New Beginnings NOW COMPLETE

Naruto and Sasuke pushed through the chattering throng to their lockers, as the blonde opened his, an avalanche of letters came tumbling out.

"What the?!" Naruto said as they were almost buried.

Sasuke just rolled his eyes, "Looks like you have a fan girl problem."

"Huh?" Naruto asked raising an eyebrow.

"You know those girls who followed me around back... home?" Sasuke asked impatiently.

"Yeah you mean like Sakura and Ino and everyone."

"Yes," Sasuke said as if speaking to a moron, "Well dobe they are what you call fan girls. Squealing annoying girls who follow you around asking you out and just generally being frustrating."

"Let me get this straight. Girls who follow you around and ask you out, and you think they're annoying?" Naruto asked slowly.

"Well duh!" Sasuke said rolling his eyes.

"Let me just ask you, are you gay? I mean seriously you can tell me, I’m open minded," Naruto almost melted under Sasuke's high beam glare, "Then how can you not love girls following you around?"

"There he is! Get him!" shouted a voice from the other end of the hall. A giant mob of teenage girls moved like a cloud of bright colours of doom. Sasuke grabbed Naruto's arm and sprinted for their first class. They made it just in time and pulled the door shut behind them. The brunette let go of the other boys hand and walked casually to a seat in the back corner. Naruto followed him and sat next to him.

"I get your point," the blonde told him weakly.

"So Sakura, what's it like living with Naruto?" one of the girls asked resting her head on her hands and gazing at her with wide eyes.

"I don't know yet," Sakura answered truthfully, "We came from the same village but we've only been living together since we moved here. He's kind of like an annoying brother."

"Annoying?" another girl gasped and then blushed.

"Well he's so... loud. And he always had a crush on me. It was so annoying," Sakura said wrinkling her nose.

"He has a crush on you?! Are you guys going out?" One of the girls wailed.

"Of course not!" Sakura almost shouted. The other girls looked at her, stunned by the strength of her reaction, "I've known him for too long. It would just be weird," she added quickly.

"But he's so..." One girl began.

"Nice?"

"Cheerful?"

"Cute?"

"Yeah..." they all sighed.

Sakura almost laughed, were they walking about Naruto? He must love it here! Sure he was kinda nice, and he was definitely cheerful, but cute? He looked slightly more normal without his forehead protector, and maybe in the right light it was possible.... not likely but possible... kind of.

Sakura was having a dilemma. She'd been considering it all day at school and now she really needed to concentrate on her homework.
"Hey Sasuke," she asked the Uchiha who was doing his homework at the opposite end of the table (Naruto said he'd do his later, and we all believe that don't we?).

"Hn," he said without looking up.

"Do you think Naruto's cute?" she asked preoccupied.

"WHAT!!??" he asked going bright red.

The pink haired girl was shaken from her thoughts but she pressed on.
"The girls at school think he is but I've never seen him that way. I need an impartial judge," Sakura explained staring down at her book instead of at the boy's face which she assumed would be furious. Luckily this gave him a chance to fix his expression, after all, Uchiha's don't blush.

"Of course Naruto is cute," Iruka said from behind her, "The girls here haven't seen him go through all the awkward stages that we have so they see him only as he is now. Confident, cheerful, funny and nice."

"I didn't think of that," Sakura admitted, Sasuke took his opportunity to escape. He walked out the back and started up the tree.

"No way! I've shotgunned the tree for the afternoon. Either find another tree or go glare at the world in our bedroom," Naruto called from a higher branch.

Sasuke glared in surprise at the other boy, "Since when can you shotgun a tree?"

"According to Dan you can shotgun anything so there!" he knew it was childish but Naruto couldn't help poking his tongue out.

"Well dobe I'm not moving," the brunette told him sitting on a different branch a little higher up.

Naruto glared at the obvious power play but he wasn't going to acknowledge it. He crossed his arms and leaned back against the trunk making a show of not moving, the other boy copied his move and they both sat there not moving. All afternoon.

"Boys! Dinner!" Iruka called out the back door.

Naruto's stomach growled and Sasuke grinned preparing for victory. All he had to do was wait until Naruto left and wait a few minutes to walk inside victorious in their little battle of stubbornness.

He could hear the blonde shifting in the darkness, "Didn't you hear Sasuke? Dinner's ready, you'd better go in."

He rolled his eyes, "After you dobe."

"Unlikely bastard," came the muffled reply.

"Getting hungry Naruto?" Sasuke asked hungrily.

"Nope," the boy answered as his stomach growled.

"Boys, your dinner is in the fridge. It'll be waiting for you when you decide to stop being morons," Kakashi could feel the glares of both boys trying to burn him to a cinder, "Get some sleep before school alright?"
He retreated back into the relative safety of the house and left the two to their idiotic competition.

Iruka woke up in the morning and looked out the back window, both boys were slumped against the trunk on their respective branches. He smothered a smile and pulled both of them down at the same time and laid them down under the tree before he woke Sakura up.

"Boys! Breakfast!" Iruka called.

Sasuke woke with something heavy across his chest, his whole body ached and his back was wet. He tried to sit up but something dragged him back down. His mind screamed at him that something was wrong but he wasn't awake enough to care. His eyes shot open suddenly. The something was warm. Not only was it warm, it was Naruto's arm he realised as he looked down. As he heard the door opening his mind kicked into gear and he rolled away from the other boy his heart racing.

"So you're awake," Kakashi said, his one visible eye twinkling, "Looks like you both lost your little competition."

"Or both won," Naruto said waking up, "I bet I fell out after Sasuke-teme."

"Actually Iruka pulled you both out at the same time," Kakashi said grinning behind his mask as both boys charged inside.