Archive of Our Own ^beta

Naruto didn’t know how it happened. At some point, he was trying to fall asleep during his homeroom, but rather than that, he found himself staring at his arch nemesis, Sasuke Uchiha, and somehow he couldn’t look away.

Naruto could admit that Sasuke Uchiha was a lot of things. He was talented, intelligent, proud. However, Naruto would die, before he admitted that Sasuke was handsome. It would blow Uchiha’s ego out of proportions, so thank you very much, Naruto Uzumaki would keep his shameful admiration to himself.  Besides, Sasuke’s fan girls were excellent at fawning about Uchiha’s perfection.

In Naruto’s modest opinion, it was a lot of bullshit. Sasuke could be a handsome genius, but he was also a prick.

He didn’t socialize with his classmates, he spoke as he wishes and didn’t care about others’ feelings and his smugness and indifference made  Naruto very pissed.

Well, at least that had been before he took some time to really look at Sasuke.

They had homeroom on Tuesday and Friday with Kakashi.

They supposed to be discussing important topic concerning school life and their classmates, but once Kakashi had finally showed up, he’d just smiled, brought up  his little book and ignored all of his pupils. After that day, it became their “tradition”. Everybody was doing their own thing, as long as they didn’t interrupt Kakashi’s reading sessions. 

So most of Naruto’s friends were catching up with their other classes, Kiba always did his history homework last minute and Shikamaru would lazily point out Kiba’s spelling errors. Choji would ask Ino and Sakura, if they had any food left and munched on it till the end of class.

Naruto turned his head and saw a group of girls gossiping in the back of the classroom. Ino laughed a little too loud at Sakura’s remark , but somehow Kakashi didn’t even flinch.  Naruto found the atmosphere in the classroom strangely relaxing. It was loud as hell but somehow it remained him of good, vibrating energy.

He folded his arms on the desk top, laid his head and closed his eyes.  Naruto could hear Sakura’s rant about some new library rules, rustle of Choji’s snacks in the background and very faint beat. He opened his eyes to see the source of the sound and then he saw him.

Sasuke Uchiha sat on his left. His head was propped on his hand, headphones in his ears, eyes on the book in front of him.

He looked… beautiful.

 His jet-black  hair were swept behind his ear, giving Naruto clear image of Sasuke’s face. Those onyx eyes were moving from right to left, black lashes so long that Naruto was surprised Uchiha could even see through them. Sasuke’s skin was pale, but it looked like smooth surface of the finest porcelain. That kind of porcelain, Naruto’s mom would smack him around the head if he dared to touch it. 

Well, if he stretched his hand and touched Sasuke’s cheek, he would be probably smack as well. That’s why Naruto kept his hands under his head and just continued staring.

He moved to Uchiha’s nose, straight, small, fitting. Those sharp cheekbones. His lips were a bit chapped, but Naruto thought that somehow they looked better than girls’ plump, shinning lips. Naruto would be afraid that he’d mess up the lipstick if he wanted to kiss that girl. But those lips… Those lips looked like it would be really hard not to kiss them.

If Naruto could choose his looks, he would want to look like Sasuke. Maybe he could dye his hair black and let them grow a little bit. Also he could wear black contact lenses, to make his eyes so intense, like Sasuke’s. 

Still, he knew it wouldn’t work. 

Uchiha’s almond shape eyes were far better than Naruto’s big and round. Maybe if he wore makeup… Maybe Uchiha’s eyelashes were that long and dark because Sasuke was wearing makeup… He’d need to ask Sakura about it. 

His thoughts were spinning, eyes wandering from mouth to hair, from neck to eyelashes. The loud ringing of the bell sobered him up. He was watching as Sasuke took out his headphones,  gathered all his belongings and left the classroom.

Naruto stared at the place where Uchiha’s back vanished between the mass of other students, but he couldn’t bring himself to stand up. He knew that he hadn’t discover shit by noticing that Sasuke Uchiha was very handsome, but somehow after that homeroom, that thought sat differently in his mind.

Somehow that thought made his heart heavier and he didn’t like that.

“Guys, do you think I should dye my hair black?”

Five heads turned in Naruto direction.  Kiba was gapping at his friend with fries hanging out of his mouth, Choji took this moment to steal some of them from Kiba’s tray, Sakura nearly choked on her water, which earned her a firm clasp on the back from Ino, even Shikamaru looked a little bit surprise.

“Black?”Sakura asked with a doubt in her voice.

“Fuck no!”

Kiba was the first one to express his objection. The whole gang just nodded their heads in agreement.

“Don’t you think I would look cool?” to say Naruto sounded hopeful was an understatement.

“No, you would look like Sai, “ Shikamaru added.

“Ugh, noo, I don’t want that!”Naruto winced around his sandwich.

 His friends went back to their conversations paying Naruto no more attention. So maybe black hair wouldn’t look good on him.

Still, he thought that silky black hair looked cool as hell. Maybe not on Sai, but there were few people who looked good with it….

When Friday came, Naruto was exhausted.

He spent whole night studying to the most dreadful biology test ever, so he didn’t prepare for other classes. He was behind with his English reading list, so when Mrs. Kurenai decided to do a quick test, Naruto was on the brink of crying. His brain had been already fried because of this biology nonsense, and now he needed to wreck it one more time to write something convincing enough to pass.

He stumbled into his homeroom class and collapsed into the chair. Most of his friends gathered together to do their history homework but he just couldn’t bring himself to care. Sakura said that it took her five pages to write down all the answers for Iruka’s classes. Five fucking pages… Naruto was exhausted just thinking about it. He wanted to relax, he’s never done his history homework , so he definitely wouldn’t do it now.

Naruto hid his head in his arms and looked to the left.

There he was.

 Sasuke Uchiha, looking cool and sharp as ever.

He had to get a haircut, Naruto thought, because those face-framing bits were little shorter than before and were escaping from behind his ear. It looked good, showing the boy's jawline. Sasuke’s hand was constantly pushing those loose strands of hair behind his ear.  Blue eyes were following slender fingers and then Naruto noticed that Uchiha had nice hands. He remembered that Shikamaru had told them that he and Sasuke had been taught by the same piano teacher. After asking if Sasuke was any good, Shikamaru just smirked  and answered :

“The best, as expected from Uchiha”.

It came to his mind that Sasuke had to be the best at playing because of those slender fingers.

And it wasn’t fair. 

Some people weren’t born with such a  fortunate  genetics as  Mr. Long-fingers Uchiha, so it was harder for them to reach some keys and excel. Uchiha didn’t need to work hard to be the best piano player, his long fingers did the whole work for him.

Naruto winced at the thought and bore his intense blue eyes into Sasuke’s  beautiful, well-rested face. He didn’t look like someone who had worked his butt off to get a perfect score on a test or pulled all-nighter to catch up with all those readings they've had.  Fuck no! Uchiha looked like he rolled out of the finest artwork and wasn’t bother by this week chaos. His constant arrogance only brought out the fact that Uchiha knows he deserved the best score… because… because -  he’s fucking Uchiha!

Naruto, no longer exhausted but boiling with anger, was about to say something when he heard the school bell.

“Yo, Naruto, wake up, we need to move.”

Kiba and Shikamaru were already waiting for him at the front door, so he snatched his bag and walked up to them, trying to leave those haunting, black eyes behind.

“So, Kiba, did you do those answers for Iruka?” Naruto asked.

They were heading to another classroom, passing all the students with one thought in mind - after history, they would be free for the weekend.

“Nah ,man, I have something, like… one page? I don’t know how Sakura wrote five. That shit is impossible.”

Kiba shook his one page in front of Naruto’s face, before tugging it into his bag

“It’s not impossible, you need to use more sources than Wikipedia, “ Shikamaru shrugged and stepped inside their classroom.

“Yea, then how many pages do you have, genius?”Kiba snapped.

 “One and a half. Searching is troublesome.”

Naruto’s laugh rang louder than a bell, so it was no surprise he hadn’t heard Iruka’s steps approaching his desk.

Of course, Iruka had to ask Naruto about that stupid homework.

And of course, Naruto was the only one who hadn’t done anything from Iruka’s list of questions.  So now he needed to do those fucking five pages AND new homework on Tuesday AND extra essay as a punishment. That Friday had gone in history as a never-ending  tournament to test his patient and Naruto knew that someone up there must have plotted against him that whole week.

“It must be that fucking Uchiha,” Naruto growled to himself during his way back home.

 He’d parted ways with his friends and now was heading straight to his house. He dreamt about nice shower, steaming bowl of ramen made by his mom and winning few rounds in Mario Kart against his dad. Naruto has quicken his pace, thinking about comfort of his home.  Uchiha and his magical powers will not ruin this weekend for him!

“Mom, I’m home!” Naruto shouted into the emptiness of the house.

“How was it?!”His mother voice resonated through the hallway.

 Naruto didn’t bother with bringing his bag into the living room, he just dropped it in the middle of the hall and dragged himself toward the kitchen.

Kushina was drinking her coffee , gaze focused on the newspaper, which was sprawl on the kitchen table in front of her. 

“So how was it?” she repeated, still looking at the newspaper.

Naruto just dropped into the chair and threw his upper body on the table, covering Kushina’s magazine with his arms.

“Was it that bad?” she mused about her son’s dramatic entrance with a little smirk playing on her lips.

“It was the worst,” Naruto finally replayed. “Someone cast some kind of spell on me! I’m cursed, mother.”

Kushina hummed in agreement, stood from her chair and came closer to her son.

“I knew it might happened, after you broke that enchanted vase from Muromachi period,” Kushina added while ruffling his blond hair.

“I did what?!” Naruto’s scream made his mom laugh. She put her apron on and moved to the stove.

“Come on, curse child. I bet you want your last meal to be a miso ramen.”

Naruto really had tried to do his history homework.

At first, he was pissed at Iruka for calling him out on his laziness in front of the whole class, but after his dad’s speech about never giving up, Naruto felt inspired. Inspired enough to do the essay and the behindhand homework. Whole Saturday was devoted to history, with mess of notes scattered around the room, thousands cans of cola laying everywhere  and few old looking books his father brought for him. So he did, as much as he could, before his brain started to scramble.

 On Sunday, his mom found him sprawl on the rug with ink smudges on his hands and face, looking like a mad man and decided that he deserved a little break. That little break transformed into family movie marathon. Looking at his parents, cozying on the loveseat together, Naruto felt happiness babbling inside him. It definitely turned out to be pleasant ending of horrendous week.  They snacked, played some videogames and Naruto went back to his room with clear mind and light heart.

He jumped into the bed, checked his alarm clock and was ready to fall asleep. He looked at the mess in his room one last time and wondered if Sasuke’s room looked the same after his studying sessions.

Naruto decided to do the last part of his history homework on Monday, but the weather was too nice and Kiba’s sister who picked them after school brought Akamaru with her and Naruto couldn’t say “no” to that. He’d finally read those books for English classes, he got a 73% from his biology test so everything was fine. He convinced himself he would do his history homework tomorrow during homeroom.

Tuesday came and Naruto found himself, yet again, staring at Sasuke Uchiha.

His headphones were gone, the same book as always in front of him, his lips a little bit chapped.

 My god, he was breathtaking. His gaze wandered to Uchiha’s neck, long and slim, his pale skin without any blemishes.  Sasuke left few buttons of his white shirt undone, showing his collarbones. Naruto could see a silver chain and small pendant that disappeared behind folds of white shirt, but he wasn’t able to decipher the shape of it. Maybe it was some kind of family memento. Naruto had one too, he’s got it from his aunt Tsunade, a little blue crystal to guard him from demons and bad creatures of this world. Apparently, it wasn’t doing the best job,  because if it would then - 

Suddenly, pale hand reached towards Naruto and he stopped breathing.

He thought that maybe Sasuke was onto him and wanted to hit him because of all this staring. But Uchiha’s hand didn’t move any further. Blue eyes snapped to black ones, but they were still focused on the book. Naruto didn’t move and two fingers motioned for him to hurry up.

“Umm,” Naruto finally stuttered, messing his hair at the nape of his neck.

“Your notebook”.

Uchiha’s voice was bored, little raw, like he hadn’t spoken in a while. Uzumaki mindlessly reached for his history notebook and handed it to Sasuke.

“I didn’t do the homework,” Naruto admitted, confused as hell. If Uchiha wanted to copy his homework, then he chose the worst person for that. But Sasuke smirked, black eyes finally meeting blue.

“I know you didn’t, usuratonkachi.”   

Naruto watched as Sasuke fucking Uchiha opened his notebook on the page with their homework and started to scribble something.

He was stunned. Did he need to do something? Was is some kind of joke?

Like Naruto handed him his notebook, his own brain and hands betrayed him for a moment and now… Now Uchiha could write whatever he wanted. It better not be a word “penis” 10000 times, he’d almost chocked Sai after that prank. But Sasuke Uchiha wasn’t a prankster. He was too standoffish to do such things, so what was he doing with Naruto’s notebook?

In Naruto’s ears the ringing of the bell sounded louder than ever before, snapping him out of his daze. Uchiha tossed Naruto’s notebook on the desktop, gathered his things and walked out without a word. Tan fingers nibbled through paper pages until his eyes caught the unfamiliar handwriting.  There it was, his last piece of homework,  done by non other than Uchiha Sasuke.

He hadn’t heard his friends conversation while walking towards history class. But the only thoughts that  were spinning in his head were connected with Uchiha. What just happened? Why Sasuke did that? Why for Naruto? They weren’t friends, hell, Naruto hated Sasuke’s guts because Uchiha was a prick. But a prick wouldn’t do anything nice for him, right? So maybe Sasuke Uchiha could be nice… Maybe…

Of course, Iruka asked Naruto about his homework. Uzumaki handed him five pages of behindhand homework  and three pages of essay (he was quite proud of that one) with a blinding smile.

“What about today’s homework?” Iruka asked still hovering over Naruto’s desk.

“Oh, I have it. Look. See?”

Naruto dangled his notebook in front of Iruka’s face with a smug face. Iruka snatched it and scanned through the columns of text. After few tensed seconds, Naruto was grabbing his green notebook from Iruka’s hands.

“Okay. Read the answer in exercise 205.”

Naruto took a big breath and started reading. Uchiha’s style of writing was smooth, but his vocabulary was…debatable. Naruto had to concentrate really hard to not stutter on some very bizarre words, feeling kind of proud by getting to the end.

“Well done, Naruto. Shikamaru, do you mind reading next example?”

Naruto turned his head to catch a glimpse of Uchiha sitting behind him. Black eyes didn’t leave the pages of his own notebook, but Naruto could swear he saw a small smile playing on Uchiha’s lips.

It made his head light and his heart heavy.

 “Sakura, what do you think about Uchiha?”

Sakura stopped browsing through dresses  and turned her head towards Naruto. He was standing next to her, brows furrowed with concentration and arms full of girly clothes.

“You mean, Sasuke?”

His name rolled easily from Sakura’s tongue, but somehow Naruto couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud. He walked behind her through shopping aisles, patiently waiting for response.

“I think he is really talented, and smart, and responsible, strong, oh so strong and…”

“Okay, I think I had enough!”

Sakura laughed at her friend and tossed one more skirt to the pile in Naruto’s arms. She was leading him to the section of fitting rooms and  then walked into one of them.

“Why are you asking?”

“I don’t know… I think he is weird?”

“Weird?”

“Yeah, like… I know he is smart, but he can also be a huge dick.”

Before Sakura could deny his accusations, he continued.

” You know he can be a prick, he’d rejected you so many times in middle school, I’d seen you cried your eyes out because of this jerk.”

Sakura stayed quiet, only the rustle of her clothes gave it away that she was still there.

 “But he can also be nice, right?  So, he’s a jerk, and he is nice, so my question is… Who is Sasuke Uchiha, you know?”

Silence stretched between them and Naruto felt that maybe he shouldn’t be asking this questions. It was suspicious that he suddenly started to care about Sasuke and Sakura would start to ask questions and - and Naruto wouldn’t be able to answer without admitting that he was staring at Sasuke like a fucking creep, and Sakura would tell his other friends that he is a creep, and oh god - she will tell Sasuke, and oh, he'll need to move to different country!

While Naruto was planning his great escape with new name, something cool like, Scar or Menma, Sakura drew back the curtains of fitting room and stepped out in one of the dresses.

“Do you really want to know what I think about Sasuke?”

Naruto nodded looking at her reflection in the mirror.

“I don’t think that Sasuke is selfish and doesn’t care about other people. The way he rejected me was harsh and yes, I cried more than it was worth it, but… I was nagging him through  whole first year, if he had been nicer about it, he would only give me hope and I’d probably still be clinging to those feelings. He wasn’t interested, I was persistent. He did what was right for me. In a brutal, honest way.”

Sakura went back to the fitting room, leaving Naruto with his thoughts.

“So, if he isn’t that bad, why doesn’t he spend time with us?” Naruto asked still processing what Sakura said. ”I mean, “us”, like his classmates!” he added quickly hoping Sakura wouldn’t notice his nervous tone.

“Maybe because people see him thought the prism of his achievements, his family, his good looks . He is known as a "Genius Uchiha", "Number one Student", "Athlete Star", "Mister Handsome" or…” Sakura’s  head popped through the curtains “… a dick.”

She drew the curtains and appear in her regular uniform. She handed Naruto some clothes she would buy and left the rest next to the shopping assistance.

“I think at the end of the day, no one really has wondered who Sasuke Uchiha really is,” she continued while heading to the cash register.

“Well, not until now” she added with a smile pointed at Naruto.

Uzumaki couldn’t help a small blush creeping on his cheeks and he hated it.

On Friday, Naruto came prepared. He had his history homework with him; it was a drag but somehow the thought of Sasuke doing his work for him didn’t sit well with Naruto. So if Uchiha asked about his notebook again,  he would know what to do now. He didn’t know why, but he just assumed that Sasuke might do it again, because Sasuke Uchiha can be nice.

Sometimes.

After few minutes into homeroom, a pale arm stretched towards Naruto.

“I did my homework by myself,” Naruto said with pride.

Sasuke looked at him, his black eyes focused entirely on blue ones and Naruto forgot how to breath. Uchiha’s gaze was so intense as if he was trying to see through Uzumaki’s bluff.

“Oh yeah? Then show me.”

“I’m not gonna let you copy my homework, Uchiha. Do it on your own,” but despite his own words Naruto reached for his notebook and handed it to Sasuke.

His classmate studied the text in front of him for a few minutes, while Naruto was shamelessly gaping at Uchiha.

“Are you for real with this?”Sasuke sighed as he flipped the page.

“What?!”Naruto asked offended. He got into Sasuke’s personal space to look at his notebook and see what Uchiha meant by that remark.

“Do you honestly think Boshin War broke out because of enormous ninja frogs?”

Naruto laughed at Uchiha’s grimace and leant back in his chair with his arms behind his head.

“Well, no, but wouldn’t it be cooler?”Naruto answered with smug grin on his face.  Seeing Uchiha’s unimpressed face, he added . ”I couldn’t find the answer so…”

“So you’d rather make up your own history?”

Sasuke was smirking but not in mean way. It looked like early stages of the smile and Naruto felt pride babbling inside him.

“I would like that,” he answered with even bigger smile without moving his eyes from Sasuke.

Naruto knew very well that he was staring, but Sasuke was also glancing his way. He didn’t want to drop his gaze first, so he just let whose intense black eyes swallow him whole.  

Finally Uchiha looked back at his notebook. He fished out one blue pen and handed it to Naruto.

“Do you want to know the answer or we are keeping the ninja frogs?”

Naruto laughed at that louder than he intended and sent quick apologetic glance in Kakashi’s direction.

“Feel free to tell me,” he said and moved to the empty seat in front of Sasuke. They were gazing at Naruto’s  lopsided letters together, two pens ready to scribble.“ But I would like to keep the frogs . Maybe, like, in brackets.”

“Would you like to draw a frog on page margin?”

Naruto lifted his gaze to see mischievous sparkles dancing in Sasuke’s eyes.

“I can’t tell if you are joking or not, but I am so down.”

“Usuratonkachi.”

After that, Naruto in fact, scribbled some frogs with shurikens and asked Sasuke million questions about some made up ninja world. Sasuke patiently corrected Naruto’s mistakes in his homework and pointed plot holes in Uzumaki’s vision and somehow Naruto couldn’t stop smiling the whole time.  

“You seem really happy.”

Naruto looked at his friends taking their places in their classroom.  Well, Shikamaru sat on his right and scrolled through his phone. Kiba threw his bag across the classroom aiming for the last desk in the corner and sat on Naruto’s desk with smirk playing on his lips.

“Yeah, it’s almost weekend,” Naruto answered with huge smile.

“There is also that last hour of history with Iruka.”

“I don’t mind.”

Kiba and Shikamaru exchanged quick glances before looking back at Naruto.

“You don’t mind because Uchiha did the homework for you again?”

Blue eyes widened in shock. He shouldn’t be surprise that his friends noticed that he’d spent more time with Uchiha. He sat with Sasuke during their homeroom on last Friday, then on Tuesday and again, today. But it wasn’t like Sasuke was doing his homework for him, he’d corrected Naruto’s grammar mistakes or sometimes would add some interesting facts to help Naruto remember all this historic witchcraft. It was boring as hell, but somehow Uchiha made it more bearable.

 “Well, I’m not judging, I’m mostly impressed. I don’t know how you manage to make him do your homework but I have this one math quiz I need to do till Monday so, can you like….”

But Naruto wasn’t listening anymore.

So they thought he was using Sasuke for doing his homework and now Kiba wanted to do the same. That was such a dick move. Uzumaki felt anger sizzling under his skin.

“Kiba, you are such a dick!”a low growl escaped through Naruto’s throat making his friend stop talking.

“I’m not using him! We are just talking!”

Kiba moved from Naruto’s desk with surprise written all over his face.

“Then why do you always have your notebook between you two?”

Somehow he still wasn’t convinced that his friend was telling the truth.

“He is just correcting my mistakes! Shikamaru is doing the same thing for you.”

Kiba’s ears turned pink after mentioning that and even Shikamaru perked up from his phone to look at them. It seemed like Kiba wanted to add something else, but Naruto threw the notebook at his friend.

“You see? It’s my handwriting. No one is doing anything for me. He’s just helping.”

Kiba gave Naruto’s notebook back and sat back on his desk.

“Well, I believe you. It just seems odd, because you’ve never bothered to do your history homework before.”

The bell rang and rest of their classmates went inside the room.

Kiba clapped Naruto on the back and disappear in the back. He couldn’t see Uzumaki’s blush or hear his pounding heart. Naruto wouldn’t admit that, but he did his homework just because he wanted to talk with Sasuke during homeroom.

It was Saturday and Naruto was driving with his father to nearby city. Minato needed to snap some photos of few buildings for his new project and Naruto agreed to drive with him. The sky was clear, they were blasting some 80’s songs and Naruto felt almost content. Only there was that one small thought that was nagging him all the time…

“Dad.”

“Hmm?” Minato hummed giving Naruto confirmation that he was listening.

“How do you know if you are friends with someone?”  

Minato’s blue eyes moved from the road to his son.

“I wouldn’t thought you’d have a problem with identifying this. You have a lot of friends.”

Minato gave Naruto reassuring smile before looking back at the road.

 “I don’t mean like Shikamaru or Sakura. We’d known each other since primary school and even though I’ve met others, like Ino, Choji, Kiba in middle school, we spend so much time together they are like family to me. Sometimes I think they know me too well,”  Naruto laughed at the last part and looked at his dad’s profile.

Minato had that pleasant smile still on his face, his clear, blue eyes on the road and he waited patiently for his son to continue.  After few minutes Naruto gathered up all his courage and hoped his dad would understand.

“I mean when you meet someone new… Sometimes… Sometimes it’s hard to know if somebody likes you.”

Naruto spitted the last words so quickly, he wasn’t sure if his dad was able to catch them. But Minato only hummed in agreement, one hand on the steering wheel, other one adjusted the volume of the music. Something dropped in Naruto’s stomach, sensing “the serious talk” signals and he wasn’t sure he wanted to talk about it anymore.

“I think that when you are young, it’s really easy to become friends with anyone. You sit next to them, ask them about their favourite Pokémon and suddenly, you’re friends.”

Naruto smiled at the memory of meeting Sakura. He felt that some tension was already leaving his body.

“However, when you are older, it’s harder to open up to someone new. So I think you need to feel comfortable around this person and be interested in them. You need to care enough to keep getting back to them.  At one point, you will see, that you were friends with some people not because you cared about them, but because they were simple around.  And once they moved, you don’t get back to them and that’s okay. Sometimes that happened.”

Minato stopped at the traffic lights and brought his whole attention to Naruto.

“My point is, you are building your friendship by trying to find ways to be closer to this person and spend more time with them.  And if they do the same, then it’s fair to say, it might be a beginning of something beautiful.”

Naruto looked at his grinning dad and couldn’t stop his own smile. He felt relived and excited. This nagging thought wasn’t so heavy anymore, now it was a confirmation that he was willing to invest his time in getting to know Sasuke.

“Did you know, that I used to stare at your mom during our classes all the time?”

“What?!”

“She was really beautiful, still is, but I’d just stared at her until she caught me and confronted me about it. She asked me if I would stopped, if she sits with me, and that’s how it all started.”

Before Naruto could say anything, Minato was winking at his son and blasting “Take on me” at full volume.

“Soooo,” Naruto started and collapsed into the chair in front of Sasuke’s desk. “No history homework today.”

Sasuke looked at him through those thick lashes, a small smirk on his lips.

“I think Iruka is planning something big that’s why he went easy on us.”

Naruto sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Can we not talk about history for one hour?”

Naruto saw as Sasuke’s smirk grew wilder and morphed into “almost-smile”. He loved when Sasuke does that. He looked like a very pleased cat, whose victim fell right into his trap.

“Want to talk about those lizard people running the world again?”

“Would you just let it go already?”Naruto laughed and punched Uchiha playfully on the arm. “I told you it was just a theory.”

Sasuke just smiled and went back to his book. Naruto got into Sasuke’s personal space to read something from the book. Sasuke didn’t flinch even when Naruto’s hair tickled his nose.

“Watchaaa reading?”

Sasuke flashed the front page of the book in front of Naruto face. There was some guy in the black coat surrounded by crows.

 “Is it any good?”

“Not bad. I have few pages left so we will see about the ending.”

“Could I borrow it?”

Sasuke lifted his head nearly bumping noses with Naruto.

“I didn’t know you are into crime fiction,” Uchiha said with some doze of suspicion.

“Well, I don’t know, I’ve never read one.”

“And you want to read one now?”

“Yeah, you said it’s good, so why not?

Sasuke locked his gaze with Naruto, contemplating the idea. Uzumaki flashed him his best smile, blue eyes sparkling with hope and Sasuke’s mouth flinched. He turned his head and Naruto caught the slightest shade of red covering Uchiha’s ears.

“Fine, I give it to you after history.”

“Listen, everyone,” Iruka’s booming voice pierced the silence. “I would like to talk about our next test.”

“Here we go again," Shikamaru whispered and small sight escaped his mouth.

“According to the schedule, you suppose to have your test next week,” a grumble could be heard around the classroom.

“Yeah, keep that groaning to yourself because that is not the end of the story,” Iruka declared and leaned against his desk with crossed arms. “I asked your homeroom teacher if he could write that down in your register. However, you are apparently “very busy” next week and I cannot  do the test then. The closest free date is after spring break and unfortunately, I don’t think it would be fair to do it after 3 weeks.”

Iruka looked at his students who waited with anticipation on the development of the story.

“There will be no test.”

Cheering and laughter could be heard around the classroom and it made Iruka smile a little bit.

“HOWEVER,” he added. His students’ eyes were again on him, smiles slowly deflecting.

“There will be a project AND the grade from it will count as a one from a test. I want you to pick one Japanese era and describe it. I’ll give you a list of questions which you need to answer. Any additional information will count as extra points. You can do it on your own or in pairs.”

Naruto turned his head so slightly to catch Sasuke’s eyes, but quickly turned to look ahead, when Iruka passed his desk.

“There is a small list of 100 most important questions and normally I would give you a week to do it, but you can hand it back after the spring break.”

Iruka started handing them the list of questions.

“You have time until the end of the class to give me the name of the era and your partner. Just, please, try to choose different eras and split your work equally. If you have more questions, I would be glad to answer them.“

The frenzy of picking partners started. Whispers and shuffling of the feet  could be heard across the classroom, few students moved already  in the direction of Iruka’s desk to have first dibs on certain eras.  Naruto looked at the list and frowned. What the fuck is “depreciations” or…

“Sasuke, do you want to be partners?” 

Naruto stopped reading. It took all of his strength to not whip his head around and murder Sai on the spot.

“No.”

“Why not, Sasuke? I think we would be great partners”

“I’ve already have a partner.”

“Oh, that’s too bad.”

Naruto saw Sai moving past him to Iruka’s desk and shot daggers at his back. That motherfucker.

Naruto turned around to look properly at Sasuke. He already was writing and underlining some paragraphs and for a moment Naruto thought that maybe Sasuke wanted to work alone.

“Oi, I was thinking about Kamakura.”

“ Of course you would want to write about Kamakura,” Sasuke murmured and rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, because of samurai, bastards! You are into that rebellion and clan stuff so, it will be a good era for us.”

Naruto caught Sasuke’s eyes.

It became their “thing.”

They talked, bickered and laughed like Naruto did with his other friends, but no one was looking at him like Sasuke.

His gaze was challenging, intense, as if Sasuke was trying to intimidate Naruto.  But Uzumaki only raised his chin in impudent manner and smiled cheekily.

“Fine.”

Sasuke shifted in his seat and without breaking the eye contact, brought his face closer to Naruto.

“But don’t complain that it’s too much work.”

Sasuke stood up and with smug face walked up to Iruka’s desk. Only after that, Naruto was able to calm down his throbbing heart and flaming-hot cheeks.

Naruto was laying on the sofa in his living room, one arm tucked behind his head, the other one held Sasuke’s crime novel. Naruto had to admit that he was enjoying it, there were parts describing fight scenes and he even laughed few times at main character’s snarky comments. It took him some time to understand more complicated mysteries, but overall he was hooked.

He heard the sound of some notification on his phone and snatched it from his pocket.

“Is it yours?!” his mom shouted from the kitchen.

His parents took upon themselves to make peking duck for diner and they didn't budge from in the kitchen whole afternoon.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s mine.”

Naruto shot quick message to Kiba about some gaming tournament and scrolled through his phone. His eyes caught Sasuke’s name in the contact list.

They decided to exchange numbers because of the project reasons, of course.  Naruto offered they could meet  last weekend but Sasuke was out of town with family obligations and he will text Naruto, when he will be back.

Uzumaki pondered for a minute, fingers hovering over Sasuke’s name and then opened the message app.

Will it be explain what happened to the younger brother or I am supposed to figure it out on my own?

He couldn’t resist a smile splitting his face as he sent the message.

“Who was it?”

His mom appeared out of nowhere at the end of the sofa. She tapped his legs and waited to him to move them, so she could sit.

“Uuuum, Kiba.”

“Kiba?” Kushina asked, raising her one brow.  “And you're so happy, because he finally agreed to steal a dog for you?”

She nailed her eyes on her son, who hid his phone behind his back hurriedly.

“I’m still working on it,” Naruto answered and hid his face behind a book.

“What are you reading?” His mom moved closer to examine a book.

“It’s a detective story.”

“Hmm, a manga?”

“No, mom! A book! I also read books!

Naruto was trying to hide his blush behind the covers. He still felt Kushina’s attentive gaze on him.

“Interesting…” she commented and leant back on the couch with crossed arms and knowing smile.

Naruto was hoping for any type of distraction and at that moment his dad appeared in the living room.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Reading!” Naruto shook the book in front of his parents’ faces franticly, hoping they would leave him alone.

“What is it?”

“A detective story,” his mother answered and Naruto could feel her smirk growing wilder.

“Oh, is it a manga?” his dad asked innocently.

He heard his mom’s laughter, loud and honest, booming through the living room and he felt his blush spreading through his whole body. He mustered enough courage to lift his eyes from the book and look at his dad.

“It’s a book I borrowed from my friend.”

Minato’s eyes softened at that remark and  the same pleasant smile from the car ride, appeared on his lips. He placed his hand on Kushina’s shoulder and automatically she reached to capture her husband’s hand.

Naruto looked at his parents gazing at each other, happily and lovingly, and neither of them wanted to look away.

Sasuke came back on Monday and they decided to meet in Uchiha’s house on Tuesday.

 Naruto hopped out of the bus and turned into one of the lanes. His heart was hammering in his ribcage, his palms were getting more sweaty with every step. He got past the sign with paper fan symbol, announcing that he was entering Uchiha’s district. Naruto has been in those type of neighborhood before, when he’d visited Choji. He thought it was kind of cool to have your family in one place. Uchiha’s district was much bigger than Akimichi’s, so Naruto kept his gaze on his phone to not miss the marker. After few minutes, he reached his destination and looked up. He stood in front of the white mansion with black gates. He looked around for an intercom and before he could press the button, he heard a buzz and the gates were slowly opening. 

Naruto saw Sasuke waiting for him in front of the mansion, so he jogged up to his friend.

“I see you didn’t get lost.”

Naruto answered with matching smirk and followed Sasuke into the house.

“I’m very good with directions.”

Sasuke snorted and climbed the stairs. Naruto was trotting behind him and soaking in his surroundings.

“Are you looking for embarrassing photos?” Sasuke asked, sending his friend a quick glance.

“Yeah, that, and your parents.”

Sasuke led Naruto into his bedroom.

The first thing that caught his interest was the cleanliness of this place.

Naruto stepped it, eyes on the walls looking for anything interesting, but before he was able to find anything, the smell hit him.

Suddenly, he couldn’t concentrate on anything other than this scent. Sasuke’s room smelt rich, little smoky and so much like Uchiha. Naruto knew his friend said something but his head was spinning and his heart wouldn’t stop hammering.

“Oi, usuratonkachi, are you listening?”

Naruto snapped out of his daze and looked at Sasuke. He was sitting on the spinning hair, black eyes focused on him.

“What?”

“I said that my mom went to my grandparents and my dad’s at work.”

Naruto hummed in response and threw himself on Uchiha’s bed. He instantly regretted it because Sasuke’s smell was even more intense there. He needed to distract himself with something, otherwise he feared he would lose his mind, and then he felt something heavy hitting his side.

“Hey! That hurt, you bastard!” Naruto yelled and pointed accusatory finger at Uchiha. Sasuke was already searching something on his computer and only smirked at that remark.

“Just pick up the book and find the answer for number 2.”

“What about 54?”

There was a rustle of papers then silence. Sasuke typed something but he wasn’t pleased with the answer because his eyes narrowed and his brows drew a little bit closer. Naruto observed his friend’s face from his safe spot on the bed as he munched on the ending of his pencil.

“It’s the one about architecture, right? There is this book in library but I wasn’t able to check it out.”

Naruto moved around his pile of notes and looked at Sasuke’s screen.

“But it says it’s available.”

“I know what it says, usuratonkachi,” Sasuke hissed. “But they came out with new fucked up rules and you can’t check out some books, even if it says they’re available.”

Naruto listened to Sasuke’s little rant with smile on his face and a warm feeling in his belly.

Sasuke Uchiha not only appeared to be not so uptight (because of his cursing), but he also is a little bit of a nerd(with his emotional approach towards library rules, like Sakura).

 Rather then proclaiming his discovery out loud, Naruto pondered about the issue.

“I can ask my dad, if he has this book.”

Feeling Sasuke’s gaze on himself, Naruto added.

“He’s an architect. He has a lot of different books about historical building so maybe he has this one.”

Sasuke hummed in agreement, small smile tugging at his lips.

“Okay then, we will take care of it next time.”

Naruto was about to ask Sasuke if he wanted to come to his place next time, but an unfamiliar voice prevented him.

“Sasuke, mom's back.”

The metal handle jiggered and someone was standing in the doorway.

“Oh, hello.”

Naruto lifted his gaze and saw a young man entering the bedroom. His black hair were tied in a messy bun ,with few strands around his face, his eyes were more narrow than Sasuke’s but equally intense.

“I’m Itachi, Sasuke’s brother.”

He reached his hand in Naruto’s direction and Uzumaki clasped their hands and shook it firmly.

“Naruto Uzumaki.”

Itachi smiled, that pleasant smile that reached the eyes and shifted his attention to Sasuke.

“Mom and I can prepare dinner, if you two are hungry.”

Sasuke saved their work and span around in his chair to look at the Itachi. Black met black, but there was something soft in their eyes, some warm sparkles. 

“Yeah, that would be great. Thank you, Itachi.”

Itachi turn around to head out of the room

“Make a big portion for Naruto. He eats a lot.”

“Hey!”

Itachi’s laugh was deep-throated and warm.

Naruto was following Sasuke around the mansion. He stopped every so often and pointed at some photos, asked million question and Sasuke needed to drag him to the kitchen. They stumbled into the room, hand in hand, Naruto laughing loudly, Sasuke smirking with small blush on his cheeks.

“Mom, this is Naruto,” Sasuke said before moving closer to the dining table.

Naruto looked around the kitchen and then his eyes stopped on the most beautiful woman he ever saw.  

“Hello, Naruto,” Mikoto exclaimed, moving around the counter. “You were in the same class as Sasuke in the middle school, right? I remember you when you were this big.”

Sasuke’s mom has the same smile as Itachi, warm and reaching her pretty black eyes.  Naruto nodded his head in her direction with a blush creeping on his face. He didn’t know what to do, so he just followed Sasuke to the dining area and sat in front of his friend. Itachi brought them their dishes and sat on Naruto’s right.

“Sasuke said you like ramen, but our local shop was out of beef.”

She placed the last dishes on the table and sat next to Sasuke.

“I hope tonkatsu is okay.”

She smiled  and Naruto’s face was on fire.

“It’s… it’s perfect,” he stuttered.

He saw out of the corner of his eye that Sasuke and Itachi exchanged some knowing glances and few smirks. Naruto listened to Uchiha’s conversation, something about Itachi’s travels, their aunt moving in with her new boyfriend, the extension of their training grounds.

 He snatched some shredded cabbage and lifted his gaze from the dish. Sasuke was talking to Mikoto about their history project and Naruto found himself staring at his friend and his mom.

They looked the same.

 Sasuke was a carbon copy of his mother. Of course, she had longer hair, curling at the ends, but their faces were almost identical. Naruto looked at Sasuke’s cheekbones more prominent than his mother’s and at Mikoto’s wrinkles around her eyes and mouth.  Itachi’s smile and eyes carries the same warmness as his mother’s,  even though his features were more sharp than Sasuke’s.

Naruto snapped out of his daze, when a pair of chopsticks snatched the last piece of pork from his plate. He moved his gaze and met black eyes with mischievous sparks staring at him. Small smile started tugging at his lips and the nervousness  in his stomach was replaced with something warm and vibrant.

After the dinner, Naruto thanked for Uchiha’s hospitality and swamped Sasuke’s mom with compliments about the dish. Mikoto laughed and assured him that next time she’ll prepare some ramen.

“Did you hear that, Sasuke? I’m invited for the next time,”  Naruto gashed with smugness written all over his face.

Sasuke rolled his eyes as Naruto flashed his mom the most charming smile.

They walked back to Sasuke’s room and Uzumaki started to gather his things. Sasuke offered to walk him to the gates. Uzumaki waved one last time to Mikoto and Itachi and with a little push from Sasuke, walked out of the door.

Naruto stuffed his hands in the pocket of his jacket and watched as Sasuke breathed out some hot air. The wind was messing Uchiha’s hair so he swept long stands behind his ear.

“You know,” Naruto started, looking ahead. “Your mom is really beautiful.”

Sasuke smiled and hummed in agreement. They were standing in front of the gates.

“I get that a lot.”

“You look just like her.”

Uchiha looked caught off-guard, with his almond eyes widened, lips slightly parted. Oh, yes, Sasuke Uchiha was so beautiful like that.

Naruto cleared his throat and looked everywhere except at his friend.

“So, next time in my place?”

He caught out of the corner of his eyes small nod and without a word Naruto disappeared in the darkness of the streets.

Naruto laughed at Kiba’s joke and his friend took the chance to deliver fatal blow.

“Fuuuck,” Naruto cursed and tried to smash some button but it was too late, the screen flashed with animations announcing  Kiba’s win.

“That’s low, man,” Uzumaki hissed and threw his controller at Shikamaru. “Shika, kick his ass for me.”

Naruto jumped on the bean bag, next to Choji and stole handful of m&m’s from the pack. He heard his friends’ bickering in the background, Akamaru’s barking outside, Choji’s fingers tapping and he felt content. He missed hanging out with his friends.

“Naruto, help!” 

Naruto turned his head towards Choji, who was frowning at his phone.

“What’s up?”

“Karui is coming to Konoha next week and I want to take her somewhere nice,” Akimichi said, scrolling franticly through his phone.

“I don’t know…Maybe to the cinema?” Naruto offered and stuffed more m&m’s into his mouth. 

“That’s your peak of romanticism, Uzumaki?” Kiba barked with smug smirk on his lips. ”I pity your future girlfriend.”

Naruto blushed at that and threw some candies at Kiba’s head.

“What the fuck that supposed to mean?!”

“You have no game, man.”

“I have more game than you!”

“Oh yeah? I have more game than you and Uchiha together!”

“No one has more game than Uchiha,” Shikamaru interjected. “ He just looks at a girl and she’s ready to have his babies.”

Kiba went on how he would beat Uchiha in picking girls and Naruto let Shikamaru’s words just sink in.  It’s interesting why Sasuke didn’t have a girlfriend. Maybe he was with someone, just didn’t flaunt his girlfriend around and kept her to himself. Maybe it was someone older or maybe even famous… Sasuke could easily date some beautiful model.

Suddenly, Naruto felt sick.

“Well, thank you guys for your help…” Choji mumbled with quiet sigh.

Three heads snapped back to Choji with apologetic smiles.

“I took Temari to the theme park last time she was here on spring break,” Shikamaru offered, pushing some button’s and kicking Kiba’s character across the screen. “There is this one with Ninja Warriors obstacle course, some huge rides and a lot of food. I thought it would be troublesome, but it was a lot of fun.”

Choji flashed a toothy smile towards Shikamaru, gave him thumbs up and got back to his phone. Naruto saw like Shikamaru destroyed Kiba’s character with few moves and it was his turn, but he was glad that Inuzuka demanded a rematch, because he wouldn’t be able to focus on the game.

The only thought that was poisoning his mind was the image of Sasuke Uchiha with his secret girlfriend on a date.

On the way back from Kiba’s house, Naruto got a message.

What the fuck is this?

To the message was attached the drawing of a toad with kiseru pipe in his mouth. Naruto snickered to himself and shot Sasuke replay.

Thats Gamabunta

Few second later came another message.

My mom finds this entertaining but I don’t care about your frogs. Where is the answer to 22?

Naruto could imagine Mikoto’s pleasant smile and Sasuke’s narrowed eyes and it made that fuzzy feeling in his belly grow.

Come tomorrow to my place and I show you

Message send. Naruto held his phone with hammering heart.

 “No game, ha Kiba? ”he thought. “That was smooth as fuck.”

Naruto was trying to push some garbage behind his closet, when he heard the bell. He dashed downstairs.

His parents were laying on the sofa in living room and watching some TV. Uzumaki heard the bell one more time and sprinted before anyone could get to the door.

“Hey,” he panted with huge smile on his face.

“Hi,” Sasuke replayed, eyeing his friend, smug smile on his lips. “You couldn’t wait to see me, that’s why you dashed to the door?”

He let himself in and hung his jacket.

“Bastard,” Uzumaki rasped, sliding his gaze down.

Sasuke was wearing one of those shirts with low, round neckline, which showed his collarbones. When he ducked to take off his shoes, Naruto needed to control himself not to look at Uchiha’s chest. I didn't help that the whole hall was smelling like Sasuke and Naruto felt like he was about to lose his mind.

“May I come in?” Sasuke asked after a while of not moving from the corridor.

“Yeah, yeah,” Naruto answered and moved passed his friend. “My parents are in the living room.”

Sasuke said nothing, just followed Naruto into the house. Uzumaki took a big breath and entered the room, Uchiha close on his heels. His parents were now sitting on the sofa, TV silenced.

“Mom, dad, this is Sasuke.”

When his parents looked at Sasuke, Naruto saw something flicked in their eyes. Kushina moved first with amused smile and stretched hand.

“My, my, aren’t you handsome,” she sang after shaking Sasuke’s hand.

“Mom!” Naruto snapped.

“What? It’s true!”

Sasuke saw a blush creeping on Naruto’s cheeks and Kushina’s teasing smile grew even bigger.

“Thank you and thank you for having me,” Sasuke replied with small bow.

“Oh, he’s handsome and polite, Minato. I like him,” Kushina whispered to her husband, loud enough for Naruto to hear.

“Mom,” Naruto hissed through his teeth.

Sasuke caught the sight of Naruto’s mom ruffling Uzumaki’s hair and hugging him, before Minato moved in front of them.

“Nice to meet you, Sasuke.”

Minato shook Sasuke’s hand and smiled, when Sasuke returned the courtesy.

“Were you with Naruto in middle school?”

“Yeah, we were in the same class.”

“Oh, I remember you from Little Athlete Competition! You beat school record in hurdle races, which I’ve established. I was very impressed.”

Sasuke opened his mouth to say something, but felt Naruto’s hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s amazing, but we have a very important history project so we will be going now.”

Naruto tugged Sasuke’s arm in the direction of his room. He heard his mom snickering in the background and he hoped he will survive dinner in one piece.

“So, how’s your project?”

Naruto looked at his mom, who was cleaning some dishes after dinner.

Sasuke left awhile back, Itachi picked him up, so Naruto didn’t even have a chance to walk him to the bus stop. However, he offered to help his mom clean and now was wiping some pots.

“Oh, we finished!” Naruto boasted with a smile. “I mean, almost. Sasuke said we need to polish some answers  and we will be done on Sunday. Next time we are meeting in his house. His mom promised me some ramen!”

Naruto’s eyes sparkled with excitement as his mom handed him another pan.

“Seems like you are close.”

Naruto froze with a rag and a pan in his hands.

“Why… um, why would you say that?”

His mom raised her gaze and shot her son her best slick smile.

“I watched you two during dinner. You bickered with each other like an old couple. I think Sasuke might be even better at teasing you than I am. Next time I'll invite him to swap some advises and techniques.”

Kushina wiggled her eyebrows at him and Naruto moved away from her with a laugh.

“Besides, you gave him your last dim sum. If it isn’t love, then I don’t know what it is.”

Something heavy fell in Naruto’s stomach. He dropped his gaze on the floor and felt like something started to tighten around his throat.

 He wasn’t ready for this conversation.

He avoided the “L” word for so long, because he wasn’t ready for consequences it will bring. If he felt something like that for Sasuke, then that meant… It meant he was…

“It’s okay, Naruto.”

He felt his moms arms around him and he lost it. The ugliest sob escaped his throat and he started crying his eyes out in his mom’s shoulder. He heard her reassuring words on repeat.

Even if he was now taller than her, he let her cover him whole and just hold until he could breathe again.

Sunday came sooner than he expected and Naruto found himself yet again in Sasuke’s room, with rich scent overpowering him.

He flipped through their notes and wondered what else could they add.

“So, I think this is our final version.”

Sasuke motioned for Naruto to come closer and looked at the screen. Uzumaki scanned through columns of text, perfectly edited, with footnotes and everything. 

“Happy?” Sasuke asked, smirking at Naruto.

“Yeah, of course I am.”

But the truth was, Naruto felt it was a bitter-sweet victory. They managed to wrap up their project and still had one week of spring break. It would be the best work he handed and probably it will be the highest grade he would ever get in history. Hell, he even ate three bowls of one of the best ramen ever. Yet still, Naruto didn’t feel like cerebrating.

It was also the end of his meetings with Sasuke. He looked at his friend and felt something shifted inside him.

Sasuke’s eyes narrowed and he was about to say something, but the knocking on the door stopped him.

“Come in.”

Mikoto’s smile dropped a little when she saw intense looks on both of their faces.

“Oh, did I interrupt your studying?

She hesitated with her hand still on the door knob.

“We just finished.”

“Oh, so you’re free?”

Sasuke nodded and his mom came into the room.

“Could you take some ramen to grandpa and grandma while it’s still warm?”

Mikoto gave his son entreating smile. Sasuke moved his gaze from his mother to Naruto.

“Um, yea, I was about to head home so… ” Naruto started . He felt that Sasuke’s gaze on him intensify.

“Perfect, you can give me a lift.”

Naruto froze with a bag in his hand and dumbfounded expression. Mikoto looked from one boy to another and opened her mouth to say something, but flicker in Sasuke’s eye made her changed her mind.

“So the broth in blue container is for grandpa, it’s the spicy one. And the red on is for grandma. In the green container are all the extra ingredients. I also packed some tofu.”

Naruto watched with amusement as Sasuke juggled all the containers in both hands, before putting them into the bag.

“And this one,” Mikoto started, turning towards Naruto with another bag. “Is for you, Naruto.”

Uzumaki took the bag with big smile.

“Thank you! It was so good! I’ll eat it as soon as I get home.”

Mikoto laughed and walked them to the driveway. 

“I’m glad you like it.”

Sasuke without a word went to the car and waited for his friend.

Naruto sent Mikoto his last smile but it didn’t reach his eyes. He was ready to hop into the car, but stopped with his hand on door knob.  Suddenly , he turned around and hugged surprised Mikoto.

“Thanks… for everything.”

Mikoto cautiously patted him on the back.

“No problem, love. See you next time.”

Naruto nodded, before stepping into the car. Sasuke followed after him and both of them buckled up their seatbelts. Naruto started the engine and backed from a driveway. They passed the gates in silence.

“Just so you know… My mother is married.”

Naruto looked at Sasuke, but Uchiha kept his gaze on the road ahead.

 “Fuck you,” Naruto snapped. “Will you tell me where to go or what?!”

Sasuke motioned to drive straight.

There it was again. Silence.

Naruto’s hand moved to the radio and he pressed play. The verse of “The Heat of the moment” boomed loudly, before Naruto was able to turn the volume down.

“Really?” Sasuke asked with laughter.

“It’s my dad’s car!” Naruto complained. “Besides, that’s a good song!”

It was already dark, so Naruto drove slowly through Uchiha’s district. The song was quietly playing in the background, his eyes every so often moving to Sasuke.

Uchiha motioned for Naruto to turn left. They drove a little bit without talking, Naruto was humming the song and preparing himself to ask Sasuke something.

“You see that street? We need to turn there.”

Naruto’s eyes caught something and he almost stopped the car.

“Woow, Sasuke! Sasuke look! You see? So many dogs!”

Naruto pointed at the garden they drove by. He was glued to the window as he watched dogs playing and running around.

“ I can see, Naruto,” Sasuke answered with amusement in his voice. “ They are Kakashi’s dogs.”

“No fucking way! I didn’t know he has dogs! How do you know they are Kakashi’s? Wait… What is Kakashi even doing in Uchiha’s district?”

“He stays in my uncle’s house. Sometimes I see him walking the dogs, but mostly they play in the garden.”

“They are so cool. How many are there? Like ten, twelve?”

“More like eight.”

Sasuke shook his head, when Naruto scowled out loud, dogs disappearing in the distance.

“You really like dogs, ha?”

Naruto smiled at that, his blue eyes reflecting the lights of the street lamps.

“Dogs are the best. I always wanted one.”

Sasuke motioned for Naruto to turn in the next lane.

“I even tried to convinced Kiba to steal one for me, from his breeding.”

Sasuke laughed at that and Naruto was glad that they stopped at the traffic lights so he could look at Uchiha properly. Sasuke looked so young when he laughed, it suited him so much. He was even more beautiful than normally.

“Sasuke.”

Black eyes moved to looked at him. Naruto took big breath before stuttering:

“What do you do next week?”

Sasuke arched one of his brow. Naruto looked at him expectantly .

 Loud honk behind them broke their eye contact. Naruto cursed and looked at the light. He drove ahead.

“It’s here.”

Naruto parked the car in the driveway and looked at the house. He wrinkled his nose and franticly looked around.

“Wait a minute… That’s the fucking same street you live on!”

Sasuke’s smile grew as he unbuckled his seatbelts.

“I thought you would notice sooner. Maybe you are not so good with directions after all.”

Sasuke swung the door open, took his bag and stepped out of the car.

“Naruto.”

He rested his arm on the hood of the car and ducked his head to see the driver. Naruto looked at him with big, blue eyes and held his breath.

“I’m mostly free next week,” Sasuke answered with a smile. “Text me when you get home.”

Naruto was in the middle of very heated conversation with Sasuke why all Pixar movies are sharing the same universe, when Sakura's incoming call covered his whole screen.

“What are you doing on Wednesday?” Sakura fired a question without “hello”.

“I guess I am seeing you?”

“That’s a very good answer,” Sakura giggled on the other end of the phone.

Naruto was ramming around the kitchen cupboards in search for something sweet, but to no avail. Where the fuck were his cookies?

 “I was thinking about going to the cinema. There is this new movie about that girl who is reliving one day in her live over and over again. Do you remember it? I sent you a trailer awhile ago. So, her friends and she, they are hanging out together, going to parties, because they are ending high school. Isn’t it relatable? I thought we might gather the whole gang and watch it, maybe go to that nice café after that.  I talked with Ino, she is sooo in,” Sakura stopped her rant and was welcomed with silence. “ Naruto, what do you think?”

Naruto munched on some granola he found. He was almost certain that his dad ate his cookies last night. Yeah, now he will fucking eat his granola, how about that.

“Um, yeah, I’m down to watch a movie,” Naruto responded and heard Sakura’s triumphal yelp through the phone. “But I don’t know about the others. Kiba’s been with his family to that dog event  or something, Shika is in Suna and Choji is spending time with Karui.”

Naruto could almost hear Sakura’s gear turning in her head.

“Oh well, I guess it’s just Ino, you and I, then.” Sakura exclaimed .

Uzumaki hummed in agreement and stuffed more granola into his mouth.

“Do you think Sasuke would want to come with us?”

Naruto chocked a little bit at that comment.

“I can ask him, I guess.”

“That would be great. I’ll make a group chat and we will choose a cinema and an hour. Later, Naruto!”

Sakura hung up and Naruto stood alone in the kitchen, with all the cupboard opened, granola spilled on the counter, TV humming in the background. 

Then he heard the bleep of the message and smiled.

The thought that his first meeting with Sasuke, outside the school and without studying , would also be with the girls, bogged Naruto, so he decided to surprise Sasuke.

It was, Tuesday, around  5 o’clock and Naruto was climbing one of the highest mountains in Konoha.

“When I was a kid, it was so much easier,” he rasped and threw his head back to take a breath.

“Or you’re just not in shape, usuratonkachi.”

Sasuke was skipping some stones and climbing like he knew this path at the back of his hand. He passed Naruto with cat like grace and looked and him with smirk playing on his lips.

“I’m not in shape?! Then watch me!”  

Naruto sprinted to the top, nearly tripping on the last rock but managed to keep balance last second.

“What were you saying, Sa-su-ke?”

“That you are not in shape, moron. Look at you, you will cough your lungs out any minute.”

“No, I will not!”

Of course, after that Naruto started coughing franticly because of all that cold air tickling his lungs.

“You’re such a moron.” Sasuke sighed, but nevertheless checked on his friend.

“Where now?”

Naruto motioned at the slowly turning green bushes. Sasuke looked skeptical, but Naruto tugged at his sleeve and he moved after Uzumaki. They needed to bow their heads because of all the branches sticking in different direction and walked like this for few minutes.

“There it is!”

Sasuke raised his head and saw a patch of green grass and a cliff. Naruto sat at the end of it and  patted a spot next to him.  Sasuke joined his friend and threw his legs over the cliff.

“So, what do you think?” Naruto asked, small smile playing on his lips.

“It’s nice, really quiet...” Sasuke answered and Naruto’s smile grew bigger.  “When you aren’t talking.”

Uzumaki punched Uchiha playfully on the arm and laughed at that.

“Wait till the sunrise.” 

As they waited, Naruto talked about his primary school adventures, how he found this place and that one time he ran away from home.

“I was so pissed and hurt that I sneaked out of the window, you know, like in movies,” Naruto recounted and looked at Uchiha’s lips corners slowly going up. “ I took my bike and pedaled  all the way to this place. I cried and swore I would never come back. But, you know , after you cried and let it all out, you feel calm and you are like “why did I even cried?”,  so I just sat here for a minute, mopped a little bit more and came home. I knocked at the door and I’ve never forget my mom dumbfounded face, when she saw me.”

At that point Sasuke wasn’t even trying to conceal his laugh and Naruto felt thousand butterflies alive in his belly.

“And my mom asked “what are you doing here?” and I said: “I ran away, but I came back” with the most humpty face ever, because they didn’t even noticed I was gone!”

Sasuke’s laugh was slowly fading away, as the first rays of sun appeared behind the mountains.

“Kids can be mean sometimes,“  Naruto whispered, his hands covering the marks on his cheeks self-consciously.

Sasuke took his eyes from the sunset and moved them towards Naruto.

“I like your marks. You look good with them.”

Naruto stopped rubbing at his cheeks and was looking for any traces of mockery in Uchiha’s eyes, but they were honest and kind and warm, and Naruto dropped his hands.

Sasuke moved his gaze to the sunset, but Naruto kept his eyes on his friend’s profile. It was a while since Naruto could just watch Sasuke like that.

Black hair were swaying in a wind, almond eyes reflecting the flaming rays of sun, his eyelashes long and thick, just like Naruto remembered them, sleeves of his oversize gray hoodie were hiked up to the elbows, his nice hands laying on his lap. He felt that fuzzy warm feeling spreading from his heart to his whole body and Naruto knew it won’t be for forever. But he just wanted enjoyed Sasuke’s company a little bit longer…  

They were heading back to Naruto’s car, when Uzumaki yawed.

“Tired?”

“Yeah, I slept like 2 hours,” Naruto declared and look at Uchiha. “But you look good as new. What’s your secret?”

Sasuke smirked and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans.

“I have training at 6 so I wake up around 5 normally.”

Naruto wrinkled his nose at that.

“You sure, it’s okay that you skipped your training today?”

“I don’t know, Naruto. If I lose in two weeks, I will know whom to blame.”

Naruto saw those mischievous sparks in Sasuke’s eye. They reached his car and Naruto swung his door open with smile.

“I will come and cheer for you.”

Sasuke sat in his seat with a smirk on his lips.

“Like a cheerleader?”

“I can! I will have a costume and everything,” Naruto suggested and started the engine. “I’ve heard I have great legs.”

“Then I think your costume will be more distracting than helpful.”

Naruto looked at Sasuke and saw something dangerous in Sasuke’s eyes and smile. He looked like a predator ready to pounce on his prey and Naruto felt like one more second and he will be trapped forever.

Something hot started to move in Naruto’s lower belly and he was glad that Sasuke turned the radio on, because he didn’t have to think about it feeling any longer.

 Apparently, going to the cinema wasn’t so easy as Sakura made it to be.

They agreed to meet on Wednesday, but after Sakura started sending different hours for a movie, Naruto complained that at the same time a new x-men movie was playing and maybe they should choose it over some chick-flick film.

 Sakura of course hated that idea, because yesterday Naruto was okay with that film and now he was changing his mind. Naruto was trying to defend himself that it was before Sasuke agreed to go with them, now it was two boys and two girls, he had all rights to complained. Sasuke admitted that he didn’t really care about the movie and Sakura took that as a win. Finally, Ino found a mystery movie about some high school girls and sent a link to a trailer. Sakura still wasn’t sure, but Ino nagged her until Haruno surrendered.

And there he was, stretched on the couches in the lobby, scrolling through his phone, waiting for everybody.

“Naruto!”

He cocked his head and saw both girls walking towards him. He stood up to hug them, but after Ino let him go, he wrinkled his nose.

“Why are you dressed like that?” Naruto asked confused. ”Are we supposed to dress fancy?”

Naruto looked at them both, smiling and giggling to themselves. Ino was wearing a blue figure-hugging dress, ending above her knee. She had those heels that Naruto hated, because in them she was almost the same height as him.  Sakura had green flaring dress with floral pattern, the same, she bought when they were shopping together, her hair was braided and pinned in fancy way and she was wearing a light makeup.

“Ino showed up in my house looking like that. I couldn’t look worse than her!” Sakura admitted.

Ino just stuck her tongue at her friend and swung her arm around Naruto’s neck.

“Look how small you are, Naruto. I look like your older sister,” Ino teased Uzumaki.

“More like my old aunt…” Naruto murmured to himself, but he knew Ino heard him. She was trying to pinch his arm but suddenly she got distracted. He followed her gaze and saw Sasuke.

 Naruto almost moaned at his sight.

Sasuke was wearing black heavy leather jacket with stand up collar, black shirt with low neckline, well-fitted black jeans and black boots. He looked dark, and mysterious, and sexy as fuck.

Naruto felt the fire in his underbelly blazing and it made his cheeks and ears hot.

“Sasuke, you look amazing!”

Ino let go of his arm and launched herself onto Sasuke.

Naruto couldn’t help the thought that they looked good together. Sasuke was still few centimeters taller than her and she could easily lay her head on his shoulder.

Naruto felt needles painfully stabbing his heart. For a moment he couldn’t breathe.

“Oh my god, Ino you pig,” Sakura hissed to herself.

Naruto looked at Haruno and their eyes met. Uzumaki saw a sympathy on Sakura’s face, she rested her hand on his shoulder for a moment, and then made her way to the couple.

Ino was peppering Sasuke with compliments, when Sakura discreetly pushed her hand from Sasuke’s back.

“It’s nice to see you, Sasuke,” Sakura greeted the boy with small wave of her hand and looked at her friend. “Ino, we need to buy our tickets. Come with me.”

Before Ino could protest, Sakura linked their arms and dragged her friend towards counters.

“Oi, usuratonkachi.”

Naruto saw Sasuke approaching him, with small smirk tugging at his lips. Uzumaki sensed that hot feeling building inside him again but rather than felt nervous, it made him pumped. 

“What the hell is that?” Naruto exclaimed, motioning at Sasuke. “Some kind of fashion event I wasn’t invited to? I can look slick too!”

“I don’t doubt that,” Sasuke said with that teasing smile, moving his face closer to Naruto.”You’re naturally captivating.”

Naruto recognized that dangerous flare in Sasuke’s eyes and it made the fire in his belly wilder. Sasuke was about to bumped his arms with Naruto and passed by him, but Uzumaki gripped Sasuke’s arm .

“You need to watch out, Uchiha,” Naruto rasped without breaking the eye contact.

But Sasuke only smiled at him, that catlike smirk, one brow arched in silent challenge and Naruto knew he was caught in Uchiha’s trap.

They were sitting in the cinema, waiting for the movie to start. Naruto was the only one who decided to buy some popcorn and now was guarding his box from invading hands.

“Come on, Naruto. Sharing is caring!” Ino opted with teasing smile as she reached for the box through Sakura.

“Buy your own popcorn!”

“But that’s too much for me,” Ino winced.

When the two were bickering, Sasuke took the opportunity to grab a handful of popcorn. 

“So Sasuke can take your popcorn, but I can’t?” Ino proclaimed. “Not fair!”

Naruto wiped his head in Sasuke’s direction and caught Uchiha shamelessly  tossing one corn into his mouth with a smirk.

“He can’t! He’s just better at stealing than you!”

“Because Sakura is in my way!”

“Oh god, I can’t stand you two,” Sakura sighted, pinching the bridge of her nose.

Before the movie started, Sakura couldn’t take Ino’s shuffling and mopping anymore, so went and buy her small popcorn. Ino looked very pleased.

“What do you think about the movie?” Sakura asked after they found the empty booth in the café shop.

Ino was trying to pushed her way towards Sasuke, but Sakura guided her to the seat in front of the boys.

“I think it’s no fun going to the cinema with Sasuke because he knew how it will end after like 10 minutes, “  Naruto complained into the menu.

“Not my fault it was predictable,” Sasuke said, shrugging.  “But it was fun.”

Naruto looked at his friend and couldn’t stop his smile. Honestly, he didn’t remember much from the movie, because he and Sasuke were whispering throughout the whole film. One time Naruto laughed so loud that he thought the guy above them would call staff on them.

“Hm,” Sasuke pondered out loud, looking at the menu. “ They don’t have your favourite.”

Naruto moved his gaze from Sasuke to the list of drinks and wrinkled his nose.

“I guess they don’t.”

“Want me to ask if barista can make one for you?”

Naruto was sure his cheeks turned red. He was too surprised to say anything so he just nodded.

“Oh, I’ll go order with you, Sasuke!” Ino exclaimed quickly and stood up from her seat. “Sakura, what about you?”

“Um, just some milk tea, please.”

“Wanna share some strawberry daifuku with me?”

“Yeah, why not.”

“Perfect, coming right up!”

Ino sent Sakura her best smile and walked hand in hand with Sasuke towards the counter. 

Naruto couldn’t help but follow both of them with his gaze. He saw Ino swinging her hips and batting her eyelashes at his friend. He also saw those longing looks coming from other girls after Sasuke. Naruto tighten his jaws and clenched his fists on the table.

“Don’t mind her, Naruto.”

He looked at Sakura, who was smiling gently at him.

“She’s not even interested in him. It’s just… It’s just the way she is,” Haruno added with a rolling of her eyes.

Naruto felt a little bit better after that comment, knowing very well how Ino behaved sometimes.

But he knew that wasn’t just about that. There was this infuriating feeling every time, he saw someone stealing glances at Sasuke, or trying to flirt with him, and it made his blood boil, and he knew it was so, so wrong.

“Besides, Sasuke is really good at rejecting,” Sakura giggled and nodded her head in the direction of the counter.

Naruto turned his head and saw Ino trying to lean against Sasuke’s shoulder, but he took a step to the left and Ino staggered in her heels.

“Naruto, no.”

It was Friday. Naruto was currently standing in front of the shop in Uchiha’s district and refused to budge.

“But, Sasuke, look at him.”

Naruto was pointing at the white, fluffy dog, which was tied to the street lamp.

“Naruto, my dad is a cop, I can’t steal a dog for you.”

“But you’re a genius. You will get away with it and prove everyone how smart you are,” Naruto insisted. “And I will have a dog…” he added, quietly.

Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose.

“I don’t need to prove it to anyone,” Sasuke whispered and looked at Naruto who was already holding the dog.  “Just pat him and go.”

Naruto placed the dog back on the ground and waved him goodbye. Uzumaki was sulking and not talking to Sasuke for awhile, but he couldn’t stand the silence any longer.

“Is Itachi home?”

“I don’t think so. He said he wanted to visit his friends in Ame.”

“Oh, I have a cousin in Ame! He’s really cool. He taught me karate when I was younger.”

Sasuke hummed in response, swinging the grocery bag from one hand to another. Naruto looked around the area and scratched his neck.

“Where are we going?”

He knew it wasn’t the right way to Sasuke’s home.

“I need to stop by at one more place,” Uchiha explained, checking his phone really quickly.

“Um, okay, I just hope it’s not far away, I’m really hungry.”

Naruto walked with his arms behind his head and sneaked glanced at Uchiha.

“Also, I didn’t bring the container your mom gave me last time. I washed it and everything, but I forgot to take it from the kitchen. Do you think she will be mad at - ? Whoa! What are we doing here?”

Naruto saw Sasuke stopped in front of one of the houses and searched around the bushes.  He reached his hand into one of them and pull out a key. Then it clicked in Naruto’s brain.

“Are we… Is Kakashi…” Naruto started with excitement.

“Kakashi is not here,” Sasuke responded and opened the door to the house. “ He went to some dog convention few days ago.”

Naruto was visibly upset but after a little push, walked into the house with Sasuke.  Uchiha passed his friend and walked straight to the back of the house. He stood in front of the glass door leading to the garden  and motioned for Naruto to come over.  Then Naruto heard a bark and saw him.

Outside, in the garden, Naruto saw the most perfect dog ever. He was big with golden-red fur, with small, pointy ears and fluffy curled tail and Naruto was in love.

Sasuke opened the door and Naruto wanted to sprint towards the dog , but Sasuke grabbed his arm.

“Slow down, usuratonkachi.”

The dog  raised his head and looked at them. Now Naruto saw that the dog was tied to the fence behind him.

“Can I?” Naruto asked  with hopeful eyes and made some grabby hands towards the dog.

“Yes, but gently, don’t run.”

Naruto started crouching cautiously towards the dog, who only observed him with his ears turning slowly.  He reached his hand towards the dog and let him sniff him. The dog started growling low and Naruto thought that he will be neglected but after a tense minute, dog nuzzled his head into Naruto’s palm. Uzumaki was now on his knees, patting the dog with both hands and smiling like a child.

“His name is Kurama.”

Naruto now spotted Sasuke, who was in the background with a smile on his face. Uchiha moved closer and reached his hand towards the dog, who was waggling his tail after spotting Sasuke. 

“He is a mix between Finish spitz and akita, so he’s quite big. He belonged to my uncle Madara before he passed away. My uncle picked him up from the shelter and changed his name to Kyubii, so he will react to both.”

Sasuke scratched dog’s belly with one hand and reached around his collar to undo the knot with the other. The dog launched himself straight into Sasuke’s arm and Naruto felt he could melt.

“But, he prefers Kurama, right?”

The loud bark could be heard and Naruto automatically reached towards the dog to pat him. Kurama turned his head toward Uzumaki and walked closer, cautiously.

“His not very good with strangers. I think my family decided to give Kurama to uncle Obito, because he was close with uncle Madara and Kurama knew him.”

Sasuke reached towards the bucket and fished out a dog treat. He threw one to Naruto.

“But I am not even sure if my uncle likes dogs. He tolerated them because they are Kakashi’s and my uncle and his wife have a soft spot for Kakashi.”

Naruto watched like Kurama ate a treat from his hand and let him scratched  him behind ear.

“So can we take him for a walk? Sasuke, please, can we?” Naruto asked and turned his pleading eyes towards Sasuke, still patting the dog.

“You can take him home, if you want to.”

Naruto’s heart stopped.

Uchiha’s smirk grew bigger as he reached to pat a dog on his head.

“ I talked with my uncle, he said that he would gladly give you half of the dogs that were in here, but they are not exactly his, except this one. So, if Kurama will be able to stand your nonstop talking, then I think you both are set. He will have home and you will have a dog.”

Naruto silently stood up and dragged Sasuke’s sleeve, so Uchiha also moved. Sasuke thought that he said something wrong, but Naruto laced his arms around his neck and hugged him. 

“Thank you, thank you, Sasuke,” Naruto sobbed, hiding his head in the crook of Uchiha’s neck. “I promise he will have the best home ever, I would care about him, take him for walks and love him. He is so perfect, Sasuke. Thank you!”

Sasuke moved his arms and connected them at the small of Naruto’s back.

“I know, usuratonkachi. You will be perfect for him.”

“Naruto…”

He heard his dad uncertain voice in the background and turned his head. Minato was looking past him at the carpet in the living room or rather at what was laying on the carpet.

“I've got a puppy!”

Naruto proudly exclaimed and put Kurama’s freshly refilling bowl of water down.

“That’s definitely not a puppy,” his dad whispered without moving from his spot in the corridor. “Did you steal it?”

“No!” Naruto shouted and plopped down on the carpet next to Kurama.“Kurama is from Sasuke!”

“Oh god, did Sasuke steal a dog for you?” His dad slowly made his way into the living room and approached a sleeping dog.

“No, dad! His uncle died and Kurama needed a new home,” Naruto said and motioned for his dad to sit down.

Naruto observed as his dad tensed face slowly relaxed.

“And we are sure Sasuke’s uncle died of natural causes, right?”

“Dad!”

Naruto pushed his smiling dad and Kurama opened his eyes.  He looked at Minato and low growl escaped from his muzzle.

“Oh, give him that!”

Naruto handed his dad some dog treats and Minato slowly pushed his hand towards the dog.

Kurama sniffed the treat and at first he pushed the hand away with his nose, but Minato patiently waited with his stretched arm.  Finally, after three treats Kurama let Minato pat him on the back.

“He’s really beautiful,” Minato admitted and Kurama wiggled his tail at that “and smart.”

Naruto scratched dog’s belly and he couldn’t stop smiling.

“You know I have nothing against dogs,” Minato started, seeing his son pure happiness.”But when your mom comes home, she won’t be happy.”

Naruto hugged Kurama and Minato smiled at that view.

“We will figure something out,” he mumbled into Kurama’s fur.

“What the fuck is that?!”

Naruto heard his mom’s yell, bags falling on the floor and Kurama’s loud barking.

“A puppy!”

Suddenly, it was Monday and they were back in school. Naruto sneaked his phone into PE lesson and showed his friends all photos of Kurama.

“You need to buy him a harness,” Kiba mused while looking at the photos.

“I have those, it’s a hell to put him into, because his previous owner let him run free,” Naruto answered, swapping to another photo of Kurama sleeping in his parents' bed.

“So he’s the feisty one! You will have a lot of work with him,” Kiba laughed and started stretching when Gai walked passed them.

“Yeah, well, it will be worth it.”

Shikamaru hummed with agreement and plopped down on the ground.

It was a very warm day, so they had their PE lessons outside. Naruto couldn’t wait to come home and take Kurama for a run.

“You will also need some brushes. I can stopped by your house after classes and dropped them.”

“Thanks, man,” Naruto answered with a smile playing on his lips. “It’s just Kurama is not good with strangers, you know. He barked at my mom the whole Friday.”

“Naruto, I am the dog whisperer, all dogs like me!”

Naruto laughed at that and started stretching his legs. He didn’t even know why he bothered, because Gai was so preoccupied with arrangements towards next competition , that he wasn’t paying them much attention.

“Here we go,” Shikamaru whispered and looked at the main entrance.

Naruto saw the elite athlete team approaching the sports  ground. Most of them were from different classes, but Naruto was familiar with some of the faces. Uzumaki smiled when his gaze caught the glimpse of black hair. Oh, he was definitely very familiar with that face.

Uchiha looked really good. He was wearing a black tank top and gray joggers, which were hugging his bum, his hair were swept back by black bandana with little Uchiha’s fans on it. Black eyes were focused on Gai, who enthusiastically explain something, one hand on a hip.

 Naruto felt those butterflies from his belly moving towards his throat.

“So I guess, we have free hour,” Kiba exclaimed and sat next to the Shikamaru on the grass.

“Oh come one, guys, I bet we can move a little bit,” Naruto suggested jumping few times around his friends. But after seeing their skeptical faces, he opted to just stretching.

“So,” Kiba started with big smile.”Last week I was on the dog convention and Akamaru won the first prize in his category. “

Kiba was wiggling his stretched legs and bumping arm with not interested Shikamaru.

“Also,” Kiba continued, not discouraged by his friend lack of enthusiasm. “ I met sooo many people. I met Iruka, and Kakashi, and I bet you didn’t know that Kakashi has dogs, ha! And it’s like so many of them, like ten or something.”

“More like eight,” Naruto whispered to himself, not taking his gaze from stretching Uchiha.

Apparently, Kiba didn’t catch that and continued with his story.

“I also met Hinata. You guys remember Hinata?”

Shikamaru hummed without taking his eyes from the clouds, Naruto stayed silent, his eyes on the athlete team.

“She asked about you, man.”

There was silence.

“Naruto, he’s talking to you.”

Naruto snapped from his daze and looked at his friends. Kiba was grinning like a madman and wiggling his eyebrows at him, Shikamaru closed his eyes and muttered something similar to “troublesome”.

“Who was asking?”

“Hinata!”Kiba exclaimed and after seeing his friend’s confusion he added. “You met her before. She’s Neji’s cousin.”

Something clicked in Naruto’s brain.

“Oh yeah, Hinata,” he remembered, stretching his arms. “Yeah, no, I barely know her, saw her like once.”

“She told me she will be on her pass from school this weekend and she is free. I think you should hook up with her!”

Kiba looked very pleased with his idea, but Naruto wrinkled his nose, while stretching his joints.

“Don’t hurt yourself, Uzumaki.”

Naruto felt warm breath on his neck and lifted his gaze to see Sasuke, jogging passed him with a smirk.  The athlete team was doing lapses around the field and Sasuke was slowly getting away from Naruto.

“Yeah?! I bet I can run faster than you!” he shouted with both arms on his hips.

He saw Sasuke turning  around, now jogging backwards, the catlike smirk on his lips.

“Then come and catch me.”

Naruto chased after Sasuke around the field, leaving his friends behind. He heard loud cheering from Gai, something about spring and their youthful enthusiasm.  

“I guess, he isn’t interested,” Shikamaru concluded without opening his eyes.

Naruto looked at Sasuke’s ears with small piercing holes barely visible. He didn’t know Uchiha had his ears pierced.

He was laying on Sasuke’s desk, his chair pushed so close next to Sasuke’s that they were touching shoulders. It was homeroom time, in an hour they will hand Iruka their excellent project, so now they could relax.

Sasuke had one headphone in his ear, the other one was in Naruto’s ear. They were listening to Sasuke’s music and Naruto knew few of the songs, but most of them were new. But he enjoyed them, some of them were more calmer, some of them sounded like indie rock and somehow it fitted Sasuke.

Naruto’s gaze dropped and saw Uchiha was reading rather strange book.

“What are you reading?” Naruto mumbled.

Sasuke flicked his gaze towards Naruto and turned back to the book.

“It’s a book.”

“But it looks kinda weird.”

“Yeah, it’s not finished yet.”

Naruto wrinkled his nose.

“What do you mean?”

Sasuke looked into Naruto’s confused blue eyes, small smile playing on his lips.

“It’s Itachi’s book.”

“No way!” Naruto shouted with excitement and lifted his head to take a peek at the pages.

“It’s a continuation of the last one you’ve read.  But this one is not finished yet, so I guess it’s more like a draft.”

Naruto saw pride in Sasuke’s eyes as he skimmed through the book.

“Do you think that if I asked Itachi he will give me one with his autograph?”  Naruto asked, dropping his head on his arm again.

“I’m sure he will even include you in his dedications.”

Naruto laughed at that and saw sparkles in Sasuke’s eyes getting brighter. He could look at his friend for the rest of his life and be content with just that. Naruto was so smitten by Uchiha Sasuke it wasn’t even funny.

“So, I’ve heard you took Kurama, when I was gone.”

Kakashi approached them with smiling eyes. He had his normal mask on, but his eyes were more cheerful than usual. He sat on the desk in front of the boys.

Naruto lifted his head and looked at his teacher.

“Yeah, he’s the best!”

Kakashi’s eyes were switching between both boys, finally resting on Sasuke. Uchiha kept his gaze on his teacher’s face and Naruto knew that challenging sparkle in them.

“Did you have any problems with him?” Kakashi asked, still looking at Sasuke. “I mean Kurama, of course.”

“Um, no, he’s perfect,” Naruto stated a little bit confused.

“Oh, I bet he is,” Kakashi whispered more to himself and his eyes closed in a smile.

“Um, yeah, he didn’t get along with my mom at first, but I think they are making progress. Also, he hates Kiba and I love it,” Naruto laughed at that and Kakashi kept smiling.

He ruffled Naruto’s hair and stood up.

“Take good care of him. I’m quite fond of him.”

Kakashi winked at Naruto and got back to his desk.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at his teacher.

“Is it just me or Kakashi is getting weirder?” Naruto whispered when Hatake gave them a thumbs up.

“Just stop staring at him and maybe he will leave us alone,” Uchiha said and went back to his book.

Naruto saw tips of Sasuke’s ears turning red and after a few tense seconds, Uchiha snapped his phone of his pocket and changed the song to a one with more aggressive beat.

On Wednesday, Naruto was jumping around the puddles of water on his way to school.

Sasuke woke him up around 5 o’clock with a message and he didn’t feel like going back to bed. He took Kurama for a walk, got ready for school, he even prepared  breakfasts for his parents . When they woke up, he kissed them goodbye and was on his way to Shikamaru’s place. Normally, he wouldn’t walk past his friend’s house because it was the longer way, but today he felt great and decided to surprise his friend.

“Naruto, are you high?”

Shikamaru looked at his bouncing friend with bored eyes.

“No, I’m just happy, that’s all.”

“Yeah, I get that but it’s too early to be that happy.”

Naruto only laughed and jumped on the nearest ledge. He was in such a good mood that nothing could changed that.

“So, Kurama is from Sasuke.”

Or so he thought.

Naruto looked down at his friend, who had his gaze straight ahead. Something in his gut shifted and he swallowed loudly.

“Um, how do you know?”

Naruto didn’t tell his friends that Kurama was from Sasuke. Not because he was embarrassed, but he was just a little bit unsure of the whole situation.

They would have asked questions and Naruto hated that.

It would lead to the conversation Uzumaki was not ready for, he wouldn’t know how to explain to his friends…what was happening with him. He knew he wanted them to know, he wanted be honest with them but he was still looking for right words to describe it and somehow they still weren’t there.

Shikamaru popped the collar of his jacket up and hid his hands in the pockets of his jeans.

“In your photos… The dog still had Uchiha pendant attached to his collar.”

Naruto could lie and said that the dog was from Uchiha district and not exactly a gift from Sasuke, but Shikamaru was too smart and Naruto respected him too much to lie to his face.

“Yeah, it’s from Sasuke,” Naruto admitted and hopped down from the ledge. Now he walked hand in hand with Shikamaru, that awful feeling still tugging at his guts.

“You two seem close.”

There they were again. Those words that triggered Naruto last time. But it was different to collapse inside your home, with your mom holding you close and whispering words of encouragement, than here… on their way to school.

Now, it didn’t feel comfortable or safe. He feared that Shikamaru wouldn’t understand or accept him. They were friends but still, what if Shikamaru would hate him.

“Listen, Naruto,” Shikamaru started and stopped walking before they were able to pass school gates. “I don’t want to ruin your mood. You are my friend and I want what is the best for you. I just… don’t want you to get hurt.”

Naruto looked at Shikamaru, different emotions passing through his face.

“Hurt?” Uzumaki stuttered after a while.

Shikamaru sighed and combed his hair with his hand.

“No one actually knows what Sasuke Uchiha is really like and I don’t know if anyone ever had gotten so close to him, like you. You’re eager and friendly and you always want to see the best in anyone and Uchiha knows that. I just hope he is not playing you.”

Naruto just stood there, brows furrowed, nose wrinkled. He understood what Shikamaru was saying. He also would be concern if one of his friends were getting involved with suspicious person.

The things was, Naruto knew Sasuke wasn’t like that. Of course, Uchiha was stubborn, proud and sharp-tongued and there was still a lot more to learn about him. But Uchiha Sasuke had his rules and he didn’t play with people’s feelings.

But Shikamaru wouldn’t know that and he was worried about Naruto.

Naruto smiled, that honest, huge, smile and placed his hand on Shikamaru’s shoulder.

“Thank you, Shika. I know you super smart and you see more than others, but you need to trust me with this one.”

Shikamaru looked at his friend, his calculating gaze on Naruto, but after a few second there was a small smile tugging at Nara’s lips.

“You two are more troublesome than anyone else.”

Uzumaki felt a wave of relief washing over his body and that bubbling feeling from the morning was back.

That day, Naruto invited Sasuke to his house.

They were reading some sedoka for Mrs. Kurenai’s classes and Naruto got every so often distracted by Uchiha’s closeness. They were both sprawled on his bed, Sasuke with few pillows under his head and Kurama’s head in his lap. In the background, he could hear some 80’s playlist humming quietly and if he wanted, he could brush Uchiha’s knees with his.

“Sasuke,” Naruto started, not taking his eyes from his friend.

“Hm?”

“Why don’t you have a girlfriend?”

Naruto saw Uchiha blinking few times, but still his eyes were on a poem, his hand moving to underline something.

“I don’t know, I’ve never met a girl I would like to be with,” Sasuke answered and patted Kurama’s head.  “What about you?”

Naruto looked like Uchiha’s lashes curl at the end, how his eyes shimmer in this light and his lips were slightly parted.

“I guess I am not interested in girls,” he confessed. Saying that out loud made this throat tighten and he felt anxiety housing in his stomach.

“Why don’t you have a boyfriend, then?”

But Sasuke looked unaffected, he was writing something on the page margin.

Naruto felt weird. 

He was hoping for some kind of reaction, he was even prepared for the worse, but somehow, seeing Uchiha’s impassive face, left him speechless. So he only shrugged his arms and sunk deeper into his bed. The silence stretched between them, and Naruto felt he wasn’t interested in a poem anymore.

“Well, I don’t think I would be a good boyfriend.”

Naruto was still sulking but he moved his narrowed eyes at Uchiha.

“Why would you say that?”

Sasuke let go of his notebook, moved his head towards Kurama and patted his laps. The dog was suddenly awake and sat on Uchiha’s legs while wiggling his tail and licked him on the face.

“Because of all the obligations I don’t have that much time to meet with others and give them attention they deserve,” Uchiha stated and moved his gaze towards Naruto. “Do you think I could make someone happy?”

Black met blue. Naruto moved automatically closer towards Sasuke and sunk his hands in Kurama’s fur.

“Of course, Sasuke. You make me really happy,” Naruto confessed, blue eyes still looking into the depth of black ones. He didn’t know how long they were staring at each other like that, but finally Sasuke dropped his gaze with small smile.

“Well, you’re easy to pleased,” he said with teasing smile. “I gave you a dog and you cried.”

  On Tuesday Naruto had a dream and it messed him up completely.

He was sitting with his friends in school cafeteria, eating his bento, or rather pushing food around with his chopsticks. Naruto didn’t feel like eating, the images from the dream still haunting him. It was his first dream like that, so vivid, so dirty. When he woke up, he could still feel the touch on his skin and that fucking scent. Uzumaki suspected that it was partly because Sasuke had left his scent in Naruto’s bed and it led the boy straight into madness. But that madness was so pleasant and thrilling and Naruto felt guilt pulling in his stomach.  

“So as I was saying, we should all meet on the weekend,” Kiba pronounced.

“I was trying to organize the meeting but you were gone during spring break,” Sakura sulked and crossed her arms.

“I know, Sakura and I want to make it up to you.”

Everybody looked at Kiba’s dangerously gleaming eyes.

“What is your idea?” Shikamaru helpfully asked, before going back to his phone.

“Well, thank you for asking, Shikamaru. We will throw a party!”

Kiba’s idea was met with different reactions.

“Yes! Party! That’s such a good idea, Kiba!” Ino shouted and gave Kiba five high over the table.

“I knew I can count on you, Ino!”

“I don’t know, guys,” Choji said with a little whine.

In one second, Kiba was next to him, his arm around Choji’s shoulders, mischievous smile on his lips.

“Choji, my man, but it will be your party!”

Akimichi looked confused, honestly, most of them were puzzled where Inuzuka was going with his plan. Kiba flashed them his best smile and pointed his finger at girls.

“It will be yours and Sakura’s party!”

Something in Haruno’s brain clicked and she let out a sigh.

“Kiba, that’s not very clever. My birthday was like a week ago and Choji’s is in May.”

“Yeah, well, now we are in sweet middle. That’s why it’s joined party.”

Naruto heard them argue some more. At one point, he pushed his bento towards Choji.

He felt so tired and conflicted. The thoughts about Sasuke’s body were constantly nagging him, but what’s more concerning… he missed those intimate touches. Never in his life, Naruto felt that good as in his dream. 

“And Naruto can come with Hinata.”

Naruto snapped at those words and looked at Kiba with confusion.

“Why would I come with her?”

“Everybody is coming with someone,” Kiba insisted.  “Haven’t you heard?”

“Yeah, well then, I’ll come with Sakura,” Uzumaki tried.

“Too late, I picked Sakura first,” Ino stuck her tongue at Naruto, her arm laced around Sakura’s.

Haruno sent his friend apologetic smile and Naruto saw her cheeks turning a little bit pink.

Uzumaki tightened his fists.

Kiba was pushing all the wrong buttons. His mind was filled with images of his beautiful slash handsome friend, his heart pounding like crazy every time someone mentioned Sasuke’s name, his shirt still smelt like Uchiha and frankly, Sasuke was the only person Naruto cared about right now.

“I just think you would look good together. I’m your wingman!”

Kiba stretched his arm to pat his friend on the back, but Naruto caught his hand before it could reach him. Inuzuka winced in pain and was about to raise his other hand at Uzumaki, but Shikamaru interfered.

“Who are you going with, Kiba?”

Kiba turned his head towards Shikamaru, with serious face, and Naruto took that chance to let go of his friend.

“I don’t know yet,” Inuzuka confessed. “But I’ll definitely bring a hot date with me! Is it wrong I want my friend to have a hot date too?!”

“Well, what if Hinata would like to bring someone with her?” Sakura interjected. “It’s rude to decide for her.”

Kiba was moving his eyes between Shikamaru and Haruno and Naruto could almost see gears turning inside his head.

“Yeah! Maybe she would bring a hot friend! I’ve heard those girls from private schools are so freaky in bed, you have no idea!” Ino decided to add her two cents into their conversation.

Kiba cheered up a little bit after that and moved closer to Ino, forgetting about Naruto.

He heard his friends talking in the background, Sakura asked Kiba about details concerning the party and Choji munched on his bento.

Naruto patted Shikamaru’s knee in the silent appreciation of his interfering and mouthed hushed “thank you” to Sakura. She only winked at him and turned back to listen to Kiba’s description of the perfect place for party.

Today was a disaster.

Naruto couldn’t focus on any of the lessons, he forgot his math homework and almost started a fistfight with Kiba during lunch.

When Sasuke entered the classroom, Naruto’s heart wanted to jump out of his ribcage. He couldn’t look at Uchiha without feeling guilty. At one point, Sasuke was talking to him, something about meeting and training but the only thing Naruto heard clearly was his own heartbeat drumming in his ears. Uzumaki just nodded his head and fled the moment one of the teachers called after Uchiha.

He was exiting the building, when he got a text.

5 o’clock, school’s swimming pool. You can wait in the lobby.

Naruto held his phone and wondered if he should respond. He gathered from the statement that he already agreed to come, now Uchiha was only sending him time and exact place.

Uzumaki should lie. He should tell, he didn’t feel so well or he had a lot to do at home… But he hated lying. He hated going back on his words and Sasuke didn’t deserve to be treated like that.

Naruto was just avoiding the obvious and he was scared as fuck to think and name all of his feelings and thoughts.  But he didn’t want his bond with Sasuke to suffer just because he was scared.

So there he was, sitting in the lobby and looking at the swimming pool through windows.

The lobby was almost empty and glass windows covering a whole wall provided perfect distance from the swimming pool.  

He sat on one of the couches, his mind no longer preoccupied with flashy images but rather his own questionable morality.

Was it okay to have dreams like that?

On one hand, it was just a dream. Most people couldn’t control their dreams and whatever happened in them didn’t reflect the actual feelings. One time he dreamt about being a fox and destroying the whole town, that didn’t mean he actually wanted to do that.  He understood that it was only his imagination fueled by raging hormones.

But on the other hand… He couldn’t shake the feelings that there were just excuses.

Naruto saw the school’s sport team stepping into the swimming pool. His gaze automatically was moving to the black hair and he wanted to punch himself, when the realization hit him.

Even from there, Uzumaki could see Uchiha’s whole body. Of course, he had swimming trunks but with Sasuke’s naked skin still in his mind, Naruto was panicking. It led him back to his previous thoughts.

He needed to come clean to himself.

He enjoyed that dream. He enjoyed being touched by Sasuke, he enjoyed his body, his smile, his voice. Not only in a dream, but also in real life.

He watched few boys from the team, standing still at the edge of the pool. Naruto could admit that their bodies looked good, they were fit, nicely shaped. But Uzumaki felt nothing looking at their bodies, his heart wasn’t beating any differently than before, his hands didn’t sweat.  He also saw few girls, who were already out of water and he moved his gaze over their bodies. He thought they had great figures and nice faces, but he didn’t feel like he would completely appreciate their beauty. Their hips were too wide, their hairs too fair, skin too tan and they just weren’t…. They weren’t who he wanted. 

When Sasuke submerged from the pool, Naruto’s breath caught in his throat. He was so beautiful.  He was fit like the other boys, he had broad shoulders and slim waist, great butt and those fucking long legs. Uchiha had muscles, but he wasn’t buff, somehow he remained on the slimmer side of the spectrum. He combed through his hair, pushing his bangs to the back, eyes sharp and demanding,  lips curling into a smirk.

Naruto Uzumaki was attracted to Sasuke Uchiha.  

And he wasn’t the only one. He could see other people sending Uchiha longing gazes, devouring him with their eyes and Naruto wasn’t mad. He couldn’t be judging them. Because he sat right among those poor bastards who were hooked and trapped by Sasuke’s beauty.

And then, Sasuke lifted his gaze, looked at the window leading to a lobby and his eyes met Naruto’s and there it was, the pulling on his gut, the thousand butterflies Naruto couldn’t ignore any longer, the fire blazing in his underbelly.

Uchiha stopped in his track and placed one hand on his hip. His chin raised in challenge, catlike smirk playing on his lips, water driblets moving across his chest.

On impulse, Naruto moved his hips and arms like a cheerleader and sent Uchiha his best smile.

Sasuke shook his head, but Uzumaki saw that smile, before Uchiha turned away.

Because there was this other thing. Naruto wasn’t only attracted to Sasuke’s looks. During their time together he dipped his fingers into who Sasuke Uchiha might be, and he deeply enjoyed it.

Sasuke was smart, but he was also hardworking. Naruto learnt that nothing was handed him on silver plate, he worked his butt off, woke up at horrendous hours and stretched a day to maximum to excel in all his obligations. His relentless pushing him to his limits, but he loved that.  There was also other motivation that fired Sasuke up.

His family.

Naruto saw how Sasuke’s eyes changed and his mood peaked when he was around his family. He treated them with high respect and family duties always came before anything else.  His parents raised him up with a strict rules from his father side and warm heart from his mother and Sasuke was a perfect combination of those two world.

He followed rules when it came to work and training. But when it involved people he cared about, he followed his heart.

And how could Naruto forget about Uchiha’s attitude.

Sasuke Uchiha has quite a temper. He loved to tease, mock and find those little things you thought he forget about and use it against you. He was stubborn and proud and always ready for a challenge. He pushed Naruto to his limits and Uzumaki never felt more alive, than when he was with Sasuke. He wouldn’t change anything in Uchiha, he accepted and adored him whole.

Because Naruto was in love with Sasuke Uchiha.

Uzumaki admitted that to himself, with teary eyes and sweaty hands.

This acknowledgment sat heavy in his ribcage, his heart no longer hammering so quickly, his head getting clearer with every second.

Nothing else has changed.

The ground didn’t open and he didn’t end up between the worst sinners. He was still stealing glances at Sasuke, still wanting to spend time with him. He just stopped feeling like he was doing something wrong. 

He was just a boy with a crush on his friend.

“Hello, Naruto.”

At this moment, when Naruto was sticking his tongue at Sasuke, Itachi approached the boy.  Naruto wiped his head towards the man, small smile playing on his lips.

“Itachi!” Naruto greeted Uchiha with a hug. “I didn’t know you will be here.”

“Didn’t Sasuke tell you I would pick you up?” Itachi asked with confusion.

“Maybe he did,” Naruto wondered out loud and probably Sasuke mentioned something that time when Naruto wasn’t listening. “Anyhow, it’s taking longer than it supposes to.”

Itachi hummed and sat next to Naruto on the couch. He waved to his brother through the glass wall, warm smile on his lips.

“I bet Gai is freaking out before the competition,” Itachi stated.

“Yeah, he even tried to carry some girls on his back, because he is scared they are going to slip.”

Naruto pointed towards a group of girls, who were cautiously moving away from wildly gesticulating  Gai. Itachi laughed at that, his face relax, eyes moving to swimming Sasuke.

They talked for awhile about Itachi’s journey to Bangkok, Naruto’s parents and Kurama. In the meantime, the training was over and Sasuke was now in changing room.

“You know, I’ve read your book,” Naruto declared.

Itachi looked a little bit surprised but then smiled at Naruto.

“May I ask, what do you think about it?”

“It’s really good, even for someone who isn’t so much into crime stories,” Uzumaki admitted. “I just think that the brother in your story deserves a little bit more happiness.”

“Oh, I think that this is being taken care of.”

Itachi smiled and moved to stand up, after Sasuke entered the lobby.

“Sasuke.”

Uchiha looked up from Naruto’s history homework and locked eyes with Uzumaki.

“Do you have plans for a weekend?” Naruto asked, with a small smile playing on his lips.

Uzumaki’s fingers were drumming on the surface of the desk, dangerously close to Uchiha’s wrist. If he stretched them a little bit, he could touch his friend and he wondered how Sasuke would react.

“Do you want to drag me to your crying rock, again?”

Sasuke rested his head on his hand, eyes shining with catlike smile on his lips.

“Don’t call it that!” Uzumaki pouted.

Naruto was silent for a while, eyes down casted. 

 “Would you tell me what is it  or should I ask Inuzuka?” Sasuke asked bored.

He turned his head to the right and saw Kiba’s narrowed eyes stuck at him.  As soon as their eyes met Kiba wiped his head the other way, with flaming cheeks and a curse on his lips.

Sasuke was still boring his eyes into the back of Kiba’s head, when Naruto spoke.

“There is this party tomorrow, it’s a little bit of a birthday party, but it’s just an excuse to meet and drink. And Kiba said that everybody needs to come with someone. And… and I want to come with you.”

At last sentence, Sasuke’s eyes switched to Naruto. Uzumaki was looking at him, cheeks shade darker than usually, determination in his eyes. Uchiha was silent for a bit, just accessing the situation.

“Why me?”

To be honest, Uzumaki had thousand reasons why he wanted to go with Sasuke but at that point, he choose the first thing that came to his mind.

“Because you are my friend and it wouldn’t be the same without you.”

Naruto knew that intimidating and calculating gaze Sasuke was sending him. He didn’t avert his eyes, he wasn’t scared of his feelings anymore. It was something liberating in admitting that out loud, even if he still had much more to confess.

“I have a science club meeting in the morning, than extra training with Gai around 3 and family dinner after that.”

Uchiha finally answered and Naruto felt his heart sinking a little bit. He lowered his gaze and was about to say that’s okay, that he understood.

“So I wouldn’t be able to pick you up until 8,” Uchiha continued with a smirk.

Naruto’s head shoot up immediately, blue eyes with happy sparkles in them and he couldn’t help the huge smile splitting his face.

The party was  bizarre.

Because no one wanted their houses ruined, they decided to simply reserved some joined booths in local club, so it wasn’t exactly a private party. Everybody brought their extra one,  Shikamaru convinced Temari and Choji invited Karui. To Kiba’s disappointment, Hinata didn’t bring her hot friend, but rather her sarcastic cousin Neji. At the end, Kiba’s hot date cancelled last minute, so he invited his childhood friend Shino.

When Naruto and Sasuke came, all of their friends were already there. Ino was handing drinks to everybody, Sakura talked with Temari, Karui and Choji were moving around the dance floor, Shikamaru and Shino listening to Kiba’s ramble about the sad story of his really hot date, Neji and Hinata deep into their own conversation.  The music was booming, the smell of alcohol, cigarettes and Sasuke, was making Naruto giggly with excitement.

“Do you want me to introduce you?” Naruto asked, digging his elbows into Uchiha’s side.

Sasuke playfully swatted his arms away and moved his head closer to Naruto.

“I think I can handle it myself,” Sasuke whispered into Uzumaki’s ear, making the hair at the back of his neck stood.

Sasuke passed Naruto, with a smirk and moved towards the group, maneuvering between people on the dance floor. Naruto was right behind him.

“Sasuke!” Ino shouted and rather than hug him, she pushed a drink into his hand. “Take this one. It’s strong as hell and everybody is too big of a pussy to drink it.”

“I would drink that!” Kiba protested and moved to snatched a drink from Uchiha, but Sasuke moved it away from Inuzuka’s reach.

He chugged in one go and handed Kiba an empty glass.

“Good one, next time make it double.”

Inuzuka remained dumbfounded, when the whole gang laughed at Uchiha’s statement.

“Showoff,” Naruto whispered before he made his rounds to greet everybody around the table.

“Oh fuck no, Uchiha. I’ll challenge you to shot competition! “

“Kiba, it’s just past 8. You will be dead before 10,” Shikamaru broke in and took a drag from his cigarette.  Naruto snatched his own drink from Ino’s hand and snuggled close to Sakura. 

“If you too scared, you can back off now, Inuzuka,”  Uchiha taunted.

“I’m not scared! That was my idea, Uchiha!” Kiba shouted and was already up to move to the bar.

Sasuke took that time to sit in front of Naruto and next to Shikamaru. After exchange of greetings, Naruto realized that everybody was familiar with Sasuke Uchiha. Rather through stories or meeting him at different competitions, even girls from different cities heard about him.

Naruto looked like Neji moved closer to Sasuke and now they were talking about something. It was too loud to hear, but looking at their body language they felt quite comfortable around each other and Naruto wasn’t sure how he felt about it.

“Okay, I challenge everybody!”Kiba shouted and slammed the tray of shots on the table.

“We’re gonna die,” Shikamaru whispered and covered his eyes with a hand.

“I’m in.”

Temari reached for a bunch of weird looking purple shots and lined them in front of herself. Uchiha chose some white and red ones, challenging gleam in his eyes. Kiba rushed to the same and put few extra in front of Shino. Shikamaru brought few green shots with a sight and winced when the sweet scent hit his nose.

“Oh, we should call Choji and Karui,” Ino proposed and waved to the couple on the dance floor. Two lines of shots were already waiting for them and they greeted them with a laugh.

“What about you, usuratonkachi?” Sasuke was looking at Naruto who sat content with his one drink. After seeing the mischievous sparkles in Uchiha’s eyes, catlike smirk and feeling Sasuke’s breath on his neck, Naruto couldn’t say no.

“You created a monster,” Naruto exclaimed with a laugh, stretching his hands to take few shots and nodded his head in Kiba’s direction.

Inuzuka hovered over his drinks impatiently, narrowed eyes focused on Sasuke.

“Happy birthday,” Uchiha said, raising his first shot and without breaking the eye contact with Naruto, down it all in one gulp.

The party was at its peak moment. Everybody was hot rather from alcohol swinging in their bellies or because they  were dancing like crazy. Naruto turned Sakura around and saw her collapsing into Ino’s arms, laughing.  After the shots competition, everybody seemed to be pleasurable tipsy. To Uzumaki surprise, Kiba spent some time talking with Sasuke. He let two girls drag him to the dance floor because Uchiha was constantly talking with someone around the table and Naruto felt a little bit conflicted. He was glad that Sasuke got along with his friends but after the realization of his feelings down upon him, he caught himself craving Uchiha’s attention more than before.

Naruto danced with girls a little longer and decided to head towards the table. On his way to their booth, he saw Sasuke and Neji passing next to him. Out of impulse, Naruto’s hand shoot towards Sasuke and grabbed his arm. Uchiha ceased in his walk, eyes focused on his friend.

“We are going to the bar. Do you need something?” Sasuke shouted over the music.

“You,” Naruto mumbled to himself, not meeting Uchiha’s eyes.

“What?”

Sasuke moved closer to hear his friend, eyes bit narrowed.

“Something strong.”  

Naruto didn’t wait for Uchiha’s response, let go of his arm and dragged himself to the table. He plunged on the free seat and threw his head back. He needed to take a hold of himself, before he would become a jealous mess and ruin the party.

“You dance really good, Naruto.”

Uzumaki turned his head and saw Hinata seating next to him. She was smiling at him, her cheeks a little bit pink, a glass of water in her hand.

“I don’t know if I could call that a dance,” Naruto laughed at himself, his hand moved automatically to his neck.

“Sakura and Ino are also really good dancers.”

Naruto hummed in response and moved his eyes to the dance floor, but before he could spot his friends, his eyes spotted someone else.

Some girl was talking with Sasuke. Or rather leaning against him. It was crowded around the bar, but it was no need to be that close to Uchiha.

“Naruto, can I ask you a question?” Hinata asked, her quiet voice barely heard over the booming music.

“Yeah, shoot,” Naruto said without taking his eyes from the girl at the bar. She was talking to Sasuke, her fingers not touching him, but hovering over his arm. She was tall, slender and older than them and Naruto hated her.

“Do you have a girlfriend?”

Hinata’s cheeks were red and she was stealing glances at Naruto’s profile.

Despite the anger still sizzling under Naruto’s skin, he felt empathy and guilt pulling at his guts. He tore his eyes from the couple at the bar, warm smile on his lips.

“No. But I am in love with someone.”

Hinata was more red than before, her eyes searching something in his, something that would indicate that he meant her, but it was hopeless. She felt Naruto already had someone special in his life and he was not interested in her.

Naruto’s eyes were back to the bar and at that moment, he saw the girl reaching towards Sasuke’s face. Uzumaki heard his heart hammering in his ribcage, his fists bawling into fists, his eyes not leaving the scene at the bar.  He stood up abruptly, but before he was able to move from the table, he felt Kiba’s hand on his shoulder.

“I’ve got you, ”Inuzuka shouted with a wink and moved towards the bar.

Naruto was about to run after him, because Kiba of course must have got it all wrong.

He probably saw Uzumaki looking at the girl talking with Sasuke and thought that his friend was interested in her and oh god, Kiba will try to bring her here and she would sat with them and she would be even closer to Sasuke and Sasuke…

Sasuke could do whatever he wanted, because he wasn’t with Naruto…

He felt something painfully squeezing his heart and it became harder to catch his breath.  But he still wasn’t able to tear his eyes from the bar.

To his surprise, Kiba threw his arm around Sasuke’s shoulder and smiled towards the girl. He said something and by the grimace on her face, she wasn’t really impressed. Sasuke added something and motioned towards the table and Naruto felt their eyes on him. She hissed, stuck her middle finger in front of Kiba’s face and turned around, away from the bar. Kiba only laughed and tugged Sasuke towards the booth.

Uchiha sat next to him, Kiba on the other side of Hinata. Inuzuka brought her attention by showing her some scratches he got, when he squeezed his way towards the bar. Naruto saw her smile and she said she would be back with some ice.  Hinata passed them and walked towards Neji who was still at the bar.

Naruto’s eyes met with Kiba’s, Inuzuka grinning like a madman. He closed the gap between them and lowered his head.

“I told you I am your wingman,” Inuzuka laughed and knocked his head with Naruto. “But you need to keep that one really close. Those fucking club harpies are circling around him.”

Naruto didn’t leave Sasuke’s side till the end of the party.

Party ended around 4 am and everybody went their separate ways. Kiba was trying to walk Hinata home, but Neji, who didn’t drink anything, unfortunately had it covered.

Naruto laughed at the memory of Kiba’s puppy eyes, when Hinata was getting in the car and Neji’s blank face, after he slammed the door in front of Inuzuka’s mug.

He looked at Sasuke, who was walking next to him, smirk playing on his lips.

“I had sooo much fun!” Naruto shouted and jumped around the empty streets.” Well, maybe except the jacket incident.”

Apparently, at one point, Naruto lost his jacket. He didn’t have anything important in his pockets, but still it was a bummer because he was rather fond of it. After exiting the club, Uchiha without a word threw his own jacket over Uzumaki’s shoulder.  It earned them a few catcalls and whistles from his friends.

“Fuck off, I’m cold!” Naruto shouted back at them at nuzzled his head into high collar of Sasuke’s jacket.

Now, they were alone, walking hand in hand, stealing glances at each other and smiling. Naruto felt so happy and excited, Sasuke’s scent all over him, alcohol still buzzing inside him.

Suddenly, Naruto jumped in front of Uchiha, his arms moving, brows wiggling.

“I” Naruto shouted in the dark of the night in front of Sasuke’s face.

“I GOT TO BE YOUR FRIEND NOW, BABY!” 

Uzumaki was singing or rather shouting, dancing his way around Uchiha.

“AND I WOULD LIKE TO MOVE IN JUST A LITTLE BIT CLOSER!”

“Oh my god,” Uchiha whispered, maneuvering between Naruto’s hectic moved.

“ALL I KNOW IS THAT TO ME YOU LOOK LIKE YOU’RE LOTS OF FUN OPEN UP YOUR LOVING ARMS WATCH OUT HERE I COME!”

Uzumaki was walking backwards, his eyes on Sasuke as he was singing. His heart was pounding and he knew he was loud as hell, but Sasuke was casting him some soft glances and he was smiling, and it was all worth it.

“YOU SPIN ME RIGHT ‘ROUND, BABY, RIGHT ‘ROUND LIKE A RECORD, BABY, RIGHT ‘ROUND,  ‘ROUND, ‘ROUND!”

Uchiha stopped, his arms crossed, one brow arching, shaking his head at Naruto.

“I WANT YOUR LOVE, OUOUOU, I WANT” Naruto stopped shouting, his finger pointed at Uchiha. ”your love.”

Sasuke was looking at Uzumaki and Naruto was out of breath, because of his little performance and because Uchiha looked absolutely stunning.

Naruto wanted to kiss him so badly.

Sasuke moved closer to his friend, those dangerous sparkles back in his eyes, and he felt like his hand which was pointed at Uchiha was being tugged and his fingers intertwined with Sasuke’s. Uchiha lent in and Naruto felt the warmth of Uchiha’s breath on his cheek and a small peck.

“Don’t sing for anyone else on your way back,” Sasuke whispered, slowly moving away.

Naruto was too dumfounded to move, so he let Sasuke untangled their fingers and momentarily he felt cold without his friend around.

He turned around and saw they were already next to the gates of Uchiha district. He saw Sasuke making his way towards his street.

“If I sing only for you, would you kiss me again?!”

Naruto heard Sasuke laugh and he felt his heart might jumped from his ribcage any second.

“Go home, usuratonkachi.”

Naruto was the happiest man alive. It was Sunday and his mom dragged him through every possible house chore, but he couldn’t stop smiling. He prepared a quick stir fry with shrimps for dinner and placed it in front of his parents.

“Bon appetite!” Naruto exclaimed cheerfully and started to dig into his own portion.

“Something happened yesterday?” Kushina asked, before slurping some soba noodles.

“Um, I lost my jacket,” Uzumaki admitted without taking his gaze from the food.

His mom furrowed her brows and looked at her son with narrowed eyes.

“And you are practically bouncing of the walls, because you lost your jacket?”

Naruto only shrugged, feeling his mother calculating gaze still on him.

“Weren’t you cold on your way home?” Minato started with caring voice.

Uzumaki munched on his vegetables a little bit longer, before answering with the biggest smile ever.

“Sasuke lent me his jacket.”

The loud hum escaped from his parents' mouths and they nodded their heads in unison, as everything was perfectly clear for them.

Naruto looked as Minato’s eyes became softer and Kushina wore that knowing smile and they were looking at each other, their food forgotten.

“You know, I am right here,” Naruto said, eyes moving between the couple. “ You are doing your telepathic shit. You can always ask me about whatever is going in your heads.”

His dad looked a little bit taken aback, but his mother’s smirk only grew bigger and she moved her chair closer to her son.

“So,” she started, her face uncomfortably close to his. “Is it official?”

“What is official?” Naruto wrinkled his nose.

Kushina put her bowl with food on the table and crossed her arms.

“If you need to ask, then it means, it isn’t,” she mused, looking her son up and down. “I thought you were more of Uzumaki when it comes to this stuff, but you are definitely Namikaze.”

“WHAT DOES IT EVEN MEAN?!” Naruto yelled and pointed his chopsticks at his mom.

Kushina only turned her back to him pointedly, snatched her bowl from the table and got back to eating. It meant that the conversation was over and Naruto was confused as hell.  After a few seconds of silence,  his dad decided to speak.

“How’s Sasuke?” Minato asked to ease the atmosphere between his wife and son.

“He’s good! The competition starts on Wednesday, so he is training like crazy.”

“I’m sure he will do great.”

“Yeah, bastard is really fast. Apparently, Sasuke was always that fast even when he was a child. He used to run with Itachi. Oh, Itachi is…”

“Sasuke’s older brother,” his dad prompted with a smile. “ You’ve mentioned him, when you were telling us about that time Sasuke sprained his wrist.”

Naruto looked at his dad with large eyes, his cheeks a little bit red. He nodded his head, deep in thoughts. So it seemed that he talked a little bit too often about Sasuke. But who could blame him, his recent thoughts were revolving around Uchiha, so he needed to vent about him somewhere. He only hoped that his parents didn’t mind that.

“And what about your history project? Do you know your grade?”

“Oh, yes!” Naruto cheered up at that topic, face stuffed with noodles.”We got 120 out of 100 points! We found some many interesting facts that we went overboard! Iruka was so impressed, he even asked if I wanted to join history club.”

Naruto laughed at that and stood up to grab more stir fry from the wok. He felt his parents’ gazes on his back.

“So, would you like to join the club?”

“Um, I don’t know. The project was fun and doing my homework is no longer that much of a drag but… I don’t know.”

Uzumaki was glad his back was turn, because he knew otherwise his flaming hot cheeks and shifting eyes would give him away.  There was one huge obstacle in joining the history club. He wasn’t sure he would be interested if Sasuke wouldn’t be around. Uchiha pushed him to learn, to care about his grades, to develop his interests  and somehow without him , it wasn’t the same.

Naruto went back to his seat, eyes on the food.

“Do you have any good luck charm for Sasuke?”

Uzumaki raised his head and met the violet eyes of his mother. She was no longer turned back to him, but her face gave no indication of being pleased.

Naruto bit his lips and shook his head. Of course, he should have thought about something before Sasuke’s competition, but it was so much happening and somehow, it didn’t come to his mind. And now Sasuke would think he didn’t care about him, and someone else would bring him a good luck charm and Sasuke would win and thought that it was because of that person and they would live happily ever after and Naruto’s heart would be broken and he would need to move to another country and thank god, he already had a name picked out and -

Kushina seeing her son’s troubled face, sighed with a little smile playing on her lips.

“You know, I’m heading to the mall in an hour. If you want, we can look for something together,” she offered.

Naruto smiled at his mom, arms stretched to hug her.

“Also, we need to buy you a new jacket.”

To Naruto’s disappointment, Sasuke was busy whole Sunday. Uzumaki sent his friend few texts, but the only time Sasuke responded was to say that Naruto could keep his jacket. Well, it wasn’t anything wrong with the jacket, the fabric was great, it was soft and quite warm, but besides that, it had a huge Uchiha fan at the back.

Sasuke was absent on Monday, Gai scheduled one last final training before the competition.

On Tuesday, the whole athlete team was missing from school, they weren’t active on any social media that day, they didn’t respond to text messages or phone calls. However, no one from teachers seems to freak out, so Naruto suspected that it was all under control.

It was homeroom and Naruto was bored out of his mind. He decided to sit with Kiba, Shikamaru and Choji. All of them were typing something on their phones, from time to time, one of them would share some picture and they were back to texting their girlfriends.  Kiba was still maneuvering his way around Hinata, but his intentions were quite obvious.

 Naruto looked at his phone and smiled at his wallpaper. It was a picture of Kurama ready to attack and a glimpse of black hair and pale hand stretched towards the dog.

Uzumaki sighed and banged his head on the desk.

He missed him.

It's been three days and he missed Sasuke.

It was Wednesday  and Naruto felt he might be going crazy.

Yesterday he decided to head to Sasuke’s home, despite him not answering his texts. He was greeted by Itachi, who said that Sasuke was with his squad on some meditation journey and Gai specially underlined that no one could interfere in his team relaxation before the competition.

He moved through mass of students heading to the school. He was wearing Uchiha’s jacket and some students sent him weird glances, but frankly he didn’t give a fuck. 

Naruto only wanted to see Sasuke and talked to him and checked if that stubborn bastard was okay.

“Naruto!”

Uzumaki halted in his steps and turned around. He saw Sakura’s stretched hand waving at him and the girl skipped to him.

“Hi, Sakura,” he answered and gave her weak smile.

Haruno looked at him for a while and tilted her head.

“Something happened?”

“No, I’m fine. I’m just tired, I guess.”

Sakura hummed, without taking her eyes away from him. She swayed on her heels and tiptoes, definitely in good humor.

“Well, you will need a lot of energy to cheer for our team.”

Naruto stopped in the middle of the hall, his big blue eyes on Haruno, who was still swaying.

“But… But I thought that only classes with the best attendance could watch the competition.”

Sakura smiled at him, her point finger tapping on her cheek.

“If only we know someone who is in student council and swore that no one could cheer as loud as our class.”

Naruto’s eyes began to sparkle, huge smile on his lips. He started to stretched his arms towards Sakura, but she stopped him.

“Also,” she added. “A little bird told me our team is preparing in wing “C” and Gai is now busy welcoming other teams, sooo...”

Naruto couldn’t contained his happiness any longer. He swept Haruno off her feet and span her around with laughter.

“Sakura, you are the best!”

His friend laughed in his arms, warm gaze set on his face.

Naruto was running like crazy to wing “C”, his backpack swaying in every direction. It was half an hour before the opening ceremony and Naruto couldn’t risk  slipping past Uchiha.

He stopped right in front of the doors to changing room. He was ready to knock on the door, but suddenly he felt scared.

He haven’t seen Sasuke since that peck on the cheek and they didn’t even talk about it.

Maybe he read too much into the situation, maybe it was just caused by a moment, it wasn't important... It wasn't worth parading in Uchiha’s jacket and storming into the changing room.

Naruto took step back and wrinkled his nose.

But… but it was natural to care for friends and even if Sasuke didn’t feel the same way, he was still Naruto’s friend. Besides that, Uzumaki had a gift for him, so…

“Let me guess.”

Naruto snapped from his daze and turned towards the voice.

Right behind him stood a boy with silver hair aiming at him a big bottle of water. He eyed Naruto up and down, one hand on his hip.

“You want me to call Sasuke for you.”

Uzumaki nodded his head enthusiastically and saw the boy entering the changing room with a smirk.

“Sasuke! Your boyfriend is here!”

Naruto heard a yell, then  loud “ouch!” and laughs.  After a minute, Sasuke was slipping through the crack in the door and Naruto’s heart was pounding louder.

“Took you long enough, usuratonkachi,” Uchiha responded, catlike smirk playing on his lips.

“Shut up, bastard,” Naruto rasped, not even hiding his smile.

Before Sasuke moved towards him, Naruto shook off his backpack and fished out a small box. He pushed it in Uchiha’s hands, not meeting his eyes.

“ I haven’t competed yet, so there is no need for gifs,” Uchiha said and he casted quick glance at Naruto.

“Well, it’s a good luck charm. You might be good at sport, but I am the expert when it comes to luck,” Naruto laughed and looked at Sasuke when he opened the box. Uchiha was silent for a while, his gaze focused on the gift.

“I know you have that one with your clan symbols, but this one is red and I saw that you like red, because you have many things in your room with that color, and this symbol is…”

“Is Uzumaki symbol.” Sasuke finished and brought the red bandana with small white swirls on it.

“You don’t have to wear it, if you don’t like it,” Naruto suggested sheepishly. 

“Thank you, Naruto, ”Sasuke said with a smirk, his eyes back to Naruto. “Speaking of symbols…”

Uchiha came closer, his eyes focused on the target, his hips swaying and Uzumaki felt that if Sasuke wanted to devour him right now, he would gladly surrender.  His friend was now in his personal space, Uchiha’s scent all over him, one pale hand stretched toward his jacket.

“I’m surprise you wear it,” Sasuke said, his hand pulling on the material.

“Of course. I bet I look better in it than you,” Naruto answered and took a step forward.

Sasuke arched his brow at that comment, his smile stretching a little bit. They were so close that Naruto could easily count all of Uchiha’s eyelashes.

“I bet you would look even better without it.”

He saw that those dangerous sparkles were back in Sasuke’s eyes and the flaming sensation in his underbelly came alive.

“You told you to watch out, Uchiha,” Naruto whispered, his hands hovering over Sasuke’s hips.

“You warned me before,  but I don’t know about what?”

Naruto placed his hands of Uchiha’s hips, his blue eyes gazing at the hypnotize blackness.

“Because if you don’t stop being so fucking tempting, I won’t hesitate to kiss you.”

Naruto felt Sasuke’s body moving away, his hands falling limply on his sides and Uzumaki knew it was the end.

Uchiha backtracked to the changing room, his eyes not leaving Naruto. He stopped, before heading into the room.

“I’ll come collect my prize after the race.”

Of course, Naruto was cheering the loudest of all the people on the bleachers. All of his friends watched him, animated, with his arms stretched up high, Uchiha’s jacket unzipped blowing in a wind. His eyes were sparkling and there was so much positive energy radiating from him, that even his friends couldn’t resist few loud cheers. Kiba had his arm around Naruto’s shoulder and they both shouted, and howled, and cheered for all the competitors from their high school.

 Around 11 am the runners were preparing for their 400 metre dash. Sasuke was stretching his legs, red bandana firm on his forehead.

“SASUKE!” Naruto shouted, bringing the whole attention of the racers towards himself.”YOU BETTER WIN!”

Uchiha’s eyes were stuck on Naruto’s smiling face, small smirk playing on his lips.

“Ow, Naruto, you’re such a supportive boyfriend,” Ino mused next to him.

Uzumaki turned his head towards her, his eyes narrowed.

“I would cheer for you too, if you were racing,” Naruto said. “Besides, he's not my boyfriend..."

“Considering the way he is looking at you, you don’t need to work really hard for that,” Choji said, snacking on his popcorn.

“Can we like stop discussing it and focus on cheering?”

Naruto turned his head in time to see, a tall boy with his hair tied into ponytail approaching Sasuke. He stood really close to him, hovering over his friend. Something about the way he looked at Uchiha and the way he moved made Naruto really tense and he fucking hated that.

He said something to Sasuke, Uchiha raised his chin looking into his eyes and said something back with a smirk. Guy’s hand shoot and pushed Sasuke on the arm, and Naruto was ready to jump from the bleachers.

“Naruto, relax,” Shikamaru said, his hand resting on his friend’s shoulder. “That guy is just trying to intimidate Sasuke.”

“That’s a fucking bad move,” Naruto growled, his fists clenching.

“Yeah, well, thank god, Uchiha is more chill than you.”

Sasuke didn’t stop smirking at the guy, one step closer than before. Naruto saw that the guy was gritting his teeth, angry expression on his face, but after final comment, Sasuke calmly walked away to take his position.

Naruto saw all the racers, now on the running  track, all ready in their staggered positions. Before the sound of starting pistol, Sasuke looked one last time at Naruto and he was running.

It was probably the quickest minute in Naruto’s life. He was cheering impossibly loud, his eyes not leaving Sasuke, his friends shouting right beside him and Naruto was excited and nervous and so extremely happy.

Although, Uzumaki wasn’t surprise that Sasuke won, he felt pride bubbling inside him.

The award ceremony was past their school time, but all of his friends decided to stick around and congratulate Sasuke. Most of the athlete team members walked out with a medal, so it was an amazing competition for their school.

“Sasuke, congratulations!”

Ino was the first one to reach Sasuke, her arms around his neck, squeezing him so tight. Sakura stood right next to her, she exchanged her hand to Sasuke, but he also pulled her for a hug and she gladly took it.

“I haven't thought you would stick up to the end,” Sasuke said a little bit surprised.

“Well, we needed to look out for him,” Shikamaru said, pointing at Naruto who was next to him, as Kiba and Choji were right behind them. “He was ready to punch that ponytail guy.”

Naruto was ready to say something but Sasuke was looking at him with such intense eyes that he couldn’t bring himself to speak.

“Congrats, man! You smashed them!” Kiba threw his arm around Sasuke’s shoulder and smiled at him.”Can I see your medal?”

Uchiha took the prize from his neck and brought it closer to Inuzuka. Kiba stretched his hands to take it, but Sasuke snatched last second.

“Just don’t drop it,” he said with a smirk.

Kiba took the medal as quickly as possible and stuck his tongue at Uchiha. Choji clapped Sasuke on the shoulder and was forced to look at Kiba parading with the medal around the field.

“Congratulation,” Shikamaru moved to the front, his hand stretched. “You deserved it.”

Sasuke clasped their hands, with a small thank you. Shikamaru held his hand a little longer, small smile on his lips, eyes looking into Uchiha’s and from the warm sparkles that appeared in the racer’s eyes, he knew that Sasuke understood.

“Come one, Choji, Kiba, we need to go.”

Shikamaru motioned for his friend and fished out his car key from his pocket. They exchanged their goodbyes, Kiba handed Sasuke his medal and they were gone from the field.

“Um, so, maybe  I’ll take Ino before she finds a way into the men changing room,” Sakura declared, tugging Ino’s sleeve, who just caught the golden medal in her hands.

“I wouldn’t do that!” Ino loudly denied, medal forgotten, hands on her hips.

“Still, I think we need to go. Again, congratulations, Sasuke!”

Naruto and Sasuke looked at the girls, who were slowly disappearing in the distance. 

Uzumaki moved his gaze to Uchiha, who was already looking at him. Blue met black, both couldn’t hide their smirks.

“So, aren’t you going to thank me for the good luck charm?” Naruto started, moving towards Sasuke.

“Oh, aren’t you supposed to congratulate me on my win?” Uchiha responded, also taking a step forward.

Now, they were nose in nose, so close, yet not close enough.  Naruto lifted his hand, his fingers brushing Uchiha’s cheeks. His heart was hammering, his eyes moving all over Sasuke’s face.

“You’re really cocky, Uchiha,” Naruto whispered, his hands moving to Sasuke’s neck.” And so beautiful.”

And then Naruto moved, he saw Sasuke closing his eyes and that was enough for him to finally kissed him. They lips met and Naruto felt everything at once, the butterflies, the pounding of his heart in his ears, Sasuke’s scent all over him, Uchiha’s chapped lips. It was overwhelming and sweet and so, so right.

Sasuke moved away a little bit, just enough to knock his forehead with Naruto’s.  He saw tears gathering in blue eyes and he moved his hands to wipe them out. Naruto captured his hands with his own and gave them small pecks and Sasuke started to laugh and Uzumaki felt at peace.

They were moving outside of the sport centre, in the direction of the parking lot. Itachi was waiting outside his car, his arms crossed, small smile on his face.

“So how was it?”

He saw two boys approaching him. Sasuke in his tracksuit, red bandana with small swirls on his forehead, gold medal swinging from his neck, next to him, Naruto with his cheeks red, huge smile on his face, wearing Uchiha’s jacket.

They were holding hands.

“I won.”