Teal eyes watched the world outside, frost shining in the glass window. Gaara looked up just in time to be glomped by his bright-eyed friend. "Naruto…"

"Hey Gaara! I missed you!" A smirk drifted across Gaara's face.

"It's only been a day." Naruto looked at the fire-haired boy like he was crazy. "Well, it seemed like forever!"

"Dobe, you're too loud." A voice said. Naruto whisked around to face the one and only Uchiha Sasuke.

"Teme! You're the one who's loud!"

"I know when to shut my mouth though, dobe."

"Stop calling me dobe!"

"Already in an argument? How troublesome." Shikamaru came up to the small group with Kiba. "It's too early for all that noise."

"Well you can tell that guy to—"

"Naruto. Shh." Gaara said calmly.

The bell rang and everyone scrambled to their seat, saving Naruto embarrassment. He plopped down in a seat between Sasuke and Gaara.

"Hey, Itachi and I were going to that new club downtown, Toxik or something. You guys want to come?" Sasuke asked.

"Sure, I'll go."

"I'm in! Par-tay­!" Kiba exclaimed.

Naruto didn't hear Gaara's voice. "You're coming, right?"

Gaara just stared back at him before giving him a small nod. Naruto hugged him excitedly. "Yay, Panda-kun's coming!"

Gaara twitched slightly, trying to fight off a blush on his cheeks. Panda-kun?

Naruto grinned. Now I'll get to spend time with him!

Sasuke smirked and the others shared a smile. Naruto realized he was still fastened onto Gaara and released him, blushing slightly. Said boy frowned slightly, missing the warmth from his favorite blond.

"Come on, let's get out of here."

"School just started, teme." Temari said, coming up behind him. "Hurry up and sit down before Iruka-sensei gets here. He's late again."

Iruka-sensei arrived just in time to catch Kiba diving for his seat and mark him tardy. He assigned them work for the rest of the hour amid grumbling and whining about the homework the day before. "You all whine too much! Do this and I won't give you homework for the weekend." The students cheered up at this, and went into their own little group of friends. Sasuke, Kiba, and Shikamaru all pulled up chairs to where Gaara and Naruto were. A knock sounded at the door, and the boys looked up. A shock of gray hair was visible in the doorway, a dark mask covering half his face. The tall man strode over to Iruka and wrapped his arm around his shoulders. "Er, Kakashi? Is there something you need?" Iruka asked. Kakashi just lay his head down on the shorter man.

"I missed you." He said nonchalantly. Naruto snickered. Kakashi took one look at Iruka's stern face, and loped out of the room.

"Whipped." Kiba whispered. Iruka gave him detention.

"Hey Naruto, I can drop you off at your house if you want." Sasuke offered.

"Eh, sure. Thanks." Naruto replied. "So, see you tonight Gaara!"

The redhead nodded and set off down the snowy street to his apartment, which was only a few blocks away. Itachi watched him go with a pensive look on his face. "Does he ever show any emotion?"

"No, not really." Sasuke elbowed Naruto in the side. "So, you gonna go with anyone?"

"No."

"No one?"

"No!"

"You sure you don't like anyone?"

"Of course!"

"He's hot for Gaara." Itachi deadpanned.

"Hey!" Naruto tried to whack the back of Itachi's head and instead fell into the space between the driver and passenger's seat.

"Is he always this stupid, or is it just because I mentioned Gaara?" Itachi craned his head back to look at his little brother. "Honestly, why don't you just shove them at each other until their lips meet?"

"Because they'd just deny it and Gaara would death-glare us."

"This is not funny!" Naruto's cries went unheard.

"We should get them together. Tonight."

"Which means..." Sasuke grinned creepily.

"We have to dress Naruto up."

"NO!"