A/N: Hey sorry i haven't uploaded in a while i've been busy the last couple days. I promise the next chapter won't take as long
The next morning Naruto walked down stairs in jeans and an orange and black stripped polo shirt. He walked into the kitchen to see his mom cooking breakfast and his dad sitting at the table reading the paper.
Twice in a row. Naruto thought to himself. Either business is slow everyone in Konoha is dead.
Naruto took his usual seat at the table, across from his dad. Kushina placed a plate of toast, scrambled eggs, and sausage in front of him.
Naruto opened his mouth, but before he could say what he wanted to a beeping sounded throughout the kitchen. Both his parents checked their pagers.
"It's mine." Kushina said. She kissed Naruto on the top of his head and made her way out of the kitchen.
"Bye honey." Minato said.
"Later mom." Naruto said.
"See you boys later." She said before closing the front door.
"Guess it's just us this morning." Minato said.
"Yup." Naruto said. He pushed his bangs out of his eyes before digging into his food. Minato let out a chuckle. Naruto looked up from his food, his bangs falling back down covering his eyes. "What?" he asked, a mouth full of eggs.
"Instead of always having to push your hair out of your face why don't you just cut it?"
"No way, I like my hair like this."
"You know that can't be good for your eyes."
"Well maybe if I got a car I might consider cutting my hair."
Minato let out a sigh. "Naruto you know we can't afford to get you a car right now."
"Yeah I find that hard to believe seeing as you and mom are working all the time." Naruto said under his breath.
Minato let out a sigh. "Naruto why do you even need a car, Sakura drives you everywhere."
"That's exactly the point. I feel like I bother her too much. Even though he says she doesn't mind I know she gets annoyed sometimes Plus I already have my drivers permit."
"If you want a car that bad then why don't you get a job?"
"I'll consider it."
"If I were you I'll do more than consider it. Why don't you take a job at that ramen place you love so much?"
"Can't, mom doesn't like me hanging out there. She says the food is bad for me."
"We'll considering how much you eat in a day I don't blame her. So anything new happen in school?"
"Nothing much, just a new kid. We're bio partners."
"What's their name?" Minato asked bringing his coffee mug to his lips.
"Kiba Inuzuka." Naruto said.
Minato raised an eyebrow. He placed his mug back down on the table and asked, "Inuzuka?"
Naruto looked up at his dad. "Yeah, is something wrong?" Naruto asked, confused with the expression on his dad's face.
"No, I could of sworn I heard that name somewhere before."
"What, a patient, the news, a wanted poster?" Naruto asked. He was actually considering the fact that Kiba could be a wanted criminal. Well anything's possible.
"No I'm not really sure where I heard that name from. You should look it up sometime, but now-" He looked at his wrist watch. "-You should hurry up and eat. Sakura will be here in less than five minutes."
Naruto quickly finished off his breakfast and put the plate in the sink. As soon as he had Sakura pulled up to their house and honked her horn.
"Later dad." Naruto said as he quickly made his way out of the kitchen into the living room.
"Bye Naruto." Minato said.
Naruto picked his book bag up by the door before walking out. Sakura was parked in the same exact spot as she always was.
Naruto walked down the driveway to her car, his book bag in hand.
"Morning." Sakura said once Naruto got in.
"Morning." Naruto said. He slammed the door closed and Sakura took off. "We're off to the crap hole they call a school." Naruto said.
"Oh, come on." Sakura said. "Stop complaining, at least you'll get to see Kiba." She said teasingly.
A slight blush appeared across Naruto's face at the mention of Kiba. "Hey, don't talk to me about crushes. What about Lee? How long have you liked him, and yet you still didn't ask him out?" Naruto retaliated with a smirk.
Now it was Sakura's turn to blush. "Fine I'll ask him out." Her face was starting to turn back to its normal color.
"When?"
"When the times right."
"Yeah, I heard that about a hundred times." Naruto rolled his eyes at the statement. Every time the topic of her and Lee came up Sakura would always say that she was going to ask him out and never actually did it.
"Yeah, whatever, and when do you plan on asking Kiba out?"
"Hey I'm not going to ask him out yet, I just met him yesterday."
"Yeah, but that didn't stop you from falling head over heels for him."
"Well I want to get to know him better before asking him out, you know. Get some important details like if he's gay or not, or if he has a criminal record."
"Well you better hurry up and find out before Ino gets a chance at him." Sakura pulled into the school's parking lot. She parked between navy blue Honda Pilot and a bright yellow hybrid that was probably driven by one of the school's ecomaniacs.
Sakura turned the car off. They both got out of the car and slammed the doors shut.
Sakura swung both straps of her book bag over her shoulders, while Naruto only did one. They started walking across the parking lot to the front of the school building.
"Nah, I doubt I have any competition if I'm competing against Ino." Naruto said. They were in front of the school and made their way inside the building. "I mean, who can compete with all this?" Naruto gestured to himself.
Sakura playfully rolled her eyes "Okay mister hot-stuff, don't get full of yourself." She warned.
"Please, since when have I ever done that?"
"Uh, about three seconds ago."
Naruto chuckled at the truthful statement. They walked across from each other to their lockers. They twisted the knob on the lock, putting their locker combinations in, and swung their locker doors open. They got the necessary things for first period out of their lockers and placed them in their bags.
They slammed the lockers closed, picked their bags off the floor and made their way to the stairs. By the time they made it to the first step the morning bell rang.
"Hey, you wanna go to the mall after school?" Sakura asked.
"Sure." Naruto responded. "Any particular reason?"
"Yeah, to cheer you up."
"Cheer me up?"
"Yeah you've seemed down lately."
"No I haven't."
"Uh, yes you have. You're letting Ino get to your head. You have to stop worrying about her." Sakura said. "So maybe a little shopping will cheer you up. Ooh and boy hunting we haven't done that in a while." Sakura said over excited at the idea.
Naruto chuckled at the statement. Boy hunting was when he and Sakura scoped the mall checking out the cute guys. Ever since Naruto came out to Sakura about his sexuality she kept trying to hook him up with other guys.
Out of the whole group, Naruto would have to say that he's closer to Sakura. Yeah, he had his moments with everyone else once in a while, but Sakura always understood him and knew the right thing to say to make him feel better.
"Okay fine, mall boy hunting it is." Naruto said. They reached the second floor and walked down to the center of the hallway.
"Good." Sakura said. "And you can't go and change your mind at the last second either."
"Alright fine, I won't."
Sakura smiled. "Good, and if you try and get out of it I get to punch you right?"
"Right- wait what?"
"Later." Sakura said as she walked into her classroom
Naruto groaned at his wrong response. He walked into his astronomy class, on the opposite of Sakura's first period math class.
He sat down next to Hinata, in the back of the room, who immediately and shyly greeted him. "Hey Hinata." Naruto greeted back.
Iruka walked into the classroom just before the bell rang. "Good morning class." He greeted the students. He stood in front of the chalk board. He grabbed a piece of chalk off the ledge of the chalk board and started writing notes on the board.
Naruto took his supplies out of his bag and started copying what was being written on the board.
"Uh, N-Naruto." Hinata whispered to the blue eyed teen.
Naruto looked up from his notebook and over at Hinata. "Huh, you need something Hinata?" Naruto asked his a hushed tone, as to not get caught talking by Iruka.
"Uh, y-yes, um…" Hinata played with her index fingers nervously. A slight blush started to form at the thought of what she was going to say. "A-at lunch, um, c-can I talk to you about something?"
"Yeah, sure, is everything alright?" Naruto's voice held a hint of concern for her.
"Yes, I-I just need your opinion on something that's all."
"Okay sure, no problem." Naruto said giving Hinata a suspicious look. He let it go and turned back around. He continued to copy what Iruka was writing down.
(4th Period: Biology)
Naruto and Sakura walked into biology together. All throughout his other classes Naruto wondered what it was that Hinata needed to talk to him about.
"Ooh Naruto look, there's Kiba." Sakura whispered, brining Naruto out of his thoughts.
Naruto looked at the back of the classroom and saw that Kiba was indeed there. He was sitting on the outer stool, going through his bookbag. He pulled out his textbook and a notebook and placed it on the metal table.
Kiba looked up to the front of the classroom and noticed Naruto. A wide grin formed on his face.
Naruto saw Kiba's huge grin from across the room. Their eyes locked and immediately Naruto felt a wave of nervousness overtake him. His heart started to beat faster, his stomach had butterflies, his palms became sweaty, and his mouth became dry.
Naruto had never felt this nervous around another guy before. He felt like Kiba had a strong magnetic force that just pulled him towards him. Naruto soon found that he had become lost in the chocolate brown orbs that were Kiba's eyes.
"If I were you I would try and stop blushing before I walk over there." Sakura said from beside him.
Naruto was again brought out of his trance by Sakura's statement. As soon as he was back to the real world, he could feel his face was warmer than usual. He could imagine his face was beat red and he prayed that Kiba, or anyone else in the classroom, for that matter.
Naruto had to pry his eyes away from looking at Kiba and looked over at Sakura. "Wh-what should I do?" He asked her. His voice cracked with nervousness.
"Uh, how about you go over there?" Sakura said. She suggested it like it was the simplest thing in the world.
"Uh, right." Naruto mumbled. He turned his head facing the back of the room again. He slowly started to make his way to the back of the room. Sakura took her seat in the front corner of the classroom. Ichigo wasn't there yet and she sat on the inner stool.
Naruto could feel his legs shaking with each step he took to the back of the classroom. His palms started to sweat again and he whipped them on his jeans.
He reached the lab table. Placed his bag on the floor and took a seat on the inner stool.
"HI, Naruto." Kiba said once Naruto sat down, giving him a wide grin.
Naruto looked at Kiba and immediately felt another wave of nervousness. He felt his mouth become dry, for a second time, and his throat start to clog up. He swallowed hard, his Adams apple bobbed up and down as he did so.
"H-hey Kiba." Naruto said nervously. "How are you liking it here at Konoha High?" Naruto asked trying to strike up conversation.
"Not bad." Kiba said. "I already found a few things I like about thee school."
"Really?" Naruto asked, Kiba's statement grabbing his attention. Kiba nodded confirming that it was true. Naruto was surprised at this. It took him weeks to find at least one thing he liked about this school, well that's him, but still. "What's the thing you like the best about the school?"
"Well I guess I would have to say you being here is the best thing." Kiba said with a grin.
Naruto's body tensed up. Did Kiba just say what he thought he did? "R-really?" Kiba's grin widened and he nodded. Please don't blush, please don't blush, please don't blush! Naruto thought to himself, but it was too late. He could already feel his cheeks start to get warm. Dammit! He inwardly cursed. He was a naturally easy blusher and he hated himself for it too.
Naruto opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by the bell ringing, signaling the begging of fourth period.
Kiba turned around, facing the front of the classroom and Naruto had forgotten what he was going to say. He dropped the incident and turned around to the front of the classroom.
Asuma walked into the classroom a few seconds after the bell rang. Ichigo had managed to make it in the classroom just before the bell rang and was sitting at his assigned seat beside Sakura.
Asuma walked to the front of the classroom and sat on his desk. "Good morning class." Asuma said.
(15 minutes later)
"So Kiba." Naruto said catching his attention. "Did you really mean what you said, you know, about me being best thing about this school?" Naruto asked, referring to Kiba's statement earlier.
"Well of course I meant it." Kiba said. Naruto's expression lit up. "I mean, you're the first friend I made here and your interesting."
The bell rang signaling the end of class. All the students got up and quickly made their way out of the classroom.
Naruto's mood was now something of disappointment. Kiba only thinks of him as a friend and nothing more.
Of course Kiba only likes me as a friend. A guy as hot as him would never be gay. Naruto thought sadly. He got out of his stool and thought, I might as well make the best of it, at least we can still be friends.
Naruto and Kiba both slung their bookbags on their backs. "So what makes me so interesting?" Naruto asked as they walked up the aisle and out of the classroom. They stood outside of the bio classroom.
Kiba shrugged. "I guess it would be your ability to see with your hair in your face." Kiba said with a grin.
Naruto pushed his bangs out of his face. "You sound like my dad." He said, refereeing to their earlier conversation.
Kiba gave a toothy grin. Naruto couldn't help but stare. This was the first time he saw how bright and radiant Kiba's smile was. "Seriously, if your hair is in your face nobody will be able to see how beautiful your eyes are."
Naruto managed to fight down a blush. "Thanks." Naruto said nervously. "If you want me to cut my hair that bad then I'll consider it."
Kiba smirked then said, "I better hurry up and get to class before the bell rings. See you later." Kiba said as he turned and made his way to his next class.
Naruto made his way downstairs to his locker. By the time he got to the bottom of the stairs the bell had rang.
He turned the corner and noticed Sakura leaning against his locker. "What are you still doing here, I thought you would be in the cafeteria by now." Naruto asked.
Sakura moved over and leaned her back against the next locker. Naruto opened his locker and put his stuff away.
"I should be asking you that. What took you so long?" Sakura said her voie sounding annoyed.
Naruto closed his locker and turned to Sakura. "I was talking to Kiba." He said.
At that Sakura completely forgot about her anger towards him. "Oh yeah what happened in class earlier?"
They made their way to the cafeteria. "What are you talking about?"
"What did Kiba say that made you blush, well knowing you he could've just asked to borrow a pen and you still would've blushed, but still."
Naruto's eyes widened. "You saw that?" He asked completely surprised.
"Naruto, I could see you blushing a mile don't change the subject, if you don't tell me I'll find out sooner or later."
They pushed through the double doors of the cafeteria and made their way to the lunch line.
"He said that I'm the best thing about this school." Naruto said in a hushed tone so the others in line couldn't hear him.
"That's a definite sign that he likes you." Sakura said. They picked up their trays and got their lunch. At the front of the line Naruto and Sakura paid for it and made their way to their group's table.
"Well not exactly. He said that I'm the first friend he made here."
"Don't worry; he'll come around to face his sexuality sooner or later. But I do have to agree with him on one thing. You being here is sort of a good thing. I mean you keep things interesting."
"Aww I think I might cry." Naruto said jokingly.
They reached their table and sat in their usual spots, Naruto next to Hinata and Sakura next to Lee.
"Hey guys." Naruto greeted.
The group ate their lunch, making mild chatter about their classes, teachers, and plans for the weekend. Sakura and Shikamaru were teasing Naruto about his crush on Kiba and before they knew it the bell rang.
Everyone got up and dumped their trays. Naruto was about to exit the cafeteria when Hinata walked up to him. "Um, N-Naruto," Hinata said ",r-remember the thing I said I needed to talk to you about?"
"Oh yeah," Naruto said. "What's up?"
"Well I-I need your opinion on something."
"My opinion?" Naruto repeated and Hinata nodded her head. "Okay what's the problem?"
"Well, uh, w-what do you think of Shino?"
Naruto was taken aback form the question. Why was Hinata asking what he thought about Shino? "Well, truthfully I think he's an arrogant, know-it-all, weird, bug nerd. Why the sudden interest in Shino?"
Hinata looked down and Naruto could notice the slight blush on her cheek.
Naruto grinned at the realization of why the question was asked. "You like Shino don't you?" He said.
"Uh, well, m-maybe a little." Hinata said. She was playing with her index fingers.
Naruto placed his hand on Hinata's shoulder. Hinata looked up at him. "I'll see what I can find out." Naruto said with toothy grin.
They walked out of the cafeteria together, but went in different directions to their lockers.
Naruto got his things for his next class, Chemistry, out of his locker and placed them into his bookbag. The hallways were practically deserted save for a few students rushing to get to class before the bell rang. Unlike them Naruto didn't have to worry about beating the bell. The chemistry teacher, Kakashi Hatake, was always late for his own class.
Naruto closed his locker and calmly made his way to the chem. lab. The bell rang before he walked into the classroom. He took his seat next to Shikamaru.
"What took you so long?" Shikamaru asked once Naruto sat down.
"I was talking to Hinata." Naruto said. "Did you know she likes Shino?"
"I figured. She's always blushing around him and when she's talking to him she always stutters more than normal."
"Doesn't she do that all the time?"
"Yeah, but she does it more. Don't you remember when she had a crush on you when you two first met?"
"I still feel bad about it."
"At least she found someone else to like." Shikamaru stated. "The only thing I can't see is the reason why she likes him. They're complete opposites."
"That's what I'm saying, but you know what they say, opposites attract. So do you think Shino likes her?"
"How should I know, he always keeps to himself."
"That's true." Naruto figured this was going to be harder than he thought. Shino rarely talked to anyone and talked to him the least out of everybody.
Two minutes passed and Mr. Hatake finally walked in, reading one of his Icha Icha Paradise books.
Naruto leaned over to Shikamaru. "Does he ever stop reading that porn book?" He whispered.
Shikamaru let out a low chuckle. "I don't think I remember a time when he walked into class without it." Shikamaru stated.
"Alright class, settle down." Mr. Hatake said from the front of the room, getting the student's attention. He placed his book down on his desk and started the lesson.
(End Of School)
Naruto walked through the parking lot to Sakura's pink Lexus. He opened the passenger door, threw his bookbag in, and got into the passenger seat. He closed the door shut and was immediately greeted by Sakura.
"Hey Naruto," Sakura said. ",ready for the mall?"
"Sorry I can't." Naruto said. "You see, I have a ton of homework and a chemistry test tomorrow-" Sakura punched Naruto in the shoulder. "Ah, what the hell was that for?" Naruto complained. He was vigorously rubbing his shoulder trying to ease the pain from Sakura's punch.
"What," Sakura shrugged her shoulders ", it's part of our deal, remember? And don't try and weasel yourself out of it by blaming it on homework. You promised you would go."
"Okay, okay I'll go." Naruto gave in. "You know for a girl you really punch hard." Naruto had stopped rubbing his shoulder even though he still felt a slight pain and put his seatbelt on.
Sakura giggled at the comment. "Well for a boy you sure do complain a lot." Sakura switched the card into drive and pulled out of the school parking lot. She drove down the street into town.
It wasn't long until they reached the mall. It was in Kunai Street which was only a couple of blocks away from the school.
Sakura parked her car in the mall parking lot and turned off the engine. They got out of the car, walked across the parking lot, and entered the mall.
After shopping at several stores, Naruto and Sakura made their way to the food court and got in line for the smoothie stand. Sakura was the only one who had bought something. She had a total of four bags while Naruto had only bought a pretzel.
They made it to the front of the line. "Hi welcome to Smoothie World, what can I get you today?" A guy asked from behind the counter. He looked about the same age as Naruto with brown eyes, tanned skin, and black hair wearing the uniform, jeans and a purple shirt with the company logo on it.
Naruto had ordered a strawberry banana smoothie and Sakura ordered a strawberry banana kiwi smoothie. They got their smoothies in no time. Naruto paid for both his and Sakura's and they moved to a metal table in the center of the food court.
The food court was bustling with people, majority of them being teens.
"That was a fun shopping experience, wasn't it?" Sakura said taking a sip of her smoothie.
"Yeah, considering the fact that you were the only one who bought anything." Naruto said taking a sip of his own smoothie.
"Hey, don't blame me if I know how to have fun."
"I don't consider buying everything in pink having fun." Naruto complained.
"It's a sensible color." Sakura said defensively
"It's the only color you wear." Naruto pointed out. "You even have a pink car, it's like you're obsessed with the color."
"What, you mean like you and orange?" Sakura said with a grin.
"No more like Lee and the color green." It was Naruto's turn to grin.
Sakura pouted at the comment. "Okay, fine, let's call it a truce." Sakura said defeatedly.
"Truce." Naruto agreed.
"Ooh Naruto, look," Sakura said excitedly. ", I think that guy over there is checking you out.
Naruto peeked over his left shoulder to see a man who was probably in his late fifties.
Naruto turned back around and gave Sakura a look "Hahaha very funny." Naruto said a sarcastically. "I'm not that desperate for a boyfriend."
Sakura rolled her eyes. "Look to your right." She said.
Naruto peeked over his right shoulder to see a boy who was turned around in his chair. He was definitely staring at one of them. He was built with orange hair, peach skin, and sapphire red eyes wearing a blue hoodie, jeans, and black sneakers. There were three other guys at his table all built.
Jocks was the first work that Naruto could think of to describe them. He figured they were probably on their school's football team or at least one of them were.
Naruto looked back at Sakura and said, "How do you know he's checking me out?"
"Turn around." Sakura told him with a smirk.
"But there's no way he's gay."
"Just turn around."
Naruto turned around to look at him. He could see a smirk appear on his face before he got up out of his seat and made his way over to them. He walked with a sense of confidence in his step, a wide, confident grin plastered on his face. "Hey." He said once he reached them. He had his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. His sapphire eyes lingered on Naruto, taking in every bit of Naruto's features.
Naruto noticed the way he was looking at him. He could feel his cheeks start to get warm and quickly looked away.
"Hi, I'm Sakura and this is Naruto." Sakura introduced them both.
The boy finally took his eyes off of Naruto and looked at Sakura. "Hi, I'm Juugo." He introduced himself. He gestured behind him at his table. And those are my friends, Makoto, Kentaro, and Jiro."
"Hi boys." Sakura waved excitedly from across the food court. Two of them waved back while the other did a two finger salute. "So Juugo," Sakura turned her attention back to him. ", what brings you over here?"
"Well I just happened to see notice Naruto and was wondering if…" Juugo trailed off and he started scratch the back of his head nervously.
Naruto looked up at the mention of his name. "Wondering what?" Naruto insisted.
"I was wondering if you would like to go out sometime." Juugo finally got out.
"Oh, uh…" Naruto bit his bottom lip in hesitation. "I'm already seeing someone."
Juugo's expression went from one of confidence to one of disappointment. "Oh I didn't know. I guess I'll see you around then." Juugo said and turned and walked back to his friends. He walked with his head held down and his hands stuffed in his pockets.
When Juugo was out of earshot Sakura roughly kicked Naruto under the table.
Naruto practically jumped out of his seat from the force of the kick. "Ah, what the fuck?" Naruto said frustrated at how Sakura always abused him. He was rubbing his leg under the table.
"Why did you turn him down, he was totally cute." Sakura said. "You're no fun at all, you know that right?"
Naruto stopped rubbing his leg. "Okay first off, I didn't even know the guy," Naruto said in his defense. "Anyway you didn't find anything weird about that?"
"What do you mean weird?"
"That he just came up to mean asked me out. How did he know I wasn't straight?"
"I don't know, some people just have an act for picking out people's sexuality."
"Really? I wish I could do that. Besides I already told you I'm not ready for another relationship."
"And yet you're hoping Kiba will ask you out."
"So what if I am?"
"Naruto, you can't wait on Kiba forever."
Naruto let out a heavy sigh. "Fine your right." He admitted. "I'll try see if he's gay and if not I'll move on."
"No need, he's gay trust me."
Naruto gave her a questioning look. "How do you know?"
Sakura shrugged. "I guess you could call it women's intuition or you could say it's the way he looks at you when your back is turned."
"He was staring at me?" Naruto asked excitedly. A small smile appeared on Naruto's face.
Sakura smirked and said, "Okay lover boy, don't get full of yourself. Come on we have more shopping to do."
"Does your dad know your using his credit card?" Naruto asked getting out of his seat.
Sakura shrugged. "Don't worry he'll find out when he gets the bill."
