Warning 17+ only: Yaoi (Boy x Boy) - Homophobic readers please hit the back button NOW. Not appropriate for young readers.

Disclaimer - Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. Sasuke would dispute that claim. Either way I make no money on this.

Author's note: So this story starts out with a relatively inexperienced Naruto. Over the course of this fic, his innocence and sweetness will slowly be peeled away, and he will become a bit harder. He'll still be a good person at the core, so not crazy OOC. But the darkness in his character will gradually build. And note also that we are only getting Naru's side of events here, largely. I am narrating this based on his perceptions, not as 'omniscient narrator', so if Naruto thinks Sasuke is mad, it doesn't necessarily mean Sasuke is mad, for example. If I were writing this from Sasuke's perspective, the story would be quite different and certain key events would have appeared to mean very different things. So don't hate on him too much. You will hear his side eventually. Remember they are both young and clueless here. All story events hinge on that precept. :-)

-xXx-

Naruto didn't look up when the giggling girl made her way from Sasuke's room to the hallway. Naruto wondered if Sasuke even bothered to say goodbye to her, or just shoved her off his bed. He certainly didn't walk her to the door. Next time, Naruto would be sure to remember NOT to leave his iPod in his bedroom. Then at least he wouldn't have to listen to it.

Their suite had two separate bedrooms, a shared kitchen, bath and living space. Their other two roommates (who shared the other bedroom) had already gone to sleep. Lucky bastards. Neji and Chouji were sophomores. Naruto didn't know them very well yet, but so far he liked both of them. Neji was generally quiet and kept to himself. He was good looking enough that he could probably have a lot more companionship if he wanted, but so far he had been pretty laid back with all that. Naruto wondered if he had a girlfriend that went to another school or something. Chouji wasn't exactly quiet, but he didn't have a lot of late night visitors. He was a good guy, but his portly physique didn't exactly make the ladies swoon. He didn't seem to mind, though. Naruto liked both of his suitemates.

He only regretted that he was sharing a room with Sasuke. Naruto had been told he had to wait two more weeks before he would be allowed to formally request a room transfer. And then wait god knows how long before they found him one. All the dorms were full, so it would have to be either a room where someone had dropped out, or where someone else was having roommate problems and wanted to switch. Which meant he could end up with someone worse. Watching a shirtless and disheveled Sasuke walk fluidly into the kitchen to get himself a glass of water, Naruto knew he'd jump at the chance to move, even if he ended up having to live with a psycho. He ached from having to watch Sasuke like this. And he burned with stupid jealousy when Sasuke let any random girl into his bed, but would barely look at Naruto.

"Asshole. You know that Monday and Wednesday nights are the only two nights I actually need to go to sleep early. I have bio lecture first thing on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You have the whole rest of the week to fuck in our room and I don't care. I already found other places to hang. Can't you just hook up in their rooms those days? Does it always need to be here?"

Sasuke just smirked. "Jealous?"

"If there are any stains on my bed, I'm throwing you out the window."

Sasuke just continued smirking.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "We've only been at school two weeks, and you've already had sex with at least six different girls. I thought you just broke up with Sakura." Naruto had learned that from Kiba when he had returned from his summer trip with Jiraya two days before he had to move into the dorms. And for a brief moment, he had been hopeful that he would get his friend back. But when he had shown up to freshman orientation and moved his stuff into their dorm room, Sasuke had been as distant as ever. They had gone to orientation together, and even registered together. But Sasuke had just been talking to the girls that swarmed him, smirking at their aggressive advances. Naruto had had his share of admirers as well, if not as many as Sasuke, and he had tried to focus on them instead of his eating jealousy over his friend. And in the end, they might as well have not even gone together. Naruto had ended up registering for mostly writing and literature classes, since they had grabbed his interest, and a biology class to fill his science requirement. Sasuke had signed up for all the business and communications classes he could take as a freshman, resulting in their not having a single class in common this semester.

"Sakura and I broke up just after my birthday. I didn't see anyone the rest of the summer."

Of course. The one time he actually isn't hooking up with girls, I am out of town.

"So now you're making up for lost time? What the hell, Sasuke. You used to not even let the fangirls talk to you. Now you practically throw them on the conveyor belt to your bed."

Sasuke shrugged, his face expressionless. "It seemed to be bothering you that I wasn't interested in girls. So now I'm interested. I'm just doing what every guy does." He smirked again, "Or I guess what every guy would do if there was sufficient interest in him."

Naruto growled as he got up and started walking over into their bedroom. "Neji's hot, and he isn't whoring himself out like that." Sasuke's eyes narrowed at that. "If you want to do something to make me happy, start taking them to a hotel room, or at least do it in their room on Mondays and Wednesdays instead of here." The room still smelled of sex, so Naruto went over and threw open the window. He noticed that Sasuke had already stripped the sheets and thrown them in the hamper. That guy must do more laundry in a week than most guys do in a month. But Naruto wasn't going to complain. At least Sasuke was hygienic about it. "It seems like every time I have an evening where I don't have class or a study group, where I actually could get to go to sleep early or god forbid talk to my roommate, you're here fucking someone. I thought you wanted to be Mr. Straight A Student through college so you'd get into the business school here. Don't you ever do your homework? Or do you only fuck girls when you know I'll be here."

A funny look passed over Sasuke's face at Naruto's last statement. He looked... embarrassed? More like he looked like he'd just been caught at something, but Naruto didn't know what. He couldn't possibly be embarrassed about Naruto hearing him having sex... Sasuke clearly made no effort to hide that. But Naruto was too tired and annoyed to try to figure it out.

"Whatever. You suck for a roommate. I'm going to sleep," Naruto trudged over to his bed and fell into it. He was exhausted. He had kept up his habit of running over the summer to help him manage his stress. Jiraya had told him to add in some push-ups and sit-ups to help round out his workouts. Whatever you could say about the Perv, and Naruto could say a lot, the man had kept in shape. So every morning, he got up and did a hundred sit-ups, a hundred push-ups, and fifty hand-stand push-ups before his morning run. Neji was generally the only other person up that early, and he clearly thought Naruto was insane. He would watch Naruto working out while he drank his tea and ate his breakfast. Then Naruto would go for a run, and come back and shower. He managed to time it so that Sasuke usually got up and left for class when Naruto was out running, so they hadn't bumped into each other much in the mornings. It was just the nights that Naruto dreaded. There was no avoiding a person you were sleeping in the same room with.

-xXx-

As much as Naruto was hating his roommate situation, he was liking his classes. He had already made two pretty good friends. Sora was a guy in Naruto's creative writing class. They had been paired up in the first class exercise to critique each other's writing, and had hit it off right away. They were both fairly serious about the class, and both wrote pieces that were a bit dark, compared to the fluff that most of the kids in the class put out. Naruto felt like somehow Sora was a kindred spirit, and would often hang out in Sora's room to do his homework, since it was closer to the building that their classes were in. Naruto's room was in a dorm across campus, closer to the business school. Perfect for Sasuke. Crappy for him. As usual.

They had only known each other two weeks, but Naruto already had a small crush on both of his friends. Unfortunately, it didn't look like either was going to develop into anything.

Sora was much more mature than Naruto. He had grown up in a bigger city, and seemed to have had a lot of sub-culture experiences that Naruto found intriguing. He hadn't worked up the nerve to talk to him directly about it, but much of Sora's writing revolved around drugs and sex. It was pretty different from Naruto's relatively straight-laced and late blooming high school years. Naruto also admitted to himself at least that he found the man's shoulder length brown hair and lithe build attractive. But he figured he only had a 10% chance that Sora was gay, so he didn't assume anything was going to come of it. He wasn't going to make that mistake again. He was fine being the guy's friend.

Naruto's other friend was his lab partner in his biology class. It was the one class that had had the potential to be a complete disaster for Naruto, since science had never been his strong suit, but he had totally lucked out with his lab partner. Ino was not only really hot, but she was pre-med and took the class totally seriously. She always did the pre-reading before the lab, and always knew something about what they were supposed to learn from experiment that they were supposed to do. Naruto thanked whatever fluke of nature had made the girl choose him as her lab partner. Aside from being hot and smart, she was also really nice. Naruto had been a little bummed when he found out she had a boyfriend that went to another school, but had bounced back pretty quickly. They had lab on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and generally ended up grabbing dinner together afterwards.

Naruto wasn't surprised when several people in their lab thought they were dating. He was more surprised when, a week later, Ino pulled him aside after lab and asked him if he'd just pretend to go along with it.

"Look, there's this guy in my dorm who has been really hitting on me hard, and not taking the hint. He basically didn't believe me when I told him I had a boyfriend. Our floor is having a big dorm party tonight. Do you think you could just come and pretend to be my boyfriend so this ass will leave me alone?"

Naruto hated guys like that. He knew what it was like to be interested in someone and not have those feelings returned, but that's just the way the cookie crumbled sometimes. You had to accept it: 'no' means no. Ino seemed like a nice girl, and maybe she just hadn't been forceful enough with the guy. Naruto had no problems being forceful if the guy was hassling his friend. He might have kept his nose clean in high school, but Naruto had grown up brawling for most of his life before then. And the Perv had taught him a few tricks as well when it came to fights. Plus he was a lot bigger now, having developed a bit of a work-out obsession over the past year or so to relieve the Sasuke-induced sexual frustration. He could more than handle himself in a fight if it came to that, despite what most of his high school classmates probably thought. So he simply said, "No problem. I'll go set this guy straight."

Ino rolled her eyes, but she was smiling, clearly enjoying the protective posture that the boy was taking for her. "Don't get all macho on me, Naruto. I don't want you to go and pick a fight. If he just sees me with a cute guy who looks like he could hold his own in a fight, he'll leave me alone. We don't have to stay for very long. Just don't get drunk on me."

Naruto couldn't help but grin at her characterization of him. "No worries. I'm not much of a drinker anyway. Let's go... what dorm are you in?"

"Um..." Ino ran her eyes over Naruto's baggy T-shirt and loose jeans he was wearing. "I'll swing by my room and change quickly, then we need to go to your room so you can change and get ready."

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?"

Ino just rolled her eyes. "Please. I have a reputation to maintain."

So Naruto found himself marched back to his dorm room with a surprisingly forceful Ino. She had changed into a tight, black blouse and skinny jeans, and he found himself wishing it wasn't a pretend date. He was glad to find out that Ino was in the same dorm as Sora, though. He sent him a text and told him about the party. Maybe he could crash at Sora's place if the party went late. But he'd keep his word to Ino and not drink tonight, even if it would be his first college party. Naruto opened the door to his room as Ino was grilling him about his wardrobe. Naruto just rolled his eyes. "Look, what's the big deal about what I wear? I'm not a girl. It doesn't matter. All guy clothes basically look the same anyway."

Ino didn't even know what to say about such a ridiculous comment.

Sasuke came out of their bedroom when he heard their voices, and he looked at Ino slightly hostilely.

"Alright, so you go take a shower and get cleaned up. I am going to go pick out what you're going to wear tonight," she said, completely exasperated by Naruto's lack of interest in his appearance.

"Seriously? Ino, I know how to dress myself," Naruto ignored the derisive snort coming from Sasuke, who was still standing in the kitchen appearing to wait for water to boil.

"You wear sweat pants and loose T-shirts basically every day. You have the fashion sense of moss. Tell me which dresser is yours. No boyfriend of mine is going to take me out dressed like you do."

The amusement that had sparked in Sasuke's eyes at the 'moss' comment disappeared into narrowed eyes at the mention of the word 'boyfriend.'

He scowled at Naruto, who just shrugged and headed into the bathroom after grabbing his orange towel from the back of his chair in his bedroom, calling over his shoulder, "It's the one by the window."

Ino ignored Sasuke's glare and disappeared into the bedroom to rummage through Naruto's dresser. What she found completely exasperated her. Big T-shirt after T-shirt. And the pants drawer was full of jeans and sweatpants, but they were also pretty baggy. She growled, and stalked back out towards the bathroom door. "Naruto! Don't you have any sexy clothes at all? How can I introduce you as my boyfr-"

She cut off as the bathroom door opened, and Naruto stepped out in a billow of scented steam with his fluffy orange towel wrapped around his waist. His hair was wet, and water droplets rolled down his tan neck and along his chiseled chest and sculpted abs. Ino vaguely remembered Naruto telling her he worked out most mornings, but holy god this boy was ripped. He had the lean, narrow hipped physique of a runner, but his arms and back were sinewed with muscles that a runner wouldn't usually have. And his washboard abs were just... oh my fucking god. She realized she was staring, and even drooling a little. She closed her mouth and forced herself to turn away, where she was greeted with the sight of Naruto's roommate staring at Naruto with slightly glazed eyes. He noticed her looking at him, and immediately snapped his mouth closed and stalked into their bedroom. "Put some clothes on, Dobe."

"Wow, Naruto. What the hell are you doing covering up a body like that in these loose clothes? That's it. Put on some clothes and we are going shopping. It should be illegal to conceal a body like that the way you do." Once again Naruto found himself being marched by the forceful blonde, this time into his bedroom. Ino stood there tapping her foot, and Naruto just stood there, blushing awkwardly in his towel and shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"Um, Ino? Do you like... expect me to change in front of you?"

Ino started, realizing she was still staring. She blushed and turned around. "Fine. Just hurry up." She walked into the living room and closed the door. Flustered, Naruto just dropped the towel and started hurriedly digging through his drawers to find boxers, jeans and a T-shirt. He yanked them on, then ran out to where Ino was waiting. And totally missed the intense stare that had been latched on his body the entire time by the other occupant of the room.

. . . .

Naruto walked out of the store wearing his new clothes. Ino had just thrown his old ones in the trash can in the changing room and walked him up to the cash register and had them ring up the clothes on his body. It was by far the most embarrassing shopping experience that Naruto had ever had. He was just glad they didn't get accused of shop lifting.

"And this weekend, I am coming over and giving your wardrobe a complete makeover. You are NOT going to be hiding your light under a bushel anymore."

"Ino, I can barely afford tuition. I can't replace my entire wardrobe because you want a better view of my ass."

Ino blushed, but laughed anyway. "But it's such a fine ass. You are lucky I have a boyfriend or I'd seriously be trying to take drunken advantage of you tonight."

Naruto almost growled. It was totally not fair she was teasing him like this. He silently sent a wish that her faceless boyfriend would get mysteriously sucked into another dimension.

"But seriously, we'll just go to a thrift shop. We can do a major upgrade for less than fifty bucks. Now, put your sexy smile on and pretend to love me."

Naruto sighed. This sucked.

. . . . . . .

They had been at the party for an hour, and Naruto was already bored. He wasn't drinking, because he had told Ino he wouldn't. She was, however, and that was turning out to be a huge problem. She had been enjoying all the jealous looks they got from both guys and girls. Naruto wasn't sure who the jerk was that had been giving Ino the problem, but if he was there he hadn't come up to her yet. He was starting to wonder if Ino was playing him, and just wanted to tease him. She would lean against him, and put her arm around his shoulders. Sure, they were supposed to be pretending to be dating, but... did she have to pretend they were a couple into PDA?

Luckily Sora showed up. He came over to Naruto, looking surprised to see him there with Ino. The dorm was big, so Ino and Sora hadn't met. She was on the third floor, he was on the twelfth. "Sora! Man, I was hoping you'd be able to come."

Sora had a beer in his hand, but was completely sober. "Yeah, I got your text, so I thought I'd drop by."

"Naruto's my boyfriend," Ino slurred, leaning on him and purring in his hear.

Naruto looked apologetically towards Sora, who just raised an eyebrow. "I'm going to go get another beer," she said and staggered off.

"Girlfriend? Really?" Sora asked. Naruto shrugged.

"Not really," he said, keeping his voice low, though with the music turned up so loud, he didn't need to. "She has a boyfriend that goes to another school, but there was some guy hassling her so she asked me to pretend to be her boyfriend at this party so he'd take the hint."

Sora gave an amused look. "Well, she certainly seems to enjoy pretending to be all over you. Nice outfit, by the way. I didn't think you owned any real clothes."

"Geez, what is it with everyone? Who gives a fuck what clothes a guy wears, anyway?"

Sora just laughed. "Well, if you are looking to get laid more often, showing off your assets helps that a lot. Especially in your case."

Naruto froze. Was Sora hitting on him, or insulting him? "What does that mean?"

Sora just shrugged. "Ino clearly seems to think you have nice assets, boyfriend or not. The clothes show them off."

Naruto tried to hide his disappointment. Of course Sora wasn't hitting on him. He sighed. The sound of Ino's voice shouting at someone caught Naruto's attention.

"Get the fuck off me, asshole! I'm here with my b-boyfriend! Let go of me!"

Naruto looked over to see a tall brunette trying to pull Ino onto his lap. She poured her beer over his head, and the guy looked like he was going to kill her.

"Be right back," he said to Sora, his face hardening.

He strode over, ignoring the many pair of eyes that were following him. "I think it's pretty clear that she turned your ugly ass down. Let go of my girlfriend's arm."

The guy smirked, at Naruto. "Or you'll what?"

Naruto smiled, and leaned down so his face was level with the guy's. "Why don't you quit hiding behind my girlfriend and stand up so I can show you."

The guy's smile faltered. He hadn't really expected Naruto to get in his face like that. Everyone was staring. If he backed down now, he'd look like an idiot. So he shoved Ino away, and stood up. He tried to throw a sucker punch at Naruto, but he wasn't quick enough. Naruto easily dodged it and gave him a short, sharp punch to his nose, followed almost immediately with a knee to his crotch.

"Keep your nose and your dick away from people who don't want them there. Don't make me come find you for bothering her again."

Some of Ino's friends had come over when they had seen she was in trouble, and they started to cheer. The music was still playing, and pretty soon the party resumed once everyone realized the show was over. The guy stumbled out still holding his bloody nose.

"Oh, my god Naruto that was so fucking hot!" Ino was hardly able to stand. She had had waaay too much to drink. "You are the best boyfriend ever." She threw her arms around Naruto happily. Could he just be done now? This was torture.

A girl that Naruto remembered being introduced to him as Ino's roommate was standing next to her. She didn't seem as wasted as Ino. "Hey, I think Ino needs to go sleep it off. Can you help me get her to her room?"

"Sure," the girl smiled at him. She was a pretty brunette, wearing a really short skirt and a tank top. Naruto sighed. This was turning into a really long and frustrating night. It must be at least two in the morning. He didn't want to walk back all the way across campus.

"Hey," Sora had followed him over. "I didn't know you were such a tough guy." Sora was smirking at him. There was an expression in his eyes that Naruto wasn't quite sure about, but it made him blush.

"I used to get into fights a lot when I was a kid. I haven't done it for a while, though."

"You fight dirty."

"I fight to win. But he threw the first punch."

Sora nodded. "Basic rule of not going to jail - always let the other guy throw the first punch."

Naruto laughed. "Exactly."

"So, you going to crash with Ino tonight?"

Naruto looked down at the nearly unconscious blonde he was supporting. "No... I don't think that would be a good idea."

"If you want, you can stay over with me. My roommate just got a girlfriend. She has a single room, so he's basically moved in there. I have an extra bed now."

"That would be awesome, actually. I'm pretty tired, and not looking forward to walking across campus. Plus, my roommate is an ass. The less time I spend there the better."

Sora smiled. "Then spend more time over with me. You can tell me about your ass of a roommate. I get bored, and my room is closer to most of your classes anyway."

"Sweet! Let me get Ino to bed. I'll be down in a few."

Naruto hauled Ino down the hall to her room. Her roommate opened the door, and he hoisted the now passed out blonde and carried her over to her bed. He pulled the blanket over her, and turned to leave.

"I know you're not really her boyfriend."

Naruto turned to look at the brunette.

"I've met Ino's real boyfriend. She told me she was just going to have you help her out with that asshole to get him off her back."

Naruto shrugged. There seemed no reason to deny it if Ino had already told her roommate. "Yeah. We're lab partners. But she's my friend, so I didn't mind helping her out."

The girl slid her hand up Naruto's wrist and curled it around his bicep. He could smell the alcohol on her breath and realized she was not likely as sober as she appeared. "You're really hot."

She pressed herself up against him, and immediately began sucking on his neck. "Um.. " Naruto tried to gently detach her, but the girl just tightened her hold.

"Look, you're really pretty, but you're completely wasted. And I don't even know your name."

"Kiara," she said, beginning to rub her hips across Naruto's groin.

"Ok, Kiara. Look, if you are really interested in me, why don't you call me sometime when you're sober and we'll get lunch, ok?" He pulled her away more forcefully. "I have to go meet my friend. You need to go sleep it off."

She pouted, but let him go. He quickly went out and closed the door. He took the elevators to Sora's floor, and walked down to his friend's room. Sora opened the door when Naruto knocked softly.

"Hey, sorry about that. She passed out and I had to get her into bed."

Sora looked at Naruto's neck. "Looks like you did a little more than that."

"What?" Naruto went to the mirror that was over a dresser in the room and saw the hickey Kiara had left. "Shit. Ino's roommate basically attacked me just when I was about to leave."

"And you didn't stay?"

"I'm sober, she's drunk... plus I don't really think she's my type."

"So what is your type?"

"I dunno. Not someone who tries to jump me in front of their passed out roommate, I guess."

Sora laughed. "That's a pretty broad type."

Naruto had that feeling again, that maybe Sora was hitting on him. "Yeah, I guess I'm pretty open."

Sora just looked at him a minute. "Well, that bed is my roommate's... the sheets are clean. We should get to sleep. It's late and I have a meeting tomorrow at 10am with some students from a poetry class I'm in... sort of a writers' circle."

"You have school stuff on a Saturday? That sucks. I'll head back to my place in the morning when you leave. I don't have anything."

"Do you want to come with me?"

"Nah. I don't really like people reading what I write. I only do it in class because they make us."

Sora just nodded, then turned out the light.

. . .

Neji and Sasuke were both eating breakfast when Naruto walked in. Sasuke didn't even look up.

"Looks like someone got lucky last night," Neji said, looking amused.

Naruto laughed. "Don't believe everything you read."

He went and took a shower, having slept in his clothes. He got out, feeling restless. He needed to work out. He had enough sexual frustration after last night to go for about a ten mile run. He changed into some gym clothes and grabbed his iPod, putting on one of his work-out mixes. It helped him shut out his surroundings, particularly his annoying ex-best friend. He walked back into the living area, and started on his reps of fifty push-ups, fifty sit-ups, and twenty hand-stand push-ups, letting the familiar routine distract his body so his mind could kept thinking back to his evening. Both Sora and Ino had been hitting on him, he was pretty sure. True, Ino had been drunk off her ass, but she didn't seem the type to hit on every guy. Her asshole stalker actually hadn't been bad looking. If she wanted to sleep around, he would have been an easy candidate. He tried not to hope she would break up with her boyfriend.

Sora was another matter. He was pretty sure the guy was interested. Naruto had never had a relationship with a guy. And his first attempt at one had blown up in his face. He didn't really know how to do the dance with guys. How do you initiate the topic? He had decided he wasn't going to hide the fact that he was bi from the friends that he made here, with the exception of his roommates, since it would totally suck if they turned out to be as homophobic as Sasuke and treat him like a pariah. It was a big campus... it's not like they'd cross paths with his friends.

He was going to go back to Sora's place sometime this weekend. Naruto figured he would work into the conversation somehow that he had had a thing for Sasuke. Sora had already said he was interested in hearing why Naruto thought his roommate was an ass. If Sora was straight, then hearing about Naruto liking some other guy would be less likely to freak him out. And if Sora wasn't straight... Naruto hummed to himself. Then maybe the semester would become very interesting.

"I guess she didn't satisfy you," Neji said. Naruto jumped. He looked up to see Neji and Sasuke still sitting at the table, their food long finished. Sasuke was still carefully not looking at him. Neji just had one eyebrow raised.

"What?" Naruto pulled out his earbud, pretending he hadn't heard Neji and hoping the guy would take the hint and not repeat it.

"You're doing almost double the reps you usually do. Frustrated?"

"Fuck you, Huuga. I just like to work out. I'm going for a run. You two enjoy your date, staring at the furniture or whatever." Naruto couldn't resist the jab, knowing that Sasuke would get pissed. And sure enough, Naruto saw a flush creep up his friend's neck. Naruto pulled on his shoes and slammed out the door.

Sasuke looked over at Neji, his eyes narrowing. "You know how many reps Naruto does in his workouts? What, you sit here and watch him in the morning?"

Neji shrugged. "You have a problem with that?"

Sasuke glared at the man. "Actually, I do."

Neji just laughed. "Well, I guess that's just your problem, then. I don't know what the history is between you, but he obviously can't stand you anymore."

"You're interested in him?"

Neji looked at him. "You're not?" He went to his room, leaving a fuming Sasuke in their kitchen.

. . . . .

Naruto ended up running almost six miles. It was way farther than he had planned on running, especially since he realized he hadn't eaten breakfast. He was panting and almost lightheaded with hunger. He pulled off his shirt and wiped his face, stretching lightly against the side of the building before going up to his room. He went in and was surprised to see Ino sitting on the couch talking to Neji. They both looked up as he walked in.

"I'm surprised to see you alive so early," Naruto said, wondering if he was offending Neji by his half nudity. They guy always seemed so formal in his appearance. It made Naruto feel like such a slob.

Ino blushed. "Sorry about that. Kiara told me you had to practically carry me to my room last night. I don't drink much... I guess I can't hold my alcohol." Naruto shrugged. He kind of wondered what Ino and Neji had been talking about. But since Neji was pre-law and Ino was pre-med, he figured they probably had at least good grades in common.

"Don't worry about it."

"So where did you end up spending the night? Neji said you didn't come home until this morning," Ino glanced at the hickey on his neck.

"I have another friend in the same dorm. I crashed there." He'd tell Ino about Sora later... he wasn't so sure he wanted to say anything in front of Neji. Especially since everyone would assume that the hickey came from the person he spent the night with.

Ino took the hint that Naruto didn't want to talk more now. "Well, I came to make it up to you by taking you shopping."

Naruto rolled his eyes, pretty sure he'd rather have his fingernails pulled out. "Is there any way I can get out of this?"

"If you don't come willingly, I will burn all the clothes you have now so you won't have a choice."

He heard Neji give a soft laugh.

"You are a fascist. A raging fascist."

"Whatever. Just get your ass in the shower and grab your wallet."

Naruto stalked into his room to grab a change of clothes and his towel. He saw Sasuke working at his desk, but walked past him to his dresser. "You can have Mondays and Wednesdays back. I'll be staying at my friend's room as much as possible."

He pulled out a random shirt and jeans, then turned and walked out to the shower without even looking at Sasuke's face.

To be continued...