SN

Gaara’s house is… louder than Sasuke remembers. Maybe it’s due to the shouting match in the living room.

“It says right in the manual that you need to attach strings to the metacarpophalangeal joint!” shouts Kankuro, whose purple eyeshadow blends beautifully with the way his face is flushed bright red with anger. “It’s just how you do it, if you don’t want shitty control mechanics!”

“I have never, not once in my entire life, needed to pilot the metacarpophalangeal joints of my puppet.” Kankuro’s redheaded opponent is calm and composed, entirely occupied with picking the lint off his black-and-red jacket. “The distal interphalangeal joint is fine. Perfect motor skills aren’t worth the hassle of untangling the individual joint strings.” Casually, he nudges at the wooden puppet sprawled in the center of the room with a sandaled foot. “Not that there’s much that can salvage this hopeless mess.”

“Okay, first of all --” Kankuro begins, and then catches a glimpse of the awkward group standing in the doorway -- stone-faced Gaara, Naruto bouncing on his toes, Tenten squeezing Sasuke’s arm and looking around the fancy living room goggle-eyed, and Sasuke, trying to make himself as small as possible and failing miserably. He fidgets under Kankuro’s wide-eyed stare, and Tenten jabs him painfully in the ribs -- intentionally or not, he can’t tell.

The redhead boy notices them next. “Friends of yours, Kankuro?” he drawls in a lazy way that makes Sasuke want to punch him.

Kankuro ignores him. “Gaara, holy shit. You brought a lady!” He crosses the room, having snapped instantly back into the flirty big brother role that Sasuke is all-too-familiar with, and takes Tenten’s hand in his own. “You are far too pretty to be hanging out with my weirdo brother.” He makes to plant a kiss on the back of her hand. “What’s your name, lovely madame?”

Tenten’s expression is like… well, Sasuke wouldn’t be too surprised if she were to stage-slap Kankuro right here and now. Instead, she yanks her hand away from him and gives him a glare of death. “My name,” she says icily, “is none of your business, Kankuro.”

Kankuro is surprised, at first, and then recognition slowly dawns across his face. “I know you!” he cries, tossing his hands up. “From Sand Dune! You did that thing in the talent show with the knives --”

“A-hem.” Gaara’s annoyed cough interrupts him. “Perhaps you could continue this reunion another time? We have a project to work on.” 

Kankuro winks exaggeratedly at Gaara. “Riiight. Gaara, you dog. Every day it’s someone new, huh?” He reaches over and ruffles Gaara’s hair, to his brother’s obvious annoyance. “Don’t mind us, we won’t get in the way. Right, Sasori?” Kankuro grins at the redhead boy kneeling over the puppet, who responds with a half-hearted shrug. 

“Be quiet.” Gaara shoves Kankuro’s hand away and tries in vain to fix his hair. “Come on, guys. Pay no attention to the idiot in the living room.” He pushes past his brother and heads for the stairs, and Tenten quickly makes pace to follow him.

“Oof, harsh, little bro.” laughs Kankuro. “I mean, Sasori can’t help it.” Sasori rolls his eyes as Kankuro, chuckling, plops down next to him on the rug.

Sasuke tags along after Gaara, heading towards the stairs, but something makes him pause and glance back at Sasori. There’s something strangely familiar about the redheaded boy…

As if sensing his lingering gaze, Sasori looks up and catches Sasuke’s eye. The two of them stare at each other for a moment, and then Sasori’s gray eyes widen in some silent recognition. “Hey --”

“Sasuke, come on!” Tenten is tugging Sasuke’s arm, and Sasuke quickly breaks eye contact and follows Tenten up the stairs. But he can still feel Sasori’s eyes burning a hole in the back of his neck as he climbs.

. . . 

“If you’re going to stay here, could you please be quiet?” cries Gaara exasperatedly the third time Naruto interrupts him and Sasuke to ask about snacks. “Please. Both of you.”

“What did I do?” Tenten protests. She’s sprawled across the floor with her notebook, working on something that looks suspiciously like doodling.

“You’re humming.” Gaara sighs, slides his notebook over into Sasuke’s lap, and stands up. “Look, I’ll go make some snacks, okay? We all need a break.”

As soon as the door clicks closed, Naruto is practically on top of Sasuke, trying to read the papers in his lap. “What’cha working on? Did you write the poem thing? Can I read it? Pleeeeassseee??”

“Get off.” Sasuke elbows him out of the way. “We didn’t get far, because you keep interrupting. We only have a couple lines.”

“Oh, you have Shizune?” Tenten sits up. “Is the class hard? I heard you have to write and perform a slam poem.”

Sasuke shrugs. “I don’t like public speaking, but the class is fine.”

“What’s your poem about?” Tenten climbs onto the bed and peers over Sasuke’s shoulder. “‘New beginnings’ -- that’s nice.”

“Yeah.” Sasuke is suddenly embarrassed, but Tenten snatches the paper before he has a chance to hide it.

“‘New Beginnings,’”she reads, and clears her throat. “The dawn, your heart, silence is broken. Small parts of the unspoken gone, they depart -- at the first sign of violence, it’s through.

Always the worst line to draw in the sand: between the old and the new.”

There is a long pause. Sasuke’s face is burning. He somehow feels naked, hearing the words out loud. 

Tenten lowers the paper, face glowing. “Did you write that? Really?”

“Well, me and Gaara.” Sasuke snatches the paper back. “It - it’s just a first draft.”

“It’s good!” hoots Naruto, and Tenten nods vigorously. “What inspired you?”

“Um. The assignment?” Sasuke is shuffling papers around, anything to keep from looking at the two of them. “I don’t know, I mean, Gaara helped a lot --”

“I’m back.” Gaara is standing in the doorway, holding a tray of veggies. “What did I miss?”

“We were admiring your poem.” Tenten grins. 

“Snacks! Yes!” Naruto jumps for the tray, only to cry out in disgust. “What is this? Where are the cookies?”

Gaara dodges Naruto and steals his place on the bed. “Not everyone eats junk food twenty-four seven, you know.”

Naruto pouts and settles on the ground, muttering to himself about herbivores, and Sasuke hands the papers back to Gaara. “Should we continue?”

“In a bit.” Gaara tucks his feet under him and crunches down on a carrot. “We have time. All of this week, until Friday.”

Tenten munches on a stick of celery. “Hey, wanna play a game?”

“Move over, I want some room on the bed.” Naruto shoves Tenten to the side and smushes himself between her and Sasuke, ignoring Tenten’s oof as he knees her in the stomach. “What kind of game?” He waggles his eyebrows at Sasuke. “Truth or dare?”

“I was thinking Monopoly, but sure.” Tenten clutches her stomach and scoots further down the bed until she has enough space to lean back and slide her feet into Sasuke’s lap. “Okay. Hit me with one, Nart.”

Naruto goes brilliant red. “Don’t call me that. And get your feet out of Sasuke’s lap.”

“Why? If it was bothering him, he’d say something.” Tenten raises his head. “Are you okay, Sasuke?”

Sasuke has never, in all his life, had a girl’s feet in his lap, and he isn’t sure how to react. Is this flirting? Doesn’t she like girls? “Um. It’s fine.”

“See?” Tenten sticks her tongue out at Naruto. “So give me a truth or dare, Nards.”

For a moment, it seems like Naruto is going to really and truly lose it. Tenten is saved from his wrath by Gaara, who pipes up. “Tenten, truth or dare?”

“Dare.” Tenten wiggles her toes. “Bring it on.”

Gaara is contemplative for a moment. “I dare you to go into Temari’s room and ask for a scrunchie.”

“WHAT!?” Tenten nearly falls off the bed. “Are you crazy?”

Gaara shrugs, a tiny smile on his lips. “What’s wrong? I thought you knew Temari.”

“But - but I don’t  - I’m not -” Tenten struggles for words. “I can’t just do that! I haven’t seen her in, like, half a year! It’d be weird!”

Naruto crosses his arms and leans back. “Sounds to me like you’re just a chicken, Twenty.”

Tenten’s mouth drops open. “What did you just call me?”

“A chicken.”

“No, after that.”

“Oh, Twenty?” Naruto is smirking. “That’s your new nickname. Because ten plus ten --”

“I’m gonna kill you!”

Suffix it to say, no more work got done for the rest of the afternoon. Instead, a very vicious pillow fight ensued, and only ended when Kankuro stuck his head in to tell them to “keep the orgy down to a dull roar”. 

. . . 

Not until the sun has finally set does Gaara kick them out of his house, and the walk home is the longest Sasuke has ever endured. Tenten has decided to latch onto him determinedly, most likely (Sasuke muses) in an attempt to annoy Naruto, who seems to be bothered by each and every thing she does. 

“Stop it,” Naruto gripes as Tenten reaches up to tuck a lock of hair back into her bun. “That has to be the fiftieth time you’ve done that in the last five minutes.”

“Why does it annoy you?” Tenten retorts, tugging the offending lock of hair loose again. “Just stop watching me.”

“If your hair is bothering you, just redo your bun!” Naruto snaps. “You’re trying to drive me crazy!”

“You two are the ones driving me crazy!” cries Sasuke in exasperation. “This is the dumbest argument I’ve ever heard.”

Naruto glares at him. “How am I driving you crazy? Your girlfriend is the one climbing all over you!”

Tenten puffs out a breath, blowing her bangs back. “Wow, okay, jealous much?”

“We’re not dating.” Sasuke cuts Naruto off before the blond boy can murder Tenten in cold blood. “Okay? We’re just friends.”

“Good friends.” Tenten grins, showing all her teeth to Naruto, and makes a show of draping her arm around Sasuke’s shoulders, which Sasuke immediately shrugs off in annoyance.

Naruto’s eyes are narrowed. “You two didn’t even know each other until, like, yesterday.”

“What, you keep tabs on everything Sasuke does?” Tenten shoots back. 

“Stop!” Sasuke presses the heels of his hands into his eyes and grinds his teeth. “Please, stop. Can’t you two just get along?”

There is an embarrassed silence. “Sure,” Tenten mutters. “I can get along with him just fine. He’sthe one who can’t get along with me.” But when Sasuke turns to give her a look of disbelief, he finds her grinning. 

Naruto groans. “Honestly, how does Lee deal with --”

“Oh look. That’s my house.” Sasuke cuts him off before he can provoke Tenten, grateful he lives not too far from Gaara’s house. “I’ll see you at school tomorrow.”

“Hold on!” Tenten reaches up to her hair bun, and Sasuke thinks for a moment that she’s going to adjust it again, but she does something even stranger -- she pulls a pen out of her hair and then, in a sudden movement, snatches his hand. 

“What the --” Tenten’s grip is iron. Sasuke winces. “What are you doing?”

Tenten scribbles something on the back of his hand and releases it with a flourish. “There. You have a phone, don’t you?”

Sasuke feels his ears burn as he lifts his hand to read what is written there -- her phone number. “Uh, yeah.” he mumbles, and he glances up in time to see Naruto give Tenten a look that plainly says he wouldn’t mind if something very large and very heavy happened to hit her on the head.

Tenten twirls the pen, seemingly oblivious. “Good night!” she calls cheerfully, and heads off down the road with a backwards wave. Naruto lingers a moment longer, scuffing his heels, but when Sasuke starts to turn toward the door, he clears his throat.

“Ahem. See ya, Sasuke.”

Sasuke pauses. “Yeah. See you tomorrow.” When it becomes clear, after a few moments of awkward silence, that Naruto isn’t going to say anything else, Sasuke turns back to the door -- but Naruto’s hand on his shoulder stops him. 

“I -- uh --” Naruto fumbles for words, and Sasuke bites his lip and tries very hard not to lash out at the blond boy. It’s been a long day, and he’s tired. All he really wants is to collapse in bed and be unconscious for a few hours, trying not to think about how Neji avoided him all day, and how it took an extra ten minutes and a conscious effort to take a route home that didn’t lead him past the Hyuga house --

“I could give you my phone number tomorrow.” Naruto’s gaze is stubbornly fixed to the ground. “I just realized -- I mean, when Tenten -- well -- I figured we should -- if we’re friends and all --”

“Sure,” Sasuke interrupts, massaging his temples. He’s going to have a massive headache in the morning, he just knows it. “That’s fine. Bye.” He pointedly turns back to the door, and he’s halfway inside when he hears Naruto’s tiny “bye” in response, which, for some stupid reason, makes him feel like a jerk. 

With a groan, Sasuke collapses on the couch to pull off his shoes, and his attention is drawn back to the ink on his hand. After a moment of contemplation, he gropes for a piece of paper and a pencil and copies the number down. Whatever strange reason Tenten has for befriending him, he can’t sense any bad intentions behind her actions. In any case, it might be a good idea to find out more about her and her relationship with Neji. What? Sasuke shakes his head and stands, heading into the kitchen. He really needs to get some sleep.

Watching the ink-darkened water swirl down the sink drain, Sasuke lets his thoughts stray back to the boy in Gaara’s living room. Could that have been…? No, he decides. It might have been his imagination. He needs to sleep. Sasuke stumbles into his bedroom without bothering to even strip off his clothes from the day and sinks into unconsciousness the moment his head hits the mattress.