Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Not a Fairy Tale

"You seriously forgave the two of them?" Kiba's talking through a mouth full of food and I can't help but scrunch my nose up in disgust.

"Kiba, chew first, swallow second, and talk third." I point at the general vicinity of his mouth. "It's disgusting."

He swallows, "Jeez Saks, I know how to eat."

"Then act like it."

He sticks his tongue out at me and I stick mine back out at him.

"Fine, you win. Happy now?"

"Course!"

"So…?"

"So…"

"So, you seriously forgave the two of them?"

I snort, "No. Hell no. You know me enough to know I don't forgive people who torture me endlessly easily."

"So then why?"

"Well…a big part of me wants to believe them, because they used to be good friends, but the small part of me that doesn't believe them keep reminding me that if they'd really been my friends then they wouldn't have left in the first place, you know?" I prop my head up on my hand and scan the cafeteria, they're not here yet.

Earlier Naruto and Hinata had been avoiding both me and Sasuke's group. They'd been in the middle, between the two of us and just kind of floated there in the middle in every class. It made me doubt them a little.

"Yeah, I do, but if you ask me Saks, it seems like Naruto and Hinata, at least from what I can tell, really do want to be friends again. Maybe they make a mistake, everyone does."

"Yeah, I know, I've made a lot of mistakes but I'd never leave my best friend for a stupid mistake. Naruto may not have brains, but Hinata's got enough for the two of them."

"Well," Kiba takes another huge bite, "maybe the Uchiha had something on them."

My eyes narrow as I contemplate what Kiba's just said. So many things aren't making sense, if Sasuke had had something over them, then why were they crawling back to me now? Did he let up?

"What did I tell you about eating?" I sigh, Kiba will never learn.

"Chew, swallow, talk."

"So you don't have short term memory loss then?"

Kiba looks so flustered. "Well… I…" He looks so confused; it's really kind of cute.

My eyes widen, bad Sakura, bad thoughts! Do not go there! Kiba is friend. F-R-I-E-N-D. Friend.

"Sakura? Yoo-hoo? Anybody in there?" Kiba's waving a hand in front of my face trying to get my attention.

"Wha-huh? What just happened?"

"Well we were having a conversation when you went completely bonkers and zoned out on me." Kiba makes the crazy sign with his finger, his eyes wide. I would have blushed if Kiba hadn't made the crazy sign.

"Shut up!" I say, laughing, as I push him. He's laughing so hard that he nearly falls off the table.

We're back to safe, friendly things. That is good. I bite my lip. Maybe.

"Sasuke! Watch out!"

I'm laughing so hard I can barely get the words out; my only consolation is that he's laughing pretty hard too.

"Aw, but Sak-u-ra! That's no fun."

"It's not going to be fun when you shove me off the table and I land on the floor, head first. I bet I'll die and you'll be responsible, then you'll go to jail for life because you killed your best friend because she stole some of your ketchup."

"Hey, it's totally justified. I was protecting myself. The word 'stole' is your down fall Haruno."

"Shut up Uchiha, you don't know what I've got."

He leans in close and my face turns red, thinking about what else those words could mean.

"No."

He breathes it softly into my ear, loud enough for me to make it out over the din in the cafeteria, but not loud enough for the others to hear.

"But I'd love to find out."

I blush scarlet again.

"Can we sit here?" A soft voice asks me, and I look up, totally confused and disoriented.

I look up.

Naruto and Hinata.

Behind them, still at the lunch line, my former best friends and that Karin girl are glaring at the two as if they're traitorous, and when they glance back behind themselves, the six of the others make a cutting motion across their neck.

They're clearly saying, 'You're dead.'

But is it an act?

I plan to find this out.

"Sure!" I reply with the perky attitude that used define me, "We, as you can see, have a whole table to ourselves. Make yourselves at home. Prop your feet up, and I do not mean that literally, Naruto," I give him an evil glare before continuing, "but if you speak with your mouth full. Well you'll be meeting Mr. Floor and Mrs. Shoe."

"Oh, are they new teachers here? Are they nice? I want to meet them! So far I've only met our old teachers, Kakashi, Iruka, Kurani, Asuma, you know, those guys."

Kiba slaps his face into his hand. "Is this guy really that dumb?" He asks me.

I nod, slowly and mouth, 'Even dumber.'

Kiba groans, "Moron."

This earned an indignant, "Hey!" from Naruto.

"She was being sarcastic. If you speak with your mouth open, then she'll kick you off the table and onto the floor."

It takes Naruto a moment but he finally puts two and two together. "Oh…OH! Wow, Sak, you're just as mean as you used to be."

My eyes narrow, but Naruto, being the buffoon he is, doesn't realize what he's said.

"Sorry Sakura." Hinata whispers, as she picks at her sushi, shyly.

"Ramen time, ramen time, it's the best time of the day!" He sings off tune, completely unaware to what's going on around him.

Kiba watches with a slightly disgusted look on his face as Naruto slurps up unhealthy amounts of ramen before swallowing them whole.

"This guy is unreal."

"I know…"

"Dude!" Kiba slams the table, causing Hinata to jump and Naruto to look up from his ramen feast. "Sorry," he says to Hinata before turning to Naruto, "you have got to teach me how to eat like that."

"Sure!"

Great. They've hit it off… I smile slightly as I watch them. As much as I'm suspicious, I really want to trust them. Why are things so hard?

A flash of trusting lavender eyes.

A flash of playful cerulean blue.

Maybe it was because I'd known them for so long. It was hard not to fall right back into old habits.

"Kiba." I nudge him, he's about to go over to Naruto's side so Naruto can teach him the art of swallowing food whole. "Watch him. Make sure… You know."

"Don't worry Saks, I got you covered."

I watch him and bite my lip. I hope so. I hope I can trust Kiba judgment on these things. But I've known Naruto and Hinata for a long time. I don't think that he'd recognize the warning signs that I would, the little signs, like Hinata's stuttering, her finger twitching, her nose scrunching, her eyes shifting, these things give me an edge, and although Naruto has different signs, there are little things for him too. Little things that Kiba just doesn't know.

I sigh and prop my head up onto my hand.

My eyes narrow in on Hinata.

"Hey Hinata. How are things?"

The girl looks up shocked. I frown.

"F-fine."

My eyes narrow.

"What were you thinking about there? You looked to be in pretty deep."

"N-nothing of i-importance."

"If it were nothing of importance you wouldn't be thinking about it now would you?"

"I-I"

The bell rings, right when she was about to snap.

So close.

"Goodbye Sakura, I will see you later." Hinata stands up, throws away her uneaten food and leaves with Naruto who's calling back a, "Bye Sak!" to me.

I wander over to Kiba.

"He's hiding something." He tells me as we head over to class.

"Tell me about it. I almost got whatever it is out of Hinata but the bell rang right before I got her to crack. I was so close, I just needed another minute."

"And there's the fact that they booked it out of here right behind the Uchiha and his crew."

"Considering that we're all going to the same class. I'm getting a bit suspicious here, what do you think Kiba."

"I think, my dear, Ms. Haruno, that I'm going to put on my detectives hat and follow you where ever you go because I sniff a rat."

"Remind me to ask them what Sasuke's reaction was…" I trail off because we're at the door to the classroom and Sasuke and Naruto are looking at each other… no, not looking at each other, or glaring, but… they look like they're exchanging information through glances. I knew it. Something was up.

I look at Kiba and he's looking at me. We do some glance exchange of our own and I nod for him to follow my lead.

I walk into the classroom with a smile on my face. "Shut up Kiba." I say loudly and giggle (and snort).

He chuckles, "I see you still snort when you giggle."

"You still think that's cute?" I tease, but inside I'm burning.

I do not like Kiba. I do not like Kiba.

I do not like Sasuke. I do not like Sasuke.

"Nah," he answers with an easy grin that makes my heart skip a beat, "I think I think it's adorable." He holds out the a so it's two beats instead of one.

"Aw, Kiba, aren't you just cute." I pinch his cheek and we sit down.

We can't have them thinking we're on to them now can we?

"Wow, Sak!" Naruto calls out over the loud classroom. "I didn't know you and Kiba were dating!"

Kiba puts his arm around my shoulder. "Yeah, every night I sneak into her bedroom and we have some fun." He wiggles his eyebrows around in a suggestive way and I blush so hard it would beat Hinata's blush in a smack down.

"You…" Naruto's eyes are wide and his mouth is open, he looks like a gaping fish. My eyes twitch to Sasuke for a second and you can tell he's completely focused in on our conversation. His eyes are narrowed into slits and he looks like he could kill someone, preferably Kiba. My stomach flutters.

But I don't know if it's anxiety for Kiba, or the way that Sasuke's acting about me, as if he's jealous or something.

"I can feel the Uchiha boring a hole into my back." Kiba mutters into my ear before he says to Naruto more loudly, "Yeah, Sakura's pretty good with video games. She usually beats me, but it's fun seeing her get all competitive. Once she even threw salsa in my face. I count that cheating, but…" he shrugs and lets the rest of the sentence fall away. I shrug his arm off of me. None of that ever really happened, but it was fun seeing their reaction.

Naruto looks as though he's about to respond, relief evident in his face, but the teacher walks in at that moment and commands our attention.

It's like that for the rest of the day.

"So Kiba," I begin, spinning the dial on my locker, "do you need a ride home?"

He looks outside and frowns. It's raining pretty hard.

"Yeah, but there's no way I'm getting into a car with that old hag."

"INUZUKA!" Reverberates through the school halls and he shudders.

"How does she know?"

I shrug. "Woman's intuition?"

He hunkers down and mutters under his breath, "That's no woman, Sakura."

"INUZUKA!" It's louder this time.

"She's getting closer, I suggest that you don't insult her again, you know, if you want to live."

"Good advice." He states, sarcastically.

I smile cheekily, "I do my best. Anyway," I slam my locker shut. "I," I swing the car keys for my new car in his face, "have a new car. You're welcome to shotgun if you like."

"Hell yeah! But do you think you could let me drive."

"Nope." I say, popping the p. "This is all mine. I just got it."

"Alright fine, let's go."

I smile, but as I lead him away, I see Sasuke. He's all alone, his hands are in his pockets and he's leaning against a wall. His smoldering onyx orbs are set on me, and he's watching me as I walk away. But this isn't the hateful glare I've come to know in the time he's been here. It's different, kind of like it used to be before, but not really. Protective, but not.

Were Naruto and Hinata right?

Were we looking too much into things?

But as soon enough, that almost protective gaze turns into something harsh and I can't help but wonder if it was there at all.

"I'll always protect you Sakura, I can't not protect you."

It no longer feels this way and I wonder if maybe he was wrong.

Oh, look, is this another chapter? I think it is.

Yeah, how awesome am I? I have a lot of things to be doing but I do this. Mostly because I'm getting all these reviews that say pretty much the same thing:

That Sakura shouldn't have forgiven them so easily.

So I had to rush this chapter out so you could see that I had a plan. Cherries thinks before she writes! Sometimes.

(I forgot to put this in last chapter because it was dark and I was in pain and tired and I fell asleep and drooled on my laptop and…okay too much info right?)

Anyway, yay to my reviewers! Even if the repetitiveness did irritate the hell out of me, you reviewed and I love you for it! (In a completely not weird/stalkerish way.) I like reviews! They keep me going. (See how soon I got this chapter out? They motivate me!)

So yeah, the lesson of my not story is to review!