When Sasuke Met Naruto (SasuNaru)

- Chapter 19 -

Sasuke Uchiha sat at his desk in Kakashi's class that Friday, feeling unusually anxious. It was the last class of the day, and Kakashi had announced that he would be handing back their essays at the end of the hour. This normally wouldn't have bothered the Uchiha – he never particularly cared about his grades, after all. He always did well, even when he wasn't trying, so why fret over something like getting high marks? If he got an 'A,' then great – if not, he could always do better the next time. There wasn't any academic obstacle he couldn't overcome if he put his mind to it.

Of course, this essay wasn't just another grade, though. It was a paper about Naruto – the boy he loved, for reasons he still didn't quite understand. For the first time in a while, Sasuke needed to get a good grade on this assignment – he didn't think a 'C' would cut it when dealing with something so personal. It was all or nothing, and the anticipation of getting that paper back was enough to keep him completely distracted all hour.

Sasuke rapped his fingers on the desk, staring up at the clock as the minutes ticked by. Kakashi was talking about Emily Dickinson while reading, "Hope is the Thing with Feathers" line by line. Had Sasuke been paying more attention, he might've considered the way the poem contrasted so sharply with Dickinson's usual topics of death, and possibly thought about the clash between him and Naruto – but, of course, all the Uchiha saw was that clock ticking, ticking, ticking.

"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune-without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me."

Hearing these lines, Sasuke unconsciously turned his gaze to Naruto, who seemed to be in a similar daze, staring at his page as he drew figure 8s over and over again. Was he also worried about his paper? Did the blond spend as much time on his assignment as Sasuke did? Was Sasuke as important to Naruto as Naruto was to him?

"Sasuke? What are your thoughts on this poem?"

The Uchiha snapped his head forward to find Kakashi looming over him, his usual enigmatic smile visible through his mask. "W-what?" Sasuke said dumbly.

"The poem we were just reading, Sasuke. Why don't you share your thoughts on it with the rest of us?" Kakashi said, pointing to the page in his hand.

Damn you, Kakashi. You know exactly what's going through my mind, and yet you're expecting me to pull some brilliant analysis out of my ass here...

"Well, uh," Sasuke started, trying to skim the poem as he developed his thesis on the fly. "I'd say Dickinson is comparing hope to a bird, because it's a sign of life. Birds sing in the spring, when everything is coming back to life, and it sings without words because its song is universal. Hope affects everyone equally."

"Interesting, interesting," the silver-haired teacher replied, nodding his head sagely.

"And later on, when Dickinson describes the bird in the storm, it demonstrates how hope is most powerful in times of strife. When things go wrong, hope is always there to help you back on your feet. It takes something severe to "abash," the bird, because hope is strongest in those hard times."

"What do you think that sore storm is, then? That can abash hope?"

Why won't he leave me alone?

"Well, it would have to be something particularly traumatic, I suppose. Something that can shake you to the very core, so that you lose your faith in the world. But, like Dickinson says, you can never really destroy hope. It can only be shaken, not destroyed. It's always there, even in the harshest times, ready to help you, but never asking for anything in return."