Slow Me Down

Ivory white teeth clambered down idly on the string of noodles that were hanging loosely like wet rags on Naruto's off white carved chopsticks. Slurping nosily with energetic speed and barley open lips, the blond boy raised his right arm in the air in one quick motion.

"Time!" he called.

The stop button on the right side of her plastic keypad was pressed at a forceful horizontal angle, successfully making the bright neon numbers stop multiplying giddily and abruptly come to a reeling halt.

"…Forty-five seconds," came Sakura's monotone reply to the anxiously awaiting blond with ramen juice painted over the lower portion on his face.

"Yes! Forty-five seconds! Believe it!" he shouted, propping himself up with his sticky hands onto the top surface of the table, shifting all his weight to his knees while he lifted both arms straight up in the air.

Bystanders passing by slowed their elaborate stride to stare with a disturbing fraction of intake in their minds at the exotic blond.

"Sit your ass down dope," Sasuke muttered darkly.

Naruto whimpered and muttered degradingly at Sasuke's tone, but nevertheless obliged his 'request'.

"Does he always do this?" Sakura whispered to Neji.

"You mean make one of us time how fast he can eat ramen every single fucking day at lunch until he gets sick every fucking day at lunch and thus forces all of us to carry him to the school nurse every fucking day at lunch?" he revolted.

"Uh…yeah."

"Then yes," he muttered angrily.

'Forty-five seconds' Naruto kept mumbling to his empty white bowl of ramen, shaking his head triumphantly, a mocking grin folding across his face.

"Weird," Sakura muttered.

"You have no idea," Sasuke mumbled more to himself.

She glanced at him, taking in all his dark oxy features that were radiating off of the suns harmful streaming rays. Nearly blinding her peripheral vision in the process

He definitely has fan girls for a reason.

Her thoughts were shaken dramatically as a loud gagging nose issued at a low neurotic level to her close right.

Naruto coughed loudly one more time before completely shouting out, "Oh my god I'm going to be sick!"

Shikamaru stood up hastily.

"Move! Move!" he shouted at the other two.

Neji and Sasuke ran to either side of Naruto, hosted him up from underneath his arms and dragged him over the grassy planks around the table to the direction of the school.

"Nice meeting you Sakura," Shikamaru called over the roar of Sasuke and Neji's shouts to get the tear of people that had gathered around there small but complex standard table out of the way long enough to let them through.

"Likewise," she half whispered to the trio's retreating backs.

So weird.

Her third hour class was veraciously right next to her locker, giving her six extra minutes to figure out what to do with her six extra minutes.

I could go visit Naruto-

"Sakura."

Well that didn't last long, she thought moments before she turned around.

"…Sasuke was it?" she asked calmly.

He held out her chunky white sidekick, placing his thumb diligently over the single cherry blossom petal she had painted on her whole cellular device.

"Hn," he grunted as she gently took it from him, flipping it open hastily.

"Is Naruto okay?" she asked after opening her inbox to find four new closed messages waiting for her to read.

"Hn," he responded.

She shifted her weight to her heels, the rest of her upper body followed suit as she verdantly leaned her back on the lockers behind her, narrowing her almond welded green eyes at his absorbing black ones.

"I'm going to take that hn as a yes and not a seriously dangerous sign that you cant breathe and might collapse any minute now," she stated slowly, still staring skeptically at him.

He was taken back to say the least.

No one had ever verbally questioned his nepotistic vocabulary.

And no one had ever made him want to explain his nepotistic vocabulary to someone.

But all in all he was an Uchiha, his pride was at stake if he continued to dwell on this sarcastic pink haired girl before him, currently holding no fan girl structure what so ever in her tiny body.

The corners of his lips perplexed upwards into a graceful smirk.

Lifting one index finger to her forehead, he poked her gently making her tiny nostrils flare in the even slightest fraction of a second before he pulled away.

"We're going to get along great this year Sakura."

Shikamaru had seen more than enough agrueling images to last him a lifetime.

But this was just too much.

High pitched fake blond annoying Ino was perched cross-legged on the smooth surface of his desk that he made a mental note to scrub and bleach later. She was adjusting the bust of her top, attempting to up the cleavage factor that she just didn't have.

She didn't notice him yet, which he took as gods' silent words to get the hell away.

Three steps into his lazy sprint he heard her call his name.

Well shit was the only thought that ran through out his head at the moment.

Nearly cringing as he turned around to met her orangey tinged matted face

"Ino," he greeted solemnly as he stopped a good seven inches away from his desk.

"How are you today," she purred at him, her puffy lips making an unusual oval shape with every word she spoke.

He paused for just a moment.

"You're not using me to get to Sasuke Ino."

He could see by the angry twitch in her temple that she was about to retort a nasty string of made up excuses back at him, but maybe realizing that the person in front of her was the smartest person in the entire district and counting might have had an effect on her thinking and or talking ability.

Joy aroused his senses at the mere thought.

"You're a dick," she finally managed out.

"And your just a slutty girl that needs to learn how to get a life," he muttered, taking his seat.

It was only for an eighty-sixth of a second but Shikamaru caught a withering glimpse of hurt evident in her faded wash blue eyes.

It made a small part of his conscious burn with remorse.

But as quickly as it had been, is disappeared faster. Now replaced with the familiar edgy gleam that had sprouted their freshman year of high school.

In all his years of knowing Ino, he had never had the power to get anything but a somber iterated reaction from her, this raw exosphere to an emotional wreck of a girl that he had masked plans to get rid of for years was a shocking new discovery that he had not seen coming.

He frowned as she walked away from him, bony limbs stuck out noticeably on her frail back.

Weird, was one way to describe that change of events that had been taking place recently.

Troublesome, was another.

Any other thought she might have had of rekindling her dissolving relationship with her obnoxious mother was quickly extinguished as she angrily read the last two text messages she had recently opened on her phone.

'Remember Sakura carbs are not you friend. You need to cut at least eight more pounds before my new swim line comes out. Chow.'

'I'll be leaving for Paris tomorrow morning at 4:00 am. I wont see you until I come back so goodbye. Roseau can take care off you while I'm gone. Chow.'

Like you take care off me in the first place, the bitter thought swept through her anger like an eager breaking of a waterfall.

As the tardy bell rang with an off pitch energetic burst, a dark haired boy with a striking bronze tan glided into the classroom without a sound. The distracted teacher was conveniently turned around facing the pitch-black chalkboard, writing her name in large cursive letters.

Mrs. Hallocaocky, Sakura read as soon as her left hand moved away from the board.

'Creative writing level two' was shortly placed right under her name.

"You must be the new girl everyone is talk about."

She pivoted jestingly to her right, unsoundly aware that someone was sitting next to her.

"Yeah," she said uncertainty. "I'm Sakura," she offered a small toothless smile.

His dark elixir eyes drifted over her alluring apple ones. Seemingly contented with the name she had given him, he reached for her hand, giving her an even bigger grin.

"Kiba," he announced as he shook her steady hand in his.

"You know, if I knew there was going to be a pretty girl sitting in my third hour today I might have actually showed up here on time," he mused.

She blushed a faint cherry bomb, the right corner of her mouth lifting into a sinful smirk.

"Do you say that to all the new girls here or am I just lucky?"

The excited grin on his lips was replaced by a mocking hue.

"…You think I'm a slut," he more or less stated, laughing a little at her dryness.

"I think you're a flirt," she added briskly, leaning her head slightly to the left.

"You seem to be doing just fine with it," he smiled as he leaned over to tuck a dangling piece of hair behind her right ear.

She didn't need to say anything more, he had won, and they both knew it. Out of the corner of her eye she could see him watching her with a loathe of interest and desire. And she could only teeter through her belongings looking for a pencil she didn't have, pretending she hadn't noticed.

"No."

"Please!"

"No."

"I'll give you my entire ramen bowl collection!"

"…And why in the hell would I want that?"

"…Well…I wrote the type of ramen and eating time on the side right under the date I ordered it."

"Your sick."

"Please Sasuke!"

"No," Sasuke hollered, causing Naruto to flinch but not back away completely from the argument.

Naruto sat cross-legged on the paper white thin material of a long rectangular bed presented neatly in the far left corner of the large room. He was clad in a hospital gown (probably something he had forced the nurses to give him) and his hair was tangled into a greasy mess from sleeping all through third hour.

"What's so hard about asking Sakura-Chan out for me?" Naruto whined.

"Hn, because were not twelve anymore."

Naruto's clear face scrunched in sheer frustration and agrueling assumption.

"You like her don't you!"

Sasuke deeply sighed, shaking his head.

"Hn," came his monotone reply.

"…THAT'S SO A YES!"

"No," he sighed one more time, hoping that Naruto would get the indication that his temper was slipping. "It's not."

"LIES!"

He obviously didn't.

Sasuke Uchiha knew that in the back dark forbidden corner of his mind he had a very strong urge to strangle his blond friend right there and then, but on the other more brighter side of his unliterary conscious brain he knew he would never be able to get away with it with all these people bustling around.

"I going back to class," he muttered before Naruto could even think to say something else at him.

He shut the door as loudly as he could behind him, hearing the dope jump made everything a little better.

But of course his anger wasn't only eclipsed by the factor that Naruto was a brainless idiot that never knew when to shut his mouth, but by the single frame of accusation that Sasuke actually liked a girl that he had only recently let walk into his already messed up life.

Everyone knew how annoying he thought girls were, which was why jokes were never centered around them when he was present.

He did not know if this pink haired petite little girl coming from the same species of his rabid and…touchy fan girls could or even would be any different then the rest of them.

He wasn't holding his breath, but a hopeful spark flickered just once in the under belly of his stomach.