Part XXV

Kiba sighed as he rolled over in bed. It was the first day of exam week and he had been up late with Naruto studying for his algebra exam, which was that morning. He had begged Naruto to stay overnight since they had been up until midnight, but Naruto had refused saying that Kiba needed to get some sleep and it wasn't likely he would get enough if they stayed together. So, after much grumbling from Kiba, he and Akamaru had took Naruto back to campus in Kiba's car. Kiba had returned and went straight to bed, snuggling up to Akamaru as a substitute for his absent boyfriend.

Now, he had to drag himself out of bed to get ready. He half rolled out of bed in just his boxers, landing on his feet on the floor but then completing the roll and ending up on the floor on his back. He lay there a moment covering his eyes with his one arm. He looked up to find Akamaru perched on the edge of the bed staring at him quizzically. Kiba stretched out his arm toward the dog.

"Help me, Akamaru," he said. "You're my only hope!"

The dog just whined slightly and Kiba groaned as he began pulling himself up.

"Well I better just get it over with," he said. "You have to wait till I shower..."

Akamaru lay back down in a tight circle in the middle of the bed to wait for his master to return.

xXxXx

Later that day, Kiba finally felt relief as he came out of his classroom. Finally he was free from any more math classes for eternity.

He looked over and found Naruto sitting on one of the benches in the hallway waiting for him.

"Hey, you," Kiba said, smiling. "Were you going to let me walk past you?"

"I was going to see how long it would take for you to notice me," the blonde replied. "It looked like you would have kept going though."

"I'm afraid I'm not really in my right mind at the moment," Kiba answered. "The algebra exam took a lot out of me...I may be slightly delirious."

Naruto laughed as Kiba sat down next to him on the bench.

"We should get you some nourishment then," Naruto said. "Want to go eat lunch with me? Do you have time?"

"Yeah, I just have to drop off a paper for my American Poets class and take a short test at 2:00, so we have lots of time."

"My next one is at 2:00 also, so let's go to the Commons then."

"Glarg," Kiba said. "I hate the Commons, but it's more convenient today I guess. Let's go."

As the two sat at one of the tables, they talked about different things. Kiba kept picking at his chicken caesar salad while Naruto devoured a double cheeseburger and French fries.

"What do you want to do on Saturday?" Kiba asked. "Sakura sent me a text message and she can come. She's going to leave Thursday and stay with me till Sunday, then go back home for a week. Then she is taking two summer courses."

"I'm glad I don't have to take anything over summer this year," Naruto said. "I need a break. My major courses are crazy intense. I'm kind of excited to start work in a week from today though. It will be cool working with Sasuke's brother."

"Well, don't work too hard," Kiba said. "I still wish you would just stay with me, no work, not classes. It would be heaven. Either way, though, I am not taking any summer classes except for one tennis class. That will be my last PE course, and since I already know how to play, it won't even be a challenge."

"Isn't that kind of cheating the system?" Naruto asked.

"No, not at all...these classes have no basis in reality, so there's no reason not to take the one that is easiest."

"Hmmmm, maybe," Naruto mused as he finished his cheeseburger. "What do you want to do on Saturday? I haven't had much time to think about it. It's supposed to be really nice, almost seventy degrees, but it might rain in the afternoon."

"Maybe we can grill out then and have a picnic?"

"Oh, that sounds fun...we can get some drinks, stuff ourself with food, more drinks, play some cards or something, then pass out from exhaustion."

"That sounds perfect," Kiba laughed at Naruto's dramatic description. "I can have Sakura help me on Friday then, before you come over. Do you like grilled chicken? It's my favorite."

"Yeah, that sounds delicious. What do you make with it? I can pick up anything else you need."

"No, we'll make everything, you'll see. It will be fabulous!" Kiba laughed again. "I'll make potato salad, deviled eggs, and something sweet too."

"You should make strawberry shortcake," Naruto said. "Your whole meal sounds so typically American. It will be so good!"

"All right," Kiba agreed. "I'll do that!"

xXxXx

That same week, Sasuke was also having exams. His last one was completed on Wednesday afternoon, and he felt as if he had been set free from a prison. Secretly, he had only been thinking about how he would be living with his brother over the summer, wouldn't have to deal with his parents, and would hopefully be hanging out with Naruto and Kiba a lot over the next three and a half months. He was currently walking across campus with his friend Gaara.

"We should go out tonight, dude," he said. "You're done with exams now, too, right?"

"Yeah, which you should know," Gaara replied, "since we have almost all the same classes."

"Oh, yeah," Sasuke laughed. "I guess I've had a lot on my mind. Maybe I just need to to get laid."

"Ha!" Gaara scoffed. "I'm not helping you with that, but yeah, let's go out tonight. I wouldn't mind having a few drinks after all these exams. When are you leaving campus for the summer?"

"I'm not sure yet," answered the Raven. "Might stay through the weekend.

"Cool, I'm heading out Friday I think," Gaara said. "Well, I'll call you later and we can meet up someplace."

"Sounds cool, later."

The two met up later that night at a local pub they often went to that was a combination of a restaurant and a bar. Both had walked from their respective dorms with the intention of not being able to drive themselves home later on.

They were sitting at the bar together, Sasuke drinking whisky and Gaara was having cosmopolitans. The friends had been there for a couple hours and it was getting close to 11:30. A group of people had come in a short while earlier, and had been laughing and giggling loudly since they had arrived.

Sasuke turned around in his chair, annoyed slightly, to see who was being so noisy. He saw a large number of girls at a round table and one boy. He looked to be rather tall and thin with dark brown, bushy hair and dark brown eyes. His mostly drunken attention was caught.

"Hey, Gaara," he said, leaning too far into his friend. "Who's that kid over there?"

"No idea," Gaara replied after turning around to look. "And get your chin outta my shoulder."

Sasuke was still leaning in and hadn't noticed he was practically resting his chin on Gaara's arm.

"You're funny," Sasuke said sitting up again. "You're so straight but you drink those cosmos…but they are the same color as your hair, so maybe that's why you like them."

"Shut up, Sasuke," Gaara said, grinning evilly, amused by his friend's thought.

"Don't you think that kid looks like Kiba?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah, a little I guess," Gaara said after turning around again.

"He's fucking hot," the Raven murmured.

Gaara glanced at him sideways before turning back to his drink.

Sasuke kept turning around to look at the guy every so often, and soon he noticed the Raven watching him. He smiled obviously and Sasuke momentarily turned away, then looked back and smiled before turning back to Gaara.

"Score," he said to Gaara quietly.

"You're a dumbass," Gaara said with a laugh. "You did say you wanted to get laid though, so I should have been prepared."

A little while later, they boy came up to the bar and ordered a Sprite and grenadine.

"Hey, what's up?" Sasuke asked.

"Hey, not a lot, you?" he replied.

"Just hanging out, done with exams, looking to blow off some steam."

"Nice…I've got some steam to blow off…"

My name's Sasuke. Nice to meet you."

"Yeah, nice to meet you too," he replied after stating his own name, which Sasuke immediately forgot.

The kid sat down at the bar and he and Sasuke continued talking together. Gaara finally leaned over, getting Sasuke's attention. He leaned back so Gaara could whisper to him without being overheard.

"Hey, at least get me a ride home if you can before you go fuck this kid," he said.

"Ha, no problem, I'm working on it." the Raven replied.

About twenty minutes later, Sasuke, who was by now completely drunk, stood up and put on the jacket that he had hung on the back of the tall chair he had been sitting in. He turned to Gaara and motioned for him to come with them. They all paid their bills and then headed outside and followed Sasuke's new friend to his car. They got in and Sasuke directed him to Gaara's dorm, where they dropped him off.

The two then continued on to Sasuke's dorm. Upon unlocking the door, the Raven found his roommate sitting on the couch watching tv.

"Hey, Neji," he said with a leering grin at the boy with him and putting his hand up to the wall to steady himself. "Don't mind us, we're just going to hang out in my room."

"All right, I'm going to head to bed soon anyway," Neji answered. "Lucky you didn't come back about twenty minutes earlier….you would have seen quite a show right here if you had. She just left a little while ago."

"Dude!" Sasuke exclaimed. "That's my couch!"

Neji laughed and shrugged his shoulders.

"I think it's been around the block a few times," he said.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, chuckled, and then went into his room, pulling his friend with him. He shut the door and grabbed hold of the boy, kissing him and running his hands through his hair. They kissed for a couple minutes and then Sasuke grabbed him and roughly pushed him down onto his bed. He then climbed on top of him, kissing him again.

Sasuke grabbed the boy's arms and held them down while he continued kissing him and began pressing his hips against the boy's.

"You're eighteen, right?" he asked.

"Nineteen," was the reply. "Slow down, ok?"

Sasuke ignored the request, pulling his own shirt off and throwing it onto the floor. He then continued kissing the kid's neck as he moved one of his hands down between his legs and began groping him. Sasuke was already hard, and was becoming more aroused by the second. He began pulling the boy's shirt up over his head, quickly enough to get it off before there was any resistance. He lay back down upon him and kissed his neck, chest, and shoulders, running his hands all over his body. He forced the boy's legs apart with his own and began grinding against him.

"Wait!," the boy said. "Slow down!"

"You're so hot," Sasuke said. "It's ok…"

He wrapped his arms around him and rolled them both over, continuing his kissing and his hands seeming to be all over all at the same time.

"Wait, wait!"

Sasuke silenced the complaints with another kiss and his tongue. His hands gripping wrists and pulling them together, holding them. He rolled over again so that the boy was beneath him again and reached down, unbuckling his own belt and unbuttoning his jeans. He held the boy's arms down and kissed him again.

"You're being too aggressive," the kid complained. "Stop."

"Your being too sexy," Sasuke said as he bit at the guy's lip, grabbed and pulled his hair to hold his head still. "Kiss me again and then give me head…"

"Stop!" he said again, somewhat louder. "I know you're drunk, and you're hot, but let's just go a little slower…"

"I can't," Sasuke said as he pushed him down again and began reaching down to pulled the kid's pants off. "You're so fucking hot, Kiba."

"What?" came the annoyed response. "Stop!"

"Come on," Sasuke said. "Just give it to me…"

"STOP!"

A minute later there was a loud knock on the bedroom door.

"Sasuke, come here," Neji called, sounding irritated.

"Fuck," the Raven muttered standing up and holding the waist of his jeans so they wouldn't fall down. He went out into the hallway, pulling the door closed. "What's up?"

"What the fuck are you doing?" Neji asked. "I can hear that kid telling you to stop every two minutes it seems like…not cool, dude."

"Fuck," the Raven said again. "I don't know…"

Just then the door opened again and the kid emerged fully dressed.

"Hey, I have an exam in the morning, so can't stay too late," he said and handed Sasuke a piece of paper. "Here's my number, call me and maybe we can hang out again…in public though…without alcohol."

"Sorry," Sasuke said as he took the paper.

"It's all right, you're just kind of scary when you drink I guess," he said with a laugh. "See you later."

"Later," Sasuke said as the kid left the dorm room. "Well, that kind of sucks."

"Might be better in the long-term," Neji added. "You better go to bed, man."

Sasuke was lying in bed a few minutes later, feeling bored and irritated. He reached over to his phone on the nightstand and checked the time. It was now 12:29. Without thinking, his hand scrolled to his contacts list, settled on one in particular and called.

"Hey, Kiba," the Raven said. "If it's too late, just let me know. Hope I didn't wake you up…"

"Hi, Sasuke," Kiba replied. "No, it's fine. I had my last class of the term today so no more studying. I'm just waiting for the washing machine to stop so I can throw my towels into the dryer before going to sleep. What's up?"

"Not much, had my last exam today also, went out with a friend, just sitting around now…"

"Oh, you're done too? When are you heading up to your brother's place?"

"Probably this weekend. That's what I was thinking anyway."

"You should come up earlier if you can. I'm having everyone come over on Saturday to hang out for the end of the semester. We're going to grill chicken. It will be fun. You should come too."

"Really? That does sound fun. I guess I could do that. I'll go to Itachi's place on Friday and come over Saturday? What time?"

"Anytime. You can even come over Friday if you want. My friend Sakura is coming over tomorrow, and then on Friday during the day, we are just going to be cooking food for Saturday. You should come over, and we can all go out to dinner and you can stay till Sunday if you want."

"I'll do that then," the Raven agreed. "I'll probably drop most of my things off at Itachi's and then come over to your place."

"OK, see you Friday then. The washing machine is done, so I'm going to sleep now."

"Cool, see you Friday."

"Bye bye."

xXxXx

Friday arrived, and Kiba and Sakura were up early in the morning. They began cooking after having scrambled eggs and tea, which Kiba had made.

Sasuke arrived around 11:00 and Kiba took a break to sit with him in the living room while Sakura continued cooking in the kitchen.

"It's nice to see you again," Kiba said, feeling himself become slightly shy for some reason. "How do you think your classes went?"

"I think everything went fine, I mean, I can't do anything about it now anyway," Sasuke replied with a small laugh. "I know I passed everything anyway, so I guess that's all that matters."

"Good!" Kiba said. "I am certain I passed all mine also, I had a rather easy course load this semester, except for algebra of course, but Naruto helped me through that. I'm not worried."

"That's cool. When will Naruto be here? Did he have an exam today?"

"Yes, he's at his last one now. I told him you were coming over, so he's going to come over as soon as he gets done."

"All right, that will be nice to see him again."

"Well, I better get back in the kitchen," Kiba said standing up. "Do you want anything right now? We can all go out to eat when Naruto returns."

"No, I'm good, thanks," Sasuke replied. "I'll just chill out here unless you need some help?"

"I think it's pretty well under control, so just relax."

Kiba went back out into the kitchen as Sasuke began playing tug-of-war with Akamaru, who had begun jabbing at the Raven with his toy octopus while he had still be talking with Kiba.

Kiba chuckled to himself as he watched the two from over the counter. He was currently peeling hard-boiled eggs and getting them into halves to make deviled eggs. Akamaru was growling loudly now and yanking at the octopus, which Sasuke was just barely managing to keep ahold of. Kiba laughed again a little harder.

"What's so funny!?" Sakura demanded in a fake-annoyed tone of voice.

"Oh, it's cute how Akamaru and Sasuke are playing together," Kiba said.

"I think so too," she said after giving Kiba an odd sideways look that he hadn't noticed. "I like people who get along with animals. There's something wrong with people who don't like pets!"

"Agreed," Kiba said and went back to his eggs.

An hour or so later, Sasuke was down on the floor being more or less dragged around by Akamaru, when Naruto arrived back at the apartment. He dropped his backpack onto the floor and quickly realized it was Sasuke on the floor.

"Hey, Bastard!" Naruto said. "I didn't think you'd be here already."

"Yeah, I just got here a little while ago," the Raven. "You done with exams now?"

"Fuck yes!" Naruto practically screamed. "And none too soon either."

"Well, I wouldn't worry if I were you," Sasuke said with a smirk. "Losers always fail all their exams anyway."

"Attack, Akamaru!" Naruto yelled at the dog, pointing at his friend.

Akamaru merely barked gleefully and through the octopus up in the air, catching it in his teeth as it came back down.

Naruto sighed in defeat at Akamaru and went out in the kitchen to give his boyfriend a hug. He then came back out to the living room and sat down on the floor to talk to Sasuke.

Once Kiba and Sakura had finished their food prep, they joined the others in the living room. Naruto moved over and hugged Kiba's legs and leaned against him as they talked for a while longer.

"I'm hungry," Kiba said as he pushed the back of Naruto's head with his foot. "We should all go out to dinner."

"I'm starving," Naruto agreed. "I skipped lunch."

"Yeah, I haven't eaten since breakfast either," Sasuke added.

"Well, good!" Kiba said. "None of us have eaten since this morning, so let's do it!"

"OK, no one is arguing to the contrary," Naruto said with a laugh. "Where should we go? I should probably take a shower first. I didn't really care too much what I looked like for my exam."

"I need to shower too, and Sakura probably will too….how about you Sasuke?" Kiba said grinning.

"No, I'm ok," the Raven chuckled. "And for the record, anything sounds good to me right now, I'm so hungry suddenly since you've brought it up."

"We should go to Chen Lee's," Kiba said.

"Kiba, I think you would eat there every day if you could," Naruto said.

"I would!" Kiba agreed, grinning maniacally. "But Sasuke has never been, we ought to go for his sake."

"Sure, sure," Naruto said, teasing his boyfriend. "I think you would grab someone off the street if they hadn't been just so you could take them. But, it's cool with me. I love that place too."

"So do I," Sakura added.

"Ok, well, I'm going to shower first then," Naruto said as he got up and walked out of the living room and down the hall. "Entertain the company, Kiba!"

Soon enough, the four were in Kiba's car driving across town to Chen Lee's Garden. The night was warm but overcast and seemed to look as if it would rain at any moment. Inside the restaurant, it was quite warm, and Ming was at the counter, as always.

"Kiba!" she exclaimed. "You brought lot of people, I like when you do that!"

"Hi, Ming," Kiba said. "We'll give you lots of business tonight."

"That's great! You should come more often. Don't worry though, I remember your order so I'll take everyone else's and you can go find table."

Kiba chuckled as he went, leaving his credit card with Naruto, and sat down at one of the larger booths in the restaurant. A minute later, Sasuke came over and sat across from him.

"What did you order?" Kiba asked. "Did you get an eggroll like I told you to?"

"I'm getting the onigiri dinner," replied Sasuke absently. He had folded his hands in front of his face and was resting his chin against them and starting intently at Kiba. "And the eggroll of course."

"Yes!"

"Hey, Kiba," Sasuke said, still intently watching Kiba. "Are you and Naruto doing anything over Memorial Day weekend?"

"We haven't talked about it," Kiba admitted.

"What haven't we talked about?" Naruto asked as he slid into the booth next to his boyfriend and Sakura sat next to Sasuke.

"Memorial Day weekend," Kiba said. "Sasuke was asking what we're doing."

"Yeah," the Raven said. "Ummm, maybe if you don't have any other plans, would you guys like to come to the lake house with me?"

"Oh, sweet!" Naruto exclaimed. "How many years has it been since we went there? We were just little kids I think…"

"Yeah, probably since we were in middle school," Sasuke said.

"Kiba, Sasuke's family has this huge house on one of the lakes in the north, kind of near where you grew up…which is funny in a way, Naruto mused. "Maybe we were close by each other and could have met as kids…"

"Not very likely," Kiba said.

"Well, it's a really nice place, kind of on this cove, right on the lake, and they have their own private beach."

"And we have a speedboat," Sasuke added. "And a party barge."

"Oh, damn…Sasuke, do you remember when we were probably twelve and we unroped the barge and it floated out into the lake and we were both too scared to try and start the engine…"

"How could I forget," the Raven answered, laughing. "My father probably wanted to drown both of us. Thankfully Itachi was out on his jet ski and found us. Otherwise, I think I would have preferred drowning rather than go back and explain what we did."

"You too sound kind of wild as kids," Sakura said after listening to the story.

"We were kind of troublemakers I guess," Naruto admitted. "But I just thought…are your parents going to be there? Knowing how strict they are, they might not like seeing me and my boyfriend together all the time…"

"Oh, no," Sasuke interrupted. "It would just be us three. I begged Itachi to tell our parents that he wanted to use the lake house, so they won't bother us at all. Itachi might even come up too, but he doesn't know for sure yet. So, what do you say?"

"What do you think, Kiba?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, it sounds fun, let's go."

The four finished their dinners and drove back to Kiba's apartment. Akamaru was waiting at the door for them and began bouncing around.

"Looks like I better take him for a walk," Kiba said. "It's so nice and warm out, do you want to come with me, Naruto?"

"Oh, I'll go with you, Kiba," Sakura said. "Naruto and Sasuke probably would like to talk or something anyway, and I'd like to get a little exercise."

"All, right," Kiba said. "Let's go for a long walk then."

"Do you want me to kick your ass at poker?" Naruto asked Sasuke.

"Well, let's play and see who kicks whose ass," the Raven answered as Kiba, Akamaru, and Sakura went outside.

They walked along the dark blocks of the sleepy town in silence for a while. The humidity had increased considerably since they had eaten dinner and the sky was looking more ominous.

"I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow," Kiba said absently watching the sky. "I thought it wasn't supposed to rain until tomorrow night."

"I'm not sure," Sakura answered. "Hey, Kiba…don't freak out, but…"

"Oh no," Kiba said. "Every time you say that it means you're about to say something that will make me freak out."

"No," Sakura laughed. "It's just…I don't know. You know I always have strong intuition. I think Sasuke likes you."

"What?" Kiba said, somewhat exasperated and a little thrown off. "Why would you think that?"

"He couldn't take his eyes off you at all since he got to your apartment this afternoon. It's just a feeling I have. You don't think so?"

"No," Kiba answered quickly. "Sakura, that can't happen."

"I don't know him as well as you do…but I also wondered if you might possibly like him…"

"That can't happen," Kiba repeated. "He's Naruto's friend. It's…

Kiba trailed off and watched the sky for a minute.

"There's something about him, I don't know," Kiba wished the stars were out. "It just can't happen."

"I see."

The two walked along in silence again when suddenly the rains came, starting as a light sprinkle and ending as a downpour by the time the two managed to make it back to the apartment.

As it turned out, it rained through the night and all the next day, somewhat dampening the end-of semester celebration, but not ruining it completely. Shikamaru had agreed to do the grilling despite the troublesome weather and he stood with an umbrella outside while Naruto and Shino joined him to keep him company but mostly ended up just goofing off together in the rain.

At the end of the evening, everyone was quite happily sitting around Kiba's fireplace, which had been fired up as the temperature had gone down considerably throughout the afternoon. Before they all went to sleep, Kiba had asked them all if they could meet up in the summer over the Independence Day holiday. After a little wrangling and thinking, it was set that six friends would all go to the fireworks together.