AN: Sorry about how long this one took! There were a lot of delays. The chapters are written through 9, and 10's almost done, though, so I'm not really slacking as much as it looks. I think this is a good place to remind y'all that pretty much everything in this story happened in my group during college, so before you think to yourself, "Gee, that's kind of unrealistic"—it really did happen at least once, I promise.

Naruto and all characters are copyright Masashi Kishimoto.

Monday, October 9

Lunch was always a loud affair for the members of the Martial Arts Club. After the first awkward weeks when everyone was getting to know each other and some of the freshmen still sat with their non-club acquaintances, the club members had all migrated to a set of tables in the back room of the dining hall. Often the tables were dragged together to form strange shapes, but in such a way that everyone got a seat and could talk to everyone else. Most of the freshmen had lunch at the same time, and a few of their older friends sometimes made it as well; it had greatly facilitated the bonding between the upperclassmen and their younger friends, more so than even the drunken party of the previous Friday.

"—and then she pushed it back 'til next Wednesday!" Naruto was telling Sakura excitedly at lunch on Monday, slurping from his bowl of ramen as he spoke. Sakura made a face at him.

"You shouldn't talk with your face in that bowl," she complained. Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Whatever."

"Ugh, you're so, so manly!" Ino accused him, her nose wrinkled. Naruto choked on his ramen broth as Kiba laughed.

"Exactly, babe. Don't you like us like that?" he winked at Ino with an exaggerated leer. Chouji thumped Naruto on the back until he stopped coughing.

"Ino, I think you killed Naruto," Chouji said with a laugh. Naruto waved a hand in the air.

"No, I just thought it was funny! She says it like it's a bad thing, but Uzumaki Naruto is a manly man and proud of it!" Naruto flexed his biceps with a wide grin, and Ino raised her eyebrows.

"Are you trying to make muscles? Because I'm not seeing anything," she told him, shaking her head sadly.

"Then you need to look harder!"

"No, no, I don't think that's the problem." Ino leaned around Sakura and squinted at Naruto's arms. "I really think you just don't have any muscles."

"Do so!"

"Come on Naruto, is that the best you can do? You're doing a shitty job of representing us." Kiba pushed up a sleeve of his t-shirt and flexed the visible arm, solid muscles tightening under his skin. "How about these guns, ladies?" Ino looked at Sakura and winked.

"That's more like it," she said with a smirk as the other girl just laughed. Sakura glanced sideways at Naruto to see him pouting, and patted him lightly on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, some girls like men who have petite, feminine bodies," she told him with a laugh. Naruto glared at her.

"What the hell are you trying to say, that I look like Sasuke?" Ino gasped as if she'd been the one insulted, and Shikamaru, leaning back in his chair at the end of the table, smirked.

"Maybe you guys are rubbing, er, off on each other at night or something," he suggested, linking his hands behind his head as he balanced his chair on its back legs, his eyes twinkling with sarcastic humor.

Kiba laughed loudly at Shikamaru's comment, but Naruto growled. He reached for Sakura's tray, grabbed a fry from her plate, and tossed it down the table at Shikamaru. It landed on his left thigh, leaving a small grease smudge on his pants before sliding off onto the floor. Shikamaru slammed his chair down on all four legs and looked down at his leg in shock.

"These were new pants! What the hell do you think you're doing?" he demanded, his eyes snapping up to meet Naruto's.

"You said I was getting it on with Sasuke! You deserved it!"

"Look! Grease, on my new pants! Ugh, you're so troublesome, Naruto." Shikamaru pushed his chair back and stood, picking up his tray. "If you'll all excuse me, I need to go change my pants, since this imbecile here has ruined them." He stomped out of the back room into the main area of the dining hall, Naruto watching him in shock.

"It was just a fry," Naruto commented, scratching his head. "I wasn't even really mad at him."

"Dude, really. He needs to relax. He takes himself too seriously," Kiba added, watching the doorway Shikamaru had left through.

"I don't know, they were new pants," Ino mused. Naruto shrugged.

"But there wasn't ketchup or anything on the fry—it was just a fry. That's crazy!"

"Yeah, I would have just eaten it if I were him," Chouji sighed. "I'll talk to him after Photography today. He's usually there when I get home." There was an awkward silence at the table for a moment, until Kiba saw someone he recognized walking into the room.

"Yo, Sasuke!" Kiba called out with a wave as the dark-haired boy walked up to the table and sat down in the seat Shikamaru had vacated. Sasuke nodded to Kiba and glanced around the table, looking away quickly when his eyes met Sakura's.

"You won't believe what just happened!" Naruto exclaimed as Sasuke began to eat.

"You finished dead last in Stats? I'd believe it, since I'm the one who said you'd fail if you kept playing video games instead of studying."

"I didn't fail, jackass, I got a C minus, and it was second from last, so there!" Naruto gritted his teeth, then remembered what he had been planning to tell his roommate. "I was talking about Shikamaru! He just ran off because I threw a fry at him and it landed on his pants! What the hell!" Sasuke raised his eyebrows and finished chewing before he answered.

"You threw a fry at Shikamaru, and it landed on his pants, and he left. Right. You guys are both crazy."

"I had every right to! You don't understand—he said we were sleeping together!" Naruto was practically yelling, his hands braced on the table as he leaned forward to glare at Sasuke. Sasuke coughed, laying down his fork and grabbing a napkin to press against his lips.

"He said what? What the fuck was he thinking?"

"I think it was a joke," Chouji offered as he picked up his cup of soda. Naruto frowned.

"But it wasn't funny!"

"I don't know, I laughed," Kiba shrugged innocently. Sasuke shot him a glare.

"Fine, I'll remember that next time I tell someone about you and Shino."

"What do you mean, me and Shino? Hey!" The rest of the people at the table laughed, and the mood got lighter as Kiba kept protesting any possibility of a physical relationship between himself and his roommate.

"Maybe we should be taping Sasuke and Naruto, and Kiba and Shino, and broadcast it on the internet or something." Sakura giggled, glancing down the table at Sasuke, her cheeks a bit red.

"Yeah, we could make a ton of money!" Chouji added. "Guys, we could buy enough snacks to last all semester!" Naruto and Kiba protested loudly, but Sasuke's lips pursed and he met Sakura's eyes with his own burning gaze.

"I didn't think you'd play along with their stupid jokes," he snapped at her. Sakura blinked, the smile falling from her face.

"But—I was just joking—I didn't really mean you were—"

"I thought you were more mature than them, though. I expected it from him," Sasuke growled, waving a hand toward Kiba, "But not you."

"Hey, lay off her," Naruto broke in. "She made a joke. It was funny. Geez, what happened to your sense of humor?"

"I don't have one about people insulting me."

"Damn right, you don't! Get off your fucking high horse and stop harassing Sakura. You should apologize!" Naruto stood up, bracing his hands on the table on either side of his tray, and glared down the table at Sasuke. Everyone else at the table was silent, and Sakura looked as though she may start crying.

"I don't have to apologize!" Sasuke stood as well, meeting Naruto's glare.

"You're such an asshole to women," Naruto complained angrily. "Stop treating them like your personal servants—Sakura doesn't have to bow and scrape to you. You didn't talk like that about Shikamaru!"

"Now you're calling me sexist? What the hell is WRONG with you today, Naruto? I don't abuse women, so don't try to spread rumors about me or anything. I was just saying that there's some people I don't expect to be taunting me. Ugh, I can't deal with you today! I'm going to eat by myself!" Sasuke picked up his tray and stalked out of the room, Naruto gaping at his back.

"Way to go, Naruto. Losing two friends in one day—you rock," Ino commented sarcastically. Naruto glared at her, but her words sent chills through his body. He was chasing his friends away, she said. Maybe he really wasn't cut out for friends. Maybe he just didn't deserve them.

"I don't think it was all his fault. Shikamaru and Sasuke seemed like they were having bad days or something," Kiba added carefully, gesturing with his fork.

"No, I'm sure it was my fault," Naruto said abruptly. "I'm going to class. I don't want to risk offending someone else's fragile ego." The people at the table watched him walk away in silence, then Chouji sighed and picked up a buttered roll from his plate.

"I think he was in the wrong place at the wrong time," he remarked, taking a bite. Kiba shrugged.

"They were in bad moods and took it out on him. I don't think it's fair to him at all."

"Well, he shouldn't have been attacking people! I mean really, he threw a fry at Shikamaru! How immature is that?" Ino rolled her eyes. "He was acting like a child."

"I didn't really think that Sasuke should have yelled at me," Sakura spoke up quietly. She felt guilty that Sasuke had been offended by her joke, but that didn't mean he had been reasonable, right?

"Well, no," Ino responded. "But Naruto made it worse!"

"What did Naruto make worse?" Tenten and Neji had walked up to their table while they were arguing, and now Tenten stood behind Ino listening in confusion, Neji standing beside her with a polite expression of boredom.

"Nothing," Sakura said quickly. "Everyone's just kind of grumpy, since it's Monday, and Naruto and Sasuke got into an argument. It wasn't important."

Tenten glanced at Neji, who shrugged. He sat in the seat Shikamaru and Sasuke had vacated, and Tenten sighed as she sat in Naruto's place.

"That happens sometimes. Don't worry, I think everyone will be fine by tomorrow. Tempers just flare up around here sometimes," Tenten told the freshman. "There's been a lot of drama, but we always come through it as friends."

"I hope so," Sakura declared. "Anyway, is someone staying on campus during fall break this weekend?"

BREAK

Naruto and Sasuke both had papers due on Thursday, the day before fall break began, although they dealt with those papers in completely different manners. Sasuke was typing slowly and methodically while Naruto tapped a foot on the floor in time to his music as he played a first-person shooter. He had every intention of writing the paper on Wednesday night, or maybe thinking about an outline on Tuesday after Martial Arts Club, if he was in the mood. There was no reason for him to waste his Monday night working on some stupid—

"Can you stop that?" Sasuke hadn't spoken a word to Naruto since the blonde had walked into the room after class, and Naruto would have jumped had he heard his roommate over his music.

"Hey! Naruto! Turn down the damn music and stop tapping! I'm trying to write my paper!" Naruto whirled in his chair to stare at Sasuke for a moment before his face contorted into a sneer.

"I live here, too, and I want to listen to my music!"

"Well, I need to write my paper! Just because you're an idiot doesn't mean I'm going to slack off on my work! Why don't you just get out of here and let me work?"

"Screw you! You tried to boss Sakura around, and now you're trying that shit with me? I don't think so!"

Sasuke gritted his teeth. The music was not in fact all that loud, and Sasuke was used to Naruto's constant fidgeting, but his latent anger made everything that much more annoying.

"I was NOT bossing Sakura around! Dammit, I'm not going through this with you again. Aren't you supposed to be at the gym or something?"

"You were SO! You just don't want to admit that you can be a jerk—shit, I DO have to meet Lee at the gym!" Naruto jumped out of his chair and started digging through his drawers for basketball shorts and an old t-shirt.

"I don't mind admitting when I AM a jerk, but I don't run around picking on women, and I resent you saying that I do!" Sasuke told Naruto's back. The blonde turned and glared at him.

"Whatever. Face reality," Naruto grumbled, taking off the shirt he was currently wearing and tossing it on the floor next to his plastic hamper. "I don't get you. You're all smart and rich and shit, but you don't see what's right in front of you. How can you be that full of yourself? Money can't buy you truth, you know."

"I'm not trying to buy anything!" Sasuke stood up and moved toward Naruto, seriously considering hitting him. "You're twisting reality to fit your preconceived notions. You're just jealous because I have everything you ever wanted!"

"Ha! Of you? Are you nuts? You're a cold, stuck up, asshole!"

"At least I'm not immature and brainless. I have a future, Naruto, and I'm not putting that aside to please low class morons like you and the other people in that stupid club!" Naruto, who had just unbuttoned and pulled off his jeans, froze.

"You just went too far, pretty boy," he growled, dropping both and jeans and shorts and crossing the room to get in Sasuke's face. "If you're so much fucking better than all of us, why don't you go join your brother's club, huh? What, you're not good enough for him to let you in?" Sasuke's eyes widened and he swung at Naruto before he could even think that punching his roommate could get him into a lot of trouble. Naruto caught his fist and bared his teeth, tensing to strike back.

"Hey guys, I, uh, wanted to talk to—" Accustomed to just walking into her friends' room, Sakura had prefaced her entrance with no more than a perfunctory knock before opening the door and leaning inside the room. Now she gasped, taking in a boxer-clad Naruto holding Sasuke's fist as both boys looked at her with matching expressions of rage barely masked by shock.

"Um, how about I wait out here and you put on some pants?" Sakura mumbled, her voice trembling from embarrassment as she quickly closed the door and leaned against the wall next to it. She'd walked in on Naruto half-naked. As if that hadn't been awkward enough, he and Sasuke were clearly fighting again; the tension had been palpable, and there was no other reason for Naruto to be restraining Sasuke and looking like he was on the verge of ripping his roommate's throat out. She hoped that they weren't fighting over her again, but the thought somehow thrilled her at the same time.

Less than three minutes after Sakura closed the door, it was jerked open again as Naruto stalked out, barely pausing to mumble, "Sorry" as he left for the gym. He still looked furious, but Sakura thought it was a good sign that she hadn't heard screaming from the room. She waited a moment, then knocked softly on the door. There was a pause before Sasuke personally opened the door instead of calling for her to enter.

"I thought you'd leave," he told her by way of greeting, and she shrugged.

"I wanted to apologize if I, um, offended you today. I didn't mean to—I just wanted to make a joke," she began, clasping her hands in front of her stomach. Sasuke regarded her for a moment, then stepped to the side to let her into the room.

"It wasn't what you said, just that I didn't expect to hear something like that coming from you."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the others usually make the jokes like that, not you. I figured that I could count on you to be on my side." Sasuke closed the door, surreptitiously dropping his hand to lock it. Sakura tried to smile.

"But I AM on your side! And really, everyone else is, too, even when they tease you. No one meant any harm."

"I meant, on my side by not teasing me all the time."

"But—why don't you get angry at everyone else for the teasing? Why just me?" Sakura sat on the edge of Sasuke's bed and he pulled his desk chair over to sit in front of her, elbows propped on his knees.

"I guess because I think you're better than them. You—I mean, it seems like you respect people, and I kind of thought that I had that respect from you." It certainly seemed that way to Sasuke, from the attention she paid to him, a different kind of attention than he received from girls like Ino, one that was much more flattering. In fact, Sasuke was flattered right now that Sakura had cared enough about his rebuke to come and apologize.

"I DO respect you, Sasuke! Teasing doesn't mean that I don't respect you or want to be your friend or something; it just means that I'm comfortable around you, really."

"It does?' Sasuke tried to remember if anyone had been comfortable around him before.

"Yeah. It's what friends do. Like when Naruto and Kiba tease you, it's because they DO like you, not because they don't like you." Sakura knew that Sasuke was a loner; it was one of the reasons that she was so attracted to him. But it really seemed like he didn't know how close friends interacted—and she found that all the more endearing. It just meant that she would have to show him.

"But Naruto was doing more than teasing at lunch today. He practically said I abuse women! That was going too far!"

"Sasuke, I don't think that's what he meant," Sakura answered carefully. "He was just trying to defend me."

"I wasn't attacking you, though. I just told you why I said what I said."

"Right, but you didn't tell Naruto, though. He can't read your mind." Sasuke was silent for a moment.

"I guess I didn't. But, he just made that snap judgment about me, which I thought was very offensive. He should know me better than that! He's determined to hate me just because he's had a hard life and I haven't." Sakura sighed, reaching out slowly to lay her hand on Sasuke's arm. He jumped a little at the touch, but didn't pull away. Sakura marveled at her courage, but ignored her own surprise to answer.

"Sasuke, I'm not sure he was accusing you of abusing anyone. He exaggerated a bit, but everyone knows you don't attack helpless people. Maybe . . . maybe he can make exaggerations like that because he doesn't really know you well. I mean, do you guys ever, like, talk about your pasts?" From the look Sasuke shot her, Sakura was pretty sure the answer was negative. "See? How is he supposed to know how you feel if you don't tell him? Naruto is very, um, emotional, and he doesn't really think before he speaks, you know? If he knows you better, then he'll be less likely to blurt out things like that when he really doesn't mean to hurt you."

"I'm not used to people like him."

"Me neither, actually." Sakura laughed a little, and Sasuke joined her, wondering where Naruto would have fit into his previous life. Then he wondered where Sakura would have fit in, and he looked away, drawing away from her hand as he leaned back in his chair. It wasn't the time yet to be imagining Sakura in his life, was it?

"So just talk to Naruto when he gets back, alright?" Sakura told him after a pause, standing up from the bed. "I have to go do some Calc homework, but I just wanted to stop and make sure we're cool."

"Yeah, we're cool," Sasuke smiled a little, standing as well. "So, I'll see you tomorrow, then. I'll let you know how the talking thing goes."

"Good." Sakura stood there smiling up at Sasuke, and she looked so content, so happy to have solved his problem that he felt drawn to her. He reached out before he realized that he had moved and hugged her awkwardly. Sakura had just enough time to register the hug and pat him on the back once before he pulled away with a blush.

"Um, thanks for listening," he muttered, and Sakura grinned, probably foolishly, she thought.

"No problem. I'll listen any time if you need it. Um, bye!" She practically floated to the door, turning around once to give a small wave before she unlocked the door and left, closing it quietly behind her. Sasuke stood in the center of the room, hands shoved in his pockets, staring at the closed door.

"Well, how about that?" He laughed a little as he dragged his chair back to his desk so he could work on his paper, uncharacteristically smiling as he typed.