Many thanks for the beta reading of Amatyultare!

Naruto and all characters from it are copyright Masashi Kishimoto.

Wednesday, September 6

Rock Lee and Hyuuga Neji sat behind the Martial Arts Club table at Activities Night, communicating with each other through the type of pleasantries that came naturally to two young, competitive male friends. That is, Lee talked exuberantly about "his freshmen," and Neji answered in short, sarcastic phrases. This didn't bother Lee in the slightest. Neji could act like a cold-hearted, arrogant bastard all day, but Lee knew Neji had come to think of him as a friend, albeit probably somewhat grudgingly. Lee had never expressly acknowledged the change, though; it was like breaking in a horse, getting through to that boy.

"Oh, there's Naruto! Naruto, Sasuke, over here!" Lee exclaimed suddenly, standing up and waving both hands frantically in the air. The two boys looked up in surprise at being screamed at from halfway across a crowded room, but, followed by Sakura, headed toward their RA and his friend.

"That the one you were talking about?"

"Yeah, the blonde. He's emotional, but he's got a good heart. You'll probably hate him at first, until he kicks your ass once or twice." Neji snorted at Lee's description, but eyed Naruto as he approached the table. The kid was built for power, but Neji doubted he had the finesse of someone like himself or Lee. Yeah, right, this guy could take him.

"Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, too! This is Neji, the other co-president. Here's the sign up sheet. The meetings are on Tuesday and Thursday nights at seven. We start next week. You don't need your own gi, but appropriate attire is—" Lee was prattling on through his usual introduction speech while Neji continued to analyze Lee's new recruits. The dark-haired boy, who was listening to Lee with an expression that combined polite interest and boredom, seemed to have more potential than Lee's blonde prodigy. The girl, well . . . she had accepted a pen from Lee and was delicately signing her name to the list. She didn't look like a martial artist at all, except perhaps for the fact that she was in shape. Her eyes watched Lee passively, as though she were memorizing his words; it could just be that she used some defensive art, like aikidou. It didn't matter. He wasn't impressed.

Neji glanced at his watch and looked down the row of tables to see Tenten nudging her way through the crowd carrying a large box, right on time. Temari followed behind her with a staff in one hand and a boken in the other, looking very much like she wanted to whack people on the head with them.

"Hey guys! This stupid box almost didn't fit through the back door of my car!" Tenten grumbled good-naturedly as she started to remove smaller weapons from the box. Temari laid the staff and the boken on the table and shot a glare behind her to the crowd of people.

"Morons! Once we got that damn box back out of the car to carry up here, the stupid little coeds all jumped right in front of us. Tenten said—"

"That you couldn't hit them. Yet. Wait 'til you're a senior," Tenten finished for her, and both girls laughed. Lee was grinning broadly, looking between his freshmen and the girls.

"Guys, this is Tenten and Temari. They're in Neji's and my class. Tenten is the secretary of the club and Temari is the treasurer."

"Obviously. Wouldn't YOU send Temari to ask Student Activities for money?" Neji asked the freshmen sarcastically, smirking until Temari smacked the back of his head.

"Hey, hey, now! Calm down!" Tenten laughed, stepping between Neji and Temari. She gave Temari a look that said she was teasing, but also laid a possessive hand on Neji's shoulder. Lee's eyes were drawn there for a moment and his smile faltered before he forced it wider and gestured to the freshmen.

"These are three of the new recruits I told you guys about. This is Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. Naruto and Sasuke are roommates," he added helpfully. Temari nodded once to them, but addressed Lee.

"Has my brother stopped by yet?"

"No, but I was looking out for him. Her brother Kankuro is your year," Lee told Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, who stared blankly at him. Were they really supposed to know everyone in their class already?

"He's not hard to—oh, there he is! And hell, he brought friends?" Temari was looking back down the row of tables to see her brother walking next to a tall boy with wild brown hair, deep in discussion. They were followed by a pack of assorted students, and seemed to be headed toward the Martial Arts Club table.

"Oh, he knows Kiba! Hey, Kiba, over here!" Naruto yelled, waving. Kiba nodded to him with a grin, but kept talking to Kankuro as they walked up to the table. Lee leaned over to the other three officers while the freshmen's attention was elsewhere.

"Those are the rest of my freshmen with Kankuro," he explained. "Kiba, his roommate Shino, Ino, who's Sakura's roommate, Chouji and Shikamaru, who're roommates too, and Hin—" Lee stopped abruptly, his eyes falling to meet Neji's cold ones.

"I knew she was one of your residents. You told me, remember?"

"Yeah. But . . . I just never realized she'd be . . ." Lee stammered, worried that Neji would be hurt by Lee's failure to predict this. Neji gave a half smile, and his eyes trained on Hyuuga Hinata.

"It's not your fault. Of course she'd be here. Her father founded the martial arts club at this school, after all. She's trained just as long as I have. The only difference is, I'm better than she'll ever be." Now Neji's smile was wide and cruel. Lee, stunned, stared at his friend for a moment longer, then greeted the oncoming horde of freshmen.

"What's wrong?" Temari whispered to Tenten.

"That girl there is his cousin. The sides of the family don't get along well, but that's all I know."

"He looks like he's going to beat the hell out of her first chance he gets. That's not like Neji—what's he trying to prove?" Tenten just looked at her friend helplessly, and Temari hugged her.

"Whatever it is, you'll help him. Hey, you ever seen a kukri before?" Temari asked a startled Shikamaru with uncharacteristic pleasantness, Tenten's cue to rejoin the conversation as well. She did so with a sigh, but kept glancing down at the silent Neji for the duration of the boisterous group's comparison of their various favorite martial arts. Hinata didn't so much as look at Neji, but his eyes were on her for most of the night, until the freshmen pleaded homework and headed home.

LINE BREAK+

"I can't wait until Tuesday! What about you? I haven't trained since I got here, and everyone seems so nice, don't you think?" Sasuke, typing methodically into his laptop, grunted in response to Naruto's chattering, and the blonde boy glared at the back of his roommate's head.

"Come on, you've been working on that paper ever since we got back! You can at least take a break and talk to me!"

"No, I can't, not if I want to go to that meeting you're so excited about," Sasuke snapped, turning in his chair around to face Naruto. "I have article summaries due every other Monday—you know, come to think of it, so do YOU." Sasuke met Naruto's glare with one of his own and turned back to his computer. "Shouldn't you be writing your paper?"

"I can't," Naruto said proudly, glad to have a good excuse for not working. Sasuke rolled his eyes at his screen.

"And why not?"

"I didn't read the article yet. I can't write it if I haven't read it, now can I?" Naruto smirked and crossed his arms over his chest.

"You're going to finish dead last in this class, you know that?"

"I am not! I'll write the paper Sunday night before bed, and it'll be just fine—better than yours, too!"

"Oh, please. You'll be lucky to pass."

"I'll show you!" Naruto stood up from his own desk chair and took an angry step toward Sasuke, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. Sasuke looked up at Naruto for a moment, both boys' faces went blank, and they yelled, "Come in!" at the same time. Naruto relaxed his stance and Sasuke turned back to his computer as Sakura stepped inside.

"Hey guys. Ino's working on that paper for your class, so I figured I'd get out of the room and leave her to it. I thought Sasuke was probably already done with it, and Naruto wouldn't start until Sunday, so you guys seemed safe." She smiled at the back of Sasuke's head as she spoke.

"You're right! You know me really well!" Naruto grinned, slinging an arm around Sakura's shoulders. "Can we get married now?"

"Ew, no!" Sakura grabbed his arm with both of her hands and used her hip to throw him over her shoulder onto Sasuke's bunk. Naruto rubbed his head and smiled at Sakura sheepishly, but she had already turned back to Sasuke. Naruto's face darkened, and he stayed on the bed, watching the pink-haired girl read over Sasuke's shoulder.

"Can you please stop that?" Sasuke finally asked, frustrated. Sakura blushed and stepped backward.

"I'm sorry—it's just so good, and . . ." Sasuke was ignoring her, already typing again, so Sakura cut herself off.

"Why don't you just go to the lounge or something, and take that slacker with you?" Sakura pouted, even thought Sasuke's back was to her.

"I don't want to sit around talking to him all night—he tells stupid stories and makes bad jokes!" she complained. Naruto's face fell even further, although he exerted energy to cover it up with a goofy grin.

"Come on, Sakura. Let's go out and bond, and the dork over there can hang out with us when he's done with his precious paper." Naruto bounced off Sasuke's bed and reached for Sakura's hand. She pulled away, but followed him to the door because Sasuke had suggested the whole thing.

"Don't take took long on that," Sakura called over her shoulder to Sasuke before she shut the door, but Sasuke didn't seem to hear her.

Sakura and Naruto found themselves alone on one of the couches in the third floor lounge, curled up in opposite corners facing each other. Sakura was twirling a few strands of hair around her fingers, reading the announcements taped to the walls. Naruto watched her, his head cocked to the side. Finally, she looked over at him and met his eyes.

"Why are you staring at me? You're usually talking up a storm every moment of the day." Sakura was slightly uncomfortable with the way Naruto was watching her, having rarely experienced a serious Naruto. There was a moment of silence before Naruto answered with a question of his own.

"Am I really that annoying?" Sakura's drooling all over Sasuke had bothered Naruto at first simply as a matter of competition, but Naruto was slowly falling for her—and as he fell farther and farther, her jibes hurt more and more. However, he wasn't about to sit passively and take it all.

"Um, probably not as much as it would seem. I guess it's just easy to tease you about it. You do talk a lot, you know." Sakura was speaking slowly, choosing her words with care. It wasn't that she found Naruto overtly annoying, it was more that she was interested in Sasuke, and the blonde always seemed to be in the way.

"I know. I always have; it's just something I've picked up over the years. But if it's bothering you—"

"No, it actually doesn't bother me all that much, except when you interrupt me and . . . you know I like Sasuke, huh?" Sakura sighed as Naruto's lips pursed.

"Yes, I do. I don't know why you'd want a grumpy little angst whore like him, but you've made it pretty clear."

"You just don't give Sasuke enough credit!" Sakura snapped. "He must have a good reason for acting the way he does, and I'll find it out and help him!"

"Sakura, how do you know that? Maybe he has a real problem—it could be unhealthy for you to get involved. Someone like that, all he can do is hurt you."

"No. Whatever else Sasuke is, he wouldn't hurt someone." Naruto took one look at the stubborn look on Sakura's face and reconsidered his argument with her. There was no way he could explain about the kind of person he suspected Sasuke might be. He was a fine enough roommate, and Sakura was right that something bad may have happened in his life, but the fact was that he went through an awful lot of trouble to convince the world that he didn't give a damn. What if it wasn't an act? How could he convince Sakura that maybe Sasuke just didn't care?

"I hope you're right, Sakura. You deserve someone who's going to treat you well," he finally told her, and she snorted.

"Sasuke will treat me just fine. I don't need to prove it to you or to anyone else, either!"

"Well, I'm your friend, so maybe I care if someone's hurting you. Maybe I'd have to kick his ass if he treats you like—"

"Yeah, right. Naruto, you know I'm your friend, but he's really good at fighting, I think. I doubt you could take him. And besides, he won't hurt me," she added, not seeing how angry Naruto was getting at her dismissal of his protection.

"I'm not scared of that scrawny little rich boy!" he snapped, leaning forward on the couch. "Sasuke wouldn't stand a chance if I got my hands on him! There's just no way that someone who didn't have to work for a single damn thing in his entire life could beat me! I'm a fighter—I worked for it, and I'm serious about it! He's nothing, just a rich kid who needed a hobby. I'll bet it means nothing to him, and it's practically my life!" Naruto was yelling, his fist punctuating his sentences by pounding on the back of the couch. Sakura was stunned as she watched him. Although she knew she might have gone too far, might have pushed the wrong button, her first instinct was to defend Sasuke. So, even while she felt awkward, she continued.

"How could you say that! Of course Sasuke's worked just as hard as any of the rest of us have! You don't have a monopoly on hard work or a hard life—give other people some credit sometime, okay? Sasuke's never done anything to you." Oh, yeah, that was definitely the wrong button. It fact, she might have pushed the biggest, reddest button Naruto had. Sakura struggled to keep her face straight and unafraid as he leapt across the couch to lean directly over her.

"I never said I had the hardest life here," he hissed, "But it's a hell of lot worse than what the pretty boy has had to deal with. I started taking martial arts because the people who ran the orphanage said I was too hyper and they were going to medicate me for ADD if I didn't get rid of the energy somewhere. My social worker's brother ran a dojo, so she took me there as a last resort. It's literally kept me in my own head and safe from that drug shit." Naruto's blue eyes were darker than usual, piercing into Sakura's with each word as he loomed above her.

"O-Orphanage?" she managed, disturbed at this more than playfully violent Naruto suddenly confronting her, a strange side of him she had sole responsibility for bringing out.

"Yes." The word was curt, and spat out as Naruto leaned away from her and settled onto the next cushion, his eyes still accusing her of doing something nasty to him. "My parents died when I was a baby. Car accident—a drunk driver, the police think. They never caught him. I was raised in an orphanage on the other side of Konoha. I had nothing other than what the authorities decided I got to have—still don't. I can barely afford to be here right now."

Naruto's words faded out as he contemplated his monetary affairs, glancing down at the couch cushions. Sakura felt like dirt, picking a fight about who had the most troubled life with an orphan. She reached out and laid a hand on his where it rested limply on the back of the couch.

"I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything. You didn't crash a car into my prents. You never picked on me on the playground because my clothes are from the thrift shop. You never turned me down for a school dance because I don't have a car."

"No, but I did just provoke you. I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"You're right. You didn't know, and so I'm not mad at you." Naruto looked up at her again and smiled sadly. "You didn't know. There was no reason you should have. I just get so angry about people like Sasuke, the little rich kids who never felt a single thing that I have. He couldn't understand anything that I feel or know why I do what I do."

"You know, even if people are from different backgrounds, they still may understand you. I got picked on during recess, too." Sakura nodded firmly when Naruto laughed. "No, really! I mean, it wasn't because of my clothes, but they always said I had a big forehead."

"What? You have a great forehead! Okay, so it's a little large, but that's . . ." Naruto stopped when Sakura glared at him and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Come on, I like your forehead. I'm serious!"

"Sure. But like I was saying, that doesn't mean he won't understand you. You should talk to him more."

"I do talk to him a lot. He rarely answers me."

"Um, well, Naruto, sometimes you kind of get rambling, and well, he probably doesn't HAVE anything to add." Something Naruto had said earlier, about reasons for the things he did, clicked in her mind. "Why DO you talk so much, anyway?"

"I . . . er . . . when I was younger and there were a lot of other kids in the orphanage, I was afraid people would forget I existed and forget to feed me and stuff. So I thought if I talked all the time, they couldn't forget about me." He gave a little shrug and the sheepish smile. "They just kept telling me to shut up, but they were paying attention to me, weren't they? They didn't forget about me."

"And you're afraid that we'll all forget about you?" Naruto's mouth opened and closed once before he nodded, his face pained.

"Yeah, a lot of my friends do that. They start off hanging out with me, but then they drift away, and no one has wanted to stay my friend longer than a year or so. I really wanted to make friends in college, since I've never had real ones before, but I'm afraid you'll all forget about me and do stuff without me. Go to the movies or for coffee or something. Then if you forget once, you'll forget again and again until no one even knows I'm there."

This Naruto wasn't the annoying one Sakura had complained to Sasuke about, nor was it the raw, angry Naruto she had summoned earlier—this Naruto was sad, scared, and lonely, and looking very uncomfortable at revealing something so personal. Sakura was touched that he would trust her with his feelings, especially after the way she'd just treated him.

"I won't forget you, I promise. I don't think anyone else would, either." She reached out and hugged him. Surprised, Naruto had to take a minute to remember that he was supposed to hug her back. No one his own age had ever hugged him before. His arms tightened around her in gratitude, and he struggled not to let any tears fall onto her shoulder.

Sasuke peered around the alcove by the doorway when the talking stopped, blinking in shock at the image of Sakura and Naruto embracing on the couch. He had intended to step out and embarrass his roommate when he first walked in on the heated conversation and heard Naruto talking about why he took up martial arts, but with the level of emotion in the room, he decided that it would be going too far. Still, Sasuke filed away the information he had learned as he stepped back to loudly close the lounge door he had left open. As Naruto and Sakura jumped apart at the sound of the door, Sasuke smiled to himself. You never knew what might come in handy.