Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of its associated characters!

Summary: COMPLETE (new chapter up everyday - total of 35 chapters!). Sasuke's a writer whose been writing the same words for years. He's tired, he's annoyed, and his money situation is...pretty messed up, even by student standards. Enter Naruto. Modern AU (College/University), Sasunaru/Narusasu. Posted for Sasuke's birthday!

A/N: I started writing this in October of 2016. Pretty much every fic I've posted since then can be related back to this one - this document has been open on my computer every single day (and then I had the gall to be confused when my MS word crashed). I have so much respect for writers who constantly pour out fics longer than this; I don't even want to know how many hours I spent on this over the years.

I really, really hope you guys enjoy it! I'm still in denial that it's actually finished. It has 35 chapters and they are pretty inconsistent in length; I cut the chapters by scene instead of word count this time. I'll be posting a new chapter every day, so I hope the short wait will make up for any shorter chapters!

So, in honour of Sasuke's birthday, here is chapter one of Enter Naruto!

Enter Naruto

Chapter 1: Cinnamon

It figured that on the day that Sasuke finally caved and took his professor's advice to write in a public place ("for inspiration, Sasuke"), the café was absolutely brimming with people. The crowd overflowed onto the sidewalk—the last person in line hovered awkwardly in the doorway, trapped into holding the door for herself and anyone else who happened to come by. The girl, likely another student, gave Sasuke a helpless look and shuffled aside to let him in.

Sasuke eyed the crowd and debated leaving as quickly as he had come—but he had already walked all the way out here…and was that a free table? That man was just leaving. Thank god.

Sasuke skipped past the line and briskly took the table. He heaved a sigh of relief the moment he put in his headphones—just because he had to watch people for inspiration didn't mean he had to listento them.

Really, people watching was not something that was likely to work for him in the first place…at least, not in the way his professor wanted it to. But he had fought the man long enough on this—it was his last year, and both of them were growing impatient with Sasuke's lack of progress.

At least he could tell the man he had tried.

He let out another puff of air, turning to the window in an attempt to ease his scowl. He looked past the road, past the people scuffling by, and let his mind drift into the music…

But just as he was starting to relax, something knocked him forwards. He turned with a fierce glare—

"Oh, sorry!"

—only to meet the brightest pair of eyes he had ever seen. Were those contacts? They had to be. There was no way someone had natural eyes like that—

He jerked his gaze away, scanning over the rest of the man—blonde, looked about his age, and he had some very strange markings on his cheeks…they almost looked like—whiskers?

The blonde scratched the back of his neck nervously.

"Actually, uh," he started, eyes darting around the café, "d'you mind if I sit at your table for a bit? I'm waiting for someone—I'll be gone soon enough."

Sasuke's scowl deepened—but he considered the offer. It wasn't as if ignoring someone right in front of him would be any different than ignoring the entire café around him. And it would prevent other people from interrupting him to ask the same thing…

He nodded and turned back to his work without waiting for a response.

He had typed about two words, and nothing else seemed to be coming to him. His professor had complained that his characters lacked depth—that they were all the same: the bitter, cold, sarcastic man, tired of the world around him.

Well, obviously. Sasuke drew from his own experience, after all.

But "other people exist in the world, Sasuke," Kakashi had said, and he needed to learn how to write them. How he was supposed to do that, he had no idea.

He sighed, quietly deleting what he had written.

There was movement from the corner of his eye, and he looked up to see the blonde trying to get his attention, with a little smile and a wave. Sasuke gave another soft sigh, and pulled out one earbud.

"Do you want a coffee? I'm gonna go get one, 'n you let me sit here…"

Sasuke frowned, but free coffee was free coffee.

He nodded. "Just black. Cinnamon, if they have it. The smallest size is fine."

The smile he got was so bright, he felt his eyes start to sting. He turned back to his computer—somehow, the screen felt dimmer.

A moment later, against his will, Sasuke found himself watching the blonde strike up a conversation with the woman in front of him. He was saying something that had her smiling, nodding, laughing—as if the two of them were old friends. Maybe they were.

The older man beside the lady had joined in, now. He had a booming guffaw of a laugh that pierced straight through Sasuke's music—he was relieved when their little party was broken up to take their orders. The blonde gave them a wide smile and a jaunty little wave, and then turned his charm to the barista.

So loud, so animated…Sasuke surreptitiously watched the blonde until he walked around to wait for his order, and then turned back to his computer, shaking himself. He needed to focus.

But his concentration was broken, not a minute later, when a coffee was plopped right in front of him. He jumped a little.

"I hope I didn't add too much cinnamon." The blonde nudged the cup closer to him with a smile.

Sasuke gave a simple nod in response, testing the coffee's warmth as he turned it in his hands. Bubbly letters spelled out 'Naruto' on the side of the cup, with a smiling face taking the place of the 'o'. Sasuke snorted.

"What?" said the blonde, who was presumably named Naruto. He tossed the name around in his head.

"Did you know the people in line?" Sasuke felt himself ask.

Naruto looked surprised. "What, the old lady? Nope," he laughed, "I was just trying to pronounce one of the coffee names. I'm so bad at it. I got Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi right on the first try, but this stuff…I'm the worst."

Sasuke blinked—the name didn't ring any bells to him, but he didn't really care enough to—

"He's a psychologist—he comes up a bunch in my classes." Naruto smiled, obviously anticipating the question.

"You're a student?" He supposed the blonde did look the part, between his scruffy jeans and bright orange hoodie—

"Mm," he nodded, mid-sip of his coffee. "Yeah. Naruto Uzumaki, fourth year."

He held out a hand to shake.

Sasuke looked at it.

Naruto's smile widened.

"C'mooon," he reached closer, clapping his fingers against his palm, "don't leave me hanging!"

Naruto stretched his arm out over the table—inching it closer and closer until Sasuke finally slapped the hand out of his face.

"Sasuke Uchiha," he said with a sigh, "third year."

Naruto grinned and pulled back.

"Huh. Your name kinda sounds familiar."

Of course it did. No matter where Sasuke went, he couldn't escape the Uchiha name. He shoved his earbuds back in with a fierce scowl.

Naruto didn't even seem to notice—even through the headphones, he could hear how to blonde kept blabbering on—

He took the earbud out, clearly annoyed.

"—are in? I'm in psych, myself. I guess that's obvious, heh."

"Creative writing," he muttered, immediately putting his earbud back in. The idiot didn't get the hint, and he yanked it back out with a glare.

"—if you know—oh, am I annoying you?"

"Yes," Sasuke answered honestly.

Naruto laughed, and Sasuke felt his irritation waver.

"Sorry," He said, not sounding sorry at all. He eyed Sasuke with a lopsided grin. "You're kind of a jerk, huh?"

"Excuse me?"

"Like the stoic, silent type." Naruto rested his chin on his palm. "All like 'I hate people' and 'everyone is dumb, except for me'. Am I right?"

Sasuke frowned at him.

"I don't mean it badly! You're like—independent. Intense." He waggled his eyebrows—and then the rest of his body—and he just looked so stupid that Sasuke couldn't help but fight the smile—

Naruto's grin widened.

"Who forced you in the middle of this place?" He gestured around to the café, which was getting steadily more crowded.

"None of your business," he answered automatically. Naruto only laughed in response.

"I guess that's fair," he conceded. "Hey—is your coffee any good? You haven't been drinking it."

"It was too hot, idiot. I'm sure it's fine."

Naruto snorted. "Yeah, you're definitely a jerk."

He leaned back in his chair, resting an ankle on the opposite leg, and gave Sasuke an expectant look.

They stared at each other for a moment, and then Sasuke rolled his eyes, muttering "fine."

Naruto grinned in victory, leaning closer as Sasuke raised the cup to his lips. It made him feel irrationally self-conscious.

The coffee was…wow, that was a lot of cinnamon. Sasuke pulled away, trying to hide his coughing.

Naruto cringed. "It was the cinnamon, wasn't it? I put too much."

"How—" Sasuke coughed again, "—much did you put in there? The whole jar?!"

"Uhhh…"

"Don't tell me you actually—"

"Well—like, the lid fell off, but it wasn't the whole jar!"

"Oh my god," Sasuke bit down on another cough.

"Ah—I'm sorry," Naruto rubbed at his neck nervously, "I'll get you a new one."

"No—no, it's fine," Sasuke stopped Naruto as he started to stand. "It's not that bad. It's just…strong."

"Are you sure?"

"Ye—yes—just—sit down, moron."

Naruto eyed Sasuke doubtfully, but dutifully sat back down. Sasuke took another sip of the coffee to prove his point—

But more dust lodged in his throat, and he fought not to cough under Naruto's suspicious eye. He cleared his throat—once, and then again—

"At least try mixing it." Naruto brandished the little wooden stick he had used to stir his own coffee at him, his movements getting more and more exaggerated until Sasuke finally grabbed it from him.

There was a sizable, half-sunken clump of cinnamon on his coffee. Sasuke eyed it with a grimace, but mixed it in nonetheless. Naruto must not have stirred it at all—at least, now, it was drinkable.

"Sorry," Naruto said again.

"It's fine now. Relax."

There was a pause.

Sasuke still hadn't gotten any writing done, but he suddenly didn't feel the loss. He paused his music.

"You're graduating this year?"

"Yeah, I—"

"Naruto!"

"Oh, Sakura! Hey!" Naruto stood up just in time to receive an armful of a vividly pink-haired woman.

She kissed his cheek and sighed, pulling back. "Did I interrupt you?"

She turned around, getting a look at who he had been sitting with.

"Oh—Na—" She turned back to Naruto, "did I interrupt you? I can leave you two to it if you—"

She made an obvious attempt to lower her voice, but Sasuke heard it all the same. He felt his eyebrows rise. Was she implying…

Naruto laughed. "No, Sakura. This is Sasuke. He let me share his table while I was waiting."

He gave Sasuke a bright grin, and Sasuke nodded in response.

"Ah," she said, "okay, then. Hi, Sasuke."

She turned back to Naruto, lowering her voice again. Sasuke shamelessly eavesdropped.

"Are you sure? He's definitely your type..."

…Ah.

Naruto rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath, "I'm meeting you, remember?"

"Alright, alright," she conceded, her voice rising up again, "in that case, let's go. This place is crazy."

"I think everyone is way too excited about the fall menu," Naruto told her. He tapped two fingers to Sasuke's shoulder on his way by. "See you later, Sasuke!"

Sasuke gave a small wave, and then turned back to his laptop, feeling strangely hollow.

Sasuke only lasted in the café for about an hour longer before giving it up as a lost cause. He made his way back to his apartment: a small, bland place that he only managed to afford because his brother paid for it. He hadn't been happy about it, but Itachi…

Itachi had ended up paying for his school, his home, his food—Sasuke sighed softly, eyeing the state of his fridge. Itachi had insisted on him focusing on his schooling and worrying about paying him back later, but when that would be…Sasuke just didn't know.

It hadn't been the easiest decision—going against his parents' wishes and pursuing writing. He wasn't even sure it had been his smartest decision at this point. But that entire night had spiraled out of control the moment they had realized he was serious. They had been livid. Well, his father had been livid. His mother had cried a lot.

He grimaced.

But they had Itachi to run the family business, and that meant Itachi got whatever he wanted—including, it seemed, a few thousand dollars to fund his little brother's education. He wondered if his parents suspected where the money had gone to.

Likely not, considering he still had the place.

He placed his keys on his desk, slowly opening his laptop.

He hadn't spoken to them since…not since he had gotten his acceptance.

He sighed. This train of thought was getting him nowhere; it was what got him into this mess.

He took a sip of his coffee, momentarily forgetting the disaster that had been made of it. He spluttered, and then a soft smile spread across his face.

He tapped his keyboard in thought.

Maybe he'd write about blue-eyed idiots.

A/N: If you picked up It Started Over Coffee vibes, I absolutely don't blame you. I didn't have it in mind when I wrote this, but with the amount that I've reread that fic, I have no doubt that it's influenced me :P

New chapter up tomorrow! I'm so excited to get this going. Let me know if you like it so far!

Until then,

- Kinomi