After weeks of peer pressure from his comrades, Naruto finally found himself sitting across from HInata on a picnic bench. The sun was beaming down on them and not a single cloud could be spotted in the bright blue sky above. With the help of an overly enthusiastic Sakura, there was a magnificent spread of homecooked food layed out between them.

"I'm so glad you asked me to join you for lunch today, Naruto-kun! But you really didn't need to go through all of this trouble..." Pale cheeks were turning pink as she stared down at her lap, tapping her index fingers together.

"Don't worry about it!" The blond haired boy flashed his signature goofy grin as he scratched the back of his head. "I wanted to do it, you're always so nice to me and stuff...just consider it a thank you for being such a good friend." Not to mention the fact that he had nothing to do with it. Sakura refused to let him help. A wise decision on her part considering the only cooking experience he had was making instant cup ramen.

"Mm" Hinata finally looked up from her lap and her violet eyes met bright blue as the pink in her cheeks began to spread. It still didn't feel real to her, being here with none other than Naruto Uzumaki, the boy she had loved for so long.

The blond began fidgeting with the bottom of his faded orange T-Shirt as he attempted to think of a good conversation starter. He still wasn't quite sure what he was doing here with her. It wasnt that he didn't like Hinata, because he did, she was sweet, loyal, and very pretty. But somehow he was afraid he wouldn't be able to return her feelings and the last thing he wanted to do was lead the poor girl on. But, he did make a promise to Neji, and he always kept his word.

"You must be very happy to have your best friend back." Hinata was the first to break the awkward silence. "I couldn't help but notice that the two of you have been practically inseperable since his return." She smiled sweetly up at the blond as she played with the ends of her silky black hair.

"Heh, yeah, I am pretty happy about it!" Naruto flashed a huge grin as he leaned back and put his arms behind his head "I really missed that cocky bastard, ya know?" It had been about six months since the victory of the fourth great ninja war and since Sasuke had decided to stay in Konoha, Naruto had done his best to strenghten their relationship and they became closer than they had ever been.

"He seems happier than I remember. I'm sure it's because of you Naruto-kun." It seemed the more she spoke the pinker her face became.

"He's still the same old Sasuke really. Arrogant, blunt, really good at hiding his emotions...easily annoyed, that's definitely still the same, I can tell you first hand, trust me!" the whiskered nin laughed as he recalled all the times he had purposely tried to annoy the Uchiha. Each time resulted in the raven haired boy's fist meeting the top of Naruto's head.

"Oh" the shy nin giggled "Well those things may still be true about him but I've noticed him being a little more social and smiling a little more. I think coming back here was a really good decision for him to make." She met Naruto's gaze for a quick moment before turning away to stare out into the nearby forest.

"Definitely!" Naruto smiled largely again before it quickly faded. He knew Sasuke was trying desperately to earn the trust of his comrades back, coming to group events, smiling at the jokes people made...but Naruto knew Sasuke better than anyone and he knew Sasuke wasn't as happy as he led on. Sasuke was still hurting, he could see it every time he looked into his eyes. But Naruto convinced himself that the fact Sasuke was trying was a good thing and that eventually things would get easier for the Uchiha.

The two sat in mostly silence as they finished their meal. Naruto commented on the progress of Konoha's reconstruction and Hinata had casually mentioned the lovely weather they had been having. But, for the most part, they hadn't had must to talk about.

"Thank you for the meal, Naruto-kun. It was very good." She smiled brightly at her crush as she stood up from the table "I need to get back to the hospital but I hope to see you again soon."

"Yeah, maybe we could do this again some time. Sooner than later for sure!" Naruto inwardly cursed himself for saying this. What was he thinking? What happened to not wanting to lead her on? He flashed a toothy grin anyway and she smiled back and bowed before making her way towards the hospital.

Damn it, damn it, damn it!

Naruto began to wonder what was wrong with him. He should be attracted to her, he should be flattered and excited that she took an interest in him. Most of the guys in Konoha would kill to have a shot with her. So why wasn't he jumping at the opportunity?

Naruto stood and gathered the leftover food and trash, placing them in the basket he borrowed from Sakura before heading back towards town to get back to the re-build. As he walked past a row of shrubbery he was thrown off gaurd as two women jumped out and suddenly appeared before him. His heart nearly escaped through his throat as he yelled in surprise and jumped back, the basket landing several feet away with its contents flying through the air and littering the ground.

"What the hell! Sakura, Ino, what are you doing here?!" The blond clutched his chest as he tried to regulate his breathing.

"Oh, nothing, just spying on you." Ino smirked and placed a hand on her hip in the sassiest way she could manage.

"It looked like it went well! So spill, are you two dating yet? I didn't see you kiss her, you should have kissed her!" Sakura was pulling on Naruto's arm as she pried for information.

"Uh...no we're not dating...and why the hell were you spying on me? You guys are so creepy!" He pulled his arm out of the grasp of the pink haired nin and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Quit playing matchmaker, guys. If it happens, it happens. You're not supposed to force things things, ya know!"

"Boo, you're no fun, Naruto." Ino scrunched her face in disappointment. "Hinata's so pretty and sweet and most importantly she's been in love with you since forever! What more do you want, jeeze."

"It's not that I dont like her" His blue eyes stared at the ground as he sighed. "I'm just not ready to get serious with her, that's all."

"Clearly, you two need to go on a few more dates then." Sakura said this matter-of-factly as she crossed her arms and stuck out her hip. "I'll arrange the next one for you since you're too much of a sissy to do it yourself"

"Fine, whatever. I need to go, okay? I've really got to get back to helping with the reconstruction, you guys are gonna make me late." The blond rolled his eyes as he went back to gather everything for a second time and finally made his escape.

~0~o~0~

"How was your date?" the raved haired nin asked in a bored tone as he began to hammer a nail into a slab of wood.

"It was okay" Naruto fidgeted with a tape measure and cursed under his breath.

"For christ's sake, usuratonkachi, slide the botton up to lock the ruler in place." He rolled his mismatched eyes at the blond's stupidity. "So your date with the Hyuuga girl was that bad, huh?"

"Shut up, Sasuke, you jerk." Naruto shot him an angry look before scetching on some wood with a pencil. "And I didn't say it was bad, ya deaf bastard, I said it was okay."

"If it was anything but bad you'd be enthusiastic, dobe. I know how you work. Cheery, always so damn cheery even if theres not much to be cheery about. So the fact that you aren't bragging about this and over romanticizing it, leads me to believe that it didn't go well." He stretched his pale arm out and grabbed the pencil from Naruto's hand and erased the line he had drawn and re-drew it at the proper length. "Tch".

"God forbid the line be slightly too long...it wasnt even by much! Jeeze, nitpicky jerk" Naruto narrowed his eyes at the Uchiha and frowned before grabbing a saw and returning to his work.

"It did go badly." The raven haired nin smirked in victory as he returned to his hammering.

"Shut up"

~0~o~0~

Naruto found himself sitting across from Hinata again but this time the location was in a qauint little restraunt, newly built of course, and because of it's short life in Konoha (and the lack of any other places to dine), it was packed with people and unpleasantly loud. The volume wouldn't have been an issue had he come here with anyone else, but he was here with a blushing shy girl who's voice was the softest he'd ever heard.

"The tea is wonderful, you should try it Naruto-kun." She clutched the cup in both of her hands and stared into it with a small smile on her face.

"What?"

"Um" The pale girl cleared her throat and looked up at the blond. "The tea...you should try it." her small smile still in place, and her cheeks that same shade of pink they always were when she had to conversate.

"Oh, yeah, sorry it's just kind of loud in here and you're so quiet." He smiled apologetically as he picked up his cup and sipped it.

"I'm sorry, I'll try to speak louder..." Her smiled faded as she stared at her lap and smoothed out the imaginary wrinkles in her skirt, feeling embarrassed.

Naruto stared out the window and watched as some young ninja ran around with their shiny new leaf village headbands. They wore huge smiles and were full of life and energy. Naruto thought back longingly to the early days of team 7 and let out a sigh. He envied their youth at times. Suddenly he felt as if Guy Sensei were starting to rub off on him.

"Is something wrong, Naruto-kun?" There was a look of concern on her fair skinned face and her violet eyes held a bit of sadness.

"Oh, no, nothing's wrong. I just spaced out for a minute. How are things at the hospital?" He quickly replaced his blank expression with a wide grin and squinty eyes.

"It's been pretty steady actually. Although missions are pretty scarce these days we still get a lot of injured ninja who had accidents during reconstruction. So I've been kept fairly busy." She forced herself out of her comfort zone to meet Naruto's eyes. She felt rude when she didn't make eye contact and she really wanted their date to go well.

"Yeah, Kiba fell off of a beam and sprained his ankle." Naruto erupted into laughter and Hinata stared at him in confusion. He noticed her expression and quickly explained. "Well, you see, he was asking Shikamaru to pass him a box of nails but he fell asleep so Kiba threw a fit, cursing at him, and flailing his arms around trying to wake him up and lost his balance. He looked like such an idiot. He's always getting all worked up over things." He started laughing again but stopped when he noticed the pale girl sitting across from him still wasn't finding the humor in his story.

The rest of the date was full of small talk and casual converstation. Naruto thought it better he didn't try to tell anymore funny stories as he realized her sense of humor was very different from his own.

"Hey, dobe, mind if I join you two?" Naruto's head shot up at the sound of the Uchiha's voice.

"Oh, hey, Sasuke. What are you doing here?" relief covered the wiskered nin's face.

The raven haired boy took a seat next to his friend and grabbed the blond's chopsticks, stealing a peice of meat from his plate. "I was just passing by and noticed the two of you. You seemed pretty bored so I thought I'd liven up the party." the tone of sarcasm was unmistakeable.

"We weren't bored, you cocky bastard! We were actually having a nice conversation until you showed up! Right Hinata?" He smiled at the girl in front of him that was beginning to resemble a tomato.

"Um...yes" She smiled weakly back at him.

"I see." The Uchiha was clearly not convinced. "Well after we finish the building we're working on today I thought we'd get some training in. It's been at least a week since our last sparring session and I don't want to get rusty." He turned to Naruto who was busy prying his chopsticks out of Sasuke's pale hand.

"Yeah, sounds good. I've been wanting to get some sparring in anyway." He flashed a victory grin as he reaquired his chopsticks and immediatly went back to stuffing his face.

"Alright. I'll see you at the construction site then. Later, loser." He stood up and turned his attention towards Hinata. "Hyuuga." He gave her a nod and went on his way.

"Don't mind him, Hinata. He's always like that so don't take it personally." She looked at him with a smile but her sad eyes gave her true feelings away.

A short while later they bid their farewells and parted ways. And Naruto was glad to be free.

~0~o~0~

-one month later-

The sun was setting over Konoha. The sky was a magnificent swirl of oranges, pinks, blues, and violet. Shadows spread from the trees and buildings confirming the end of another day as the world began to darken.

Naruto was sitting cross-legged utop his father's carving among the faces of past Hokage, looking out over the village. He was reaching out to capture a leaf that was dancing through the wind when he felt a familiar chakra behind him.

"Hey, teme."

The Uchiha smirked and took a seat to the right of the blond. He sat closely enough that Naruto took notice of their legs barely touching. A pink hue began to form on his cheeks.

"It's amazing isn't it?" Mismatched eyes stared out over their childhood home. "We've made so much progress in so short a time. The village is so close to being fully restored." His features softened as he continued to look ahead.

"Yeah, it really helped hiring all of those foreign contracters and stuff. And everyone has been so helpful. Even a lot of the women insisted on helping." Naruto began to twirl his captured leaf between the tips of his thumb and index finger as the wind threatened to reclaim it.

"Your crazy amount of shadow clones were a huge help as well." He smirked and turned to look at the blond. "They would have been a bigger help if you weren't such a dobe."

"Go to hell, Uchiha." his whiskered face scrunched in annoyance which only served to amuse the raven haired man who only responded with a quiet laugh.

"I bet you wouldn't speak to your precious girlfriend this way." he nudged Naruto's arm with his elbow and raised an eyebrow.

"You know damn well that Hinata isn't my girlfriend. We've only gone on like 5 dates and we only kissed once. It hasn't been made official or anything." He brought his knees up to his chest and hugged them tightly, hiding part of his face.

"You...kissed her?" The Uchiha clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white. His face held an expression that was a mixture of hurt and anger.

"I meant to tell you sooner." He brought one hand up to push back his spikey blond hair which was in a chaotic frenzy as the unforgiving wind became more harsh. "It's just that I know you don't like her and every time I talk about one of our dates you get angry. So I was afraid of what you'd say if you knew I'd kissed her."

"Whatever, loser. It's your mouth you can put it where ever you want to." He turned his head in the oposite direction and his muscles became tense. The Uchiha was pouting.

"Listen, Sasuke. I know you think I could do better than Hinata, but I don't know...maybe she'd be good for me. Everyone keeps trying to push us together and she's a really nice girl. I'm thinking of giving her a chance. I am 17 after all. It's about time I get a girlfriend." He played with the zipper on his jacket as he spoke and sounded very uncertain about what he was saying.

Sasuke was losing his patience now. He snapped his head back towards the blond, his features sharper and his eyes unmistakably angry. "So that's it then? You're so pathetic and desperate that you'll just settle for anyone? You'll just ask this boring Hyuuga to be your girlfriend even though you're fully aware of how dull she is and you don't really enjoy the time you spend with her? You shouldn't settle for anything less than what you deserve, Naruto."

The wiskered nin's face was covered with shock. His mouth hung open slightly at the harsh words that came from his best friend. At first he thought to relaliate with some harsh words of his own but decided against it when he realized that his friend was only looking out for him.

"Im just tired of being alone." His bright blue eyes held such a sadness that the Uchiha had calmed down instantly, leaning towards him and lightly bumping Naruto's shoulder with his own.

"You're not alone, usuratonkachi. You have plenty of friends. And Kakashi sensei, Iruka sensei, and Tsunade-sama are always looking out for you. And, a best friend." His lips formed a cocky smirk.

Naruto smirked back at him. "Yeah, Sakura's a pretty good best friend." He laughed as the raven glared daggers. "But, I want an intimate kind of relationship. I want someone to tell me they love me every day and say 'welcome home'...I've never experienced that before, I've always been alone." He averted his eyes, fixing them on a brave caterpiller that had decided to fight against the wind.

"Having all of that taken away from you isn't so pleasant either." His mismatched eyes followed Naruto's gaze and spotted the brave caterpiller slowly inching towards whatever it's destination might be. He picked it up and returned it to the ground at least a foot back from where it strove so hard to get to, forcing it to walk all that distance a second time. He grinned devilishly.

"Oh my god, you sadistic bastard!" Naruto picked the caterpillar up and placed it farther than it had originally gotten. "You feed on the suffering of innocent souls, what the hell is wrong with you?!"

Sasuke responded with a quiet laugh and flicked the blonde's forehead.

"You know, even if you are the spawn of Satan, I really missed you. I'm so happy you're back...sometimes it still doesn't feel real." Naruto smiled a genuine smile that lit up his entire face despite the darkness that had fallen on them.

"Im glad I'm back too." He returned the smile for only a moment before it faded. "But if I'm being honest, it's been really hard." He frowned as he picked at the fabric of his black pants. "The stares and death threats have been getting to me...not because I care about what people think- I honestly couldnt care any less about what they think- its the fact that those things are constant reminders of the person I was and all of the horrible mistakes I made. Nobody want's me here and I really don't deserve to be here either."

"Sasuke..." The blond's eyes widened as he stared at his miserable friend. "Who you were doesn't matter! It's who you've become that really counts. It means so much more that you were able to see that the path you were on was wrong and had the courage to turn around and become a better person. You did what Obito and Madara couldn't until it was too late...you took your life back and you made an effort to right your wrongs and chose to live as a better man. You lost your way but finding your way back from the darkness is something you should be proud of. You're one of the strongest people I've ever met. And having you back in my life is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. And don't you ever say you don't belong here!"

His words were delivered with a passion that stunned the Uchiha into a silence that stretched for what seemed like several minutes. "Did...did you just own me with another talk-no-justu?" His tense facial expression softened. "If it weren't for your rediculously inspiring speeches who knows where I'd be right now? Probably dead. Or worse. So, thanks for that."

The two shinobi stared in silence at eachother for what seemed like an eternity. Naruto's bright blue eyes met with one onyx eye and one rinnegan. Bringing up his right hand, Sasuke brushed the bright blond hair out of the wiskered nin's face and within an instant their lips had crashed together, sending waves of electricity through both of their bodies.

Both men were lost in a moment of passion as they gave into their most secret desires. Pale arms wrapped around Naruto's torso pulling him onto his lap. Parting his lips, Sasuke slid his eager tongue into Naruto's mouth and grabbed a fist full of blonde hair. Naruto slid his hands beneath Sasuke's black cut-off shirt and traced his abdominal muscles, admiring the smoothness of his skin.

But this was wrong. It was so wrong.

Naruto's hands retreated from underneath Sasuke's shirt as he jumped back and stared at him, he's eyes practically jumping out of their sockets. He tried to speak but failed. The raven haired nin opened his mouth and quickly closed it, as he was also at a loss for words. Panic and confusion settled into them as they realized what had just happened.

"I-I gotta go." Naruto stood up so fast he almost lost his balance and darted off towards the village.

"You spent all that time chasing after me and now you're just going to run away?!" Sasuke called out in desperation but to no avail as the blond was already far out of his sight. "Damn it!" He covered his face with pale hands and layed on his back, afraid of what would happen next, but he knew one thing for sure. Things were about to change.