The night had passed by almost uneventfully. Sasuke slept. Naruto took to moving Sasuke's stuff around to see if he could make him paranoid. A paranoid charge was much easier to protect, because they always needed someone to confide in. No one else would believe that someone had broken into his house without stealing anything just to move his couch; and there would be Naruto, his sympathetic friend who would listen to his troubles, not to mention Sasuke's list of potential suspects.

The only interesting thing that had happened was towards dawn. A ninja of low level training had arrived on the outskirts of the Uchiha Estate. Naruto flared his chakra in warning. Any genin with a brain would know better then to take on a ninja of higher rank.

Sure enough, the ninja left without incident. He was almost disappointed.

Almost.

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Naruto had been right about moving the furniture. Sasuke had thrown a fit and stormed around all morning interrogating the servants; who reacted with a mixture of bemusement and fear. Perfect.

To think that Anko thought Naruto didn't have a sense of humor.

And so, Naruto followed Sasuke to school with a spring in his steps. Even the thought of having to explain to Neji couldn't bring down his mood. Unfortunately, the rapidly approaching ninja squad did. Shit, now he was going to have to intercept them. If they got too close to the school, Naruto would have a hard time remaining undetected.

With that in mind he dashed off towards the enemy.

---------Neji's P.O.V---------Neji's P.O.V---------Neji's P.O.V---------Neji's P.O.V---------

He tried to tell himself he wasn't miserable. He also tried to tell himself that the reason why Naruto hadn't come back yesterday was not because he had spent the night with Sasuke. Naruto wouldn't do that….right? Neji sighed and sat down on the school steps.

He didn't want to go to class yet. Sasuke was always early, and Neji didn't have the heart to see them together. It wasn't fair, but it made sense. Sasuke always got everything Neji wanted. Neji finally had a chance with a great guy who didn't think his hair was stupid, or that he was great because he was rich.

After sulking for a few minutes, Neji finally stood up to go inside….only to get knocked over by none other than the boy he never wanted to see again. Sasuke Uchiha.

"Neji Move! I'm late!" Sasuke yelled at him.

Dumfounded, it took Neji a few moments to realize that Naruto was not with Sasuke. Then he took in Sasuke's agitated state and had to fight back a smirk. He still had a chance after all.

"Sasuke, we have ten minutes before class begins." He let that sink in before he continued.

"What the hell has made you so riled up?"

Sasuke growled before recounting his tale of the mysterious moving furniture. Which, as to be expected, made Neji burst into a fit of laughter.

"I'm serious!" Sasuke yelled at him.

Neji just laughed harder.

"You might want to come up with a more believable story then that. Trust, me no one will care if you slept in this morning."

Sasuke just growled at him. Neji almost felt bad.

Almost.

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Naruto hated wrapping bandages. Stupid Kunoichi. He had come so close to coming out unscathed when the young female shot him. Shot him! What kind of self-respecting ninja uses flower bombs? Now not only was he going to be late, but he also had to come up with an excuse for walking around with a bandaged arm all day. Hmm……what to say.

--------Sasuke's P.O.V-------- Sasuke's P.O.V-------- Sasuke's P.O.V-------- Sasuke's P.O.V-------

Sasuke was starting to get annoyed. Neji had been glancing over at him every few seconds since they had arrived to class. When he couldn't take it anymore, he passed a note over to Neji.

S-"Fine, you don't have to believe me, but stop staring at me."

Neji read it, but hesitated before answering. That was knew.

N-"What happened to Naruto?"

Sasuke blinked a few times. What the hell was Neji talking about?

S-"What do you mean?"

N-"After he chased you, what happened? He is not in class and he is not with you, what did you do?"

Sasuke clenched his fist. What the hell was Neji going on about? Naruto was with Neji yesterday right? Was this his way of teasing Sasuke?

S-"Whatever."

Neji wrote something back, but Sasuke just left the note on the empty desk between them. He wasn't going to play Neji's game today. All he wanted to do today was relax, and subtly learn more about Naruto.

He was interrupted from his thoughts when Naruto himself entered the classroom effectively cutting off the teacher. He would have found that funny if Naruto hadn't been tenderly holding his injured arm. What happened to him?

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Naruto gave Iruka his best "I'm a puppy and I've been kicked, so please don't ask any questions" look. He could tell the man was going to make him talk about it sooner or later, but for now he just motioned Naruto towards his seat.

On his desk was a piece of paper. Curious, he opened it and read the rather interesting note. He then turned to Neji and smiled brightly at him. It was a nice to have someone worry about him. He passed the note to Neji.

"I thought it was a race. I chased him, but I ended up falling into a really nasty thorn bush. I didn't come back because I went to the hospital. I didn't know your phone number either, so I couldn't explain what had happened. It was really sweet of you to be worried."

Naruto had also put his cell phone number at the bottom. He did that for several reasons. The first was because he wanted to keep in touch after the mission. The other was because it would prevent Neji from questioning the obvious holes in his story. If Neji's blush was any indication, it worked.

Naruto then turned to Sasuke, who was staring at Naruto's arm in what could only be described as disbelief. It was good that Sasuke was worried about him. With any luck, he would be able to use it to his advantage.

He was a little worried that Sasuke would question his story. He was almost smart enough to be suspicious of the fact that he hadn't gone back inside and had Neji call an ambulance instead of walking twenty miles to the nearest hospital.

Almost.