Warnings: language, some hints of yaoi

Disclaimer: Don't own.

Sorry for the wait. Unfortunately, the chapters from here on out are going to be a bit longer to make. The three before this one were already made, and I was too impatient to actually write the whole story before posting it. I know (more or less) where I'm going with this. It's just the 'getting there' that I need to figure out. I'll post them as soon as I can, though. Also, I think I'll try to give you updates on my homepage to show you how far I've gotten with the next chapter and when I am going to be delayed or something. I should be able to write short little notes there so you know that I haven't stopped writing or anything. I DO in fact plan on finishing this, though, for anyone who may be wondering that. Sooo... yeah. kk :P. Here ya go:


So far, so good, Naruto thought to himself as he left his fourth period class. Or rather, was dragged from it.

First period had gone pretty well. Haku was there. They sat together in the back. Haku decided that it was a perfect time to start pointing out all the guys in the class he thought were hot. Near the end of class, Naruto was bright red and trying to hide behind his desk, only to have Haku tell him that he had only pointed those guys out because he thought it was fun to make Naruto blush.

Second period had an odd combination of his new-found friends: Ino, Hinata, and Gaara. Ino took it upon herself to drag both Naruto and Hinata to three empty seats in front, much to Naruto's and Hinata's discomfort. Both would have rather been in the back with Gaara, away from the eyes of their classmates. In Hinata's case, Naruto could tell that she was just incredibly shy. Naruto, however, kept feeling like the students behind him were jugding him or something. It was uncomfortable. He tried to pass this feeling off as paranoia, but it refused to be silenced so easily. The teacher soon came in with a hangover and told the class it was a free period for the day. Ino immediately went into full conversation mode with the ever quiet Hinata, talking about the most random of things. After the first ten minutes, Naruto wasn't sure how much longer he could take it. Gaara's smug look at being too far away to hear anything she was saying wasn't helping either.

Third period is what Naruto called his 'break from insanity' period. In other words, it was just a normal class with none of his friends there. It was also, he found out near the end, his most boring class now that there wasn't anyone to take his mind off of the teacher's droning voice. Apparently, he couldn't win. With his friends, life was chaotic; without them, life was boring as hell.

Fourth period proved an... interesting class. Both Haku and 'Kon' were there, and the teacher turned out to be a laid back guy named Kakashi who had a lesson plan that could easily have been made from Hell itself. It was at least three times the necessary requirements for their grade. Objections, of course, were raised... only to land on deaf ears as Kakashi opened up a small book and lost himself in it, leaving the class to read five chapters in their large textbooks and pass in a summary of each by the end of class. The twins then made it their mission to somehow steal the book that the teacher now held before the week was up.

Which leads up to the present, with Naruto currently in the middle of being dragged outside for lunch by Sakon and Ukon with Haku following close behind. The rest of his friends sat around a picnic table nearby, seated in the same way as homeroom, all happily content and eating as if this arrangement was natural. The only one missing, however, was Ino. Kon shoved Naruto kindly into her seat as the others at the table greeted them. Naruto squirmed a bit, uncomfortable and feeling awkwardly like he was invading Ino's place at this table. Sasuke, noticing and quickly understanding Naruto's hesitation, said amiably, "Don't worry about Ino. She never sits with us at lunch."

"Yeah," put in Temari. "She prefers to sit with the 'popular' kids inside."

"Haven't you broken her of that habit yet?" Haku piped up beside her. "You know it's dangerous for her to be around so many high-pitched and whining voices for so long. It may cause damage to her brain, such as: drastically lowering her IQ, becoming disillusioned into thinking that she is more superior than anyone else, turning her into a mindless zombie, its only mission in life being to acquire any and all 'fashionable' items, and then there's the tendency to match said high-pitched whinny voices, therefore causing harm to us and starting an unstoppable chain-reaction which will result ultimately in the end of the world as we know it as everyone becomes just like her and are therefore trapped under the power of such arrogant stupidity that totally obliterates all common sense-"

Shikamaru cleared his throat, effectively halting Haku's... descriptive explanation of what he thought would eventually happen should Ino continue her path towards 'the dark side'. Sakura said, "... What?" Naruto blinked. After hearing Sakura's confusion, he was at least glad that he wasn't the only one who couldn't quite follow Haku's speech.

Temari stared at him. "... Haku, have you been taking drugs?" She looked completely serious, but Kon finally couldn't contain his laughter. The twins broke out and hunched over the table, holding their abdomens and tearing at the eyes. Haku's innocent and cheerful reply of, "Nope!" only made them laugh harder.

Sasuke snorted. "It must be all those horror movies he's been watching lately." Haku just smiled innocently at him.

Temari shook her head and grinned, amused. Instead of pursuing the subject, she answered Haku's previous question. "No, I haven't been able to 'break her of that habit', though I damn well tried hard."

Sakura seemed to look sad for a moment. "We're going to loose her to them, aren't we."

The others looked a bit more solemn now, even Kon. Again, Naruto felt awkward and out of place. This was apparently a touchy and personal subject. He felt like he should leave and let them be alone a while...

Sakura suddenly jolted out of her thoughts as she remembered Naruto. "Well," She said, smiling a bit, "at least we've got a new friend." The others smiled at him kindly, like they had already accepted him. Naruto relaxed a bit. They still wanted him here. He smiled slightly back at them, a bit shy.

At this time, Sakura seemed to remember something else. "Hey, Naruto, where's your lunch?"

Naruto blushed as his stomach gave a loud grumble. "U-ummmm..." He was being particularly intelligent today, wasn't he? He had completely forgotten to bring some lunch or money for lunch. How was he supposed to tell them that, though? They would think he was an idiot!

"Let me guess," she continued, unaware of his inner turmoil. "Haku and Kon took you straight out here and didn't even bother to show you where the lunch room was." Kon and Haku gave her a sheepish look, mumbling apologies. Sakura sighed. "Well, here. I'll go take you there, 'k?"

Without waiting for him to say anything, she got up and dragged him with her back inside, going down a few hallways before they entered the large cafeteria. The line for the food was nearly empty now that lunch was halfway over. Sakura quickly led him towards it. Naruto began to frantically search for some excuse to make her let him go without raising any suspicions in her about how he had been too stupid to remember lunch.

Luckily for him, however, Sakura seemed to have a brilliant idea. She snapped her fingers and whirled to face him, nearly making him fall back in surprise at her sudden movement. "How about I buy you lunch today? It could be in celebration of your first day as our new friend! Is that all right?" Naruto gaped at her, wondering where his luck had been hiding all this time. She didn't even wait for him to answer before asking him what he wanted.

"R-ramen," he was able to stutter out.

"That's it?" She smiled. "All right." The lunch ladies heated up a cup and handed it over to them. True to her word, Sakura payed and they left the line.

Unfortunately, all good things can't last forever. As the two headed for the door, a loud, high-pitched voice was suddenly heard from the popular table in the middle of the cafeteria. It came from beside the one Naruto recognized as Ino, the voice saying scathingly to Sakura, "Well, looky here! It seems the slut with the big forehead found yet another guy to fuck! Let me guess, is he your 5th or 50th?"

Naruto choked, not sure how to respond to that. Sakura turned slightly to Ino, who kept her head down, acting as if Sakura was in no way any friend of hers. Sakura looked sad for a moment, but the look passed quickly, replaced by anger as she simply gave the girl the middle finger, not even bothering to comment. The girl sputtered and seemed ready to jump out of her seat and pounce on Sakura. Some others there tried to soothe the furious girl and told her that a pathetic thing like Sakura wasn't worth breaking a nail over.

Ino glanced up then. For a moment, a look was passed between her and Sakura, and Naruto wondered what it could mean. But soon, Ino lowered her eyes and continued eating and chatting with her new 'friends'. Sakura stared for a second, emotionless, then turned back to the door and left quickly, Naruto struggling to keep up. One glance back and he saw Ino look up one last time at Sakura's retreating back.

Naruot ran to catch up to Sakura. Though he couldn't see any emotion on her face, he could tell that something was bothering her. A lot. Naruto didn't enjoy watching his friends be hurt like that. He decided to try and talk to her, to try and help. "Sa-Sakura?"

Sakura paused a moment, but still didn't look at him. She sighed, seeming tired all of a sudden. "Ino. That pig. She didn't even try to stand up for me." She turned to Naruto. "I guess we really are losing her."

Naruto looked at her worriedly. "Are you all right?"

She sighed again and continued walking. "Yeah. I'll be fine. It's just that, well, me and Ino have been best friends for a long time now. To lose something like that... I suppose there's no helping it. This is the path that she chose. I can't force her to keep being my friend, but I still wish to be here for her should she choose to come back to us. I guess that's all I can do." She smiled a bit. "But that's all right. I'll get over this."

Naruto blinked. Sakura was a strong person. Naruto hoped she really would be all right.

They made it safely back outside without any further interruptions. The others noticed that Sakura was feeling a bit down, but seemed to realize that she was dealing with it herself. They continued instead with whatever they had been talking about. Naruto took his seat quietly and dug into his ramen. He was hungry and ramen was his favorite. Sasuke watched the blond practically swallow the cup before getting a mischievous idea.

"So," Sasuke said once he was sure Naruto could talk again. "You like ramen a lot?"

Naruto smiled widely and nodded. "It's my favorite!"

Sasuke was curious, wondering where Naruto's shy attitude had gone. He decided to poke fun at Naruto and figure out what this ramen meant to him. Sasuke sighed and said, "Well, that's too bad. I hate ramen. I hate even looking at it." He secreted a glance at Naruto and almost laughed when he saw the boy freeze with a pile of noodles still in his mouth. But he quickly composed himself. "If you're going to sit here with us, you're going to have to give up ramen, I'm afraid." He looked back at Naruto. The poor boy seemed terrified at the thought of giving up his ramen. Then, surprisingly enough, he got angry.

"Why?! If you don't like it you can look away! I'm not going to stop eating ramen just because you don't like looking at it!" Everyone stopped and stared at him, but Naruto didn't seem to realize this. He also didn't seem to realize that they were all trying to hold back laughter, knowing that Sasuke was just playing around.

Sasuke considered laughing right there as well and telling Naruto that he was only joking, but he was having too much fun with this. "That's too bad, dobe. I refuse to let you eat that in front of me anymore. Throw it away, now."

Naruto bristled. "No!" He was horrified at the idea of throwing away perfectly good ramen. Besides, he'd be damned if he let the bastard order him around.

"I said throw it away!" Sasuke stood up and crossed his arms, looking down at Naruto (and having the time of his life.)

Not to be outdone, Naruto jumped onto the table and crouched before Sasuke, eye to eye. "Make me, teme!"

They continued to glare at each other for a moment. Suddenly, Naruto felt a hand on his back gently shove him forward. Loosing balance, Naruto let a look of surprise cross his features before he fell forward on Sasuke. And then their lips met. They froze and stared at each other. One second before they both jumped away, horrified. Naruto spat out onto the ground, blushing like crazy. Sasuke wiped his mouth quickly before spotting a hastily retreating Kon. Realization hit him.

"Kon! You pushed him into me!"

The twins beamed back at him. "Sorry, mate." "We couldn't resist." "The temptation was overpowering-" "I mean, he was right there." "Couldn't help it-" "But it worked out a lot better than expected." "That it did, brother, that it did." (A/N For those I have confused: this is how the twins talk- they alternate talking, one saying something, the other continueing, etc. If you are still confused, please tell me and I will try to explain better)

Sasuke, pissed, ran straight for them. Kon yelped and began a mad dash for the school in the hopes of finding a teacher that would save them from Sasuke's revenge.

The others laughed. Even Gaara smiled a bit. Haku came around and patted a choking Naruto on the back. "Nicely done!" He said. "With the help of Kon, you just kissed the hottest boy in school." Naruto blushed more and tried to talk, but was too numb. Haku laughed again. "Don't worry. We know it wasn't your fault. Also, we won't tell anyone, so you don't have to worry about rumors and gossip and all that shit."

"Yeah," Sakura said. "You're a friend. Even though that was the funniest thing to happen yet in my life, we won't stab you in the back like that."

"But that doesn't mean we can't tease you about." Temari said. Naruto groaned.

"If it makes you feel any better," Haku put in, "Sasuke is no exception either."

Naruto rolled his eyes and said, "It would make me feel better if you never mentioned this again!"

"Well, now, you see," Shikamaru said with a lazy grin. "There would be no fun in that, and therefore, it's too troublesome. I suggest you suck it up because this is what friends do and what we'll always do. It is a friend's right to tease the others mercilessly for their own amusement."

Naruto groaned again and could swear he felt a headache coming on. Then a small voice piped in from his left. "Naruto, if we do something humiliating, you also have the right to tease us about it, too."

Shikamaru sighed. "Hinata! Why'd you have to go and spill a secret like that?"

Hinata blushed and looked down. Gaara answered for her. "It's called 'evening the odds', Shika. I suggest you suck it up."

Shikamaru laughed. "I think he just bitch-slapped me with that one."

Not long after, the bell rang. The friends all left that day, each in high spirits. Including Naruto. Perhaps friends were what he needed now.


TBC