Naruto walked in Monday with even more of a spring in his step than usual. He greeted Iruka enthusiastically as he made his way to his seat by Hinata and Sasuke, both of whom were watching him curiously. He stopped in front of the desk and put his stuff down.
"You seem h-happier than usual today Naruko-chan," the shorthaired girl stated with her usual shy smile.
"What happened? You get a life time supply of ramen?" Sasuke asked. The blonde stuck his tongue out at the Uchiha.
"No. And if that ever did happen, I would probably be at home enjoying it right now," he replied in a matter-of-factly voice.
"T-then what is it?" Hinata asked.
"My mom's finally out of the hospital," Naruto said with a grin. Tsunade had gone to the center without him while he was with Sai, but he didn't care anymore. His mom was home with him and that was all that mattered.
"T-that's wonderful Naruko-chan!" Hinata exclaimed quietly. "How is she doing?"
"She's just fine. I'm really relieved she's back now, but she's still recovering a little."
"That's so great," Hinata exclaimed again.
"Congratulations dobe," Sasuke said simply.
"Teme," Naruto replied, but continued to smile knowing the Uchiha wasn't insulting him.
"So how was your weekend?" the blonde asked just as Sasuke stood from his seat.
"Uneventful," he replied as he moved to walk around the desk. Then the impossible happened.
By some unknown force of nature, or maybe the desk had just suddenly become animated and moved the slightest bit toward him (Sasuke didn't know but he was voting for anything but the truth), the normally graceful Uchiha ungracefully caught his foot on the leg of the desk and tumbled, straight down, onto the blonde who had been standing innocently in front of the desk until then. Both were now lying on the ground of the classroom, with all of their fellow classmates who had already arrived and a few who were just entering staring at them. And their lips were locked. Both stared at each other in shock. Sasuke shot up, fighting off the blush that was trying with all its might to show up on his cheeks. He mumbled something about going to that bathroom and being sorry before he left as quickly as he could without it looking like he was running away.
Naruto, meanwhile, was still staring up at the ceiling, shock still running in his system. There was something else there as well, although he wasn't quite sure what. It was pleasant enough, but why it was there when he'd just had an accidental kiss with Sasuke, he had no idea, nor did he want to know. Iruka rushed over to help his student up, and Naruto accepted without a word.
"Are you okay?" Iruka asked, worry spilled across his features. Naruto shook his head in an attempt to get rid of the shock and the slightly pleasant feeling that seemed to have settled nicely in the pit of his stomach. It kept fluttering around, and he decided he should ask Tsunade about it later if it didn't go away.
"Yeah. I'm good," he told the teacher. Iruka nodded warily and went back to his desk.
Naruto looked around and saw that everyone was still staring at him. Heat rose up in his face as he realized that they had all just seen him kiss Sasuke. He walked stiffly to his seat by Hinata and buried his head in his arms to cover his embarrassment. No wonder the Uchiha had taken off so quickly. His mind flashed the image of Sasuke on top of him, his lips covering his own as he stared up into coal black eyes and he was suddenly reminded of something else. Sai's kiss. His blush grew even more. He remembered his discussion with the boy and his reasons for the kiss. His stomach fluttered again as that unknown pleasant feeling presented itself. What did it mean? Did that mean that he liked kissing boys? It had to be. Even though it hadn't happened with Sai, Sasuke was a boy. Sai really did have to be too girly for him to judge on. Besides, it wouldn't be a pleasant feeling if he didn't like, right?
But what if it was just his body's reaction to something like that? Again, it hadn't happened when he'd kissed Sai, but…
Naruto groaned as his head began to pound from thinking too much and confusing himself.
"Are you a-alright N-Naruko-chan?" Hinata asked from beside him.
The blonde sighed and sat up again, slouching in his seat. He turned his head to look at his friend with a reassuring smile.
"Yeah. I'm fine. Don't you worry Hinata-chan. I'll give Sasuke a beating later for doing that, so everything's all fine and dandy," he replied.
"Who said you'd be able to give me a beating dobe?" Sasuke said casually as he sat down. He looked so calm it made Hinata wonder if she'd really seen him all that flustered when he'd left.
"I could beat you any day teme," Naruto retorted, glaring at the Uchiha.
"Right. Of course you could," Sasuke replied in a dismissive voice. Just as Naruto was about to make another retort, Iruka stood up and decided to begin class before a fight began. Despite Sasuke's calm façade and Naruto's normal attitude to rise to a challenge, there was a strange sort of tension between them. Iruka wished he could help, especially since Naruko was involved, but he knew it was better for his students if he didn't interfere. So he merely settled for breaking up the potential fight and giving them something else to focus on.
"The killing rate has risen as of late as police continue in their search for the elusive serial killer named Snake. We have more on the story later on, but first…"
Tsunade turned away from the television. She didn't want to be reminded that that psycho was still out there. He'd been completely covered in fire and even shot before that, and the bastard was still alive. She didn't understand, but it wasn't likely that it would be explained unless he told her himself. If they had looked harder for a body, if they had made absolutely certain that he was dead then maybe he wouldn't be alive to terrorize people today…
But she didn't want to dwell on the if-then's and the maybe's that seemed to be in an endless supply in her mind. It took away from what she was doing to fix her mistake. She didn't want her brother's death to have been in vain. He'd worked so hard to find Snake and he'd nearly lost his own son before he finally lost his life trying to complete that goal. That was why she was working with Itachi.
She had asked Itachi to give her anything to work on if it meant that she could help with the case. She had past experience in dealing with the sadistic murderer, and she knew she would be a valuable asset to the investigation. Itachi had agreed, having recognized her from the profiles of the police who had worked on the case before as well as from the profile of one of Snake's victims, being a relative to both one who died and one who had survived. He told her that Jiraiya was working on it as well.
Itachi had sent her many things over the months, as well as a few leads to follow, but everything was always a dead end. It was quite frustrating, frankly. It was December already, and they were no closer to finding the madman than when she had begun working with Itachi.
Sighing, she got up and went to her room, carrying the sake she'd picked up with her. The house was quiet now. Yumi had asked to take Naruto out shopping. They'd told Yumi about Naruto possibly being over his cross dressing phase that she thought he was in, and when he'd admitted to not actually having any boy's clothes anymore, she'd insisted on taking him shopping. Tsunade was glad, both for the fact that he was going to get more boyish clothes and that Naruto and Yumi were finally having the relationship a mother and son were supposed to have. A loving, caring, supportive one.
Tsunade sat at her desk before the humming laptop and set her drink beside it. Her finger moved over the mouse pad and opened her inbox. Shizune was supposed to have sent her an e-mail. The brunette woman's mother had gotten sick with pneumonia and had been sent to the hospital recently, and Shizune had decided to take some time off to visit her. She'd promised to tell Tsunade how she was fairing after her visit, and then how long she would be gone.
She scanned the new messages, deleting scam mail and whatever she didn't need as she went, and then found that Shizune hadn't sent her anything yet. She was about to delete yet another e-mail when the address caught her eye. It was Itachi's. She hadn't gotten anything out of what he'd given her before, but she wasn't expecting anything else from him so soon. She rolled the mouse over the link and opened it. She read it over twice. He wanted her to investigate a man and interview him. At first she had wondered why he would ask her to do it when the name hadn't fully registered in her mind. When it did register, she understood, but then wondered why that man would need to be investigated. He'd had nothing to do with anything about Snake, even back then.
He still lived in the same town, but he had moved to a different house, larger than the one he had before, if Itachi he told her correctly. Suspicious yes, but not if he had settled down with someone. She read the information again, then exited from her inbox and turned off her laptop. She leaned back and sipped on her nearly forgotten sake thoughtfully.
If she did this, she would need to leave for a while to investigate and interview him. And she needed to do it soon. Itachi wanted the information as quickly as possible, and the man seemed to be getting ready to move some place soon. The Uchiha didn't tell her anything more than that, and so she assumed he didn't know.
Tsunade wondered if it would safe to leave Yumi and Naruto alone while she was gone. Yumi seemed stable enough in her new personality, and Tsunade knew Naruto wouldn't do anything too rash. He was careful enough.
She sighed. She would have to leave them alone with Shizune gone. If the brunette had been available, she would have asked her to stay with them, but she wasn't. Tsunade thought some more. She could certainly ask Itachi to check on the two, but knew he had too much going on. She didn't want to bother him with it. A face flashed in her mind as she took another sip of sake. A smile grew on her face.
Of course. Iruka! He was very close to Naruto, and she was certain the man wouldn't mind checking in on Naruto and Yumi while she was gone to see if they were okay. She downed the rest of her drink quickly, satisfied with what she'd come up with. It could work. She got up. First she would put her sake away and then call up Iruka.
Now…when would she tell Naruto?
"I've got a little special something for everyone today!" Kiba said with a grin as he arrived at Naruto's lunch table. He reached into his bag and brought out a stack of bright blue papers. He handed one to each person.
"I'm having a party this weekend. My parents are out at a dog show and my sister is at college, so I've got the house to myself," he told them as they read the flyer. "If you're interested, it doesn't matter if you tell me or not. I'm a little short on food and stuff though, so come find me if you wanna help with that. I need to go give out the rest of these now. Ja ne!"
Excitement over took the faces that normally showed emotion, while mild interest entered the rest.
"It's been a while since Kiba-kun's had a party," Ino said with a grin as she read over the flyer again before putting it away in her bag.
"Does he throw good parties?" Sai asked.
"Are you kidding? They're awesome!" Ino exclaimed.
"And is parents never find out. I don't know how he does it. If I ever had a party while my parents were away, I could never clean up in time," Sakura said.
"That's because you don't actually clean," Ino stated. Sakura glared at the blonde girl. Naruto rolled his eyes at them, and turned to Sai.
"They're really fun. You should come," he said and then looked over at the silent red haired boy. "Gaara you should come too!"
Gaara glared at the blonde who was unaffected. "No."
"Aw, come on Gaara! You didn't go to the last one either!" Naruto pouted.
"Neither did you," the red head pointed out. Naruto ignored the comment and looked at Gaara with wide, puppy-dog eyes.
"Pleeeease? I'm gonna go this time, and if you don't go I won't have any fun because I'll be thinking of you, at your house, all alone, doing nothing except boring homework, and not having any fun at all!" he ranted.
Gaara raised a non-existent eyebrow.
"Okay, maybe I won't, but I still think you should come," Naruto admitted. He pouted. "It would make me haaaapyyy."
"…If I agree to go, will you stop pestering me about it?" Gaara asked reluctantly. The blonde nodded his head rapidly with a giant grin plastered on his face. The red head groaned, knowing he would regret his decision. "I'll go."
"Yes!" Naruto exclaimed, doing a small victory dance in his seat. His hand nearly hit Sasuke in the face, who smacked the appendage away in response.
"Stop being stupid dobe and watch where you're waving those things," Sasuke said with a glare. Naruto stopped and glared right back. The tension between the two had been growing ever since the incident on Monday, which had never been resolved in the following days. Sasuke had gone into even deeper denial as to the strange fluttering feeling that had taken residence in his stomach recently every time the blonde was around. Naruto on the other hand, was nervous and confused about many things, and as a result, defensive in response to Sasuke's distancing attitude. He wished he could just forget everything and for things to be how they were before, but he knew it was a hopeless wish.
Sakura cleared her throat, breaking the tension that had built up due to the impromptu glaring contest. She turned to Hinata as Ino began talking loudly to Shikamaru and Choji, asking if they were going to the party as well.
"Are you going to the party Hinata?" Sakura asked the shy girl. Hinata blushed and pushed her fingers together nervously.
"Ah, um…I-I'd like to, b-but…I'm not sure if father would let me," she admitted quietly. Naruto decided it was probably best to ignore Sasuke and turned to Hinata.
"Would he let you go if Neji went with you?" he asked.
"I-I'm not sure…he might," Hinata said, hope lighting in her eyes. The three looked at Neji who frowned at them.
"No," Neji said. The hope in Hinata's eyes was extinguished as quickly as it came. The male Hyuuga sighed as he saw this. "Hinata…"
"I-it's okay Neji-kun," she said resignedly. Neji stared hard at her before sighing once more, wearily this time.
"No, you should go. I'll see what I can do," he told her. Hinata's eyes lighted up once more and she smiled gratefully at her cousin.
"Th-thank you Neji-kun," she said. Naruto grinned at the longhaired male.
"Neji-kun's going soft!" he said with a smirk. "Now I shall no longer think of you as the cold hearted bastard you used to be."
Neji glared at the blonde, who only stuck out his tongue playfully at the other. The Hyuuga could hear the silent laughter emanating from the red haired boy beside him and scowled. And yet, he couldn't help wondering what it would be like to hear Subaku laugh out loud.
A/N: Um…(dodges sharp objects being thrown)…yes. Gosh it's really short. But it's finally here. Short, but here. Be happy. I've had major writer's blockage on this in what to write next. I may have an outline for what I want to happen, but that doesn't mean I know how I want to write it. So hopefully I will be inspired to write the next chapter and have it up soon. I really do want to finish this, so even if it takes a while, I'll always come back to it. I've been playing around with some other ideas as well, but I want to write more of them and finish this story before I even think of posting them. Unless, of course, I come up with a one-shot I feel like writing. But I don't have one as of right now.
So, thank you everyone so much for reviewing last chapter. I've made it over 100 reviews! It makes my heart happy, and it made me so frustrated that I couldn't get this out sooner as a thanks. I was literally sitting in front of my computer staring at it for hours, and was only able to write about two sentences each time, if anything. But anywhos, I love you all dearly for sticking with this so long, including all those peoples who just like to read without saying anything. You're awesome even though I don't hear from you. Please review and tell me what you think.
Disclaimer: if I did own Naruto, I honestly would do a crap job with it, so be glad I don't