Disclaimer: Still don't own Naruto xD


Both the boys slid their way through the ventilation system. It was narrow and nearly wide enough to squeeze a teenager through. Blinded by the darkness Shikamaru led the way. Soon the darkness faded away as they crawled closer to an opening. Kazuaki felt his heart rise from excitement; he couldn't help but to smile. Shikamaru stopped; he raised his fist and hit the grid that blocked them from jumping down in the corridor. It hit the ground, Shikamaru jumped and laned on his feet without any problems.

"Why are you hesitating? Just jump already." Shikamaru asked bored.

Why Kazuaki was hesitating he didn't know himself. He placed his feet in the right position and slid through the gap, landing perfectly on the ground. Hopefully they would reach the exit before that too was locked. They ran around some corners and straight forward to find the door locked. All hope was gone. There was no way to open it, Shikamaru sighed and closed his eyes. Kazuaki manned up his arm and closed his eyes while he launched a punch in the wall, but instead of the wall he hit a fire alarm. He broke it and the alarm started howling like crazy. Surprisingly, the door clicked open. Shikamaru slowly opened it and held it up for Kazuaki. Fresh air hit their faces. A bit away they could see ninjas jumping on rooftops in towards the school. They had to make a run for it, so they wouldn't get caught.

"Smart move, Kazu..." Shikamaru said between his breaths.

Kazuaki felt he got redder in his face than he already was, and avoided any eye contact. He took some deep breaths to get control over his fuzzy mind. There was an available bench a little further a head, where they sat down. Apparently they had reached Konoha's park, everywhere was couples walking hand in hand, and some even had a dog or a kid with them. 10% of the couples were gay, and couldn't care less of what the people was thinking about them. Kazuaki admired them. He could never be able to do that, being so open about himself.

Shikamaru notice something was bothering Kazuaki, but didn't know if he was going to ask Kazuaki what was going on in his mind. But all Kazuaki did was stare blankly at the ground, how the hell was he going to avoid Toma? Today he would certainly get his ass kicked like a million times before.

"Why do you look so down all of a sudden?" Shikamaru decided to ask.
"Why would I know? It's not my fault anyways..." Kazuaki more or less answered back.
"What is not your fault?" Shikamaru was getting curious on his new friends background.

Weirdly enough, he wanted to truly know about Kazuaki. Most people were just tiresome, but there was something different with him.

"Nothing!" Kazuaki answered quickly and stood up.
"Look, I need to go. We will see each other tomorrow..." he faked a smile and waved towards Shikamaru, and sprinted away.

Shikamaru was left there, he watched Kazuaki become more and more fader as he ran.

"Geesh... what a boy."

Kazuaki was standing in front of his house, a bit tense and scared. He opened the door only to find no one. Not a soul was waiting for him at the entrance, a small sparkle of hope lighten Kazuaki's face. No one in the kitchen or in the living room, the clock above the TV showed it was 6.03 pm. Toma was on his work now. Kazuaki grabbed with himself some food and went up to his room and locked it tightly. He ate and practiced on his guitar, he played only one song, and if he missed or was to slow he started all over again from the top. It continued like this all night, before he went to bed.