Only Fools Fall For You (SasuNaru)

✨ Part 17 ✨

Avoiding Sakura's suspicious gaze was proving to be a harder task than he had expected. They continued their silent note taking from the book in a tense silence that left the other group members confused. For the time being he wanted to focus on not thinking at all. Staring down at the words in a textbook and mindlessly copying them in his notebook was a better distraction than he had thought, and he was grateful for the fact that Gai had turned this class into independent study. An hour had passed before a hand was suddenly placed on his shoulder.

"Umm, yes sir?" He questioned at a low whisper to not disturb anyone else, though he could tell some of his group members had stopped writing.

"I just wanted to thank you again, Naruto," Gai replied with a cheesy smile. "I'm glad that you reconsidered and decided to perform at the ball."

"I did fucking what?" He hissed, catching the typically upbeat teacher off guard. There was no way in hell he could have consciously agreed to that.

"Kiba came and explained everything to me. I look forward to seeing you at the meetings," he finished, pretending as if he didn't hear the young blond swear.

Naruto turned to glare at his fellow sophomore viciously as Gai made a quick exit before he could refuse. The spiky haired youth propped his book onto the table and hid behind its cover before he could be hit with the piercing gaze. There were too many things going on for him to even consider doing something extra. Theater was the only class where he felt that he caught a break from being behind everyone else and he didn't want to ruin that peace by becoming a part of a huge project.

When the bell rang, it acted as a starting gun to a full on sprint as Kiba raced from the room with Naruto in close pursuit. "Inuzuka! You get your ass back here right now!" He shouted as the students began to crowd the hall, making it difficult to keep up with the other boy.

"Beating me up won't do you any good!" Kiba called back to him as he burst through the side exit. "You're already on the list and have a slot during the performances!"

"What better reason to kick your ass with, my dear!" He shouted as his hand finally caught hold of his backpack as he pulled him to the ground.

"Wait!" Kiba coughed as his arms came up to shield his face. "Shikamaru told me to tell Gai that you wanted to participate, but were too shy to admit it before! I was just following orders!"

"Why the hell would he do that?!" he exclaimed as he pulled Kiba up to his feet. As mad as he was about the whole situation he knew he could never actually bring himself to hit him.

"Ask him," Kiba panted as he brushed the grass off of his pants, giving reassuring waves to curious onlookers.

Without another word he ran down the path towards the second building. While the question of 'why' was running through his mind he was unable to find an answer as to why Shikamaru would tell Kiba to do something like that. Regardless, there was going to be hell to pay!

"Naruto!" a weak female voice made an attempt at shouting.

He stopped at the staircase, looking back at Hinata with a discontented gaze. If it were a different time, perhaps he would have been more excited that she had called out to him, but he could not force those emotions to surface as she caught up with him. "Good morning, Hinata."

"How are you feeling today?" She asked while catching her breath. There was something different about the way she spoke, as if she was more self-assured.

"Good I guess," he answered, feeling a smile begin to curve his lips. "How about you?"

"Better," she stated with a small blush as she started walking up the stairs. "Would you like to walk with me?"