Gaara, and Lee, too -- though he’s kind of friends with everyone --”

“No, no, I’m fine, that’s not it.” Sasuke holds up his hands in mock surrender, trying to hide his smile. “It’s just that… you’re right. It’s really nice to have friends.”

Tenten looks at him for a moment and then grins. “See you around, Sasuke,” she says, and leans forward. Her lips brush his ear. “Thank you,” she whispers, so softly that Sasuke doesn’t hear it so much as feel the vibrations across his skin, and then Tenten pulls back just far enough to plant a kiss on his cheek --

and the door flies open. “Hey, Tenten, are you out h--”