Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Though the storyline of this fanfic is mine.
Pairing: SasuNaru
Summary: All Naruto had wanted was a candy bar. Instead he got a candy bar stealing jerk.
All I Wanted Was A Candy Bar
All Naruto wanted was a candy bar. He wasn't like those kids who asked for world peace, or to find their soul mate. All he wanted in life was to taste that sweet bar of sugar, and maybe a bowl of ramen everyday, but he already had the ramen, so that didn't count.
So why? Why? Why in all the sevens hells did the vending machine have to eat his money?
He could almost cry. Here he was a young, handsome, strong, independent, college student trying to get the closest thing to a meal in his stomach before his big history exam, worth eighty percent of his grade, and the machine decided, "Hey, you know what? I am feeling hungry myself! Why don't I just eat your money?"
Nooo! He was going to fail his history exam if he didn't eat something, and he had used the last of his money on that candy bar. Naruto slammed his fist into the evil machine, ignoring the pain in his knuckles as he did so.
"You stupid piece of crap!" He cursed. "Give me my candy bar, or I'll kill you!" He kicked the vending machine, and regretted in immensely.
Pain shot up his foot. He howled, and grabbed his precious foot. Hopping on his unharmed foot, he cooed to his injured limb, promising it that no vile, malicious vending machine would ever harm it again. Occasionally he would switch from comforting his foot to glaring holes at the machine and cursing it out then go back to talking to his foot.
The students watching this scene backed away slowly, and prayed that the psycho blond guy wasn't going to start attacking them. Others pulled out their cellphones and told the person on the other line about the blond terrorist that was about to kill everyone. The few people who recognized him shook their heads in pity and went to class.
"Give me back my money!" Naruto had stopped comforting his foot long enough to stand on his two feet again, and start shaking the machine. "You worthless piece of junk! I can't wait until this place gets a new, younger, better vending machine."
There are two things in life no one should ever mention younger and better things in front of: Women and vending machines.
The vending machine made a clanking sound, and something fell into the landing zone for snacks. A vulpine smile graced Naruto's features. The score was now Machine: 2 and Naruto: 1. Sure the machine was ahead by one, but Naruto would soon fix that.
Naruto reached into the landing zone, and grabbed his snack, but frowned. Something didn't feel right. Candy bars weren't kept in bags, were they?
Naruto pulled the bag out and read the name of the product. Raisins
RAISINS!
Oh, well played vending machine! Well played!
The score had changed drastically. It was now Machine: 3 and Naruto: 0. How could he be losing! It was a stupid machine! It didn't have a brain! Or did it?
Naruto eyed the vending machine suspiciously. It couldn't have a brain, could it? It was smart enough to know what snacks people wanted, but it wasn't smart enough to form thought, or understand humans, right? Of course it didn't! But then again, it had given him raisins.
While Naruto contemplated if machines had brains or not, a person subtly walked past Naruto and towards the machine. He placed his spare change into the machine, pressed a few buttons, and waited patiently for the machine to give him his snack.
Now, for reasons only the universe knows the machine decided, "I'm full! I'll gladly give this guy his snack!"
It was the clank of the vending machine that had brought Naruto back to earth. His head snapped to the side, and that's when he first saw the prick.
Yeah, the guy had looks that could make girls swoon, and he had nice, expensive looking cloths, but Naruto knew the guy was a jerk at first sight. Maybe if the jerk didn't look bored, or acted as if he thought he had better things to do Naruto would have thought differently. Or maybe if the guy wasn't holding HIS candy bar!
"That's mine!" Naruto shouted and pointed at the prick.
The guy actually had the decency to look confused. He looked at the candybar in his hand, and then his obsidian eyes landed on Naruto and narrowed. "I don't see your name on it."
Oh, real mature. Weren't they supposed to be in college? Shouldn't someone start acting like an adult? Not that Naruto was acting maturely. "That's my candy bar! I paid for it, and the stupid machine ate my money!" Naruto sent a nasty glare towards the machine.
"Not my problem," the raven haired juvenile delinquent (He was trying to steal Naruto's candy bar! He was a delinquent!) walked past Naruto, and if that weren't enough, he sneered as his shoulder accidentally rubbed against Naruto's! It was like the guy thought Naruto carried some disease or something!
"Teme!" Naruto turned around and followed the boy, who had stolen what was rightfully his. "Give me back my candy bar."
The guy stopped walking, and for a moment Naruto thought that the guy was going to give him the candy bar. How foolish he was.
The jerk tore off the top half of the candy bar wrapper, and if that wasn't enough he bit into it too!
HE WAS EATING NARUTO'S CANDY BAR!
The jerk smirked at Naruto's devastated expression. The smug look ignited something in Naruto, and it wasn't a warm fuzzy feeling. It was more like an atomic bomb, and that bomb gave Naruto a boldness he hadn't used since he was a kid.
Without warning he grabbed the jerk's hand, earning a disgusted look from said jerk, and took a bite of the sweet delectable candy.
His mouth watered at the taste. He was in heaven, and nothing was going to bring him down from his sugar high. No one that is, except the prick who looked like he was about to kill Naruto.
Faster than Naruto could see, the guy pushed Naruto to the ground. Naruto winced. Great, just great, he barely had anything to eat this morning, so now he was going to be hungry and have a sore ass during his exam! Why was the universe so cruel!
Before Naruto could thoroughly curse out the prick, the guy had run off.
Naruto snorted. It figured.
Naruto looked at the clock on the wall and his eyes doubled in size. He had one minute to get to class or else he automatically failed the exam! With a "whoop!" he was on his feet and running.
X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.
"I can't believe you took a bite of someone else's candy bar," Naruto's best friend, Sakura, said, her tone laced with humor. "How stupid can you be Naruto?"
"It was my candy bar!" Naruto whined, and buried his face in his arms.
It was lunchtime and he was miserable. He still hadn't had anything to eat, and Sakura never brought a lunch because she ate it at home. He was starving, and no one was going to save him! He was going to die of hunger.
"So whose candy bar did you eat?" Sakura asked, ignoring his previous statement about who the candy bar really belonged to.
Naruto, looked up from studying the wooden picnic table long enough to give Sakura an annoyed look. Why did she have to insist that the candy bar belonged to someone else? Naruto was the one who had paid for it first, so it was rightfully his. "How should I know? The jackass only stayed long enough to take my candy bar, shove me to the ground, and run off with it."
"Did he have any defining features?" Sakura would not let the topic drop. Why do girls always need to know every little detail? Couldn't they be satisfied with what they were told?
Okay that sounded sexist, but he was brooding, and Sakura wasn't helping.
"Uh Sakura, in case you haven't noticed, I am a guy. Why would I be checking out another guy?"
"I didn't ask if you were checking him out," Sakura scowled, and Naruto saw his life flash before his eyes, and what a crappy life it was. Always remember, an angry Sakura is a deadly Sakura. Not "dangerous"; deadly, plain and simple.
"Then let me rephrase," Naruto started, and again he saw his life flash before his eyes, as the look of anger grew stronger on Sakura's face. "I do not care enough about guys to notice what they look like."
"Oh yeah?" Sakura challenged "What about Lee? You remembered what he looked like."
"Sakura," Naruto deadpanned his voice. "Have you looked at Lee? His eyebrows are huge! It's almost as bad as Gaara, who has no eyebrows."
"See!" Sakura cried. "You even remember what Gaara looks like!"
"He has red hair, no eyebrows, and a tattoo that means love on his forehead!" Naruto shouted. "How can you not remember what he looks like!"
"Fine," Sakura sighed in defeat. "Okay, so let's try this."
Naruto shuddered. What did Sakura mean by "try this"? Was he about to die, or be publicly humiliated? Death might be better than humiliation if Sakura was the one causing it. She knew… things. Naruto was not going to go into detail, but just know it involved a tutu, peanut butter, fish food, a shark tank, and a picture of Brad Pitt.
"Look around for someone with similar features to the guy," Sakura commanded as she gestured to the expanse of students eating and or studying outside.
"Do I have to?"
Sakura punched him on the head.
"Ow! Okay! Okay! I'll look!"
Reluctantly, Naruto let his eyes float over everyone in the courtyard. He quickly eliminated the girls from the list of possibilities. He then got rid of blonds, redheads, and people with hair below the shoulders. He couldn't remember the exact hair length, but he knew the prick had some freaky hairstyle.
Like that guy four picnic tables down in a blue shirt glaring at him.
Wait!
…
Nope! Wasn't him! The prick had obsidian colored eyes! Wait…
Naruto looked at the guy again.
The guy had obsidian eyes.
…
"TEME!" Naruto screamed, earning him stares from everyone. He tried to launch himself across the table and at the prick, but Sakura caught him around the waist and held him back.
"NARUTO!" Sakura yelled as she struggled against his thrashing. "Knock it off! You were only supposed to find his look a like! Not kill his look a like!
"It's not a look a like!" Naruto hissed like a wild animal and clawed at the hold she had on him. "It's the real deal! Look!" he screeched and pointed at the guy sitting four tables down. The guy had the nerve to smirk!
Sakura turned her head, and to Naruto's horror, she blushed. She BLUSHED! Girls didn't blush for no reason at all! They blushed for two reasons. The first one was embarrassment, but that couldn't be the reason because Sakura was so used to Naruto's behavior, she no longer felt embarrassed during one of his outbursts. So that left reason number two, which was a crush.
A crush! A crush on a candy bar stealing freak! Sakura had lost her mind!
"I'll kill you bastard!"
"Naruto!" Sakura reprimanded and shoved him down in the seat next to her. She laughed nervously at the jerk. "I'm sorry, he's not usually so violent."
"She's right, I'm usually more violent!" Again, Naruto tried to attack the jerk, but Sakura was once again there to stop him.
If possible, the smirk on the jerk's face grew. If only Sakura wasn't holding him back, then that guy would be begging for mercy! Especially when instead of accepting Sakura's apology, he stood up and walked away.
"That prick!" Naruto shrieked, but Sakura hushed him.
"Naruto," she whispered harshly in his ear and bopped him on the head. "Do you know who that is?"
"Your newest crush?" Naruto wanted to say, but he knew better. "No."
"That's Sasuke Uchiha! He's the richest and smartest kid in school," Sakura explained excitedly.
"If he's so rich why couldn't he afford his own candy bar?"
That earned him another smack to the head.
X.X.X.X.X.X.X.
He was now, Naruto Uzumaki: Super Ninja! With his ninja abilities he had hacked into the school's computer system and had gotten more information on his enemy. In other words, Naruto bribed his friend Shikamaru to hack into the school's database by promising not to talk to the boy for a month, and now he had a nicely sized pile of papers on Sasuke.
It turned out the jerk was not only rich, but his grades and SAT scores had been so high that he had been given a full scholarship! Full scholarship? For crying out loud! That belonged to someone poor like Naruto, not some rich bastard!
To make matters worse, he was the same age as Naruto and he was graduating early! He only had two more classes left, and he was passing them with prefect scores!
"And Mr. Prefect can't afford a stupid candy bar!"
"Oh I can afford a candy bar. In fact I can afford about a million of them," a condescending voice said from behind Naruto and against his will, he froze on the spot. "It's you who can't afford a candy bar."
Naruto scowled, and turned on his heel so he was face to face with Sasuke. He regretted it instantly.
The Uchiha was a little too close for comfort. So not only did Sasuke feel the need to steal his candy bar, but his personal bubble too? Well, Naruto wasn't going to allow that! He took a step back, not caring that he was pressed up against his locker.
Sasuke held a pile of papers in hands. He lifted the pile up to show it off to Naruto. It didn't take long for Naruto to realize it was his personal file.
"Great minds think alike?" Naruto's vulpine smile grew on his lips, but Sasuke shot it down before it could bloom.
"There is only one great mind here, and it isn't yours."
Naruto was going to kill this guy if it was the last thing he did. "TEME!"
"Dobe."
Sasuke's response floored Naruto. What had the prick called him?
"What did you just call me?" Naruto shouted.
Sasuke smirked. "Don't tell me your deaf too? Dobe. I called you 'Dobe'. Think of it as me returning the favor of being called 'Teme'."
"I want my candy bar!" Naruto demanded.
"Fine."
Naruto was taken aback. Did his ears deceive him? Had Sasuke just agreed to give him his candy bar? What was the catch?
But there was no catch. With his free hand, Sasuke pulled a candy bar out of his back pocket, and tossed it Naruto.
Too stunned, Naruto almost dropped the candy bar on the floor. He couldn't believe it! He checked the expiration date, but the thing wasn't expired. He ran his fingers over the candy bar, but he found no tears or holes in the wrapper. It was in pristine condition.
He gawked at Sasuke.
In return, Sasuke grunted, and turned to leave.
It wasn't until Sasuke was out of sight did everything settle in his brain. He hated it, but he smiled, and whispered so no one could hear, "Thank you."
X.X.X.X.X.X.X.
Everything would have ended happily that day, but it didn't. The next morning when Naruto went to get his books from his locker, he found a candy bar lying on top of his books. It didn't stop there. Everyday for the last two weeks Naruto found a candy bar in his locker. He wasn't exaggerating either. If he wasn't at school one day of the week then the next day he would have a candy bar for the previous day and that day.
This had to be some kind of sick joke by Sasuke! Who else would spend their money on candy bars? And hadn't Sasuke bragged about being able to by a million candy bars? It had to be that bloody Uchiha!
That was why Naruto was stomping angrily over to the smug boy, who was sitting unaware at a picnic table as he read a book. Prefect! Naruto wanted to catch him off guard.
Naruto slammed hands down on the table. Sasuke look up from his book and frowned at Naruto. Good. If Naruto wasn't happy then Sasuke didn't deserve to be happy. "What the hell do you think you are doing!" He shouted at the Uchiha.
Not the best introduction, but it got to the point.
Sasuke stared at Naruto blankly. You know, the kind of stare where it seems like they're looking past you when really they are just thinking about how stupid you sound. Yeah, that kind of a stare.
"What are you talking about, Dobe?"
Naruto could strangle Sasuke! The only reason Sasuke was still breathing was because Naruto wanted answers, and as the old saying goes "dead men tell no tales".
"The. Candy. Bars!" Naruto spat out each word. "Why are you putting them in my locker?"
Sasuke snorted. "Didn't anyone ever tell you 'not to look a gift horse in the mouth'?"
The image of strangling Sasuke came to mind, but Naruto tried to push it back. He would save that for after he got his answers. "Yeah, well, a guy giving another guy candy everyday is creepy. Besides, I just wanted my candy bar. I don't want yours."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed, and for the first time since Naruto met him, he was scared of Sasuke. If there was a school for glaring, Sasuke would be the headmaster.
The Uchiha stood up from his spot at the picnic table, so he could tower over Naruto, which was working splendidly. Naruto officially felt towered over and intimidated. "Too bad," Sasuke hissed, and for once Naruto was left speechless.
X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.
"What the freak!" Naruto threw his orange bowling ball down the aisle, causing seven out of ten pins to crash to the floor. It felt incredible to take his aggression out on unanimated objects, especially if he pretended they were a certain jerk. "What the heck was is his problem!"
Naruto spun around so he was facing a frowning Sakura, who was writing on a scorecard. "He actually got pissed because I didn't want a stupid candy bar!" Naruto shouted and threw his arms up in the air in exasperation. "Who cares about a candy bar!"
"Two weeks ago, you did," Sakura pointed out.
Was it just Naruto, or did it always seem like best friends were useless? Oh sure, they were there if you wanted to hang out and talk, but when it came to comforting you, weren't best friends the worst? They either agreed with everything you said and let you get angrier then you were before, or they were like Sakura. Sakura was the kind of best friend that was never on your side, and used logic at all times.
Naruto didn't want logic! He wanted sympathy! He wanted her to buy him ramen and tell him that she would kick Sasuke's ass if Sasuke put another candy bar in his locker. Naruto had no qualms about Sakura defending him. She may be a girl, but underneath that sweet façade there was an assassin.
"That's different! He took something that was mine, and now he's forcing himself on me." Okay, bad mental image. Naruto scrunched up his face. He was going to have to bleach his brain now.
"Naruto," Sakura sighed. It wasn't one of those good sighs either. It was the "you poor fool" sigh, which was never good. "I know it's weird, but honestly, what harm is Sasuke-kun doing by putting a candy bar in your locker?"
What harm was Sasuke doing? Couldn't she see!
Naruto grabbed his bowling ball from the ball return zone, and threw it at the three remaining pins. He missed.
"I don't hear an answer Naruto," Sakura taunted. A rare smirk was on her face as she waited for Naruto's response.
"I don't know!" Naruto ran a hand through the tangled mass of hair on his head. His teeth clenched together in frustration, and his hands balled into fists. "I feel like I owe him something! People don't just give you things because they want to!"
"Maybe he is being nice?" Sakura suggested.
Naruto scoffed. "As if, Sakura. Why would Sasuke Uchiha, Boy Wonder, want to do something nice for me?"
X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.
Naruto's stomach felt nauseous. He couldn't believe what he was doing.
"What are you doing?" And apparently Sasuke couldn't believe it either if the suspicious look on his face meant anything.
Naruto's body was shaking with nerves and anticipation, as he placed his lunch tray on the picnic table and took a seat next to Sasuke. Why was he torturing himself again? Oh yeah, he was feeling guilty.
Why was Naruto feeling guilty? Because stupid Sasuke had been giving him candy bars for over a month and had not asked for anything. Naruto still held the belief that Sasuke wanted something, but he couldn't sleep at night knowing, for the most part, someone else was doing something "nice" for him, and he wasn't returning the favor.
"This is all your fault," Naruto grumbled his accusation. He folded his arms on top of the picnic table, and rested his head on them.
Sasuke didn't say anything. He just flipped the page in his book and continued reading.
X.X.X.X.X.X.X.
"Watcha reading?"
Another month of eating lunch with Sasuke, and the Uchiha still hadn't asked Naruto for a favor, and kept placing the candy bars in the blonde's locker. The first week of eating lunch together had been the hardest because Sasuke always wanted to read while Naruto would get bored and demand attention. The issue wasn't completely resolved, but now Naruto knew when to back off, and Sasuke would stop reading his book long enough to talk to Naruto for a bit.
"Nothing you're interested in," Sasuke smirked, and closed the book he had been reading.
Sasuke would always be a jerk in Naruto's eyes. How anyone could think Sasuke was a kind person when he acted so smug was beyond Naruto.
"You're such a prick," Naruto scowled.
Sasuke opened his mouth to retort, but a strawberry haired girl known as Sakura came bouncing up to the table.
Actually, she wasn't bouncing, more like running as if the witch hunters were on her tail. She was fast enough that the boys on the track team would cry in jealousy if they saw her. In her hand was a black and white paper, which vaguely resembled a newspaper.
Naruto blinked and looked closer at the paper in her hand. It was a newspaper. "Why do you have a newspaper?" Naruto knew Sakura kept up with current events, but by the looks of newspaper it was the colleges' newspaper, which was filled with information on school activities, not with events in the world.
"The," She gasped, "Gossip. Column!" She slumped on the seat across from table.
If Naruto wasn't such a curious person he would have checked to make sure Sakura was still alive, but since he was he left Sakura to die and took the newspaper from her. He flipped to the gossip section of the news and his eyes grew to the size of saucers.
There was an entire article on him and Sasuke!
"Prince and Pauper: Love Affair," Sasuke read the headline aloud.
It was sick! Him and Sasuke! Kissing? Holding Hands? Making out? Ew! Gross!
"Who do I have to kill?" Naruto growled, and eyed the innocent people around as if one of them might be the one responsible for the published article.
Sasuke scanned the paper further, and frowned. "It seems whoever wrote this article noticed the candy bars I gave you."
Naruto choked on his own spit. The only person he talked to about the candy bars had been Sakura, and based on her current state of unconsciousness, it couldn't have been her who had told. Sasuke didn't talk to anyone he didn't know well, and Naruto was the only one he knew well enough to speak to. That meant only one thing…
Someone had been spying on him!
A feral growl caught in Naruto's throat. "When I find whoever spied on me I am going to kill him."
Sasuke did not say anything. His gaze was frozen on the newspaper.
Soundlessly, Sasuke tossed the newspaper to the side, shoved his hands in his pants' pockets, and walked away.
"Hey! Where are you going, Sasuke?" Naruto called, but received no answer.
He frowned and bit his bottom lip. He had a bad feeling about this.
X.X.X.X.X.
"He's avoiding me," Naruto whined and pouted.
"Isn't that what you wanted?" Sakura, of course, held no sympathy for him.
She was so cruel, but not as cruel as Sasuke.
Two weeks and all Naruto got from Sasuke was the cold shoulder; quite literally! The only time Naruto had seen Sasuke in the last two weeks was in the hall where Sasuke had walked past Naruto, and accidentally (or so Naruto thought) bumped his shoulder against Naruto's. The shoulder was freezing! For the rest of the day Naruto had sworn Sasuke had to be a vampire.
"I didn't want him to ignore me!" Naruto whined plaintively. "I just wanted him to stop with the candy bar thing! It was creeping me out! And he's still doing it too!"
"Why?" Sakura asked, genuinely curious.
"What?"
She sighed and repeated herself. "Why did it creep you out?"
"Because!"
Sakura gave him a warning look, and Naruto withered under it.
"Okay!" He shouted and threw his hands up in the air in defeat. "Besides feeling like I owed him something, and that he was planning something against me, it felt weird. Like it wasn't allowed?" Naruto frowned at his own questioning tone. He didn't like that he was doubting himself. "Guys don't give other guys gifts like that. One or two candy bars, fine! But more? It starts looking suspicious."
"You sound like one of those people who wrote that column on you and Sasuke," Sakura had to point out and worsen Naruto's already sour mood. He did not need to be reminded about that evil newspaper at the moment.
She rolled her eyes at him. "Don't give me that look. I know you don't like it, but it's true. Whoever wrote that article thought Sasuke's gift meant more than friendship, and you clearly felt the same."
"It's different!" Naruto rebuked.
"How?"
Naruto scowled. He didn't have an answer.
X.X.X.X.X.X.X.
Naruto whistled a mindless tune as he walked to his next class. It was earning him annoyed looks, but instead of discouraging him, the looks did the opposite. He loved being the center of attention. It didn't matter if it was good or bad attention so long as he was the center of it.
On any other day, he would have walked through the halls with a few glances here or there, but his gaze remaining mostly on the ceiling. Today was different. Today he saw something he normally didn't when he glanced to his left.
The door to one of the classrooms was ajar, but that wasn't the surprise. The surprise was who was sitting inside: Sasuke Uchiha.
Now Naruto wasn't stupid, he knew Sasuke could be in a class or something important like that, but there were only two people in the room with Sasuke, so Naruto doubted it.
His curiosity got the better of him, and he slid close to the door. He made sure he was at an angle where he could peek into the classroom without being detected, and held his breath as he listened in on the private conversation.
One of the other occupants was an old professor. The old man looked angry and was casting glares between Sasuke and the other student in the room. "I don't want to get anyone else involved in this dispute, so I am not going to report it," the old man spoke with his annoying nasally voice.
The young male next to Sasuke seemed to breath a sigh of relief.
Naruto frowned. He wished Sasuke and the other student didn't have their backs turned to him. He wanted to see their expressions.
"However," The professor went on, "the next time something like this happens between you two I will report it. You were both acting like children. You two are in college, start acting like the adults you are. Dismissed."
Naruto jumped away from the door and ran until he was a safe distance away so no one would think he spying, but close enough so he could see Sasuke and the other student when they left.
The first one out of the classroom was the student, and Naruto gasped. The student had a black eye and a bleeding bottom lip. There were no other bruises on the boy, but Naruto felt his breakfast do back flips in his stomach. Had Sasuke done that?
Sasuke left the classroom with his hands shoved in his pocket. He scowled at everyone in his path. There were no injuries on Sasuke, but something compelled Naruto to make sure.
He had no control over his body as he gave chase after Sasuke, and grabbed the Uchiha's arm to stop him. Sasuke turned on him with a harsh glare, but upon seeing Naruto toned the intensity of his glare down.
"What happened?" The words all but flew out of Naruto's mouth. He didn't understand what could cause Sasuke to start a fight. The Uchiha wasn't stupid enough to risk expulsion. "Did you beat that guy up?"
"Hn."
Naruto growled. He wanted answers, not some wordless grunt! Couldn't Sasuke see that he was worried! Until Sasuke told him differently, he had to assume the worst. "Why would you hit someone! You could have gotten expelled! And you're so fucking close to graduating too!"
Sasuke's already sour look deepened as he ripped his arm out of Naruto's hold. "I was doing it for you!"
"What?" Naruto took a step back. Was Sasuke serious? What did hitting someone have to do with him? Naruto had never seen that beaten up kid in his life. How could Sasuke make a connection between the two?
"He's the one who wrote that gossip article," Sasuke explained.
Naruto blinked. "Oh." He couldn't think of what else to say.
He felt his cheeks flush, and turned his head away. This was really embarrassing. No one had ever defended him before, and the last person he expected to do so was Sasuke.
"But what about you?" Naruto had to fight a stutter. He always stuttered when embarrassed. It was his curse! "The article was about you too? I mean, you didn't just do it for me, right?"
Sasuke gave him an annoying, smug, smirk. "Interpret my actions as you will."
X.X.X.X.X.X.X.X.
"Wait, Sasuke hit the guy because of the article?" Sakura repeated, tearing her lips away from her strawberry shake. Naruto and her had been enjoying a meal together at a diner when he decided to tell Sakura what happened between him and Sasuke
Naruto nodded.
"That's weird," She hummed and bit on the red straw in her mouth. She took a quick sip of her milkshake and frowned. "Sasuke has been mentioned in the gossip column before, and he's never cared. Do you think it's because of you?"
Naruto groaned. He had been dreading that question. He had lost sleep because of that question. He knew the answer and hated it.
Of course it was because of him!
"You know," Sakura began interrupting Naruto's brooding. "I can't help but think that Sasuke might like you."
"What do you mean by 'like'?" Naruto knew what she meant, but he wanted to keep his prefect world in its wondrous condition before it fell to pieces because of Sasuke Uchiha.
"You know what I mean," she bopped Naruto on the back of the head. "Sasuke has a crush on you."
Naruto felt his lips curl in disgust. "Don't use the words 'crush' and 'Sasuke' in the same sentence unless it's to say Sasuke is crushing something." Maybe it was just Naruto but the thought of Sasuke having a crush on someone disturbed him.
"Okay, how about love?"
Naruto scowled.
"Infatuation?" Sakura offered.
"Possibly," Naruto mumbled.
"So…" Sakura trailed off, waiting for Naruto to pick up the conversation. However Naruto was too busy brooding to participate in conversation, so Sakura sighed and went on. "What are you going to do, Naruto? Do you even like him?"
Naruto sighed and shook his head. He wasn't answering Sakura's question. How could he? He didn't know the answer himself.
X.X.X.X.X.X.X.
Naruto waited behind the corner as he watched Sasuke open his locker. The raven-haired teen looked to be in an okay mood today; not happy, but not angry either. That made Naruto sigh with relief. He didn't know what he would do if it had been anything else.
There was a screech as the old locker door flew open, and Naruto waited to see Sasuke's reaction.
At first there was nothing different about Sasuke, and Naruto wondered if he had gotten the wrong locker. Suddenly Sasuke's eyes widened, and he reached into his locker to pull out a candy bar with an orange ribbon around it.
Naruto inhaled. Okay, it was now or never. He left his hiding spot around the corner and walked up to Sasuke. The Uchiha stared at him inquiringly, and Naruto gulped. He really hoped he had made the right choice.
"Hi," he squeaked. Yes, squeaked! Like a scared little mouse. He could kill himself.
Sasuke didn't speak, but held up the candy bar.
"Uh…yeah!" Naruto began nervously, and sheepishly rubbed the back of his head with one hand while the other hid in his pants' pocket. "You see, um… I… well… Aw damn it!" He cried, and the hand in his pocket launched out and took Sasuke's.
He pulled the Uchiha away from the locker, and headed in a random direction. He was screaming at himself in his head. Why couldn't he say it? And why were his cheeks heating up? He was just holding Sasuke's hand! This was humiliating!
Next to him, he heard Sasuke emit a deep chuckle, and turned his head to see the amused face of Sasuke.
"Idiot," Sasuke chuckled, and took the lead, pulling Naruto towards the school exit.
Naruto felt the blush fade from his cheeks, and gave a small laugh. Sasuke sure had a weird way of showing affection, but then again, so did Naruto.
Thank you all for reading. Let me know what you think. And sorry to those who wanted a lot of SasuNaru action. I just find the relationship between the two adorable with or without hundreds of hugs and kisses.