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Daredevil
Chapter one: Brick buildings and guardian angels
Naruto Uzumaki, obnoxious, loud, orphan, daredevil. Ignored by everyone, he is caught in one of his acts by none other than Uchiha Sasuke. When Sasuke gets too curious, he becomes friends with him, and starts something he will never be able to get out of.
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I wish you would step back from that ledge my friend
You could cut ties with all the lies
That you've been living in
And if you do not want to see me again
I would understand
I would understand
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Naruto paced back and forth, his sneakers scuffing against the rough burgundy brick, the only sound in the silent city besides the rush of cars far away. The cold air of night was barely noted as he continued to pace, back and forth, back and forth, his face shadowed as he kept his head down.
He barely noticed the door to the apartment building slamming closed below him. The only thing on his mind was how it felt to feel nothing, aside from the cold rush of air against his skin as he free fell.
His first two attempts had been foiled by the woman that lived across from him, Mary Lou, the old bugger; she always seemed to know when he left his apartment late at night. He had often wondered if she had surveillance cameras outside her door.
His musings, as well as his feet, came to an abrupt stop as the door that led to the roof slammed open. He didn’t bother to look up, and continued his pacing. Only did he stop and look up when a slim hand grabbed a hold of his forearm. A teenager, probably about his age, with midnight black hair, black skin, and pale as the moon skin stood there. Naruto idly wondered how the teen got his hair to stick up like that in the back.
“What are you doing?” The teen asked in monotone, though it seemed like there was a note of anger in it… Why would he be angry? He didn’t even know him!
“What does it look like?” Naruto asked softly.
“Looks like you’re suicidal.” The boy shot back, shaking his head to get the bangs out of his eyes.
Naruto pursed his lips, “I’m not suicidal.” He paused a moment to look back over the edge, before sighing and stepping down, wrenching his arm out of the pale boy’s grip. “Just bored.”
The pale boy seemed to have been shocked to silence, “Bored!?” He shook his head in incredulity, “You were going to jump because you were bored?”
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to jump tonight.” He walked around his late night visitor to the door, putting his hand on the ice cold handle, “And there were more reasons then being bored.” He turned the knob, only to find it locked. He looked down to see that the pipe he had placed between the door and the door jamb had been kicked away.
He turned around slowly, eyes narrowed at the stranger, “Why, just why did you kick that pipe away?”
The stranger’s eyes became bewildered, “What do you mean? Why should that matter?”
Naruto growled, “Because the door automatically locks from the inside!”
“What!?” The stranger strode up next to him and tried the handle, as if he could magically open it. He whirled around, hands on hips, glaring at Naruto in defiance, “Well… How was I supposed to know!?”
“Usually when a door is propped open with a pipe, that means it should stay there!” Naruto exclaimed.
The stranger sighed, rubbing his cheek absently, “So… What now?” He asked.
Naruto glared at him in silence, and then sat against the door, looking away from him with a huff. He pulled his knees to his chest and tucked his arms against his chest, shavering against the cold. How he hated the cold.
The stranger sat down next to him, staring out over the city, giving no indication that he was cold. After a few moments, he asked, “What’s your name?”
Naruto was silent a moment, then smirked, “Fuck tard.”
The stranger stared at him strangely, then looked away, smirking, “Jack ass.”
Naruto chuckled, “Nice to meet you Jack ass.” He brang his left hand out from the warmth of his chest and propped his arm on his knees, palm out, and Jack ass shook it. “So, what were you doing up here in the first place?”
Jack ass snorted, “Making sure you didn’t jump.”
Naruto’s eyebrow ticked, “Do I look like I need a guardian angel?”
Jack ass’ smirk got smug, “Oh, so I’m an angel now?”
“No!” Naruto exclaimed quickly, “I just don’t need random strangers thinking they can come in and mess with my life!”
“Whatever.” He muttered, “Look, I was walking by this building, and I saw you up on the ledge, just walking back and forth, and I got a little… worried. So when someone came out of the building, I ran inside up to the roof to make sure you didn’t jump.”
“Life meddler.” Naruto muttered.
“Suicidal.” He muttered back.
“Bastard.” Naruto growled.
“Idiot.”
“Bitch!”
“Ass hole!”
“Tit-licker!”
“Dead last.” Jack ass paused, “Tit-licker!?” He exclaimed in indignation and bewilderment.
Naruto just shook his head in silence. Jack ass glared, “No, I want to know, what the hell do you mean by ‘tit-licker’!?”
Naruto shrugged, “It just looks like girls drop dead for you. I bet you even have your own mob of psycho fan girls waiting to molest you at every corner.”
Jack ass raised a delicate black eyebrow, “Oh, so you noticed I’m gorgeous?”
Naruto snorted, “You’re also conceited.”
“Are you gay?”
Naruto shrugged, “It’s not like I can’t appreciate beauty.” They both remained silent for a few minutes.
“So… what were you doing up here on the ledge?” The pale boy asked, shaking his head to get the long midnight bangs out of his eyes.
Naruto was silent, staring at a billboard blankly, before muttering, “None of your business.”
“It is now.”
Naruto turned his head sharply to look at the pale boy beside him, “What do you mean, ‘it is now’?!”
“Well, now that I know you… It is my business.” His smirk grew wider.
Naruto growled and turned his head away once again, “It’s only my business, and the people who care about me’s business. Though I wouldn’t tell them anyway.”
Jack ass pursed his pale pink lips, “I cared enough to come up here to make sure you didn’t kill yourself.”
“I already told you I’m not suicidal!” Naruto yelled, the exclamation echoing around them. An angry shout of, ‘Shut the hell up!’ echoed back to them.
Jack ass just shrugged, “Whatever you say. My point is, at least I cared enough to come up here. I care enough to keep talking to you. You should feel special; you’re the first person I’ve talked to in actual sentences for nearly a year.”
“Ah, wise man says ‘silence is a virtue’.” Naruto said in a fake professional voice, lifting his finger and scrunching up his nose.
The pale boy beside him gave him a ‘what the hell are you on?’ look.
“I would feel special, it’s just, I’m too cold to care.” Naruto mumbled, and as if on cue, his whole body shook in a massive shiver.
Jack ass remained silent, looking at him through the corner of his eye. He thought back on their conversation, and eyes widening, he suddenly asked, “What did you mean by ‘I wasn’t sure if I was going to jump tonight’?”
“What do you mean what did I mean?”
He sighed, “I mean, it sounds like you’ve done this before, the way you worded that.” The potent scent of a barbecue reached their noses, Naruto sniffing it up like the scent of a first love.
“Oh.” Naruto spoke shortly. He hesitated, before saying, “Yah, I’ve done it before. Twice. I’ve tried a few times before that, but they were foiled, or I just didn’t do it.” Looking at his eyes at that moment, you might notice that they had dulled to a murky blue grey.
“…Why?” He asked again. He didn’t know why, but he needed to know. It was so strange, someone that looked so full of life, and could bring emotions to the surface so easily; it was just strange that he seemed to be hiding so many things.
Naruto growled, “I already told you, it’s none of your business!” His face contorted into a snarl, his eyes glowing in anger.
The boy next to him leaned away from him, “Fine…” Though he’d never admit it, he was a little freaked out at how this boy could get so angered over a simple question.
It was silent, again, for nearly five minutes after that, Naruto trying to calm himself, and Jack ass trying to not let off a ‘please kill me’ aura.
Naruto perked up, sitting up on his haunches before getting up entirely. “Hey! I just remembered! There’s a fire exit!”
His rooftop companion was silent for a moment, “And you just realized that!?” He angrily stood up and made his way to the fire exit, hidden in the shadows of the corner of the roof.
He jumped down onto the cold metal stairs, and slowly but surely made his way down the steps to the ground. The blonde boy followed him, eagerly waiting for him to get to the landing of one flight of cold metal stairs, then jumping down as far as he could (which usually ended up with him groaning in pain on the last few steps). He did this until they reached the ground.
As the blonde turned to go back into his apartment building, the dark haired boy asked one more question.
“What’s your name?”
The blonde paused, and all was silent for a moment. All that could be heard was the honking of horns and the rush of cars a few streets over. Then he turned with a wide grin on his face, “Naruto Uzumaki.”
“Uchiha Sasuke.” Sasuke turned and started walking down the street, heading for home.
Naruto turned, watching the retreating back of his late night visitor, “I didn’t ask!” He yelled back, snickering and running back into the building before Sasuke could turn back at him with a glare.
Sasuke glared at the slowly closing door for a moment, before shaking his head with a small smirk and continuing on his way.
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TBC…
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Chapter notes: I decided to get rid of the first chapter and just use this. It's a better start.
Lines from the song ‘Jumper’ by Third Eye Blind is at the beginning of this chapter, I don’t own that song or band. I also don’t own Naruto.
Hope you like.