When Love Fades

Chapter 31 - Neji II

Sasuke glared at the blond student who was sitting two rows away from him in his Introduction to Asian Studies class. He didn't know what it was about the other student that had drawn his attention, but there was something about how the blue-eyed boy had walked into the room joking with another student. Sasuke had felt his stomach heat in a strange flash of annoyance. Usually, he was quite adept at simply ignoring those around him and focusing on his studies. Being plagued by throngs of admirers from grade school through high school had armed him with a fairly impressive ability to shut people out or at least intimidate them into leaving him alone. He shot a glare at the blond, but the boy didn't even glance at him. Somehow the easy grin on the tan face and the negligent way that the blond had sprawled into his chair next to his dark-haired friend had seemed to set Sasuke's teeth on edge.

He tried to suppress his annoyance at the distraction. The class was just a random elective Sasuke had taken because it didn't interfere with any of his engineering courses and would complete his credits for the semester. As he felt his eyes drawn once again to the two friends talking loudly and somewhat inappropriately, he wondered if he should have chosen more carefully. Not only would he have to sit through boring lectures on bullshit he didn't care about, but he was going to have to deal with annoying distractions. It was only the first day of class and he already knew he was going to hate it.

"No, I'm serious, Shino. The guy's name really is Fuck That Bitch: P-h-u-c D-a-t B-i-c-h. He posted his Australian driver's license and everything. Facebook just took his account down because they thought it was a prank. They haven't seen that many Vietnamese names, I guess, because I knew a Vietnamese chick once whose last name was Bich. Remember Dat Ho who worked in the coffee shop? People joked with him all the time about it, but it was the dude's real name.

"You are dissatisfied with the unusualness of your own name, Naruto? Though I do agree that being named after a ramen topping is not as provocative as having one that could mean something obscene in another language," the boy wearing sunglasses sat down in a much more orderly fashion than the blond, who Sasuke had just learned though he had NO interest in doing so was named Naruto.

"Kiba was talking about changing his name to Phuc Dat Bich," Naruto snickered.

Shino, shrugged infinitesimally. "He will pussy out. Why? Because Hana won't hire him if he takes a name that sounds like Fuck That Bitch. Her clinic has some English-speaking clients. And Kiba is terrified of his sister, so he will obey her."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the warm, compelling sound of blond's laughter as he made some emasculating comment about this Kiba person. He tried to shut out the annoying banter, but his eyes were inexorably drawn back to the blond.

"Still, how great would it be if that were just your REAL name?" Naruto opened his backpack to pull out his notebook, though they still had a few minutes before class started.

"It's not his real name, dumbass," Sasuke said, not sure why he'd felt the need to comment. Sasuke lounged back in his seat as he watched Naruto's head snap around to glare at him, blue eyes hot and intense. Sasuke felt a small flash of adrenaline at the sight. Usually people were intimidated by him. This boy wasn't.

"What the fuck do you even know about it?" Naruto retorted.

Sasuke shrugged casually, glancing over to where their teacher was already starting to write out an overview of what the course syllabus would be.

"It's obviously a fake name he used on Facebook just to yank their chain or get traffic on his site. Any idiot could see that," Sasuke pretended to look bored, though was intently watching out of the corner of his eye as Naruto's body stiffened in anger. Everyone in Sasuke's old school knew to avoid any sort of verbal debate with him, since he had earned a reputation early on of being able to pretty much eviscerate anyone who crossed him. Sasuke decided that the reason he felt a rush of exhilaration when Naruto narrowed his eyes at him was simply due to the fact that it had been a long time since anyone had taken him on.