Nerdy

Thirty-Two

Naruto wiggled his eyebrows as he sat beside Sasuke, looking very excited. Sasuke scowled at him.

"That's so gross." he said. "Shouldn't you be in class ?"

The break was over quite some time ago, and the classes had resumed. Sasuke and Naruto were sitting behind the main school building where hardly anybody came, so that they wouldn't be caught skipping.

"So should you, and don't change the topic." said Naruto and patted Sasuke so hard on his back that he started coughing. "I saw (Name) pulling you away from everyone today."

"She just wanted to talk." said Sasuke.

"About what ?" said Naruto and raised his eyebrows.

Sasuke groaned and looked away. "We- We just had a small misunderstanding." he said, not wanting to tell Naruto about it.

"Woah. Is this a lover's quarrel I see ?" asked Naruto as he leaned back in his seat with a wide grin on his face, almost as if he knew everything, but still wanted to hear it from Sasuke's mouth.

"Yeah, right."

Sasuke glared at him, and then looked away. He could understand that Naruto was only teasing him, but it was annoying him more than necessary. Usually, it was Sasuke who was annoying Naruto, and Naruto's insults and taunts went unnoticed by Sasuke.

Was it talking about the fight that was troubling him, or...?

"Hey, chill bro, I was only kidding." said Naruto, lighting punching Sasuke's shoulder.

"Hn." said Sasuke.

"So, what happened ?" asked Naruto. "You can tell me about it. I promise I won't tell a soul."

Sasuke scoffed at the innocent look on Naruto's face. "Oh, really ?" he asked.

"Not a single soul ! Believe it !" said Naruto and put (slammed) a hand on his heart.

"If you say so." said Sasuke, with a smirk.

Everybody knew that Naruto was the last person trustworthy enough to keep a secret in Konoha. Telling him was equal to announcing it on the school microphone when everyone was in class and listening.

But, after giving it some thought, it didn't matter to Sasuke even if everyone knew about it. In fact, he'd rather have everyone know about the truth than having baseless rumours spreading around, originating from none other than the one and only Uzumaki Naruto.

"Well, I was kind of insensitive to (Name) when I shouldn't have been. She ignored me for days, until today, that is." said Sasuke.

"Oh." said Naruto.

Sasuke was cold and insensitive to everybody, and hurt them too. But why did it only matter when (Name) felt hurt ?

"So, what did she say to you today ?" asked Naruto. He did not wish to ask  Sasuke about everything, not yet.

"Nothing much. She just apologized because she over-reacted." said Sasuke.

"Wait, what ?" asked Naruto, sitting upright.

"You heard right." said Sasuke and smirked. "(Name) apologized. You should've seen her face when she did it. She looked so miserable and desperate for me to forgive her."

Sure, Sasuke had told Naruto about what happened, but who said that he was not going to edit some things and totally cut out some parts - like himself desperately seeking (Name)'s forgivance - while he told Naruto ?

"And you forgave her ?" asked Naruto, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course, I did. I'm not that bad." said Sasuke with a smirk.

Naruto burst out laughing. Even for someone as dense and naïve as him, it was obvious that Sasuke was making things up. (Name) would just not apologize like that, especially when she did not need to. If anything, that was how Sasuke should have apologized.

"Why are you laughing ?" Sasuke glared at Naruto.

Naruto regained his composture and coughed a few times. "Nothing." he muttered.

What had amused him more was how Sasuke had made (Name) look different than how she was, only to cover up how he was.

"Hn." Sasuke narrowed his eyes at Naruto.

"How did you even manage to do that ?" asked Naruto with a grin.

"Not that hard. I just wrote our essay on my own and got an 'A' grade on it. She came to talk to me herself." said Sasuke.

Little did he know that what Naruto had asked was about how he had managed to turn the situation around that much, and not how he got (Name) to talk to him and apologize.

"Hey ! Who's there ?!" a loud voice of a male teacher boomed.

Naruto and Sasuke immediately jumped from the bench and hid behind it as the teacher came closer. He neared and hanged around there for a while before he left.

"I thought you said that nobody comes here !" Sasuke whispered harshly, stooping low so that his hair doesn't show.

"I swear, nobody comes here ! This was the first time." Naruto whispered back, looking out to see if the teacher was coming back or not.

Sasuke huffed and looked in the direction in which the teacher went. But, he saw someone else there too.

"But, Sir, I swear, I saw them sitting right there just now." said (Name), pointing at the bench.

"Well, then they probably went back to their class." said the teacher, and he left.

(Name) stood there and frowned deeply. She looked in their direction, and glared, and she left too.

Sasuke scowled and sat back up. "Did you see that ?" he asked Naruto.

"See what ?" asked Naruto and looked around frantically.

"(Name) sent that teacher here, that annoying--"

"What ?!" asked Naruto.

"I saw her talking to that teacher just now. I told you, it's no use. Whatever you do to her, she will still be the same. She will do whatever she can just so that I have to face problems. Look, she even spent her free period doing that." said Sasuke angrily.

Naruto looked at him and sighed.

"She just doesn't want you to miss what is being taught in class." he said. "She cares for you. Maybe she just doesn't know how to show it properly."

"Cares, huh ? If she cared, then she would not have ignored me until I was at my wit's end. I had no idea what to do to get her to talk to me. I was afraid that we would never talk and turn back into the strangers we were." said Sasuke.

Naruto was speechless for a moment.

"Sasuke, do you like (Name) ?" he asked, in a serious tone, leaving all jokes aside. He could see how much Sasuke treasured whatever relationship - if it counted as one - they had.

Sasuke gulped and he avoided Naruto's gaze, but just for a split second.

"Of course, not. Who would like someone like her ? I bet she spends her nights looking for weird rituals to help her kill me." said Sasuke.

But, it did not go unnoticed by him how he had hesitated before he answered that, and he was pretty sure Naruto realized it too.