Nerdy

Thirty-Nine

(Name) stood in front of Naruto's house and took it all in. It was huge, just like Sasuke's or her sister's, and looked very fancy with even a fountain in the yard. But, it felt like home. She hadn't even been inside but it just gave off a welcoming aura.

She noticed that everyone had walked up to the door and followed them. Naruto had let everyone inside, but almost closed the door on Kiba's face had Kiba not put his foot to stop it. (Name) stared at them. On the way, Kiba and Naruto had fought over something, and Naruto just wouldn't let him inside. Both kept pushing the door in opposite directions with all their force.

"Go away." whined Naruto.

"No, you go away." whined Kiba.

"This is my house. So, you go away." said Naruto.

(Name) rolled her eyes. "What are you two, seven ?" she asked.

"Stole the words right out of my mouth." said a man behind (Name). She turned to look at him and instantly recognized him as Naruto's father. "Naruto, be nice to Kiba and let him in." he said calmly but sternly.

Naruto looked back at him and pouted, but let Kiba in nevertheless and walked in after him. Kiba snickered as he walked past Naruto and greeted his father.

"Look, he is laughing at me !" Naruto said in the most childish voice he could make pointed accusingly at Kiba. But this time he was definitely fooling around, and the grin he was trying so hard to hide gave it all away.

"You're lucky your mom isn't home. She would have flipped if she saw you dirtying the house with those shoes." Minato pointed at their dirty shoes which were once black but now brownish, and went off to get a vacuum cleaner.

Naruto silently thanked the heavens for saving him from the wrath of his mother and Kiba did the same. They knew better than to anger the Almighty Kushina.

After putting their shoes in order, they all went up the stairs, to where (Name) thought was Naruto's room. On the wall along the staircase, they were photographs lined. She recognised a lot of people in those as the staff from their school, even the current Principal. She even recognized Kushina. She looked very young to be Naruto's mother from the pictures which seemed more recent. Her pictures gave out that she was a very optimistic, energetic person, very much how Naruto was. But by the way they were terrified of her, she must really have a temper.

(Name) also noticed Sasuke in a lot of old pictures. In fact, Sasuke was with Naruto in almost all the pictures, even if he was only scowling at the camera in most. She realized that they must have been friends for a long time.

Naruto led the way to his room and stepped inside. (Name) noticed that he had that cliche 'Keep Out' painted on his door, probably by himself. But before anybody else could follow, Naruto toppled over, laughing.(Name) being the last of them all, could not understand what was happening as everyone else started snickering too. She went up on her toes and looked over Choji's shoulders.

Inside the room she saw Sasuke sitting on Naruto's bed, grimly staring at the door. On either sides of him were the pink-haired Sakura, and a girl (Name) recognised as Ino. They had their arms around each of Sasuke's arms and were going on about something while glaring at each other. They kept pulling Sasuke towards them - basically, a game of tug-of-war with Sasuke instead of the rope.

It looked like Sasuke had given up trying to free himself from their holds and was just bearing with it - not that he had any other option. Sasuke could usually send people running with their tails between their legs with just one hard glare, but these girls were so absorbed in beating each other in getting his attention that they were hardly even bothered by his glares. It looked like he had tuned out their voices and was only sitting there. All struggling had gone to vain because whenever he tried to free himself, they tightened their hold and their manicured nails dug into his arms, which pained him a lot. He just disliked those long, painted nails which just looked like potential weapons.

His face held no emotion whatsoever but his eyes were screaming for help.

Naruto continued laughing at his friend's misery. Even (Name) found herself snickering at how helpless Sasuke had gotten.

Naruto stepped aside and let others enter his room. It was themed orange and black and - let's face it, of all people, Naruto would be the one least expected to have anything close to a neat room. His clothes, comics, DVDs, pizza boxes probably from weeks ago, and almost everything he owned lying around.

Naruto grinned sheepishly and kicked the stuff and formed a pile in the corner of the room, clearing some space up. "Sorry for the mess." he said, but his tone was anything but apologetic.

(Name) stood near the door and looked at his room - or at least, what she could see of his room. She was sure all the cupboards and drawers were empty, considering how everything was lying around.

"(Name), what are you doing here ?" he asked, not rudely but with general curiosity. Before he realized it, he had already freed himself out of the girls' hold and was standing beside (Name).

She met his gaze. "Exactly what I was wondering." she muttered, but Sasuke caught it.

"We brought her here, you know. Since she helped us so much, I thought she could join us." said Naruto and grinned at Sasuke.

But Sasuke was sure (Name) was dragged there. Firstly, she would have never asked them to pay her back for her efforts. Secondly, even if she agreed, socializing with their friends was the last thing she would do.

"Do you want to go somewhere else ?" asked Sasuke in a very low voice so that only she could hear him.

She raised her eyebrows and looked at him. "With you ? Hah, no." she smirked. "Now, why don't you stop pestering me and go back to those she-devils who are looking at me like they would kill me off the first chance they get ?"

Sasuke felt dejected but, of course, he would not let it show. He smirked and bent down so that he was at her eye-level. "Are you jealous ?"

(Name) looked at him and raised her eyebrows. "Why would I be ?" she asked.

"Oh, I don't know." he said. He caught her motioning him to.go back to the girls. "Do you want to get rid off me that badly ?" he asked.

"Yes." said (Name), without batting her lashes. Sasuke hadn't finished what he said but his mouth hung open as he stood up straight again.

"You should consider yourself lucky that I give you even so much of my time." he said, narrowing his eyes at her.

"I'd be happier without the second-placer's attention." she smirked, leaning against the wall near the door, watching them play Mario Kart. More than playing, they were hitting each other whenever they got they chance. Neji was winning and he was elbowing Naruto on his side and kicking Kiba on the other. Shino on the other hand just blended in with them and was second, but nobody even noticed him. Choji sat watching them with his bag of chips and Hinata was silently laughing. Ino and Sakura were more interested in glaring at her and Sasuke. She just ignored them.

Sasuke scowled at her and looked at where she was looking. He knew that she would never let him live the fact down that he got a few marks less than her. Somehow Naruto won, and grinning at the others over his victory.

"You two, stop flirting over there and come join us here. If you just looked around a little more instead of just staring at each other, you would realize that people like us" he motioned at himself "are very interesting too." said Naruto, smirking widely at Sasuke and (Name).

(Name) snickered before Sasuke could say anything. "I have other things to do." she said.

"So do I." said Sasuke and narrowed his eyes at (Name). "We're going out of here." he said as he started pulling her out with him.

Naruto pouted at the closed door. Sasuke had pulled (Name) out before he could even say anything to stop them. Although she had said that she had other things to do, he knew she wasn't really going to leave. He had started figuring her out and he realized that she didn't mean half the things she said, but said them anyway because for some reason she liked to hide the fact that she was actually feeling something.

"I call for a rematch." Kiba yelled, slamming his hand on the table in front of Naruto.

Naruto sighed silently and nodded as he looked at the door, before returning his gaze to the screen.