Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and all other copyright holders.
Chapter 7 - Kiba VS Sasuke
Narumi was with Hinata and Shino. Hinata, upon hearing of Narumi's current situation, had volunteered to stay with Narumi during break and lunch-times for today. Because of this, Narumi had tagged along with the dark haired girl and the glasses-wearing boy as they fed bread crumbs to birds in the court-yard.
Narumi was covering her mouth to hold back her laughter, watching as another bird fluttered down to land on Shino's head. That brought the grand-total of birds perching on Shino up to 13. He sure was surprisingly popular.
"Haha, this reminds me so much of a scene from Beauty & the- haha –Beast..!" Narumi muffled out from behind her fingers.
Shino paid her no heed and continued to sit as still as possible, watching the birds feed from the crumbs in his hand and around him on the ground.
Hinata put her hands on Narumi's shoulders, trying to get her to settle down, "N-Narumi-san, cut it out, that's mean."
"But it really looks like it, doesn't it?? Hey, come to think of it, you two remind me a whole lot of that Disney film, Hinata-chan!" Narumi insisted.
Hinata blushed a little at the implications, and sighed, "I-It's still not nice to laugh. You'll scare the birds away if you keep being noisy." She said.
"Aw, you're no fun. I can't help it if the mental image is funny!" Narumi said, lowering her tone and muffling another small laugh.
Hinata sighed, and smiled a little.
"More importantly," Shino began and the two girls looked to him, "I'm curious. Why exactly did Sasuke-san lean in towards you in the first place? He must have foreseen this kind of outcome, even just a little. So, I wonder why he did it," He pointed out, bringing out some more bread and gently tearing it to smaller chunks for the birds.
More birds flocked down to eat.
"Huh, he said that I had rice on my forehead, but I'm not so sure if I believe that. For one I didn't have rice that day, and also, he was staring at me a bit too much to just get rid of it." Narumi folded her arms and looked up pensively, "Kinda freaked me out. Invading my personal bubble- he's never done that before," she added with a shrug.
Shino glanced over his shoulder, "That's interesting. I wonder if something is developing behind the scenes..." He wondered, his thin brows rising slowly in intrigue. He continued, "If that's how it is, then the Konoha Report's article is completely false." He said, "At least, for now." He added mentally.
"Exactly!! When I get my hands on the guy who snapped that photo...!" Narumi agreed, folding her arms.
"Please try not to get too angry, Narumi-san..! I'm sure that if we endure it and try to reason with the girls, it'll eventually get better." Hinata said with a supportive smile.
Narumi sat back a little and sighed out, "Yeah." She agreed. A faint sound of cheering and booing filled the air, causing the three of them to curiously glance in its direction. A few birds darted into the skies, frightened by the sudden noise.
"Wh-what could that be?" Hinata asked, glancing worriedly.
"It's coming from the direction of the playing field." Shino mentioned.
Narumi groaned and put her hand to her forehead. "Please tell me that isn't what I think it is...!" she uttered to herself. Shino and Hinata looked at Narumi.
"What do you mean by that?" Shino bluntly inquired.
Narumi looked to them anxiously, and then rubbed her head. "It was yesterday at lunch-break, a little while after that arrow with the note was sent..." she began, her thoughts drifting back to the previous day.
-
Me, and the rest of the guys were discussing how to go about setting everyone straight about this whole mess. Our best course of action so far had come from Tenten and Neji; their idea was to first confront the source of the problem; The School Newspaper Club chairman.
It was our best choice, because my plan –Have Sasuke get the girls off my back- compromised Sasuke. He wanted to avoid confronting his fan-girls at all costs.
That's kinda selfish of him but I do understand- those girls are crazy!
So after that, we were about to get up to head back to our next class when Kiba tore out into the courtyard and stormed towards us.
'Eh, Kiba, where have you been?' I asked him, getting up quickly.
Kiba walked brushed by me roughly, stalking towards Sasuke with his face scrunched up in... anger?
He stood over Sasuke, glaring down on him with his arms folded. 'Get up.' He ground out through his teeth. Sasuke only looked back up at him calmly, as if trying to figure out what exactly was eating Kiba.
'Kiba... Why were you so late out for lunch?' he asked Kiba carefully.
'Don't act so calm and innocent! I know what you did, Sasuke. What the hell do you think gives you the right to go around kissing people? Did you think of the consequences?!' Kiba retorted, 'You're just a friend!' he added.
'Eh? Kiba, wait - calm down. You've got the wrong idea-' Tenten began, getting up and walking over to the two guys.
'I wasn't done! Jus' stay outta this- it's between me, Sasuke and Naru!' Kiba snapped at Tenten. Tenten shrunk back a little, annoyed.
'Well that was kinda rude.' She said with a pout. Neji put a hand on her shoulder and she looked to him. He shook his head with a sigh.
'Just leave this to those three, like he said. We shouldn't butt in on this.' He told her.
'Like I was saying before I was rudely interrupted – You're just a friend. And so am I - I know that. But since I'm her friend, I know that she definitely wouldn't go around kissing you of her own free will. You must've forced her into it, right?' Kiba questioned him.
I decided to step up, 'Now wait just a minute! Hold on!! What the hell are you getting so heated over Kiba?? You're acting like his stupid fan-girls are!' I said, attempting to push Kiba away from Sasuke- which wasn't working.
Kiba turned to me, 'Am I not allowed to be protective over you?! I care about you, you know! So don't butt in, Naru.' He said, brushing my hand away lightly. His expression was a little calmer than before, but he was still angry, I could tell.
I stepped back, my eyebrows cocked with confusion, 'Well, of course I know he cares about me... And I care about him too! We've been friends for so long, so it's obvious...' I thought, watching on as Kiba turned back to Sasuke.
'Sasuke, I don't know what you were thinking when you did that to Naru. And like hell do I know what you're thinking right now. But either way, we're gonna settle this matter like men.' He said to Sasuke, and we all raised our eyebrows at him.
Shikamaru groaned, 'I just know this is gonna be troublesome...' he commented.
Kiba pointed his finger right in between Sasuke's eyes, 'So, I challenge you Uchiha Sasuke! You and me – tomorrow, on the playing field!!' he announced loudly.
Shikamaru was right. It definitely will be troublesome.
-
"So because Kiba got the wrong idea- He probably read the newspaper article on his own- he got mad for some reason and challenged Sasuke to a one-on-one rugby match. But since Sasuke's not the rugby type, we managed to persuade him to allow three other team-mates each to back Sasuke up." Narumi concluded her explanation.
"S-So... that shouting was the match in progress?" Hinata guessed, and Narumi nodded, "Should we go watch? I-I mean, to make sure that nobody gets hurt. S-Sasuke-kun isn't as skilled in rugby as Kiba-kun is, right? I-I have a first-aid kit in my bag." She said, rummaging around her book bag.
"Yeah we probably should, though I don't fancy watching two guys practically fighting over me." Narumi frowned, annoyed. "Besides, Sasuke's covered. We got your cousin, Neji to help out Sasuke's side, and watch his back. And to make it fair, Rock Lee volunteered to help out Kiba's side." She shrugged, trying to think of an excuse.
"If that's the case, then those two will be too preoccupied with each other to cover Sasuke and Kiba. I stand by Hinata-san's suggestion. We should go to make sure they don't kill each other." Shino said, scattering the rest of the bread crumbs and getting up.
"Agh, fine! Let's go!" Narumi gave in, and began running towards the playing field, Hinata and Shino right behind her.
Crash!
Sasuke skidded and landed elbows-first into the dirt, and groaned, pushing himself up. He currently had the ball, but Kiba was hot on his trial so if he didn't move now he wouldn't have it for too long. He grunted, standing up and dashing towards Kiba's goal quickly.
"I was concerned at first, since Kiba had Lee on his side," he thought, glancing over at Rock Lee and Neji to see them marking each other busily, "But at least I've got Neji. That way, he can keep him busy for me. The other guys are tough too, but Kiba's obviously their best player." Sasuke thought to himself, glancing around warily as he dodged a couple of Kiba's players.
"Sasuke, get back here!!" Kiba yelled after him.
"He actually believes I'll stop for him... like hell I will. I'm lucky I'm more agile than him." He thought to himself, and made for the goal with the ball.
Throwing down the ball down onto the ground beneath the goal, Sasuke skidded to a halt and turned to Kiba with a smirk.
"Oh yeah?! So what - we're tied now! That doesn't change anything. I'll beat you to the next goal!" Kiba retorted, retrieving the ball.
With that, the game continued.
Standing on the side-lines, was practically every girl in school, and they were all cheering Sasuke on, of course. Ino and Sakura had front-row seats.
"I would've never thought that it would develop to this! I wonder why Kiba challenged Sasuke-kun to such a match..." Sakura pondered out loud, as Ino cheered Sasuke on. She paused in her cheering to fold her arms and glance at Sakura.
"Well it's obvious why he picked such a brawn-based sport, at least; he being one of the team's best players. He's obviously showing off- trying to overpower Sasuke-kun, who is more graceful than forceful and isn't used to this kind of sport! It's obvious why he's trying to show off, too. Ha, Narumi should just open up her eyes, and settle for the guy who actually likes her." Ino smirked, "She would save us a truck-load of trouble." She added.
"Hmm, yeah. I agree." Sakura nodded, and turned to Tenten, "Hey, Tenten-senpai?" she asked her curiously.
"What." Tenten said flatly, clearly annoyed that she had been stuck sitting next to the two girls. She'd come along mostly to support Neji, but she hadn't signed up for this.
Sakura pouted, "No need to get snappy! I was just wondering, what exactly does the winner get out of this little bout?" she asked Tenten.
Ino turned to the two, also curious, "Yeah, what is the prize? Besides the satisfaction that they kicked the others' ass?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.
Tenten looked up at the two girls a moment, before smirking.
"The winner gets to keep Narumi." She told them with amusement in her voice. Sakura and Ino looked horrified.
"WHAT?!?!" they yelped, and got up to their feet.
"G—Go for it dog-b—I mean, Kiba! GO KIBA!!" Ino began trying to cheer enthusiastically for Kiba.
"Yeah, you can beat Sasuke-kun at this at least! Uhm, do your best...!!" Sakura joined in, and Tenten giggled at their sudden enthusiasm for Kiba's victory.
On the playing field, Kiba smirked at Sasuke, who was sizing him up to snatch the ball from his grasp, "Looks like the tables have turned, eh Sasuke? As you can see, they're all cheering for the right guy now." He said smugly.
Sasuke kept warily watching the brunet, "Yeah right. Who's the right guy? What's the point of challenging me to a game like this anyway... Come to think of it, why the hell did I accept...?" he thought to himself.
Meanwhile, Narumi, Hinata and Shino had just arrived at the playing field by them, Narumi pushing through the girls and Hinata and Shino still trying to get through. Narumi made it to the front, and gaped at how heated the game was already.
"What the hell are you guys doing?!" she yelled out in frustration, digging her fingers into her head with a growl. "Whoever said having two guys fighting over you was a dream come true, was definitely wrong! Ugh!" she groaned inwardly.
Tenten spotted Narumi and got up, going over to Narumi.
"Narumi-chan, so you decided to show up." Tenten said to her, grinning.
Narumi turned to her, "Tenten-senpai! Hey, how come everybody's cheering for Kiba? I thought they were Sasuke's fans." She asked the senpai with buns in her hair.
"Ha, well they found out what the winner gets and decided they didn't want Sasuke to win that kind of prize." Tenten said vaguely.
"What was the prize?" Narumi raised an eyebrow, curious.
Tenten laughed, "You. You dummy." She said, patting Narumi's shoulder. Narumi sputtered, her face going bright red.
"Wh-Wh- What kind of--!? I'm not a thing! You can't just sell me off like some kind of object!!" Narumi complained.
"Yeah well, don't look at me." Tenten shrugged, folding her arms loosely, "It was Kiba and Sasuke who settled for those arrangements." She informed the blond.
Narumi turned her head back to the game, where Kiba had scored another goal. She watched them carefully.
"What? Even Sasuke...?" she wondered.
To be continued...!
Kin: Hiya, I finally got to update~! College is rough when you haven't been there in a while. XD;
Thanks for all the reviews you've given so far - I'm grateful! ^^ I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I was hoping to get Sai in, but sadly it was not so. -unhappy face-
Well, next time, for sure! -good guy pose-