——2——

——2——

You let your legs kick back and forth as they hang off the edge of the building.

"All right," Ino pipes up to her group and you lazily look at her. "If we're in the same group, you're going to have to follow my lead. That's the only way it'll work."

Right at that moment, you regret the decision to hang out with them for lunch.

Shikamaru sends you a look of annoyance and you can only shrug at him. I'm glad I didn't get stuck with her.

"Yeah, yeah," Shikamaru replies, biting angrily at his rice ball.
"Why don't you lead us into some barbecue, Ino," Choji speaks, stuffing his mouth full with his food.

Ino slaps her hand onto her forehead with a whiny, "hopeless!"

You look ahead at the building across from yours and instantly catch sight of Naruto sneaking along the room. He looked to be heading towards Sasuke who was minding his own business while he ate.

What the..?
"Naruto," Shikamaru said after you nudge him to look the way you were.

Ino turned to around with a "huh?"
You all watched Naruto hope over the small ledge of the window and land on Sasuke, taking them both out of sight.

The wooden window closed and the only sounds audible was the yelling of Sasuke and Naruto to "get off" and "pipe down".

"Naruto," Ino growled with a tightened fist raised. "If you so much as scratch him, you're on my enemy list forever."

You rolled your eyes at her dramatic words. Sasuke is literally the top student, he'll survive.

There's an even louder crash that sounds and your eyes widen for a split second. Uh... are they okay in there?

"Hm. Wha-what happened?"

The window is lifted and Sasuke hops out. Hands in his pockets, he walks away after pulling an uncharacteristic smirk.

You wince.
So... Naruto got the beating?

"He beat Naruto without even breaking a sweat, Shikamaru states the obvious.
Ino gives a lazy shrug. "What did you expect? Naruto against my boy Sasuke? No contest."

With the roll of your eyes, you scoff and stand up. 'My boy'? Disgusting.

You jump over to the same building Sasuke left and walk towards the open window.
"What are you doing," Ino calls for you.

"Naruto is apart of my squad, I should probably check up on him."
She gives you a questionable glance that you take no part in paying attention to.

Hoping over the same window, you let it close behind you. "Naruto," you start and glance down just to stop in your tracks. "Sa...su...ke?"

The dark haired boy stares up at you, eyebrows twitching in anger and the tape against his mouth moving to speak inaudible words.

"Uh..." you trailed off, stick a thumb behind you and back at the window. "But I saw..."
Naruto come in and Sasuke come out, you point the finger down at Sasuke, but Sasuke is right here...

You put two and two together and start chuckling. Your carelessness makes the boy under your squirm on the floor, helpless against the ropes that bind his limbs together.

"Wait, wait, wait," you take a gasp for breath and calm yourself, reaching to take the tape off his mouth. "You're telling me, you got taken down by Naruto?"

Sasuke grunts as you rip off the tape but makes no other sound. When you raise an eyebrow he sighs. "Untie me."

You give a hum and carefully pull the ropes off of him and help him stand. "Never would I have expected-"
"Shut it."

You raise your hands in feign defense and back away to head for the window. "You could at least say, thank you."

He clicks his tongue and you take that as your clue to leave, but as you bring one leg over the ledge, a hand grabs the end of your kimono.

"H-Hey!"
"I need to ask you something," Sasuke says and tugs you back into the room.

"What," you ask and retighten the headband around your waist to keep your kimono in place. "What do you need?"

"Where did Naruto go?"
You shrugged, actually not knowing the answer, but you still gave him a sarcastic response.
"Probably to go bother Sakura as you. He likes her and it seems like something he'd do."

You swore, the sound that came out of Sasuke was "hn" and it didn't seemed to be a happy "hn"
What is with this boy in making sounds?
Just t a l k.

"Which way did he go?"
You threw up a hand and hopped out of the window, "Eto... follow me?"

To be honest, you had no clue as to where Naruto was, so you headed down the main road where Sakura sat when lunch started.

You could feel her glare on you as you walked side by side with Sasuke. He hadn't pushed you away to walk alone, which surprised you, but you didn't say anything.

"Oh, Sasuke-kun, you're back~" Sakura cooed in her annoyingly high voice, hands clasped together and her cheeks flushed. "Don't be shy, you bad boy."

You gagged and caught the slight twitch in Sasuke's eyebrows that would've gone over everyone else's head.

"Are you ready now? You know, mentally prepared?"

Uh, prepared for what?

You followed Sasuke as he walked straight past Sakura, head moving side to side to look for Naruto.

"C-Chotto, hey," she called after him and he finally stopped in his steps, tossing a small glance at her. "Where's Naruto?"

"Oh. There you go changing the subject again," she sweatdropped. "Anyways, Naruto just picks fights with you."

I mean, she's not wrong.

"You know why he's so annoying? Because he wasn't raised right."

You tense up uncomfortably.
That's the wrong thing to say.

"He doesn't have a mother or a father, no one to teach him right from wrong."

Sasuke's fist clenches at his side but Sakura fails to notice. She's telling that to two people who don't have parents either, you think with gritted teeth.

"Think about it. He just does whatever comes into his head."

Sasuke's head perked up and he sends her a sharp glare that her closed eyes don't catch.

"If I did things like Naruto, forget it," she laughs. "I mean, my parents would get mad and I'd get in trouble. So of course I don't do it."

She doesn't seem to notice both you and Sasuke shaking softly at her words, both out of anger but both hidden well. Exactly why I didn't want this snobby girl in my squad.

"But if you don't have parents to tell you, how would you know? He's selfish and bratty. He's all alone."

Sasuke is the one the speak.
"Alone. Isolated."

"Huh," Sakura asks, leaning towards him.
You take a deep breath to allow yourself to calm down and let him take charge. It's not worth the argument, she's just a dumb kid.

"It's not about your parents scolding you. You have no idea what it means to be alone."

"W-Why are you saying that," she asks, neither of you facing the right way to see her expression droop.

"Because you're annoying."

Your mood is instantly lifted and you struggle to stop yourself from laughing and throwing an arm around Sasuke.

"What's so funny," he asks just as you and him walk away.

You give him a cheesy grin before turning the other way to walk back to the school, lunchtime almost over. "You."