I hate this chapter. It's short and icky…

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

"Kyuubi"

Morning dawned on a very unhappy Uzumaki Naruto. He felt that he had been a total asshole to Lee, leaving as suddenly as he had. He didn't like it when his friends were unhappy and he liked it even less when he was the source of their sadness. 'He probably hates my guts now.' the blonde thought as he picked at his breakfast. He felt so shitty that he hadn't even been up for his usual ramen breakfast. 'I don't deserve ramen' he had thought as he poured the cereal into the bowl.

"I think you're overreacting to this kit." Kyuubi's voice appeared suddenly appeared in his head. "I'd say the situation is the opposite of what you think, he's probably worried that he pissed you off somehow and that's why you left. Why, I wouldn't be surprised if he was thinking the exact same things as you right now. You just have to talk to him later and tell him you weren't ready to go that far yet, that's all. If he really does care about you he will understand."

"Yeah, I guess so." Naruto replied, not really feeling any better even though the fox's words made sense. 'I'll have to find Lee and talk to him later.' Naruto decided as he finished his meal. If he lived that long anyway. "So, uh Kyuubi, what exactly am I supposed to say to the others? It's a pretty sure bet they will all be pissed about what happened between Lee and I."

"Then you simply won't tell them." came the reply."There's no reason they should know. It might put some of them off, which we definitely don't want. Just try and keep calm when you see them all. Actually, have you figured out how you are going to choose your next date?"

"I haven't really given it any thought. Maybe I could do eeny-meeny-miny-mo?"

Kyuubi sweat-dropped on hearing this, sometimes she really wished Naruto was just a tad smarter. "No, that won't do at all." she sighed wearily. "If you want my advice, tell them you picked names out of a hat and go with the shadow-bender. He's very lazy, he probably won't come up with anything spectacular to blow you away while you're still, er, preoccupied with what happened last night. That's just what I think though, the final decision is yours. And you'd better make it fast, you're about to have company." No sooner had she said this when someone started knocking on the door.

"Naruto we know you're in there!" he could hear the four shinobi calling.

"Open this damn door now before I blast it in dobe!" Sasuke's voice rang out loud and clear above the others. Not wanting his house to go up in flames, Naruto hurried to open the door. There in front of him stood four pissed, correction very pissed, no wait, EXTREMELY pissed off shinobi.

'Oh fuck. They know.' Naruto realized as the four pushed past him into the living room. He closed the door slowly, wanting to enjoy his last few minutes of life. Turning around he wondered how they had figured it out, he was certain Lee wouldn't have told them. 'Unless they tortured it out of him.' He shivered at the thought. "All right guys, it's obvious that you know what happened, but how exactly did you find out?"

Sasuke, clearly the ringleader of the little gang, stepped forward with a smirk. A smirk that seriously scared the blonde. He watched as the Sharingan spun to life, making the brunette look even more terrifying. "We paid the little freak a visit this morning, just to see how things went last night. I used my Sharingan to look into his memories while Nara held him down. I saw two things, one I liked and one that made me want to hurl. You should pick who you shower with more carefully Naruto. You don't know what you're missing and it would be such a shame if you went to waste." he added as he licked his lips, a hungry look in his whirling red eyes. He began advancing towards Naruto, lust taking over his mind, but was stopped quickly by a hand from Neji and a growl from Kiba.

"Now is not the time, nor are you the right person." Neji said coolly, standing between Naruto and the horny Uchiha.

"Whatever." Sasuke muttered as he backed off, leaning against the wall. "Prick." he mouthed under his breath, glaring daggers at the Hyuuga.

Smiling slightly, Neji turned his attention back to the kitsune. "Anyway Naruto, we came here for two things. First, we want Lee disqualified for breaking the rules. Though he is my friend and teammate, even I must insist that he be eliminated." Naruto could think of nothing to say to this and he was terrified of getting gang-raped, in his own living room no less, if he refused, so he nodded dumbly in agreement. "Good. Secondly…" Neji continued, using his most pleasant voice, "…we want you to choose whose honor it will be to go out with you tomorrow." He smiled at the blonde, wearing an expression that he hoped said "pick me, pick me!" and was unpleasantly surprised when Naruto replied so quickly:

"Shikamaru will be next." he blurted out, drawing a groan from Kiba and a surprised gulp from the genius in question.

At these words Neji's expression turned ugly, he couldn't fucking believe it. 'I protect Naruto from that bastard Uchiha and I always treat him so nicely and now that lazy fucker gets to go next, without the least bit off effort!?! What the hell!!!!' Inner Neji was ready to split someone's head open at this point. Regaining control of himself quickly, Neji asked, "And could you tell us how you arrived at that decision?" 'He better have a good excuse…'

"I uh, picked names out of a hat to be fair." the blonde replied, laughing nervously.

'Damnit! That is a good excuse, even if he's lying. I guess I'll just have to go along with it.' Neji conceded. "Very well then. Our business is done here I think, unless you want us to stay?" he asked hopefully.

'Oh yeah like that's gonna happen. Idiots.' he thought as he shooed them all from his house, promising to go straight if they didn't leave him alone for the rest of the day. "See you tomorrow Shika!" he called after them, pleased at how the others stiffened, jealousy evident in their steps. Now cheered considerably, he wondered what to do next.

"Hmmm. Maybe I should wait to talk to Lee. He probably isn't really in the mood to talk to anyone after getting mugged by those four." the blonde thought aloud. "I know! I'll go talk to Iruka-sensei! Sure, he's not gay, but he's gotta know something about relationships. And maybe he will buy me some pity-ramen!"

He started off towards Iruka's at a slow pace, thinking over the day's events and wondering how he had gotten himself into all this.

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