𝚎𝚌𝚕𝚒𝚙𝚜𝚎

friends.

A/N: sorry y'all, I started college and got super busy.

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That next day, Naruto's friends phoned Jiraiya's home address.

Naruto remembered that it was due to the suddenly-scheduled "hang out session", inspired in part by Ino's casual suggestion and carried out by Sakura's strong will to disprove her attraction to Naruto.

As that was somehow an offensive notion.

"You have really good friends, kiddo. They seemed worried about you." Jiraiya sat at the two's shared breakfast table after receiving the call for a still-sleepy Naruto. "They said they'd be by sometime after lunch,"

"Hm." Naruto took a bite out of his egg on toast.

"But what's this about you disappearing at an event?"

Naruto groaned, more than hummed this time in response. "...Got lost."

"They didn't find you at all after that. Said it was like you'd disappeared!" Jiraiya quoted the phone call's correspondence as if he were telling an ancient tale around the campfire. "Naruto, you worried some folks yesterday."

"I'm sorry." Naruto scrunched his nose at his empty plate; sighed. "I guess I got distracted."

"Hmph." Jiraiya put on a knowing air. "I feel like I'll be hearing that a lot more often now that I'm living with a knucklehead like you." This summoned a small grin from the high schooler. "But I mean it when I say you need to be more careful." His stern gaze melted slightly to reveal something softer.

"...You've got a whole lot of people who worry for you."

***

True to their word, Naruto's group arrived in multiple vehicles, each one distinguishable by gender; alternatively, by which one Shikamaru would have rather been in.

The beat-up black van shook with the weight of activity considerably more than the well-mannered car behind it.

Naruto waved good-naturedly to the still automobile and it's clean and kind inhabitants before delving into the chaos that was Kiba's trash-mobile.

Immediately, he was bombarded.

"Naruto!" A number of voices called to his entrance, paired with a number of arms hugging and slapping his own.

"Good to see you!"

"Back from the dead."

"Where were you, man?"

The blonde faced Kiba as the owner of the last query.

"...Long story."

Naruto minced some words. Strangely, he didn't want them to know of his encounter with the raven. It felt like a special secret, one that only the two of them shared.

The boy whose name he knew, but not the other way around.

Darn! How is he supposed to ask about me now?

And then Naruto kicked himself for imagining that Sasuke would ever be curious about him.

"So you're telling us..." Shikamaru began, "That you got lost, and left through another side exit?"

"...yeah." Naruto prayed that there were more than one exit.

"I guess that makes sense. I'm just baffled by your ability to lose track of your surroundings."