"Wow! This is great. I passed," Rin said in awe. 

"Don't be so surprised, plus it's nothing to be so happy about, we still have to go a long way before we can celebrate," Sam said, trying to act smart, but he too was excited about passing.

Rin stopped in his tracks and looked down. "Hey, Sam..." He hummed to confirm that he was listening. "What do you think?"

Sam put his hands behind his neck so that his elbows were slightly up pointing upwards. "If you're talking about Naruto then, I honestly don't know. That's if you're talking about the test. I don't know if he's going to pass. Or if he even wants to pass."

"Oh."

"Honestly if he doesn't like society so much, he should hurry up and pass, so he doesn't have to stay in the academy every year," Sam sighed. Like I care for his happiness anyway. I honestly don't care.

"Then what do you think of the..." Rin looked around and leaned closer, whispering. "The cannibal thing." Just talking about it made them shiver.

"I don't know. Seeing the guy's reaction to it there's definitely something suspicious about the topic. He freaked out when we mentioned it, so..."

The thought of Naruto holding a knife with a sinister grin was paralyzing. They shivered, trying to shake off the thought.

Shikamaru happened to be passing by when they were speaking about that. He overheard their conversation quite clearly. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head. Though, he wasn't sure if he should do it. It will surely be fun if he carried out the plan.

He was too lazy to do it anyway, so what was the use? He wouldn't actually do it. Maybe...

He walked past them to get home. He was a bit annoyed by Naruto's decision. Naruto had decided to fail the test. He was too lazy to think about Naruto's decision either, so he shrugged it off. It wasn't his business, and it wasn't his decision to make. What Naruto shouldn't or should do, it wasn't his decision. It wasn't his life.

[-]

"Naruto-sama, I know it wasn't my choice and you think it's the best thing to do but..." Danny had spoken only for Hinata to interrupt him.

"Danny," she said, her voice was low yet sad.

His attention was now on Hinata while Naruto just walked as if Danny wasn't even speaking to him. Hinata shook her head slowly, frowning, hoping Danny would get the message. Luckily, he got the message. They proceeded following the blonde-haired boy to the exit. Naruto had a poker face, in deep thought. He stopped in his tracks.

Hinata, in thought as well, was still frowning and looking down to her feet while walking. She tripped on a pebble, and she only realized a second later it was too late to regain her balance.

She closed her eyes ready for a world full of hurt, but she never fell. As you guessed. She instead knocked into Naruto from the back. Both their eyes widened in shock. Hinata for obvious reasons and Naruto since he hasn't ever been one to be a clingy person. So he wasn't used to much physical contact with others. He always kept distance and the only time there was contact... was when they were hurting him.

Everything went in slow motion for the three.

Naruto looked over his shoulder behind him as his eyes landed on Hinata. Naruto turned around to face her out of instinct, resulting for him to catch her. He caught her, him gripping on her arms. For a second there they stared at each other in shock, but once they were snapped back to reality.

"Hello. Earth to Hinata and Naruto-sama!" Danny exclaimed but made sure no one heard him say sama out loud.

"Huh?" Hinata snapped out of her trance when Danny put a hand close to her face, waving in front of her face.

Naruto was snapped back to reality in the process. He immediately moved his hands away and turned on his heel. Walking away to who knows where. Danny stared at him before looking back to Hinata. "What do you think will happen now?" He asked.

"I..." She really was in thought at the moment.

"...Naruto-sama still has a chance, by maybe approaching Iruka-sensei into giving him a second chance," Danny answered, staring at nothing in particular.

"Yes, but..." Hinata started, getting Danny's attention. He hummed indicating that he was listening. "We should give Naruto some space for a while to think..." She said softly, her tone showing her wisdom.

"What?" He asked. "We should ask Iruka-Sensei ourselves."

"Don't you get it?" Danny turned to see Shikamaru lazily walking close to the two of them. "If we give him some space, then he'll have time to think."

"Oh, then he could reconsider, right?"

"Right, well I'm leaving, see ya." Shikamaru didn't bother to wave, just gave a two-fingered sloppy salute.

Eventually, Danny and Hinata went home as well. Leaving Naruto swinging by himself on the swing where he usually went when he was alone. Recently he never really needed to go. He heard whispers about him and people congratulating each other.

Also, he wanted to think for a while, so he sat there. He came to consider Hinata as a friend. Acknowledging that she could be a possible friend and maybe he should trust her. Surely, he won't think of such things, like, love. Love is not something I need. Love is like somebody I used to know. You know it, but someday it breaks you and you grow distant. Just like friends, they are not any good either. They work the same way. You are friendly and such, but in the end, they just turn their back on you.

Someone tapped on his shoulder, and he immediately put his act on. Making sure to make it seem like was sad. He acted as if he were surprised to see the man. He's the one who helped judge. There is something I do not like about him.

The rest was history.