It happened in the tenth grade.

That's when Naruto first realised that he wasn't the same as everyone else in his class. That's when he began to notice that he was watching his childhood best friend far too closely. That's when he realised that maybe; just maybe, he was starting to have… strange feelings. Unfortunately, it was also when he became incredibly aware of the different levels of the high school hierarchy.

He was just starting on the football team- something he'd worked towards for as long as he could remember. He wasn't very good at getting not failing grades, and so he had to rely on his ability to play sports in order to go to college. After all, he didn't want to end up working in a restaurant or something. He was kind of clumsy, anyways, so he'd be really awful at it- and his rival… Uchiha Sasuke, the one person who had been his friend when he was just a dorky looking gangly little thing, well… he was in the band, and in the debate team… and he was the highest scoring person in their class for anything scholastic. He'd been told so many times that he wasn't supposed to even look at people like Sasuke unless it was to shove them in their locker. That's what Kiba told him. And Kiba had been right about everything so far. So he had stopped being friends with Sasuke since before they'd entered high school. It had been a mutual decision. Sasuke didn't want to be seen around someone who was the lowest scoring person in the class, and who, apparently, had no class, and Naruto just… wanted to fit in for once. To be accepted by his peers- something that hadn't happened since long before his parents had passed away, leaving him orphaned and stuck in a foster home for thirteen years.

And so Naruto had been stuck pretending to drool over the cheerleaders that cheered loudly at his games, unable to help the slight churn of something that was quickly becoming familiar to him that coursed through him every time he saw Sasuke walking down the hallway, the bright, cheerful cheerleader Naruto had always thought he had a thing for, dangling from his arm. At first… Naruto had thought that maybe that was kinda strange, since he wasn't supposed to even talk to Sasuke, but Kiba had assured him that since Sasuke was on the swim team and on the track team… it was okay for a cheerleader to like him a lot, just not Naruto, because he was going to be quarter back in his senior year. Even the basketball players were beneath him.

It had been confusing to Naruto at first. He'd thought maybe that feeling- kind of like when you feel sick, but a little worse, because you feel warm and almost angry, and he kind of wanted to rip them apart from each other…- was because he really liked the pink-haired Haruno Sakura, she was, after all, the captain of the cheerleading squad. And Naruto was the soon-to-be quarter back. It was like… the rule. They were supposed to be together. But… they'd tried dating once. Naruto had thought it was going really well. They'd made out… Naruto had even gotten to second base, but Sakura had told him that it really wasn't going well for her, and that she wanted to get back together with Sasuke. In fact… she actually told him that they had never really broken up, but that she had just been interested in Naruto. Which wasn't a crime really. He knew he was real good looking.

It was the bell that startled Naruto back to reality, and he stood so quickly that the desk he'd been sitting at nearly toppled over, and he almost fell backwards. A few of his classmates glanced at him, but he just lifted one strong, tanned arm and scratching the back of his head, laughing a little uncomfortably in embarrassment, "Uh…"

Kiba shook his head, stepping over to his friend and clapping him on the back, "Hey, Naruto, you comin' for lunch?" He asked a little gruffly.

Naruto blinked a few times, glancing at Sasuke briefly, a slight frown marring his usually bright features at the sight of Sakura leaning in to kiss him on the cheek, "…Yeah," He said a little sullenly.

Admittedly… it made him feel a little better that the most Sasuke seemed to do was tolerate the girl's attention. In fact, the only time he ever saw any kind of emotion aside from irritation or something on Sasuke's face was when their teacher, Hatake Kakashi, called him into the classroom after school. Naruto followed Sasuke sometimes, and he'd waited for the boy before, but it always took a real long time for him to leave the classroom. So he must have been getting special tutoring. That made Naruto feel better about himself, even though it didn't necessarily make much sense because Sasuke's name was always at the top of the grades list. But that just meant that Naruto must just be smarter, and that Sasuke was just cheating. Yeah. That made more sense.

Naruto sighed a little, rolling his eyes visibly at Sakura as he and Kiba walked past her and Sasuke, out of the classroom. He wasn't completely oblivious to the fact that she was watching him as he left, and he grinned a little. Well… he still had his looks. And that would be enough to get him through high school for sure.

It only took a couple of minutes for Naruto and Kiba to grab lunch from the cafeteria, and head outside to a small tree for lunch. Naruto didn't like sitting in the cafeteria for lunch. It always smelled worse than anything in there, and people always stared, girls watching to see what he looked like when he ate. It was really weird. Those people followed him around way too much. Anyways, he preferred to eat lunch outside where he could just lay on the grass. He loved the way the sun warmed him up, and how he could totally zone out his friend and just nap or think about anything he wanted to. And it was so far away from the school, hidden among a lot of trees, that no one ever even came looking for them. They were perfectly hidden.

Sitting down, resting his back against the tree, Naruto let out another soft sigh, glancing down at his food with a slightly disgusted face, "I… don't even know what this I is /I ." He said in obvious confusion. Kiba just rolled his eyes and began to eat his food quickly.

Naruto shook his head, and pushed all of the food away except for the cup ramen, and began to eat it slowly. He'd learned his lesson about eating unidentified food when he was in the third grade, and he'd accidentally eaten silicon. It really had looked like candy…

He was in the middle of ignoring Kiba's disgusting eating sounds when he noticed a different sound coming from the other side of the tree. A small curious frown crossed his tanned features, and he rose onto his hands and knees, and crawled around the large trunk, falling onto his side at the sight of what he found on the other side, lips parting almost comically.

Well… that wasn't right. That's for sure.