Demon in the High School!

by KsNandS

Sakura Haruno, was an ordinary student. A crush on Sasuke, which failed. But, a NEW student has come! And Sakura's VERY attracted to him! But, something doesn't seem right about him. What's he & his brother hiding from them all? FIND OUT! OTKNaruxSaku.AU!

18. Just another day, sorta

Okay… almost FINISHED. *Faints* Hoping I can get this thing over with soon… seriously. I have other stories that are crying from being neglected.

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KsNandS: *Is watching Naruto and Sakura clean-up the apartment*

Naruto: Anytime… Y'know… ya wanna jump in an' help would BE NO TROUBLE AT ALL! *Waves arms*

KsNandS: But if I helped clean the apartment then I'd ruin the events in the story. Besides you guys are doing a great job! *Thumbs up*

Naruto: *Annoyed look*

Sakura: Well, it looks better than it did at least. The carpet is cleaned and the trash is picked up. Couch is… somewhat alright. The walls may need redoing though and the T.V. needs replacing.

Naruto: There's much, much more we need'a get done around here Sakura… tons *Sighs and puts face in palm*

KsNandS: How is your end Kishimaru?

Kishimaru: Scrubbing toilet good! Kishimaru couldn't find a good brush so Kishimaru is using the orange tooth brush!

Naruto: THAT'S MY TOOTH BRUSH! GAH!

Sakura: We'll get you a new one.

Naruto: Urgh! Why do I have the pay for everything!

KsNandS: Now, now *pats head* Just be happy this whole thing is… somewhat over, and plus the school year is half-over! C'MON DUDE! YOU CAN DO EET!

Naruto: *Groan* I'd better take a few days of school off. I'm gonna ask the Hokage if I can do some missions of somethin'… I need the money right now.

Sakura: But you're fall behind!

Naruto: I could care less about school really… I'm flat broke and I need the money! Besides, ninja missions pay hella good. Better'n getting' a shit job in this lil' village anyway. *Goes to get a soda*

KsNandS: True… besides, you can take care of yourself! You're a man!

Naruto: Fuck yeah I am… with a lil' chickadee to help me get through everythin' *Drapes arm around Sakura's shoulder* life is still goood!

KsNandS: Ahh, also Kishimaru, I modified your character a bit more. I don't want anyone to not like you. So I just removed a few things for when you come back into the stories again, okay?

Kishimaru: Okay! What did you remove?

KsNandS: Well, I removed the "Demonic Nightmare" within you, shortened your grammar, removed some other things and I think you'll like what your character is! I'll update my profile later.

Sakura: That's good!

KsNandS: Also, have you ever wondered why I do these little RP things?

Naruto: …no…

KsNandS: I dunno why. Maybe because Spazzgirl got me into it, LOLZ! -Derp- Who cares… besides, role playing is apart of LIFE! We wouldn't be anywhere in plays without it!

Sakura: I love theater, lots of drama, romance, life! *Rests head on joined fingers*

Naruto: …alright… let's get the chapter movin' people. C'mon!

KsNandS: RIGHT-O! HERE WE GO!

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Another cold day, school approaching the end of the first semester and already Naruto was somewhat failing in every category, while Sakura succeeded. However Naruto had somewhat of an excuse for his failing over the past month.

'My apartment was destroyed, so I'm gonna skip school for a while until I get enough money to fix it, okay Sakky-chan?'

Sakura sat at her long table as those words flitted about her mind. The desk next to her was empty. It was a Monday, a perfect day in which the blond could ask the Hokage, Tsunade for a mission. Sakura only hoped the woman of wrath would let him perform in the acts of protecting the village.

Sakura saw no wrong in doing so. Besides, Naruto was a strong, courageous, kind-hearted and brave individual whom, at least, deserved so much as to be allowed to go on missions, even if it was only to grab a few extra bucks.

They had cleaned the apartment almost entirely, staying up late every night and exerting themselves until around 12:00 mid-night. Sakura found herself refreshed still oddly. Maybe it was because Winter break was around the corner, and they all had been working hard.

"Alrighty," Anko looked up, "pencils down for a little kitties," she got up from her desk, walked around and sat on it.

"Now… this is about the time when the Konoha school pageant is roundin' the corner ridin' 'er six white horses. Those of you who plan to enter, make sure nothing is left out. Now there are going to be auditions, but only about twenty of you'll pass. The judges will be Kurenai, Myself and my hubby Kakashi," the purple haired ninja sat back and sighed, "and of course, the semester is ending! A lot of you survived, but I got one question for you pinky," Anko fixated her eyes on Sakura.

The rosette stared at Anko, shuddering somewhat over her menacing grin, "where'd blondy go? Shouldn't he be here today? Or is he playin' hookie?"

Sakura thought for a moment and looked back at Anko, "well, something happened and the apartment was trashed by thugs…" she didn't go any farther than that, "so Naruto's out earning money to help get us back up right now… since he spent who knows how much money… getting me a pageant dress… that I didn't ask for," she added. She didn't want to sound selfish or anything, since it was true. She had no idea he intended on getting her something that expensive.

Anko's bottom lip jutted out and she furrowed her eyebrows, nodding slowly, "Lucky you, anyone else have their dresses yet?"

"I do!" Ino spoke up immediately, "it's stunning," she cast a glare at Sakura, but the pinkette raised her fist below the table and gripped it, mouthing 'I'm going to rearrange your damn face'

Anko arched her eyebrow and chuckled, crossing her arms. She always had a gut feeling Ino and Sakura were major rivals, "looks like we got some competition eh? Pink vs. Platinum Blond, sounds epic," she sat up and handed out flyers about the requirements and suggestions about the pageant to them all before the bell rang.

"Sakura," Anko called, "wanna tell me exactly what's goin' on?"

Sakura sported a confused look that seemed to amuse Anko.

"About Naruto," the purple haired woman nodded, "he's gotta be out somewhere, I don't like stay kiddies skippin' my class," the woman had a deadly grin spread across her face. Sakura shuddered and tried her best to smile.

"W-Well… like I explained, we were both out and… Naruto forgot to lock the door, and some ruffians came in, trashed and killed the apartment so know he's out and he's making money so we can fix the broken T.V., afford a new mattress and couch, silver ware, glass ware, new tables and… more food. We're struggling a bit… sometimes Naruto has to go out and ask Kiba or someone else. The pigs who trashed his apartment threw out all the food," she explained… however she felt guilty about lying about the "Naruto forgot the lock the door" part and so on.

Anko furrowed her eyebrows and nodded, "well you both have-some-of my sympathy. Naruto's failing each and every single class. I couldn't give two shits about school either pinky, I'm a damn ninja for crying out loud. But I had no choice, and even still, just as if I were training you, I'd expect a lot out of you, and Naruto, and everyone in my class," the woman stood up and grabbed her things.

"I'm sorry Anko," Sakura apologized sincerely.

"Pfft, don't worry about it. Besides, today's the start of my new schedule, I no longer have to teach second period thank Kami. Bunch'a brats in that class… freshman… urgh," she grinned. Draping her arm over Sakura's shoulder they walked out of the room. Anko escorted Sakura to class while they talked things over and how Sakura's life was slowly changing thanks to Naruto's influence.

Sakura described how she'd began fighting back more when Ino stepped in and caused trouble. Anko noticed that more lately, not to mention hearing about the small incident in the gym, she got a riot out of that. Imagine, lil' Sakura Haruno, beating down on the popular Ino Yamanaka. Anko couldn't be more proud!

Anko dropped Sakura off in Kurenai's class.

"Be careful Kurenai, this one's got some fight in her again," Anko grinned and made a claw swipe and hiss before leaving. Kurenai arched her brow as Sakura sat down.

"Okay class," Kurenai walked over to the table across from the front of the room, right near Sakura. She was seated in the back. "okay, now, as a lesson today, we will be taking notes on these flowers. I want you to write down everything you see about them. You have ten of them. You have; A rose, a carnation, a pansy, a larch, a clematis, a tulip, a daisy, a sunflower, an ageratum, and a tuberous begonia. Give me the scientific names as well, then that's it for today," she crossed hers and looked over to her right, "books are over there if you don't know the name for the flower. I would suggest finding the name first."

With that said, Kurenai began walking around, watching everyone do their work. It was an easy assignment, especially for the Kunoichi. Learning about flowers, their toxins if any and how to distinguish between traps just by learning which flowers and grass grew where. Kurenai helped the boys in the room, although, Neji pretty much had it down quite well. Sakura breezed through it, writing down all the names of the flowers in order! She finished her paper before anyone else and turned it in. Kurenai nodded, her beautiful face shining with delight.

"Well done," she silently praised the young Kunoichi for her work. Sakura bowed and walked back and sat down at her desk and pulled a book from her bag. She sat quietly and read for the time being.

Kurenai did her paper work, until a knock on the door halted her grading. Opening it, she cocked her eyebrow and gave an amused smile.

"You're late young man," she held the door open as Naruto came through and shook off the snow from his body. His hair was wet and he was a little damp.

"Sorry Kurenai-sensei…" he apologized formally, "just…" he panted a bit, "got done doing somethin' important for the old hag,"

There were a few chuckles around the room as Naruto stomped his feet off on the rug in front of the door.

"I wonder what you were doing," Kurenai analyzed Naruto, "you're panting," he closed the door.

"I was… running errands for the hag," he stated, catching his breath. Kurenai shook her head. She explained the assignment to Naruto. She watched as he strolled casually over to Sakura, gave more than a few pecks on the lips and sat down next to her, draping his arm around her.

"You're wet!" Sakura took his arm off her, "what is it doing? Raining?" she asked.

The blond looked at his sleeves, everyone seemed to be staring at him for some reason. Even Ino was caught with wide eyes.

"Eh… I'll be okay, just a lil' damp from all the snow falling outside." He answered and smiled, "but, I did manage to get some dough, heehawed," he opened his wallet and showed her all the cash he got, "tell ya what, people sure are generous around here," he put his wallet away.

Sakura leaned in and covered her face, "what did you do?" she whispered.

The blond didn't know why she was whispering, but shrugged, "chasing down a criminal… maybe… one or two. Turns out the fucker liked to get up early and start stealing shit. Caught the fucker, pounded his face in and sent 'em to the hospital and there we go… cool eh?"

Sakura shook her head and smiled, "you sure know how to get the job done, how did you find him?"

"I dunno, I just did. That's what my assignment was though… Ol' Haggy gave me some hot spots that had valuable and priceless shit. I was able to sniff him out no problem," Naruto grinned. 'Literally… that dude smelt weird… like… rotten potatoes' he thought. He bobbed his head as if he was listening to music and looked around. Everyone seemed to stare at him.

"What?" the blond arched his eyebrow. Maybe they noticed him without his trench coat? He sweat dropped and sighed, "yeah yeah, the coat's gone. Got ripped up by some prick," he explained.

One look at Kiba and you'd see jealousy smeared all over his face! Sakura furrowed her brows and smiled. She knew what everyone was staring at now.

"Well, did you know without your trench coat, your sleeves barely fit your bulky arms?" she laughed, the fabric being stretch to where it was probably yelping. Naruto looked and blushed a bit.

"Ohhhh!" he laughed a bit and sweat-dropped, "five-fifty biatch!" He grinned.

"Naruto," Kurenai softly called out, it shocked him a bit.

"Sorry… sorry… gotta… watch the ol' trap there… eh?" he put on a guilty look.

"Please," she went back to her work grading papers.

Kiba turned to face Hinata, "What would you do if I was that built Hinata?" he asked. The girl was too busy nose bleeding and… sadly, she had fainted and was lain on the desk. Kiba's face turned white 'NO! SHE"S FAINTING TO HIM NOW! What if… WHAT IF SHE NEVER NOSEBLEEDS WHEN SEEING ME EVER AGAIN!' the ridiculous thoughts ran through his mind wildly! Sakura could help but utter laughs upon seeing Kiba's face turn white while his made silly faces. Naruto glanced over and cocked his eyebrow.

"Would you help him?" Sakura asked, angling her head to the side.

"Yeah yeah yeah, I'll buff him up… just a lil' later, I'm still gettin' the dough though…" he paused, "oh hey! That rhymes! HAHA! You hear that Sakky-chan? It rhymes!" He grinned.

Not the sharpest tool in the shed… but she loved the idiot. She nodded and put on a fake smile. Naruto didn't seem to notice and grinned back at her, those beautiful cerulean eyes sparkling.

She giggled, and all the while they were googly-eying each other Ino turned her head away.

"Pfft, disgusting," she spat, while Shikamaru just shook his head while Ino silently ranted to herself about how much of a wide forehead Sakura had.

Kurenai glanced at Naruto, he seemed quite busy making kissy kissy googoo faces towards Sakura at the moment.

"Naruto," Kurenai began, attracting his attention, "your assignment, I almost forgot, is to write down the scientific names of the flowers behind you and take notes on what you see about every single one, simple right?"

Naruto looked behind him and nodded. Sakura handed him a piece of paper while the others got back to work looking in books.

Sakura snuck glances at Naruto from time to time, she saw his, somewhat sloppy handwriting and giggled to herself over it and turned her attention to her book.

"Hey," Naruto whispered, "what's the first one?"

Sakura pointed at it, and Naruto immediately guessed it!

"Ahh, a rose! Cool! It's… red, beautiful, soft-looking, symbolizes true love and it's… ummm… hard to draw…" He wrote down, "what's the scientific name?" he asked.

"Get a book and look it up silly," she pointed next to him. He took it and opened it. He looked through it.

"Umm… where is it?" the blonde's puzzled face made Sakura react in shaking her head at him.

"Rose starts with the letter "R" so look in the R's. It's right there," she pointed, "and there's the name on the next page, see? Rosa Berberifolia," she watched him write it down.

"Next is a… looks like a…" he twisted his head.

"It's called a Carnation flower,"

Naruto looked through the book and found the word; Dianthus Caryophyllus, "wow, long name." he jotted down what he saw.

"Wide petals… a kinda pink color, an awesome design on the petals," the blond grinned. He was going quite fast! "Next is a…" he looked at it.

"That's a Pansy," Sakura smiled. He wrote it down and looked through the book, "Viola Tricolor" he wrote down.

"It's… small, has a lot of colors and it's blue and yellow," his sloppy writing etched outside the lines of the paper. Sakura furrowed her browns with a smile. Oh well… no one was perfect right?

He looked back, seeing a flower with a long stem as it's petals draped down in a closed fashion. "Hey! That's a Clematis!" he half-whispered. Sakura nodded. He looked through the book again, "Clematis Reticulata. It's got a bell shaped flower bulb… points down. It's white and it looks curved at the ends of the petals," all while he was writing this down Kurenai had such an amused look on her face. She wondered if the blond even noticed how loud he was. Kiba was definitely racing to jot it down by how he was writing sloppily and quickly!

She shook her head. She was so amused she wondered what would happen next and listened.

"Umm… what's that one?" He pointed. Sakura smiled.

"That's a larch flower Naruto," she answered, as he wrote it down, "Larix Decidua, weird name, it's pink, looks spiny and it's… weird lookin'"

Sakura giggled slightly knowing Kiba was cheating off Naruto's words. She could tell Kurenai was amused by the way she shook her head.

"That's a daisy!" Naruto grinned, "and it's name is… whoa! Chy-san-the-mum… L-L-Leu-can…can-the-mum… Chysanthemum Leucanthemum… It's got white petals, a yellow center for that pollen stuff… and it's Sakky-chan's favorite flower," he looked at her and she gave him a rosy look.

"Yes it is," she smiled at him. The blond grinned happily while Sakura and Kurenai watched Kiba sweat trying to spell the name of the flower.

"That's a Sunflower… it's really big too!" looking through the book he found the name, "Helianthus Annuus. It's big, has yellow… pe-tals and it unfolds when the sun shines," the tapping of his pencil as he wrote down the notes seemed to quicken.

"Isn't that a tulip Sakky-chan?" He sounded naive the way he worded it. She nodded as he looked in the book, "Tulipa Ges-n-ner-ria-na… Gesneriana! Tulipa Gesneriana, that's a fancy name isn't it?" He wrote down the name and then studied the flower, "it looks almost like a rose, except… it doesn't have all those petals. It's empty inside, and it's yellow, and the other one's red,"

Naruto somehow found this assignment interesting. The next flower he looked at confused him. He had never seen it before…

"That's an Ageratum flower," She knew he'd need help with that one, almost everyone did, even though Kurenai had said it once already. She thought once was enough for anyone to remember.

Naruto looked in the book and smiled, "Ageratum Houstonianum. It's purple and looks spiky, but it really looks like a sunflower," his pencil tapped the paper.

"The next one is a tuberous begonia," Sakura answered quickly, knowing he'd have a lot of trouble with that one too. He looked in the book, and a long massive name for the flower met him face to face.

"Jeez… that's long… Begonia… Tu-ber…h-h-hybri-dac-ultorum," he sweat dropped, "Begonia Tuberhybridacultorum, and it's orange, looks almost exactly like a rose… 'n stuff," he added. He was done! Sakura spotted him this once, seeing as he was trying his hardest to actually get them back on their feet since the incident that occurred nearly 5 days ago. Naruto stood up and smiled, however Kiba shot up at the same time, sweating from racking his brain about how to spell the bloody name!

"Oh hey! You finished right at the same time as I did too Kiba! Nice!" The blond walked over to Kurenai, Kiba racing towards her too. They both shoved the papers in her face. She sighed and took them.

"Kiba, you look like you're about to hyperventilate," Kurenai stood up, "do you need to go to the nurse?" she asked.

"Nope," Kiba grinned, "cause I got my work done!" He marched back to his seat.

"You spelt Dianthus Caryophyllus wrong Kiba, along with many of the names too," she called back scanning over the paper. Kiba halted and fell to the floor, groaning.

Hinata picked him up and sat him down in his chair. She gave him a revitalizing kiss on the cheek and smiled. He grinned and stuck his tongue amusingly. Naruto arched his eyebrow with a smiled, shaking his head. The bell rang a few minutes later as they migrated to the next class like a flock of pigeons flocking to shit all over a famed statue. It was weird, but oddly Shikamaru thought about that same thing. How did he ever come up with this stuff? All the teams were in the same group, just as it would have been when they hung out like any other day, except Karin was new to the group. But Sasuke wasn't even there for some reason.

The pineapple haired young man groaned, thinking about Sasuke's whereabouts was too troublesome. It made him crave a cigarette. Luckily for him, Asuma let him smoke outside class, being with Ino all the damn time really irritated him. He was thankful for Asuma's kindness. Upon arriving, the young man told Asuma he was stepping outside to take a dew drags.

"She up to no good again?" Asuma arched his eyebrows.

"Kinda… although Sakura's starting to kind of come out of her shell a bit, but she's still annoying the bloody hell out of me," he answered and rubbed his shoulder.

"Alright then, see you in a few," the man dismissed him while he got down to work.

Even though Naruto was failing, he wasn't failing all his classes. Woodshop and Gym were the ones that he was passing with flying colours! At least he could be proud about that. He wondered if he could make a tablet for his living room. A special table for his ramen so he didn't have to lean forward or hold the cup while he ate! The idea sounded awesome!

"Hey Asuma-sensei," Naruto walked up and grinned, "can I make a special table for my ramen, you know, one I can pull up and eat without holding the cup?" the blond asked.

"That's what we call a T.V. tray Naruto. You can buy one over at the nearest household store for a few thousand yen," the man stroked his beard. The blonde's face coloured itself white as he sighed.

Asuma laughed heartily as the blond walked away and began making a candle holder. However, he began to become creative with it. Asuma told him the dimensions of it and he measured them quickly! Soon, he was making one!

'That kid,' Asuma thought. 'He ain't the sharpest tool in the box but he can make some pretty good stuff… I wonder how that candle holders' gonna turn out' the man wondered, but then immediately went back to work. He was currently working on baby crib for the house. He wanted it specially done, and he was just the man for the job!

Sakura currently had nothing to do… she wasn't sure what to make really. She looked to see what Tenten was doing. Apparently she and Lee were collaborating on a project.

"Hey guys, what're you doing?" Sakura asked. Tenten smiled perkily.

"Ehh, we're just working on a mirror ball. It's nothing big,"

"It shall be green! To represent the love I hold dearly for Verde and her love of the colour that is bright like an emerald forest!"

"Emerald forest?" Sakura's eyes turned into tiny black dots as a bead of sweat dropped down the side of her face.

Tenten waved her face, "ehehehehehe… umm, we're still working on that, just like the ball! Ehehehehe…" the brunette bun haired girl slapped a hand over Lee's mouth.

"Could ya do me a favour and be less youthful for once!" She gritted her teeth glaring tiny black dotted eyes at him.

The poor guy's forehead turned black with blue wavy lines dangling over his head.

"O-kay… I'll just leave you two alone for now," Sakura slipped away. Chouji and Helga were working on a nice cooking pan… not really a surprise though. Looked like a pizza pan to Sakura. Ino worked alone on something else… it looked like a bird-house, while Shikamaru seemed to work on a rocking chair. Verde and Angel and Shino formed a team. Apparently they were working on a musical instrument. It was an antique obo, so far it was coming out beautifully. Angel knew exactly how to do it, placing scarabs on the body tube.

Sakura thought and walked over to a bin full of pictures of things she could probably make. She found an instrument, a violin. It looked beautiful with it's carvings of angels blowing their trumpets. She shrugged and took it back to her desk. She noticed Naruto working on a well carved candle holder… well… it had many interesting carvings in it, the blond seemed to sweat a bit, concentrating on them. Sakura then thought, instead of a wood carving, creating a mosaic of the violin would probably come out much better for her. Grabbing the nearest hammer and the appropriate coloured tiles from the bin, and a large board with some glue, the smashed the tiles into tiny pieces. Though… for on of them she accidentally got a little carried away and cracked the desk a bit.

Everyone jolted it was so loud and stared at her.

"Whoops… sorry… got a little carried away… heehee," her excuse was. Asuma scratched his head and sweat-dropped.

"Well… don't worry, I'm sure it'll hold, ehhh," he looked over at a steel table," try that one. I don't think we'll be using that one for mosaics…"

She sighed and walked over and pounded on her tiles, everyone cringing at the loud bangs it created. She then began placing the tiles in their appropriate places. It was harder than she thought. Soon the entire room resumed it's activity. Sakura wondered though, why was this so difficult if everyone else was doing something incredibly difficult? It was just a simple mosaic… she sighed. Ino was working on a friggin' wooden clock with carvings from reference she was using. Shikamaru a rocking chair, Chouji and Helga a pizza pan made with wooden handle carvings that were unique to the eye, Shino, Angel and Verde were making an obo and Naruto a candle holder with difficult carvings Sakura was sure only a professional artist knew how to create.

She eyed the picture slowly and placed the dark pieces where they showed up, using slender shards of tile for them, but wide coming towards the middle before slimming down again.

"Hey!" she heard a voice. She looked up seeing Karin looking at her project, "looking good Sakura, mind if I join you? I've got nothing to do," the red head stated. Sakura smiled and scooted over, grabbing Karin a stool to sit on. They worked on the strings, using a creamy colour, placing small strands of black in between them. The body came next, seeing as how it had a bit of an hour-glass shape, the long neck branching up. It took her a long time to get it right, but it was coming together. Sakura sighed… well, it looked alright to her, and Karin approved of the work they'd done as well. Both began gluing the pieces together. Class was almost over and by the time she was even on the body the bell rang.

"Crap!" Sakura groaned, "you go on Karin, I'll put it in the locker, okay?"

Karin shrugged and walked away. Sakura traveled to the back of the room and placed the mosaic in the back of the locker, away from everyone else's splendid works of art. Sakura even saw the mirror ball that Tenten and Lee were working on, she had forgotten about it. It was looking amazing, not much she expected there. The way her face seemed to reflect in the green and white shards of glass. Placing her mosaic in there, she looked at Naruto's candle holder. Well, it wasn't just one candle stick, it was a hanging candle holder.

It looked incredibly difficult, even for Naruto. Yet it was coming along nicely. She became anxious to see it. But, she held hope, she and Karin formed a collaboration project, she was glad she could get someone to work with her at least.

"Oi! Sakky-chan!" Naruto waved, "c'mon, we gotta go'tah gym!" He walked outside as Sakura bowed to Asuma, closed the locker and ran out of the room. The man was taken back by the bow but other than that he always thought the same thing.

"Kids these days…"

In Gym, they were doing no more than a small fitness routine of workouts and runs. Naruto and Kiba seemed to compete with each other, the blond showing Kiba good ways to help him build more muscle. Gai even got them weights to help them along. Naruto changed his shirt with a black muscle shirt, Kiba the same.

Sakura fanned her face.

"Ohhhh," Tenten giggled, "look who's got the hunkiest of all men," she laughed out loud after, causing them all to make Sakura blush.

"Stop it!" Sakura put her head down. Ino was over by Shikamaru… who then migrated over to where Naruto and Kiba were, followed by Chouji. Naruto and Chouji were able to lift the same weight remarkably. For Chouji's size Naruto thought the dude could lift them all off the ground including Gai with all the other teachers. Sakura, Tenten, Hinata, Karin and Ino-Whom stayed separate from Sakura's group-by jogging on the other side of the gym.

Karin wasn't the first to notice it, "why is Ino such a bitch?" the red head scoffed. They had no idea.

"Ino and Sakura used to be friends when they were young, right Sakura?" Hinata huffed as her bouncy blue hair flopped behind her. The pinkette sighed and nodded.

"Mmhhmm… until Sasuke came and… we both feuded over him for a while until I gave up and decided to stop such nonsense. But… Ino felt like she earned her victory and smeared it in my face. We slowly separated from friendship, into a deadly rivalry," she sighed.

Tenten's buns bounced around while she jogged calmly, "well I wasn't even around either, but I've seen how Ino can be mean… she gloats around with her popular crowd and, as usual, always starting rumors. There was this one time when Ino started a nasty rumor about Sakura, saying she used tissues an stuffed her bra's to give herself breasts,"

"Pfft, she better not start talking shit about me," Karin huffed, "if she does I'll knock her ass out!"

"I don't think she will," Hinata began, "she's changed… a little bit… kind of," the Hyuuga groaned a little. Sakura just kept her eyes forward, although, she did sneak a few glances towards Naruto once in a while. Gai-sensei definitely put Naruto and Lee's strength to the test.

*With the guys*

Kiba watched the group of girls round the corners, not bothering to look at Ino. It wasn't long until he decided to ask Naruto a question.

"So eh… Naruto, you and Sakura… you know…" he tried not to let his insanely perverted mind wander.

"Have we?" Naruto stood there arching his eyebrow.

"Y'know, have ya fucked yet?" He flashed a toothy grin. Naruto looked at Sakura and shrugged.

"Nope… Sakura's takin' it slow," he answered truthfully.

"Have you ever had sex before?" Kiba questioned. Naruto shook his head and stretched, placing his arm behind his head.

"Nope…"

"Do you wanna?"

"Eh… not a big deal to me… but sure, why not?"

The Inuzuka shifted his eyes towards Hinata. He remembered his first time with her. He had to take it slow with her, being it was her first time as well. But gradually, Hinata came to enjoy Kiba's loving.

"You ever done it?" Naruto popped the question back.

"Yeah… it's really a good way for me to get to know Hinata better, sometimes she tells me things I never knew she thought after, like how she doesn't like how her father somewhat dictates the Hyuuga clan," the Inuzuka boy answered.

"An ass?"

"Fucking huge ass bro," Kiba stood up, "dude always sounds so strict. He told Hinata not to have sex before marriage. Pfft, fuck that shit man… fuck it. Hinata just one day popped the question to me and things branched off from there. Next thing we were starin' at the ceiling wondering what the hell would happen now," he laughed and rubbed his finger under his nose. Naruto laughed with him and looked at Shikamaru.

The pineapple headed boy sighed, "yeah yeah yeah, Ino and I've done it too. I'd enjoy it more if she wasn't such a bitch though. Sakura's really been taking the hits. Ino's done a lot of shit to Sakura in the past, I wouldn't be surprised if when Ino found out you and Sakura slept together it'd piss her off big time, even though she was the first one of them to do it first," Shikamaru rubbed his shoulder. Naruto placed his hands in his pockets and watched Sakura run around.

"Hey, don't sweat it man," Kiba patted Naruto's back, "the time'll come when it comes… I never thought about it really when Hinata and I dated. It was like it just happened… and the stick up Neji's ass shoved itself farther up!"

"You took the innocence of my cousin, the young woman, I need to be protecting at any cost!" The Hyuuga's eyes narrowed into a glare.

"What about you Neji?" Naruto asked.

"Tenten and I have already compromised about that situation. We like our lives the way they are. Tenten already said she wasn't read to perform that act. Until then I'll also wait. If anyone has a problem with that I'll kill them…" the Hyuuga stated.

"Okay, okay… sorry I asked," Naruto put his hands out in front of him.

"How about Shino and Angel?" Shikamaru spoke up.

"Eh," Kiba thought, "as far as I know Shino and Angel haven't done it. I asked Shino one day if he'd thought about it. He said the thoughts never crossed his mind. I could tell he was telling the truth… he's a kinda reserved guy who doesn't lie about those things. It shocked me but… Shino is… well, Shino," the Inuzuka shrugged.

"Well I heard that it's way better when you actually know someone when ya do it," Naruto grunted as he picked up a curl, "it's one-hundred percent better when ya do it with someone you love,"

"That's what I've heard… I think," Kiba shifted his eyes up thinking where he'd heard it before.

"Well," Shikamaru piped up, "I'll tell ya, I'm thinking about dumping that platinum haired bitch… to tell ya the truth… we've lost our relationship. I think Ino's just keeping me around as to make Sakura jealous… but we know that that's not happening, since she's got you in'er life now Naruto," he rubbed his shoulder again, "Ino won't even kiss me anymore,"

"Whoa," Kiba and Naruto echoed.

"Yeah, sad…" Shikamaru sighed.

"Well," Neji began, "it's about time… to be honest I've not liked you with her anyway. Ino needs someone more suited her size and ego," the Hyuuga watched her as she jogged.

"Then who am I gonna end up with?" Shikamaru's questioned produced a longevity of silence.

"Hey," Naruto sat down on the bench next to Shikamaru and patted his back, "trust me, there're tons more fish in the sea man, ya just gotta be patient. Fuck, I was new at this school, Sakura was a bookworm, but somehow she looked like one of those horny lil' school girls, I ain't jokin'" Naruto laughed, "but… really she had a lot of things and shared a ton of things in common that I did, not to mention she just took a liking to me. I dunno why either, I'll have to ask her, or I forgot…"

"Well if that's gonna be your attitude, I think I can see you and Sakura in bed quite a lot," The Nara gave a reassuring cool smile.

"We know Sakura…" Kiba began, watching the pinkette, "she can be hella nice, but if you piss her off enough, she'll send ya to the hospital in a soup can… well, she used to… since then she'd gone into a kind of cocoon or something, a shell of herself," the Inuzuka explained, arching his eyebrows.

"Well, she certainly has come out a lot more, remember when we were in that cell?" Neji asked.

Kiba chuckled, "fuuuuck man, that was awesome!"

"What happened?" Naruto stood up with Shikamaru.

"If was fucking hilarious! Ino was talkin' shit and Sakura just stood up, bitch slapped her and threatened her, told Ino something' 'bout rearranging her face I think. I've heard it before, but I think Sakura can literally do that if she wanted!"

Naruto glanced at Sakura, then Ino, then back at Sakura, and than back at Ino again. The smirk that formed upon his lips seemed to signal that he was proud of her for, not only standing up to Ino and her bitcheries once, but TWICE. He stood up, and as Sakura was running around the bend next to him he snatched her away from the pod like a baby after candy and hugged her.

"Naruto!" She gasped, being squeezed by muscles, "w-what's gotten into you!"

"More like," Naruto looked at her, "what's go'en ind'a you!"

She gave him a puzzled look.

"Kiba here, "he draped his bulky arm around her shoulder, and pointed his thumb at Kiba "was just tellin' me you bitch-slapped Ino, remember, when you were in the cell?"

Sakura closed her eyes and straightened herself, "well… she deserved it… she was harassing your little brother and sneering at me… plus she was being completely horrible to Kiba…" the rosette crossed her arms.

"Well, you got some sense into her at least," Shikamaru smirked, "besides… she's been awfully quieter since then… even though she has her mishaps and talks to herself a lot about how she hates you…"

Sakura shrugged, "she can't hate me without a legitimate reason… and so far she's only proven she's completely immature by just disliking me for no apparent reason whatsoever," she breathed.

"Who cares," Kiba grinned, "I liked it when you slapped the shit outta her! You shoulda been there Naruto, shoulda been," the brown haired young man shook his head.

Meanwhile as they conversed Hinata, Tenten, Karin, Angel and Verde were having their own conversations about Ino and her pissy attitude towards them as well.

"I think it's about time someone really put it to Ino. She can't just go around spreading crap around," Tenten crossed her arms.

"Guys," Hinata piped up, "we should just l-let Sakura handle it, after all it's her battle not ours,"

Karin scoffed, "puh-lease, that blond haired bitch needs to be taught a lesson," she fisted her palm, "painfully."

"But we can't just interfere with Sakura's battle," Hinata stated firmly, "if we get in the way Ino may look at us as the enemies as well, which would only create more controversy than there is needed, and the idea of beating her to a pulp would only makes us far worse than she already is," the Hyuuga mistress took a breath, "thus… it might only turn evil into a bigger enemy towards Sakura, than us,"

"How do you figure?" Karin asked putting her hands on her hips.

"Well, Ino might think Sakura put us up to it, and if that happened Ino might do something she'd later regret… Kiba's already gotten himself on her list," she answered and sighed.

"So… what, do you plan on doing about it?" Angel suddenly spoke.

"There's nothing we can do… if Ino begins ostracizing us, we may just have to leave as is. As a mistress it is against my name to become enraged or angry, and that should count for my friends," she held her finger up, "It is very improper,"

"Alright then!" Verde began, "and if she antagonizes us to much, can we punch her out!"

"That's up to you… just remember to say it was your own doing, we don't want Sakura being the brunt of Ino's fury and jealousy anymore," Hinata answered. Karin and Verde chuckled at each other.

"Shh! Here she comes!" Tenten put her finger to her lips.

Ino passed them without making eye contact.

"Hello Ino," Hinata waved. Ino said not a word, not even made eye contact. The girl just went on jogging.

"…bitch," Tenten and Karin said simultaneously. Hinata just shook her head and sighed.

"You know what I saw coming on?" Karin closed her eyes as they looked at her, interested in what she had to say, "that whole 'bitch girl invites nice girl to a small lil' party. Figures out bitch girl has no real friends, bitch girl tells nice girl she's sorry for that shit she did and has the nice girl tell all of her friends that inside she's just a scared little girl'… PFFT!" Karin scoffed and cocked her head to the side.

"You sure know a lot about these things Karin," Angel blinked slowly. The red head just shrugged.

"Hey, someone had to of seen it coming. Anyway, gym's almost over… Lunch time is next. Time flies. I wonder where Sakura's going for lunch, think we should join her?"

"Oh that'd be a wonderful idea!" Hinata perked up.

"Yeah!" Angel and Verde agreed.

"Uhhh," Tenten sweat-dropped, "not to burst your guy's bubble… but," the brown haired bun girl chuckled nervously.

"What?" Karin asked plainly.

"Look," Tenten simply pointed. They glanced over and awed. Naruto and Sakura were cuddling for the remainder of the period.

Karin awed, "Awe, pinky and her manly man of men are cuddling. Makes me wish Sasuke and I would do that around public,"

"Where is Sasuke?" Verde arched her eyebrow. Karin looked at her and shrugged.

"Hell, if I know. Lately he's changed a bit, I'm not sure what exactly but it had something to do with someone… that or he's just going under stress… not like he's doing anything productive…"

They all looked at each other, and in that moment the bell rang, signaling lunch time!

"Me favourite time o' tha day!" Helga and Chouji ran out immediately before Gai could wave good-bye!

"C'mon Naruto," Sakura held her stomach, "let's grab Kishimaru and get something to eat! I'm starving!"

"Heh, baby you speak my language!" The blond responded and wiped the bottom of his nose. He dressed out, much to Sakura's dismay, but he reassured her he'd clean the house wearing nothing but a skimpy loin cloth one day. It was a promise, she'd promised she'd hold onto.

As they entered the school grounds, masses of kids braving the icy cold to go out to lunch, simply because the cafeteria food sucked. They saw the boy out there. He was dressed in a small hat with muffs hanging down and gloves with layers underneath his coat.

"Heyyy!" Naruto called out, grabbing the boys attention, thus being tackled with the boy shouting 'BIG BROTHER!'

Sakura laughed as the blond hoisted the gray haired boy on his shoulders.

"Umm…" Sakura shook her head, "not a good idea… really," she cleared her throat. Naruto thought and the consequences seemed all to real to him. He set the boy down and held his hand instead, receiving a nod from Sakura while she wrapped her arm around his.

"Ready?" Naruto looked down while Kishimaru nodded, while Naruto looked to his right, "shall we beautiful?"

Sakura giggled and nodded cutely. With that gesture they were ff down the steps and into the village. Ichiraku's was open, and luckily for Naruto, they were the first ones there!

"Hey old man!" Naruto called with a bright grin!

Teuchi walked through the door and smiled, opening his arms wide, "Naruto! Oh, and you brought Sakura and Kishimaru to! Come on in meh boy, I'll get a table for you guys!" the man laughed heartily.

"Hi Sakura!" Ayame called from the kitchen, she waved back and smiled. They were shown to their table, a nice booth with a window in the dining room. A small tulip inside an equally miniscule vase sat in the middle of the table. They seated themselves as menu's were placed in front of them, although Naruto had no idea why.

"Why'd ya give us menu's?" Naruto picked it up and looked through it.

"Well… I decided," Teuchi cleared his throat, "maybe I should cook more things… other than bowls of ramen maybe I could make other types of ramen. Such as diet ramen, which, by the way is pretty popular with the ladies, and many different types of flavors, you see? I'm a culinary artist Naruto! I have to make more things!" Teuchi placed his right fisted hand into his left palm.

Naruto cocked his eyebrow and looked at Sakura. She shrugged while Kishimaru coloured on the kid's menu. The blond grinned and looked at the man, "Okay then… well you know what I want, whaddya want Sakura?" Naruto looked at her with a smile, she smiled back.

"Something that's not pricey, you know you should be saving after what happened, that's why you were taking those days off," she answered.

"Well what're we supposed to eat? I'm starving, cafeteria food sucks and there ain't anything else I feel like having right now…"

Teuchi chuckled, humoured by the blonde's words.

Sakura sighed, "Diet ramen please, I'll give it a try," she looked at Kishimaru, "and you?"

The boy looked up with innocent eyes, "Kishimaru wants what big brother is having," he answered simply and went back to colouring in a ramen bowl.

"You sure he'll be able to eat it all?" Teuchi asked, cocking his eyebrow.

"Ehhh," Naruto thought for a moment, "get 'em… a," he leaned in and whispered, "smaller bowl," and leaned back. The man nodded and walked back into the kitchen with Ayame, whom took their drink orders. While they waited for their food they conversed for a while about Naruto and what he was going to do to fix what was broken. The blond, apparently, was going to be skipping a LOT of school. Well, at least he had 2 passing marks… the rest were all shit. However the blond couldn't care less about his marks, and if they were good or bad.

"Well Naruto," Sakura began with a soft voice, "at least to have an alibi… it's going to be difficult raking in the money for the apartment all by yourself,"

The blond sighed and shook his head, "I gotta do what I gotta do baby…"

"You know, I think I have some money left over from when I sold the house, hopefully it's enough to help," she thought for a moment.

"If ya do that'd be great, we need a new couch, shower stall door, T.V., coffee table, some wall repair, some new kitchen appliances like mugs, plates, bowls, a new microwave and two new sliding closet glass doors, some new night stands…" he thought for a moment, "I forget anything?"

Sakura's eyes went white for a moment as a bead of sweat dropped down her brow, "nope… I don't think sooo," the rosette sighed, then glanced over to see what Kishimaru was colouring. He finished the bowl of ramen and was now colouring-in the Ichiraku's ramen stand sign at the top. There was a longevity of silence before their food arrived and they began eating. Sakura noticed Naruto was eating slower than usual. She knew what was wrong, the whole idea of replacing everything was causing him some stress, she was also sure that school was bound to have some effect on him.

She placed her hand on his. It got his attention as he intertwined his fingers with hers. They held their fingers in that position until they were finished eating and on their way back to school. Kishimaru had said his good-bye for the time being and went off somewhere. Arriving at the school, they made their way to Kakashi's classroom. There was a long silence between them until they sat down and Sakura decided to try and lighten Naruto's spirits, even by a tad.

"You know, tomorrow's Thursday, which means Friday is only one and a half days away Naruto! Not to mention it's the end of the first quarter and winter break will be starting soon in about a week!" she smiled cutely, "Then," hushing her voice into a low whisper she leaned in and placed her hand on his chest, "we can have some time alone to…" she drew circles on his chest, "maybe get closer?"

The blond looked at her before he remembered, "what about that whole, "rushing relationship" thing?" he asked.

She angled her head to the side and sighed, "I don't know… well, it'd be nice you know. We don't have to take everything slow… I'm not that picky about relationships Naruto," she answered. Naruto somewhat wondered if that was the truth. That, or she didn't want to poise anything that might end in the downfall to their relationship… or something along that line, "besides Naruto, there's already enough pressure being lace on your shoulders," she took his hand and stroked his knuckles and the veins alone his smooth skin, "you're one amazing guy you know that?"

The whiskered blond sighed before staring and the black board, "nope… just thought I was the average joe, y'know? It always seems like I'm the one who has to pay for a lot of things all the time, and it's mostly because people hate me," he glanced at Sakura.

"Not everyone hates you," she shook her head, leaned up to him and pecked him gently on the lips, "Kishimaru and I love you, and you have friends who care about you a lot. I mean, they have helped us if you don't recall," she crossed her arms.

"…yeah… maybe you're right… I dunno," he slumped in his chair and mumbled something to himself that Sakura couldn't decipher.

"We'll get back on our feet soon Naruto, okay?" she stroked his hand as if to comfort and assure him.

He sat in silence while the bell rang and the classroom filled up with students. They all sat in the room chatting amongst themselves, Kakashi was nowhere in sight. Sakura sweat-dropped. Much like Kakashi to pick up his "being late" habits again.

"Kakashi-sensei's almost always late, I think he's getting that habit again…" Sakura mumbled before placing her chin into her palm. Naruto began feeling bored, it had been 5 minutes and Kakashi STILL had not arrived.

"Alright," the blond sat up from his seat, "I'm outta here…" he grabbed his things.

"Naruto, "Sakura sat up from her seat, "where are you going? You can't just leave!"

"I gotta leave, I'm bored as hell, Kakashi's LATE and I gotta get us back on our feet, kay? Listen, I'll see you when you get home, I'll get some hot cocoa on the stove and we'll have a nice quiet night, alright?"

She really didn't want him to leave, especially during school. But sadly, he was nineteen and… she was only seventeen.

"See ya when I get home, 'kay baby?" He kissed her softly on the lips while she nodded and watched as he sauntered out the door without a single care for school in the universe. Sitting down Sakura groaned, the entire class looked at one another before glancing at the rosette.

Kiba looked out the window and thought, 'I wonder if Kakashi's gonna get here… maybe I can sneak outta this place too!' He stood up silently from his seat and whistled a tune as he walked to the door. He closed his eyes and opened the door and began walking out.

"Hello Kiba!" Kakashi greeted with a wave and an eye crinkle. The brunette boy was scared out of his skin!

"KAKA-KAKASHI-SENSEI! I… I WASN'T DOIN' ANYTHING! I SWEAR!" Kiba's skin had temporarily lost it's colour. Kakashi had odd timings where he would just popo up out of nowhere!

"I hope you weren't going to skip class Kiba," the man said and closed his book shut with one hand while he entered the room. Kiba groaned and took his seat.

The silver-haired man scanned the room before noticing Sakura was sitting alone.

"Hmm, where's Naruto?" He blinked and focused his attention on Sakura as if asking her the question. Sakura perked up and looked around to find everyone staring at her.

Embarrassingly she looked at the man and quickly thought up a lie, "he wasn't feeling well so he decided to go home. I mean, he threw up at lunch and I told him that it would've been better if he had gone home so he did,"

Kakashi shifted his eyes at the others, whom of which they glanced at Sakura. She shot them a horrible glare that looked like the spitting image of Tsunade on her period! The class immediately sunk into their seats in terror and nodded… well, except for Ino whom didn't give a shit.

"Pfft," Ino scoffed, "actually he was perfectly heal-" Shikamaru leaped and shut her mouth before she could say another word, less Sakura go on a wild rampage and literally throttle Ino's neck… or worse, which she was capable of.

Shikamaru gave Kakashi a fake grin, "it's true!" he chuckled nervously. It was mostly in Ino's defense though. He didn't want to have to be the one to dig the platinum blonde's grave.

Kakashi sweat-dropped, and without anything but a simple nod of approval of their answers class began. It was surprising to Sakura that, for ninja, the teachers knew a lot about certain subjects. She had no idea Anko was good at literature, Ibiki at history, Asuma at carving or Kakashi at MATH. She wondered if she even knew them as well as she thought she did. But then again, whom knew? Through Kakashi's lessons Sakura felt herself wondering what Naruto was doing. Was he at home, or was he breaking someone's jaw bone?

She hadn't a single inkling, but she could guess at least. All while she looked out the window she saw the snowflakes falling lazily in the darkening gray skies. The frost on the window panes looked like it had thickened. This was, by far, the worst winter they've ever had in years! Well, winter break was around the corner, 2 whole weeks of no school before the second semester began again and soon, spring break and then they were officially DONE!

"Sakura," Kakashi's smooth voice caught her ear. She whipped her neck around and looked at him.

"Yes Kakashi-sensei?"

The silver-haired man tapped his chalk on the board. She knew that was his sign for "pay attention". Unlike Ibiki, whom shouted at his students when they didn't pay attention, Kakashi seemed to get his point across calmly.

"Sorry sensei," she apologized. Class ran short as the bell rang and the class was dismissed. However, before Sakura could shuffle out the door with everyone else Kakashi called after her.

"Sakura, may I have a word with you?" he asked calmly. She turned around, hugging her books to her chest she strolled over to him.

"Naruto's not sick is he?" He asked bluntly. Sakura flinched at that moment and closed her left eye. Kakashi awaited her response, as though time wasn't an obstacle in their conversation.

"Of course he's sick sensei, why ask?"

He sat back in his chair, "so, I seemed to have misconstrued the whole… death glare act of striking fear into the other students?"

The rosette gave a rosy smile, "yup!"

Kakashi sweat-dropped and sighed, "Sakura, where's Naruto?"

Sakura stared into his right black eye and his scarred sharingan left eye. It was clear tricks were inevitable, plus she felt the guilt of lying weighing on her.

"Umm… well, he left because we're in a bit of trouble…"

The man cocked his eyebrow and placed his intertwined fingers in his lap, "trouble?"

"Sensei I have to go now, Ibiki's going to-"

"Ibiki can wait for a few moments before exploding Sakura. Please answer the question," Kakashi's nonchalant voice ensured her that he'd make sure Ibiki wouldn't kill her for being late.

She took a moment to gather her thoughts, "well… a week ago, Naruto and I were bored, he went out after a little while and while I was at home alone with the door LOCKED, these men in black trench coats, like the one Naruto has, yes, came in, took me hostage and trashed the place destroying everything in sight and then took me to their hideout where everyone else was, yes, everyone else, Kiba, Ino, Chouji, Tenten, Neji, Hinata and so on and so forth. So, we waited there for who knows HOW LONG until Naruto came and rescued us…" she summed it up as quickly as possible. She stared at Kakashi's calm eyes, "and so… Naruto and I are a little short on funds… kinda, at the moment because we have to pay to fix everything and that's why Naruto's gone out and he's getting money by asking for missions from Tsunade. So you see sensei, he's only trying to get back on his feet," Sakura inhaled a breath of air.

"…I see, does anyone else know about this?"

She shook her head, "only Naruto, me, and the others… and Kishimaru," she answered earnestly. The silver-haired shinobi extracted a pink slip from his drawer and signed his name, the date and the time and where-to on it before handing it to her.

"Sakura you know I'm going to have to notify the others about this, right?" Kakashi asked. She flinched and then slumped a bit, "Anko, Kurenai, Asuma, Gai and myself could have helped you both I hope you know. Just because Naruto's a big boy doesn't mean he should be skipping class to find money to replace the damaged apartment," the man leaned back into his chair, signaling the other students to wait outside the door. Sakura furrowed her pink eyebrows and sighed.

"Well… that's Naruto sensei. It's his apartment you know, and besides everyone's agreed to help us if we need it-except maybe Ino-" she added Ino in just because she knew it was true.

"What shape is the apartment in a the moment?" Kakashi asked.

"It's looking better. It's not exactly a mansion but… it's looking a lot better than it did. We've been staying up later than usual because we're constantly cleaning up. I never thought it would take so long to clean up an apartment… but with the damaged walls, the bed and just about everything else including glass objects that need replacing I guess it should be expected," with a sigh Sakura walked out the door. Kakashi dismissed the subject for now, though he still had many questions. He'd give them both a week, if things still weren't up to par he, his wife and the other teachers would step in and give support.

However, Naruto's absence left the silver-haired man quite concerned. He was receiving horrible marks in almost every subject except sports and woodshop, though sports didn't exactly shock Kakashi for reasons he could obviously see about Naruto. Although for woodshop, it was 50/50. Either way, Kakashi would give Naruto a chance.

*Sakura*

Sakura quickly scuttled to Ibiki's class with the slip in her hand, she almost tripped on her way down the steps! She arrived and walked into the class. Ibiki automatically readied himself for a scolding lesson, however he was halted as soon as she flashed the slip. He narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms and gave her a look that screamed 'you got lucky missy,'

She took her seat at her desk and got out her history textbook. She looked across the room and noticed Kiba wearing a dunce hat. She giggled at him while he flashed her a toothy grin, the way the cap covered the top of his forehead and his eyes. It made her laugh and Hinata giggle.

"No laughing or giggling! Inuzuka!" Ibiki barked. Sakura and Hinata both stopped and Kiba sulked. Ibiki narrowed his eyes and snarled, "chapter 7, page 523 Haruno!" he ordered. She extracted her book from her bag and flipped open to the page number. She read a little bit before she stopped.

Sakura sighed and looked out the window. Again her mind began wandering, and of course it was about Naruto and what he was doing. Plus she began to find class a little boring herself… well actually Ibiki's class, since all he ever did was bark at students to shut up and pay attention. He was a real touchy guy she guessed… well there was really no reason to guess. Everyone knew for pete's sake. While her eyes were the only one's, besides Kiba's, that weren't focused on the book, Ibiki caught her.

"Haruno!" Ibiki caught her ear causing her to gasp and whip her head back at him!

"Daydreamin' huh? Well… if the dunce hat weren't OCCUPIED," he snuck a glance at Kiba, "you'd bet your pretty pink hair you'd be wearing it! CHAPTER 7, PAGE 523 NOW!" He slammed his fist on the desk! She immediately looked into the book, "you too Inuzuka!"

Kiba groaned and looked at his book, however he didn't read any of it. All he did was spend at least 3-5 minutes on the page, scanning blankly it before turning it.

Sakura did the same thing herself… almost. She already knew these facts. For some reason Ibiki had an unhealthy obsession with the great ninja war that took place years ago. They'd been studying it from the go. But, then again… that's all the book was about really, there was even a small section Sakura found interesting. It was on the Yondaime Hokage and his influence. She looked at his photograph and she was immediately reminded of Naruto!

'Oh wow! He looks just like Naruto! HAHA! He's so handsome, wow!' she followed the section below describing him. Pretty young, he was 25 years old by the time he had become the leader. Okay, so history wasn't so boring, at least Sakura found herself interested in something. She would have to ask Naruto about the Yondaime. She wondered what he'd say.

"Why's there a guy who's been named "The Yellow Flash"?" Kiba stared at the picture.

Ibiki popped an anger vein, "That man was the GREATEST of soldiers Inuzuka! It jus so happens he was the man who made life possible for the entire LEAF!" Ibiki pointed at Kiba, shaking his finger vigorously! Kiba slumped in his seat.

"It says here," Sakura began reading from the text, "The Yondaime Hokage was known for his amazing battle strategies and for his ability to defeat enemies in the blink of an eye. This was late discovered to be a secret technique known as the "Flying Thunder God," technique, that, when a special seal was placed on anything, it allowed the Yondaime to instantly transport to that location!" she marveled at the text.

"AT LEAST SOMEONE READS THE BOOK!" Ibiki barked gritting his teeth! Everyone read the section, however they all widened their eyes, even Ino was somewhat befuddled.

"This guy looks like Naruto!" Kiba narrowed his eyebrows and studied the man's face. Ino shifted her eyes at Sakura, whom, was also studying the blonde's face, not doubt comparing the two.

'A loser like Naruto… the Yondaime's son? …PFFT! BULLSHIT!' Ino mentally scoffed. She stayed quiet though about her personal thoughts, she didn't know why either. Usually she was one to blurt out her opinions. She began to wonder why she couldn't let her opinion be known.

The bell rang as everyone was pondering over the Yondaime's picture in comparison with the idiotic blond whom was skipping school. They made their way back to homeroom where Anko, Kurenai, Asuma and Kakashi were talking over themselves about something as the students left their rooms. As usual Sakura was the first to enter the classroom, however when she caught site of them all she immediately flinched and her heart skipped a beat!

"Hey pinky," Anko cocked her left eyebrow and crossed one leg over the other while she sat on her desk, "we were just talkin' 'bout ya, come on in," Anko waved her finger as Sakura walked inside. Kurenai crossed her arms over her chest and gave Sakura a look.

"Sick eh?" Kurenai asked. The rosette furrowed her eyebrows, "Naruto looked perfectly fine when he was in my classroom Sakura,"

"I can explain?" Sakura placed the statement as a question.

"I'll bet you can," Kurenai's demon-red eyes held a soft, yet very disturbing stare.

"Where should I start?"

Anko walked over to the door and looked out in the hall at everyone whom were entering, "alrighty, this'll take a teensy weensy minute okay guys… except you Inuzuka, you get your scrawny butt in here," she eyes him dangerously as he scuttled a bit. Anko playfully slapped his ass causing him to run into the room terrified and over to Sakura quickly! Anko just chuckled as she received signs from the 3 other teachers about her antics, 'you know how playful I get when kiddies are in trouble," she giggled dangerously.

"What'd we do?" Kiba crossed his arms and extended his bottom lip out in a pout.

"Well, for one, you were trying to skip class," Kakashi stated, " and you were lying about something we needed to know about," he shifted his eyes at Sakura. It clicked in Kiba's mind for some reason and he knew what they were talking about.

"Hey I got Sakura's and Naruto's back!"

"We know Kiba," Kakashi stood up, "however it's something we need to talk about. Now, why didn't you tell us?"

Sakura lowered her head before Anko lifted her head up by her chin, "it never occurred to me that you wanted to know until now. But I really see why now," she began and gathered her thoughts, "this is meant in no offense to you guys, and I'm sure Naruto would think the same thing…" there was a silence and she was nervous about saying it, "but on what bounds does this become your business?" She looked up. Kiba flinched a bit, "just let me know, and don't say "because we have the right to know, or because your business is our business" give me a real reason please,"

They all stared at her, though, Anko stuck her tongue out and draped her arm over Sakura's shoulder.

"It's our business because we just wanna look out for ya and make sure you don't get into something that's gonna potentially alter your life and point you in the bad direction pinky!" Anko answered in a friendly tone. Sakura and Kiba blinked. Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma seemed somewhat beguiled by Anko's words. However she did it… she did it

"You see pinky," Anko began once again, "I don't wanna make this sound redundant or anything, but you see, we're a bunch'a old farts and, Y'know, and we wanna make sure you guys have a good time growing up. Though we expect you tots to get inta' a ton of trouble, believe me, we also wanna make sure you don't go losin' an eye or getting' your arm ripped off or somethin'. You get what I'm saying?"

Sakura thought for a moment and nodded, "a little bit, yes," Sakura smiled.

"So go ahead and tell us what happened okay?" Anko asked with a smile. Sakura looked at Kiba, whom sweat-dropped and nodded.

"Well, a bunch of… some kind of gang members broke into Naruto's apartment and took me hostage, I didn't see it coming, they stuffed me in a bag, and while I was struggling to break free from the chakra laced chains they bound me with I heard the apartment being destroyed. Naruto thankfully, saved us from our imprisonment. So now we have to scrounge up money to get the apartment fixed," she explained.

"But that gives him no reason to skip class!" Kurenai stated. Sakura sighed.

"I know, but the thing is Kurenai-sensei,"

"What IS the thing Sakura?" Kurenai tapped her foot on the floor.

"Naruto said… he said… he doesn't care about school, about anything to do with school. He said that he doesn't want to come to school," Sakura answered softly.

Asuma, Kakashi and Kurenai stayed silent for a while, while Anko thought, "so he doesn't wanna come eh? Huh, well you go ahead and tell him Sakura, and tell him good," Anko took an honest voice, "that when he gets done he'd better get his ass back here. Not because I wanna force him, but because I like his idiotic antics and stupidity in my class. He makes my day he does. I just love it when he and Ino bicker back and forth like no one's listening, you know? Call me a bitch but who cares, I like 'em in my class! Makes things more entertaining!" She chuckled.

They all stared at the light purple eyed woman for a little bit.

"Umm, back to the topic please Anko?" Kakashi placed the statement as a question.

"Sure hun. But point is Sakura, we just wanna be here for you. You can tell us anything you want, we're here to listen. We won't judge ya, and by the sounds of your story, it seems like you need a little help,"

"We'll see Anko," Sakura looked at Kiba, "Kiba's already agreed to help us if we ever need to,"

The Inuzuka grinned, "yup!"

"But you know we're here for you whenever you need us, right?" Asuma asked.

"Of course, but at the moment Naruto's already made up his mind, and plus he's nineteen now, if he wanted to, he could drop out of school at anytime he wanted you know," Sakura stated.

True.

Sakura never thought about it before even tough she had known. Why hadn't Naruto dropped if he certainly knew he could?

"Well, whatever the reason," Kakashi began, "I'm hoping Naruto doesn't take this into an excessive thing, even though he's scoring low in almost every-single subject, we still want him here. When you go home tonight would you mind talking to him about it? We're still concerned you know,"

"I know you guys are, I'll talk to him about it tonight, I have a few questions to ask him myself now too," Sakura glanced at Anko, whom at the moment was still smiling.

"SORRY I'M LATE!" A very familiar voice echoed as the door swung open and Gai sprung in. He immediately charged up to Sakura.

"YOU TELL THAT BOY THAT HE'D BETTER STAY IN MY CLASS! HE HAS LOTS OF YOUTH! SO MUCH I CAN SMELL IT!"

Sakura sweat-dropped, 'I-I-I will Gai-sensei," she held her left hand up.

"YOU'D BETTER!"

They other students peeked inside, over-hearing Gai's loud words.

"Okay, okay, come on in everyone," Anko waved. They did as told and the woman stood up, "you know what we really wanted to tell ya, somehow I don't think we go into the nitty-gritty of the topic Y'know?"

Sakura nodded, "but I get what you were trying to say,"

"I know ya did pinky, yer smart like that," Anko ruffled her hair a bit and walked to her desk, "alright you four, OUTTA HERE!" she whistled towards the door. They sighed and walked out, Gai giving them all a thumbs up, and Lee a big grin, receiving one back from both Verde and Lee before walking out. Sakura took her seat. Anko then passed out papers.

"ALRIGHTY TOTS! LISTEN UP!" her voice increased it's volume, "Pageant auditions are on the FRIDAY OF NEXT WEEK! Pageant contestants! Be there or be square, and if your square I'll shove my boot up your ass or ASSES! I wanna see EVERY GIRL WHO SIGNED UP ON THAT STAGE EITHER GETTING INTO A CAT FIGHT WITH THE CHICK NEXT TO HER FOR THAT CROWN! GOT IT!"

As if Anko's devious smile could become anymore dangerous. They all knew she meant everything she said, especially the "boot up the ass" part… literally. The girls nodded and the boys just sat there, some of them shuddering a bit, feeling the effects of Anko's deadly playfulness radiating off her.

She looked at Kiba and sent him a wink. The Inuzuka turned pale as a horrible smile made it's way on her face. Kiba hid under the desk while Anko gave a chuckle. She loved striking fear into her students, it was part of her kicks, and she couldn't give a flying fuck what anyone said. But needless of her antics, she loved 'em all as if she popped their watermelon sized heads out of her own body.

Sakura read the paper and saw that another signature was needed. It was the guidelines and the whole "if you get hurt we're not liable for your twisted neck or cracked open head" crap. She sighed, Naruto would have to sign it for her.

Anko walked up the steps and stopped at Sakura's desk and took a pen out of her coat pocket. She signed her name under the guidelines and looked at Sakura.

"You get out there, and you kick ass girl," she chuckled and took the paper. The rosette sweat-dropped while Kiba, Hinata and Shikamaru stared at Anko and then back at her. Sakura shrugged whilst Anko collected a few more signed permission slips. However as soon as she got near Kiba, the brunette freaked out and ran over to Sakura and hid behind her.

"Don't let her smack my ass again!" He beseeched the pinkette to spare him of Anko's playfulness. Sakura looked at Anko, whom, was provocatively licking her lips and winking at Kiba, causing him to freak out even more.

"Anko's just playing with Kiba," the pinkette patted him on the head as if he was a dog.

"Yeah Inuzuka," Anko chuckled, "now get your furry ass back in that seat, or I'll make sure I give it another swat," Anko chuckled and walked away.

"Is she even allowed to do that! ISN'T THAT AGAINST SCHOOL POLICY!" Kiba pointed at Anko with wide white eyes.

"That's," Sakura chuckled nervously and rubbed the side of her left cheek with her finger, "not something I can help you with…"

Kiba cupped his ass and walked back over to the seat.

"C'MERE YA LITTLE PUPPY!" Anko laughed as she began chasing Kiba around the room.

"KEEP YOUR HANDS AWAY FROM MY ASS!" the brunette screamed like a little girl being chased around the room. They all laughed until Hinata patted her lap and Kiba crawled over and hid behind her. Anko grinned.

"Aww, the funs already over eh?" Anko pouted. Kiba hid under the desk, "hehehe, such a cute puppy," Anko put her hands on her hips and then looked at the clock, "hehe, time flies when you're havin' fun doesn't it? This period's always to shortest," she walked back over to her desk and sat on it, placing her left leg over her right one and cupping her hands on her shin. Hinata tended to Kiba's traumatic wounds, placing his head on her thigh and ruffling his hair softly. Sakura giggled, while Anko just awed.

She loved picking on Kiba.

Sakura just shook her head and sighed, gazing out the window as though something allured her to do so. She was like a stone statue until the bell rang and they all exited. Anko handed out another flier to them all. Kiba had his hands on his butt and shifted it away from Anko, whom held no playful expression on her face as she handed out the papers. Kiba uncapped his butt and smiled.

"You're not getting away from me that easily Inuzuka," Anko was right behind him and chuckled. She wound her hand back and placed a nice good smack on his ass again, causing Kiba to let out a yelp before streaking out the school with his hands cupping his butt. All the students that had seen him laughed while Anko gave her hands a good dust-off and placed them on her hips.

"Anko," Sakura sighed, "stop playing with Kiba," she giggled.

"You take it easy okay pinky? And don't forget to tell Mr. Whiskers about what's been goin' on okay?"

Sakura smiled and nodded, "I won't Anko, bye!" Sakura waved good-bye while Anko smiled and gathered her things. Kakashi was waiting by the door for her, and when Anko turned around she chuckled.

"Hey there hubby," she greeted, "I hope you've got enough energy cause tonight I'm feelin' a little friskeh if you know what I mean," she winked. The silver-haired man flinched a bit and sweat-dropped.

"…this time… don't chain me to the bed please… I hate it when you do that,"

"Awwwww, is the big bad Sharingan man afraid of a little playfulness?"

Kakashi stared at her with a look, "no because every time we have sex I have to pee after and I can't get out of bed to pee if I'm tied up…"

Anko shook her head and dragged him out of the school while he just rambled on about how serious it was when he had to take a piss.

The air had become colder and Sakura found herself shivering, quite violently, her teeth were literally chattering! She hurried herself home and slowly made her way up the icy steps and to the apartment. She jiggled the handle and then knocked on the door.

A latch was unlocked and the door opened allowing her inside.

"Hey baby!" Naruto grinned. He was at the door shirtless with a night cap on, and in his hand he gripped a cup of hot cocoa. He looked a little sweaty too… maybe he ad just got done lifting a while ago?

She walked inside while Naruto set his glass on the counter and took her jacket off for her and hung it on the coat hanger. He was glad at least that was still alive. Sakura smiled and fluffed out her hair before jumping into his bulk.

"Heeeeeyyyyyy" Naruto hugged her back and kissed her on the cheek and then pecked her on the lips.

"Hey Naruto," Sakura greeted, "did you-"

"It was right in my hand," he stopped her sentence and handed the cup of cocoa to her. She smiled and took it, awing at his sweetness.

"Thank you!" she sat on the couch with him, "did you just get done lifting?" she asked. He nodded and stretched his body before yawning.

"Man I'm beat… the ol' hag had me do one too many missions around the village," he plopped down on the couch and snuggled with her.

"What did she make you do?" the pinkette asked, taking a sip of her cocoa before blowing on it.

"Uhhh, well, she had me carry around a bunch of her paperwork. I tell yeah, she does a ton of it," he answered.

That was something she definitely believed. Tsunade was always up to her eyebrows in paperwork… literally.

"Anything else?"

The blond shrugged, "eh… well she gave me a few capturing missions. Some assholes were skulking around the friggin' alley's. Turns out they were part'a this lil' gang thing Y'know… pfft, pussies, they got scared as soon as I clogged their boss in the jaw and shattered it. He's in the hospital right now,"

"Well they got what was coming to them… and don't use that word, I don't like it," she complained. The blond cocked his eyebrow before recollecting his thoughts about the "word" before it clicked.

"…sorry… but eets truuuue Sakky-chan! Besides they didn't even put up a decent fight… pfft, I'll bet squirt woulda knocked at least two of 'em out…"

"But isn't Kishimaru still too young?"

"Yeah… but I can him some help with defending himself Y'know. He lives alone… I gotta give him something, right?"

Sakura sighed, "I guess," she shook her head and sipped her cocoa, "so what happened to the other guys? Did you catch them?"

"Well I had too… all I did was throw a couple'a rounds at 'em and they fell to the ground knocked out. Gave 'em to the other ninja and then I went on with whatever haggy wanted me to do for her,"

"So you had a very busy day today huh?"

The blond nodded, obviously tired from running around being Tsunade's errand boy. Sakura stroked his sideburns, earning a pleasant sigh from him, "so how was your day babe?"

She angled her head to her right and puffed her cheeks out, "well, Ibiki's still nuts about the ninja war, Ino's being… stuck up, and Anko's picking on Kiba, he screamed like a girl in class today," she giggled.

An amused grin seemed to creep it's way across Naruto's face, "and why did he do that?"

Sakura laughed a bit, "well, Anko was slapping him on the butt and teasing him, so they both ran around the room while Kiba cupped his butt and shouted at Anko to stop slapping it," she laughed at the end. Naruto joined her in that laugh.

"Shit, I wish I coulda been there to see that… woulda be funny," he nodded.

"Oh it was, especially when Kiba kept turning his body away from Anko so she would slap his butt, but actually she poofed behind him, wound her hand back and gave him a big swat, he streaked out of the school!"

Naruto just shook his head, "Anko's crazy… definitely crazy,"

That was like Anko… always picking on the big tough guys and making them scream like girls. Sakura… knew this personally from experience, being that Anko had picked on a lot of other guys in the school. After sharing another laugh, Sakura decided to tell Naruto more about the day.

She wasn't sure how to begin though, but she decided to just start off normally… if she knew how.

"Umm… Naruto, you remember today when you left the school?"

He nodded, "yeah… what about it? You didn't tell Kakashi about it, did you?"

"Ehh… well… about that,"

"You told him!" he blond gasped!

"No no no Naruto! I didn't… well… after Kakashi caught onto my lie. I told him you were sick… but Kakashi didn't believe me and… I tried but… I had to tell him, I felt so guilty lying to him Naruto… and he wouldn't believe me anyway I told it," she put her reason firmly in front of him. Naruto leaned back and stared at the ceiling.

"What about the other teachers?"

"Kakashi told them… we talked a little bit during homeroom. They wanted me to ask you… something,"

"Like what?" the blond grunted.

"They wanted me to ask you why you didn't tell them, why we didn't ask them for help,"

"Cause I don't want help… I've always done everything by myself since I was a fuckin' kid Sakura… there was no one there to do it for me… I didn't want help, I can do it myself… besides it's not their business anyway,"

Sakura placed a hand on his chest, "I asked them why they believed it was there business, and Anko told me that she didn't want us to get hurt… lose an eye, get a arm ripped off or something. She told me that they're there for us in case…"

The blond gazed into her forest green eyes, "that what Anko said?"

"Yes," she answered firmly.

"Should I believe you?" He asked. At that moment she didn't know what to think, but something inside her snapped and she smacked his chest, leaving a red mark.

"If you don't I'll punch you!" she held up her fist as it flared a bit with chakra. The blond rubbed his chest and leaned away from her. She blinked and realized what she just said and sat down on the couch with her hands folded in her lap, "I mean… yes you should, sorry, I don't know what happened,"

The blond sat back up on the couch and stared at her with his right eyebrow arched.

"You know what I'm beginning to think?"

"What?" she asked.

"You're getting' a little to big fer yo britches girl," he grinned and wrestled her to the couch before hoisting her up on his shoulders and spinning her around. She screeched happily and demanded he let go! "No way jose! You messed wit' da MAN!" he gave a playful roar as he spun around in circles. They both fell to the floor, Naruto's head spinning and she on top of him.

"Or maybe it's just because I'm around you too much,"

The blond thought for a second, seeing as it was a possibility that was impossible to deny, "hehe, well you have been fightin' back against Ino, so maybe I am giving you an influence. B'sides, Ino's pissing me off more and more now,"

"She never used to be like that… we used to be friends. But it was always her… then it kind of felt like she always got what she wanted… and I was all the way in the back. She always got to spend time with Sasuke…"

Naruto scoffed at the mere mention on his name, "fuckin' douche… I swear if I ever see that guy I'm gonna pop 'em right the fuckin' nose, the prick,"

Sakura gave him a look, and he immediately apologized for the words

"But it's true Sakura… the guy doesn't know you like I do… well, now at least, but I bet he doesn't know half the things I know about you,"

It was probably true, after all Sasuke never had shown much interest in Sakura… more like any interest whatsoever.

"Well, I guess I got the better man then, right?" She smiled and draped her arms around his neck.

"Tch, you bet! I'm, like, two bajillion times better'n him! You see this muscle?" Naruto pumped his arm and chuckled, "I'll put his fat head right there and crush it like a fuckin' peanut!" He slammed his arm shut, it looked like a guillotine almost by how Sakura imagined it. She giggled and smoothed her hands over him. He purred and beseeched her for a belly rub. She obliged, and as son as she began she got him twisting his body around, like the ways, that of an animal would do when trying to get comfortable.

To add to the humorous moment Sakura began speaking things like, "good boy," and "who's a big boy, who's a big boy!"

"Oh it's definitely me-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-eeeeeeeee" he jutted his tongue out, panting. Sakura laughed, she always wondered what made Naruto like this! It was cute in a way, but also so entertaining! Well, she always found normality boring… and often found REALITY boring. With what Naruto was displaying to her during this moment, compared to how she had felt long ago, she could proudly shout she was enjoying her life better than before!

After a bit of rough-housing, they enjoyed a nice, silent, R and R on the couch. There wasn't a T.V. still… although Naruto was hoping to buy a nicer one, since the other one he had sucked ass.

The blond had his feet propped up. The couch reclined, and Sakura used his body as her own means of comfort. She thought of it as a sort of bonding time they were sharing. Her head was nuzzled up into his neck, her arms wrapped securely around his torso, you'd probably have to chop her arms off to pry her from the blond. Naruto had closed his eyes for a moment, resting his arms behind his head. Sakura had fallen asleep… the rhythm of his beating heart had lulled her into a state of complete comfort. They were both tired after a long and dreadful, freezing, day.

Naruto found himself dozing off a bit. Well, they had been up longer than usual on nights, cleaning the apartment up whenever they could. With nothing but the sound of the wind howling and the rattling of the windows, it was peaceful.

Both of them didn't budge for a good 30 minutes, until Naruto's body shifted, waking Sakura up.

"I was sleeping…" she groaned and rubbed her eyes.

"Sorry babe," the blond whispered and shifted his body again to where he was comfortable.

Sakura groaned, "great… now I lost my comfort zone…" the pinkette shuffled her body so that it fell in line with his, "great, now I'm hungry, but I don't want to get up…"

The blond only chuckled, "what'cha hungry for?" he stretched and yawn, scratching his neck.

"I don't know… maybe I'll just have a carrot… or something," she nuzzled her head in between his pecs and took a deep breath.

"I think I just got a natural high," Sakura spoke muffled. The blond's eyes shot open and he looked down at her.

"…you serious?"

She giggled, "yeah…"

"Heh, I probably smell like weed eh?" He joked.

"Nope… But I feel good right now," she closed her eyes and hugged his torso. He was still baffled… how the fuck could she get a natural high from sniffing him!

He shook his head and felt a need to stretch his legs. With her still attached to his body like a koala bear to a eucalyptus tree he walked into the kitchen and grabbed himself a glass of water. He held the glass away from him and looked down at her.

"Anytime you thinking about letting go?"

She groaned, "but you're so warm…" she muffled through his body, "and I'm cold,"

The blond shrugged and drank the rest of the water before placing the glass in the sink. He had to pry her off, she stuck to him like a piece of week old gum on the bottom of a shoe. The rosette just walked behind him and hitched a ride on his back, wrapping her legs tightly around his waist while wrapping her arms around his torso like a piece of curling ribbon. He felt like he was carrying a koala backpack.

"What sounds good to you babe?" the blond nudged her from behind, she lazily glanced up. He had grabbed a few ramen flavors from the cupboard. She stare at them blankly, her mind seemingly out cold before she decided to say something out of irritation, "chicken…" she then lay her head down again. Naruto shrugged, taking a pot from the bottom cupboard and filled it with water before placing it on the stove and turning on the heat.

"Heeeey, wake up sleepy head…" the blond shook her leg, only to receive a groan from her, "dinner's gonna be ready REEEEAAALLL quick, so wakey wakey,"

She didn't respond, and he shrugged and walked over to the couch and sat down and leaned back. Sadly his plan didn't work when he heard her beginning to snore. The blond sweat-dropped and waited for a few minutes.

The water had come to a boil, and he pried Sakura off his body and went to check on it. Sakura opened her eyes, realizing her heater blanket, natural high inducing boyfriend had gone to check the ramen. The rosette snuggled into the couch where he had been.

In the kitchen, Naruto had dropped the noodles in the water and had begun to stir them around under they became nice and soft. There was always something he'd wanted to try when fixing ramen though. Getting one of those bowls in which you put the ramen in the bowl and scolding hot water was poured in before placing the lid on it and letting it sit.

He'd ALWAYS wanted to try that! Once the noodles had softened he extracted to bowls from the cupboard and poured the seasoning in. It was low sodium seasoning this time, which made him shrug. So long as his tummy was happy he was all good.

"Oh baby!" he called, "suppers ready!" the blond seated himself at the table. Sakura caught the scent of the ramen and stood up. She looked like a zombie the way she walked, though finally composing herself a bit. Grabbing her chop-sticks the rosette began to eat. Naruto had finished his meal by that time. He watched her slowly eat, but then noticed her obviously becoming sleepy, the way she held her chop-sticks improperly like a stick, how her eyes were heavy. She slowly chewed her food, and Naruto began to wonder why she was so tired.

Maybe she was full.

"Are you full babe?"

She nodded as her head bobbed a little bit. Naruto moved the bowl of ramen away from her and finished it. After he washed the dishes he found Sakura knocked out on the couch.

"Awe…" he smiled and strolled over to her. Naruto leaned down and kissed her before carrying her off bridal style to the bathroom. He washed her up and brushed her teeth. He undressed her before placing her in the bed. Naruto walked back into the bathroom to do his own business. When he returned, Naruto saw Sakura sitting up in bed, awake. To say the least he was surprised, "hey baby, when'd you wake up?" he greeted scratching the back of his head.

"I guess you went ahead and washed me up right?" she asked.

The blond nodded and climbed into bed with her, leaning back into the mattress, "yeah, hope you don' mind,"

She shook her head and lay her head on his chest. There was a silence before Sakura thought of a few things that she meant to talk about to him.

"Naruto,"

"Hmm?

"When I was talking with Kakashi-sensei and the others, you know what they told me?"

"What?"

"Well," they both sat up and she looked at him earnestly, "you know that, being nineteen you are able to… well, drop school now, I hope you knew that," she began. The blond arched his brow.

"I can do that?" he thought for a moment, "dun' sound like a bad idea," he leaned back and placed his hands behind his head and chuckled.

She furrowed her brows and sighed, "but we don't want you to… they all said-"

"I'm a horrible student?"

"NO!" she smacked his chest, "they still want you in school! Even though your marks are… below average they still like you as a student Naruto! Kiba and the others really like you as a friend!" there was a mass of determination in her eyes, "I love you and, if you hadn't shown up in school, my life would be a living… erm…-"

"Hell?" The blond spoke up for her. She smiled and nodded back in response.

"Yes. Please stay with me Naruto, I want you and I to do this together… at least try your best this next semester, I'll help you study for tests!"

Naruto shifted his eyes away from her for a moment before looking back at her, "I don't think even studying will help Sakura, I'm just not meant for school Y'know," he huffed a sigh and flicked her hair behind her ears with a handsome smile, "I don't really know if I'll be in school next semester anyway, now that I know I can just drop it and save myself the stress n' stuff,"

She furrowed her eyebrows and looked down, "But I can help you," her eyes beseeched him. She wanted him to stay badly.

"I know you do babe, I really do. But right now, I'm sorta goin' against the whole idea… we'll talk about it a lil' later okay?" he reasoned with her, and she agreed to drop the subject, if only he promised her he would think about it. Of course he obliged, it made her somewhat happier.

A few minutes passed, and the Yondaime's face popped in her mind causing her to gasp!

"What now?" Naruto sighed, hoping it wasn't another drama.

"Do you know the Yondaime?" Sakura asked. Naruto blinked for a moment.

"…sorta… why?" He scratched the back of his head as she got a closer look at him.

"Did you know that you look exactly like the Yondaime!" she was sort of ecstatic about the whole thing for some reason. Naruto rubbed his left cheek with his finger and sweat-dropped.

"Nope… had no idea. Am I special or somethin'?" he questioned.

She shrugged, "but isn't it interesting? You have the looks, the hair, and the facial features of the Yondaime that are almost exact! What if he's, like, your dad or something! Or maybe he's a relative of yours!"

Naruto arched his brow, "I dunno… what's so great about this dude?"

Sakura face palmed and dragged the palm of her hand down her face slowly, "He was a great ninja in the Great Ninja War, so Ibiki said. He ha the ability to teleport to locations in the blink of an eye!"

Naruto sat up straight, obviously interested in this part, "really? How?"

"It's called the "Flying Thunder God" technique. It uses a special seal in which can be attached to anything. Thus, the Yondaime could teleport to any location using it! Even to enemies!"

Naruto thought for a moment, 'Wow… I never thought there'd be a jutsu like that before… makes me wanna learn it,' Amidst his thoughts he thought he had heard something deep within his conscience, like a little man speaking to him. He whisked it off and looked at Sakura again, "wow, sounds really cool thar Sakky-chan! Really cool,"

Sakura calmed down after a while and yawned. There were a few other things that she wanted to tell him about, but she found herself feeling tired again. They both laid down on the bed and relaxed, and soon after fell asleep.

*Inside Naruto's conscience*

"I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE HE DOESN'T KNOW ABOUT ME DAMMIT!" Minato spazzed! Knowing the fact that the blond had no knowledge of being an heir of him!

"Like I saaaaid, DUMBASS GENE!" Kyuubi abruptly shouted.

"SHUT UP YOU FUCKIN' FUR-BALL!" Minato pointing in rage, "AT LEAST I SEALED YOUR ASS!"

"DUMBASS GENE!" Kyuubi thundered.

"SEALED YOUR FUCKING ASS IN THAT CAGE!" The blond roared. They bickered back and forth until a loud voice thundered from nowhere.

"KYUUBI! SHUT. THE. FUCK. UUUUPP! I TRYIN'A FUCKING SLEEP HERE! IF YOU DON'T SHUT THE HELL UP I'M GONNA KICK YOUR FUCKING ASS!" The area shook with Naruto's intense rage. The fox sweat-dropped at the threat and laid down inside his cell.

Minato shuddered a bit, he hoped Naruto wouldn't resort to that. But it was funny nonetheless.

"Hurr hurr, my son just threatened to kick your aaaasssss…"

"Shut up ass-hole,"

They still, however, bickered back and forth towards each other silently. It would be a long night, but Minato couldn't care less, even though he was still upset about Naruto having no knowledge about him… and of course, about the Uchiha problem. Which he was sure would worsen… it was a gut feeling.

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DONE! Alright kiddies *Cheeky grin* I'm not going to be able to write again for a while, I usually start the next chapter a day after I post. But anyway, I'm going to update "Scarlet Fever" and "Demon of Konoha Castle" so sit tight okay?