I didn’t see Naruto sit up—but that was probably because dust was flying everywhere. Even though I knew it was happening—I couldn’t stop it—I was blushing fiercely—my whole face a light red. I just couldn’t believe that just happened—that me and Naruto…okay—too far, don’t want to think about it anymore; unless I want to have someone think I have an apple for a head.

I sensed someone behind me—and before I new it—Uchiha had a kunai at my neck. At least I thought it was Uchiha, because of the white cuff-things he was wearing. Great—now he’s gonna go something over dramatic—I just know it. I felt him smile, but I didn’t care, as soon as he gets too cocky, it’s not over. Not by a long shot.

“Looks I win—Haruno,” he said, I could feel him smirking—he thinks he can beat a jounin…maybe a different jounin—but not me.

I smiled a little, but didn’t look back at him; I could tell he tensed up. “So, you’re going to call me by my last name, Uchiha? Does it make you feel more secure that I’m weak little Sakura’s younger sister? Well guess what—you shouldn’t. She may be my older sister—but I am her exact opposite in every way. Strength—confidence—courage—ability—likes—dislikes—just to name a few. But what separates our whole beings from each other—are who we call friends—enemies—rivals—and who we like. And to me—you are nothing but a drama queen of a person. I don’t even call you an enemy—you are not worth a name to me—no matter what you do. Even it you defeated me a thousand times, you are still not an enemy—friend—or rival.”

He was definitely mad—that’s for sure. Uchiha tensed up even more, and seemed like he was going to crack at any moment. Even if he cut my throat, I wouldn’t really care. It’s not like he could kill me anyways. His arm was shaking more than if he were excited—I guess I psyched him out already—to bad, I like messing with unstable people. I could sense him sweating, trying to calm himself down—but it also seemed like it wasn’t working too well.

“Sh-shut up! I don’t care what you think! You may be a jounin, but you’re still defeated!” he said, it sounded like he had a note of panic in his voice. Hm…I wonder where Naruto went. I guess he’s lost in the now-settling dust I kicked up.

“You seem too panicky to not care what I think…” I said coolly, still looking for Naruto. I could feel the kunai dig into my skin a little—I didn’t even feel it—I just knew I was now bleeding a bit from my neck. I smirked, knowing he would know. “So, you are panicky…you think that if you can’t beat a little girl in a battle, you won’t be able to defeat your brother…right? Well right now, you’d never stand a chance…” I winced when I felt the kunai go further into my skin—I guess I should get this over with before he does anything stupid. Before reaching for a kunai, I saw Naruto walking this way—the fog almost completely gone—because it seemed like Naruto didn’t know what was happening.

He walked over our way, and looked shocked at what was happening right now. Naruto looked from me, to Sasuke, to my neck, and back to Sasuke—at least he figured it out in less than six hours. He looked really confused, but I could also see that he saw the panic on Uchiha’s face—more like crazy than panic. Naruto stopped only a few feet away, but Uchiha didn’t notice, I think he was staring at the back of my head for some reason.

I slowly reached down to my kunai pocket, but before I could open it, I felt more pain in my neck, and stopped and winced. I’m pretty sure I went too far with the comments—I always do. I looked up at Naruto, to see him staring at Uchiha—in opinion—he looked mad at him for some reason.

“She gets it Sasuke! You won, now let her go!” Naruto yelled at him. So, I guess that was Uchiha’s name, Sasuke—I’m still calling him Uchiha—just to get on his nerves. I also couldn’t believe Naruto was helping me—not that I did anything bad to him—it’s just that I’ve never had someone help me before.

Uchiha tightened his grip on the kunai, and pushed it further into my neck, but I didn’t make any noise—I know he wanted the pleasure of giving me pain. He pushed even harder, and then quickly pulled it away, slashing me around the back of my neck. It hurt more than it seemed, but I didn’t wince—otherwise he’d use it against me in one way or another. I heard him put away the blood-soaked kunai, and walk away like nothing happened.

I tried to snap off the ropes like I usually did, but they didn’t break, and my wrist felt like they were being stabbed with hundreds of needles. Looking down at them, I saw a glint of silver. I tried again, but to the same result. Naruto walked over to me and knelt down beside me.

“What are you trying to do?” he asked me, I thought that’d be obvious, I was trying to pull apart my arms. Who knew someone could be so clueless?!

“I’m trying to rip apart the ropes…but Sakura tied me in steel-shaving-infused ropes, so I can’t break them,” I responded, trying to pull apart the ropes again.

“Oh…”

Naruto sounded a bit nervous—like he didn’t know what to do or say. I guess I’d be like that too—well, I don’t really know what I’d actually do. Oh well, guess I don’t know what anyone else would do either.

I pulled on the ropes again, looking up at him. “Um, you could try to untie the rope…”

“Oh, right…” It looked like he snapped out of some weird thinking trance, and then started trying to untie me. Maybe he was thinking about ramen—since that’s his favorite thing. My favorite thing was ramen, but it’s not anymore. I have a favorite person—I think I want him as my best friend—or maybe he’s already my best friend.

He pulled off the ropes and set them messily on the ground—that’s an understatement—it was more than messy, it looked like—okay—I don’t know what it really looked like in opinion, but it still looked weird. I rubbed my wrists—which were now bright red, and had small punctures in them from the steel shavings that intruded into my skin. I could feel him staring at me, so I looked at him, his face way too close for comfort. Another understatement—more like penetrating my thinking space—I felt like he could read my thoughts from this close, not to mention kiss me.

His deep blue eyes just stared at me—like he was concentrating on something—oor, he could just be staring out into nothing. Either way, it kinda creeped me out how he was staring so hard. Maybe he was trying to think too much, and it had completely broken down his brain or something. It made me want to scoot away from him, but I kind of just froze there. Maybe, I don’t know, maybe it was because of how close we are, and that if I made one false move—we’d accidentally kiss, just like he and Uchiha did at the academy.

Sakura was fuming about that at home for weeks. It made her more fun to annoy, since she would just start replaying what had happened that day every time I annoyed her. I loved the story so much; I annoyed her enough to have memorized the story completely—even though she said some stuff that definitely wouldn’t have happened. Now I know who the people are in the story, a stuck-up, I’m-better-than-you person, who is her crush, and the fun, random, and annoying one that she hates way too much.

Naruto still looked at me, still way too close, I think this was how close he and Uchiha were when someone bumped into Naruto and he fell forward. It always made me laugh—but not anymore—now I see why he hated Uchiha. When I would hear the story, Sakura always called Uchiha cool and mysterious, which is half true. He may act cool, but he’s not he doesn’t care about anything but killing his brother—who I’ve fought before—and could have killed him, but he got away before I could. And Sakura said Naruto was an obnoxious little twerp who was the class clown. When I’d here the story, I always thought of him the same why, but he’s way cool.

Yeah, that’s right, I said cool. He may not have been the top student, but he cares more for what he’ll become than grades. He doesn’t give up, has way more will than all the genins in Konoha—just like Lee; except the part about having a goofy hair cut and looking almost exactly like Gai. Thick eyebrows and all. Sakura hates that I’m friends with him, she thinks Lee is a weirdo freak that’s a real loser—which he’s not. It’s just that his hero is his sensei—who helped him become stronger than the retard Neji—in my opinion at least.

I waved my hand in front of Naruto’s face, but he didn’t do anything, just kept staring. He looked like he was sleeping with his eyes open, but he was only spaced out. How much fun is this? I get to break the same clueless person out of his own little spacey world. I smiled happily and poked the leaf on his headband. He just tipped over, nothing to it, just—tipped over. As Naruto lied on the ground, he blinked, and sat up, rubbing the back of his head—which much of hurt now since he just landed on it.

“What just happened?” he asked me, now our faces real close again. And again, for some reason, I couldn’t get my body to scoot away from him. It’s like it didn’t want to listen to anything I was saying to it—just wanted to be next to Naruto.

I showed him a fake smile, and said, “You spaced out again.”

He looked at me, like trying to find a clue of a lie. “That’s not a real smile is it?”

I was shocked at the question, and the true-looking fake smile fell from my face. How could he tell it was fake? I could even fake-out my sharp-eyed mom. But why not him? Was the smile so fake looking he could tell? Or was it that I didn’t make it bright enough? That’s probably it; I didn’t want to show a fake smile to him. It felt like I was telling him a major lie or something.

“It isn’t, is it?” he asked me again, his face now even closer.

I shook my head slightly, not so much so we could accidentally touch, and he was now like half an inch away from my face. He glared at me, which—for some reason—made my heart feel squished like a bug. Naruto then smiled widely at me, which now made my heart feel like it was going to burst through my ribs and all.

“I thought so,” he started as he leaned back a little, which made me feel much better, and continued, “Because you just didn’t seem like yourself when you made it.”

Yeah, that’s because of how it didn’t feel right to lie, but I could play along with his idea, so I wouldn’t have to tell him anything.

“I mean, it looked like a true smile, but it just didn’t seem right, you didn’t have any smile in your eyes. Only a weird expression in them, like something didn’t feel right to you,” he said, but stopped and looked down. I think I could see some red on his face. “…Not that I was staring at them…”

That surprised me how accurate he was when he said that. So he could just tell because I didn’t have a smile in my eyes…wait? What’s that supposed to mean? I don’t get how someone could tell if another person was faking it from their eyes. And what was with the last comment? ‘Not that I was staring at them…’ was he staring at my eyes the whole time I was thinking? Okay, note to self, practice fake eye smile so no one could tell when I’m faking or not.

I heard Naruto get up, but waited to see if he’d leave first, so I could take my sudden frustration out on a tree. But I didn’t here him move, I also still had his shadow covering me from the suns warmth—but I hated the sun—so I guess this was a better thing than him having his face so close to mine. A few minutes went by, but he still didn’t leave. I decided to get up, just to see what he was doing. Actually, he was doing nothing, just looking at his feet—thinking probably.

Looking around the clearing, I didn’t see Uchiha or Sakura anywhere. Uchiha probably left after cutting my throat—which I just remembered was still bleeding—and Sakura probably followed him. I touched my neck, to pull back as I winced. I had touched the cut the drama queen Uchiha gave me, which was quite deep—deeper than I thought. I touched right under my neck, and pulled my hand away to see my hand coated in blood. Great, just great, if I don’t get the dumb cut cleaned and bandaged, I’ll faint from blood loss. Not only that—but I’ll faint in front of an idiot, who will probably run off screaming that I was dead.