Warnings: Err. The 'F' word pops up a couple of times. OOC, grammar mistakes…The usual.
A/N: Ack, sorry for not updating for a while! I've had a writer's block for a few days and then I just got too lazy to write. On a different note, I NEED HELP! I read the previous chapters and I felt like I might've missed a few details or didn't make it interesting enough (which I probably did). I need a beta-reader. Basically just someone who could let me know if I need to add some details, alert me if I have any mistakes and help me fix 'em and pitch in some ideas too if they have any. Please? Anyone?
By the way, sorry for not being able to thank everyone who reviewed personally for the last two chapters. Thanks a bunch! Really!

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Chapter 3 – Right

Naruto walked into the Konoha's Weekly staff room in a sort of fuzzy haze. He didn't quite remember how he got there. All he could think about was the letter neatly folded and peacefully resting inside his pocket.

"—ruto? Naruto, man, you okay?"

"Eh?" Was Naruto's intelligent reply. He snapped out of his revive and met with the worried faces of his friends Inuzuka Kiba, Sakura and Ino.

"You looked kinda dazed back there," Kiba said, one eyebrow raised.

"Ah, was just thinking."

The brunette cracked a toothy grin. "Don't think so hard, you might just hurt yourself."

Naruto punched his friend's (and neighbor) shoulder half-heartedly and mirrored the boy's grin. "Yeah, huh? Damn those blonde genes!"

The four laughed shortly and Naruto felt relieved when the worry faded from their faces. He didn't want to upset his friends before the session. He'll show them the letter later.

"Man, I'm so not up for this shit. I was in the middle of my body-building. Do you know how dangerous it is when you're lifting a weight over your head when something vibrates in your pants? I almost cut off my head! Fuck, she just had to call us all for a meeting, didn't she? She doesn't deserve to be editor," Kiba babbled defiantly and finished with a calculating look on his face. "Am I right or am I right?"

"You're right," Naruto and the girls chorused dully in unison.

"Hell yeah!" Kiba exclaimed and his audience of three watched behind him as the door to the editor's room creaked open. "With all those stupid rules I'm surprised that no one complained to the Dean! I really hate tha— why are you guys staring at me like that?"

The room suddenly went silent and the brunette's friends' eyes were wide and darting from him to some point behind him and back to him again.

"She's right behind me, right?"

"Right."

"…Right." Kiba let heaved out a giant sigh and turned around only to face the full blast of The Editor's glare.

"Any more complaints, mutt-face?" Temari, namely The Editor, snapped.

"None, sir," the brunette muttered in a reply, emphasizing the last word.

"Good. You're in no position to nit-pick, Inuzuka, when you are but a mere photographer and not even an official part of the staff."

A string of colorful curses were spewed silently from the scowling brunette and Naruto stifled a chuckle.

"Now," Temari said loudly to catch everyone's attention, "it was brought to my attention that some of you are not too happy with my, and I quote," both of her hands shot up and her middle and index fingers curled forward in the quotation marks gesture, "Nazi rule."

Her narrowed eyes scanned the room and stopped briefly on Kiba, sending him a dark death glare. She sent another glare in Akimichi Chouji's, the in-campus news journalist, direction.

A sullen look passed Chouji's face and then he spoke up. "You won't allow food in here even though it's technically fine with the Uni's staff!"

"Food inside this room disrupts the concentration. Not all of us need to constantly consume fat."

"Are you implying that I'm fat? 'Cause I'm not. I'm just chubby!" The plump boy retorted heatedly.

"Yeah! Hooray for chubby!" Naruto crudely chimed in.

"You also act superior to all of us. I don't like it," a red-haired boy cut in coldly, his arms crossed and annoyance reflected in his light green eyes.

Temari stared at her brother in alarm.

Naruto's eyes locked on Gaara. Suspicions arose in his heart like high tide in a raging sea. He didn't know Gaara personally but that only intensified his fears. What if Gaara was distant and refined yet harbored cryptic feelings for the blond boy deep inside? Oh no! What if he stalked Naruto? He did seem to be the type…

Naruto recalled his first encounter with the redhead. He walked into this exact room; his trademark foxy grin was placed safely on his face and he started greeting the personnel.

He thrust his hand forward towards a gothic-looking boy when he got to him.

"Hey! I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I'm new here."

"Sabaku Gaara," the boy offered but didn't shake Naruto's outstretched hand.

The tan hand then grabbed Gaara's pale one and shook it firmly.

"What are you doing?" Gaara demanded stoically.

"I'm just being friendly!"

"I don't need any friends."

The blond grinned and joked, "So I suppose that pledging eternal companionship is out of the question?"

The redhead gave Naruto a poisonous look that promptly shut him up.

Yeah…They didn't talk much after that besides a few work-related issues. Now that Naruto thought about it, it couldn't possibly be Gaara. The guy walked around with 'asexual' stamped to his forehead. That's what he thought, at least.

And that letter was too girly. Definitely not Gaara's style.

Then who the hell could it be?

------

"Man, did you hear that? Temari resigns when the semester ends! That's like in a month! There is a God up there after all and He has heard my prayers…" Kiba held prayerful hands to his cheek and heaved a dreamy sigh. "This has made my day. Now that the meeting's over, I'm going back to the gym. So long my friends," and with a two-fingers salute and a grin, Kiba left.

A knot the size of a basketball formed in Naruto's stomach. It can't be Kiba, right? After all, he was in the gym at the same time that Naruto was. When Naruto got to his locker to grab his stuff for work-out there was no letter inside. It had to be done while he was still in the gym. Kiba knows which locker is his…he could've easily slipped a letter inside.

Naruto shook his head and reminded himself fervently that no, no, Kiba was his best bud and would never do this to Naruto, even if this actually was a big joke. Even if the letter is real, Kiba had a huge crush on their mutual friend Hinata. So, no, there's no way it was Kiba.

"Hey, what's up?" Sakura suddenly turned to Naruto, concerned.

"Huh?"

"You're quieter than usual. Spill the beans!"

Naruto gulped at Sakura's determined features and the now curious Ino, who butted in to listen, too.

Reluctantly, he reached into his pocket, fished out the accursed love letter and handed it to the pink-haired girl.

Her jade eyes skimmed over the words carefully, one eyebrow cocked up dubiously.

At some point both of her eyebrows went up half way into her forehead. Naruto winced as he guessed that she must've gotten to the part where mister anonymous declared subtly that he was, in fact, male.

Sakura showed Ino the letter and Naruto wanted to smack his forehead. Oh great. Now the whole campus is going to know about this thing. How is it that I just so happened to make friends with the only two girls in the University who gossip for a living?

Naruto was ripped out of his reflections when Ino and Sakura squealed. He watched, startled, as Sakura bounced excitedly on the balls of her feet.

"Naruto has a Secret Admirer!" The girls cooed in a sing-song voice.

The blond had the decency to blush. "Will you keep it down?" He asked in spite of knowing that everyone will hear about it anyway. "It's probably just a joke anyway. No one writes anything this kitschy. The guy didn't even give his name, just some Latin crap or something."

Sakura suddenly seemed to be calculating something in her mind. "Latin?" She glanced at the paper again. "Caeruleus. Interesting."

Ino caught on to Sakura's line of thought. "Say Naruto, didn't you advice someone on yesterday's newspaper to write a letter?"

"Yeah, some Blue guy. Or girl. Didn't say."

"I'm blue without you…" Sakura quoted what was written at the end of the letter.

"But…that Blue talked about someone who hates him. I don't hate anyone!" As an after thought he added, "and what the hell is Caeruleus?"

Sakura ignored him. "Can I keep this?" She motioned to the letter in her hand.

"No!" Naruto cried and snatched it from her. "It's mine! My own."

"…Okay, Frodo." Sakura rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I have to pay someone a visit..."

-----

"Well, well. Who would've guessed that the great Uchiha Sasuke could write something so undeniably mushy?"

The boy in question glared daggers at the annoying girl in front of him. "He showed it to you?"

"He sure did! Wow, Sasuke. That was the most girlish love letter ever. How did you manage that?"

Sasuke scowled. "I'm a writer. I can write whatever the hell I please. I didn't want him to know it was me. I had to write it this way."

"Right. I wonder what will happen when he figures out it was you, though. I wonder what he'll think when he finds out that you've been in love with him since high school!"

"How do you know that?"

"I have my ways and I've suspected it for a while. Hold on, did you really admit just now that you're in love with Naruto? I knew that there's a heart in there after all!"

"Shut up, Sakura." He snarled.

"Aw, c'mon Sasuke. This is your chance to court him!" Sakura said happily.

"Naruto isn't gay."

"He might be!" She argued. "Even if he isn't, I'm going to help you make sure he turns into one." Sakura declared gallantly.

"Right. Good luck." Sasuke picked up his things and got up, all ready to leave the empty classroom he hid in until the Sakura showed up. He couldn't believe that she figured out it was him. The girl was smart. But she was the biggest gossip around. If anyone heard about this, he'd have to explain the bodies, because he was definitely going to kill.

Walking away, he craned his neck around to the pink-haired girl. "Sakura, are you walking properly?"

The girl nodded, puzzled at the question. "Uh. Yes, why?"

The raven-haired boy smirked. "Because if anyone hears about this, you won't be."

Sakura slowly smirked in return. "Threatening a girl, Sasuke-kun?"

The aloof black-haired boy left without replying.

------

"Naruto!"

A mop of uncanny golden locks covered head whipped around. "Ah, hey Neji. Listen, I gotta run, can't afford to be late to Orochimaru's class. Meet ya there?" The blond already started pacing swiftly to his Journalism course, obviously in a hurry to get there in time.

A wave of anger bubbled in Neji's stomach and he quickly caught up with the blond. "No," he growled, not really caring if his friend heard him emitting the out-of-character sound. He put his hand on Naruto's shoulder and clenched his fist so the fabric of the blond's shirt caught between his fingers.

Before Naruto could respond, the pale boy pushed him to an empty corridor and pressed him to one of the walls.

"What the hell? Fuck, I said I can't afford to be la—"

"What was this nonsense I heard about a love letter?" Neji asked with something akin to menace blended in his usually calm voice.

Naruto blinked. What--what was up with Neji?

"Answer me!" Neji yelled and placed both hands on Naruto's shoulders, backing him up further to the plaster wall.

"I—ow, Neji—I got a love letter from someone, okay? Let go," Naruto pleaded. The look on the other boy's usually composed face frightened him. He seemed almost desperate. Worried. Infuriated.

Neji's hands were holding him so tightly that he couldn't escape.

"Who was it from?" Neji's head leaned in forward slightly to Naruto, as if to hear the answer better. Or maybe he did it to intimidate him.

"They didn't say. Man, you're kinda scaring me. W-why do you care?" Naruto whispered, mostly due to the fact that he was very aware of Neji's face looming just inches above his own.

Neji eased up his grip a little, just enough to let the blond boy go. However, Naruto seemed to be rooted to his place.

A predatory smirk graced the brunette's thin lips and he bent even closer to the boy before him, who was looking up at him with big blue, fearful eyes.

Naruto never again had to wonder why sheep don't run away when a wolf is standing right in front of them, salt in one hand and pepper in the other.

"You're mine," the breathy words came out, puffing hotly against the shell of his ear.

Neji backed off and looked at Naruto apathetically, facial features appearing to have gone back to normal. Normal for Neji, anyway.

He locked his seemingly pupil-less eyes with Naruto's radiant azure ones. "You should hurry. Don't want to be late for class," he said smugly and lowered his hands from Naruto's shoulders, deliberately making them slide off down the shorter boy's chest until they returned to Neji's sides.

When he got no reaction from the blond who was still staring at him in immense confusion and fear, he pushed down the smirk of satisfaction that threatened to surface and whisked away.

Naruto watched him go and felt his heart drop to his stomach and jump back up.

Did…Did he just say "You're mine" and then brushed it off as if nothing happened? And what did he mean, Naruto's his?.!

Oh god. Oh no. No no no no no. No way. Nuh uh.

What if Neji wrote the letter and now he was playing with him? Coming to 'seize his prey'? Naruto totally noticed Neji feeling him up. Or feeling him down, more accurately.

…Oh crap.

What if he didn't write it and now Naruto had to deal with two guys who want him?.!

What did he do to deserve this? He wasn't even gay!

Why me? Why?

If he strained his ears hard enough he could definitely hear Lady Fate laughing her ass off at him.

----

A/N: Sorry for OOC…Neji seemed really…daring? And Sakura was a bit different too. I guess that's how I see her when she's over Sasuke and a bit older. More powerful and a bit teasing. So yeah, I'm going on a one-sided NejiNaru here. But worry not. It IS going to be SasuNaru. SasuNaru all the way, baby! When I got to the part with Gaara I actually considered for a moment to have some GaaraNaru too but…Eh. I don't know. Then it sounds too much like other AU stories that I read that had Neji, Gaara and Sasuke after Naruto. Well, up to you guys. Hope you enjoyed, please leave a review on your way out!