I felt like writing something else, and so this story -consisting of (just) 3 chapters- was created.

Summary: Sasuke has, from the moment he really noticed the boy, always held some interest in Naruto, his life and his many layers. As time passes, his curiosity has grown into much more than just finding the blond interesting. Will he be able to tell Naruto how he really feels about him?

Warning: beware for my imagination… oh, and boyxboy, a.k.a yaoi :3

Disclaimer: Naruto and all its character belong to Kishimoto-sensei!

-oXo-

Edit: Thank you MS3923 for beta-ing ;)

-oXo-

A Dark Cloud and a Bright Sun

Chapter 1:

Leaning against a wall, looking around the corner, he stared at the blond boy standing in the middle of the street. One hand on his chest, his narrow eyes, looking almost angrily, followed every motion that the boy made.

Every detail. He noticed every movement the boy made with his eyes, counting every blink, the movement of his lips, his mouth, the way his loud voice was shaped into letters – words; empty sentences.

His strangely whiskered cheeks were slightly red from all the commotion he was making. His eyes sparkling brightly, wanting to be understood; to be noticed, but when looked at from up close didn't sparkle at all. They were empty to the people who really looked into them.

His bright yellow -actually way too yellow to be called blond- hair almost shone in the dark setting. Rain made the normally standing up spiky strands fall down around his face. It made his empty words, (which they were in reality) even though they were meant to be noticed, drown in the rain.

His clothes, sticking against his skin, almost made his thin figure stand out. Fortunately for the boy they were too wide, which made him look small, but hid his actual skinny figure perfectly.

The prying eyes of the dark haired boy had never seen something so beautiful in his life, not ever. He had no idea what had made him stop here, watch this sad event in front of him, but all he could do was watch, and admire. He didn't notice his clothes getting soaked; all he saw was a small ray of light between the dark clouds that let water rain down upon them.

The screaming of the blond boy, echoing against the walls, became incoherent sounds by the sound of the rain; not to be related to words ever again. However, his insults -his begging for attention- were still perfectly understandable to the person standing next to him, whose angry face would have frightened the toughest of men.

A hand was raised. The blond boy noticed too late. A slap in the face, turning his striped cheek red, made him stumble to the ground.

"Stop your ridiculous cries! You stupid child, go back to that stinking hole you call your room and be quiet."

The woman, anger written all over her face, gave the boy a final deadly glare before turning around and calmly walking away into a well lit room that was reflected onto the street.

The blond boy brought his hand up, to rub the red skin on his face. Between the rain dripping down his face, tears fell down -nearly unnoticed- mixing with the water from the sky. His fringe covered his eyes as he bowed his head to the ground.

Sasuke turned around, he had seen enough. Silently he jumped away, never to be noticed by the young blond.

-x-

"Ne, ne, what are we going to do today?" Naruto darted around the tall silver-haired man in their midst. Enthusiastically he kept moving around the man, much to a certain pink-haired girl's annoyance (the raven was looking away).

"Naruto, you're making me dizzy."

"Ah, sorry, Sakura-chan." Naruto stopped running around, and instead started to skip, still questioning the man who was ignoring him.

"Aren't you a bit too old to skip around?" Sakura asked the blond boy.

"Never," he grinned at her over his shoulder.

"I believe 17 years is a bit too old to skip," Sakura pressed.

"That's only for those who feel that there is a boundary at a certain age that doesn't permit you to skip anymore."

"Eh, then I do," Sakura commented.

"That's sad then, Sakura-chan, because there really isn't," Naruto told her, still looking up at the masked man beside him, hoping to get his attention in some way.

Sakura's mouth curved up, shaking her head. "I do hope we're not going to practice hand to hand combat again," she sighed, just thinking of last week made her want to go home again.

"I told you we would do something different today," a lazy voice sounded.

"Then what is it, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto immediately asked now their sensei was finally opening his mouth.

"You actually were supposed to have classes today," Kakashi answered lazily.

"So, what does that mean…? That today we will have class … from you?" Naruto asked, not liking the idea. Immediately he started looking around, trying to find out if Kakashi was taking them to some class room nearby. "But we will have classes tomorrow, so…" Naruto tried to argue. He was still wasn't satisfied, even though there didn't seem to be any classrooms nearby.

The jounin teacher turned a page, pretending to be reading, not responding.

"He's not going to tell, so just shut up, dobe."

Naruto turned around to Sasuke, heaving his fist while he stopped walking. "Teme!" He clenched his fist. He was obviously thinking of something else to say, but couldn't come up with anything.

Sasuke ignored the insult, but noticed Naruto's struggle to find the right words. "You should rest your brain before you short circuit the very few connections it has made."

Naruto knew it was an insult, even though he didn't quite understand the entire meaning of the sentence. He opened his mouth, but then noticed Sasuke's smirk, which made him swallow his words, and instead made him jump onto Sasuke.

Sasuke noticed just in time, swiftly sidestepping the pouncing boy. Naruto almost fell onto his face, being able to keep his balance just in time. He swung his fist around at the raven-haired boy.

"Ah, we're here," Kakashi said, ignoring the fight going on behind his back.

Sasuke caught Naruto's arm, forced it onto his back and pressed him down, making him face the ground. Then he sat on his back.

Wincing, Naruto tried to push Sasuke off his back, but failed miserably.

"What are you planning to make us do at this place?" Sakura asked, looking around the training field that was unknown to her. If they would train, they could have gone to their own training field.

"Today is-" Kakashi stopped, turning around to find the two boys on the ground, still struggling with each other. "Sasuke, let go of Naruto and come over here. The both of you; I'm not planning on explaining this twice."

With a straight face, Sasuke looked up and let Naruto's arm go. Calmly he stood up, dusted off his white calf length shorts, and walked over to Kakashi with his hands in his pockets.

Naruto angrily looked up when Sasuke walked away in a way like nothing had happened. Grumbling softly he lifted himself from the ground. Dirt still on his clothes and face he walked over to his team, clenching and unclenching his fists.

Kakashi didn't wait for Naruto to finally catch up, and started explaining. "Today is theory day," Naruto sighed deeply, "and we will be learning all about nature."

Silence fell. Only Naruto's silent disappointed, mutters about it being theory day, could be heard. Besides still having classes, they also had so-called 'theory days' with their team, and 'practice days' for team training. All this would result in being able to get better missions.

"Nature?" Sakura repeated. "What does that mean?"

"Exactly what the word says." Kakashi lazily pointed to the forest behind them.

"Trees?" Naruto asked; his eyes thin lines as he dumbly stared at the greenery.

"Yes, trees." Kakashi looked down into his orange book.

"You mean… you are going to teach us all about trees?" Naruto asked again.

"Yes, Naruto. I think you are on a roll today, keep up the good work," the adult said without emotion.

Naruto pulled up his nose, not liking the way his sensei had just said that sentence. "Why?" He asked, looking up through narrowed eyes. Sakura looked up too, even though she already knew the answer.

"You want to be ninjas," was the simple answer. It wasn't the answer anyone had expected.

Sasuke crossed his arms, looking over to the forest. All different kinds of trees were growing on that land. He understood what Kakashi was up to.

"And what does learning about trees-" Naruto started, only to be interrupted by Sakura.

"Naruto, as a ninja, what's the thing we do most?"

"Boring D-rank mission?" he asked.

Sakura hit him over the head. "We move through different kinds of scenery. Depending on the mission we have to blend in, stand out, make traps, look out for traps, erase tracks, make false ones, conceal our chakra, and so on. The environment can do a lot of work for a ninja, but then of course one has to know how to use it."

"Wow, Sakura-chan, that's amazing," Naruto said, still rubbing his head.

"So, let's start theory day then," Kakashi said, walking away.

Naruto quickly walked up to Sakura, walking beside her. "You came up with that answer on the spot?" he asked admiringly.

Sakura nodded. "It's quite obvious."

"Well, you were the smartest of our class." Naruto grinned.

Sakura looked over to Sasuke. "I wasn't really."

Stopping beside the first tree they ran into, Kakashi leaned against it. "What kind of tree is this?" he asked, not even looking up from his novel.

Sasuke sighed, foreseeing a boring afternoon. Naruto peered up the tree, not a clue of its name, but Sakura immediately opened her mouth. "An oak tree, everyone knows that. It's a deciduous tree, producing seed in the form of small almost egg-shaped, brown nuts called acorns. The leafs-" Sakura went on as if she was reading a book, that she had learned by heart, out loud.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. This would be a very long day. As Sakura finished her book knowledge, Kakashi added some strategic information about the tree. Since it was such obvious information to Sasuke, he decided his day could be better spent. His narrow eyes turned over to Naruto, looking at the small boy. His lips were slightly apart as he tried to remember everything what he was told. Sometimes he softly repeated certain words. Sasuke liked that. There was still dirt on his face, smudging his whisker marks. His blue eyes turned to everything that was being noted or said.

Slowly time passed, and they went on to the next tree. Sasuke didn't even really notice what he was doing, automatically following his team mates. All he cared about was watching Naruto. He had to make sure however, that no one noticed him staring. Luckily that wasn't very hard. Every time they moved on, Naruto had a way of stopping exactly in his line of view. And the further they moved on, the deeper they moved into the forest, the darker it got. No one could really see his already dark eyes move behind the long, raven bangs.

Sasuke had all the time to study everything about Naruto, and he was actually disappointed when Kakashi told them they would now move out of the forest to take a break. The morning had past a lot faster than Sasuke had anticipated.

He would soon notice the rest of the day would pass even faster.

Walking away from the training field with his team, Sakura suddenly clung to his arm. "You want to go get something to eat?"

Sasuke tried to ignore Sakura. Why couldn't she see he had no interest in her at all… ever! Maybe because the only thing he saw was Naruto, but he always made sure no one noticed. He had a crush on the stupid blond for quite a while now, but somehow -he himself wasn't even sure why - he was afraid to tell anyone about it. He had never given away any hint of his feeling. Maybe because he wasn't used doing that; maybe because he was afraid of the consequences… maybe because he was afraid Naruto didn't feel the same way.

Naruto always happily conversed with Sakura, making advances at her that no one could ignore. He easily talked to Hinata, who he took out to dinner more and more often. Naruto obviously wasn't into the Uchiha. All he did was yell at Sasuke and fight with him; all Sasuke that was to Naruto was a rival. Naruto had no idea what he did to the raven.

It was strange; one would think the fighting and yelling would upset Sasuke. On the contrary, it made Sasuke feel happy. It was the only way he could express himself to the blond, talk to him, touch him. It was complicated, he knew, but he couldn't help it… He didn't want to change anything between them, except for Naruto to know… to like him too; to have those feeling returned to him.

"Hn," Sasuke said in frustration, but Sakura took it as a yes to her question.

"Ah, why today? We could have gone all together," Naruto complained.

"How so?" Sakura asked.

"Hinata asked if I wanted to come over today," the blond said almost nervously.

"That's great isn't it?" Sakura asked, happily. In the back of her mind she already knew that this meant she would be alone with Sasuke.

"Oh, yeah, I wasn't complaining about that, I just thought…" his voice died down and he shrugged.

"Well, see you tomorrow then, Naruto."

"Yes, bye Sakura-chan," Naruto turned his head to Sasuke, "teme," he muttered, giving him a foul look.

They parted ways.

Sasuke almost had to drag his feet to the café where Sakura was taking him. He would have left, gone away, if Sakura had not locked her arm with his in a way that he couldn't escape.

Sitting at a small table, thinking how he could get away as fast as possible, Sakura watched him. Sasuke didn't notice for quite some time, until he felt her eyes almost burn into his skin. He looked up at her. "What?"

Sakura smiled kindly and shrugged shyly. "It's just that you more or less always seem to frown. You seem to get lost in thought every now and then. You are always so quiet; I was just wondering what you were thinking."

Sasuke stared at her. She had noticed something? "I'm not frowning all day, maybe it just looks that way."

Sakura giggled. Then she looked up into his eyes, her face kind and serious. "You can tell me if you don't feel like eating together today."

Sasuke was surprised by her words. He always thought that she tried him to like her in every possible way, without giving him any choice. "What would make you say that?" Sasuke asked, picking up a menu, looking down at it.

Sakura's face fell. "It's your choice to make; this is your life. What did you think? That I was forcing you?"

Sasuke saw she was actually hurt that he thought that. He didn't really know what to answer. Still looking at the menu, he lowered it a little.

Sakura noticed the motion, he was thinking, listening. "Of course I would like for you to… like me too. Maybe I exaggerate a bit sometimes, trying to make you like me, but I can't help it." She made sure Sasuke looked up at her. "Okay, maybe a lot, but I have never heard you tell me to stop, or that you don't like it."

Sasuke began to feel slightly uncomfortable, of course not showing this to his female teammate. He had always kept his attention on Naruto, that all he could think of Sakura's actions as annoying. He had hoped she would understand the message he had been sending her for more than five years now. He had never thought that she was actually just doing (or trying to do) the same thing he did (but couldn't).

"You want to go home?" Sakura asked softly, trying to figure out what her words had done to Sasuke.

"No, it's fine, I'll stay." Sasuke lifted up the menu again. With a last glance at her, he turned his eyes to the card in his hands. "Just don't expect me to be very talkative."

Sakura smiled a simple smile. "I wouldn't expect you to be more talkative all of a sudden." She picked up a menu too, looking down at it. Her heart was rapidly beating, not believing what had been said… that Sasuke had talked to her. Sasuke would never know what he had done to the girl's heart.

-x-

Having split up on their way home, Sasuke not finding it necessary to bring Sakura to her house (they were ninjas, she could defend herself very well), he made his way to his apartment, taking a shortcut through the park. On his way he suddenly noticed two figures creeping through the bushes.

Ignoring the two, Sasuke walked on, until…

"Naruto-kun," a soft and kind voice whispered. "Are you sure?"

Sasuke stopped and silently moved behind a tree, an oak he noted unconsciously.

"Why not?" Naruto's voice whispered back. "It's a clear sky tonight; we'll be able to see the stars very clearly." His hand was holding that of the girl beside him.

Sasuke could actually hear Hinata fiddle. "You remembered," she said softly.

Naruto grinned. "You said you like to look at the starry sky."

Hinata blushed, and even as it was dark, the nearly full moon made it visible for two people to notice.

"Eh… It's really not that special," Naruto mumbled, unsure of what to do. However, he had no idea what the real reason of Hinata's blush was, until he blinked and found her lips upon his.

In an automatic reaction, Naruto pulled back while pushing Hinata away. "W-what are you doing?" he asked, startled by her action. He had no idea how to act on it.

Hinata's blush immediately became a deeper shade of pink. "I-I'm sorry. I-I didn't think… I thought…" she turned away, loosening herself from Naruto's arms. "I'm sorry!" She said while running off.

That was not what Naruto had intended. "Wait, Hinata, I-" He wanted to run after her, but stopped when he noticed some movement to his side. Worriedly he looked around. "Who's there?" He stepped back.

Sasuke cursed himself for having moved when he thought Naruto wanted to run after the Hyuuga girl. He wasn't sure what he had intended to do; he certainly couldn't stop Naruto from following the girl. He had no real reason of doing that, plus Naruto wouldn't understand why he would have done so even if he had.

Pressing himself against the tree, hoping Naruto would think he had heard a squirrel or something, he kept quiet. However, when he didn't hear any movement coming from Naruto he started to wonder if the blond was still there. Had he not noticed the blond move away in his panic of being discovered?

Silence, all around, but Sasuke didn't dare to move just yet.

And then he heard it, Naruto was still there. Leafs shifted and Naruto sighed. "I'm so stupid." He kicked at the dead leafs on the ground. "Who moves away from a kiss, asking 'what are you doing'?" Naruto hunched down, his arms folding around his knees as he looked down at the, with leafs covered, ground.

Sasuke's heart had just skipped a beat. What if… what if Naruto didn't know if he liked Hinata or not? What if… he still had a chance?

He moved his head so he could listen to Naruto, but could only hear his soft, slightly erratic breathing.

This could be his chance; an opportunity. He should walk over to Naruto; maybe try to cheer him up? Could he do that?

Collecting all his courage, Sasuke tried to think of what to say. He wasn't really much of a talker, let alone someone that asks how people were feeling, to explain their feelings to him.

Finally, deciding to just pretend he was making an evening stroll, he took a deep breath before he would move away from the tree.

And then Naruto stood up. Hearing the movement, Sasuke stiffened up, not daring to come out suddenly, right at that moment. Before he knew what had happened, Naruto had jumped away.

Turning to the sound, walking around the tree, Sasuke just saw Naruto's back disappear into the night.

Not able to breathe, he just stared into the darkness, mindless.

"Who's stupid now?"

-x-

Glaring around the schoolyard, hidden behind his dark bangs, he watched two girls sitting on the swing, laughing at each other. They were clearly ignoring the nine year old boy beside the swing.

Ever since that night a couple of months ago, Sasuke had been trying to find out more about the blond boy, who was now glaring at the two girls with a mixture of sadness and anger. He had asked the girls if he could take a turn too, but had been ignored the entire time.

Sasuke had come to understand that the boy, who was actually in the same class as he did, was also the same boy he had never paid attention too. A boy he had always thought to be annoying; an idiot.

Naruto had never been popular with anyone, but now that Sasuke had taken an interest in him, he had come to understand his idiocy, acting stupidly, had a reason. He had much more layers than anyone else; he was much more complex than anyone could ever know or find out upon first sight.

He hadn't figured out all the layers yet, but Sasuke was sure even with as little as he knew about the boy, he already was much closer to the boy than any other person on this world. Maybe that was what interested Sasuke about the boy, his layers, the secrecy; he wasn't sure.

He was ready for the next step. He already knew more about the boy than any other; now he was ready to present himself to the boy, to make him notice the Uchiha. If Naruto would notice him, and maybe make more than eye contact with him, Sasuke's interest would get another dimension, he was sure of it.

Stepping away from the school building, making himself visible, Sasuke walked over to the swings. Brushing off a few girls on his way by giving them an angry gaze, Sasuke found himself beside the boy of his interest.

Arrogantly he stepped forward. "I want to swing," he more or less demanded.

The two girls looked up, noticing it was Sasuke, and quickly left the swings.

"Of course you can," the one with brown hair tied into two pigtails said.

"You can take mine," the other girl said.

Sasuke ignored both and sat down on the swing. Immediately the two girls began fighting who could have the swing beside Sasuke.

Sasuke looked over to Naruto, wanting to tell him he should take the other swing, when he noticed the blond was being pushed to the ground by some other girls as they hurried over to the swing.

The raven stood up, trying to see what was happening to Naruto, but was blocked by more girls and a few boys who wanted to be friends with him. Pushing them aside Sasuke was just in time to catch Naruto's angry and hurt look directed at him before he hurried off.

Feeling hurt as the look reached him, Sasuke just stared at the empty place where he had last seen Naruto. He had not intended for this to happen. All he had wanted to do was help the boy, to 'introduce' himself to him.

Well, he sure had left an impression on Naruto, but it would not be the one he had intended. Ever since that day, the only way Naruto would look at Sasuke was before he picked a fight with him, with anger and hate written on his face.

-x-

Sitting in their usual seats, team 7 sat beside each other along with every other team of their year. All the teams sat together in one room, all nine of them, divided into trios. Even in the classroom they still needed to do tasks together as a team.

Naruto wasn't paying attention, he never did, but usually he doodled in his notebook or was thinking of ways to annoy someone in the class (mostly Iruka). Now he was just staring sadly at the blue lines on the empty paper.

Having made sure he was sitting in the middle of his team this school day, Sasuke looked down onto Naruto. He knew he had been upset about last night, but the raven had hoped that maybe Naruto had come to realize Hinata wasn't everything to him.

Right now he could hit himself for thinking something like that. How could Naruto get over something like that in just one night? Even Sasuke had been awake all night, thinking of how stupid he had been; the chances he had missed. And he wasn't even the one to pull away from a kiss.

He noticed how very shortly Naruto heaved his head a little and glanced over to Hinata before directing his eyes back at the paper. Hinata was looking at Iruka as he told them all about the Second Ninja War. She wasn't glancing over to Naruto at all, afraid to do so or ignoring him, Sasuke wasn't sure.

Suddenly Naruto noticed Sasuke look down at him. "What?" he asked softly, making sure Iruka didn't hear him.

"Nothing." Sasuke looked back at the blackboard. Then he thought that 'nothing' was not what he should say. Looking back he noticed Naruto sigh, and stare in front of him. "Are… are you alright?" he asked, difficulty to sound normal. He never asked anyone if they were alright, but he had heard others say it often enough… It sounded differently than how he had asked it just now.

Naruto looked up surprised. "Huh?" was all that left his mouth, clearly confused by Sasuke's question.

"You seem…" Sasuke tried again, "distracted."

Naruto blinked at the raven, still not believing what he heard. "What?"

Sasuke started to get annoyed. He could say things like that, just as much as anyone else! Why didn't Naruto open up or at the very least told him to stick to his own business? It wasn't that hard to believe he had asked Naruto such questions. Right?

Sasuke's nostrils opened up a bit, trying to decide if he should repeat his sentence.

"I'm fine, just bored," Naruto flat out lied, turning his head away from the raven.

It was like a knife was plunged into his heart. Naruto had lied to him. He hadn't told him off, no, he had lied. It hurt, it did, a lot more than Sasuke had ever expected. Over the years Naruto had yelled at him, had called him names, had ignored him (or had tried to), laughed at him, kicked him, hit him, hurt him in any other bruising way, but never, ever had he lied.

Turning back to his own notes, not that he needed those, but it was just a habit, he tried to think what had happened. Did the occurrence of last night have more of an impact on Naruto than Sasuke could have ever imagined?

-x-

In the break they sat at the same table, along with the other teams. Naruto was acting quite loudly along with Kiba, showing his normal self, but Sasuke could see he wasn't being entirely the same. Still hurt by Naruto's lie, Sasuke looked away, showing he was annoyed by their loud performance.

When Sasuke stood up to buy some food, just to be away from his eight classmates, he didn't look back. Staring at the pricelist, making it look like he was deciding what to buy -even though he had already made up his mind before he had even stood up- he used the time to think things over.

Why would Naruto lie? Was he hurt more badly than expected? Was he afraid of even giving away the slightest hint of what had happened? Didn't he want to talk about it? But then why hadn't he told Sasuke to shut up?

"Onigiri," a soft voice beside the Uchiha said. Surprised Sasuke looked to the side, even more surprised to find Hinata there.

"Hm?"

Hinata looked up at Sasuke, her pale eyes looking into his dark ones. "You always take onigiri if you buy something in the canteen."

Sasuke didn't respond, not sure what to say to the girl he… hated was not the right word… the girl he was jealous of; she had done what he wanted to do, but couldn't.

Hinata looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry if I said something offending."

Sasuke frowned. "Offending?"

"Oh, I thought you didn't like it that I… observed you like onigiri." She knew he hated it how a lot of girls kept following him around, trying to find out everything about their raven god.

"Oh, I don't care." Sasuke turned away from the pricelist. Hinata already knew he wasn't looking at it, and with her beside him he couldn't think anyway.

Standing in queue, Sasuke looked over to Naruto. Maybe today the memory of last night was still too fresh. Tomorrow was a better day to try again. Lie or no lie, he had to try again. He had to show Naruto he really did care, that it wasn't a question he felt to ask for the sake of the team. That he really wanted to know how he felt.

Suddenly he felt a shiver run down his spine. Hinata was standing behind him, he just knew it. Trying to ignore the feeling of unease, Sasuke tried to think what he could do tomorrow to show Naruto that he-

"What?" He turned around, unable to ignore the feeling any longer.

Hinata looked up startled. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't say a-anything."

Sasuke sighed, feeling stupid now. She didn't even know what he had seen last night; that he had been there in the park at all. Even if she did, she would have no idea what it had done to him. "Hn."

Before he could turn away again, Hinata stopped him, softly gripping his arm. "Do you like Naruto-kun-"

Sasuke's eyes almost widened, when he heard those words come from Hinata's mouth. He started to panic on the inside, especially as she stopped talking. "What?" he asked, even though he wasn't sure if he could handle it if she would repeat herself.

Hinata blushed. "Um, do you like Naruto-kun to be…" she stopped again, looking away from Sasuke. "Do you think Naruto-kun likes girls?"

Sasuke's mouth was about to fall open. He couldn't believe she was really asking this… him of all people; what made her think he would talk to her about something like that?

Hinata noticed Sasuke's silence, and started twisting around. "Tha-That's not what I wanted to ask." But it was something she wondered, Sasuke could tell. "Do you think Naruto-kun likes me?"

All Sasuke could do was look at her.

Hinata bit her lip. She looked close to crying actually. Sasuke hated crying girls (and that their emotions were so close to the surface). "I-I'm sorry I-I asked." She wanted to walk away, but before he knew it, Sasuke stopped her.

"I think he cares about you." Stunned by his own words, Sasuke looked at Hinata as she slowly looked up to meet his black eyes. When their eyes locked, her pale eyes widened for a second. Then she looked away again, a small smile appearing on her face.

"Thank you."

Sasuke let go of her, and Hinata walked away.

He wondered why he had told her that, why he had even stopped her. This could have been a great chance for him to let a possible wedge grow between Hinata and Naruto, but maybe that wasn't the way he liked to get together with Naruto.

-x-

Graduation day had passed a week ago, and now all graduates had gathered in their former classroom, waiting to be divided into genin teams.

Sasuke had noticed after the graduation how the blond boy had failed, sitting on the swing, looking sadly. Not looking forward to being divided into teams without even the slightest chance of being teamed up with Naruto, Sasuke slumped down graciously behind a desk.

In the past two years, ever since he had noticed the blond boy, he had formed a special bond with him. Always fighting, watching Naruto try to compete with him, made Sasuke feel… accepted… alive, noticed. He didn't have any friends, but if he thought of Naruto, he thought of him as a friend.

Silently sulking, holding up a front to the rest of the world, Sasuke stared at the empty blackboard; until commotion beside him made him look up.

There he was; Naruto was looking at him from his right side.

"What?" the raven asked, excellently hiding his surprise about the boy being there.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked loudly.

"Sasuke-kun! Can I sit next to you?" Sakura came in, pushing Naruto to the ground.

Immediately Sasuke turned his head to the front of the classroom. Smirking he was already calculating the chance he had to be teamed with Naruto.

He would never forget how his heart stopped when out of nowhere Naruto squatted in front of him, staring angrily at him. As Sakura yelled at them, all Sasuke had eye for was to return Naruto's angry glare back at him while Naruto showed him he was still there to compete with him.

Never would he forget what had happened next. Never had he ever expected that to happen. Naruto was pushed forward, and their lips met into an accidental and sloppy kiss. As short as it was, he would never forget the soft lips pressing against his own.

Quickly the both of them retreated, spitting to the floor.

"Naruto! You bastard, I'll kill you!" Sasuke said, really not liking the kiss at all.

Grabbing his throat, and spitting on the floor, he heard Naruto do the same, voicing the same sort of thoughts as Sasuke had.

Never had he thought of anything like this to happen, never had he hoped, or even dreamt of it. As far as Sasuke had always considered his relationship to Naruto, it had always been purely a friendship.

He would never have expected what effect this kiss would have on him. Maybe not after a day, or a week, a month, not even after a year, but slowly something had sprouted inside him, the idea that this might become more than just a friendship.

-x-

Taking a cold shower early in the morning, he tried to cool off. Closing his eyes he tried to forget his dream, willing his erection to go away.

Knowing full well that willing it away wasn't really something he could do, knowing from experience, he let his head fall against the cold wall of the shower. His bangs stuck to the tiled wall.

They had been a team for over five years now. That meant he had known -really known- Naruto for over seven years; almost half his life. For over seven years he had been interested in Naruto; had in some way been attracted to him. For almost three years that attraction had not only been interest about whom the boy was and his act to the outside world anymore. It had become more; it had grown into a physical… even a sexual attraction.

Ever since Hinata had kissed Naruto, Sasuke felt the pressure weighting him down. His time was coming closer; the time to tell Naruto. Never before had he even thought about doing so. Why would he? Everything had always been just fine as they were.

Sasuke realized that although he had strong feelings for Naruto, all this time he had been trying to deny it, shove it away. He had come so used to his observations of Naruto, his secret staring at him, his silent admiring, that it had become 'normal', a routine… something he didn't even really think about anymore. It still held its mystery after all these years, was still was exciting, trying not be caught, but he had never thought about it further than that. He had never really tried to do more to Naruto than stare at him.

Of course there had been dreams, visions, of him being with Naruto, touching him, kissing him, sometimes even more than that, but never had it really, really, crossed his mind to act upon his feelings.

Sasuke wasn't one to show a lot of emotion to the outside world. He wasn't sure how to express himself, let alone express himself in a romantically way. He hardly knew what to do with these feelings when he was alone, standing in the shower like he did now. How should he know what to do when Naruto was really around?

Sasuke looked down his stomach, noticing that this line of thought was not really helping him; seeing Naruto flash in his mind (even when thinking about how he could never make an advance on the blond) made him feel happy, made his stomach churn, and made other things to act on their own.

Angrily he watched the water slide down his body.

He couldn't deny that he liked this feeling, never regretting it when it happened, but never really acting on it either.

Sighing, Sasuke looked around the curtain of the shower, noticing he could very well be late if he didn't hurry up. Of course that couldn't happen, he could never be too late onto the training field, even though he knew it would take at least another half hour for Kakashi to show up; but Sasuke had never been late for anything.

Realizing he was over thinking everything way too much, he grasped the shampoo and started to wash his hair. One way or another, the excitement in his lower body would have to go away.

-x-

Not understanding why he couldn't just let himself be late for once, as the trio had already been waiting for Kakashi for over an hour and a half, Sasuke stared over the water, leaning against the side of the bridge. Naruto sat on top of the railing and Sakura stood in the middle, facing the two boys.

Sasuke had noticed Sakura look at him, but being used to it, he had ignored her. However, when sometime later as he had been watching her for a few minutes, he had noticed this time was different. He was looking at her, but she kept avoiding his eyes. Normally she would have taken that as an invitation to start a (one-sided) conversation.

Slowly Sasuke looked over to Naruto, maybe there was something else going on? But when he saw Naruto grinning, while his head was laying back as he stared at the sky, humming softly, Sasuke knew nothing was wrong with the blond or between his two teammates.

He turned back to Sakura. Still avoiding his eyes, she was looking everywhere except at Sasuke. Glancing between his dark bangs, Sasuke waited for almost fifteen minutes before he said something. "Sakura."

Sakura looked up, surprised he had called her. Naruto apparently was thinking something similar, looking down at the raven. Then he looked over to Sakura, back at Sasuke and then Sakura again.

"Ooh, you're dating?" he asked. Sasuke nearly choked on his own saliva, and Sakura blushed ever so slightly.

"No!" Sasuke said quickly when Sakura was not giving him any indication of denying it.

"Oh, too bad." Naruto looked between the two, who both knew he wasn't sad at all about the fact that Sasuke and Sakura had nothing going on. "Then the date was a disaster?"

"Date?" Sasuke asked confused, a hint of panic visible on his face. Luckily for him no one noticed.

"No, dinner was fine," Sakura told Naruto. "More than fine," she whispered, blushing.

"Ah, oh, I see. Awkward moment." Naruto looked back up. They were not dating yet. Sakura was waiting for Sasuke to ask her or something.

"How did dinner with Hinata go?" Sakura asked instead. Sasuke knew she hoped that Naruto and Hinata would get together, which would make sure that Naruto wouldn't bother her. It was actually her doing that the two got to talk to each other at all. She was trying to play the Cupid in their relationship, which Hinata and Naruto both didn't mind at all.

Naruto didn't look down. "It was great," was all he said, sounding happy.

"Good, good," Sakura smiled.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Was he lying again?

"I wonder what takes Kakashi-sensei so long?" Naruto asked bored.

Sakura didn't even notice the change of topic as she started complaining along with Naruto, following their usual routine.

About ten minutes later, Kakashi finally showed up, ignoring the rain of complains fired at him, waving them away with his hand like it was smoke.

"We are going on an excursion," he told his students. All became quiet.

"Excursion?" Naruto asked stunned. "Excursion?" he asked again, this time with a happy face.

An excursion meant a mission, with some extra time to train in a different setting than the village.

"Yes," Kakashi nodded.

"Hell yes!" Sakura yelled. Interesting missions had been running thin lately.

"So get your stuff, we'll be leaving in 30 minutes." Kakashi got out his book and leaned against the railing.

-x-

They had been walking the entire day, Sasuke didn't complain, he already had at least three fights with Naruto, and the day wasn't over yet. Things were looking good.

Smirking, Sasuke walked all the way at the back, thinking this day was a good one. They were away from the village, away from Hinata, and they would be with just the four of them for at least a week. This was an opportunity… his opportunity. Fate, if he would believe in such things.

Naruto was pestering Kakashi about the fact that he was reading that book all the time. Sakura had joined him, agreeing with the blond. It had even come to the point where Naruto was trying to get Kakashi's book out of his hands. He hadn't succeeded just yet.

Jumping on the tall man, Naruto clung to him, trying to snatch the green book that was being held as far away from him as possible. "Give! Me!"

"You're too young," Kakashi told him.

"I don't want to read it. I know Ero-sennin writes crap." He reached out again, though he would never be able to get the book, held away from him at arm's length.

"Literature," Kakashi said.

"Ha!" Sakura mocked.

Sasuke watched Naruto struggle, while Kakashi easily pushed him away, keeping him out of reach of the book, while he kept reading (or at least trying to do so).

"Look Naruto," Kakashi tried to distract Naruto, "we're there."

"I will not be fooled." Naruto lunged again, almost tripping over Kakashi's foot.

"We really are there," Sasuke said softly.

"What?" Naruto turned around; looking at the building Sasuke was looking at. "We are," he said baffled. When he noticed Kakashi had gotten away he grumbled.

"Good afternoon," a woman in kimono welcomed them into the inn. "You must be the Konoha ninja we asked for."

"Indeed we are," Kakashi told the beautiful woman, making her blush. Naruto snorted.

The woman looked down at Naruto, the smallest of the four, before looking back up. "My mother will tell you what your mission will be, but before she will, dinner is ready. Please accept this offer." She bowed ever so slightly.

"Don't mind if we do."

They followed the woman to the dining room, in the small but elegant inn. Sliding open the door, she knelt down. "Please enjoy your meal."

The four walked in, and the woman closed the door behind them.

"Oooh, that sure looks good," Naruto said, saliva dripping from his mouth in anticipation.

"Ew, Naruto!"

They sat down and started eating the delicious food. (How Kakashi eats without showing his face no one will ever know, but he probably has his ways).

"That must be very difficult to do," Naruto told Sakura as they were eating, while conversing about something Sakura had to do for her medical study.

Sasuke hardly ever said anything, just listened. Contrary to what most people thought, he actually liked to listen. Even to boring conversations between Sakura and Naruto (and boring they could be!)

As they were almost finished, the woman came back in. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but my mother will not be able to see you today. There is a wedding party staying over, causing for a lot of work. She will, however, speak with you tomorrow morning."

"That's alright," Kakashi told her.

"This brings me to something else, which you might not really li-" she was interrupted as some other waitress tapped on her shoulder. "A moment please." She went away.

"Hmm, wonder how bad the news can be," Naruto wondered, "as long as she doesn't say that we can't make use of the onsen, I'm-"

Sakura hit him over the head. "It's all for free, you can't complain."

Naruto rubbed his head. "Not for free, we have a mission to do. Plus we won't get paid for it."

"Because we can stay here. It's just a C-rank mission."

"Still."

Kakashi stood up and walked over to the door. He left without a word.

"Pervert," Naruto muttered.

"You think he's… going for her?" Sakura asked, pulling up her eyebrow.

"Why shouldn't he, a single man, a beautiful woman…" Naruto shrugged.

"I don't know, I don't think he would do that on a mission."

"Excursion, the mission officially hasn't started yet," he told her.

"I really don't think he will," Sakura interjected.

"He's a man, he has needs."

Sakura stared at Naruto. "Ha! Come on, Naruto." She shook her head.

"I'm a man too, I know." He crossed his arms.

Sakura raised an eyebrow before bursting out laughing. Naruto frowned at her. "Haha, you're barely 17, you're no man!"

Naruto narrowed his eyes, looking angry. "Then what am I?"

Sakura sniggered. "A boy."

"What's the difference?"

"You're not an adult."

"Well… neither are you!" Naruto crossed his arms, pouting. Sakura couldn't stop laughing. "You're definitely not a woman," Naruto muttered.

"But don't you know girls grow up faster than boys? You can probably call a girl a woman at the age of 16, while a boy might not become a man until he turns 21… perhaps," Sakura was able to say between laughs. "Haha, 'I'm a man too'," she made fun of Naruto by repeating his words.

Naruto grumbled, slumping.

Sasuke smirked. "Well, Sakura, having been to onsens with Naruto, I can tell you that Naruto indeed is-"

Thinking Sasuke would tell Sakura nothing that would be proper to tell a girl, nor something to his favor, Naruto lunged for Sasuke, making them both roll over the ground.

"He's what?" Sakura asked, giggling. "A man, or not?" Strangely interested in Sasuke's view upon Naruto (for she would probably never know about this 'view'), Sakura tried to pull Naruto away from Sasuke.

"He's-" Sasuke tried again, but Naruto held his hands on Sasuke's mouth, and straddled him.

"If you dare say something ba-"

The door opened again, silently closing as Kakashi entered. "I always knew a trio would come from-"

"We're not!" a canon was shot back at the silver haired man, minus Sasuke, who still had Naruto's hand on his mouth.

Chuckling, Kakashi leant against the wall. "Let's get to bed; you'll be up early tomorrow."

"Yes, probably just so we can wait an hour for you to join us," Sakura muttered, standing up and walking away. Kakashi told her what her room was and followed her out of the dining room.

Still Naruto's hand was pressing on Sasuke's mouth, Naruto looked down at Sasuke. "Don't ever go there again," he said angrily. And so Sasuke found out this was a forbidden (maybe rather embarrassing?) topic to Naruto. Naruto let go of Sasuke, not standing up from his stomach just yet.

"Hm," Sasuke smirked.

He was sure Naruto had wanted to hit him, but didn't. Instead the blond stood up and left.

While Naruto left the room, Sasuke smiled. Naruto didn't sit on top very often. He actually never won or could surprise Sasuke enough to end up on top in a fight. It was doing strange things to him, inside his stomach. He was glad he would get to bed and have some time to think; being alone. Sleeping in one room with Kakashi and Naruto could hardly be called alone, but at least it would be quiet. Standing up, he walked out of the room.

When he came to the men's side of the inn, he noticed Kakashi and Naruto standing in front of a room, Naruto yelling at Kakashi. "Why?"

"Because there are a lot of visitors here right now. And keep your voice down, this is an inn," Kakashi tries to shush Naruto.

Naruto pulled up his nose and crossed his arm. Then he noticed Sasuke. "You tell him!"

"What?" Sasuke asked, sounding almost bored.

"You will have to share this room while I'll be staying over there," Kakashi said pointing to a room further down the hall. "They don't have rooms with more beds anymore."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "So? That's alright." He stepped to the door of the room and walked inside.

"That's not the issue at all!" Naruto called, walking after Sasuke. Kakashi quickly closed the door behind them, to silence the upcoming outburst.

Inside the room Naruto pointed to a small bed, obviously about to yell, red from anger. "There is only one bed!"

-x-

He was ready to die, he really was. And a happy death it would be, no regrets, but at least he would be able to rest in peace.

Softly snoring beside him, his back turned to him, Naruto had long ago fallen asleep. Sasuke on the other hand, was torn up on the inside. One side of him was happy, overjoyed, excited… and that was the whole point for the other half to be afraid and not being able to fall asleep.

He couldn't get excited now, Naruto was so very… very close to him. His soft breathing sounding so loud to him, his blond spikes gently touching the pillow, looking soft and asking to be touched, his back exposed, ready to be hugged. His dreams could so easily become reality.

Sasuke tried to turn around, so he would at least not be able to see Naruto anymore, but he couldn't. The small room made it only possible for the bed to stand against the wall. After a short fight, that Naruto had actually won, it was decided that Sasuke would sleep against the wall. The winning argument from Naruto: he might need to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night…

Thinking, now that he knew he would probably be awake the entire night anyway, Sasuke wouldn't have minded Naruto hobbling over him to get out of the bed. And that way he would at least be able to turn his back to Naruto, or even leave the bed and sleep on the floor if things got bad. Now all he could do was lie as still as possible and hope he would fall asleep, while nothing would happen.

Horror and joy, he had never thought the line between the two would be so thin. He was ready to die.

-x-

Apparently he had fallen asleep after all, because he was woken up by an arm hitting him in the face.

"Argh, Naruto!" Sasuke tried to get the arm out of his face, but instead stiffened up. Naruto was facing him.

Naruto's soft breath hit him gently in the face, causing a shiver to run down Sasuke's spine. Their noses were so close, almost touching. Naruto's yellow eyelashes… his eyebrows… his face was one of pure serenity. He was himself, no loud voice, laughing, trying to get attention, no crying of being alone. He was resting, at peace.

Sasuke's breath hitched as his eyes wanted to move lower over the whiskered cheeks, down the small nose, to the soft lips he had only once touched before.

Stunned by the beautiful view in front of him, Sasuke was breathless. He had no idea how long he watched, just looking Naruto sleep. Maybe only seconds, maybe hours, he didn't know, but it didn't matter, it was eternity to him.

It seemed like a dream, a dream come true; Naruto beside him. Maybe it really was a dream, and he should wake up before it was too late. Maybe he had envisioned this so many times that it looked so real. Maybe… he should just…

His heart beating in his throat, Sasuke moved up his hand; shaking, it moved closer to Naruto. Maybe he could touch those yellow spikes for a bit… Still shaking, his hand touched the soft, thick hair. It really was as soft as he had thought it was. Slowly he dared to roll the lock between his fingers, and even stroke his hand softly through the rest of the blond spikes.

Smiling uncertainly he moved his hand away from the hair. Did he dare touch more?

Thinking he might die of a heart attack -his heart beating so very fast- Sasuke moved his hand over to Naruto's cheek, stopping a millimeter from the skin. Why couldn't he stop shaking? This was important!

Taking a deep breath, making sure Naruto wouldn't wake up, he suddenly let his hand touch Naruto's face.

Naruto pulled up his nose and mumbled something. "Mhhhke."

Quickly Sasuke pulled his hand back and closed his eyes. Naruto would be stupid enough to believe he was asleep.

Seconds passed, minutes went, but Naruto didn't do anything; Sasuke felt no fist in his face. He dared to open his eyes again, just in time to see Naruto lick his lips.

Before he even knew what he did, realized what had happened, he had leant in to Naruto, crossing the small distance in no time, until their lips grazed once more. The touch was so soft that when Sasuke quickly pulled back, shocked about his own action, he noticed, once he had calmed down, that Naruto still hadn't woken up. He had even slept through this?

Starting to believe that this might really be a dream, Sasuke grew overconfident, making mistakes he normally wouldn't.

He wanted to kiss Naruto again, but this time it wouldn't be as smoothly as before, not as graciously as he had wanted it to be. In fact, it was almost as if he slipped, had miscalculated the distance between them, and pressed down his lips on Naruto's harder than he had intended.

Immediately Naruto opened his eyes and flew up. "WHAT THE-!" he yelled.

Shocked, Sasuke moved over to the wall, pressing himself against it. "What?" he asked, stunned.

"Y-you kissed me!" Naruto said, his eyes wide in disbelief.

"I-I didn't," Sasuke stuttered, automatically denying everything.

"You did!" Naruto left the bed, walking away from Sasuke. "What were you thinking?"

"I didn't! You started moving in your sleep, you move a lot! It was an accident!"

However, Naruto didn't believe it. "You did, you think I'm stupid?" He reached forward. "I'll sleep in the bathtub!" He pulled the sheet away from Sasuke, who was unable to defend the bedding in his shocked state, and stomped off to the tiny bathroom, which Naruto would soon remember didn't had a bathtub at all.

Still pressed up against the wall Sasuke could almost cry, he didn't, but closed his eyes and pulled up his legs, hugging his knees. How could things have gotten this far?

-oXo-