Disclaimer: Kishi owns it all, not me.

Gives Me Hope

By Raine Ishida

Naruto Uzumaki was happy. He'd gotten a 63 on his test, which meant he'd passed. And he'd studied this time, so that meant things were looking up.

Maybe Sasuke or Sakura would hang out with him after school today. The sixteen year old hadn't had a good game of soccer in awhile, and he was almost certain one of them would play it with him. Or even basketball, despite his lack in height. Sasuke was much taller, while Sakura didn't much like basketball, but she was relatively good - for a girl.

It was nearing the end of lunch break, and all three of them had a spare, which they'd agreed to take in the library that day. Sakura had anticipated Naruto to fail his test, so she was planning on tutoring him, while Sasuke's excuse was his mountains of Chemistry AP homework he was doing ahead of time. Sasuke did all of his homework ahead of time. It drove Naruto, who didn't do his homework ever, crazy.

Naruto figured his smartest stop before class was the bathroom, as he didn't want to whine to the librarian about having to go later, and having to use the annoying hall pass, which was a huge piece of wood that said "HALL PASS" on it. It was just embarrassing to carry and he was embarrassing enough without needing a piece of wood to proclaim his desperate need to urinate.

His need to use the bathroom constantly was irritating, but he chalked it up to the cheap ramen and amounts of which he ate, so he decided to use the bathroom down the Home Ec. wing, as no one really used that one.

Sneaking in as quietly as possible, thankful that the door didn't squeak, he snuck into a stall and dropped his pants, preparing for what was probably going to be an unpleasant experience.

Until he heard the voices. "-Shit! Someone's in here!"

"Shut up, you idiot!"

Naruto frowned and drew his legs up onto the toilet seat, listening intently.

"Are you sure?" Both male voices, one lower than the other, and familiar. Naruto tried to place a face to the voice, but was unsuccessful. The noise of clothes ruffling and a stall door opening sounded, and footsteps.

"No one's in here," said one voice. Naruto wasn't breathing anymore, his heart thundering in his throat.

"I could…have sworn someone came in."

"Well, I could swear you're an idiot. You're just freaked out that we're going to get caught."

The voices were getting further away, and Naruto dared to crane his neck to look through the crack between the door and the wall to see who was speaking.

He withheld his gasp as he saw the speakers. Shikamaru and Neji, the two school brains.

Shikamaru pushed Neji's shoulder roughly and scoffed. "If you want to chicken out, that's fine. I won't say anything."

"Hmph," Neji replied with a scowl. "And lose to you? Never."

"No one's won yet," Shikamaru replied, his voice changing. Naruto gulped as quietly as he could, blinking, not sure if he was seeing things correctly.

Was…Shikamaru…wait. What? Shikamaru and Neji were kissing!

But it was short lived. Neji pulled away sharply and growled under his breath. "I still hate you. This doesn't change anything."

"It never will, and it's such a good cover, your hatred."

They left the bathroom one after the other, not subtly at all. Naruto dropped his legs back to the ground and breathed heavily, sucking in gulps of stale bathroom air. "What…did I just see?!"

…

Sasuke was reading intently, and Sakura was asking him a question about physics, which he answered promptly, and returned to his textbook. Beside him, his notes were neatly written in blank ballpoint pen, his fingers brushing over each line as he read it, his lips moving silently with each word.

They were doing just fine with their studies when Naruto burst into the library loudly, as he did everything, but bounded to their table as noisily as was possible when Naruto was trying to be quiet.

"You GUYS!" he said loudly, not quite a shout. Both Sasuke and Sakura glared up at him and shushed him.

"What is it, Naruto? You're late!" Sakura hissed.

Naruto put his palms on the table, and made sure he had their attention. Sasuke was looking at him with dark eyes, unimpressed.

"You'll never guess what I just witnessed," Naruto said slowly, surely. Sasuke didn't take the bait. He rolled his eyes and returned to his text book.

Sakura, on the other hand, was a lover of gossip, and raised a delicate eyebrow in question. She ushered him to sit in the seat next to her. "What happened?" she asked softly.

Naruto put his backpack on the ground and leaned closer to her. "I saw…and believe me, you have to, Shikamaru and Neji in the home ec bathrooms."

"So?" Sasuke asked, giving up his cover. "They're both guys in the guy's bathroom. That's normal, Narutard."

"No, but they were kissing!!!" the blond hissed. That got their attention.

"What?!" Sakura whispered, her green eyes wide. Naruto was flushed.

"Yeah, I saw it!"

"How on earth did you see it, idiot. They wouldn't have if you'd been there and they'd known it," Sasuke said with a frown.

"They didn't hear me come in, and I was hiding in a stall," Naruto explained. "I drew my feet up on the toilet. Shikamaru looked for me, but…he didn't see anyone. Neji was freaking out a bit."

"But why would…" Sakura was silent for a moment. "Of all the people in this school."

"Two guys, no less," Sasuke muttered, returning to his book, but not actually reading it.

"I know!" Naruto exclaimed. "The two geniuses hooking up? Do you think it goes deeper than that?"

"I doubt it, they hate each other."

"So?" Sakura asked, her cheeks burning slightly. Sasuke could only imagine what was going through her mind.

"So what do we do?" Naruto asked.

"Don't spread it around, idiot. No one will believe you."

"Even though it's true?!" Naruto asked excitedly. "That sucks so much."

Sakura looked at her hands, which were in her lap. "But why out them? What if they actually like each other and want to keep up their front to…keep things normal?"

Sasuke and Naruto exchanged a look. This look said nothing other than 'Uh oh, fan girl moment.'

"Sakura, don't even start, okay? I…"

Shikamaru wandered into the library then, alone. He spotted them and wandered over. "Hey guys, what's up?"

"Nothing," Sasuke replied, obviously the one with the coolest head to talk to the man of the hour. "Are you ready for the test next period?"

Shikamaru sighed exasperatedly and shrugged, taking a seat next to Sasuke. "I didn't even study. I'll probably bomb it, and even then I probably wouldn't care."

"Hyuuga'll beat you if you do that," Sasuke replied with a shrug, glancing at his book. "I mean, between the two of you, the best I'll ever get is third place."

Shikamaru smirked. "I could always not try, you know."

Naruto and Sakura were watching intently.

"You don't try," Sasuke replied with a laugh, before asking him a question he was working on out of the textbook.

Shikamaru muttered a few replies before sighing. "So Naruto."

The blond jumped, startled. "Yeah?"

"I know you saw me."

"What?" Naruto's neck was flushing red and the color was slowly creeping up to his ears.

"In the bathroom. And that means these two clowns probably know too. I'm basically here to ask you…not to spread it around."

"Do you like him?" Sasuke asked gently.

Sakura had been about to ask the same question, but they all knew Shikamaru would only answer it from Sasuke.

"I don't know. This is all complicated…which is why I want to keep it quiet, okay? It's…difficult."

Naruto shrugged. "Sorry. I shouldn't have even…"

"What, you can't help your bladder," Shikamaru replied with a smile. "Besides. If we didn't want to get caught, we wouldn't do this at school. So…it was bound to happen sooner or later." Shikamaru sighed. "I'm just glad it was you and not someone else."

Naruto smiled, unsure of how Shikamaru meant that, but…he took it as a compliment.

As the day went by, Naruto witnessed several death glares in the hallway from Neji to Shikamaru, but after their conversation in the library, he was starting to realize how it was all an act. And it gave him hope.

…

The End. In honor of Naruto, whose birthday was yesterday.

Hooray for crack!fic. Thanks to Kate and Breena for their random ideas that ended up with Shikamaru and Neji in a bathroom stall together. LOL.