Chapter 4

When Naruto got upstairs he went straight for his room, although having difficulty opening the door since he was carrying a glass of juice on one hand and the sandwiches on the other. Once he got in he placed the snacks down on the nightstand, let his bag down and changed into more comfortable clothes.

He turned on the small TV in his room and switched the channel to basketball where the Celtics were playing against the 76ers in the summer league. He ate his snack as he watched the newly drafted players show off their skills. After nearly an hour of watching the game, Naruto's phone rang up and due to the set special ringtone he immediately knew who it was. Kiba.

The first thought that came to mind was Hinata and about the 'incident'. Kiba was no doubt gonna kill him if he learned about what happened and that was why he was never going to tell his best friend about it. It was on accident.

"Hey Naruto." the brunet's voice sounded from the phone's speaker.

"Hi-hi Kiba." Naruto greeted back but couldn't control the stutter due to his slight nervousness.

"I just got home from Sakura's place. We just finished our task for the day over 15 minutes ago, can you believe it? It's already past 6. She really wants this project done ASAP. I think we might even be done by the day after tomorrow if she pushes it."

"Wait, you were at Sakura-chan's place?" Naruto asked surprised, and of course a bit jealous. He couldn't believe Sakura invited Kiba over just like that.

"Yeah. She said it was better if I came over to work there. Her mom's home and we did the project in the living room. Anyway, I really tried making conversation with her but she's too focused on doing the project. I wasn't able to find out about the stuff you wanna know although I did hear her mom complaining to her about how much anmitsu(1) she was eating at home."

"Anmitsu? The sweet jelly dessert?" Naruto asked. If memory served him right he's had one of those before when his mother brought some home.

"Yeah, and I saw her mom taking out a plastic bag containing packs of it. It's the one they sell at the convenience store near the school."

"Well that's great. Now I at least know about something that Sakura-chan likes. Thanks Kiba."

"Anyway, how was it with Hinata?" And then it was Kiba's turn to ask about his person of interest. Naruto felt his heart give a sudden kick at that. Every time he was made to think of her he just couldn't stop his mind from replaying the earlier 'incident'.

"Oh that… uhm…we've finished our task for the day over an hour ago. We didn't really do much as we only bought our stuffs. We haven't started actually making the project."

"At least you two are taking this easy. Sakura won't give me a breather. Hopefully she'd be less strict tomorrow. So, you got any info?"

"Er, not really. I mean, do you know she has this driver slash bodyguard named Kō?" Naruto said even though he thought that Kiba might already know of it.

"Yeah I already know that." And he was proven right.

"I thought so. You certainly couldn't walk her home or something like that. How about her father wanting her to be home by 4:30 in the afternoon?"

"Hm, that's the first time I've heard of that. Well that's a start. I'm sure you'll be able to find out more when you start working tomorrow. Are you working on your place or hers?"

"We haven't really decided yet. She still has to ask permission from her father."

"In that case, if ever you decide to do it at your place, make sure to invite me. Maybe I can help you guys out."

"Yeah… sure."

"Anyway, I just remembered. You might not believe this but when Sakura and I was at the school's front gate we saw Sasuke and your cousin Karin walking together. Sakura was glaring daggers at Karin while your cousin winked at her sinisterly. She's so savage man. Sakura was cursing quietly about how she was gonna kill her."

"Oh, I see." Naruto replied sadly. Once again he was reminded of that it was the bastard that Sakura likes. She's liked him for as long as Naruto liked her and that was way back middle school. "Well, Sasuke and Karin are actually down in the dining room working on the project when I came home. I don't know though if the bastard's left already. I'm here in my room watching basketball."

"Really? Sasuke's at your place? I didn't expect that but hey, remember what I told you last week? If you can get Sasuke to date your cousin then Sakura might actually agree to go out with you. She's too obsessed with him for you to be able to ask her out right now."

"So I'm just gonna be the second option?"

"Well what do you expect? You've been trying to ask her out for more than a year already. If she loses interest in Sasuke, it might get your chances up."

"But Karin dating the bastard? I know how much she likes him but I don't like Sasuke. He's such an arrogant bastard. Just a while ago he was on freaking asshole mode to me when I went to get sandwiches in the dining room." Naruto complained.

"You're not the one who's gonna date duckbutt."

"Yeah I know but come on, I wouldn't want my sister to date someone like him, even if she likes him."

"Hmm, I didn't know you care for your cousin slash sister that much. You two can be like cat and mouse a lot of times and I rarely see you talk at school."

"Sh-shut up Kiba. I don't…"

"Hahaha. You're getting embarrassed about caring for her. Ah, how sweet."

"I told you to shut it Kiba."

"Okay, okay. Well, that was just a suggestion. If you don't want to follow it, fine. Anyway I still have to do that Maths homework. Anything else you wanna tell me?" And then there was that question.

"Uh, nothing. Nothing." Naruto said in a bit of panic.

"You sure? I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Yeah, see yah dogbreath."

And Naruto pressed the 'end call' button and let himself flop on the bed, arms spread out wide.

"Man, I don't really think this plan of ours would work." he said out loud with a sigh. The idea of them finding out things about each other's crushes sounded good at first but putting it in action was a whole other thing. Kiba found out something about Sakura though and it was putting pressure against him about giving Kiba something worth telling back.

Then again it was still too early. He's only been with Hinata three times and they didn't really have much time to talk about random stuff. Maybe tomorrow when they actually start doing the project it would be easier to slide in some questions.

And then there was still the other plan involving Karin. He of course knew how much his sister liked the Uchiha but what about the bastard? He's never seen him show interest in a girl before nor hang out with one, well unless it was for school work. It was such a surprise that he agreed to build their project here in his house. How the heck did his sister even manage to make him come here? Karin usually complains about Sasuke being always so stuck-up. Maybe he likes her?

Well that sounded far-fetched but then again who knows? If Kiba made sense about his reasoning maybe he might really up his chances with Sakura if she sees Sasuke's dating another girl.

Then he thought about the anmitsu Kiba mentioned. He made a note to himself to think about what to do with that info later and also about the Maths homework he almost forgot. He sat up to find the remote so he could turn off the TV, remembering that his parents might even be home already as it was nearly 7 PM. As he pressed the 'off' button, he heard the notification sound from his phone.

He took it and was surprised to see Hinata's name on the screen. She's sent him a text message. He remembered that they exchanged numbers just this afternoon before they even went out of the school. And that reminded him about Kiba. He would definitely want to have Hinata's number.

But then again, wasn't it wrong for him to just share it to Kiba like that without Hinata's permission? He didn't take long in making a decision and that no, he wasn't going to give it to Kiba. He unlocked his phone and pressed on the message.

Good evening Naruto-kun. It's about the project. I've already asked my father on where we can work. Like I've told you, he won't allow me to go over at your place. He said that you can come over and we'll just make the project here at my place and Kō can drive you home after. Is it okay with you?

After reading the message, Naruto couldn't say he was surprised. Hinata already has a sort of bodyguard so there was no way an overprotective father like Hinata's was going to let a girl go work at another boy's place especially when there wasn't an adult around. But come on, it wasn't like Naruto was going to do anything to Hinata.

Then the incident of him squeezing Hinata's boobs flashed in his mind.

'Arghh, why won't you leave my head?' Naruto thought in frustration. He wasn't a pervert and that was an accident. He would never consciously think about or do that to a girl, especially one as innocent and angelic as Hinata. He texted back a reply telling Hinata that he got the message and that he was okay working at her place.

"NARUTO!" he then heard a call of his name from downstairs and it could only be his mom. "I've brought home ramen!"

"RAMEN?" Naruto stood up in a blink of an eye upon hearing that word. He quickly got out of his room and ran downstairs, forgetting about all the thoughts plaguing his mind at the moment. Well at least for that time.

…

The next day found Naruto in a great hurry. He was hit with an idea yesterday after dinner thanks to Kiba telling him that Sakura liked anmitsus and as soon as the bell signaling the end of the last period rang, Naruto went up to Hinata and told her to wait for him at the lockers while he took care of something quick. Kiba was already told of the plan during lunch and he was just supposed to wait for Naruto to come back to school after buying anmitsus from the convenience store in front of the school.

The blond ran as fast as he could knowing that Sakura wouldn't want to wait long before she and Kiba start walking to her place. As soon as he was at the store, he searched for the anmitsus and was lucky to find there were still two cups of it. Kiba could have one as a 'thank you' for doing this favor for him. Walking towards the cashier, he saw bread rolls on one of the shelves and thought that maybe he should bring something to eat at Hinata's too. He took four of those bread which was covered in white glaze as it was the one that looked sweeter and tastier than the others. It was already sealed in plastic so he just grabbed them in haste.

After paying for the items, he again ran as fast as he could back to the school carrying two plastic bags, one containing the two cups of anmitsus and the other one containing the bread. He searched the halls for Kiba and was lucky to find him in no time.

"That was really quick." Kiba remarked, looking at Naruto who was heavily catching his breath after the sprint from the store. Sweat was dripping over his disheveled looking face. Naruto handed him the bag containing the anmitsus.

"Here... they're the best... I could find." Naruto said in between breaths. "You know what to do."

"Yeah, I got this." Kiba assured him.

"Thanks Kiba. You can have... one of the anmitsus. Anyway, I... gotta go. Hinata's waiting for me."

"Okay. Tell Hinata I said hi."

"Will do." And Naruto waved a goodbye to his friend and searched the halls for Hinata. Just as he instructed her, she was there waiting by his locker.

"Hey Hinata. I hope I didn't make you wait too long."

"No you didn't." she replied with a smile. She wondered why Naruto was sweating all over though.

"Let me just get the board and other materials from my locker and we can go to your place."

"Okay."

...

At Sakura's

"You know, we shouldn't really be trying to finish this project this week." Kiba randomly commented as he busily peeled the ends of the wires he's previously cut.

"And why is that?" Sakura then asked, also occupied with a task of her own.

"Because I don't wanna be staying up here until 6 for three days straight. Can't we just finish this up next week?"

"But why'd you want to postpone it for next week? It's better to get this over with sooner. Besides we might even get this done tomorrow or by Friday."

"But I have games to finish and animes to watch." Kiba mumbled softly in complaint but Sakura heard it.

"You're not the only one who has shows they wanna watch. I just like getting things over with instead of cramming at the last minute, which I'm sure someone like you often does."

"I do not…" the brunet tried to deny but then again Sakura was right. He could be a crammer most of the time. "... well okay, I do but I still get things done on time."

"And we'll finish this faster if we stop yapping and focus more on doing." Sakura insisted. She was screwing the light bulbs they have on the sockets because that was the easier thing to do. Kiba was already getting bored removing the wire coatings to expose the copper wires for like the fiftieth time already. The wire was thin because it was just for a small circuit and therefore it was very difficult to peel the coating off without accidentally cutting the entire wire. Unfortunately cutting it all the way through was happening more than just peeling it much to his frustration.

"Arghh, damn it!" Kiba groaned in great irritation when he cut all the way through again, throwing the pliers hard down the table. "I hate doing this stuff! I need a break."

"You need to control the pliers more." Sakura remarked.

"Then why don't you do it while I screw the sockets to the board." Kiba replied, trying his best not to sound sarcastic but failed. Sakura just rolled her eyes at him and took the pliers from the table and surprisingly did the peeling of the ends of the wires.

Kiba let himself lay back on the chair to rest. Aside from the project, he hasn't really made much progress on the interrogation stuff he was supposed to be doing. It was his plan but right now it didn't look like it would work. Even if he did manage to learn a few things about Sakura, it wasn't like she would then instantly agree to go out with Naruto.

He thought about other things he could do and then that's when he remembered the thing Naruto's asked him to do. He almost forgot about it but hopefully it would work.

"Hey Sakura." he called for her attention but she didn't look up to face him. She was after all intricately doing the task of peeling the wires and was realizing how hard it could be.

"I have something here we can eat."

"Oh, you're offering me food?" Sakura looked at her in doubt.

"Actually, it's from Naruto."

"Oh, him." Sakura said in a poorly concealed tone of chagrin. "If this is a way of him trying to get me to soften up to him, it won't work."

"Come on, you don't even know what he's brought for you yet." Kiba then pulled out from the plastic bag beside his chair two packs of the anmitsu that Naruto bought from the store.

"Is that...?" Sakura eyes widened at the sight of anmitsu. Despite her knowing it was from Naruto, she couldn't help her mouth from watering at the sweet dessert in front of her. That rainbow colored jelly topped with overflowing sugary red bean paste and a single cherry looked so enticingly delicious. "It's the special anmitsu from the Shouji(2) convenience store."

"I don't really know where he bought them," Kiba said, feigning innocence on knowing about the anmitsu. Inside though he was praising himself for the keen observation he made the day before. "He just said to give one to you and hope that you enjoy it while we work on our project. Or you can have them both if you want."

"I shou-," Sakura looked at it debatingly. From all of the things Naruto could give her, why did it have to be her favorite dessert? It was impossible to refuse yet she didn't want to make it look like she was interested in the blond by taking the anmitsu he had Kiba sent to her. But in the end she caved in.

"I'll take one." she softly told Kiba. The brunet just smirked. Not even Sakura's pride stood chance to the anmitsu.

"So am I gonna tell Naruto you said 'thanks'?" Kiba said in a teasing tone.

"Wh-what?" Sakura looked at Kiba shocked.

"This is probably the first time you received something from him. He tells me you always refuse when he offers you something."

"It's because I don't want to give him the wrong idea. I know I refuse whenever he gives or offers me something and I turn him down when he asks me out but it's because I don't want to lead him on." Sakura confessed and Kiba knew she was being honest with it. He was surprised to hear that though. He thought Sakura really just didn't give a squat to Naruto but to learn that she actually thinks about it that way changed a bit of his perception about the girl.

He stayed silent for a while, thinking about how to further the conversation. He's managed to open up the topic of Naruto and he had the perfect chance to see if he could get her to date Naruto or if any effort from the blond would just be a waste. Sakura on the other hand took one of the anmitsu, opened it and began to eat it. Her face showed utter approval of the dessert.

"Oh, this is so good." she squealed out like a fangirl.

"So, you really won't go out with Naruto? You never know but you might actually enjoy it."

"Kiba, I am not gonna go out with your best friend." Sakura replied firmly. "It's not that I hate him, even though he can be annoying most of the time. He's just not my type so don't try convincing me otherwise. He's not Sasuke-kun."

Kiba frowned upon hearing that. He had a feeling she'd tell him something like that. It's also what he's been telling Naruto the entire time. She's just too obsessed with Sasuke. It made him feel bad for Naruto because somehow he feels that Hinata thinks of him the same way.

He sighed and thought again if there was anything else he could do. He's already somewhat asked her directly if she'd go out with Naruto and she gave him the reason. There was still Sasuke and Karin story to tell her though.

"You know, I heard Sasuke has been doing his project with Karin at her house."

"WHAT?!" Sakura asked in alarm, spitting out some of the jelly she was chewing on and making bits of it land on the table and the project, one bit nearly grazing Kiba on the cheek as he did his best to dodge sideways.

"Whoa, calm down there."

"How can I be calm? My Sasuke-kun really went with her to her house?" she asked with fear.

"Yeah, she even made sandwiches for him." Kiba added, recalling what Naruto told him just earlier lunch.

"Made sandwiches? Who told you this?" she demanded.

"Naruto." Kiba answered as it if was obvious.

"Ugh, that redhead's gonna take away Sasuke-kun from me. I should have been the one paired up with him." she groaned.

"Come on, Sasuke doesn't even look like a guy who's willing to date a girl so why do you even bother?"

"Sasuke-kun's the perfect boy in our batch. Why are you even bringing this up? Are you jealous of him?"

"Huh, why would I be? I don't wanna be like that jerk who always acts like he has a stick up his ass. I'm way nicer to girls unlike him." Kiba defended.

"You don't know what you're saying." Sakura rolled her eyes at him.

"Maybe so, but if Sasuke ends up dating her, maybe you can give Naruto a chance."

"Kiba just stop. I'm not gonna do it." Sakura said resolutely. "And besides, Karin WON'T end up dating MY Sasuke-kun if I have anything to say about it."

A/N: And that's it for this chapter. Since last chapter already featured Naruto and Hinata, I focused on Kiba and Sakura this time. Don't be alarmed though 'cause there's definitely no KibaSaku in this story. By the way, Happy Birthday Kiba-kun (July 7). I forgot about this which sucks 'cause he's my favorite character. If I just remembered this I would have written a one-shot for him. A KibaNaru most likely. I might write one and post it next week though.

There was a guest reviewer who told me they liked how I made Karin as Naruto's sister, the SasuKarin in the last chapter and that they ship the two. I don't know about it yet as I haven't decided if Sasuke will really end up dating Karin. Thanks for the feedback.

Next chapter will focus on Naruto and Hinata as they start making the project at Hinata's place, talk about things and maybe make Naruto see Hinata in a different light. Who knows what other 'incidents' could occur?

Keep me motivated guys and leave a review. You can also answer my question on whether I should write a NaruIno lemon one-shot. I have this idea but I don't know if it will appeal to my followers.

(1) Anmitsu (from Wiki) - It is made of small cubes of agar jelly, a white translucent jelly made from red algae. The agar is dissolved with water (or fruit juice such as apple juice) to make the jelly. It is served in a bowl with sweet azuki bean paste or anko (the an part of anmitsu), boiled peas, often gyūhi and a variety of fruits such as peach slices, mikan, pieces of pineapples, and cherries. The anmitsu usually comes with a small pot of sweet black syrup, or mitsu (the mitsu part of anmitsu) which one pours onto the jelly before eating. Anmitsu is usually eaten with a spoon and fork.

(2) Shouji is a name I came up with. It's a combination of the words 'small' and 'stop', just like Ministop, a convenience store in Japan.