Uh, please excuse all the pirate stuff that's bound to continue for a while. I was rambling. Clearly. XD I was given such amazing reviews for that last chapter, thank you so much everyone! They mean a lot to me, really. I was smiling stupidly to myself for a fair while when I saw all the lovely comments. –wriggle-

And oh my God, I just realised that at my new school, its like 'spot the straight guy'. Seriously. I only know two entirely straight guys. Wow.

Haha, anyway… Enjoy!

Previous disclaimers apply.

14. SWORDS ALL ROUND

Saturday morning, I was finally better, Itachi had been running on 'indifferent' for almost two days, my mind was oddly very calm about Naruto, and my mood was steadily worsening as I glared down at Kakashi-sensei. It was only a three hour shift today (as opposed to the usual five) so as not to overwork myself too soon after being sick, but he just had to appear when I had half an hour to go. Typical. I scowled deeper.

He smiled back at me, his good eye crinkling.

Hah, Kakashi had an eye patch. It made him look like a pirate. I amused myself while he decided with mental images of him in his smart black turtlenecks and black jeans running around with a sword, a gold hoop and a striped bandana. Maybe even lost teeth, or a gold one at least. And a beard, can't forget the beard. What if he had a parrot? No, he wouldn't be a parrot pirate – not impressive enough. He'd be the captain, though, definitely the captain. With ahuge hat. And an even bigger sword – he had to have one of them.

"Sasuke?"

I shook my head of the mildly disturbing thoughts and stared down at my teacher. He beckoned for me to sit opposite him.

Ooh no, I'm not that stupid.

"I have other people to serve, Kakashi-sensei, please call me when you're ready to order."

Before he had a chance to object, I bowed and left, trying to move as fast as I could without actually looking like I was running away. Which I wasn't.

I flitted around the tables, seeing him raise his hand out of the corner of my eye but ignoring him. What? I wasn't going to get interrogated again. I gave coffee-girl the order from two girls with long, clacking fake nails and horribly dyed blonde hair, and glanced around the café. Please, someone else raise their hand. Please? Come on, people, I can't have served all of you!

With a sigh I looked over at my waiting teacher and admitted defeat. I'd have to face him sooner or later. I'd prefer later, as in twenty years later, but apparently I wasn't powerful enough to control time and so wandered over to his table as slowly as possible. I had control over that much, at least.

But in the end it was all the same, and much sooner than I would have liked I was sitting opposite the silver-haired man, pad and pen discarded on the table in front of me and a feeling of utter dread settling heavily in my stomach.

Kakashi smiled over at me and I shrivelled on the inside. Baaad move, kiddo.

"So, how's school?"

"Fine."

"Have you been quite ill?"

"Yes, hence my absence."

"Did Naruto drop off the revision work? I asked him to drop by. Iruka said he had work to give you as well."

"I got both of them."

"He talked to Iruka, you know."

"That's nice."

"You don't care?"

"No."

"Has he told you yet?"

"Yes."

"Huh, that's surprising."

Silence.

"Well, I didn't think he'd tell you anything after your rude outburst on Tuesday."

Shit, he heard that? God I hoped he wasn't taking any of my exams next week. That would be embarrassing.

"Yes, you were rather loud. My entire class heard it."

Crapcrapcrap! See, this is why I keep my anger inside – to save myself saying really stupid and embarrassing stuff that can be used to humiliate me later. And this, of all things! I really couldn't care less if people thought I was inhuman for not showing a wide range of emotions; it was so much easier than this crap.

"You know what, Kakashi-sensei?"

He raised his eyebrows at me. "Please, enlighten me." Smartarse.

I stood and swept up my pad and pen from the table, staring down my nose at him in the most high-and-mighty way I could. I copied it off Itachi, and knew from experience that on normal people (which, sadly, Kakashi wasn't) it worked wonders to instil fear into whoever you were telling off.

"I don't care what you think about me and Naruto, because for the last time, you are not involved. You can stop giving me looks in class and consulting Iruka-sensei, stop trying to play some perverted version of matchmaker, stop thinking you understand Naruto, and stop thinking you understand me when no one does. This has nothing to do with you and it never will. Iruka has a minor influence over Naruto, but sure as hell not over me. I understand you want me to protect Naruto from getting hurt, but I can't… I can't help it if he chooses the wrong person, okay?"

And with that I whirled around and burst through the door to the back room, sitting down heavily on the bench with a slightly triumphant smile.

You always know it's going to be a good day when you own your teacher.

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I rolled over and answered my phone with a grunt, clearly pissed off at being woken up from my rest. I was bloody tired. Being sick can do that to a person.

"Teme."

"What?"

"Are you still sick?"

"No." Maybe.

"Good, 'cause we're going to the movies and Sakura said I should invite you."

"Did she now?"

"Yes, and you better show up!"

"I have revision to do." And sleep to be had.

His scoff scratched down the line. "Dude, it's year ten – no biggie. Come to the movies!"

"Why?"

"Because I want you to, that's why."

I pretended to think for a moment, despite the fact that as soon as Naruto said that I was sold. I had two options; sleep the last dregs of my sickness away, or risk it returning just to see him. The things I do for that boy… Well, I don't actually do very much when it all comes down to it, but you get my drift.

"Okay, fine. Time, place, what we're seeing and all that?"

"Uhm… I'll go get Sakura, hold on."

Now why didn't he just do that in the first place? Would have saved us a great deal of trouble.

"Hey you, you coming or not?"

I didn't bother answering such a stupid question. She should know me better by now. Basically the deal was that if Naruto was there, I would be there, no matter how much grumbling and complaining I did.

"I'll take that as a yes. The movie's at six so meet at about quarter to."

"That's in half an hour!"

"So?"

Crap! I hadn't done my hair today because I didn't think I would be seeing anyone, and it took agesto do. And what was I going to wear? I wanted Naruto to notice I'd gone to an effort, but not too dressy.

"What are we seeing?" I ran through several outfits in my head, dismissing each one in turn.

"I have no idea. Lee and Tenten picked it so it's bound to have lots of fighting. I think it's an old rerun or something."

I laughed a little at that and felt a bit better about going. Tenten and I had exactly the same taste in movies, and definitely enjoyed a bit of the old severed heads and giant swords.

"And can you ring Shikamaru? None of us could get onto him."

"Sure. You're coming around to mine afterwards, by the way. And don't say no because I'll be very offended."

I could almost see her roll her eyes. "One; you're a boy so that idea's shot already, and two; my parents are study freaks and I made the mistake of telling them I wanted to be a doctor so they're treating these pissy little year ten exams like they're year twelve ones."

I did a facepalm. "Sakura, I'm gay, therefore it doesn't matter that I'm a guy. Just tell them you're doing some science revision with me or something."

"But my parents know I've finished my science stuff already. I'll swing by some other time, okay?"

I gave an annoyed sigh. "Fine. Catcha tonight, then

There was a distant, "Bye, teme!" shouted from somewhere down the line as Sakura said her farewell and hung up.

I ran to my room, mind racing through all my clothing options, and I whipped out my mobile as I sifted through my wardrobe. I threw t-shirt after t-shirt onto my bed as the dial tone rung in my ear, and wasn't entirely concentrating when a very feminine-sounding Shikamaru answered.

"Hey it's me, everyone's going to the movie's tonight, want to join?"

There was a brief pause. No, I wear black too much… green? Button shirt or normal t-shirt? How about dark blue? Black jeans or light denim? Haven't worn my blue jeans in a while… Black was safer. But a button shirt would be too dressy – it's just the movies, jeez. Okay, so plain t-shirt, but what colour?

"Is this the Naruto-lover?"

I dropped the black jeans I was holding, recognising the voice. "Temari? What are you doing on Sh… No way!"

I could hear her smile through her voice. "Yes way!"

"When?"

"Wednesday night."

"How?"

"Well, he came round and braved Kankuro's questioning then asked if I wanted to go for a walk. We went to the park and it was sunset and oh it was so romantic! He asked me out and now here we are."

"Wow."

"I know!"

"Well congratulations on bagging yourself a lazy-arse."

"Thankyou, I'll take it as a compliment. But we're going out tonight so he can't come to the movies. He's all mine."

I tried to ignore the possessiveness of that statement and failed miserably, instantly fearing for my friend's life. "Please don't kill him, that wouldn't benefit anyone. I gotta go get ready, but tell me – black or green?"

She laughed. "Green. You're always wearing black. Hook in, kiddo! Oh, and tell Gaara I'm sorry but I was only looking out for him."

I sighed, pointedly ignoring the 'hook in' comment. "When will you start dealing with your own crap?"

"He's scary when he's angry!"

"And usually you're the one telling us all to get over it and give him a good smack. Tell him yourself."

"I'm not going to beg. Just do it and I'll be nice to your friend."

"Whatever," I grunted. As if she'd hurt him anyway… At least I don't think she would. But then again, she is Temari.

… Nah.

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I stood in an awkward silence with Shino and Kiba in the foyer of the cinemas, staring at the roof and begging for someone to show up. Now would be great. Like, right now. Anything to stop the silence. Please?

Kiba was leaning against the wall and staring out of the glass doors into the almost-night. Shino was sitting on a chair next to him, but there was no interaction at all. Occasionally Kiba would glance down, but Shino's head was angled towards the ground and he didn't move once. The tension in the room was crazy.

The only time I could think of that equalled this for awkwardness was when Gaara came over for the first time and Itachi was going through a very, ah, 'naturalist' stage. Meaning he didn't really…. Didn't really wear a lot.

The door opened with a gust of icy wind and Naruto walked in, Sakura close behind. Oh thank Christ; I was going to kill something.

"Hey guys, didn't – whoa."

Naruto's eyes widened when he saw me, and I felt my face heat up.

"Ditched the duck-butt look, I see."

I self-consciously touched the back of my head where my hair was oddly flat and soft, falling straight down to my shoulders but sticking out occasionally at weird angles.

"I didn't have time, because someone didn't give me enough warning."

He laughed and walked up to me, bravely reaching out and ruffling my hair. I pushed him away, scowling, and he took a step back with his hands in the air. Sakura appeared next to him and grinned at me.

"Nice," she said appreciatively.

"Yeah, it looks good," Naruto agreed, before turning around and standing next to Kiba, instantly jumping into a conversation about something nobody else cared about.

Sakura winked and smiled at me, nudging me in the ribs before greeting Shino and disappearing down a hallway to the right, no doubt to the toilets. Why must girls go to the bathroom all the time? They do their hair and make-up before they leave home, do it again when they get to wherever they are, then do it again before they leave. It baffled me, honestly.

I did feel a little better, though. Maybe that nudge meant something; maybe Naruto had been talking to her. I hadn't seen her at all since the café break-up because I'd been sick, so perhaps something new had happened on the Naruto Front that she was yet to tell me. I crossed my fingers.

But even if he had told her something that looked promising for me, it didn't stop the fact that he and Kiba were being very odd. The sensible part of me said they were always that comfortable because they were best friends, but the jealous teenager side had a very strong urge to yank them apart and tell them to stay away from each other. Naruto was blushing and I knew why, but Kiba… Kiba was flirting!

Oh you traitorous fiend! What are you getting at? How could you possibly do such a thing when your boyfriend is sitting not two feet away?

I stole a glance at Shino, mildly surprised to see his brow creased and his head turned away from the two, clearly uncomfortable. I couldn't see his eyes, but I'd bet anything they were narrowed dangerously. I walked over to sit beside him and nudged him with my foot.

"What's up?"

He shrugged and looked up to face me, eyes hidden as usual behind round dark glasses. A lot of our friends had weird little quirks like this. Gaara and his lack of eyebrows and love kanji tattoo, Naruto and his whisker scars, Kiba and his filed fangs, Shino and his glasses, Neji and Hinata with their creepy pale-to-the-point-of-almost-white eyes, and Choji with his facial scars as well. In fact, we all had something weird going on in some form or another.

"Kiba is being… different. I can't figure it out." His voice was quiet so the other two didn't hear us. Not like they would anyway – they were too intent on discussing some new anime movie to pay attention to anything else.

Well, he never was good with people so I didn't blame him. "In what way?"

There was a brief silence before he said, "He spoke to me about Naruto, and we haven't spent time alone together since then. I think… I think he is afraid of something."

I thought for a moment. "Shino, how long have you and Kiba been together?"

"Almost a year."

"Has –"

"Woo! Time to see some rolling heads!" Tenten's high voice shrieked through the large double glass doors as she waltzed into the cinemas, what looked to be Lee's jacket wrapped tightly around her and a scarf looped around her neck. Lee himself was following close behind, face flushed from the cold and wearing another of his jackets.

Sakura came back from the bathroom looking no different to before and called out a greeting, scooting over to them and immediately engaging in a loud conversation about the rain and how awful it was to a girl's hair. Hello! It's not so great for a guy's either.

I glanced at the clock. Five to six… come on – oh, hello.

Another burst of freezing air and there was Hinata, Neji and Gaara, all dressed in coats and scarves, hands shoved into pockets and – oh, what's that? Gaara had his arm around Hinata's waist…. So, he finally got the balls to ask, did he? Well, let's hope all Hinata's Tenten-snogging paid off. I smirked at him and he nodded in greeting

"Uchiha."

I nodded. "Your sister says sorry but she was only looking out for you."

Hinata's face went a dangerous shade of scarlet as Gaara helped her take off her jacket, mumbling something about interfering sisters not knowing their place and deserving a 'talking to'. Aw, when did he get so nice and protective? I made an educated guess that Temari had grilled Hinata on just what she was expecting out of Gaara and that she better treat him well because he was an unstable boy who didn't need a broken heart added to his burden. Or something to that effect, at least.

"Don't worry, it – it wasn't that bad, really," Hinata said quietly. She had better control over her stutter since I'd last heard her talk. Which was… Oh, ages ago.

Neji crossed the room and sat next to me as his cousin and Gaara started up a hushed conversation. "Have you spoken to your boyfriend lately?"

I rolled my eyes as I watched Lee count out how many people there were. "Where are the others?" He asked, just a little too loudly.

Naruto spoke up. "Sai said it was too cold, the whinger."

Lee shook his head sadly. "No sense of spirit, that boy." When it came to Lee, no one had enough 'spirit'.

"Choji said he had a family thing, and Ino isn't here because Choji's not," Kiba offered.

Tenten rolled her eyes. "What are they, joined at the hip?"

Sakura turned an expectant eye on me, and it was a second before I realised that I was the only one who knew where our last missing friend was. "Shikamaru's out with –" A stern look from Gaara made me not-so-subtly change direction. "– with his father." Hopeless cover, really, but it was the only thing I could think of. Sakura didn't buy it, I could tell by the look in her eyes, but the others seemed fine. Lee came around and got all our money, then bought all our tickets for us at once. Youthfully, of course, and with just a tad too much enthusiasm.

But, to answer Neji's question, "I wasn't aware I had a boyfriend."

He scoffed. "You know what I mean."

"If you mean Blondie, yes I have."

"And…?"

I glanced at him, surprised at the level of concern in his voice. Well, I suppose he had been in on the whole 'force Naruto on Sasuke' thing a while ago, so it was normal for him to want to be up to date. And maybe… maybe Neji would be good to talk to. Sakura would just say 'it's not my place to tell', Gaara would smirk and shrug it off, and Shikamaru would be entirely wrapped up in Temari. Hopefully not yet literally – he was barely sixteen, for God's sake.

"I'll tell you later."

Lee beckoned us all forward and ushered us into the cinema, already half full, and we found our seats. There was a scuffle at first, but then Naruto shut us all up by sitting right in the middle of our line of seats and forced everyone else to sit around him. Kiba and I jumped straight to the places next to him, and Sakura, then Tenten, Lee and Neji sat on my side while Shino was next to Kiba, then Hinata and Gaara.

I resisted the overwhelming need to have a glaring match with Kiba, and my stomach dropped a little as I got a faint waft of what was going on, not liking it one bit. Shit, no wonder Shino was concerned. I scowled at the screen, wanting my thoughts to stay away from that track but failing big-time. I could see all the signs and I couldn't help my instincts from screaming out No! It's wrong! It's fake!

It just couldn't be right. Kiba and Shino were… well, Kiba and Shino. Our friends and a couple of the stragglers that we had befriended outside the group all knew and accepted them, and they'd been together so long that it was the norm. They had kept it so well under wraps the whole time they were together because they cared about the other and didn't want them to get hurt, and even though it had gotten a little out of hand since the not-so-subtle sports class incident, they were still there for each other. If they weren't together the world would likely be about to end. No matter what, they were the one constant within our friends. But it couldn't be true – there was no way. Kiba was just being the supportive best friend and Shino was going through a rough patch or… or something. There was definitely a perfectly logical explanation for it.

I wriggled a little in the chair and huffed, and saw Naruto turn to me out of the corner of my eye. That just made me squirm even more, because I still hadn't come up with an answer for him. I knew he wasn't expecting one soon, but I felt bad for not knowing in the first place. I mean, what the hell kind of turn of events was that? Me pretty much shouting out how much I liked him and then not even being able to say why.

Ugh, so pathetic.

"You all right?"

"Fine, dobe." I waved him away with my hand, trying to ignore his annoyed look.

"Teme –"

"Sh, it's starting," I shut him up, wanting to forget reality just for a little while and let go of all the confusion the idiot was making me go through. And I bet he had no idea, either. Hn, figures.

I smiled faintly as I realised that Tenten had picked a very typical movie and rolled my eyes, as within the first two minutes there was already a fight. Straight up, just like that, completely trashing some woman's living room. I looked across Sakura and saw Tenten grinning madly at the screen, positively squirming as the blonde girl pulled out a dagger and stabbed it through the table. She was a sucker for all things shiny, sharp and lethal, which might explain her attraction to Lee. While he was round as opposed to sharp, he was indeed shiny and lethal if you were ever to cross him in a fight. Gaara made that mistake once in year eight and never again.

The movie went on, several people died, there was a bit of a cartoon scene, a giant samurai fight, more people died, there was a lot of blood, then another fight, and more blood, and that was pretty much it. Ah, the joys of Kill Bill. I had to remember to steer Itachi clear of that one. In fact, I wasn't even sure Gaara should be watching it…

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I waved farewell as Tenten and Lee hurried out from the cover of the arcade and dashed across the road into Tenten's mother's car. Lee opened the door for her and gave a mock bow before running over to his side and climbing in. I smiled, just a little. What? It was cute.

I looked around and saw a fixed bench outside the nearby ice cream shop and walked over to it. I sat down heavily and was soon joined by Neji, who raised his eyebrows at Gaara and said, "Are you going to take her home or do I have to do it for you?"

Gaara did the usual I'll-eat-your-brain-later look while Hinata stuttered, "N-Neji, it's fine, r-really. I can get Fa-Father to pick m-me up."

Gaara put an arm over her shoulder and shook his head firmly. "No need, it's only a short walk."

"But it's raining, we'll get drenched!" Where'd her stutter go? Usually Gaara was the cause of people's stutter, not the cure. Aw, isn't that adorable? Yes, yes, I'm very girly in that I think relationships are cute, I already know because Sakura tells me non-stop and then says to stop being so gay. Well, they're cute unless it's Naruto and someone who isn't me; then it's just cruel.

"I have an umbrella." Hah, Gaara with an umbrella produced a weird mental image.

"Demo…"

Then Gaara did something really weird. He smiled. A real, genuine, non-death-promising smile. I was a little shocked, to say the least, but that was nothing compared the close-to-terror feeling when he leaned down and kissed her reassuringly on the forehead. Gaara being romantic? What?

"Come on, it'll be fine."

And he steered her out into the rain, pulling out the umbrella and looping an arm around her waist. Now that I thought about it, they sort of complimented each other. Confident and shy, psychotic and relatively normal, general arsehole and really kind, intelligent and a little on the ditsy side – it could work.

I nodded farewell to Kiba and Shino as they passed Neji and I, calling out before I could stop myself, "Hey, chin up, Shino."

He turned to me and I could tell he was surprised behind his glasses. For God's sake, kid, it's night! How can youpossibly see anything? But he nodded in understanding and ignored Kiba's confused look. I did the same and turned to Sakura when she tapped me on the shoulder.

"Jiraiya's giving me a lift, how are you getting home?"

I shrugged, not having really thought that far. "I dunno. Bus, I guess."

She gave me that motherly look she does so well that says she doesn't approve but knows arguing won't get anywhere, ruffled my hair and left with Naruto, who gave me a knee-weakening smile as he called out "See ya's bright and early for exams!"

Ugh.

Neji waited until they rounded the corner out of the arcade before turning to me with an expectantly raised eyebrow. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Time to unleash everything that had been stewing in my mind since Naruto's visit on Thursday… Poor Neji.

"Naruto and I don't work."

He didn't answer me straight away, just sat and stared at the shop opposite where we were sitting, which just happened to be Temari's. It was always hard to know what he was thinking – his face was always blank, polite, controlled. You could only ever read him when he was angry, and that was probably the only time you didn'twant to know what was going round in that gorgeous genius skull of his.

"What makes you think that?"

I shrugged and sighed, trying to find words to explain how I felt. I've never been good at that. "Well… Sometimes I think we're just too different. When we hated each other I couldn't see how we could ever be friends, and now that we are I don't see how we can be more. He's pretty much everything I'm not, and I just think we're too far apart for anything to go well."

"You never know if you don't try."

"Hn." I kicked my toe at the ground in frustration.

He was silent again, and I folded my arms around my body to protect myself against the frosty night breeze. Shit its cold. Well der, dumbarse, it's seven o'clock and it's winter. It can get like that.

"Sometimes you have to be different for it to work."

"But we're too different."

"Not necessarily. If you take a good look then you'll see you're pretty similar, he just expresses what he feels while you keep it inside. And even then he only shows happiness and keeps the rest bottled up just like you. And if you were the same it would be boring. You have to have differences to keep the relationship alive, if you didn't then there'd be nothing to talk about or get worked up over. It would just be bland and fake. Look at Gaara and Hinata, or Kiba and Shino – they're totally different but totally compatible. It's rare to find someone the same as you that you can have a good relationship with like Choji and Ino or Lee and Tenten. Naruto and Sakura didn't work at all. The fact that you're different is what would make it work."

I stared at the ground, rolling his words around in my head. It made sense, actually. I didn't bother mentioning that any girl and Naruto wouldn't work, feeling it to be unnecessary,.

"Sasuke, why do you like him?"

I glanced up at him sharply, eyes widening a tad in surprise. "Huh, he asked me that the other day."

"Did you tell him?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I didn't know the answer."

That seemed to surprise him. Well, as far as Neji can be surprised, anyway. "Surely you don't just like someone without reason?"

I shrugged and stared back at the ground. I didn't like this whole 'say what you feel' stuff. Man, why was I even doing it anyway? So far every time I had actually let out what was going on in my head, people looked at me like I had some contagious disease because of the simple fact that I was talking to them willingly.

"I… I don't know. I've been thinking about it but nothing I come up with seems good enough."

He was silent for a little while, staring at the ground with his weird eyes. That was his thinking face, and I knew better than to interrupt. I interrupted Gaara once when he had his thinking face on, and he didn't take kindly to me for a while afterwards. I swear that kid's just as insane as my brother a lot of the time.

"I think I know why you like him."

I blinked, looking back up at him. "How can you know if I don't?" That didn't make sense.

He sighed and folded his hands together to rest his chin on them and gave me his young-people-nowadays look. Just because he was a year older than us (he started school late with Lee and Tenten so he was in the same year as us) didn't mean he could start the patronizing thing. "Think about what you just said about being different, then it'll come to you. Just give it time – you two were meant to be together."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't start on the 'fate' thing again."

He sighed stood up. "Come on, it's cold. Let's take a walk to warm up."

I grunted and stood, not in the mood to argue. He did have a point though. I was steadily losing feeling in my toes, despite the two pairs of socks I was wearing. I straightened my coat as I stood up, once again cursing winter for making me look awful. Coats honestly did nothing for my figure. I scowled as I joined Neji for the short walk to the bus stop, and he kept going with his previous train of thought.

"What did he tell you?"

"About what?"

"When he asked you why you like him, what else did he say?"

I frowned in thought. What did he say? When it all came down to it, what was he actually telling me. "He... oh." Yeah, I remembered now. "He said I shut him out so much that he didn't think it was even possible to like me fully, but he liked me on a physical sort of level. It was all very complex, coming from him."

Neji chuckled and nodded. "Yes, he surprises us all the time." Amen to that. "But it's simple, really."

I said nothing, waiting for him to enlighten me. I found this technique to be quite useful when talking to someone as smart as Neji. He could figure people out faster than me, and always knew exactly the right thing to do.

"You have to change."

I stopped short, raising my eyebrows and willing their eyes to go back to their normal size. Eh?

"What?"

He ignored the fact that I'd stopped and kept right on walking, expecting me to follow. I did, of course. Stuck-up bastard.

"You have to let him in if you want to be together, and you have to figure out why you like him and say it."

"But this is me. I'm not changing just because some blonde idiot wants to get to know me. If he doesn't like me the way I am then he's not worth it."

Neji scoffed, raising an eyebrow at me. "Do you honestly believe that?"

I opened my mouth to speak but closed it again, knowing immediately that he was right. Damn him.

And then I realised why I didn't believe it, turned on my heel, and stormed down the stairs that led to the bus stop, "See you Monday" thrown over my shoulder. (1)

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I stuffed my exam timetable into my pocket, hurrying down the stairs to the computer room where, oddly enough, my sports exam was being held. Last time I checked I had two minutes. Crap. I bolted into the classroom, found a desk conveniently next to Naruto and threw my bag down.

"Just in time, Uchiha."

Tenten's smartarse voice sounded from the back corner of the classroom, and I twisted around to pull a face at her. Yes that's right children, Uchiha Sasuke pulled a face. Quite a momentous day. It seemed Tenten thought so too, because she pulled another one back at me after a barely concealed jaw-drop, but I just rolled my eyes and turned back to the front as a loud "Oi, teme!" was shouted to my left. He was what, three feet away? Not shouting distance, that was for sure.

I looked over to him. "Hm?"

"What are you doing after school?"

His hair looked especially nice today, and he seemed to be toning down the orange more and more. Where was his headband? Oh, around his arm. Nice move, dobe. It seems you've done something right for a change.

"Probably convincing my brother he is in fact human and not a dinosaur."

He laughed and I smiled. I felt refreshed. How did he do that?

We both looked up as Kurenai-sensei (oh that's right, our Japanese exam was next. Pah, easy) glided into the room, ever graceful. She reminded me just a little of our cat at home, slinking between the desks and handing out our exam papers. She was a young teacher, and seemed to favour white strappy tops and short skirts – hardly suitable for school. No one complained though, because even I could appreciate that our Japanese teacher was very good-looking, hence every guy except me, Naruto, Kiba and Shino watching her every move. Even Tenten had her eyes glued to her.

I felt a little twinge of pride as Naruto completely ignored her and said to me, "The thing is, that could be true. But anyway, a few of us are freaking about the English exam so we're going to the library to help each other out. Shikamaru's coming, but two brains are better than one for us retards."

"You're not retards; you're just a little slower than the rest of us."

He laughed and was about to respond when Kurenai-sensei held up her hands, skirt riding to dangerous heights, and called for silence. How could she be wearing clothes like that when it was threatening to pour down outside?

"For those of you who don't know me, my name is Kurenai. Gai-sensei is taking a class so I'm looking after you for the exam, and in most cases you will have a different teacher than the one who normally takes your class. There will be no talking, there will be no note-passing, there will be no noise or possible cheating of any kind or you'll have Ibiki-sensei to answer to." A collective shudder went round the class. "You have ninety-minutes. You may start."

And the pelvis is connected to the, spi-ine and the spine is connected to the… ooo, which way am I gonna go? Sternum or scapulas? Choices, choices… And the spine is connected to the, sternum and the sternum's connected to the, ribcage and back up to the top now! The spine is connected to the, scapulas, and the scapulas are connected to the, collar bones… At least I think they are. Are they? Oh well, that'll have to do.

No matter how much I studied, Naruto being next to me was messing with my head.

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If part of changing for the damn dobe meant more talking, then it would have to happen. I'd just have to imagine I was talking to either Shikamaru or Sakura, and hopefully it'd all roll from there.

Deep breaths, Sasuke, they're not gonna eat you. Except maybe Choji, but he's not even here so no dramas. Hopefully Ino hasn't taken up the habit since she's been with him.

"So what are your electives for next semester?" We'd put them in the week before and I saw that the classes were posted up outside the Middle-School Office this morning, but couldn't be bothered checking out who else was in my classes.

Several pairs of eyes became very wide and turned to bore holes of wonder through me. Come on, is it really so interesting? I've been in the library with you for the past hour yet when I talk it's so amazing? Tenten and Shikamaru seemed to be the only ones unaffected, although Kiba didn't seem more shocked as mildly annoyed that Naruto was positively beaming at me from across the table. I counted that as my reward. Naruto being proud of me, not Kiba being annoyed. That just wouldn't make sense.

I had to wrench myself away from fantasy land to tune in to people's answers. I wasn't greatly interested, but found out that so far Tenten, Ino, Kiba and Gaara were doing drama with me, and Tenten, Shikamaru and Gaara were in my metalwork class as well.

"I've got drama and another sport. Outdoor, I think."

Great, so a good and a bad cancelled each other out to make just a plain indifferent line of nothingness. On one hand I had Naruto (blonde sex god), yet on the other I had Inuzuka Kiba (Dog Boy), who had a very strange relationship with said sex god.

Life basically hated me right about now.

But still, having Naruto in my class pretty much overrode any feelings of contempt I held for the Inuzuka, and so I was, as of now, officially looking forward to next semester.

"I want to change out of drama, though." He shuddered a little.

No! I inwardly screeched, while on the outside I gave him my best confused look. I didn't know if I got it right, having never done it that much, and so asked, "Why?" just to make sure.

"I know the guy teaching it, and he's a total creep."

"Oh my God, is it Kakashi-sensei?" Nice one, Ino.

He gave a small laugh. "Nope, but he is a perve. He should so not be allowed in a school."

"Who is it?" Was that Gaara sounding intrigued?

He shrugged and looked around at everyone's (bar mine and Shikamaru's) eager faces, obviously milking the attention for all it was worth.

"Well, Tsunade said I wasn't meant to tell…"

I rolled my eyes as Ino said, "Please! You can't leave us hanging!" Is it possible for her voice to get even whinier?

He sighed dramatically (hah, we were talking about drama) and shook his head. He was probably stirring them all and really had no idea who it was. He would do that, just to mess with us.

"Nah, I really can't tell – Tsunade will get pissed at me big time. You know what she's like when she's angry."

Did we ever. No wait… what?

"She gets angry?" Shikamaru asked, sounding surprised. Well, for him anyway.

Naruto nodded, confused.

"I thought she just cruised on mildly annoyed with the occasional joke thrown in amongst the paperwork complaints."

Naruto laughed and shook his head. I think I was the only one who saw that it was extremely forced and his eyes stayed dull. "No, no, she gets mad. You only see her at assemblies – I have to live with her."

I completely tuned out after that, and alternated between watching Naruto's fake happiness and doing the workbook questions. After a solid half hour of rolling thoughts around in my skull, I came to a decision.

If Naruto could make me change, then I could do the same for him.

Oh my God, I always either forget the footnotes or remember at the very last second. So, just ignore the ones from last chapter – they're really not that important. Though they never really are, to be honest, but whatevs XP. Although I'm so sorry for the amazingly awful pun for the second one.

And this chapter's footnote…

I seem to be failing more and more with my humour lately, and this story's getting more serious than I had planned. –dodges watermelons- I'm sorry!!

So yeah… You know the drill, peeps. Push the button and review, before I break out into that Sugababes song again XP. The more I get the faster I update. This is not a very good chapter. I apologise.