I decide to skip school altogether the next day, and spend the day wandering the streets looking in the shops and so forth. I'm proud to announce that I've wasted my entire day, and I go home shortly after lunch. For once, I decide to clean my house. I know, it's weird, but I do. First thing to go is all the ramen noodle cups and chopsticks. But only the ones that have been used!! I could never toss my precious ramen out without eating it first.

I finally get around to sewing the feathers back into my blanket, and clean out my suitcase. I straighten up my living room, and look wistfully at my broken lamp. I rather liked this one. Suddenly there's a knock on the door. According to my now visible clock, school got out a few minutes ago. Worried it might be Sasuke here to break my defences even lower, I stand behind the door and ask

"Who is it?" How obvious is that?

"Kiba and Gaara! We brought you your school work."

I open the door quickly with a sigh of relief. Kiba dumps a pile of papers and textbooks into my arms, and pushes past me into my house. I'm glad I cleaned.

"Thanks..."

I'm not so sure I'm actually happy. I mean, I can hardly see over the top!

"Expecting company?"

Kiba's giving me an all-knowing look, but I dump my papers on a side table I just cleaned with a shake of my head.

"No. I just didn't feel like going today, so I figured I'd clean a bit."

Kiba makes a noise, and looks around.

"Looks better than last time I was in here."

"What?!"

"I had to come get you once for something, but I couldn't find you. I'd actually thought you'd been buried alive by an avalanche or something."

I laugh at that, and try to figure out what to do with the lamp in my hand. Gaara is staring at me quietly, and I'm beginning to wonder if he's thinking of killing me or not. Kiba decides to make himself comfortable on my couch, and pulls Gaara down onto his lap. I still don't really know what they're doing here. I close the door that's waving slightly in the wind, and put the lamp under the table holding my homework.

"Do you guys want to play video games?"

I suggest, running my hand over the TV to wipe off the dust. Kiba looks extremely interested, and Gaara just shrugs. I pull out my game system, show them what games I've got, and we play video games for a few hours. I'm tied in skill with Kiba, but when it comes to fighting games, Gaara kicks both our asses. Kinda suits him, really.

Gaara gets a call on his cell phone, and sits in silence listening while Kiba and I duke it out on the game. After a minute he hangs up; Kiba beat me by one hit. I grumble and cross my arms as he gets up.

"Ready?"

Gaara nods, slipping the cell in his pocket.

"We've got to go now, so we'll see you at school?"

"I dunno. It's hard... you know."

"Ah. Sasuke?"

"... Leave me alone."

Automatically, my hand goes up to my neck. I grumble, but he smiles, poking me.

"So it is Sasuke!"

I look over at Gaara quickly, and Kiba notices my look.

"He knows."

"Okay."

"Look, just show up. You can hang out with us at lunch if you need a break. We won't let you leap on Sasuke without thinking."

"Uh, thanks, but that's not really the problem. If you guys ever get bored, which you probably won't... feel free to drop by and we can play games or something. Not like that."

I add at the look Kiba is giving me. He smiles, and they both nod as he leads Gaara by the hand out the door. Whoa, it's dark out! When did that happen?!

"We'll take you up on that sometime! Later, Naruto!"

"Bye!"

I wave as they melt into the darkness, and think why I'm standing in my doorway, staring out.

"... What the hell am I doing...?"