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This is a short chapter. But whatevs.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Sasuke does. Got it fangirls? *sigh*

AN: This takes place several days after the last chapter.

Naruto was soaked in sweat, his body was aching, and he was out of breath, his chest rising and falling rapidly. The others in the gym were struck. Their mouths cotton dry from watching this deity of a man pound away with a force that would surely have collapsed another man. They in truth wondered how the punching bag even managed to still cling to the steel ring that held it up.

It had been several days since the blonde had met the raven at the club, and his mood had been darkening steadily in that time. He was angry. The raven, his once best friend had laughed at him! Fucking laughed at him! Not only that he had then had the audacity to make Naruto feel like he was at fault or running away from the Teme! Of course he had run away, the mofo was a frickin' heartbreaker! As the blonde's anger grew his punches were thrown faster and with more force this wasn't technique, this wasn't the dojo. This was pure no holds barred rage directed at a punching bag, and the punching bag was most assuredly losing. The blonde was clinging to his anger now, a lifeline, not thinking about how attractive Sasuke still was after all these years…

"Fucking A!" Naruto swore and then muttered angrily, "Not attractive. Totally not attractive, still has duck-butt hair. Not attractive, he's a friggin emo skater dude. Not attractive—probably stole those jeans from a little girl they were so tight. Showing off that luscious ass of his. He has no right….ARRRGGH! FRIGGIN' FUCKING FRATERNITZ!" Naruto cursed, his attempts to keep from using profanity, half-successful at best.

Kiba looked on in mild alarm, not saying anything, the blond was dispelling his anger in a fairly healthy way, so who was he to intervene. Still he knew that this couldn't continue, the punching bag wouldn't survive. All the same, seeing as the dog-lover didn't particularly care to take the punching bags place he did not move to stop the raving (and ranting) blonde.

When at last the blonde ceased moving Kiba took the opportunity to move in. Towel and water bottle in hand he handed them off, not asking the questions that were plaguing his mind. "Thanks Kiba," Naruto said tiredly, wiping the sweat from his brow. He could feel Kiba's sympathy and the questions that burned within his dog-loving mind, but the brunette didn't say anything and Naruto appreciated it. He just wasn't in the mood.

"No problem short stack, now let's hit the showers and grab some food." Kiba chortled good naturedly, and Naruto raised an eyebrow, the insult wasn't particularly true as the blonde only stood an inch or two shorter than the brunette.

As they walked though Kiba felt his lips turn downward in a frown. He watched the looks on the faces of those in the gym as he and Naruto walked by, and although the blonde was oblivious because of his depression, Kiba was neither depressed nor oblivious. He noticed that despite Naruto's gloom, the blonde still received over a dozen looks of pure sexual want from both men and women. He then took a moment to wonder if the gym goers even realized that they were looking at the boy like he was a piece of meat, and if they did, did they just not care. He was mildly disgusted to say the least... He shook his anger away though, he had bigger things to worry about than pervs at the gym. Naruto's mood for example, but fortunately the brunette had a plan.

"Wanna see if the rest of the crew wants to join us for dinner? It's Friday so no one's got work tomorrow, Shikamaru will probably even come since Temari's in town and she likes us. Especially after you got Gaara to come out of the closet…" Kiba asked, pointedly steering the blonde away from the wanton stares that seemed so intent on following him.

Naruto paused for a moment, the word no on his lips, but then shrugged instead, "What the heck? Why not?"He responded and Kiba cheered, "KBBQ it is then my friend. All you can eat plus all you can drink! I'll get Shino, and Choji and Hinata and you get Sakura. Oh and someone needs to get Rock Lee and Sai and Ino, and Shika of course!"

Naruto rolled his eyes but he felt a small smile come to his lips his friend's enthusiasm was a cheering sight, "Are we inviting the whole city Kiba? I don't think there's a BBQ place in town that will have a table big enough to fit enough for all of us."

"Then we'll move the tables together!" Kiba grinned, "We will conquer the whole restaurant and then eat them out of commission!" Kiba laughed evilly, "Our hunger shall know no limits!" Naruto felt his smile grow, leave it to friends like Kiba and Sakura to cheer him up.

"Okay okay," he conceded, "I'm pulling out my phone now!"

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