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Chapter 4

Loud and Demure

"Rei!" Iruka finished. Rei looked at him in surprise and immediately hoped that she misheard him, but as everyone glanced at her, she knew that it was her. Rei slowly shifted her eyes toward Jin and thought she saw rejoice in his eyes, then at Kako a few rows lower, he was smiling the sweetest smile she had seen on his face. Hmmm, kinda…cool She thought, making up in her mind that it wasn't a completely bad team. Iruka finished reading off the names for the teams, which ended at team 15. Everyone rushed out the doors to talk to their friends.

Rei noticed Naruto trying to talk to some groups of kids, but couldn't really talk before he got kicked out. Rei told Jin to go ahead to the house, making up the excuse that she was going to stop by the store later. Jin, like his twin brothers, hated shopping so he hurried off towards the house. As Naruto finally gave up trying to talk to a group with Hari in it, he sighed and was about to leave, hunching his shoulders up. Before Naruto got the time to take no more than three steps, Rei ran up to him.

"Yo! Naruto!" Rei said, slowing to a halt behind Naruto. The blonde perked his head up and turned around.

"Yeah? If your gonna insult me or something the-," Naruto started, still not fully turning around, still hunching shoulders.

"NO! Nothing like that! Just wanted to…I dunno, talk?" Rei stated. At this Naruto turned around with a grin in his face. Rei felt the stares and probably awful rumors going around as the people noticed. She could feel their stares and glares shooting straight through her soul. It felt horrible. She respected Naruto for standing this all his life.

"About the teams? OK! You know, I got Sakura-chan! Bad part is the Sasuke is in it too and Sakura-chan likes him," Naruto started talking, with his little fox grin. The fox grin was what he looked like when his eyes were closed and either talking or deeply thinking about something…or dumb-founded. As this happened, Rei took the chance to stare back at the others still talking about them. She threw them a glare that she thought was perfect, and by their reactions, seem to be perfect. Something about it seemed familiar as the Sasuke-fan girls looked up and busily started talking again seeming curious and worried. Then she turned back to Naruto.

"Don't like Sasuke, ne?" She taunted, she knew very well he hated Sasuke.

"Course I do! Where have YOU been lately? Now don't tell me you LIKE him!"

"Oh KAMI! You seriously think I like HIM? He's way to quiet and acts as if everyone is below him! Even though it's kind of true," Rei said.

"There's no WAY he's better than me! I could kick his ass anytime!" Naruto said, and both stared at Sasuke leaning against a fence, watching everyone talk and seemed deep in thought about something himself.

"Cold,"

"Hearted,"

"Bitch!" called both Rei and Naruto. Then they looked at each other surprisingly and blinked twice. Naruto let out a snort, and Rei burst out laughing.

"Ok! I thought I was the only one that labeled him THAT!" Rei laughed. By now, Naruto started laughing with her, causing some more glares from the groups, and even making one group move past them and decided to talk somewhere less….crowded.

"No way! You know, I think that's the first time I EVER did something like that!" Naruto said.

"Same here! That was comical!" Rei said, and as she pulled herself back together again, she glanced at everyone either glaring or having that I-feel-sorry-for-you look on…all besides one girl. She had short black hair with pearl white eyes, half hiding behind a wall, looking at them. Rei thought she was looking as if she wished she could talk to them too, but seemed too shy. "One second Naruto…," Rei said, starting to walk over to the girl as mostly everyone started leaving. "Hello there!" Rei said as she was in front of her. The girl blushed while she said a little, "H-hello."

"Would you like to come and talk with Naruto and me?" Rei asked, smiling. It was kind of hard being nice and giving the impression that you were a person you could trust. Then the thought struck her. Naruto and me…NARUTO and me! She was afraid that maybe this girl hated him too. Oops.

"I-I would like tha-that very much!" The girl exclaimed and started following Rei to Naruto, which was looking curiously and kind of stupidly at them. As they met up, Naruto blinked at the girl. Wow! Another person wants to talk to me! Maybe it's because I'm a genin like everyone else now! Naruto thought.

"What's your name? Mines is Rei and you should know Naruto here," Rei said warmly at Hinata.

"I-I'm Hyuuga Hinata, main family," the shy girl said, blushing at talking to Naruto and Rei.

"Cool! I didn't know you were a Hyuuga!" Naruto exclaimed at her. Hyuugas were always acknowledged.

"Who's on your team?" Rei asked curiously.

"Kiba-kun and Shino-kun," Hinata said, and after that, they talked the day away. As the conversation advanced, Hinata seemed to be more and more open to them. Rei was happy to have found new friends, and Naruto was just happy to HAVE any friends. Rei noticed it was getting dark when the last of the group of Sasuke fan girls went away as Sasuke rushed off somewhere.

"Uh, sorry guys, I have to get back to my house, it's getting kind of dark and I've got some guests coming over for supper," Rei said, looking at the slowly darkening sky. Hinata nodded in agreement and said she'd better get home before her family started worrying where she went to, and seeing Naruto was left alone, he decided to go to his one hangout: The Ichiraku Ramen Shop.

Rei hurriedly changed into some of her nice clothes when she got back to the house and rushed downstairs to smell a banquet of food. It smelled delicious! As she looked over the table there were chicken breast, ramen in a bowl, rice, onigiri, some other oriental food she didn't even know, and some biscuits. The table seemed to glow, but Rei was snapped out of her daze as the doorbell rang. There was a clatter of noise upstairs followed by a curse. Hizume was probably in the middle of putting on his pants and tripped over in his hurry. Masura was lighting the candles at the table as Jin started darkening the lights.

"Guess I'll get it then," Rei said as she walked toward the door. As she opened the door, sure enough there was Hizume's guest and her brother as Rei saw standing next to her. As she let Hana and her brother in, she blinked at the boy as he walked by. He was nothing at ALL what she thought he'd be. She closed the door behind them as Hana started saying they really shouldn't have gone through all the trouble. The boy seemed un-impressed but staring hungrily at the chicken in the middle of the table. Rei stood there for a moment inspecting the guy. He had a grey hood on, hands in pocket and his jacket was rimmed with black fluff at the hood and sleeves. The strangest part was the little white dog with smudges of brown on its ears that sat on the boy's head. Hizume hurried downstairs and took out a chair for Hana at one end of the table, and sat diagonally to her right. Masura decided taking the other side of her would be good to hear what Hizume and Hana talked to each other about. The boy sat next to Masura, with Jin opposite him. Rei absent-mindedly sat next to the boy.

As everyone prayed respects and started eating, the boy put his dog in his lap and immediately went for the chicken. Rei kind of chuckled at it. Al lot of things amused her and her thoughts were on people that everyone was stupid and weird, just at different levels. As she saw Hizume stare lovingly at Hana, she noticed that the whole table seemed to be set up to be a romantic environment. Rei quietly ate at her food. About fifteen minutes flew by and the only ones who talked were the three fifteen year olds. Then quiet unexpectedly, Hana called over at her brother.

"Kiba, can you pass me the butter please?"