Hello! It's me again! Since I just finished up 'Love Machine' and 'Bite' is almost done, I needed something else to work on. I know, you're all thinking the same thing. 'WTF why doesn't she have a life?!' Well……because all my classes this semester don't give me homework, and work has only been giving me a couple hours a week….haha. So yea, here's my new idea! And I think it's pretty darn original. Or maybe not, you decide! Here you go. And you should know it's gonna be a Naruto POV, but I may do another Sasuke. If I'm feeling up to a challenge. Oh, and since I told you where I got the idea of LM and Bite, I'll tell you where I got this one. Driving around the back roads of my town. I'm a little weird.

Warning: There will be lime(s) and lemon(s) in this story. Maybe not this chapter, but soon.

Disclaimer: I own the CDS! Yes, I do! Because they are my mixes! Mwhahahaha! …But not Naruto…or the song….or Crossroads…or Mcgriddles…you'll see when you read it!

Road Trip

"Can we bring

yesterday

back around?

cause I know

how I feel

about you now!"

"Naruto!!" I jumped and shouted at the hand that shot out at me, grabbing my throat and hitting me back into the wall. You're guessing some big, 6'3, 300 pound guy who I owe money, right? OR some guy with one eye, a peg leg, and scars all over his body? And maybe a few are going for the biker dude that has the long goatee with the 'mom' tattoo on his arm. Well, to answer your question…

"Sa-Sakura!" I chocked out, trying to smile through the lack of air that was getting to my head. You were ALL wrong. It's a shot, pink-headed girl who has a low tolerance for anyone with the name 'Naruto'. And boy, what do you know, that's me!

"We haven't even picked up Sasuke yet and you're driving me crazy with this song! And if you're doing that to someone who has the same taste in music, imagine how Sasuke is going to be when you play this song for the twenty third time!" Well, she had a point there. I guess I may have been playing the song a little too much. But in my defense, I had just discovered the song the night before when I was burning my CDs for the next couple weeks. Oh, you're probably what I'm doing at Sakura's house at five in the morning, with a bunch of CDs and preparing to go pick up my best/worst friend ever. Well…

"Can we go then?! I wanna start this road trip as soon as we can!" Uzumaki Naruto, 21, was going on his first road trip cross country! And for a small town boy who wasn't allowed to go to Boston on a day trip because my mother was a total worry wart, this was a big deal. I had been packed for days, and had been constantly bugging my two best friends about the trip ever since I found out we were going. Alright, so it was when I announced we were going. And why did I decide this? Well, it started four months ago in February, when Sasuke had told me and Sakura that his dad had finally promoted him as a CEO in their fancy smanchy business. Uchiha inc. was the biggest computer company in the U.S.A, and it made his parents pretty damn rich.

Uchiha Sasuke, 22, had been a super genius since his dad impregnated his mom. Ew, now that I think about that scary image, I never want to look at his parents again. Anyways, we had met when we were like four or something. His father was an old friend of my dad's, and so when my dad had gotten really sick with kidney cancer, Sasuke's father had paid for all of the chemo therapy and operations. He was the reason my dad lived, and I owed him a lot. So in return, I became little Sasuke's first friend.

Big mistake.

He spat on me! The first time we met, I had accidentally gotten sand in his eyes from the sandbox, and we ended up in an all out fist fight. And the little brat spat on me! If that doesn't say wuss, I don't know what does. I returned the favor with a wet willy, and a mega wedgie. And from then on, we were best friends. I thought we were something called 'frienemies' that Sakura was talking about. But in reality, we don't hate each other. He just thinks I'm an idiotic dobe, and I think hes an asshole teme. See? There's a difference.

Oh! Yea, I'm supposed to tell you why we were going on a road trip. Well, Sasuke got the job that he had been working for. I could never have done it. Not because I lack the brains like Sasuke likes to tell me (stupid bastard), but because I could never sit in an office all day doing paperwork and stocks and whatever the hell they do. It's why I'm an artist. I can be inside or outside, and do whatever the hell I want whenever I want to. Heck, I had made almost a grand on a panting of my ramen cup with flowers in it. And people said artists were the dumb ones. We've got you fooled thinking what we make is art.

Did I just get off topic again? Damnit! Alright, let me just show you the conversation me, the jerk, and Sakura had over dinner four months ago.

"Happy Valentine's day guys!" Sakura's cheerful voice was followed by two pink-wrapped gifts. Since none of us were going out with anyone, we had decided it was better to celebrate together than mope alone. Well, me and Sakura decided, while Sasuke rolled his eyes and tagged along. I smiled and took mine; while Sasuke treated his like it was a bomb. I couldn't blame him I guess, since one of his fangirls had put sleeping power in his gift in an attempt to kidnap him. No, I'm not joking.

"Thanks Sakura!" I ripped the paper open, not caring that some of it fell into my ramen. I'd just pick it out later or something. Sasuke took his time ripping the paper, as if he was going to use it again. Even when he was rich he could be a cheap bastard. "Oh wow! This is the sketch journal I was looking for! Where the hell did you find it?"

"Sai found it for me. He's an art geek too." She winked at the affectionate nickname. At one point, it had been a put down because in middle school, Sakura hung out with the popular snobs. But after me and the teme rescued her from almost getting raped in our freshman year, she ditched the 'Barbies' and hung us with us totally cool guys! And yea, I said plural. Sometimes Sasuke has his moments, like when he roundhouse-kicked that asshole into the wall! And I…well, I checked on Sakura, introduced us, and stuff. Hey, I'm an important part of this trio!

"Aw you're the best Sakura!" She laughed and shrugged, blushing at the attention.

"Thanks Naruto."

"Hn." I looked over to the personalized wrappings that Sakura had gotten for Sasuke. Since being rich, handsome, and popular wasn't enough for Sasuke, he also had to be strong. Which meant that while I just ran around and beat people up with crazy moves I made up, he took karate and had become extremely good at it. So the wrappings for his hands and feet were probably the best thing Sakura could find to give the kid who had everything. Calmly he looked up at her and nodded, signaling the approval of the gift. He wasn't much of a talker that night. Well, less so than he is normally.

"Alright boys, what'd you get me?" I laughed at her excited expression before I pulled out my present, tossing it to her.

"You're just lucky I sold that city painting last week. Otherwise I'd be giving you a biiiiiiiiig hug for your present."

"She said present, not torture." I growled over at Sasuke, who smirked for the first time all night.

"You just wait! One of these days, you're going to get mauled by a fox and I'm not going to save your sorry ass." Scrunching my nose and turning away, I heard Sakura's laughter at the sheer absurdity of my statement. We lived in New England in a plain little town. There were no foxes. But if there was one, you bet it'd go for Sasuke. Maybe I'll bring him to a zoo and push him into the fox cage.

"Oh Naruto!" I grinned at my successful work. Luckily I had Sakura's best girl Ino question her about what she wanted. And I had been able to find the emerald necklace that she had been talking about with Ino for weeks now. What can I say; I'm a ladies' man. "You asked Ino what I wanted, didn't you?"

"So what? You got what you wanted in the end, who cares how I got it?" I said, crossing my arms and sticking my tongue out at her. She rolled her eyes before hitting me in the forehead. I laughed despite the hit. I knew she liked it, whether she wanted to admit it to me.

"Here," Sasuke said, sliding a package over to her. Even though Sasuke never admitted it, he did enjoy our company. He thought I was an airhead, and that Sakura had anger issues, and we thought he was too emo and needed to get the stick out of his ass. Well okay, so that last part was really only me. But one day I would prove to the world there was one in there.

Sasuke had ended up getting Sakura three of the DVDs for the show 'Lost'. She had this crazy obsession with it that I could never get into. I tried to watch some of it with her one time, and I ended up just getting pissed off at how dumb everyone was. And that's saying something coming from me. But if Sakura liked it, who was I to rain on her parade? Besides, I had my obsession with stuff, like ramen. It was the food of the Gods, and anyone who disagreed with me was evil. Sasuke hated ramen, for example.

"Well, aren't you two going to switch up presents?" I mentally groaned at this part. When we were freshman, Sakura had gotten mad at me and Sasuke because we didn't get each other presents for Valentine's Day. We tried to explain to her that we're guys, and we're not supposed to. But she can be pretty convincing when her eyes get all teary and her lower lip starts to tremble. I caved instantly and started to cry with her too, because I'm a sap. But the hard ass just sighed and muttered about needing to find new acquaintances. So now, seven years later, we were still stuck getting each other things.

"If yours is ticking, I'm not opening it," I grumbled, grabbing the small bag I had thrown his present in. Sliding it over the table, he seemed to smirk and placed my 'present' in front of me. Shaking it and sighing when I heard nothing moving, I waited until he opened his present. He stared at it for a moment before slowly looking up at me with an arched eyebrow.

"Don't give me that look. Hinata put a lot of effort into that." And it was true. An old time friend of ours named Hinata worked as a massage therapist a couple towns down. Because her entire spa used homemade things, she knew how to create specialized oils and lotions. And since Sasuke was always working too hard and hurting his body between work and karate, I decided to have Hinata make a special pain relieving lotion. Sure it ended up with the scent of oranges, but who cares? When you're in pain, anything will suffice.

"Hn." Didn't anyone ever tell him that wasn't a word? I mean really, someone needs to show him in the dictionary there is no…oh wow, there is an 'hn'. But unless he was talking about some colorless explosive or the head nurse, it doesn't count!

"Should have gone with the Advil to stop that constant pms of yours." I sighed and started to open the present in front of me. It was strange getting something from Sasuke when his family had done so much for mine. Not that I thought that I owed Sasuke anything since all he did was spit on me, but I was getting the same feeling I did every Christmas Eve when our families would get together and exchange presents. It was hard to stomach all the excitement and guilt, since their family always seemed to outdo mine. And Sasuke always seemed to one up me on my V-day presents, because he could. So when I opened the box to see a pair of keys in it, I nearly fainted. No way…

"You got me a car!?" I shouted while standing up, the entire restaurant stopping their conversations to look at us. I glanced around, waving at the situation that made Sakura cover her face. "Don't be jealous."

"Naruto sit down!" Sakura hissed, grabbing my hand and yanking me back into my seat. She was as pink as her hair, and I would have made fun of her, but the glare in her eyes told me not to. So instead, I looked back at the keys that sat innocently in front of me, hesitantly poking them with my finger.

"What's the catch teme? I'm not going to be your slave or nothing for the next year."

"No catch, have it." Why was he being nice? This was not right. Something had to be going wrong. I studied the keys, waiting for them to disappear or start to gnaw on my hand, but nothing happened. I flipped it over slowly, blinking at the familiar scratch.

"Hey! These are your keys. I made this mark when I tried to hijack your car! What the hell are you giving me your keys for?" I asked, looking up at him in confusion. He sighed and slowly glanced between me and Sakura, as if studying our insanity before continuing.

"I don't need it anymore."

"Bullshit. You just got this car a year ago! Don't tell me your dad got you another one?"

"I'm getting a company car when I become an official CEO." I didn't like the way he stared at me, but I kept my eyes on him even as Sakura spoke.

"You got the job?! Congrats! You've been working so hard to get there, but we knew you could do it."

"When do you start?" I asked slowly. He was hiding something. My foxy-senses were tingling.

"I don't start the official job until next September, so I can move and settle in."

"Move?" Sakura asked, slight concern filling her voice. "You're not going to be staying in town?"

"No." For the first time in the entire lifespan that I knew Uchiha Sasuke, I had never seen him hesitate until that day. But he had good reason, because the next sentence would change our lives. "I'm moving to California in June."

"W-What?!" I stared in shock as my fingers gripped the chair I was in. He didn't seem surprised by my reaction, and glanced to the pasta he had been eating before.

"The only thing I had to exchange in order to become the youngest CEO in the history of the cooperation was to switch my living spaces. Since I don't start work until September, there's no reason to leave here until June." Even while he spoke, I shook my head.

"But…but you love this place! I mean you've grown up here! You can't just leave everything behind. What about your family? And your apartment? Don't you think this is really sudden?"

"Naruto! Don't be so nosy! This is a great break for Sasuke, you should be happy for him," Sakura chided, shaking her head in disappointment. I glanced over to her and slowly laughed, rubbing the back of my head.

"Y-Yea your right! I'm just surprised that the jerk actually got the job." I looked up at Sasuke, smiling the best I could. I was being dumb really. If I had been offered a great job for my art, and all I had to do was move, I would have packed my bags and left the next day. And I bet Sasuke wouldn't be questioning my logic or making me feel guilty about leaving my family. And besides, it wasn't like California was too far away. Just…3000 miles. No biggie. "So what day are you leaving for the golden state?"

"Not sure." He shrugged and looked back at the present I gave him, as if it was the most shocking thing at the table. But I'm pretty sure car beats lotion 99% of the time. I stared at him for a minute, listening to Sakura and him continue to talk about how great it was that he got the job. For some reason, I couldn't feel the same happiness. It was frustrating me. I was Sasuke's best friend and I couldn't even be happy for him. What the hell was wrong with me?!

"Let's go together." Apparently a lot of things. Both of them stopped their discussion and slowly looked over at me, the idiot who had opened his mouth without meaning to.

"Excuse me?" He asked slowly, buying me a little time to think of something to make up besides 'I really didn't mean to say that but now that I did, I don't want you to go to that stupid job that you don't want anyways and are only taking for your dad'. I didn't think that would exactly fly with Sasuke or Sakura.

"I mean…let's…go on a road trip! You know…like, drive Sasuke there! "

"Are you crazy? That's over 3000 miles away! It would take forever to get there!" Sakura said, staring at me as if I had just jumped off the loony bus. And maybe I had, because the more I talked about the idea, the more I seemed to like it.

"So what? Sasuke just gave me his car. We'll just drive there and drop Sasuke off, and if we don't want to drive it back, I'm sure money bags here can get it shipped back home while we catch a flight. It'll be like, the last big thing that we all do together before we all split up! And none of us have ever really done anything like this before! We can make a documentary with Sakura's camera about our summer road trip."

"You're serious." I scoffed at Sasuke's lame statement.

"Duh."

"You do realize it's going to cost us a lot of money to go, right?" Sakura asked. Despite her concern, I could tell she was getting just as excited as me. The teme was still stoic.

"There's three of us, and if we all start putting away money now we'll have plenty to stop and do stuff. Sasuke said that his job doesn't even start till September, and your college gets out in May. I don't have to check in with anyone since I'm an independent artist, so we're all set! Now come on guys, let's do something completely irrational for the last time we can. Let's get wild!" I threw my hand in front of the other two, looking up at them and grinning mischievously. Sakura glanced between me and Sasuke for a few seconds before she giggled, placing her hand over mine and sending a reassuring smile.

"It…does sound kind of fun. And I've always wanted to see the country like they do in the movie with the pregnant chick."

"Crossroads." I stared in shock at Sasuke, who only rolled his eyes and glared at me. "My mother went through a bonding faze with me and Itachi. That was her idea."

"No wonder you're moving to California," I muttered, shaking my head at the shivers that went up my spine. But shaking off the jitters, I nodded to our hands. "Come on Sasuke, live a little."

"Whatever." And with his hand dropping on ours, the plans began. So fast forwarding to four months later…where were we? Oh yea!

"Ca-Can't breathe…" I gasped out, Sakura rolling her eyes at my antics before releasing my throat. Apparently, five AM was too early for the pink princess. But someone told me I must have eaten the energizer bunny one day because it took a Mack truck to make me run out of energy.

"Why did we have to start so early? Does he even know we're on our way?" She mumbled, rubbing her eye lazily as she grabbed her two backpacks. Luckily the car had enough space between the backseat and the trunk to fit all of our stuff and then some. This was such a sweet car. It should have worried me that Sasuke was rich enough to give away a Porsche and still be perfectly wealthy.

"He will when we get there, now won't he?" I asked, grinning over to her. We moved out into the cold air, the sun already peeking over the horizon and greeting us. I grabbed her stuff, throwing it in the back while she flipped open her camera, holding it up to record me. "What are you doing?"

"Taking one last shot of you before Sasuke kills you for waking him up," She said, making me growl and snatch the camcorder back from her. I focused in on her face, snickering when I took a shot of the bags under her eyes.

"Nice raccoon eyes. You look like Gaara from high school!" She quickly covered her eyes before moving into the car, blushing the entire time.

"Naruto! You're going to be dead by the end of this road trip!" Maybe, knowing the two I was with. But hey, at least I would have fun before I went. I laughed and moved into the car, turning the camera to face me and pulling Sakura next to me with my arm.

"Why ello. Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura here! We're about to go tackle a wild beast from the wilderness! He's big, bad, and gots a nasty temper. The Sasuke-saurus. I'm gonna go in there, and have a go at wresting this nasty creature to the ground. I may not come out alive. Crikey!" My Australian accent set both of us into a burst of laughter, probably from lack of sleep. We finally manage to drive ourselves over to the Uchiha mansion, exchanging hellos with the doorman before I ran up the stairs I had known for over a decade. Once we got to Sasuke's room, I popped the camera back on and handed it to Sakura, whispering. "You ready?"

"I'm staying in the doorway so I can make a break for it. This is one of your worst ideas ever Naruto!" Still I didn't let her warning stop me as I moved into the room quietly, letting my eyes adjust to the slightly darker bedroom. Some of the sunlight peeked in, making it easier to avoid the things he had scattered on the floor. It wasn't much, but still could cause too much noise if I had hit them. Once I had reached the bed, I glanced back at Sakura and winked, waving to the camera. I slid my knee onto the bed, looking down at him.

It was strange how handsome the Uchiha family really was. Even though Sasuke was the youngest, he was pretty good looking for a dude. I was still hotter, but I had to give a guy his props when they were due. And looking down at his face when it was sleeping, I closed my eyes halfway and smiled. His hair was twisting in so many ways, I don't think it was gravitationally possible. His lips were parted slightly, the back of one of his hands brushing against them every so often. Pale as an albino bunny, Sasuke practically glowed from the lack of light in his room. It was weird to see how…peaceful he was when he wasn't awake.

Alright, enough of this mushy shit.

"Crikey!!" I shouted before jumping onto Sasuke in the bed. He must not have been a heavy sleeper, because he instantly woke up and tried to beat the crap out of me. I rolled and avoided his hits, finally pinning him onto the bed when his feet got tangled in his own blanket. I laughed and glanced up at my camera woman, smiling. "I've captured the Sasuke-saurus! Come in and have a look at him. Isn't he a beauty?"

"Naruto…"

"Listen to him growl! When a Sasuke-saurus sends out a warning growl, watch out! He is very deadly, and can strike out at any time. His death move is the Uchiha glare, so never look the beast in the eye unless you're a trained professional like me." I knew that Sakura was both laughing and fearing for our lives when she walked into the room, sending an apologetic smile to Sasuke.

"Sorry Sasuke, I think Minato let Naruto have coffee this morning." I watched him glare at the camera and snort, finally bucking me off of him and to the floor. I yelped when my ass hit the wood, whining while I rubbed my tailbone.

"Shut the camera off." Sakura instantly closed the camera, stepping back from Sasuke who ran his fingers through his hair. After a few combs, he somehow managed to tangle the wild strands.

"Good morning Sasuke! Did you like your wake-up call?" When his glare turned deadlier, I quickly held my hands up in peace. "We brought some Mcgriddles if you want breakfast. They're your favvvvorite."

"No there're not."

"Oh."

"It's 5:30 in the morning." I looked at his clock and nodded.

"Yup."

"Why are you here?"

"Today's the day for the road trip! Did you forget already?" He sighed and stood up, walking past me and over to his closet, seeming to be awake and control of the slight emotion he showed when half-asleep. He dragged out a backpack and threw it at me, causing me to fall back over onto the ground. I struggled to sit back up when he moved into the bathroom connected to his room, getting changed."What was that for, teme?!"

"Learn to catch, dobe." His muffled insult came through the wooden door, making me want to snatch the camera and video tape him changing for all his fangirls. Now that would be good revenge. But instead, I simply growled when the guy emerged from the bathroom.

"Boys, it's way too early to fight," Sakura mumbled, rubbing her temple weakly while she sighed. I had to admit, Sakura must have had some type of special super power that let her deal with me and Sasuke as much as she did. Then again, I'm pretty sure even Sasuke flinched when she was PMSing.

"Let's just get going. The sooner I get away from this idiot, the better." Ouch. That kind of hurt. But laughed it off, wrapping an arm around each of my best friends and pulling them closer to me.

"This is going to be the best road trip ever! Believe it!" Sasuke sighed while Sakura smacked her forehead, both letting me rant about the trip that was about to unfold. And hey, maybe they didn't believe me at the beginning. But by the end…

They never doubted Uzumaki Naruto again.

~**~

Do you want to know the only set back to driving with an Uchiha? Besides their crappy music, of course. They wouldn't let an Uzumaki or Haruno drive, even if it wasn't their car anymore. Sakura was fine with that, since she got the entire back seat to herself. But me? I was not happy. Currently I was pouting in the passenger seat, staring out the window at the forest we were driving by. I knew it from when I was little as the 'Forest of Chakra' or some weird stuff my dad used to tell me about. He said that it was a horrible forest that was known for mysteriously killing people. I never believed it until one of our classmates went in, and ended up getting severely hospitalized. And when anyone asked him about it, he said he couldn't remember a thing. After that, I decided dad wasn't as crazy as I thought.

"You still scared of that place?" I tensed before glaring back at Sasuke.

"No way! I bet you wet yourself whenever you go near it."

"Sure, dobe. The fear is written on your face."

"I'd knock you out if you weren't driving." Or at least try. But he didn't need to hear that last part. He probably knew it anyways by the way he scoffed.

"Sometimes I wonder about your mental health." Since I couldn't hit him I did the next best thing.

"Sakura! Tell him to knock it off!" She sighed and shook her head, glancing back to the map that was resting on her lap. Since she was a way better map reader than me (all those lines make me sick) and Sasuke was too busy being a jerk and driving, Sakura became the designated map girl. And she looked cute, the huge map laid out on her little legs. Sakura had always been pretty, even if she was self-conscious about herself. Remember the snobby girls she used to hang out with? They used to always comment about her forehead. It was good she found us and Ino, because those girls were part vulture. Ino had set them straight though, and had become Sakura's best pal after that. I was half surprised the blonde didn't tag along. But she was working at an internship for the summer and couldn't afford to take the time off.

"The map says that we need to get onto the next highway on the right. We'll have to get off in about seven exits, and then we'll be leaving the state."

"Sakura!"

"Shut up dobe. It's too early to listen to you whine."

"Why did I even bother to come on this trip? All you've done is made fun of me and driven my car. If you crash it, you're paying for the repairs!" I crossed my arms and slouched in my seat, glancing at him from the corner of my eye. Was it just me, or did I see a smile on his face? Doubt it. Maybe he ate something funny before we left; Mcgriddles could do that to people. Never trust something that gushes syrup from the middle.

"You're comedic relief."

"Sasuke!" Sakura patted my shoulder from the back seat, shaking her head. "We wouldn't have as much fun without you being here. Right Sasuke?"

"Hn." I should have known. Expecting anything other than grunts from Sasuke would be stupid. How people decided he was a genius I didn't know. So I puffed my cheeks out and pouted. We were so making a pit stop at a fox sanctuary.

The next twenty minutes we spent quietly observing the last remaining parts of the state. Most of Massachusetts was cool looking, and I never got tired of the scenery. But I just wanted to see more than just the bay state. I wanted to explore what else was out there, and how different the world was. I'd heard so much about the south and west, but my parents never seemed to have the same travel itch that I did. And now that I was old enough, I was going to scratch it.

"That jerk just cut us off!" Oh, and yell at people along the way. But it was that guy's fault, nearly hitting us off the road to get to his exit. If there was one thing I planned to enjoy, it was not having to deal with traffic. Hopefully wide open plains really meant 'Away from people who care more about their dunkin doughnuts than their lives'. "You should honk the horn at him!"

"No."

"Why not?!"

"I'm not an animal."

"Neither am I! You have to take control of the road!"

"Control of the road?" He asked slowly, arching an eyebrow as he took our exit.

"Yea. Show them who's in charge of this highway. Besides, God put horns into a car for a reason, and the reason was to honk them."

"God didn't put horns in cars."

"Shut up! You don't know. Maybe he went all 'burning bush' again and told the guy to put a horn in." Hey, it could happen. Didn't that Moses guy talk to a bush? Something like that, I wasn't exactly the theologist of the group. Oh yea, I knew a word bigger than three syllables. Beat that Sasuke!

"You are an idiot."

"You love me." He sent me a look before looking forwards again, seeming to ignore my declaration of adoration. Fine, be a snob. "I hate you too!"

"You do not." Sakura hit me softly in the back of the head, leaning hers in-between our seats and smiling. "You two have been attached at the hip since you were little."

"It was forced." He seriously got way too cranky when people woke him.

"At least I didn't spit on you."

"You're still holding that grudge?"

"You're damn right I am! That's just disgusting!"

"I was four."

"You should have known."

"Boys, boys! Look!" I looked up when Sasuke slowed the car on the side of the road; all three of us staring at the sign that read 'Thank you for visiting the Bay state'. I swallowed weakly as I stared up at it, realizing that it was the real deal. We were really going to do this, weren't we?

"Scared?" I glanced over at Sasuke quickly, who sighed and rolled his eyes. "This is your last chance. I'm not turning back around after this."

"Well you better not, because I'm ready to go! Watch out America, Uzumaki Naruto is coming for you! Believe it!" I winked at him and threw out a thumbs up, smiling when Sakura giggled behind me.

"Believe it? You still say that?" He asked dryly.

"At least they're actual words teme!" He watched me for a moment, an unreadable look in his eyes. Maybe it was unreadable because I wasn't analyzing it right. Because if I had known what I was looking for, maybe I would have stopped the trip. But I challenged his gaze with my own, leaning forwards a bit. "Why, Sasuke? You scared?"

"I'm the one moving."

"….so what?! You could still be scared!"

"Dobe."

"Let's go!" Sakura pointed between us, making me jump in surprise. When she laughed at my shock, I shrugged and looked to Sasuke again.

"Onward march!" He started to move the car until I suddenly grabbed the dashboard. "Wait!"

"What now?" Sakura asked. I laughed sheepishly before glancing to my lap.

"I've gotta pee."

"You've got to be kidding."

"Naruto! I told you to go before we picked up Sasuke."

"I know I know, but I didn't have to go then! Gah I'll be right back!" I shot out of the door, quickly running into the set of bushes near the deserted road. So once I finished nature's call, we finally set out of Massachusetts and into the wild unknown.

~**~

Boy the unknown sure was boring. I'm pretty sure that Pennsylvania was the most pointless state I had ever been to. There were nothing but cow pastures and dead grass. The highways were long and barren, and the only thing that broke the monotony was random signs that meant nothing to me. I could tell that Sakura was starting to overheat from the constant waving of her hand, so I quickly popped on the air conditioning to help her out. Sasuke was usual Sasuke, totally uninteresting and bland. Why the girls flocked to his never quite sat well with me.

So, I decided to spice things up a bit. I quickly unbuckled myself, crawling to face the back of my seat before starting to rummage in the stuff we had packed.

"Naruto! What are you doing, you're going to get hurt." I looked up at Sakura and shook my head, pulling out the camera and starting to turn it on.

"Don't worry; I've got balance like a fox!"

"The saying is cat, moron." I ignored the driver before pressing record, glancing up at Sakura and then taking in the scenery around.

"Hello again! We have been driving for about seven hours now, and the current location is boringsville Pennsylvania. Oh! Say hi to the camera Sasuke!"

"No."

"And that was Sasuke in his normal cheery mood. Maybe if he let someone else drive he wouldn't be so crabby, but he's got control issues." I caught his glare on the camera before glancing back at Sakura. "So Sakura, what do you want to do while Sasuke finds a place to grab food?"

"Well...we could play 'I spy' if you wanted."

"Great! Alright! I'll start. I spy with my little eye…" I glanced around the car slowly, my eyes brightening when I focused on the yellow umbrella that Sakura had packed. "Something yellow!"

"An umbrella." What?! How did he….but he's….and the road…

"You cheated!"

"How?"

"Grr…I spy something blue!"

"The information sign."

"Green!"

"The pasture."

"The idiot in the car!"

"Naruto." Okay, so I let myself fall into that one. Instead of admitting it, I scoffed.

"Nobody said you could play anyways! You're supposed to be finding us a restaurant, not playing—" …Oh what the hell. I didn't even say 'I spy' and he found it. Well he had to be good at some things I guess.

"Oh this is great! I'll go grab us some food if you want. I've got to stretch my legs and use the rest room anyways." Instantly my stomach growled at Sakura's suggestion.

"You wanna get me a couple cheeseburgers and a coke?"

"How many?"

"Uhm…five." I tossed her the money, though she barely caught it from her shock.

"Five?! You're going to get fat by the end of this trip if you don't stop eating so much."

"Nah, I'll be fine. I've got a good metabolism." I rubbed my stomach to prove the flatness that I was able to keep. For some reason, my stomach didn't mind the constant food I shoveled into it. Sure I exercised and ran around a lot, but nothing like Sasuke. So I knew it bugged him how easily the weight fell off of me. I was pretty sure I weighed even less than he did.

"What about you Sasuke? What would you like?"

"Anything not deadly to my health." Me and Sakura both sweat dropped at the comment, but she nodded quickly and took his money, moving out of the car with a quick wave of goodbye. I sighed loudly and leaned back in the seat, staring up at the roof of the car.

"You know, you could be a normal person for once in your life and eat some fatty food."

"That's not normal, idiot. That's disgusting."

"Says you. But 95% of the country eats fast food once a week. So beat that." Alright, that wasn't true. More like my family ate fast food 95% of the time, but I needed something to shut him up.

"Did you just make that up?"

"No!"

"Pathetic."

"Teme! I'm so glad you're leaving so I don't have to listen to your big mouth anymore!" I shouted, watching him smirk and shrug.

"You're probably gonna call me the week after you leave to complain about something. It's in your nature to whine. That is why you'll always be a dobe."

"Yea right." I scoffed and glanced away from him and the truth. Even though four months had passed since Sasuke had informed us about the new job, I still didn't accept the fact that Sasuke was leaving. I had tried to ignore it and just focus on the road trip plans for most of the time, but it literally was everywhere I turned. All of our friends had heard about it, and would never leave the dumb topic alone. When I went home, my parents would ask me about him and how the changes were going. The only place that nobody seemed to discuss it was at the Uchiha mansion, because it always seemed to cause a fight between his mother, father, and brother. And let me tell you, being at a table with four Uchihas, who are all glaring and upset, is not fun. I made an effort not to eat dinner with them anymore.

I knew it wasn't anyone's fault he was leaving. After all, we all knew he was too smart to stay where he was now. Even if he really didn't enjoy the job, Sasuke was good with computers and fortelling how the sales would go, what styles were in, and what the next step of the company should be. His dad didn't make a bad choice for his employee, but I wasn't sure that it was the right choice for his son. Maybe that was why I was so against Sasuke leaving!

"Hey, you're not really excited to get this job, huh?" I asked, not bothering to look at him. It never told me anything anyways, so why waste the energy in turning my head.

"It's good money."

"Money isn't happiness. You're rich anyways."

"My father is rich. I'm not."

"Same difference, he'd never leave you out to dry. Hell, he doesn't leave me with the need for anything, and I'm not even his son."

"You remind him of your father when they were our age." I blinked at the new information never told to me. Quickly I sat up away from the back of the seat to look at him.

"Really?! I knew my dad was cool when he was our age! Ha! I bet our parents never thought we'd turn out like our dads, huh? Being best friends and all."

"I doubt it," He said, staring out the windshield. I watched him quietly, because if I said something I knew he'd move to make another comment or scoff. His wrists laid lazily on the wheel, in a way that I would expect from me and not someone like Sasuke. His eyes didn't seem to watch anything of particular interest. In fact, the slight dipping of his eyelids showed just how tired he really was. But if I was to even question his ability to drive, I'm sure he'd have a cow. I had never noticed the slight upward tilt of his nose, since I had never really studied his face like this before. Most of the time, he was too busy making my blood boil to give me time to watch him.

"Things aren't gonna be the same without you." I broke his concentration when he looked at me and arched an eyebrow.

"Your being dramatic."

"I am not! It's not like I'm saying I'm gonna miss you or whatever! I'm just saying you're changing everything."

"Hn." We returned to glaring at each other before I looked away, focusing my anger on the windshield in front of me. Fine, if he wanted to be a jerk, I didn't care. I'd just ignore him for the rest of the trip. Sakura was with us, and I could just talk to her. She was better than this teme any day. "Stop. Nothing's going to change."

"Huh?"

"You'll still be annoying no matter where I am. They invented phones and the internet for a reason."

"Yea but you're not gonna be here. You won't be my neighbor and I won't be able to just come in and wake you up or annoy the shit out of you, you'll have your lame ass job and I'll be—"

"Stop talking about it." I looked back at him and quickly felt my eyes widen at the close proximity of our faces. He rolled his eyes, not seeming to notice how our breathing mingled in the small space between us. How could he not? I mean, I could feel the hot air brushing my cheeks in a very uncomfortable way. For someone like Uchiha Sasuke, close contact was a big no-no. So why he felt the need to keep close to me was making my comfort level start to diminish. But it was Sasuke. Why the hell would I let him get to me like that? He was probably trying to do it just to make me squirm!

"Ge-Get away you idiot. I don't wanna smell your nasty breath."

"You're too obsessed with my job."

"Well what's wrong with that?!"

"I don't want to talk about it with you." That was true. In fact, after he had announced it to us, he hadn't said a word to be about it. Not like I really brought it up. But still…I growled and jerked my face closer to his, no longer caring about the personal bubble. He was such a prick.

"But you'll talk about it with Sakura and everyone one else. What, you don't think I'm smart enough to get it?" He shrugged and closed his eyes halfway, as if I wasn't worth the strength to keep them open.

"It's possible."

"You're an asshole. I hope you fall in the Sacramento River and foxes eat you alive."

"What's with your obsession with foxes?"

"I like foxes! You got a problem with that?!"

"You're such a whiner."

"I-I am not!" I shouted out, Sasuke slowly pressing one of his palms to his ear.

"You're too loud," He muttered flatly, and I felt my cheeks go red in embarrassment. But there was no way I was apologizing.

"Your fault teme. You should know not to get too close to me."

"Nobody should get close to you. You may have rabies." I hated him. I moved to hit him in the forehead, but being a black belt or whatever, it was his instinct to grab my wrist and pull me forward. The motion caused my head to bump into his shoulder, and leave us in the awkward position of my chest against his (since the damn car didn't come with an armrest), pressed fully along the muscles that definitely did not come from sitting around the house playing rock band. My breath hitched at the strange sensation, because I had never truly been close enough to feel Sasuke's body twitch like that before. I could instantly tell how tense he got against me, his hand tightening a bit around my wrist. I opened my mouth to say something, but it wouldn't come out. This was strange, no matter what I did to try and prevent it. Two best guy friends pressed against each other in a car parked in the corner of a lot did not seem like a book for Reading Rainbow. My gaze was stuck on his shoulder, and how the black tank top underneath his open hoodie was really too tight for his own good. Why did we wear tight clothes again? Something about being stylish. I couldn't really think past the lump in my throat when I realized that both of us had not move in the 30 seconds that had passed. Shouldn't we have freaked out by now?

But quickly I pressed my hand into his chest and pushed back from him when I heard the door open behind us. Thank god for tinted windows.

"Here you go!" Sakura blinked when both of us stared in opposite windows, and I mentally chanted that the blush on my face would disappear. What had just happened?! Why hadn't he moved? Why hadn't I moved? And what the heck was I doing, thinking about his damn tank top!? That was a fan girl's job, not mine! "Eh? Naruto, are you okay? Your face is—"

"I'm fine!" I shouted, quickly grabbing the food from her hand and shoving the first sandwich into my mouth. It took me a second and two confused glances to realize I hadn't bothered to take the paper off of it. Laughing nervously, I turned away from them and played with the half eaten paper, trying to make it seem casual. "Guess the paper isn't as good as I thought it'd be."

"You're so strange Naruto." Sakura laughed at my actions before moving into the car, starting to babble about the long line inside of the restaurant, and the creepy guy who took her order. I didn't really pay attention, glancing at Sasuke from the corner of my eye as he bit into some grilled chicken from his salad. Forcing myself to look away, I stuff my face with the cheeseburgers sitting in my lap, willing the strange feeling to go away with the hunger. Because it couldn't have been caused by him. I shook my head after the last cheeseburger, finally turning to Sakura and listening to the end of her extremely long tale. "…and so I just gave him a glare and left."

"Should have sicked the teme on him, that'd scared him off!" I said, laughing while Sasuke finished his food and tossed it into the bag between us.

"Very funny dobe." We glanced at each other for a moment before I smiled, trying to will away any weird feelings there. He scoffed and turned back to the wheel, starting the car up while Sakura told him where to go. I bet Sasuke felt just as strange about this as I did. And if we were going to be in a car together for a while, I didn't want any bad blood between us. Besides, it's not like it'll happen again. We were just messing around, it didn't mean anything.

Or…did it?

Well this is the new one-shot…which isn't a one-shot…but you know how I am, I always put them into complete just in case a dog maims my leg or something and I can't write. Tell me what you think about it! And as you can see, there was a lot of things I don't own…but I do own the name 'Sasuke-Saurus' =P. Tell me what you think and I'll get another chapter out soon after I finish up 'Bite'!