A/N: Helloooo! I'm just gonna leave this here and run for the hills before I get punched by someone... It hasn't been that long though, right? It's not like it's been THREE MONTHS. Ehm. I'm so sorry I've made you guys wait for that long. But I'm back now and I'm working my ass off to finish this fic. I've considered just leaving it be for once and the kick in the butt I've received from Naruto for that was so bad I've still got the bruise to prove it.

Just in case anyone's wondering: chapter 11 is done and will be up in a few days. I've got half of chapter 12 written and it'll hopefully be finished pretty soon. I can't tell for sure but I think 14 will be the last chapter, so we're getting close to the finish line!

Thank you for all the wonderful reviews on the last chapter. I really appreciate them and I hope you guys are all safe!

Buried under a pile of schoolwork on top of extensive basketball training followed by the actual games, Naruto's weeks flew by. The whole team had made impressive progress thanks to Gai's skillful leadership and Kabuto's persistence, but they hadn't made it past the first three days of matches – which was not terrible at all. In fact, it was unpredictably fortunate according to Kimimaro. It made sense since they had trained only for about a month and a half, while the rival teams had been preparing since late summer.

With the basketball club training coming to a halt due to the test season, Naruto's mundane school life was back. The only difference was that Saturdays were now Kiba day (it was a mutual decision on both Kiba and Naruto's sides to avoid any slip-ups) and with the change of teachers for Japanese, he now had to study extra for tests instead of focusing on exposure to the language.

Kakashi was late again for Algebra. They were supposed to start the quiz about twenty minutes ago. The everyday commotion the class normally would have had in a free period wasn't there – instead of making a ruckus, somehow everyone quietly minded their own business. It could be the winter blues, or because some of them actually cared about their grades and took the opportunity to study.

"Isn't this guy taking a bit too many leaves from work for someone who insults us on a daily basis for laziness?"

It was Shikamaru, rightfully complaining. He sported a tired expression, eyes drooping. It wasn't long before he pulled his phone out and started playing online chess. The tournaments would soon begin, so it was likely that he spent all his free time practicing.

Naruto and Kiba were sitting side by side, chatting quietly. Gaara was right in front of Naruto and appeared bored to death, but he sometimes joined them with a few curt words.

"They're the biggest I've ever seen, I'm tellin' you bro." Kiba was insistent on discussing the new Japanese teacher's breasts no matter how many times Naruto tried to change the topic. "I'm dead if Hinata sees me staring."

"Then don't look," Naruto deadpanned.

Kiba made a face. "I just can't take my eyes off them. Why're you gettin' all worked up anyway, Nards? You don't like big boobs?"

"They're nice. It's just that we've been talking about this for the last fifteen minutes."

Gaara nodded, worryingly slowly. "She has other aspects to her that you two can discuss. Like how she's as nutty as a fruitcake."

" Great . That's just what I needed to hear. A double-D going bonkers in a class I'm not in. Even Gaara gets to have fun."

Gaara smirked devilishly. "True."

"She's not crazy, just a little heated. Well. It's too soon to tell for sure," said Naruto. "But I feel like we'd get along as long as we follow the rules."

"Oh, I know! I'll join you on Thursday. To see her in action. She won't know I don't take Japanese."

"I think she'd notice. And you'd get a good scolding."

"Well, that's nothing new. It'll be an adventure and I'll be in a room with enough oxygen for all the people in it for a change."

"You're the one who picked Spanish, Kiba. Remember?"

Kiba grumbled. "Fuck me."

They tried on a few Snapchat filters after that. It wasn't interesting enough for Gaara, so he moved to another seat. There was a miserable attempt at trying to study for the quiz they would allegedly take as well, and if it weren't for Kiba, Naruto would have pushed himself to continue. But Kiba's attention span proved to be even shorter than Naruto's as he started scribbling a copy of Tsunade's breasts on the desk.

As he did so, Naruto's eyes lingered over his face. A strong, sharp jawline he had, and his skin was tanned from always taking Akamaru out for a walk. His hair was scruffy like it had never been touched by a comb before. Overall, he looked fairly… normal. Attractive? Sure. But nothing that made Naruto feel exceptional.

"Why the fuck are you watching me?" Kiba spoke. He hadn't glanced Naruto's way at all. Naruto corrected himself for thinking Kiba's attention span was short. Apparently, he could concentrate and even be aware of his surroundings.

He pursed his bottom lip out, dissatisfied with the results of his small inspection. "I'm watching you."

"Duh. I can tell." Kiba dropped the pencil, eyeing his art like it was Da Vinci's work. "You think they look similar to hers?"

"A spitting image. It's almost disturbing. You perv, just for how long have you observed them to have such a vivid image in your head?"

"Long enough," he grinned.

Suddenly, Naruto inched closer to Kiba, eyes narrowed down and calculating.

"Uhh. Naruto?"

"Hm?"

"You're acting weird," Kiba breathed out, peeking over his shoulder at the girls in the back who giggled at them. "You okay?"

It was pointless. Naruto pulled back, entirely disappointed. He needed answers. "Yeah. Hey, Kiba." He lowered his voice. "I wanna ask you somethin'."

Intrigued, Kiba put a serious face on. "Okay. Ask."

"Do you ever…" Naruto cleared his throat, checking their surroundings to make sure nobody was within hearing distance. "Have you ever felt excited with a dude before?"

"The fuck!?" Kiba spat out, gathering a few glances his way. He took deep breaths before he went back to the discreet mode. " I'm not gay!"

Naruto made a gesture to hush him. "Calm down. I know."

"Then, is it…?" His eyes grew impossibly large. "Me? You? Oh. My. God. Is that why you've been watching me? Dude! We're best friends!"

"Kiba! Stop jumping into conclusions," he scolded.

"You're not in love with me?"

"Hell no."

"Whew. That's a relief," Kiba's face loosened.

"It's not like that. I'm just asking. An entirely hypothetical question."

"Hmm. Well." Taking his time to think, Kiba stared at the sketch on the desk long and hard. Finally, he shook his head. "No. It's not like I ever tried it with a guy, but. I don't think I'd feel anything even if I did. Even if he touched me there. Why're you askin' again?"

"I'm just curious. So, you didn't feel anything a minute ago when I pushed my face into yours?"

Kiba raised a brow. "Nope. Nothing."

"You weren't bothered?"

"I was kinda annoyed, yeah. Ever heard of something called personal space?"

"Mhmm. I see." He tersely nodded.

"That was random, huh."

"So, like, what would you do if I kissed you?"

Kiba seemed utterly confused and ready to run for the hills at that point. "Punch you, I think. Okay, this is getting straight-up creepy. Is that Sai guy telling you to ask me stuff like this?"

"No. Never mind."

After all, Kiba had reached his limit with the questions. It evidently made no sense to him. Trying to laugh the eerie aura off, Naruto borrowed Kiba's pencil. "Let me see if I can copy that."

"I'm not eatin' salad for dinner and that's final ."

Kiba's nauseated tone ringing in the corridor stirred Naruto from his thoughts. The girls were insisting on eating something healthy for once after school, and if the pitch of Kiba's voice was not an indicator of his hatred for raw vegetables, the terrified and grossed-out look on his face surely was.

Hinata wasn't taking no for an answer. "You can have chicken with your salad. And they have dozens of dressing options. You can have a ranch dressing, you like ranch sauce."

"Hinata. Baby. Dressing or not, it's cow food. Jesus Christ."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "It's all the greasy food he eats, Hinata. I suspect we'd find cheap cheddar for a brain if we cut his skull open."

"Ain't your mom upset over you eating trash all the damn time?" Karin probed. "Isn't she some sort of nutritionist?"

"No, she's a food inspector. I don't give a shit, okay? I ate nothing but healthy food for years. I think my body can handle it. Nards, why the fuck aren't you backing me up?"

Lee was getting impatient, waiting for their argument to be over on the side. "We're running late."

Naruto shrugged. "Right. I was planning to go talk to the counselor. You think he'll accept me without an appointment?"

Karin's eyes were questioning. "Counselor? You? Did you do something?"

"No, I just wanna ask a few questions. You guys go ahead."

Karin seemed ready to interrogate, but Hinata dragged her away. Iruka's room was on the top floor, and he was out of breath when he finally made it there. He knocked on the door once. Twice. No answer. He had climbed all the way for nothing.

He ended up visiting the teacher's lounge to see if Iruka was there. He wasn't, but Kakashi was, and he had a sadistic gleam in his eye that appeared out of nowhere when he caught sight of Naruto. "Caught ya. Aren't you supposed to be in class, hm?"

"Uhh. I was looking for Iruka," he said.

"He's not here."

Uneasily, he asked, "Do you know when he'll be back?"

Kakashi pushed himself back along with the chair he was sitting in, the front legs of the chair dangerously raised above the ground. He had papers on the desk in front of him. "Probably not in a while. Would you like to help me with grading these while you wait? My eyes are getting blurry."

"I should probably go, but good luck with that," he said without letting go of the door handle. "I'll come back later for Iruka if that's okay."

With a shrug, Kakashi went back to his business. Naruto didn't feel like going back into the classroom for Biology, so he went to the locker room to get his stuff as it was the last period. He normally didn't skip any classes, no matter how tedious some of them were, but he felt like going against the rules for just this once. He didn't think he would be able to pay attention to class even if he tried. Lazing around in a toilet stall to not get caught sounded stupid, and as he tried thinking of a new alternative, he remembered seeing Konohamaru's class play basketball in the courtyard earlier. It was unheard of for an outsider to join a random PE class just because he knew someone there, and it certainly didn't give him the right, but Gai wouldn't mind terribly now, would he. It would be an impeccable disguise for Naruto.

When he made it to the mini court, it turned out that Gai had instructed them to keep playing while he was indoors to deal with paperwork, so his plan worked without a hitch. He effortlessly found a position for himself in the game in a matter of seconds.

But not everyone was content with that. Before the second quarter began, Konohamaru clearly expressed that he was bothered by Naruto suddenly joining without asking, but his protests were silenced by the female members of his class. Naruto could understand why. When he joined, it changed the balance of power for the other team. As for more personal reasons, Konohamaru liked the attention. They were similar in that area.

As one of the bright members of the school basketball team, he was probably the centerpiece in PE. Naruto knew it perfectly, and by entering the game, he was disrupting that. Naturally, the attention had turned to him because he was older and a new face in that crowd. It was written all over Konohamaru's face that he didn't enjoy that in the slightest. But so what? Couldn't he just take one for the team and suck it up – the team being Naruto only , but in his defense, he always helped Konohamaru with various things.

He taught them some moves and did a little showing off for about half an hour until the bell rang.

"Thanks for playing with us!" Udon shouted as he walked away. He was one of the weakest links of the team, but he was progressing.

"No worries! Let's play again sometime." He trapped the ball between his arm and his body, waving goodbye at the female students.

Konohamaru watched his classmates say goodbye to Naruto before getting their things and leave. "…It's like I'm not even here." He turned around with a whoosh. "What was that? Did you have to ruin my thing? Don't you have your own shit to do?"

"What do you mean?" Naruto feigned innocence, bouncing the ball. In all honesty, he didn't care, though he knew he probably should have. He normally would have. He felt like he was troubled by an emotion he couldn't identify, but whatever it was, it clearly blocked the way of his rational thought.

Konohamaru didn't seem like he would let it go. "Are you being serious?"

"Hmm."

"You're not even looking at me!"

No reply, just a single shot toward the hoop. It was a miss.

Konohamaru walked close to him. "What's wrong with you? You're acting like a total dick."

Naruto gave him a sudden glare. "What're you saying, kiddo?"

" Kiddo? " With an enraged motion of his nimble fingers, Konohamaru stole the ball from Naruto and attempted to throw it directly at Naruto's face. It was only by a second Naruto evaded it.

"Konohamaru. Cut the crap, you're getting on my nerves."

"Your nerves?" He pointed his middle finger at Naruto. "Fuck your nerves."

"So you're pickin' a fight."

"No, it's you who's picking a fight."

A disheartened, yet certainly infuriated glare he earned himself, and it wasn't long before the two were throwing punches at each other on the ground. Naturally, a crowd gathered around them, some cheering and applauding the free-of-charge recreational show, while the more sensible ones seemed to question what was going on. Naruto thought he heard his name a few times, but it was hard to decipher in the middle of a fight.

"Cut it out! Cut it out!"

Someone forcefully pulled Naruto back from the back of his collar. Apart from a burn on his shoulder, he was barely injured. The same couldn't be said for Konohamaru. He had a split lip from what Naruto could see as he was dragged away, and he was on the ground, holding his leg with an agonized face.

Naruto didn't remember much from there. He was ironically taken to Iruka's office instead of straight to detention. The man was not in the room, but the door was unlocked this time, and another student was waiting for his verdict inside.

He took a seat on the other side of the couch, as it was the only furniture other than Iruka's own chair. Not that he had been here many times, but every time he entered this room, he felt it was more like a therapist's room rather than a counselor's office. There were even candles, possibly the source of the sweet smell hanging in the air. It made Naruto's stomach churn. How on earth Iruka thought that would help with students and their problems, he had no idea.

"Do you know when he'll come?" He asked after a prolonged minute of silence.

The other guy reached for one of the candles and gave it a sniff before putting it back in a different spot. "I was told ten minutes, but that was fifteen minutes ago, so. Who knows."

As Naruto tried to work out what he looked like, he realized the boy was in fact someone he recognized. "Hey, I've seen you before."

"Hm?" When he turned to Naruto, it was unquestionably the person who Naruto thought he was.

"Aren't you Sasuke's friend? I see you around him all the time."

"Sasuke?" He appeared to be pondering. Who needed to think so hard about this sort of thing? "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

"I knew it. We never got to speak before." He felt somehow bugged by the blank look the other kept giving him. "I'm Naruto, by the way."

"Okay. What're you here for, Naruto ?"

"I started a fight." He hysterically sneered at the way the words came out of his mouth. "Pretty sure it's detention for me. What about you? What's your name again?"

"Suigetsu." He checked the time on his aqua blue wristwatch. "It's more of what I didn't do. I ditched way too many classes. I swear they normally don't check attendance lists. Or I just got lucky every time."

"Really? You got away with it before?"

"Always. Hah."

Iruka interrupted their conversation by walking in, though Naruto wasn't opposed. He just wanted to get through with it as soon as possible. "Alright, gentlemen, who should I start with?"

"Just say whatever it is that I need to do," Suigetsu suggested eagerly. "I wanna go home."

"Trust me, I share the same wish." Iruka rummaged through a bunch of papers in a drawer as he spoke. "I believe you already know what you need to do in order to continue your educational life."

"Do I?

Iruka scowled at him. "I don't know how you made it this far with that attitude."

"Me neither." The reply was too blunt and bleak.

"Anything else you want to talk about?"

"No." He got up. "Can't believe I waited this long for this."

"You're wasting both our time, Suigetsu. Just attend the classes and we'll both be happier. I assure you."

Without a word of thank you or bye, Suigetsu left, not even bothering to shut the door behind himself. Naruto got up and did it.

"Now. We have an actual problem here, don't we."

"I guess?" He shrugged. "We can do the same thing as you did with that guy. Just tell me what I need to do."

"Sorry to break it to you, but you won't get away that easily." He was reading through the papers he'd pulled out of his drawer. "Kakashi told me you were looking for me. I was too late, huh."

"This has nothing to do with that."

"Then what is it about?"

Naruto struggled with what his response would be. He then calmly said, "Nothing. It was wrong."

Deep down, he knew it was an absurd fight. He had aggravated Konohamaru intentionally, and worst of all, Konohamaru was right. Naruto should have watched from the sidelines and cheered for his friend instead of playing when he was told not to meddle, but he purposefully had and messed it up just because he could. Just because he wanted to. There was no logic behind that, just an instinct to cause a scene. Konohamaru certainly had nothing to do with the ugly feeling pooling in his belly for a while. He'd just happened to be the victim because he was there.

"Hmm. This is your first time in a fight, am I right?"

"Yes." The color of the wall was so dull that he wanted to punch a hole through it.

"…Let's take a different approach with this. Is there anything you want to talk about?" Iruka asked. "It might help to get it off your chest."

"I did wanna talk about it. But now I'm in trouble so it's not worth wasting your time with."

Iruka sighed. "Naruto. It's my job to help the students in need. And you're here because you need help. It's not a waste of time. There's obviously something bothering you, it's written all over your face."

He took his time. It might as well be his shot to talk to Iruka since he would be much more of a help than the others around him when it came to giving advice on the matters of worries. "Well," he started. "I'm just feelin' a little lost, I guess."

"We all do sometimes. It may not look like it. But you're not alone."

"Sure. I know. But even my academic life is unclear to me. One thing that should make sense. I look at my friends and they all have an idea about what they wanna do in the future. They study and keep their grades up for that sake. Well, maybe not all of them, but most."

"Most probably not all of them."

He frustratedly ran a hand through his hair, grabbing a fistful of it. "I have no clue. I joined the basketball team because I figured I wanted to do somethin' active. But I can't do that as a profession. I started playing only this year. Then there's the fact that my grades are not the best. It's too late for me to earn a sports scholarship for college. And I don't even know what I wanna study."

Iruka was intently listening, giving nods of approval every once in a while. "You can always decide on what your studies will be centered on later. For the time being, why not focus on your grades? I knew plenty of students who were clueless about their future and they all landed on spots they liked."

"Yeah but that's the thing. I'm stupid, you see." He then corrected himself. "No. Not stupid. But it's not as easy for me to understand classes. I don't understand why y'all make us feel like getting a diploma isn't optional. Maybe I'd be better off repairing motorbikes or something."

"If you have something in mind for yourself," Iruka told him, "A dream you want to chase. A path you want to follow. If it doesn't require going to college, you don't have to. But college also adds greatly to personality growth."

"Can't I grow somewhere else? I wanna be useful for others. I wanna help people."

Iruka smiled. "Possibly. You know, your options aren't limited to popular degrees. Do some research and you'll see there are things you can study that will help you reach masses. I think the main issue here is that you don't have enough drive to study. If I didn't know you, I would've believed you when you said you're stupid. But you have no difference from any of the students on the honor roll when something ignites your passion. I've seen it happen, and I'm sure I'll see it again."

Naruto sucked his bottom lip in. It was possibly true.

"Just remember that no one follows the same path as another. Never compare yourself to your friends. You all have your own unique strengths. Also, a piece of personal advice. Don't focus only on your future. Don't forget to live now. You'll eventually find something you so badly want to do in this life. And when you do that, you don't want to see a worthless past."

"Of course," Naruto affirmed. "I've just been feelin' stressed out lately because of this. Thanks, Iruka."

"You're welcome. Feel free to come to me when you can't deal with the stress on your own. I'm here for you."

"Y'know, I don't even know why I came earlier. Guess I just wanted to try it out. Everyone comes here only when they're called so I thought it was pointless to just walk in with your own will. But it actually helped."

"Sharing always helps. I don't understand why people think they should keep their worries to themselves and share only the good things. Humans are made to support each other."

"I know, right?!" Naruto guffawed. "That's what I tell everyone. But turns out I was emotionally constipated myself."

"We gotta solve that before it's too late," he smiled. "Anything else you want to talk about?"

There actually was something else. Something he had been keeping to himself. But was Iruka the one he wanted guidance from? "…Not for now."

"If that's out of the way, then," Iruka said. "We can come back to the reason why you're here."

"Ah." He took a deep, long breath. "I should apologize to Konohamaru. I assaulted the kid for no reason."

"Hmm. And, detention for a week. I also realize you skipped a class, but I'll overlook it this time. Don't let it become a habit or our relationship would become as boring as the one with Suigetsu."

"No, no, of course not," he assured with a thumbs-up. "I won't do it again. Can I go now? I need to pick up my things from the court."

"Yes. And Naruto, come back anytime if you need help with finding a way to vent without hurting yourself or others, okay?"

He felt his shoulder sting, where Konohamaru had whacked it. "Yeah."

The new Japanese teacher, Tsunade, had different methods of teaching than Itachi. She expressed astonishment for the fact that the students were able to read and write that much despite having started learning the language only a few months ago. Clearly, Itachi hadn't done that bad of a job after all. Tsunade had brought back tests, but she hadn't touched their reading sessions. She said she would not grade them according to their class participation, but she looked seriously scary whenever she randomly selected someone and they weren't able to answer a question. So it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say every student was attentively listening and taking part.

The group had gathered for Thursday's class, and Naruto had Kiba with him this time. Honestly, he wasn't sure if he was happy with Kiba being there. Had it been the first class of the semester, things would have been different. But Naruto had established a whole new routine for that class, with Sai and Sasuke as his mates. Upon seeing Kiba, Sai had taken a seat next to Sasuke. From his seat in the back, which was Kiba's decision, he could see the two chatting.

Kiba was stretching his arms. "She's late."

"Mhm."

"I thought it would be more fun here. Since you seem to enjoy it so much. There's nothing enjoyable about this class except for the teacher." He looked around, distaste evident in his features. "I think I'm gettin' a bit claustrophobic."

Naruto squeezed his knees together, only to release them and do it again. "Yeah. You get used to it."

Lowering his voice, Kiba leaned in closer to Naruto. "And there's no one interesting here. You say Sasuke's cool and all but all I see is a perpetually brooding maniac. And the other guy is a huge perv, isn't he."

"Kiba," Naruto let out a breathy sigh. "They're—"

He was prepared to defend his friends, but Tsunade's sudden appearance distracted Kiba. He clung to Naruto's arm and animatedly shook it. "She's here!"

"Good afternoon, brats." Tsunade seemed to be in a cynical mood. Then again, she always was. Maybe it really was her thing. She dropped her bag and pulled out the book they were going to be reading from. After she passed it to the first row, she took a seat, assessing the class. It wasn't long before she spotted Kiba. "Who are you and what are you doing in my class?"

Stupid Kiba. Naruto couldn't believe he actually believed he wouldn't be spotted in a class of fifteen students. He did feel slightly sorry that he wanted to laugh at Kiba's stupor, but it was soon gone.

"I'm… Kiba," he cautiously said. "I… wanted to check Japanese out? I've heard it's… fun."

Sai turned around to give Kiba a look, and then he caught Naruto's eye. It was hard to keep a straight face on as he watched Sai smirk. He was enjoying this too much. A titter escaped Naruto's mouth.

"Fun? Who said it's fun?"

Oops. There was no way to tell what Tsunade was planning on doing with the information. He didn't feel in the mood to be told off.

"Well…"

"Never mind," Tsunade interrupted. "As long as you keep your mouth shut, I don't care. You don't happen to know how to read, do you?"

Kiba swallowed. "…No."

" Great ." She brushed aside a bleached bang. "One word and I'll kill you."

Instead of verbally responding, Kiba rapidly nodded with fearful eyes. Tsunade motioned for Shikamaru to start reading.

After they all took their turn reading out loud for a few paragraphs, they did some grammar study. The second the bell rang, Naruto could swear he heard Kiba release a breath so rowdily that one might think he'd been holding it all this time. Tsunade was the first to leave the class, so thankfully she didn't hear it.

Kiba looked like he was run over by a train. "Oh. My. God."

"What?" Naruto asked innocently. It wasn't like Tsunade psychotically attacked everyone. In fact, Kiba was the only one who'd been scolded. Her tongue was sharp, but she was a good teacher. Just strict.

"I thought she'd cut off my dick any second. She really is a lunatic. Well. I got to watch her boobs, but still."

"Maybe that's why she was giving you the death stare?"

"Possibly? Don't tell Hinata about any of this."

Sai headed toward them with a creepy smile. "Please come back anytime. It's great here with you around."

Kiba showed his fist as a threat. Sai didn't seem to care one bit.

"Stop aggravating him, Sai," Naruto said as he zipped his pencil case. "Though, heh. He has a point."

"You asshole." Kiba hissed light-heartedly. "You know I can't punch him, but I'd be happy to take you out any day."

"Take me out? Really? Remember, I'm more experienced in the area nowadays."

"True." Kiba waved his hand. "Well. Good luck with detention. I'm gonna see what the others are up to."

Sai was still sniggering. "He's such a pain in the ass."

"Watch out. He's still my best friend."

He could see Sasuke was still in his seat, unmoving. Naruto wondered if he could pretend not to have seen him there. It was so obviously a lie, though. Was it graceless to pass without talking to him?

"I wish you could hang out with us, dickless. Konan's been asking about you."

"I'm off the hook tomorrow. My Saturdays are all occupied, and Sundays I usually spend with Mom. So… next week, maybe?"

Sai shrugged. "Why not."

"Anyway. I gotta run. Don't wanna be late. Detention's actually growin' on me now that I get all of my work done before I go home."

From the corner of his eye, he wanted to check if Sasuke was still there, but he only ended up finding a pair of eyes that were staring right back at him.

It was an awkward moment because he couldn't think of a thing to say, and Sasuke didn't seem like he'd be opening his mouth anytime soon. So, he forced a smile on his face. "See you later guys."

He felt embarrassment run down his back as he walked the corridor to the detention class. It wasn't like him to do that. It felt weird not to be able to come up with anything in a situation like that. He could have just asked how Sasuke was or made a funny remark. For someone who'd chased Sasuke for a fair amount, he surely was acting shy.

It was a no-brainer that the moment at the gym had affected both his way of thinking and feeling. He didn't feel particularly upset that Sasuke had tried to kiss him. He didn't feel delighted either, there was only a never-ending cycle of uncertainty and self-consciousness.

The more he tried to figure out why just having his face close to Sasuke's had created such a heavy sensation, the weirder he felt about it. He didn't feel that with any of his other friends. He'd tried it on Kiba. Lee. Neji too. None of them made his heart beat faster. At that moment, he'd thought it was because his personal space was invaded. But that wasn't it, as Kiba had approved. It caused infinite vexation on his side. He had told Sasuke that he wouldn't be able to understand the feeling of others if he couldn't understand his own that very day, and now it seemed like the tables had turned.

Moreover, he wondered if Sasuke felt what he felt. Sasuke was still unquestionably his friend, at least to Naruto. Was it a slip up on Sasuke's side to try kissing him? Was Sasuke puzzled as well because Naruto had pushed him away? Enraged? Offended? There was no way he could tell.

From all the pondering he did at night, and in the morning, as well as during some classes, he came up with a realization. It was genuinely unintentional that his mind had wandered over that fact, but Naruto had overlooked this fact until now: he acted differently with Sasuke than his other friends. There was no doubt about it. Every time Sasuke had shown a side of him that was uncharacteristic and bold, Naruto had given it to the fact that he was friendly and easy to warm up to. It made sense that Sasuke took a liking to him. He had assumed Sasuke was letting Naruto see his vulnerable sides and suppressed emotions just because there was a mutual trust between them. But maybe it was more than that.

And it wasn't just Sasuke. Naruto had, now that he saw it, literally chased him. He normally liked to befriend people, yes, but he didn't recall ever trying so hard. If he didn't click with someone, he let it go. With Sasuke, he'd shown so much effort. Funny thing was, he felt like he'd do it all over again. When he tried putting it into words, he failed miserably, but he wanted to be there for Sasuke. He had told Sasuke about his wounds and his secrets, and he wanted Sasuke to share all of his with him, and come to him when he needed a hug – even Sasuke needed a hug, whether he realized it or not.

Becoming conscious of this was enough to send him over the edge. He didn't know who to turn into, and what to expect from his relationship with Sasuke from that moment on.

He was in trouble.

-TBC-