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DISCLAIMER: I DON'T own Naruto. Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and TV Tokyo. This is a work of pure fiction for my amusement and for those who read this.

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Better than Ramen Chapter Four: Story Time, Head-butt, and--Wait, What did he Just do?!

"…and that's basically all that happened, Itachi."

Itachi leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest, scrutinizing me as if I were nothing but a lab rat. Over a week had passed since the time Naruto had been harassed by three of my classmates and I hadn't spoken a word to him since, mostly because he was always so busy with other things. I tried to say hello to him in the hallway, but he just ran past me and yelled something about being in a hurry.

"Before I ask my main question," Itachi began, "you do know your percentiles are wrong, right?"

"Huh?"

"All of the things you listed and the percentage of how long you thought about them don't add up to one hundred percent."

"…God damn it."

"Anyway, you just stood there and watched those girls torment Naruto-kun," he questioned. "You didn't do anything to help him?"

"It sounds like you're saying what I did was bad."

"No, I'm saying what you didn't do was bad. I thought you said that you and Naruto were friends, Sasuke."

"I don't know what we are," I sighed as Gato started kneading my thigh. "What was I supposed to do? That stuff was none of my business."

"I think it was."

The way he contradicted me irritated me for whatever reason. "How?"

"You were aware of the situation, weren't you?" Itachi knew he was making me angry, but he pressed on. "You saw that Naruto-kun was clearly distressed when those girls took his cell phone, yet you thought it best to remain neutral while someone who is obviously kind to you was being bullied. I don't mean to insult you, Sasuke, but what you did was one of the worst things you could have possibly done to repay Naruto-kun's kindness toward you."

"Is that really something for you to judge," I demanded so loudly that Gato scurried off in fear. "I know you're mom and dad's favorite, but where does that give you the right to lecture me?!"

Despite the fact that I had yelled at my brother and was now standing with shaking fists, he remained sitting coolly and didn't even blink when I had yelled. He held my gaze for what seemed like ages, until he calmly stood up and pushed the chair back toward the desk. He didn't glance at me once when he set a piece of neatly folded paper on my desk and told me, "This is Naruto-kun's cell phone number. Whether you acknowledge it or not, you owe him a sincere apology and I suggest you make it before you lose the one friend you've made in your life."

"…How did you get his num--hey! What do you mean by 'one friend', Itachi?!"

Itachi left my room and slammed the door behind him. He actually slammed the door! My older brother…the composed and never loud Itachi was, for once in his life, so angry that he actually broke character and slammed the door. I was too shocked for words, so I ended up picking up Naruto's cell phone number and staring at the digits, transfixed. Gato jumped onto the desk and picked up the piece of paper in his mouth. He prodded my arm with his paw and I couldn't stop myself from smiling.

"Alright." I took the paper from Gato and retrieved my phone from the other side of the room. After I had finished entering the numbers, my thumb paused on the Send button. I nearly pressed it, but then I ended up closing my phone and impatiently paced around my room for a total of five minutes. It was Gato who brought me back from my thoughts by jumping onto my shoulder and clawing the ever-living crap out of my cheek and neck until I was able to set him back on the bed.

"Jeez, fine! I'll call him, I'll call him! I'll apologize!"

Gato was satisfied with this because he stopped trying to attack me at once. I reentered Naruto's cell phone number and my thumb remained hovering over Send for the second time. The internal battle I was having with myself was actually impairing my motor functions because my thumb started trembling. Just when I thought I'd lose my nerve again, my phone rang and buzzed loudly. I caught a glimpse at the number on the screen and it was the same as the one on the paper I held before I dropped my phone from being so startled. It nearly closed when it landed hard on the floor and rolled under my desk. I dove underneath the desk, knocking over my chair and a handful of books and papers in the process. I answered it as quickly as I had picked it up and forgot where I was until I tried to stand and smacked my head on hard wood. And so I sat there under my desk with a throbbing head, feeling rather foolish because of my actions.

"Hello…?" I asked the person on the other line.

"Hiya, Bakasuke," Naruto greeted very enthusiastically. "How goes it, dattebayo?"

"Oh, uh…fine, I guess. Everything's fine. I'm fine."

"You okay? You kinda sound like you just ran a mile."

Damn, was I gasping?! "Y-you're imagining things, Usuratonkachi. Wait, how did you get this number?"

"I bumped into Itachi at the super market the other day and he gave me your number and his for some reason." I heard him laugh. "Anyway, he told me to call you when I got the chance and so--"

The door to my room banged open and Naruto was standing there proudly with a smile. "--I decided to drop by after calling you!"

He surprised me so much that I yet again hit my head on the underside of my desk and dropped my phone in the process. Gato, excited to see Naruto again, leapt from my bed to Naruto and he caught the kitten with glee. I was ready to scream for joy when I thought Naruto wouldn't notice where I was, but then he removed his gaze from Gato and noticed the strange place I was in. All I could do was stare back dumbly.

"Eh," he questioned. "What are you doing down there, Bakasuke?"

"…Um…I-I was, uh…" I let my eyes wander around the floor as if an excuse would jump out at me. Fortunately, an excuse was lying under my upturned chair. I snatched up my A&P homework and stood up, avoiding any and all head collisions with pure skill. I spoke as coolly as I possibly could. "I was looking for this. Gato knocked over my books,"--Take one for the team, Gato!--"so everything fell out of them."

Naruto set the kitten down again and helped me straighten my room without my asking. I was commenting on his actions before I could stop myself.

"Most people wouldn't bother helping with this stuff," I said after leaning against my now closed door. "I didn't know you liked cleaning."

"I don't," Naruto disagreed with a disgruntled expression. "Cleaning up makes it harder to keep track of everything, dattebayo."

"Something about that doesn't sound right…."

"Hey, what happened to your face?!"

Naruto was on his feet and inches from my face before I could even count to two. One of his hands was holding my chin to the left and the other one was lightly going over the spot where Gato had scratched me, which happened to be on my neck. Naruto's concerned face was extremely close to mine, causing me to feel discomfort on a level you wouldn't even be able to register. My heart suddenly decided it needed a few extra pacemakers, because it was beating at least four times as fast as it should have been, which in turn caused my face to flush a deep scarlet color. It didn't help that I could feel his warm breath creeping down my neck.

He turned away as quickly as he had approached me (had it really been only a few seconds?), and settled his eyes upon Gato while I tried to still my breathing.

"Gato, why'd you scratch Bakasuke?" Did he seriously think a cat would understand him?! "You know he's bleeding, don't you?"

In response to this, Gato treaded off into the far corner of the room where his food and water was and began to eat as if nothing had happened. Having given up on speaking with the kitten, Naruto looked back at me and asked where we kept our medicine. When I inclined as to the reason he sought medicine, he told me he needed to clean the scratches on my cheek and neck.

"Are you serious," I asked incredulously. "It isn't even bleeding--"

"Then what do you call this?" Naruto revealed the hand he had touched my neck with and I saw little dabs of my blood. I still didn't think it was a big deal, but he was adamant in his decision and I was forced to show him to our bathroom where the medical kit was. After marveling at the size of the bathroom itself (I didn't think it was that big, but he apparently did), he sat me down on a stool and started patch up my neck and cheek. I had insisted on doing it myself, but Naruto said that he didn't trust me with anything of or relating to the human body ever since he found out my last A&P test score, which was a very depressing 6%. So, I was forced to sit completely still for fear of doing something stupid while Naruto applied disinfectants and a few bandages.

The silence dragged on far longer than I thought necessary, so I thought I'd break that silence by asking, "You don't seem like the type of person who's into serious studying, so why'd you decide on curing cancer?"

Naruto dropped the bottle he had been holding and it fell to the white tile floor loudly. It was a good thing it wasn't glass, but the effect of it probably would have remained the same. Naruto chuckled lightly, muttered to himself something about having butterfingers, and retrieved the bottle without answering my question. I repeated it, thinking he had not heard, but when I asked him for a second time, it was clear to me that something about that subject unnerved him, for when I had asked again, Naruto's bright blue eyes dimmed slightly and the ever-present smile he so proudly displayed wherever he went vanished without a trace. He wasn't meeting my eyes and that made me worried about him, especially since he remained like this for several seconds before finally telling me in a quiet and somehow strained voice, "I…I really don't wanna talk about it, Sasuke…."

Sensing something off, I quickly told him in a forced happy tone, "Hey, that's fine with me! Um…I never gave you the tour of my house, did I?"

Naruto's frown was gone in an instant and replaced with his usual smile. "You didn't! Come on, what are you waiting for, 'ttebayo?!"

I was glad that Naruto was able to feel so much better after seeing my house. He was especially awed at the size of the living room and the garden in the back. He couldn't get over the koi fish in the pond, the sakura trees, the rose bushes, the gazebo surrounded by vines, and pretty much everything else. I was extremely lucky that my parents weren't home because I was sure they wouldn't like Naruto the person if they hadn't liked Naruto the Gato.

At the end of the tour, Naruto asked me a question that shocked me more than when Itachi had gotten angry with me.

"Hey, Bakasuke. Can I stay the night?"

I dropped the tomato I had been eating and just stared at Naruto. He took my silence in a bad way and promptly started to apologize for asking. I hated to see him so stressed, so I did something rare and disobeyed my parents by consenting.

"N-no, you can stay the night," I assured him. "I was just wondering why you wanted to, that's all."

"I locked myself out of my apartment," he admitted shamefully with his head down. "Ma and Pa are both out of town and I locked the key inside. The tenant said the spare key was broken and the new one won't be there until tomorrow in the afternoon, dattebayo."

"So you have no place to sleep?"

He shook his head. "I'd stay with the Old Perv, but he's the biggest moocher ever. He's been sleeping on his friend's couch for the past six years! Anyway, you really don't mind?"

"Not at all, really. The guest bedroom's kind of cluttered right now…and the couch is a definite no."

"Why, 'ttebayo?"

"My parents don't like getting to meet new people. You'll have to hide somewhere while you're staying."

"Couldn't I just take the floor in your room, Bakasuke?"

My eyes narrowed and my heart raced. "No way, uh-uh. There's no way on this green earth that that's happening."

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I can't believe that that's actually happening…! I panicked as I lay awake that night in bed. Naruto was sound asleep on the floor of my bedroom with an extra blanket and pillow. He was so close to my bed that if I just let my arm hang over the edge, I would touch him. Why was I being so nervous?! So what if another guy was staying the night at my house?! It shouldn't have mattered at all, right? And yet…somehow it did.

The only sounds that I could hear were the crickets singing outside and Naruto's steady breathing two feet away from me. I was lying on my side, facing Naruto's closed eyes and watching the rise and fall of the blanket as he breathed in and out. He looked so much like a child with one of his hands close to his face and with Gato sleeping right above his head.

I was suddenly reminded that I never got to apologize about not defending Naruto when the girls in our class picked on him. I got out of bed and crept over to the right side of Naruto, lightly shaking his shoulder after I had knelt down.

"Hey, Usuratonkachi," I called to him in a whisper. "There's something I have to tell you."

Naruto grumbled something and was silent after that. I shook him again and called out his real name to see if that would have any result. "Naruto, wake up. I have to tell you something."

He rolled over to face me and I could see his eyelids slowly opening, but he was still half asleep.

"Remember when you were picked on by those girls a while ago at school? I was there when it happened, but I didn't do anything about it. I know I should have, but I just didn't think it was any of my business. Look, I'm really sorry about it and I…um…N-Naruto…?!"

I couldn't finish my full apology because Naruto had propped himself up on his elbow after finding my arm and holding onto it. His other hand was at the back of my neck just where the bandages ended and he pulled my face closer to his. His lips were over mine before I could even begin to form a full thought in my head and he kept them there for what seemed like trillions of years. It was as if my mind was bent and broken, because the next thing I was aware of was my face pressed into Naruto's neck with one of his arms acting as my pillow while the other was secured around my back. The blanket had somehow found its way around me and I vaguely wondered if I had passed out after Naruto had k…k-ki-kissed me.

I shot straight up after finishing that last thought (Naruto slept like the dead) and only one thought was running through my mind when I had rushed back into my own bed. Naruto kissed me!

I spent the rest of that night hoping and trying to convince myself that what happened was nothing more than a dream due to teenage hormones, but to no avail. The morning sunlight hadn't changed what Naruto had done while he was half asleep, nor did it change I felt about it.

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Description
DISCLAIMER: I DON'T own Naruto. Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto and TV Tokyo. This is a work of pure fiction for my amusement and for those who read this.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Better than Ramen Chapter Four: Story Time, Head-butt, and--Wait, What did he Just do?!

"…and that's basically all that happened, Itachi."

Itachi leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest, scrutinizing me as if I were nothing but a lab rat. Over a week had passed since the time Naruto had been harassed by three of my classmates and I hadn't spoken a word to him since, mostly because he was always so busy with other things. I tried to say hello to him in the hallway, but he just ran past me and yelled something about being in a hurry.

"Before I ask my main question," Itachi began, "you do know your percentiles are wrong, right?"

"Huh?"

"All of the things you listed and the percentage of how long you thought about them don't add up to one hundred percent."

"…God damn it."

"Anyway, you just stood there and watched those girls torment Naruto-kun," he questioned. "You didn't do anything to help him?"

"It sounds like you're saying what I did was bad."

"No, I'm saying what you didn't do was bad. I thought you said that you and Naruto were friends, Sasuke."

"I don't know what we are," I sighed as Gato started kneading my thigh. "What was I supposed to do? That stuff was none of my business."

"I think it was."

The way he contradicted me irritated me for whatever reason. "How?"

"You were aware of the situation, weren't you?" Itachi knew he was making me angry, but he pressed on. "You saw that Naruto-kun was clearly distressed when those girls took his cell phone, yet you thought it best to remain neutral while someone who is obviously kind to you was being bullied. I don't mean to insult you, Sasuke, but what you did was one of the worst things you could have possibly done to repay Naruto-kun's kindness toward you."

"Is that really something for you to judge," I demanded so loudly that Gato scurried off in fear. "I know you're mom and dad's favorite, but where does that give you the right to lecture me?!"

Despite the fact that I had yelled at my brother and was now standing with shaking fists, he remained sitting coolly and didn't even blink when I had yelled. He held my gaze for what seemed like ages, until he calmly stood up and pushed the chair back toward the desk. He didn't glance at me once when he set a piece of neatly folded paper on my desk and told me, "This is Naruto-kun's cell phone number. Whether you acknowledge it or not, you owe him a sincere apology and I suggest you make it before you lose the one friend you've made in your life."

"…How did you get his num--hey! What do you mean by 'one friend', Itachi?!"

Itachi left my room and slammed the door behind him. He actually slammed the door! My older brother…the composed and never loud Itachi was, for once in his life, so angry that he actually broke character and slammed the door. I was too shocked for words, so I ended up picking up Naruto's cell phone number and staring at the digits, transfixed. Gato jumped onto the desk and picked up the piece of paper in his mouth. He prodded my arm with his paw and I couldn't stop myself from smiling.

"Alright." I took the paper from Gato and retrieved my phone from the other side of the room. After I had finished entering the numbers, my thumb paused on the Send button. I nearly pressed it, but then I ended up closing my phone and impatiently paced around my room for a total of five minutes. It was Gato who brought me back from my thoughts by jumping onto my shoulder and clawing the ever-living crap out of my cheek and neck until I was able to set him back on the bed.

"Jeez, fine! I'll call him, I'll call him! I'll apologize!"

Gato was satisfied with this because he stopped trying to attack me at once. I reentered Naruto's cell phone number and my thumb remained hovering over Send for the second time. The internal battle I was having with myself was actually impairing my motor functions because my thumb started trembling. Just when I thought I'd lose my nerve again, my phone rang and buzzed loudly. I caught a glimpse at the number on the screen and it was the same as the one on the paper I held before I dropped my phone from being so startled. It nearly closed when it landed hard on the floor and rolled under my desk. I dove underneath the desk, knocking over my chair and a handful of books and papers in the process. I answered it as quickly as I had picked it up and forgot where I was until I tried to stand and smacked my head on hard wood. And so I sat there under my desk with a throbbing head, feeling rather foolish because of my actions.

"Hello…?" I asked the person on the other line.

"Hiya, Bakasuke," Naruto greeted very enthusiastically. "How goes it, dattebayo?"

"Oh, uh…fine, I guess. Everything's fine. I'm fine."

"You okay? You kinda sound like you just ran a mile."

Damn, was I gasping?! "Y-you're imagining things, Usuratonkachi. Wait, how did you get this number?"

"I bumped into Itachi at the super market the other day and he gave me your number and his for some reason." I heard him laugh. "Anyway, he told me to call you when I got the chance and so--"

The door to my room banged open and Naruto was standing there proudly with a smile. "--I decided to drop by after calling you!"

He surprised me so much that I yet again hit my head on the underside of my desk and dropped my phone in the process. Gato, excited to see Naruto again, leapt from my bed to Naruto and he caught the kitten with glee. I was ready to scream for joy when I thought Naruto wouldn't notice where I was, but then he removed his gaze from Gato and noticed the strange place I was in. All I could do was stare back dumbly.

"Eh," he questioned. "What are you doing down there, Bakasuke?"

"…Um…I-I was, uh…" I let my eyes wander around the floor as if an excuse would jump out at me. Fortunately, an excuse was lying under my upturned chair. I snatched up my A&P homework and stood up, avoiding any and all head collisions with pure skill. I spoke as coolly as I possibly could. "I was looking for this. Gato knocked over my books,"--Take one for the team, Gato!--"so everything fell out of them."

Naruto set the kitten down again and helped me straighten my room without my asking. I was commenting on his actions before I could stop myself.

"Most people wouldn't bother helping with this stuff," I said after leaning against my now closed door. "I didn't know you liked cleaning."

"I don't," Naruto disagreed with a disgruntled expression. "Cleaning up makes it harder to keep track of everything, dattebayo."

"Something about that doesn't sound right…."

"Hey, what happened to your face?!"

Naruto was on his feet and inches from my face before I could even count to two. One of his hands was holding my chin to the left and the other one was lightly going over the spot where Gato had scratched me, which happened to be on my neck. Naruto's concerned face was extremely close to mine, causing me to feel discomfort on a level you wouldn't even be able to register. My heart suddenly decided it needed a few extra pacemakers, because it was beating at least four times as fast as it should have been, which in turn caused my face to flush a deep scarlet color. It didn't help that I could feel his warm breath creeping down my neck.

He turned away as quickly as he had approached me (had it really been only a few seconds?), and settled his eyes upon Gato while I tried to still my breathing.

"Gato, why'd you scratch Bakasuke?" Did he seriously think a cat would understand him?! "You know he's bleeding, don't you?"

In response to this, Gato treaded off into the far corner of the room where his food and water was and began to eat as if nothing had happened. Having given up on speaking with the kitten, Naruto looked back at me and asked where we kept our medicine. When I inclined as to the reason he sought medicine, he told me he needed to clean the scratches on my cheek and neck.

"Are you serious," I asked incredulously. "It isn't even bleeding--"

"Then what do you call this?" Naruto revealed the hand he had touched my neck with and I saw little dabs of my blood. I still didn't think it was a big deal, but he was adamant in his decision and I was forced to show him to our bathroom where the medical kit was. After marveling at the size of the bathroom itself (I didn't think it was that big, but he apparently did), he sat me down on a stool and started patch up my neck and cheek. I had insisted on doing it myself, but Naruto said that he didn't trust me with anything of or relating to the human body ever since he found out my last A&P test score, which was a very depressing 6%. So, I was forced to sit completely still for fear of doing something stupid while Naruto applied disinfectants and a few bandages.

The silence dragged on far longer than I thought necessary, so I thought I'd break that silence by asking, "You don't seem like the type of person who's into serious studying, so why'd you decide on curing cancer?"

Naruto dropped the bottle he had been holding and it fell to the white tile floor loudly. It was a good thing it wasn't glass, but the effect of it probably would have remained the same. Naruto chuckled lightly, muttered to himself something about having butterfingers, and retrieved the bottle without answering my question. I repeated it, thinking he had not heard, but when I asked him for a second time, it was clear to me that something about that subject unnerved him, for when I had asked again, Naruto's bright blue eyes dimmed slightly and the ever-present smile he so proudly displayed wherever he went vanished without a trace. He wasn't meeting my eyes and that made me worried about him, especially since he remained like this for several seconds before finally telling me in a quiet and somehow strained voice, "I…I really don't wanna talk about it, Sasuke…."

Sensing something off, I quickly told him in a forced happy tone, "Hey, that's fine with me! Um…I never gave you the tour of my house, did I?"

Naruto's frown was gone in an instant and replaced with his usual smile. "You didn't! Come on, what are you waiting for, 'ttebayo?!"

I was glad that Naruto was able to feel so much better after seeing my house. He was especially awed at the size of the living room and the garden in the back. He couldn't get over the koi fish in the pond, the sakura trees, the rose bushes, the gazebo surrounded by vines, and pretty much everything else. I was extremely lucky that my parents weren't home because I was sure they wouldn't like Naruto the person if they hadn't liked Naruto the Gato.

At the end of the tour, Naruto asked me a question that shocked me more than when Itachi had gotten angry with me.

"Hey, Bakasuke. Can I stay the night?"

I dropped the tomato I had been eating and just stared at Naruto. He took my silence in a bad way and promptly started to apologize for asking. I hated to see him so stressed, so I did something rare and disobeyed my parents by consenting.

"N-no, you can stay the night," I assured him. "I was just wondering why you wanted to, that's all."

"I locked myself out of my apartment," he admitted shamefully with his head down. "Ma and Pa are both out of town and I locked the key inside. The tenant said the spare key was broken and the new one won't be there until tomorrow in the afternoon, dattebayo."

"So you have no place to sleep?"

He shook his head. "I'd stay with the Old Perv, but he's the biggest moocher ever. He's been sleeping on his friend's couch for the past six years! Anyway, you really don't mind?"

"Not at all, really. The guest bedroom's kind of cluttered right now…and the couch is a definite no."

"Why, 'ttebayo?"

"My parents don't like getting to meet new people. You'll have to hide somewhere while you're staying."

"Couldn't I just take the floor in your room, Bakasuke?"

My eyes narrowed and my heart raced. "No way, uh-uh. There's no way on this green earth that that's happening."

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I can't believe that that's actually happening…! I panicked as I lay awake that night in bed. Naruto was sound asleep on the floor of my bedroom with an extra blanket and pillow. He was so close to my bed that if I just let my arm hang over the edge, I would touch him. Why was I being so nervous?! So what if another guy was staying the night at my house?! It shouldn't have mattered at all, right? And yet…somehow it did.

The only sounds that I could hear were the crickets singing outside and Naruto's steady breathing two feet away from me. I was lying on my side, facing Naruto's closed eyes and watching the rise and fall of the blanket as he breathed in and out. He looked so much like a child with one of his hands close to his face and with Gato sleeping right above his head.

I was suddenly reminded that I never got to apologize about not defending Naruto when the girls in our class picked on him. I got out of bed and crept over to the right side of Naruto, lightly shaking his shoulder after I had knelt down.

"Hey, Usuratonkachi," I called to him in a whisper. "There's something I have to tell you."

Naruto grumbled something and was silent after that. I shook him again and called out his real name to see if that would have any result. "Naruto, wake up. I have to tell you something."

He rolled over to face me and I could see his eyelids slowly opening, but he was still half asleep.

"Remember when you were picked on by those girls a while ago at school? I was there when it happened, but I didn't do anything about it. I know I should have, but I just didn't think it was any of my business. Look, I'm really sorry about it and I…um…N-Naruto…?!"

I couldn't finish my full apology because Naruto had propped himself up on his elbow after finding my arm and holding onto it. His other hand was at the back of my neck just where the bandages ended and he pulled my face closer to his. His lips were over mine before I could even begin to form a full thought in my head and he kept them there for what seemed like trillions of years. It was as if my mind was bent and broken, because the next thing I was aware of was my face pressed into Naruto's neck with one of his arms acting as my pillow while the other was secured around my back. The blanket had somehow found its way around me and I vaguely wondered if I had passed out after Naruto had k…k-ki-kissed me.

I shot straight up after finishing that last thought (Naruto slept like the dead) and only one thought was running through my mind when I had rushed back into my own bed. Naruto kissed me!

I spent the rest of that night hoping and trying to convince myself that what happened was nothing more than a dream due to teenage hormones, but to no avail. The morning sunlight hadn't changed what Naruto had done while he was half asleep, nor did it change I felt about it.

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