Chapter Four- Evenings…
Warnings: minor violence, language wow I feel like a movie thing.
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Sakura was smiling at her friends happily. They had gotten the day off and right now were just talking amongst themselves. Mina was just walking up to the group and smirk playing on her lips.
"Hey guys, I have something that you might find interesting."
The other cheerleaders all smiled. Mina was known for her wicked mind, blonde hair, and her ability to twist things.
"Who's it about this time Mina-chan?" Ten-ten asked.
The blonde haired girl smirked "You know that Riley girl?"
They all nodded "Well I figured something out about her today."
"What's that?" Ino asked leaning into her boyfriends embrace.
"Well, she's a lesbian."
There was a collective gasp. While Mina's lip curled in satisfaction she continued, "Seriously, have you ever seen her date a guy? Or even flirt with one?"
They all shook their heads.
"Actually," Sakura piped up "She's the only one that's ever turned down Sasuke-kun, like I've seen some lesbians break up with their girlfriends for him; she must be a real dike!" The group nodded.
Choji frowned at the topic; he didn't like how the cheerleaders seemed to gossip about things like this, but he never said anything. 'Didn't the spread a similar rumor about her last year?' he thought.
As Haku approached the group of gossiping girls he recognized his name and came to a halt hoping to hear more. "Yeah and that's probably why she's always staring at Haku all the time." He heard one girl say.
"But Haku's a guy." Another girl countered.
"Yes but he looks like a girl, I'm betting that way Riley figured she'd be safe from rumors, yet still have her screwed up lesbian fantasies."
Haku was confused 'Riley staring at me?' he thought. Deciding it was time to stop this conversation he made his presence know by slightly coughing and the group turned to look at him.
"Oh hello Haku, I'll be with you in a minute" Sakura said. She nodded to the group signaling they would finish this later and they all went separate directions. Turning back to Haku she smiled "Now about our dance class assignment, lets gat the other two shall we."
Haku nodded.
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Neji snorted at the commotion of it all. The brunette was leaning against the chain link fence surrounding the basketball courts. "Every year it's the same thing." he said opening his eyes and looking towards the sky.
"Yeah, they do this and the week after we're stuck going to school wearing those stupid uniforms." his companion mumbled taking a drag from his cigarette. Neji promptly took it and broke it throwing it to the ground. "I told you to quit smoking." He growled as he stomped the cigarette flat.
"Whatever." the other boy said pushing his glasses up his nose"
Takero chuckled it was like this everyday. Shino would try to smoke and Neji would stop him. Takero himself was used to this routine and took no notice of it. His unruly black hair fell over his left eye blocking its view from the world.
"So what are our plans for today guys?" he asked from his spot beside Neji.
"First; wait for Lee to arrive. Second; Go somewhere" Neji answered.
"I am in Awe at your plan." Takero smirked.
At that moment Lee walked up smiling broadly, "Hey guys, beautiful day isn't it?" he said cheerfully.
"Sure," Shino said rolling his eyes, which the others didn't see because it was hidden behind his ever present sunglasses.
"So, where are we going?" Neji asked getting right down to business as usual.
"Well I was thinking that we could go to the arcade and play DDR!" he cheered "We haven't done that in forever, that and since we don't have gym today we need someway to keep our bodies in shape before practice." He smiled.
"Whatever." Takero muttered and they headed off into the parking lot. Neji unlocked his car and the three others hopped in, Shino up front, Lee and Takero in back.
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Kiba found Sasuke and Satoshi sitting on the bleachers where they always sat.
"Hey!" he greeted grinning wolfishly. "What are you two talking about?"
Satoshi took a swing from his can of cola then crushed it and tossed it into a nearby trash can perfectly.
Sasuke turned to him "Kiba, just the man I was looking for. I need you to help me with something…"
"Sure, what is it?" Kiba agreed immediately. When it came to Sasuke, Kiba just wanted to be popular and quickly agreed to things before hearing what they entailed.
"Well remember how yesterday that new blonde kid punched me?"
"Oh yeah. I wanna kill him!" Kiba growled "He should know better than to hit you Sasuke"
"Exactly, which is why we are going to teach him a lesson" Sasuke smirked.
"Sounds like a plan to me, so what is the plan?"
"Well firstly" Sasuke told Kiba the whole plan and the canine boy grinned. "But don't go all out; let's see what the new kid's got."
It didn't take long for Sasuke and the other two, to reach the hill where Naruto, Riley and Shikamaru were. Kiba's eyes widened when he saw his best friend in the enemy's presence.
Sasuke smirked. "Look at what we have a here, The cat hanging around the garbage."
Riley glared at Sasuke and Satoshi. "Fuck off you two before I kick your asses."
Sasuke snarled, it had been a while since he had run into Riley since he had asked her out last year and she turned him down. "Shut up, You know you could never kick my ass."
Naruto blinked before his face turned into a scowl, Haku wasn't here and from the looks of it Riley herself was ready to kill Sasuke. 'Perfect' he thought cracking his knuckles and standing "Why don't you take your little buddies there and piss the hell off,"
"I think not, Blondie." Satoshi grinned "I think you need to be taught a lesson, Uchiha is the boss around here. Trash like you and your friends should bow to him."
"Hey don't go insulting Shikamaru now." Kiba growled in a dangerous tone
"No Satoshi's right he also needs to learn a lesson for hanging out with trash like him" he said, nodding his head in Naruto's direction.
Riley was now standing beside Naruto a glare set firmly in place. "This is you're last warning Uchiha, Piss off or I'll kick your ass."
Sasuke didn't look fazed and it wasn't until Satoshi walked over and picked Shikamaru up by the front of his shirt did anyone move.
Naruto took the few steps it took to take throw a punch aimed directly at Satoshi's head but it didn't connect. Kiba had grabbed his wrist, "Just agree, you'll get off with out a beating."
Naruto growled and with quick reflexes he brought his leg up and connected with the canine boy's ribs. Kiba let out a growl and stumbled backwards. Satoshi quickly released Shikamaru, but not before a sharp jab to the ribs, and let him fall to the ground. Shikamaru let out a groan of pain as he landed. Satoshi landed a fierce blow in Naruto's side.
"All right that's it you fucker!" he growled and quickly sent a furry of punches aimed at the offending boy. Satoshi threw his own punches and their fists struck one another. Both blocking and attacking. The first one to give into pain would be struck with the other's punch packed with their full weight. Kiba recovered and tackled Naruto in the waist knocking him to the ground. Kiba sat on Naruto's chest. "The more you fight the more you piss him off."
Naruto was in no mood to listen and with his insane flexibility wrapped his legs around Kiba's neck and whipped him of sending him tumbling down the hill. Naruto stood and Satoshi moved to strike but Shikamaru wrapped his arms around Satoshi's right leg. Satoshi kicked Shikamaru in the face with his free foot.
Naruto charged at the distracted Satoshi preparing to close line him. However out of the corner of his eye Satoshi spotted the blonde and ducked down just in time to avoid a powerful thrust. Naruto spun on the heel of his foot and brought his free leg up to kick Satoshi in the face. With a last minute block preventing damage Satoshi fell to the ground because of Shikamaru. Satoshi stood again and prepared to fight.
Meanwhile Riley's insults had finally struck a nerve and Sasuke growled before launching towards the red headed female. She easily sidestepped his attack and tripped the boy he landed with a hard thud. Quickly she securely pinned him to the ground with her combat knife pointed at his jugular. "I had warned you Uchiha," she growled before leaning near his ear and whispering "Itachi would be so disappointed in you…" He struggled but to no success could he throw the female off him. She chuckled. "Call off your goons before I get mad."
"Satoshi, Kiba, Enough!" Sasuke regretfully ordered.
Satoshi and the recovered Kiba lowered their fighting stances as Riley stood off of Sasuke. He stood and wiped the dirt of his pants. "You'll pay, mark my words you'll pay, and next time I won't go easy on you because you're a girl. I also won't restrict my men either." he growled before turning and starting down the hill. In his trying to gain some dignity back he didn't notice a rock and tripped over it ending up tumbling down the hill head over heels. Naruto and Riley broke into hysterical laughter. Satoshi and Kiba sighed. Kiba looked back at his injured friend still lying on the ground. He followed Satoshi who'd walked right past Sasuke leaving him to pick himself up.
"Next time, I won't wear my weights." Satoshi mumbled to Kiba who had a large frown on his face. Sasuke was trailing behind, some dirt on his face and a glare powerful enough to rip through steel.
Meanwhile Riley and Naruto fought to control their laughter. "You know we got off lucky," she said after the two calmed down.
"Oh how so?" Naruto asked staring at her.
"Because" drawled another voice, which just happened to be the brunette sitting against the base of the tree "Sasuke didn't really fight back, and neither of them used their abilities."
Naruto blinked in confusion "I don't understand."
"You see, Sasuke isn't really a bad fighter and he is feared among the students for good reasons. Sasuke has this special ability where he can copy anyone's attacks, which makes him an extremely good fighter."
"So? Big deal, I bet I have a few tricks up my sleeve that he can't copy. He possibly can't copy everything everyone does."
"Which is correct" Shikamaru nodded sitting beside the two. "There are a few of us here that he can't copy their, I guess you would call it, special abilities. Which is why we are the outcasts I guess" he shrugged.
"What do you mean?"
"Well remember how I said there are different groups well there are only 4 outcasts, Myself, Haku, Gaara, and Shikamaru." Riley explained "One thing that most of us minus Shikamaru has in common are we are from someplace else."
"What do you mean?" Naruto felt like he was becoming a broken record.
"You see, Riley, Haku and Gaara come from someplace else other than Japan. Haku is from Canada; Gaara is from Egypt and Riley… Well she has traveled the world but was born in England." Shikamaru finished.
"Ok I can see how that would alienate them from the rest of the school so what about you Shikamaru?"
"Me? Well I basically out-casted myself, everyone is just so troublesome so it's much easier to be unpopular and alone. I have two close friends and that's it."
"I see, so back to this ability crap, you say that you guys also have a special ability kind of like Sasuke has?"
They nodded.
"Can I see?"
"Not right now." Riley said leaning back on her arms
"Ok…" Naruto said sounding like a child who was just denied going to the park.
"I hope Kiba's all right…" Shikamaru said lying back and watching the fluffy clouds pass by
"Who? The brown haired jerk that came with Sasuke and that other bastard?"
Shikamaru nodded "He's not a bad guy; he just likes hanging out with Sasuke."
"Whatever" Naruto mumbled.
The rest of the day passed by with the three teenagers doing nothing productive, Haku had come back later during the day smiling happily.
"Well at least someone's in a good mood" Naruto smiled when Haku sat beside him.
"Yes, the dance practice went very well but I have some bad news I must say." He frowned slightly. Naruto quickly decided that he didn't like seeing Haku frown.
"What is it?" he pressed
"Nothing too bad just..." he looked at Riley "You know the rumor they spread about you last year when you first came to Konoha high?"
She nodded.
"Well it's started up once again just this time they said that you're a complete lesbian." He blushed as he completed his statement.
Riley just laughed. "Let me guess Mina the blonde cheerleader started it?"
Haku nodded.
Riley smirked "I did wonder what they would come up with next." she mused.
"What? You mean you don't care that they say such nasty things about you?" Naruto yelled throwing his hands in the air.
"No, I'm not trying to impress anyone here, and it's not like I have a reputation they can hurt." She chuckled and reached over to ruffle the blonde's hair "You're cute when you're angry"
Naruto blinked before blushing slightly "Umm thanks…" he said sounding bashful
Haku and Riley both burst into giggles.
"How troublesome" Shikamaru muttered.
Naruto smiled poking the lazy boy in the stomach. Outcasts or not Naruto found he enjoyed hanging out with them and even if it meant he'd have to endure daily fights he would do it to make sure they were happy.
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After spending the day in the arcade the four boys decided to go to a coffee shop and relax. Seating themselves in some of the comfy bean bag chairs that littered the area around the low tables they waited for their drinks to arrive.
"So now that's 49 wins to your 51" Lee said to Neji who nodded "Just wait until next time, I will beat you" he smiled holding a fist into the air. It was the same thing every time they did something remotely competitive weather it be games or sports Lee and Neji always seemed to strive to beat one another. In the end Neji would win, but only by a hair and Lee would promise to beat him the next time. Takero and Shino had long gotten used to this behavior and have yet to see the brown haired boy lose.
"You know" Takero piped up "The only time I've actually seen Neji here lose was to Shino and that was in a game of cards was it not."
"Oh yeah!" Lee exclaimed "I forgot about that. Now that you mention it I've never seen Neji win a game against Shino and all he plays is cards."
The two black haired boys nodded in agreement.
"So that means if I want to defeat my arch rival I must first become a master of cards." Lee's new plan of defeating the brown haired prodigy seemed to be his best one yet.
"Just don't ask me for help." Shino said from behind his high collared coat.
Lee hung his head "Damn it." He muttered.
Their drinks came and the boys started to talk about Lee's current relationship with the pink haired girl and how far he had gotten.
"I will not tell you" he said determination thick in his voice. "A gentleman never tells about his lady and their personal business" he said before striking his good-guy pose.
The others laughed and shook their heads.
The rest of the evening went by similar to this.
TBC…..
I'd like to say really sorry for how long it took me to get this chapter out, I feel really bad. And yeah sorry once more. Thanks again to my Beta huggles you did a great job with the fight scene.
