Nerdy

Ten

"Hey, Naruto, where's Sasuke ?" asked Sakura, taking a seat beside Naruto.

"Yeah. We haven't seen him since the break started." said Ino, sitting on the other side of Naruto.

A few other girls crowded around him and started inquiring about Sasuke. Naruto raised a brow at them. The only time he was approached by girls was when they wanted to know about Sasuke.

"Who knows ?" replied Naruto, which sounded more like 'Like I'd tell you.'

He crossed his arms over his chest and stuck his nose in the air, earning quite a few glares from the girls. Some of them left, but Sakura and Ino continued pestering Naruto.

"We'll treat you to ramen." they said.

Naruto started having second thoughts on hearing the words 'treat' and 'ramen.' His determination to keep quite about Sasuke started faltering. Of course ramen came first for him, but he didn't like the fact that he was approached by girls just for Sasuke. He looked at the girls and saw them smiling silly.

"I.. I told you I don't know." he said. Like he'd give up that easily.

"Sasuke came looking for (Name) to our class just after the break started." stated Kiba, sitting in a very relaxed position, with his hands behind his head and his foot on the table.

"Why, that (Name) again !!" exclaimed the girls and left.

Naruto clutched his head and stared wide-eyed at Kiba. Kiba's over-sized dog, Akamaru's head popped from below the table.

"Stay down. What if somebody sees you ?!" whispered Kiba, trying to get Akamaru to stay below the table.

Of course, dogs - or pets - weren't allowed at school. But Kiba brought Akamaru with him everyday, and hid him near a tree behind the school building during classes. Akamaru, somehow, had never been caught, despite his size. Kiba missed classes many times just to hang out with Akamaru.

Akamaru sat back down with a small bark.

Naruto grabbed Kiba's collar from across the table and shook him back and forth.

"How could you ?! How could you just give that away ?!" Naruto yelled, now that all Sasuke's fan-girls had left.

Some people in the cafeteria turned towards the sudden commotion at the centre table. But they returned to their respective works once they saw it was Naruto, because not a day went by without Naruto picking a fight with someone at least once.

"Was I supposed to not tell that ?" asked Kiba, scratching the back of his neck in an absent-minded way.

"Were you not following our conversation ?!" yelled Naruto, jumping over the table and landing on the bench beside Kiba, pulling him up by his collar.

Akamaru tugged at Naruto's jeans, ripping them more than they already were, trying to make as less noise as he could. But Naruto payed no heed. He couldn't care less about his clothes. What bothered him most was that after he had gone as far as giving up on ramen - one of his best feats - to hide the fact that Sasuke had gone to visit (Name), all his efforts had gone to vain after this dog-brain had spilled the beans.

Kiba looked at Naruto with wide eyes. What is his problem ? All Kiba had done was stated what he had witnessed. Naruto didn't have to over-react. Kiba pushed Naruto back slightly.

"Calm down. You don't want me to hit you." threatened Kiba.

Naruto scoffed.

"You think I'm scared of you ? Bring it on !" said Naruto, getting in an offensive stance, forgetting that what he was standing on was a bench after all.

His foot slipped of the edge. Naruto waved his arms to catch a hold of whatever he could, but what can one find to hold in mid air ? With a thud, Naruto fell. He hit his head hard, and his feet were still on the bench. The entire cafeteria gasped and went silent, waiting for signs of Naruto being still alive, holding their breath. Naruto lied that way with his eyes closed for a few seconds, and then slowly sat up.

"Ow.." he groaned, rubbing his head.

Everyone sighed in relief. They knew Naruto had a really hard head, but they also knew it could have been worse. Seeing Naruto sit up and confirming he was okay, they returned whatever they were doing. Kiba put his hands on his waist and looked down at Naruto.

"Hah ! Loser !" he smirked.

Naruto was furious by now. He clenched his fist, ready to punch Kiba. But before he could even stand up, the bell rang and students started rushing out of the cafeteria. He was caught in a stampede, and when everyone cleared off, Kiba was nowhere to be seen.

Naruto picked his bag and made his way to his class, cursing Kiba all the way. Because of him, who knows what (Name) might have to face for Sasuke being concerned about her ? Knowing (Name), she could easily scare off the girls with her 'death glare,' but what if they came in large numbers ?

He remembered the bruise on (Name)'s cheek he had seen a day before. She had avoided talking about it. That could've been the work of those fan-girls. Sasuke probably - no, definitely did not know about that. Naruto felt that Sasuke should at least be aware of the troubles (Name) had gone through because of him. (Name) definitely wouldn't tell him - not even when asked.

Naruto entered his class-room. He walked dragging his feet and looking at the ground. All that thinking had worn him out. The teacher was not there yet. Naruto slouched in his seat and put his head on the desk. He turned it to one side, and looked outside the window. From the corner of his eye, he saw something palely white bordered with black. In an instant, he was up and had turned around 180 degrees.

"Sasuke ? But I thought...?"

Sasuke, who had also been looking out of the window, turned towards Naruto.

"What ?" he grumbled.

"I thought you wouldn't come back." said Naruto.

"Well, that's what I thought too, but halfway to my house, I realized I left my phone here. So I came back for it. And since I was already here, I thought I might as well attend the rest of the classes." explained Sasuke, to which Naruto nodded.

"And what about (Name) ? Did she come too ?" asked NAruto.

"Nah. She went home. Her sister had called her for some business which she deemed to be stupid." said Sasuke, before Naruto could ask.

He left the part about her sister being Itachi's fiance because he didn't want that news to spread - telling Naruto was equal to telling the entire school.

Naruto nodded again.

"Was the fact that you went looking for (Name) supposed to be a secret ?" he asked meekly.

Sasuke looked at him in confusion.

"Well, after the way I had asked for (Name) in her class, I doubt it'd be a secret." said Sasuke slowly, watching Naruto's face brighten up with each word he said.

Naruto smiled dumbly at Sasuke.

"Is something wrong with your head ?" he questioned Naruto, who had started to creep him out.

"No, no, I just feel stupid." said Naruto without losing that smile.

That fight with Kiba had been useless. Of course Sasuke's admirers who were in (Name)'s class would know, and they'd tell the others. He had been stupid to hide a fact which would soon be known to all, because news about Sasuke spread as fast as wildfire.

Sasuke smirked.

"Then there's nothing new under the sun."