Star - Thank you so so so much again to Pantyanarchy89! You, I wish you had a darned account lol, it'd be easier to contact you about stuffu, but ah well, thanking people in the chapters is kind of old school, eh? Haha, I meant that in a good way. XD I'm curious what your expectations are because it is FAR too soon to even call this a 'gem', and so I hope that I don't disappoint you at any moment in the future. Also...

HAVE YOU READ CHAPTER 38 OF STS? (see, THIS is why I would love to contact you if you had an account. OTL) Your last review makes me wonder if you ever saw that there was a new (old) chapter or not. You reviewed on Chapter 37 to encourage me to update, but I already had, this past April. QuQ So let me know what you thought of that chapter, how you felt and whatnot... I'm particularly proud of the flashbacks I did in the beginning-ish portion, just letting you know. XP

That said... The first two chaps were like warm ups, especially since I went and got ahead of myself and decided to post the second chapter without beta-ing or sleeping on it or nothing. A part of me has regretted not adding enough fun scenes to make the day seem longer, but ah well. Also...

EDIT: I had given incorrect ages to the characters, since I myself am a lazy tard who hasn't actually graduated from college or nuthin'. Yeah, so last chapter I edited Naruto to being 21 not 22, buuut... that's still incorrect by a year, since they're supposed to be Juniors doing first round of higher education. OTL In any case... Sakura, Ino, and Sasuke are 22 (though they shouldn't be either) and Naruto and Hinata are 21. Really, you guys know what's wrong with that math right? But I won't go into it, that's the ages that they are and they're Juniors of all things. OTL (supposed to be graduates by 21, I fail so hardcore, ugh. OTL I could be a graduate already but... yeah, money sucks.)


Just One Of Those Things

Ch. 3 - Another One Of Those 'Friendship' Things

Like a stray dog in its daily nest assorted from flotsam and found items, Naruto was settled comfortably atop his bed. The dirty laundry had grown over time, constructing itself into some sort of moat while the rumpled, sunk-in appearance of his bed resembled a gorilla's nest. It suited him just fine, otherwise it wouldn't have gotten like this in the first place. It enhanced the notion of having his own territory, a bubble that smelled like him and felt like him.

Naruto peered in vain at his course textbook, seeing nothing but blocks of paragraphs shoved around clinical portraits of trees and pastures and whatever else that was non-sentient with roots. He flipped through the chapters absently. The fine print and compressed details were straining on his attention. School had been this way for the past few semesters. It had finally come to the point where Sasuke was regularly pulling his weight for him - without a word, without him having to ask - Sasuke already knew when he was needed.

It was fucking embarrassing.

But...

He never teased him about it. He never brought attention to it at all.

Naruto slunk down the wall, his feet hitting into a pile of old clothes before promptly kicking the pile over the edge of the bed. Irrigating a field was not going to be the same as watering his ficus.

How could Sasuke think he considered Sakura the same way as him? Childhood friend was too bittersweet a word for her. It was too impersonal when he had liked her so much. Still, he couldn't help but wonder what he was going to do when he saw her again tomorrow. If there was still a chance...

He leaned his head back with the closing of his eyes, and he tried to think.

As much as he liked her... It would be cool to really become friends with her, he thought.

'Maybe I should try to act the way I did back then, put on my old bravado...?'

Naruto opened his eyes and glanced around his mess.


Naruto ambled towards their tiny laundry room with a pile poured onto his arms when Sasuke appeared from the kitchen entryway, a cell phone in his hand.

"Ino said that Sakura caught a cold,"

Naruto blinked at the person he most definitely considered a childhood friend.

"You have their cell numbers too?"


A Sakura Blanket Burrito was curled against the side of hotel bed no.1, grumbling and muttering curses as she basked in the gossip that had been inspired from all of this.

"What the hell was he trying to do?" Ino laughed incredulously, her arms crossed as she leaned back against the wall with one foot propped against it. Indeed, this was Naruto's fault. The dumbass made her stay in the water too long when it was already freezing! She and the girls were ready to leave 'til he came along - even their playing around had been reaching a point of being forced because they wanted nothing more but to keep moving - He hadn't noticed that at all? And the idiot took Hinata's joke the wrong way! Was he still unable to read situations?

"And what the hell was he doing being so riled up like that?" Sakura bristled within her stuffy cocoon, trying her best not to recall his actions too vividly lest she read too much into it. Because the more she read into it, the more creepy it got. All the implications were wrong. Naruto was annoying - and hopelessly so - but he was hopeless in almost a cute way, like he were a little brother she pitied but affectionately. But god, if he still acted infatuated with her... Sakura shuddered with disgust. She felt even more sorry for guys in those oblivious, unrequited situations. She couldn't even imagine being in such a dead-end mindset. And such was one that they put themselves into. The only cure is that they fall for someone that actually likes them back, tch.

Hinata laid atop the Sakura Burrito, gently spooning her friend with her chin laid resting atop where it felt like the older girl's shoulder was.

"He did seem... passionate," Hinata added curiously. Sakura shuddered again. "Do you need more blankets?"

"Not at all,"

"Maaaan! Harrassing the hell out of him isn't going to have full effect without you!" Ino grinned heartily, but Sakura shook her head.

"Don't bother with that anymore," Sakura sighed, "He seems too occupied. It'd be pointless to have any fun with him with our antics if he can't recover from it afterwards," Sakura seemed to be the only one that understood what she was saying, because Ino was quick to miss the point in her careless reply.

"Can you imagine someone hanging themselves over an Agriculture major?" She said caustically, causing Hinata to softly gasp, " 'I HATE PLANTS!' and then they kill themselves with the jungle vine they'd been cultivating for six years,"

"Ino-chan, that's terrible!" And yet strangely amusing, even Sakura was sniggering over the imagery.

The three Tokyo students lapsed into a distracted silence, the early afternoon feeling slow and somehow half-formed, what with their weekend plans turning out like this. A bottled water laid on the nightstand next to Sakura's bed, along with some dry snacks, medicine, and a pack of cold patches they bought downstairs.

Hinata gently pressed the back of her hand against Sakura's cheeks, forehead and beneath her chin, earning a small amused smile from the nurse-in-training.

"You two are ready to go then, I guess?" She sighed out, sounding a shade wistful, but really she was just tired.

Ino and Hinata nodded at each other.

"Mm," "Yup,"

They would have left much earlier had Sakura not gotten sick last night, but they were sure she was in her own good hands now.

"Seee yaa later theeeen," She smirked and resigned herself to a restful position against her pillow.


Summer in Kobe wasn't so different from their hometown. It got hot, it got humid. There were mountains, there were trees, and there was concrete. Pretty much the only thing that took him a while to get used to was being able to see the ocean from their balcony door, the sun glinting off the waters at dawn and glowing in a haze of pink morning clouds. Being hemmed in by a single mountain was also a slightly strange feeling, like being cut off from the majority of the world and living in fictional landscape you'd find in a Miyazaki film. Maybe the other thing that took him a while to get used to was the international 'mish mash' of the city, the culture here was both... simple and sophisticated at the same time.

Naruto rifled through the now clean pile of laundry strewn lazily atop his rumpled bed. He had forgotten the completed load last night after he threw it in the wash, so he had to toss half-dry wrinkled garments into the dryer couple hours earlier without much of a choice; there wasn't time left. Sasuke said they were on their way.

Nice of them to give a warning this time, he thought with the roll of his eyes. But he was beginning to question why they should come over at all. With just the two of them now, it kind of looked like they were picking them up. The girls picking up the boys at their apartment.

"Whatever," He sighed blandly as he slid off his morning shirt for a fresh one, "Mm?" Naruto craned his head up and stared questioningly at the ceiling, as if it had said something. No, he heard something. "..." He waited, but he wasn't hearing anything more. It was really weird, he wished he could hear it again. Every few weeks or so he could hear the coed next door having sex, but it hadn't sounded like that. She moaned like a sexually hard-up wife. Chk! "EH?" Naruto whipped around towards the open doorway.

"And here we have the rare tail-less Saiyan in its natural habitat," grinned Ino, Sakura's Nikon in her hands, very much resembling an intrusive nature photographer, "Note the gorilla-like nest, fascinating,"

"Fuck off!" Naruto didn't think, he just ran over and kicked the door close on Ino. Lucky for him she had reacted quickly or else he would have been responsible for breaking Sakura's camera, or at least the lens. His right hand rested uneasily over the door knob as he tried to come to terms with the uncomfortable sensation in his face, the way his ears were burning as if suffering from inflammation. What the hell were they doing? And what was with Hinata... being there? Why? She was looking... What she was doing looking? Ino was intruding, but Hinata was with her too and she was... looking. She was looking at him, peering at him without his knowledge 'til he turned around, seeing everything... Naruto's hand flew to the back of his neck and he could the skin there was on fire as well. He had no idea if she had just been innocently looking into his room or if... she was shamelessly staring... being sneaky and rude like Ino... He didn't know. He didn't know if they were still out there by the door though he hadn't heard anything all the time he'd been standing there.

He raked his fingers through his hair with a humiliated growl. This was seriously friggin' weird. He didn't know of any coeds that did what they did, not any female friends... He never heard any stories anyhow.

And these were his former classmates; girls he never really got to know all that well. Suddenly they re-appear, and they act like nothing they do matter, like they've all joked like this together before.

"She's got a picture of me..." He strained a groan with a grimace. He marched back to his bed and swiftly undressed, forcing down all thoughts of awkwardness and potential failures. Dark slim-fit jeans and a three-fourths sleeve baseball shirt seemed good enough.


Hinata had her curled fingers pressed firmly to her lips, a poor effort to hold back her voice as well as to obfuscate the utter bashfulness on her face, blush from nose to ears in all.

They were all hiding.

Yes, they were hiding.

They were twenty-two years old (she was twenty-one still), and they were playing a nine-year old's prank on The Number One Knucklehead. As soon as he had slammed the door on Ino's face, the smug art student beckoned them all through hushed excitement to hide immediately! She found herself sandwiched between Sasuke and Ino in the almost impossibly tiny laundry room, with Sasuke taking the rear since he was roughly two heads taller than herself. She biting on the inside of her bottom lip. She was soon finding it hard to ignore the warm amber scent of his cologne hogging her senses, the involuntary press of his body, firm yet soft. She never experienced the feel of a man's body heat, it was the most strangely inviting thing, like wanting to crawl under a fully heated kotatsu after enduring biting winter winds... Or maybe more like the promised embrace from an older brother-type with the 'forbidden connotations' attached. She let a tight sigh escape through her nostrils as she resigned herself to her ambivalence. It was difficult not trying to lean back and rest against him like it didn't mean anything. It wouldn't have to mean anything.

Ino's eyes met with her own before quickly scanning between the two of them behind her.

"Well, well, look at the three of us here in the laundry room. Should we start a threesome?"

Hinata's body went hot as she suddenly lost her footing and fell in shock against Sasuke's body - the full on press of his body heat was enough to convince her that she should faint, faint right there and now to escape her own embarrassment. But no, such a thing wasn't that easy and - Sasuke's hands were gently enclosed around her shoulders. Hinata sharply eeped at this and tried miserably to curl into herself, as if she were a flower shriveling from the arid sun. She wasn't even aware of the cheeky apologies Ino had been spouting towards her.

"Are you still so shy?" His deep voice whispered softly to her and she felt herself shrink further away.

"Th,This isn't exactly c-common for me," She murmured, trying to will away her awkward smile. This always happened when she was severely embarrassed; she smiled, and she didn't think that ever made sense.

"SHH!" Ino's silent scream echoed shortly through their corner, and they soon heard the clicking of a door knob and the fumbling of hard footsteps trodding across carpet. Hinata carefully glanced upwards and found Sasuke staring directly at her, his eyes smiling with her own. Hmm... "Okay, he's at the end of the living room! GO, GO!" Ino grabbed Hinata's hand and they jerked out into the hallway, her heart thrown up in her mouth. All of a sudden she was scared as the three of them slid stealthily against the wall, "OHSHIT! GOGOGO!", towards the bedroom..?

Wait, why the bedroom?!

Hinata hadn't even noticed Sasuke's hand helpfully ushering her on and she was tugged mercilessly along by the overly excited Ino.

They slid in without touching the door. Maybe there was a chance he'd notice. And then she caught a full look at the boys' shared bedroom, never before seeing such a stark contrast in her life. Sasuke's side was minimalism, efficient - while Naruto's was a contained explosion of clutter, color and clothing.

Hinata eeped again as they all suddenly crowded onto the balcony like a mob trying to escape a building fire. Sasuke quietly closed the glass door, and Hinata glanced over at Ino who took to the other side, her back pressed against the wall while she peeked carefully over the side.

Hinata suddenly realized that Sasuke's hands were still on her shoulders, but she was caught up in seeing what was going to happen that - the bedroom door opened and Ino let out a high shrill before cutting herself short. She was silently laughing in hysterics, a begging expression stuck on her face. Hinata's breath flew from her throat, suddenly finding herself tightly caught in Sasuke's arms, holding her away from the glass door. Then she saw Kobe from a view she hadn't seen yet. The skyline here was so much more pleasant than Tokyo's. The harmonious mix of architecture, trees and the ocean glinting off in the horizon with the swirl of white clouds above them; it was an almost cathartic sort of beauty. And what else was neat was that she could tell the way the city sloped down towards the water...

"Ha, he's gone. He looks so pissed!" Ino squealed behind her hand. She was shamelessly amused, and she knew it.

"What do we do now?" Hinata asked, her words holding double meaning. She was asking where they were going to hide next since they seemed to have cornered themselves here. She was also asking how they were going to make it up to him if this meant they were done with their game now.

"You think he'd call you by now or something," Ino smirked at Sasuke's direction.

"You'd think that, but you're forgetting his pride,"

"He doesn't think we actually ditched him, does he?"

"Ah! Don't make that face, Hina-chan!" Ino's hands were suddenly clamped over her eyes as if to protect her vision and sanity, causing Hinata to try to smooth away whatever features she was making. Hinata heard the soft buzzing of a vibrating phone and glanced behind her as Sasuke began fishing out for the device in his jean pocket. Hinata got up on her tippy-toes to peer at the SMS he had received.

From: Dobe

Title: FUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOU

Body: FUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOU

FUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOU

FUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOU

FUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOU

FUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOU

FUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOU

FUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOU

FUCKYOU!

Hinata sucked in the inside of her cheek.

"Not exactly the happiest response," Sasuke plainly stated, prompting Ino to burst out laughing.

She slapped at her forehead and laughed up at the sky, "What do we do now, indeed," Hinata knew from her tone that Ino wasn't done scheming yet, and she found herself worrying and wondering how far they were from that ole imaginary line. "Sasuke-kun, I'm open to suggestion,"

"Hn..." Hinata glanced up at the dark-haired Uchiha, a thoughtful pause on his face, "I could give you his cell number and you can SMS him pretending to be Sakura-chan,"

Ino's eyes lit up with a dramatic gasp.

"What should it say?! What should it say?! What're you thinking?!"

As Sasuke began to work on forwarding Naruto's contact info to Ino via SMS, he replied with a thoughtful drawl, "Tell him..." He hit the send button, "No, ask him if he's seen you two,"

"That's kind of boring, Sasuke-kun," yet Ino cooed his name nonetheless as she received his SMS and began to add Naruto into her contacts. She swiftly drew up her message and sent it straight to Naruto. Hinata was beginning to need a seat. She didn't think she could last through such extended pranking without sitting down.

"Ah!" Ino squeaked in uncontainable excitement as her screen flashed with his reply.

From: Uzumaki Naruto

Title: Sorry

Body: They didn't ditch you too, did they?

Ino burst out laughing as she showed Sasuke and Hinata the reply, the phone shaking in her wriggly hand.

"No emoji, he's still pissed," Sasuke smirked, "Okay, tell him that 'you' faked being sick and that 'you' had sent the two of you off so that you could have him and the hotel all to 'yourself',"

Hinata felt her heart swell to burst in her chest at Sasuke's reply - for him to jump so quickly into that sort of evil concoction - she couldn't believe it. What if Naruto actually fell for it?

"Ohmygod, best lunch ever," Ino grinned blissfully as her fingers worked their magic, the phone itself almost emitting dark electric waves from the very nature of their prank.

"Sasuke-kun, are you sure this is alright?" Hinata turned up to the young man who has easily usurped Sakura's former position of partner-in-crime among their ranks at this point.

"We'll see," was all he could say as he continued to smirk over this whole thing.

From: Uzumaki Naruto

Title: RUSHITTINGME?

Body: SENDMEAPICSOIKNOWURNOTFUCKIN GWITHME.

"Okay, hmm..." Ino swayed in place, apparently ruminating over Naruto's latest reply. "Ah, Hina-chan?"

"Mm?" Hinata blinked as Ino began to briskly tip-toe over to her. "Wh-What're you..?"

"We need to send him a picture,"

"O,Of what?!" Hinata uttered squeamishly before Ino had already gotten on her knees before her, her free hand grabbing at her mid-length dress. "N,Noo! Inooo!" Hinata fought to keep her dress down, it wasn't exactly easy for Ino to hold up by herself anyways, she'd have to-

"Sasuke-kun, subdue the maiden,"

Sasuke's warm arms then clamped themselves tightly around her upper body, her lithe wrists caught in his heated grip. 'A,Ahh no...' Being held against him this way was more unique than before, and having to become almost half-naked in his arms was- and then on the balcony... the fresh air... with the view as open as this - oh god, nothing could get worse than this. Oh god, she could feel his hearting steadily beating against her back. Hinata clamped her eyes shut as she felt Ino gather up her dress further and further up 'til she held it securely against her waist. She didn't know what was going on anymore, what she was waiting for, it was dark and it was hot, that's all that existed in this moment. God no, they couldn't send him that!

There was the characteristic fake camera noise of the cell camera and she felt Ino's hand release and her dress unceremoniously fall back around her legs, making her decent again.

"Thank you for your sacrifice,"

"Your solemn voice is stupid," Hinata sighed out, somehow expressing that her sanity was still intact despite her mortification, and it made Ino giggle.

"Don't worry, I didn't look," Sasuke smiled warmly down at her, almost getting Hinata to nearly forget the ordeal. His hands were on her shoulders again... "Did you send it to him?"

"Yeah, but he hasn't replied yet-" Ino glanced through the glass door before quickly ripping herself away and quickly pressed herself against the wall, causing Sasuke to react by pulling Hinata against the wall like before. They took the chance then to carefully peek inide the bedroom-

"A-AH!" Hinata croaked, causing Sasuke to instinctively clamp a hand over her mouth, his chest rumbling with withheld laughter. It was Naruto- It was Naruto undressing- I,It was N-N-Naruto n-n-naked- b-butt naked- Ohmygod, he was butt naked. Hinata didn't know when she had closed her eyes because she could still vividly see his naked form forever burned on the back of her eyelids, the expanse of tan skin, the curve of his jaunty hip bone, the rigid curve of his spine and ohgod even his ass was tan like the rest- no wait, he had a bit of a farmer's tan- b-bu-but even there, down there... it matched, it matched his hair! Forever burned, the image was forever burned across her eyelids. This was so wrong, she shouldn't be looking - well she wasn't really anymore, was she? SHE COULD STILL SEE EVERYTHING!

"Don't freak out, he's getting dressed now," Sasuke whispered laughingly in her ear. She could only utter a mortified moan in turn. She was so sure his body heat was burning right through her as well, she was surprised she wasn't a puddle already. She felt Sasuke suddenly stiffen, an involuntary whispered scream escaping him, "OHSHIT."

Hinata's eyes popped open and she saw the half-dressed Naruto staring at them with hard blue eyes. Hinata suddenly felt very cold just then. Naruto began to march towards them, his silent footsteps carrying the impression of an elephant stampede running right for them!

'Whatdowedowhatdowedowhatdowe DO?!' Hinata inwardly screeched as his hand reached for the balcony door's handle.

He flicked the lock.

The three of them stiffened in mutual shock.

"Oh shit," Ino hissed, seeing Naruto happily flick her off in turn before heading back for the bed for a good shirt.

"He still thinks Sakura sent him that message," Sasuke laughed, the sound like a cross between amusement and played down fear.

"Dammiiit," whine Ino as she leaned up against the glass door and slapped her palm against it repeatedly, "OPENUPDUMBASS! HEY! NARUTOOO!"

"Ino," Sasuke warned, causing Ino to shake her head in vehement resignation.

"If he was pissed then..." She gave a heavy sigh and decided to accept their fate. She lifted her phone and typed out a new message. The three of them stared into the bedroom. Naruto was halfway through his shirt with one arm through the sleeve when he grabbed his phone off his bed. He stiffened. His stunned, apathetic blue eyes swept over to their direction and he just stared. Ino was waving at him whilst sheepishly shaking her cell phone in her hand, and he just stared. Hinata could feel her heart beating in her ears.

His cell phone slipped from his hands and landed back on his bed as if it had been a turd, and before she could blink, the glass door was unlocked and forcibly shoved aside.

"YOU GUYS ARE A BUNCH OF SHITS!" He screamed before Ino snuck her way past him back inside where the one-sided argument resumed. "WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!"

"Oh yay, I guess you haven't mellowed out after all!" Ino beamed brightly, her way of disarming a situation involving her wrongdoings. It never worked the way you think it's supposed to, the only way it worked was to prove that Ino wasn't affected whatsoever and couldn't ever be no matter what.

Sasuke kept one hand on Hinata's shoulder as they both carefully filed back inside the bedroom. Naruto's face... She had never seen him so red before, even the veins in his neck were a somewhat pronounced. A thin line of drool trailed down his chin from spittling so viciously.

"WHAT?! YOU DON'T DO THAT TO A GUY! ARE YOU SOME HUGE FUCKTWAD?!"

"Oh come now, Naruto, come come come. It's pretty funny that you fell for it so easily, hehe!"

"YOU DON'T DO THAT!"

"Naruto, it was my idea," Sasuke finally said after making sure Hinata was out from the line of fire. She could see the way Naruto hesitated then, the way his eyes flashed between resignation, bitterness and rage.

"You guys are a bunch of shits," He finally hissed before pulling his arm through the last sleeve and stormed out from the bedroom in a fit of hormones and humiliation.


"Narutooo, c'moooon!" Ino playfully called out as she bounded into the kitchen, Sasuke and Hinata following from behind. He sat by the island, possessively curling his arm around the remaining four beers, unable to look up at either of them. The redness had yet to leave his face and ears. Hinata never thought she could see him look so humiliated. It was as fascinating as it was depressing. "Naruto, we admit that it was a mean joke, but you have to get over it," Instead he curled further into himself, the beer cans scraping lightly against the island counter, leaving them to talk to the top of his head.

He reminded her so much of a dejected child sullenly sipping on their juicebox alone.

Hinata's feet lightly padded across the linoleum until she was hovering by his side, tentative and a bit nervous. She couldn't sweep away the image of the rage that had played on his face earlier, the longer the imprint lasted the more her intrigue grew, in fact it had been strangely captivating, perhaps... she had missed the passion he had always readily displayed back in the day.

"Naruto-kun," She called with mouse-like softness as she reached to pull out the bar stool beside him. His shoulders stiffened just the slightest, possibly not realizing how close she really was. She also never thought she'd see him shut up so firmly now that she observed him a bit more. There was something about him that she cared about. Hinata poked her face into the crevice of his arm and head, and pecked her lips to his cheek. Despite the human-shaped havoc that was Uzumaki Naruto, there was something lulling about his warmth, compared to Sasuke's smoldering body heat. Naruto gave with a jolt and shrank away from her, his dolorous eyes so wide and blue, fearful and confused. "Those were my panties," She admitted softly to him, as if sharing something in confidence. The confusion and fear were then replaced immediately with dubiety, his blue eyes shifting about, scanning her form as if to find the words 'lie' and 'liar' somewhere on her body. "I didn't volunteer for it," She added lastly, his somber blue darting back up to hers. Hopefully he knew he wasn't the only one that got used in this prank? And hopefully he'd see that she was okay with it already, so he could be okay with it too.

"... They forced you then?" His eyes narrowed, sharp with accusation.

"It's okay!" Hinata's hands shot up and waved sheepishly about, hoping to dispel any further bad thoughts from popping into his brain like an agenda.

"How is that okay..?!"

"It's already happened, Naruto-kun, so it's okay. Besides, this thing has only occurred between the four of us," She tried to give her best reassuring smile she could muster. She could still feel her heart beating in her ears. "Just the four of us," She iterated again, feeling encouraged by the way his face ever slowly softened into a look that she could claim to be acceptance.


Naruto, albeit a tad reluctantly at the time, surrendered the remaining three beers to his 'mean' friends, allowing for the whole group to drink together while they ambled out of the apartment building like a gaggle of truant high schoolers.

Following from behind, hearing their noise and easy laughter, their footsteps stomping echoes loudly through the stairwell, seeing the way Ino hopped two or four steps at a time, Hinata trying to catch up to her and not spill her can at the same time, and Sasuke coolly jogging down the steps after them... The way Naruto's chest felt weightless and heavy and hollow at the same time, how it felt to have that bittersweet lightness try to seep into that hollowness like water into a vessel... Following them, feeling like he was a part of them, but still carrying that disappointment they made him feel in the first place, it was... awkward, yet somehow exciting. Somehow it felt a little wrong even, but that was most likely the fault of unresolved hurt feelings.

Was it okay if, somehow, this was beginning to remind him exactly of his school days with them? Shit, it was almost scary. He never thought he would feel this way again.

He couldn't let them know, couldn't let them see his awkwardness.

Naruto lifted the can to his lips, elbow high in the air as he drank down a quick gulp, then he was on his way to join them.


"Oi! We should do something that's actually fun!" Naruto came trodding out from the apartment to meet them, a tinge of drunken pink on his cheeks. Ino smirked at this, though she was hoping that meant he finished his booze. If he really was a weak drunk, that was going to be troublesome thing to deal with so early in their day. At least he seemed cheerful now, like finally.

"But we're in Kobe!" She replied in a mock-whine.

"You think that's fun for me? I live here!" The unpredictable blonde retorted vehemently, smirking back at all of them.

"Ugh, seriously? There were things I wanted to see here," Ino threw her hands up in the air to express some of her exasperation. This was really turning into a half-assed make-it-up-as-you kind of day, not exactly the kind she was into if it didn't at least start off early. "Hina-chan, you wanted to see the French Ijinkan, right?"

"Yes, well... It'll always be there though, if Naruto-kun-"

"And I wanted to check out the three gardens here, at least Nunobiki,"

"What's that?"

"You live here and you don't know what it is?" Ino laughed out loud, this time not mockingly as she'd been since they got here.

"I play tourist 'round the skate park,"

"Oh yeah, you tried to play bicycle polo when a classmate invited you," Sasuke smiled from aside.

"What the hell?" was Ino.

"That was during my third week here," Naruto rubbed awkwardly at the back of his neck, "I ended up knocking his tooth out,"

"WITH THE POLO MALLET?" Ino was in hysterics now.

"He just people watches there now, far as I know," Sasuke smirked.

"You'd do better to play hockey, stupid! Ahahaha!"

"Yeah, yeah, shaddup!"

"Is that really all you do there, then? People watch?" Ino shot him a smug looking dubious glance, implying what she was thinking in that single look.

"I don't think I'm gonna knock somebody's eye out next, okay?" He glared getting her to release the laughter she'd been holding in the whole time, "It's just a nice looking area,"

"But you don't know how to skate," Ino stated.

"I don't know how to skate,"

"And you don't know how to bicycle polo," She smirked at him, happily earning another glare from him that made her feel oh-so playful. They came upon a concrete bench flanked by overgrown leafy bushes outside the neighboring residential complex. Hinata sat down with Sasuke beside her, both still nursing their beers, while Ino perched herself on the smooth backrest, lazily rotating her can around and around. "You guys suck," Ino suddenly said after several minutes of comfortable silence.

"Oh?" Sasuke smirked.

"Huh?" was Naruto.

"Well, what the hell is fun then? Billboard brow, Hina-chan and I, we been on the road for a couple days now and we can turn anything into fun. But you guys, ugh, so damn picky,"

"I haven't complained about anything," Sasuke offered as a lazy amendment, his arm slung on the backrest behind Hinata.

"WHERE'S THE SPONTANEITY?!" Ino cried melodramatically to the heavens, her head thrown back so far that she was clutching at the concrete backrest to prevent her from falling over. After a few moments of holding that pose, she retracted back like none of that had ever happened. "Have you guys seen the rest of our photos?"

"Nah," was Sasuke.

"If we go to the Hanshin railway, we can bum around Osaka easily,"

"We should take them to Suma at night then, on the way back," Sasuke offered earning a nod from his roommate. Ino was distracting herself with the Nikon that dangled from her neck, leaving the guys to wait on her opinion, like she were somehow the unspoken leader of them all. Not like they really had a choice anyhow.

"Alright, let's go," Ino nodded, still looking at the digital photos. Naruto spun round on his heel and pumped a fist into the air.


They grabbed all kinds of fast food that they could, and three bento lunches to go with as they trampled into the somewhat empty train car, laughing and talking with paper bags shaking from their hands. The local trains were as affordable as they were slow, but the trip to Osaka was no less than forty mins. Not at all that terrible, even if you could get there in ten on bullet train.

Naruto, Sasuke, Ino and Hinata quickly claimed the very end of the train car, practically behaving as if to crowd around each other and their stash, the boys and girls sitting across from each other respectively. They began exchanging their meals like they were trading cards, Sasuke handing Ino her McDonalds burger, Hinata handing Ino her croquette side order, Sasuke giving Naruto his french fries, Ino giving Sasuke his tomato-heavy chicken cutlet sandwich bento, Naruto handing Ino the box of lemon cookies in his grocery bag, Sasuke giving Hinata her chicken sandwich and french fries, Naruto giving Hinata the Cinnabon she ordered on the way out, Hinata giving Naruto his miso pork flavored chips and soba bento, and giving Sasuke his soba bento, and lastly Hinata passed out their drinks. Ino had Calpico, Sasuke got some kind of unrecognizable tea brand, Naruto wanted to try the new annual Pepsi flavor, and Hinata got milk tea.

They had gotten looks from the other passengers during their 'antics' but it they laughed it off afterwards and began to eat. In a matter of minutes the train began to jerk along the tracks and steadily pull away from the platform, allowing the sun to greet them once again.

"Wait, I just realized... We're leaving Sakura in Kobe," Ino had turned to Hinata with an indescribable twist on her face, like a mutation of disbelief and victory. "We haven't even texted her," add subtle Cheshire grin into that mutation.

Hinata turned towards the boys to gauge their reactions. They looked almost as shocked and amused as Ino but with varying degrees of each. Naruto seemed to be mentally slapping himself while Sasuke seemed to be fighting a full blown grin, teeth and everything.

"It's just temporary, not even a whole day," Hinata reminded tentatively, wondering if it really was so bad or not, considering how dramatic the three of them were being about it.

"Just the four of us," Sasuke echoed from aside, still fighting with that grin that wanted to stretch across his face. It was surprising at times how much of a mischievous side the Uchiha really had, even moreso that he practically wore it on his sleeve. It was the one true quality that made her feel like he and Naruto really truly were brothers. One would always take a look at Uchiha Sasuke and think he would be completely reserved, that he would exist merely to smolder hot like coal with eyes that burned similarly, but instead he was as inviting as an open hearth. He was almost dangerously friendly, if that made sense.

"So... a secret day, then?" Naruto looked as if he were rolling the words on his tongue, trying to figure out their flavor.

"Yes," Ino smirked with the ecstatic clap of her hands, "We have to pretend we never left,"

"Do we really?" Naruto asked as he rubbed at his neck. He didn't seem to understand what the big deal was, honestly she didn't either. They could always just text her now.

"She'll be sooo annoyed if she knows we ditched her," Ino reasoned.

"We could just tell her now," Hinata shrugged.

"Yeah,"

"Just the four of US!" Sasuke suddenly repeated with a loudness and laugh that jarred them both.

"What is this you're drinking? What did you get?" Ino grabbed at the glass bottle and turned it around in her hands, "What the hell is this?"

"It's tea," He snickered.

"How do you feel?" She asked.

"Hm? I feel great," He gave a lazy smile as leaned back against the plastic seating and took a bite out of his cutlet sandwich. A smile of mutual emotion blossomed on Ino's lips just then.

"You're 'teadrunk'," She said as if she were calling him a wily rascal, "I'm keeping this for now, I think we all need some of this later," and she tucked the dark glass bottle behind her hip.

"We're still not telling her?" Naruto asked.

"No,"


Star - Lol, sorry, decided to end it here. :P At least it's twice as long, woot woot. Yeah, me doing a part 1/part 2 biz here, eh unofficially I guess lol IDK. Wasn't planning on it, but I feel fine with the new decision. I'm worried if I keep trying I'll end up writing lazier and lazier, so I'll leave next chap for the party in Osaka, wootwoot.

Reviews still appreciated, thank you very much.

Liner Notes:

Ijinkan - The historical district of Kitano-cho contains a number of foreign residences from the late Meiji Era to early Taisho eras of Japanese history. While the term Ijinkan can refer to any foreign residence of this period in Japan, it usually refers to those of Kitano given the number and high concentration of those that remain. (nearly exacted worded from the wikipedia entry, yo.) Currently those former residences have been converted into museum attractions, with the original possessions and furnishing remaining. Would be interesting to visit. I don't think I'd be able to write about it very well. OTL I didn't even like the interior decorating class I was forced into back in high school, though I did learn stuff that would be good for me as an artist. Ack, but my teacher was a bee-yotch. Well that's that, next note.

Nunobiki Herb Park - Also is very google-able.

SMS - We all say texting, but I was re-reading the novel version of 'My Girlfriend is a Geek' and he writes SMS, and SMS is the proper or old school term anyhow? But I allowed Ino to say texting in the last scene because of localization, y'know, ya get the 'emotional' impact lol. Most likely when it counts is when I'll have them saying texting, like a colloquialism, but when it feels more 'cultural' I'll write SMS.

If there was anything 'cultural' that I didn't explain, just review and I'll PM you, har! UuU