"Chyotto matte!"
Naruto stopped walking to turn around and face his follower with a blank expression. He wasn't really in a socializing mood today and knew that a conversation with Kiba would only serve to annoy him more.
"Naruto-kun, since Kakashi-sensei was the only one to give us homework today, don't you have time to hang out with us?"
Apparently, Kiba was not interested in Naruto's answer. Much to the unhappiness of the blonde, Kiba grabbed his school bag and dragged him back down the street to the warehouse, chatting happily with Naruto the whole time. Naruto sighed as his steadily forming headache doubled and Kiba's voice increased in pitch. When the "conversation" reached the point of yelling, Naruto stopped.
"Oi, Kiba-kun. Your voice is giving me the migraine of the century. Would you mind shutting that hole in your face for like two seconds?"
Kiba blinked at him.
Naruto dislodged Kiba's hand from his bag and stalked towards the group standing at the entrance to the warehouse with a growl. Kiba stood in the middle of the road for a moment, blinking stupidly, before running after Naruto. He launched himself into the air, arms clamped around the taller boy's neck, comfortably riding him piggyback style.
"Oi, Kiba-kun, you're too big for this! I cant' hold you up baka! I'm gonna fall over backwards!"
"I'm not getting off until you take back what you said about my voice being annoying! It is not annoying! You're just crabby 'cause you're an obnoxious dork!"
Oh yeah. Like I'm gonna apologize now.
Naruto growled in annoyance, but refused to apologize, as it would diminish his image. He simply strode over to the waiting group with Kiba still clinging to him. None of the others were fazed by this much, though Choji snickered quietly. He quickly muffled his laughter when Naruto glared at him. Shikamaru shook his head at Kiba's rudeness, though he knew Kiba was in no danger. Everyone was jealous of Kiba. If anyone but Kiba had dared to jump Naruto like that, they would have faced some serious shit later. Since Naruto and Kiba had grown up living together though, everyone knew he would have to do something awful for Naruto to even slap him. In fact, none of them had ever dared to hit Kiba for fear of evoking their leader's wrath.
"Right,"Naruto said, calmly approaching his pack.
"Gaara, since you were in trouble with the head earlier, you have the privilege of doing everyone's homework tonight, got it?"
Gaara nodded quickly. Being obedient now could lessen the punishment he would undoubtedly receive later. The head had yelled at him for fighting, and Naruto did not allow any of them to fight at school. Gaara had trouble obeying this particular rule more than any other rule, but he tried hard to restrain himself. This control was startlingly limited however, and had become a recurring problem for the red head. People often underestimated him because he was strangely small for a seventeen year old boy. Some of the seniors would try to beat him up, and he had to show them he wasn't a wimp, didn't he?
Naruto sighed, noticing the glazed look in Gaara's eyes, a sure sign that the red head was deep in thought.
"Neji-kun? Would you mind bringing Gaara in after us? He's spaced out again, the twit. Can't even hear us, I bet."
Nodding curtly, Neji kicked Gaara's legs out from under him, catching his back before his skull could crack on the floor. Gaara didn't even move. Naruto, with Kiba still attached to him like some oversized backpack, stepped past the plastic wrap covering the entrance and into the damp warehouse. Neji followed, holding a frozen Gaara, and everyone else followed dutifully down the hallway.
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Dropping his bag onto the floor, Naruto flopped down face first onto the couch. Kiba, still stubbornly refusing to let go, proceeded to sit on his butt. A groan escaped Naruto's mouth as his stomach (Sennyo-chan: and other places!!) were pressed roughly into the couch.
"Kiba-kun, get off me."
"No way Naruto-kun, not until you apologize!"
"I'm not going to apologize! Now GET OFF!"
Kiba opened his mouth to retort, but Sasuke plucked him off Naruto's ass and sat him down on the floor across the room. He leaned close to Kiba and spoke very softly so no one else could hear.
"Kiba-kun. Today is most definitely not the day to piss Naruto-san off. He's in a bad mood since he had to bail Gaara-kun out of the head's office earlier. Gaara's gonna get hell for that later, so lets not add you to his list, eh?"
Kiba nodded sulkily and slumped back against the wall. Satisfied that his message had gotten through, Sasuke loped over to Choji and snatched a bag of potato chips right out of his hands. Choji threw himself at Sasuke and a wrestling match commenced on the floor of the large room. Kiba watched this dully for a few moments before tilting his head back to stare at the graffiti on the ceiling.
"And here I thought I would get a chance to torment Naruto-kun today," he murmured. "No such luck, huh."
Without warning, Naruto sat up and glared at them with a look that said 'pay attention'. Everyone stopped what they were doing immediately. Kiba's gaze was sharp and attentive, the two boys rolling around on the floor quickly righted themselves, Shino glanced up from the book he was reading(Sennyo-chan:though you can't really tell if he's paying attention or not 'cause of those glasses.), and there was a small hiss as Shikamaru stomped his smoke into the rug. Gaara was even shocked out of his daze and he jerked into a rough sitting position on Neji's lap. The air thickened considerably as they awaited their leader's announcement.
"Minna….we have a new job."