It seemed that school was destined to be Naruto's least favorite thing no matter where he went. After he had met that Sunset girl, he had been determined to help her. That was going to be harder than he originally thought, because it seemed that Sunset was only in one of his classes, and seemed intent on ignoring him. Whether this was because she didn't want him to be targeted too for being his friend, or because she simply didn't remember him, he wasn't sure. In any case, he was determined to get her attention during lunch, and show that Naruto Uzumaki never went back on his word.
Why are we doing this? It'd be a lot easier not to make any connections, we're just here for the mission, remember? Naruto groaned. The giant talking carpet always had to butt in when he wasn't wanted.
Kurama, he said, not making any effort to hide his irritation. Could you just stay out of this for once? You really aren't helping. Kurama smirked, or would have if he wasn't stuck inside the biggest dumb-ass in the history of dumb-asses.
What's wrong? he taunted. Afraid I'll ruin your chances with the ladies?
Naruto restrained himself from knocking himself out, and strangling the fox once he was with it in his sub-concious. But he wasn't sure that if the fox died, he would survive. And there was that small benefit of Kurama lending him chakra during fights. Besides, he had to get to the cafeteria and show Sunset that he was going to go through with what he'd said, and stick with her until everyone noticed how stupid they were being, and apologized to her. As he walked through the hallways, he couldn't help but wonder why whoever Anon-a-Miss was was doing this. What did they gain from it? The whole school arguing with each other didn't seem like the best reward to Naruto. He sighed, shaking his head, as he entered the cafeteria. Scanning the crowd for a familiar crop of red-and-yellow hair, he noticed something else. That rainbow haired jerk who had tried to convince him Sunset was guilty. She was talking with four other people, all of which had very colorful and vibrant hair. He glared at the back of her head and continued looking for Sunset. There! She was sitting at the table farthest away from everybody, looking as though she wished she could just disappear under the table. He walked over to her, glad he had found her. A few people watched him eagerly as he approached her, probably hoping he would punch her or something. However, they simply stared in disbelief when he sat down beside her, and started a casual conversation. Rainbow Dash pointed him out to her friends, and they looked on with disapproval.
"So, how's it going?" He asked, ignoring the looks he was getting. She jumped a little, obviously not expecting him to talk with her.
"It's going... Alright?" Her statement sounded more like a question, so Naruto took it that the day had been pretty shitty for her so far.
"Any one else believe it's not you?" He asked, hopeful that not everyone in this school were completely stupid.
"Well," she said hesitantly, "There are a few girls, Lyra, Bon Bon, and Octavia that I don't think completely believe it's me. They don't glare at me all the time like most people, but they don't stand up for me either, so I'm not sure." Naruto thought for a moment.
"Well," he said at last, "I was hoping at least ten people didn't believe it was you, but I suppose it's better than nothing."
She nodded.
"I thought everybody would think it was me after my friends abandoned me." she said sadly. He sat up instantly.
"Which ones used to be your friends?" he asked, trying to make it sound like a normal question.
Please tell me you're going to do what I think you're going to? Came Kurama's eager voice. Sunset pointed to Rainbow Dash and the other girls she was sitting with.
"Them," she said, looking as though she was trying not to cry. He stood up, and marched over to them, ignoring Sunset's protests.
"A very wise man once told me that, 'those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum.'" The girls looked at him questioningly.
"What are ya' tryin' ta say?" Asked one of them in a Southern accent.
"I'm saying that you are worse than scum." Naruto stated.
Ah, come on. Complained Kurama, I thought you were going to at least punch them. The rainbow haired one stood up.
"And how does us severing ties with a traitor make us scum?" she asked. Naruto sighed in disbelief.
"You don't even have any proof that she did it!" He shouted in exasperation. "Just because the profile has her colors doesn't mean it's her! That's just plain stupid! It's obvious someone's trying to frame her, but they're doing a terrible job of it. That just goes to show how stupid you all are." This time all five of them stood up. Rainbow walked up to him and jabbed a finger in his chest.
"Look mister," she said menacingly, "I don't know who the hell you think you are, but you can't just walk up to us and call us worse than scum. You don't even know what we've done, and let me tell you, if you did, you wouldn't be talking to us like that." Naruto stepped closer to her, they were face-to-face. There was anger blazing in his eyes.
"You're right," he said in a low voice, "I don't know what you've done. But I'm willing to bet it's nothing compared to what I've done." She stepped even closer, their foreheads were touching.
"Oh yeah?" She challenged, "How many times have you saved the world?" She expected him to be surprised, but instead he took a step backwards and crossed his arms, smirking.
"I was saving the world when I was thirteen." He said confidently. Rainbow was about to retort that lying also made you worse than scum, but Applejack put a hand on her shoulder.
"He's not lyin' Dash," She said in awe. "Least not as far as I can tell, and no one's ever been able to fool me." Dash stared at the teen. Either he was a really good liar, or he really had saved the world. Which was ridiculous, no thirteen year old couldsave the world. Which meant he was lying. Either way, she had to wipe that smug look off his face.
"I'm just going to ignore the fact that you just lied to my face," she said, "But I'm not just letting this go. After school. You, me, soccer field. Bring whoever you want to watch. It'll just help spread the word of how awesome I am." Now it was her turn to smirk confidently. No one could beat her at soccer. Naruto didn't lose his confident smirk. No one, (Except maybe Sasuke), had ever beat him at anything involving athletics.