Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto

A Rather Long Story

Naruto's P.O.V

So I started to run after Gaara, seeing that he was getting closer to them. Sure I would love to see Gaara kicking Sai's ass, but Neji was head of the karate club, and if they were friends, I'm sure he wouldn't just sit back and watch Sai getting beat into oblivion.

'Gaara.' I called reaching for his shoulder and stepping forward to stop him from going any further, during that process I bumped into someone from behind.

'Sor…' I turned around to see Shino and most importantly Sasuke Uchiha. I stared at him. He stood there, staring at me with those piercing eyes, not saying a word… Why haven't I talked to him before?

'Why don't you look where you're going, dead last?'

Yep. That's exactly why I haven't talked to him. He was ruthless. I've seen what he did to girls and believe me…It wasn't pretty. They cried so much that their tears formed rivers. Imagine what he would do to a guy. Well, it was Gaara's turn to hold me back. Dead last? Where'd he get that from? I'm pretty smart!

'Urggh!' I growled, ready to attack the enemy, but Gaara interrupted.

'Let's go Naruto.' He said turning on his heels and walked off. 'Let's not waste our time here.'

I glared at Sasuke once more and then followed suit, walking close behind him.

'Idiots.' He mumbled, but I ignored it and quickly walked pass Gaara. I got back to our table before him and sat down in silence. I was really upset now and the fork that I caught in my hand was now being bent to an unidentified shape.

'Naruto?' I heard Gaara asked, but I wasn't quite finished with the fork. 'Who does he think he is?'

'What are you so worked up about?' Kiba asked

'He didn't call you dead last!' I shouted.

'So what does it matter what they think?'

'He even called us idiots.' I added, totally ignoring the previous question.

'So, we know we're not idiots.' Shikamaru decided to speak. Of course he could say that, He was a genius and everyone knew that.

'But…'

'Naruto, forget him.' Gaara said.

'Yeah. Can we please just eat our lunches and forget that all that even happened.'

'Ok then… but I think I'm going to need another fork.'

'Tsh…'

OoOoOoOoO

Sasuke's P.O.V

Shino stared at me from behind his shaded glasses.

'Hn.' I mumbled and walked off with him following behind. We got to our table and sat down; a silence filing the air. Why do I get the feeling that it wasn't going to last?

'So… What was that all about?' asked Neji, who now removed his stare from the table a little distance behind.

As I thought, the silence never last.

'Nothing.'

'Didn't look like nothing to me.'

'Naruto bumped into Sasuke.' Shino spoke up.

'Reallly? Looks more like you walked into him.' Added Sai.

'Shut up Sai!'

'Actually Sasuke, it did look like you walked into him… purposely.' I glared at Shino. I liked him so much better when he was quiet.

'So you did walk into him.' Neji arched his brow, curiosity filling his face.

'They were coming over here… I just did that to intercept them…you know… scare them off… that's all.'

'That's all?' Sai asked

'Yes.' I mumbled.

'You sure?'

'Yeah. I'm sure.'

'Positive?'

'What the hell is your problem?'

'Anyway.' Neji interrupted our argument. 'Why were they coming over here?'

'I don't know. Why don't you go ask them?'

'I … might have something to do with that.' Sai confessed.

'What did you do now?' Neji and I asked.

'Uh… you see… I might have accidentally gotten him in some trouble.'

'Accidentally?'

'Ok. So maybe it wasn't an accident.'

'You're always looking for trouble Sai.' I added.

'Hey! Speak for yourself Uchiha. You're the one that just walked into blondie over there!'

'That was for a good purpose!'

'And what could that be?' Sai leaned over the table, closing in on me.

'Tsh..'

'You just wanted an excuse to speak to him.'

'And why would I want to do that?'

'Because you…'

'Well.' Neji started after interrupting Sai. 'It was a bit surprising that you actually spoke to them.'

'All I did was told him that he was in the way. What's wrong with that?' I said, getting defensive.

'Actually, you asked him why he wasn't looking where he was going and called him dead last.' We were all staring at Shino. 'And after they walked off, you called them idiots.'

My brow twitched at Shino's info update. When did he start to talk this much? What happened to the quite Shino I once knew?

'Big difference.' I mumbled out and grabbed for my orange juice.

'Yes. Big difference indeed. Neji started. 'If it was anyone else you wouldn't bother to open your mouth. You would have just glared them to death and walked off, leaving them wishing that they were never born, not to mention you walked into him on purpose. Last time I checked, Uchihas don't walk into people.' He ended.

I stared at Neji blankly.

'What exactly are you getting at here?'

'Hn.' He smirked.

'You're usually quick to catch unto things Uchiha. What happened?' Sai asked. I ignored his comment, keeping my eyes on Neji.

'Neji?'

'Well…This is just a wild guess, but… Is there a chance you might…I don't know…like him?'

After Neji's words there was silence. A long, drawn out silence and I took that time to think. Ok, so I wasn't expecting that. I wouldn't say I like him but… Ok I did, but it was a very long story. Very, very long. They will find out eventually, hopefully not anytime soon..But I can't tell them that can I? They'd never let me live it down and judging from the huge smirk that was forming on Sai's face...I knew I was right. So I…

'Hahahaha!' I laughed. I laughed like there was no tomorrow. I laughed as if someone had told me that I was ugly, because that would be hilarious. Neji only raised a brow in amusement. He probably could see right through me.

The entire cafeteria was looking at me now.

'Umm Sasuke?' Shino asked worriedly, and it was then that I realized that everyone had stopped what they were doing to stare at me.

'Umm…well that was funny.' I mumbled, returning to my stoic composure and then everyone went back their own business again.

'And when did you become a joker Neji?'

'Who said anything about joking?' he looked at me all serious like.

'So do you like him or not?' Shino asked.

Yes. I guess I liked him…No I knew I liked him. But I haven't got a proper conversation with him since, like forever now, and with these guys around I knew it's not going to be happening anytime soon. They had a problem with his group, well so did I, but …Ok. Maybe Gaara was a bit intimidating, but Shikamaru was pretty smart, Kiba seemed cool and Naruto… well he was a different case. Remember I said it was a rather long story behind him.

They're not much different than us. Who knows? They might make good friends…Ok maybe, acquaintances.

'So you do like him.' Sai interrupted my trail of thoughts.

'Wha…I didn't say that!'

'You sure took your time to answer though, almost like you were thinking about it.'

'Shut up Sai!

'So do you?'

'I said SHUT UP!'

'Okie dokie then.'

The end of a next chapter.