Disclaimer: Sadly enough, I don't own Naruto.
Author's Note: Hello! This is my first Naruto fanfic, I only recently got hooked, so most everyone who will reading this will be my sempai. I will try my best despite this pressure... So if you can help me improve anything or if you'd like to leave me a note telling me what you thought, that'd be great (laughs nervously).
Please enjoy!
THE ULTIMATE UKE SYNDROME
by rosesareblue
Chapter One
"SA-SU-KE-KUN!"
Uchiha Sasuke twitched only slightly as Haruno Sakura accented every single syllable of his name. She flew down the hall towards him, her expression bright enough to light the darkened passage. He casually glanced at his watch. It was almost six and the school was practically deserted. Why hadn't she gone home already?
"How do I look, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura bubbled, whirling around to show off her new cheerleading uniform. She tried to keep a calm and collected exterior though Inner-Sakura had already started a victory dance.
Would he notice that her super-short mini skirt flared dangerously up around her thigh, threatening to reveal all? Would he notice that wearing this uniform meant that she was the only freshman girl to be selected for the official cheerleading squad? Would he notice that this meant that she could ride with him to all his games and cheer on all his fantastic moves?
The pale boy glanced at her briefly before glancing at his watch again.
"Hm."
To most people, the muted grunt of acknowledgement would have been completely inaudible. But for Haruno Sakura – with years and years of experience at Uchiha Sasuke fawning/stalking/worshipping – even the slightest sound was magnified tenfold. Though it was (much, much, much) less of a reaction than she'd hoped for, she was greatly encouraged by it and continued.
"I heard that Sasuke-kun was the youngest person since – " Sakura gulped, catching herself just in time before she uttered a name that was taboo in Sasuke's presence, " – s-since a very long time that was selected for a starting position. Not only that, I heard you were starting center! Congratulations, Sasuke-kun!"
Sakura beamed up at the Uchiha, who stood wearing a faint bored expression as though his remarkable feat was trivial. But of course, Uchiha Sasuke had no problem in making the starting basketball team! He'd been accepted into Sound Academy – well known for its boy's basketball team, which had been National Champion for the past nineteen years – on a full athletic scholarship. Every sports magazine in Japan lauded the young Uchiha, the greatest prodigy the basketball world had seen since the legendary Uchiha Itachi.
The pink haired girl marveled at the tall boy's icy but extremely gorgeous features. And of course, his intense and too-sexy-for-his-own-good features had also contributed to his growing into a near national idol status… though of course that meant she had hordes on hordes of fan-girls to compete with for his attention…
Sakura coughed. "So, Sasuke-kun. I was wondering if you and I could walk home together now that your basketball practice is – "
"I have a meeting." Sasuke interrupted her, starting to walk back down the hall again. Without looking back, he raised his hand slightly in farewell as he disappeared down the darkened hall.
Sakura swallowed her disappointment as she listened to Sasuke's footsteps growing fainter. Of course, Sasuke would be busy! She chided herself. He was the young god of basketball with the weight of Japan's basketball future on his shoulders! He had no time to waste – not even with her that had been his neighbor for the past fifteen years. That's right, he had no time to waste with anything but basketball…
"Konoha." Temari snapped, as she looked through the papers in her hand again.
"Konoha?" Kankuro snorted at her reply. "Temari – maybe you are catching someone's insomnia and aren't thinking clearly – but Konoha's never even made it to the district finals."
"Temari-san." Yuki, Sand's guard, spoke up. He ran his hand through his light blue hair almost apologetically for contradicting their super strict, piss-me-off-and-be-damned team manager. "If I remember correctly, we only have to worry about Neji at Konoha. And the other guy – the one with the tacky bowl cut – "
"Rock Lee." Temari informed, her eyes narrowing at the younger boy's opposition.
"Yeah, Lee." Starting center Hitoshi began, rescuing a squirming Yuki from Temari's glare. "All the other members of the Konoha team are trash, Temari-san. Absolute trash! I don't know how two brilliant players like Neji and Lee were reduced to rotting away on a pathetic team like Konoha but surely they aren't – "
"Let Temari finish." A dangerous hiss came from the leading point guard on Sand's starting team. Till now, the redheaded boy had been absolutely silent, his green-eyes far and distant. Now, the lime colored eyes were intent with a deadly glare.
Yuki and Hitoshi bit their tongues immediately at Gaara's order.
Temari continued, "Of course, if you look at Konoha's performance so far, there is nothing to worry about. But this year, save Neji and Lee, they got rid of all their senior players and constructed a team of only freshmen. Which means – "
"I see." Kankuro frowned, rolling his hands into angrily fists. Dammit – it seemed like there would be more than Sound to worry about this year. Che.
"Er, Temari-san." Hitoshi mumbled, looking at Kankuro's grimace. "I don't understand what difference that makes. Freshmen or senior, we can take on a weak team like Konoha easy. It's the Sound and that goddamn Uchiha Sasuke we have to worry about."
Temari's eyebrow twitched. She really didn't like stupid people. Really. "Of course we have to worry about the Uchiha but - "
"Not with Gaara-sama!" Yuki interrupted her – yet again to her infinite annoyance. Not noticing Temari's dangerous frown and intent on trying to make up for causing the great Gaara to glare at him, Yuki insisted, "Since Gaara-sama is here, we can finally succeed in crushing Sound and taking the national title and – "
"Shut up." Gaara said, deathly quiet. As soon as the quiet words were out of his mouth, the whole locker room fell silent. Gaara turned his gaze expectantly toward Temari.
Temari sighed as the freshmen players nearly peed in their pants at Gaara's slight rebuke. Clearing her throat and summoning the last of her patience, she said, "Okay, Hitoshi. I want you to think – though that's not something you do often. Even if Konoha's seniors are not very good, they have two years of more experience than the freshmen."
"Right." Hitoshi frowned in concentration at the blonde girl's words.
"If all of them were replaced by freshmen – not a single senior with two years more experience left on the team – what does that tell you about the freshmen?" Temari asked slowly, as if addressing a five-year-old.
Hitoshi grimaced and raked his brain. "Uh-I-um…I dunno?"
After knocking Hitoshi unconscious with six speedily served ten-pound dumbbells, Temari turned to Yuki. "What do you think?"
Adrenalin can do wonders for the human mind.
"It means the new freshmen players are good enough that they make up for the big difference in experience? And the fact that they didn't keep any senior players – even as back-up – means that the freshmen are talented enough to make the Konoha coach confident that he can win with just them?"
Temari nodded, dropping the prepared dumbbell much to Yuki's relief. "That's right. Now, last question. Calculate the sum of Hyuuga Neji and Rock Lee and decent players."
The whole locker room fell silent as the weight of Temari's words finally, finally sank in.
Gaara was the first to move.
"We will practice." He said, his green eyes flashing.
"Inuzuka Kiba, Nara Shikamaru, Rock Lee, Akimichi Chouji and Hyuuga Neji." Kidoumaru read the starting players of Konoha's basketball team, turning to his dark-haired teammate, "What do you make of it, Sasuke?"
"Hmph." Sasuke snorted, looking out the bus window in faint annoyance. So Konoha finally recruited some better players? Of course, in their case, it would have been difficult to do worse.
"I agree." Kidoumaru replied, reading the pale boy's expression and grinning at the expected answer. "But I heard their new manager is pretty cute though."
That – if possible – was even less interesting. Sasuke listened with increasing irritation, as Kidoumaru, used to the one-sided conversation with the stoic boy, jerked a thumb toward the back of the bus and said, "Whoever she is, she's got to be cuter than Tayuya, don't you think?"
Sasuke listen to Tayuya curse out Jiroubo for censored bringing yellow censored, censored Gatorade when she'd specifically censored ordered him to buy blue censored, censored, censored Gatorade and sighed. This was going to be one long helluva ride to their boarding house. Training camp was starting to become one fucking noisy nightmare.
At his sigh, Kidoumaru smiled. "Cheer up. We are not sharing the boarding house with only Konoha."
Sasuke turned to Kidoumaru with interest for the first time they'd gotten on the bus.
Kidoumaru grinned at the pale boy's attention. "Sand is going to be there too."
Sand. Sand meant…
A rare smile twitched the corners of Sasuke's lips.
Gaara.
Sakura looked up at the boarding house in the fading daylight. It was a little late since she'd come after getting settled in.
So, this was where Sasuke-kun would be staying during his training camp, huh? It was only a forty-five-minute walk from her own boarding house! It was almost as if fate wanted Sasuke and her to be together!
Caught up in her romantic girlish fantasies, Sakura dreamily looked up at the less-than-romantically built cement building. Now all she needed to do was find out which room Sasuke-kun was staying at. She clutched the jar of honey lemons she'd made in her arms; she'd read that the delicacies were good for athletes.
She'd do anything to make Sasuke-kun happy!
At that moment, two tall boys wearing Sand jerseys walked out of the cement building. Sakura was about to accost them for the whereabouts of Sasuke when their conversation caught her interest.
"Did you see Konoha's manager?" Komaja nudged Nejiri, grinning.
"The blonde?" Nejiri leered, thinking back. "She's really cute, isn't she?"
"She's like the type that'd probably cry all the way through when you are putting it in her – with all that innocent and pure crap going for her." Komaja shivered. "Shit, she's sexy."
"She's definitely asking for it." Nejiri smirked. "I can't believe she's going to be living under the same roof with three boys basketball teams for two weeks."
"Wanna bet on how many times she gets screwed?" Komaja kidded, punching Nejiri on the shoulder.
Nejiri took up Komaja's offer instantly. "Nine. Twice by me."
"In your dreams!"
Sakura looked stricken as she watched the two boys walk farther away. That was just sick – really sick! But what bothered her more about the conversation was not the two boy's talk about fucking Konoha's blonde virgin manager, but that Konoha's blonde virgin manager sounded like she was sculpted out of pheromone. And that blonde would be living in the same boarding house with Sasuke-kun!
Oh why, oh why, hadn't she tried out for team manager instead of becoming a goddamn cheerleader? Then she could spend two weeks in the same boarding house with Sasuke-kun instead of staying a freakin' forty-five-minute walk away!
Oh, that's right. Sakura remembered. Because the manager position was more than filled by foul-mouthed, anti-social, blood-thirsty Tayuya who albeit hated her guts.
Sakura sulked, dejected. Well, but it was Sasuke-kun she was talking about… She remembered the time when he turned down a date offer (more like on-the-knees-plead) by Asada Yumiko, a cute, big-eyed popular idol, without so much as a flinch.
Sasuke-kun had absolutely no interest in girls!
Not calculating that this also meant that Sakura herself had no chance with Sasuke-kun, she hurriedly walked inside the boarding house. She'd simply have to look for Sasuke-kun herself! As she rounded a bend, Sakura crashed head on with a blonde girl rushing down the hallway.
"Ow!" Sakura groaned, sprawled on the floor and covered with spilled honey lemons. Who the heck was that?!
She painfully looked up at the person she'd crashed into. Long slender white legs, short, pleated skirt that fluttered above taut thighs, a flat belly, revealed between an open Konoha jersey and a short tight tank-top, full breasts, a long blonde ponytail, and, finally, a very pretty, very girlish face…
Sakura leapt to her feet in surprised recognition, ignoring the stick lemon juice that clung to her body.
"INO!"
Ino scowled at the sight of her former archenemy from middle school.
"Sakura!"
Sakura's eyes flew open as she matched Ino's Konoha basketball jersey and the Sand basketball players' perverted talk. Konoha's blonde manager was none other than…
"Long time no see, forehead girl." The blonde beauty jeered.
Yamanaka Ino.
Uchiha Sasuke let the shower water caress his body, noting his tired muscles with gratification. He did not share his teammate's hostile sentiments about practicing five hours on their first day of arrival at the training camp with only thirty minutes to unpack. They were here, after all, to train, weren't they? Another rare smile lifted the corners of Sasuke's smooth lips as the cold trickles of water trailed down his neck. He'd stay here until everyone else left. From the noisy shrills of girls coming from the hallway that was essentially suppose to house boys' basketball teams, there obviously were some annoying visitors. Fuck.
Sasuke turned his mind back to the chilliness of the water. At least he could look forward to seeing Gaara again. The Sand would begin practice tomorrow, he'd heard. Hmm…
After standing under the shower for ten minutes longer, Sasuke turned off the cold water. As he dried his hair with a towel, he noticed steam rising from another shower – someone else was still here. Frowning at the fact that he had company, Sasuke made his way towards the lockers. Maybe he'd go outside for a walk until the dorm got quiet enough to sleep…
As he was pulling on his clothes, a flash of white suddenly passed in front of his eyes and before he could retaliate, he was tackled headon by a wet body.
CRASH!
Sasuke stared up at a towel covering his vision. He was lying on the cold floor of the locker room. His head and right elbow ached from directly hitting the hard floor. Something wet and heavy was sitting on his stomach. Something that was going to cease breathing soon was sitting on his stomach – !
"WHAT THE FUCK! GET OFF – "
"Shit! Hey, are you okay!"
The white towel that obstructed his view was cleared and Sasuke found himself staring straight up at a pair of concerned and indescribably blue eyes. Wet blonde hair scattered across a smooth tan forehead. The water slid down the brown golden-skinned cheeks and Sasuke gaze followed the water droplets as they gathered at the corners of the softest looking lips till they finally trickled down a slick chin, down bare neck, and collected again at the accented naked collarbone.
And the next thing Sasuke knew, something wet was dribbling down his own face.
"OH MAN! YOU ARE BLEEDING! GAH! I'M SORRY!" The blonde leapt off his stomach and Sasuke didn't even wonder why a girl was in the guy's shower as he dumbly let her pull him to his feet with surprising strength for someone so small – completely forgetting his initial plan to kill her.
"Here!" The blonde yelped, flinging her towel at Sasuke. "Wipe your nose with this! I'll go get a first aid kit or something!"
Sasuke gratefully dammed the blood with the towel as more blood gushed from his nose at the sight of the now-naked blonde in front of him, nimbly racing around to jerk on her shirt. For a girl, Sasuke observed still stunned, her chest was incredibly smooth and flat. And was that – wait! Girls didn't have that – !
As the blonde pulled on shorts and shot out of the shower room in search of a first aid kit, Sasuke realized faintly that the gorgeous blonde wasn't a girl at all.
He was a guy.