HEY! It's been a while huh? Look, to all those who waited for me and all, I thank u. I've been in one hell of a pickle lately and rarely have time for anything. To be honest, I'm eating food for the first time in a week. A WEEK!!! man, I was starved! Essays and work and love and school and family and... it goes on, trust me. But you probably don't care. Here's the next chap. Tell me how it is, thanx!

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Chapter 3: Love is for BAKA!

"Oh! Shikamaru! Hey! Hey! HEY!!" I shouted. That lazy bum was trying to run away from me! How dare he! Dude! What I do wrong this time?! "Shikamaru! Hey!"

"What is it Naruto?" he stopped, turned and asked. I stopped running and caught my breath.

"I was hoping if you wanted to chill today." I asked.

"Sorry, I got other things to do." he said.

"Let me guess, Temari right? I'm not too surprised. She's got you whipped dude." I said, casually.

"Then I suppose we're in the same boat. We're both whipped by a blonde huh?" he said. That... caused me to think. Am I whipped? Okay, I like her, sure, but come on, we're friends right? Or were we more than that?

"Yeah, I guess... hey! Chouji! Over here! Hey!" I said as he walked over to us. Ayame was next to him. She kissed him on his cheek and ran to work. He walked over to us and blushed a bit, rubbing the back of his head.

"Heh heh... sup?" he asked us.

"Well, someone's happy. The third time I've seen you in the past month. What's up with you dude? Ayame got you on a string now or what?" I asked as his blush deepened.

"Hey, I may not be around all the time but I know what's going on between you and Ino now." he said, causing me to blush. Okay so I really like her. Big deal! It's not like I did her or anything, geez.

"Um... just friends! Really!" I stated, starting to laugh slightly.

"Whatever man." Chouji said. We started walking to the Ichiraku Ramen house. Shikamaru said he had something to do. Temari no doubt. Chouji said he wanted to tell his dad he got back from his mission so I went to get me some ramen. I ran into two people I hadn't expected to be together.

"Neji? Kiba? Hey.. How's it going?" I asked, sitting down, ordering my usual.

"Hm..." Neji said. Not too surprised really. Sure, he's warmed up a bit to us but still, he is Neji after all. Anywho, he only warmed up to Tenten anyway. Wonder why.

"Hey, Naruto. Sup with you?" Kiba asked. Okay, after our first encounter, I apologized, not because Ino told me to of course, but anyway... Kiba started dating Hinata a little before I left with Jiraiya 5 years ago. Never thought they would hook up. I honestly thought she'd be stupid enough to wait 5 years for me. Guess she really isn't that stupid though. Not that I'd ever tell her that though. Oh! Yay! Food's here!

"Nothing much." I said, starting to chow down.

"Oh? Rumors say otherwise." Neji added, looking up from the ramen bowl he had.

"Rumors? Bah! Like I care." I said and finished another bowl. "By the way... why are you two hanging out?" I asked.

"Oh. Well, since Hinata and I started dating-."

"I've been keeping tabs on them, making sure he doesn't soil her with his wild behavior. She is, after all the Hyuuga heiress. The HYUUGA heiress. Hyuugas don't dirty themselves or other Hyuugas." Neji said.

"Don't you have a mission or something? Geez." Kiba said, rolling his eyes. "Oh yeah, does Naruto know about that yet?" Kiba asked Neji. Neji turned away.

"That isn't funny." he said.

"Let me guess, you're thinking, 'Ninjas don't trip. I didn't trip. I removed her shirt on purpose.' Am I right?" Kiba asked.

"Whoa. What was that? Neji? What's going on?" I asked. Neji, the Hyuuga Neji, removing a girl's shirt? Now this I gotta hear. He sighed, looked around, sighed again, and told me to come closer. "Well?"

"Shh. Okay, it was a mistake. I was training with Tenten some time ago and she attacked from above. I countered it with Kaiten and spun around her. Only, midway through the spin, I... uh... my foot collided with a rock in the ground and I lost my footing. I tried to regain it, only causing me to lose more of it. That's how I ended up falling, going in a spiral. I reached for something to stop the fall. I grabbed something but it wasn't sturdy enough to stop me so I landed on the ground with the thing in my hands." he said.

"The thing in your hands was..."

"Her shirt and bra." he said, blushing and looking at his hands.

"Wait! And her bra!?!" I shouted. He shushed me as people started staring at him.

"Y-Yeah." he said, troubled by the thought.

"Well, what did she do?" I asked.

"I don't want to talk about it." he said.

"Okay, when did this happen?" I asked.

"About a week ago." he said. I simply smiled. "What's so funny? Didn't something similar to this happen to you back 5 years ago with Sakura?" he asked.

"Well, yeah but I didn't do it. It was that thing on my back. That bear/sloth looking thing! Besides, it didn't remove her shirt. Or her bra!" I shouted. The people stared at us and began to whisper. Neji looked around and sighed.

"Okay, let's not talk about it anymore." he said, turning back to Kiba. He was sniffing around as if he picked up a scent.

"Huh? Kiba? Sup?" I asked.

"I smell something. Vanilla and peaches. I know that scent anywhere." he said and ran out the shop. Neji and I followed. "Hinata-chan!" he shouted and started waving. She saw him and ran to him.

"Kiba-kun. W-what are you d-doing here?" she asked as he hugged her. She looked around, saw Neji and sighed. Kiba kissed her cheek. "Huh? Kiba-kun! Neji-nii-san's right there." she whispered.

"We were talking and he said that the family has approved of me. We're allowed to kiss in public now." he shouted. He moved close to her ear and whispered. Luckily, my ears were sharp enough to hear him. "Among other things." she blushed as she nodded and giggled. Didn't see that one coming... okay, yeah, I did...

"Naruto? How come you're here?" Tenten asked. Sakura walked up to her and pointed to a sign. "Ichiraku Ramen House... oh." she said and smiled. She looked down from the sign and saw... "Huh? Ah! You!" the person froze as he tried to sneak away.

"Uh... look Tenten, it was an accident." Neji tried to say but Tenten was already readying her weapons.

"You...you... you pervert!" she shouted and flung kunai, shuriken, fuuma shuriken, swords, knives, staffs and various other weapons at him, all the while chasing after him.

"What's up with them?" Sakura asked.

"You don't wanna know. Trust me." I said and I felt someone punch me in the back. I turned around and smiled. "Oi, Ino-chan."

"Geez, what the hell is wrong with you? Flirting with an already taken forehead? How unruly." she sighed. Sakura flared up.

"I swear Ino-pig! You keep making fun of my forehead, I'll give you such a thrashing..." Sakura shouted as Ino smiled and turned towards me.

"Hey, Naruto?" she said in that sweet voice of hers. That told me something. She was serious.

"Hm?" I responded.

"About what happened earlier..." she turned back and saw Sakura staring at her. "Come with me." she said, grabbed my hand and ran. I followed, seeing that I had no say in the matter. "Okay now then, as I was saying..."

"Wait. I have something to say." I said. I realize it now. The reason I bothered to stay in this village for so long. "Ino-chan. I don't exactly know how you feel about me, but I know how I feel. I love you." I said.

"What? You do? Really?" she asked. I nodded. "Good." she said and ran away. Wait. What I do? I didn't hurt her... did I?

"Hey! Wait up! What's wrong? Did I do something wrong? Please tell me something! Ino-chan! I didn't want to hurt you!" I shouted as I chased after her. She ran and ran, jumped on rooftops and through trees and bushes. What the hell was going on? As I pondered this, she stopped in front of me and kissed my cheek.

"I'll talk to you later, okay?" she said, smiled and walked away. Geez. That made no sense at all. Love is defiantly stupid, best left to the race of the baka. Oh, right... that's me. Love truly is for me then huh?

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Well? How is she? I hope I did okay. How was the Tenten Neji scene? Please tell me how I do and I might be able to update a little faster... might... til next time.