The Girl Online

Based off the manga Naruto by Kishimoto Masashi

Story by Kodoku na Oujo

I can't believe I'm doing this. I found this story on my laptop a few days ago and did not remember for the life of me what it was. So, being curious… I opened the file and read it. I realized that it was finished ((well, 95% finished anyway)) and I had never posted it up. So after I read through it and wrote about a page worth of stuff to complete it, I decided I like it too much to not post it up.

But don't think that this means that I will be returning to fanfiction. I am done with the site. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up, but I just couldn't leave this story on the computer finished and yet unread.

Also one last thing from me. I just wanted to share with you guys that the idea for this story came to me as I was surfing the fmylife website and saw that someone had posted up the basic gist of this story. It made me laugh and five minutes later ((LITERALLY!)) I grumbled and agreed with myself that I would write the damn story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Knowing me and my fabulous titles, I would have ended up calling it A Ninja Story with Heavy Gay Sub-text. Catchy, ne? XD

Warning: Boy Love and slight language. Dear god it feels weird to put up that warning again. I missed it. When I stopped posting on fanfiction I practically forgot about the site and everything that I had ever posted on it. Life was WAY too busy to let me think about it.

"Come on, Sakura!"

"How many times do I have to tell you, Naruto? No!"

The blonde looked devastated to hear those cruel words coming from his crush, but the depression slipped easily from his face and was replaced quickly by a big grin, which showed off his pearly white teeth, and bright eyes that shone with determination. "But how can you turn me down so easily?" he asked, still trying to change her answer. "How do you know that you won't enjoy dating me until you try it?"

"Naruto…" the pink-haired girl sighed as he rubbed the bridge of her small nose with her pale fingers, obviously tired of the blonde's persistence. "I'm not going to stand here and repeat myself all day. It would never work between us."

"But… But why?" he whined, already running out of angles in which to turn the argument back in his favor.

"We've been friends since we were in grade school." The green-eyed girl said bluntly before she said the one thing that no man wants to hear from the woman for which he pines. "You're like my brother."

"Dude. Harsh." Kiba said, slightly shocked and slightly guilty for his friend's predicament. "Sakura pulled the brother card with you. I feel for you, dude. Honestly I do."

Naruto groaned as the depression he felt just grew with each and every word that slipped passed his friend's mouth, despite his best efforts to cheer him up. His hands covered up his face, hiding his expression which was mostly likely one of pure agony and rejection, and let his tan fingers run through his unruly locks, the digits extending and retracting in his attempts to calm his nerves.

The blonde sat at a lunch table, surrounded by his closest friends in hopes that they would be able to lift his spirits and make him forget of his most recent rejection from Sakura. The pink-haired girl had turned Naruto away many a time before, but this time had been different. This time she said something that could never be taken back.

She felt as if she and Naruto were like siblings.

Those few simple words doomed him to being nothing more than just a friend in the young woman's eyes for the rest of eternity. And the last remnants of hope that the blonde held within his heart for Sakura to somehow have a change of heart and finally agree, after all the years that he spent chasing after her, to go out with him. Naruto slumped down deeper into his chair and let another groan escape from his lips as his head slipped from his hands and fell down onto the hard plastic of the cafeteria lunch table.

"… Far be it from me to question your actions, Naruto," Shikamaru piped up as he watched lazily from the blonde's side. "But don't you think, considering your previous luck with Sakura… and women in general… that you wouldn't be this torn up about this."

"But Sakura was the one!" Naruto whined, picking up his head from the table, the skin red and slightly irritated from the rough surface of the plastic. "I'll never be able to find someone as perfect as her in my life!"

"With your dating history, you should focus more on just trying to find someone." Chouji joked as he stuffed a few potato chips into his mouth. "I mean, even I have a girlfriend."

A sigh slipped past Shikamaru's lips as he straightened himself in his chair slightly, so that his gaze could reach his best friend's eyes. "Stop bragging about Ino all the time. Yeah. Okay. You have a hot girlfriend. Big deal." The raven-haired genius crossed his arm in front of his chest and gave the larger boy the best glare he could muster while still maintaining the aloof aura that seemed to always engulf him.

"You're just upset because Temari's angry with you and is denying you sex." Chouji snorted as he finished off his bag of chips and then crumpled up the plastic bag within his large hands.

"Shut it." Shikamaru warned, his eyes narrowing, but still retaining his carefree and lazy nature.

"Man, at least Hinata's let me get to second base." Kiba chimed in, giving the raven a truly pitiful expression as he leaned past Naruto so that he could look directing at the person to whom he was speaking. "I would go insane if I was cut off cold turkey like that. You must have the patience of a saint, dude."

Naruto felt his one eye twitch in his annoyance, before he finally snapped and slammed his tanned hands against the hard plastic of the lunch table as he rose to feet, earning him the attention of all his friends. "Not that I don't appreciate your help and all, guys… Do you think that maybe, just maybe, you could not all talk about your girlfriends right now?" And with those final words the blonde sat back down right when the group of boys final two friends came wandering over toward them all.

"What are you going on about now, Naruto?" a raven-haired boy said with a sort of arrogance laced thickly into his every word, making Naruto turn his attention from the three boys currently sitting with him to glance up at the new arrivals to their group. He saw Shino and Sasuke just standing before the small group, looking both confused and reluctant to sit down with the rowdy bunch of boys.

"Oh hey, Sasuke. Shino." Naruto mumbled as he let his head rest back on his hands, feeling like all of his energy had gone into yelling at his non-single friends. "And nothing's up."

"Really?" Sasuke questioned with a smirk before looking up to the other three boys, waiting and hoping that one of them would divulge the information that he desired and that Naruto deny him.

The three of them paused, glancing between themselves and the irate blonde sitting beside them before Kiba finally motioned Shino and Sasuke to bend down slightly so that he may whisper the information to them and not have Naruto overhear. "Sakura rejected him." He whispered, hoping that the sun-kissed boy would be too preoccupied with his annoyance and frustration to listen to his words.

"Again?" Sasuke asked loudly in disbelief.

"You told him?" Naruto hissed as he whizzed his head around to glare at the dog lover.

"He was going to find out anyway. Don't be such a baby about something that's happened before." Kiba tried to defend himself. Luckily before Naruto could act on his anger, Sasuke once again spoke up and made his best friend stop in his attack on the brunette and focus his attention solely on him.

"You're better off anyway." Sasuke said casually as he took a seat toward the end of the lunch table, Shino following his actions and finding himself a seat as well. Everyone at the table allowed their attention to be pulled toward Sasuke and away from the bloody scene that was about to unfold before them. Naruto especially looked surprised at the raven's comment and completely forgot about hurting or mauling Kiba in his burst of rage.

"Better off?" the blonde questioned, raising one of his eyebrows in confusion. He was unable to see the logic in his best friend's words. Sakura was his perfect woman. How could he possibly be better off without her if there was no one better than her out there?

"…" Sasuke let his dark eyes glance up to meet the stares of all his friends before he was finally able to let his gaze settle on the blonde-haired boy and answer his question. "Sakura's rejected you time and time again." He replied back simply. "It's obvious that she doesn't want to date you. You're better off forgetting about her and finding someone that actually likes you." And with that, the pale boy took a bite of the sandwich that he had purchased for his lunch and broke the eyes contact that he held with his blue-eyed friend.

"… But I like her." Naruto weakly offered the raven-haired boy in his half-hearted attempt to prolong the argument.

"She doesn't like you." Sasuke replied back quickly before he continued to eat his lunch, keeping his attention focused on his meal instead of looking up to meet the gazes of his friends.

"People can change their opinions!" Naruto pressed on.

"If she hasn't changed her mind about you by now then she never will." The raven haired-boy suddenly pulled his gaze away from his lunch and looked up at his friend, feeling more as if their conversation had turned into one of their usual brawls.

Naruto narrowed his bright, blue eyes at the older boy, keeping quiet for long enough to make the raven think that the conversation was just going to be dropped there. But suddenly the blonde rose from his seat, causing everyone around him to glance up at the figure that loomed over them. "You guys just don't understand. You guys all have girlfriends."

"I don't." Sasuke mumbled, causing Naruto to stop in the middle of his rant.

"Well, you could have anyone you wanted!" With that the pale boy fell silent, not wanting to have all of his best friend's anger directed at him while he was seriously pissed off. "You guys… just don't get it."

The group of boys remained silent as the blonde stormed away from their lunch table and stalked through the busy cafeteria. When Naruto was out of earshot, Shino pushed up his sunglasses and turned his gaze away from the blonde's retreating form. "Naruto failed to bring up the fact that I myself am single."

Chouji burst out laughing at the usually silent teen's comment and slapped his hand on the much smaller boy's back as a sign of appreciation for what the redhead assumed was a joke to lighten the mood. Shino cringed as he felt the larger boy's hand slam down on his back and tried to remain calm and composed despite the pain that he felt at that moment. "Well at least you weren't the one that tried to correct him while he was in the middle of his rage filled rant." The larger boy chuckled, looking over at a sour-faced raven.

"Just because some girl doesn't like him, that doesn't give him a reason to bring down the rest of us." Sasuke snapped as he turned his face away from the rest of the boys, annoyed at the redhead's soft laughter (which he probably thought was juts soft enough that he would not be able to hear it).

"In Naruto's defense, Uchiha," Kiba spoke up. "Sakura is smart and hot. You really couldn't ask for a better deal."

"I'm sure Hinata would just love to hear you praising Sakura left and right." Shikamaru replied back lazily as he leaned back into his chair with his hands resting on the back of his neck. Kiba looked panicked and for a moment seemed as if he was a few seconds away from getting on his knees and begging Shikamaru to not tell his girlfriend, but the lazy raven-haired boy continued speaking before such a thing could happen. "Seriously though, talking about how great Sakura is really isn't helping at all. Naruto needs to learn that there are other, even better, girls out there."

"How do you suggest we go about doing that?" Shino asked, as he pushed his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose yet again.

"Let's set him up on a date with some babe!" Kiba practically cheered. "A rebound chick is just what he needs right now."

"Do you even know any attractive, single women?" Shikamaru asked suspiciously as he sat his body up right and looked over at the dog loving teenager. Kiba turned quickly to the raven-haired boy, ready and willing to give the genius an answer when he suddenly stopped, unable to find his voice or the words which were just on the tip of his tongue.

There was a long, awkward silence which was only interrupted by a mumble here and there escaping from the brunette's lips.

"I'll take that as a no." Shikamaru concluded as he turned his attention away from Kiba.

"Like you know any!" Kiba snapped right back at the lazy boy.

"I've meet a few of Temari's friend that I'm sure would be more than happy to go out with Naruto." Shikamaru replied back calmly, making Kiba eat his words.

To this Sasuke chuckled, drawing the attention of the other boys toward him. Most of them looked quite surprised since it seemed that the raven-haired boy would remain quiet and stay out of the conversation ever since Chouji had made fun of him. "I'm sorry, but you honestly didn't just suggest Temari's friends did you?"

"… What's wrong with them?" Shikamaru narrowed his dark eyes and glared at the other raven, intent on learning what was wrong with his girlfriend's friends.

"Her friends are worse than her. Just because you're able to put up with Temari and her pushy attitude does not mean that Naruto can. Or that they wouldn't find Naruto annoying as hell."

"Why you-." The lazy genius growled, even going so far as to begin to rise from seat, but luckily Chouji was able to hold down his much smaller friend and avoided another fight.

"Though Sasuke does bring up a good point." Shino interjected. "Even though Naruto is a great guy, at first glance he may come off as being…" Before he was able to think a proper way to phrase the nature of his blonde friend, he was interrupted by the very person that brought up the matter.

"Annoying." Sasuke said bluntly.

"… Well, that's certainly one way to put it." Shino replied back, sounding irritated both for the fact that he was interrupted and that Sasuke refused to describe Naruto in any other way other than that one specific adjective. "But the point still stands. Naruto can certainly rub people the wrong way when they first meet him. Took us all time to get used to him. I really don't think a stranger would be able to handle Naruto's personality."

"So… we need a friend of his to date him?" Chouji said slowly, finally releasing his best friend from his grip, feeling that the lazy genius was finally clam enough to be trusted not to strangle Sasuke for insulting his girlfriend.

"But the only girl he knows, who's single, is Sakura." Kiba added with a heavy sigh.

"And we're back to square one." Shikamaru sighed. And with those words, a long and contemplative silence spread throughout the group of boys and remained there for a long while. As most of the group sat deep in thought about their friend's predicament, Sasuke hoped that the lunch table would remain silent for a least a little while longer, less he spend the remainder of his lunch babbling on about Naruto's stupid relationship problems.

"I've got it!" Kiba finally shouted after what felt like forever to the small group of boys. "My sister told me about how her friend recently started dating this guy over the internet!"

"…" The table remained silent for a few more seconds, all eyes staring blankly at the brunette as if they were just waiting for him to speak once again so that he may clear up the obvious confusion that linger around them.

"So?" Shikamaru finally asked.

"So?" the dog lover shrieked. "So, it's just the solution to our problems"

"I'm still lost." Chouji confessed as he scratched at his cheek.

"Okay, look. We know that only Naruto's friends can really stand to be in his presence for longer than a minute, so internet dating is the best solution!"

"But he would still be talking to someone he doesn't know." Shikamaru pointed out. "What are the chances that they won't find him… annoying?"

"Ah! But that's where my genius brain comes into play." Kiba said with great confidence as he tapped his finger on head. "It won't be just any random girl..." he paused, most likely to gain a sort of dramatic effect to his speech. "It'll be one of us."

"One of us… date Naruto?" Chouji asked, wrinkling his nose in disgust at the mere thought of dating his blonde friend.

"Sure. You make it sound dirty and gross." Kiba replied back to his larger friend's comment.

"You're the one saying that we should pretend to be some hot chick to help Naruto out of his depression over Sakura." Shikamaru chided back at the brunette as his arms crossed over his chest.

Kiba huffed in his frustration before he spoke again and continued to try to both defend himself and to get his point across. "But that's it. We'd be pretending. No one knows him better than we do." The dog lover paused to see that some of his friends were beginning to open their minds to the idea. "Besides, Naruto's always willing to try and help us when we're down. We owe it to him to help him in his time of need!" And with those last few words, the brunette teenager had somehow managed to convince the group of boys to help him in his deranged and insane plan to help their blonde friend.

"Now the question is… who will do it?" Shino asked cautiously, his sunglasses shielding his eyes, but not hiding the implications that his question brought up.

The other boys were silent for a long time. Sasuke huffed before he finally spoke up. "Like anyone actually wants to be the one to do it." The raven took another bite of his sandwich and turning his attention away from the other boys sitting with him. The rest of the group looked over at the pale boy and then all exchanged smug expressions before they began speaking yet again.

"Whoever it is, they need to be able to handle Naruto's personality." Chouji said with a wide smirk as he tried his best to contain his laughter.

"He should also know Naruto very well so that they can easily pretend to be his dream girl." Shino added on, seemingly enjoying the unsuspected game that they were playing on the raven.

"And it wouldn't hurt if he was single." Shikamaru said with a smug grin of his own.

At this point, Sasuke was beginning to catch on to his friend's line of thought and stopped eating his lunch so that he could insert himself back into the conversation. "That… would leave just me and Shino." The raven said slowly, the trap that his friends laid for him finally setting in.

"And it wouldn't hurt if he actually liked guys." Kiba said, finishing off the description all whilst holding back a small snicker.

"Oh fuck you, Inuzuka!" Sasuke snarled at the brunette. "I'm not going to pretend to date Naruto just so he can be his happy self again."

"It's either this or listen to him complain for the rest of his life." Shikamaru chimed in bluntly, still grinning slightly at the situation in which they placed the pale boy.

Sasuke growled deep in his throat at his group of friends, who all still wore arrogant and bemused grins that just irritated the raven-haired boy to no end, and glared hoping that it make them reconsider their decision. To his dismay, not one of the other males at the lunch table seem as if they would be willing to back down on forcing Sasuke into this embarrassing situation, and so the pale boy simply huffed and crossed his arms before he turned his face away from the rest of the group. Everyone else took the Uchiha's pouting as a reluctant sign that he would do it, no matter how much he dislike it, and began to plot out the course of action that they should take to act out their plan.

As the others talked amongst themselves, Sasuke wonder how he would be able to date, even if it was just pretending to do it, his best friend.

A long heavy sigh slipped past thin lips, as dark eyes looked down pitifully. Sasuke sighed yet again, really regretting his decision to help out his best friend and the complications that his current situation arose for him. He stared down at his cell phone, specifically at the number which was currently highlighted, and felt his stomach do quite a number of flips and turns. With another sigh, he called the number and hoped that he would be able to survive just one phone call with the owner of the intimidating phone number.

After a few rings, the person on the other end of the phone finally picked up. "Hello?" a female's voice said causally. Sasuke paused for a second before he built up enough will to answer back.

"Hello, Karin." He replied back, though reluctantly. "It's me… Sasuke."

"SASUKE?" Karin's voice shouted, making the raven-haired boy pull his ear away from the phone, fearing for the safety of his eardrum. "Oh my god! I don't think I've talked to you since you've transferred schools."

"I guess it has been a while. Look, I called because I needed to ask you something." Sasuke was about to just ask his old friend his favor and get the whole conversation over with as soon as he possibly could, but Karin interrupted the pale boy before he even got a chance to get his request out.

"Oh?" Karin said, her voice sounding more seductive rather than surprised now. "Have you finally gathered up the courage to ask me out?"

"Don't get your hopes up, Karin." Sasuke replied back bluntly, knowing that the redheaded girl would not take the rejection as personally, considering he had to do it at least once every day when they attended the same school. "But my request is something along those lines."

"Okay, now you've got me curious." Her voice sounded slightly cheerful, as if the mystery behind the raven's favor was better than him actually asking her out. "What is it?"

"I need to borrow your identity." Sasuke said quickly, hoping that he would not sound like he was completely mad.

"… My identity?" Karin asked, her cheerfulness gone, replaced only by skepticism and confusion. "You're going to have to explain this one to me, Sasuke."

Sasuke let out another sigh before he replied back to the young woman on the other end of the phone call. "It's for my friend. He's… depressed. And we wanted to cheer him up by setting him up with someone so that he'd forget about his old crush."

"And you don't want me to actually go out with him because…?"

"… Aren't you and Suigetsu—?"

"ARGH! NO!" Karin screamed, interrupting the raven-haired boy's question before he even got a chance to finish his sentence. "Never! Sasuke, I thought you knew me better than that! And more importantly, I thought you knew Suigetsu better than that. Total homo."

"Hn. I pictured him more as the type to screw anything that's attractive." Sasuke replied back, thinking back to his time spent with his old friends. "But enough reminiscing, back to business."

"All right. Why not just let me go out with him?" Karin asked once again.

"No offense, Karin. You're not really his type. And his definitely not yours."

"… Fair enough reason." The redhead replied back, sounding as if she was thinking of what this other guys was like to be deemed to be not her type of guy. "So then, if you're not asking me to go out with him why do you want my identity?"

Sasuke paused for a moment. He felt so ridiculous for what he was about to say, but he knew it had to be done. Karin definitely would not let him drop the subject now that she was too far along. "… Because… I'll be dating him."

There was a long silence on the other line and Sasuke was not sure if Karin did not answer because she was disgusted, amused, or just plain confused the fuck out of her mind. But before the raven-haired teen could ask if the girl on the other end was all right, Karin's voice chimed in once again. "Ah. I get it. You're going to pretend to be me, aren't you?"

He let out a short sigh. No wonder Sasuke could stand to be around the redhead girl for the few years that he did. She was not a complete moron. "Well… yes."

"That's… surprisingly sweet of you, Sasuke. You must really like this guy."

"He's a good friend, yes." Sasuke replied back casually.

"That's not… Never mind." Karin replied back, only succeeding in making Sasuke even more confused on what she was about to say. The pale boy was yet again interrupted before he was able to ask Karin what exactly she had meant, for the redhead just continued to speak, giving the raven no chance to get a word in edgewise. "Sure. I don't mind if you pretend to me for a little while."

".. You don't?"

"No. I mean, it's not like you're going to pretend to be me to steal money nor doing anything embarrassing. You're just trying to help out a friend. I can sympathize with that."

"Thanks, Karin." Sasuke said feeling very relieved.

"Anytime." The redhead girl replied back with a smile evident in her voice. "Just promise me that you'll call us more often, instead of just when you need something. You know we all miss you. Suigetsu and Jugo too."

"… I'll keep that in mind." Sasuke said, sincerely thinking about a reunion between himself and his old group of friends. "Well, I have to go."

"I understand. Nice talking to you, Sasuke."

"Goodbye."

Sasuke closed his phone and stared down at the small piece of technology, a distance look in his eyes. The conversation between Karin and himself went much better than he could have ever imagined. The Uchiha pictured the redhead screaming at him for not talking to him in well over a year, the young woman being extremely confused by his odd request and even went so far as to think that she might refuse to help him. With all of his nerves calmed, the raven-haired boy reluctantly treaded forward, intent on continuing on with the instructions that Kiba and the rest of his friend had given him in hopes of making their plan come to fruition.

Naruto sighed as his blue eyes loomed down at the glowing screen of his computer. As he surfed through his favorite networking site (1), checking his messages and other random notices that he had accumulated over the course of the day. As soon as the blonde finished replying to a message that he received from Kiba, the brunette making sure that he was not going to become all moody and emo like Sasuke, he noticed that he had a message still left in his inbox… only it was from an unknown person. Cautiously, the tanned boy opened up the message and read it over slowly.

"Hello. I'm sorry for sounding forward, but I normally don't do things like this. But I came across your page since your name appeared on one of my friend's profiles and thought that you looked like an interesting person. … Would you want to talk? My name is Karin."

The blonde read over the message yet again and blushed a little at the very bold message. Before Naruto even thought about replying back to the message, he click on the sender's name, transferring over to the new person's own profile and gasped as he saw the main picture.

Whoever this girl was, she was gorgeous. Bright red hair, long, layered and styled, and wore a set of cute, thick-rimmed, oval glasses, which only manage to draw more attention to her bright red eyes. Her skin was smooth, holding a healthy glow to it, and was not hidden behind thick layers of make-up, but only accentuated by a little bit of mascara and some light-colored lip gloss. But the thing that won Naruto over the most was the friendly smile that the girl held upon her lips in her picture. It had obvious been edited and cropped so that only the girl was left remaining in the picture, but the blonde could tell that, whoever this girl was who had messaged him, she was probably surrounded by close friends and loved ones to make such a warm and happy smile appear on her face.

After looking at her profile (mostly her picture) for a few more minutes, Naruto let his worries and doubt leave him completely and decided that it could not hurt to simple message the girl back. After all, even if this girl did not seem like a good person, it was only polite to send her a message back.

Though it did not hurt that Naruto thought this girl also happened to be incredibly good-looking.

"Dear, Karin." The blonde spoke out loud as he typed. "You seem like a nice girl, so I don't see why we can't talk. So to start, though you already know, I'm Naruto…."

The next day, the small group of boys sat at the same lunch table at which they sat almost every day, eating and chatting amongst themselves pleasantly. Suddenly the tranquil scene was interrupted by a certain blonde-haired boy came running up to the table, slamming his hands down on the table and earning the attention of every person at the table.

"You guys will not believe what happened to me last night!" Naruto practically squealed with delight as his bright blue eyes took the time to look at the shocked faces of his friends. In the blonde excitement, he did not even notice the array of smirks and secret smiles that were plastered all over the other boys' faces, and Naruto patiently waited for one of them to answer him.

"What happened?" Kiba replied back, trying his hardest not laugh at the truly, genuinely happy boy standing before him.

Naruto pulled out a chair and then leaned in close to the other boys around him, still wearing the biggest smile that anyone has seen him wear for a while now. "Last night, I meet this amazing girl."

Kiba held back a snort of laughter, knowing that the so called amazing girl was none other than the moody Uchiha Sasuke. Though, given the fact that Sasuke was very feminine already, he could see how one could get confused over the raven's gender. "R-Really? That's great!"

"So does that mean you're over Sakura now?" Shikamaru asked with a smug smirk.

"It's not that I'm over Sakura. Sakura's still great." The blonde paused as a wide smile spread across his face. "But since she's never accepted my offer to date her, then I see no reason why I can't look into other options." Naruto let a little laugh escape past his lips as he thought back to the long conversation that he had last night.

Chouji seemed to have calmed himself down enough to finally asked Naruto his own questions, to help keep up with their façade. "Where did you meet this girl?"

"Online." Naruto replied back quickly. "Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Internet relationships usually end up with one of them being a thirty-five year old pervert hoping to molest some minor. But I definitely know that this isn't going to become one of those creepy never meet in real life and I fall in love things, because I know for a fact that she's a real person and not just posting up a pretty picture."

The other boys looked a little confused by Naruto's rant, but their confusion was cut short when Sasuke suddenly walked up to the table, heading toward an empty sit next to Naruto, and looking like he had stayed up all night. Before the raven-haired boy could even offer a greeting to the rest of the table, the blonde-haired bundle of happiness launched himself onto the pale boy, instantly pulling him out of his half-conscious state. "What the hell, Naruto?"

"Thank you for having an amazing friend!" The blonde said as he happily nuzzled the raven's head. Sasuke immediately pulled his head out of the tan boy's grip and glared at the blonde, as if he was daring the overly joyful boy to try anything again. "If it wasn't for you, Karin would have never messaged me!"

"…" Sasuke felt like blushing, recollecting last night and the conversation that he had with the blonde last night as he pretended to be his old friend Karin. The raven cleared his throat and began to fix his hair, which Naruto had messed up somewhat, before he answered the blonde, though he made sure to not look into the boy's eyes in fear that he might blush again or give away something that would jeopardize the plan. "No problem, I guess." He said quickly, hoping that Naruto would drop the subject.

"Wait, wait, wait." Kiba interjected. "You talked to… Karin last night?" the brunette asked, looking as if he was going to burst out laughing at any moment.

"Yeah. Sasuke, why didn't you ever tell me about your old friends. Karin seems so cool. We talked until four in the morning."

'Yeah. I know.' Sasuke thought bitterly to himself, wanting to punch the blonde-haired boy in the face for being the reason why he was not able to sleep last night. "Seems like you two really hit it off." He said, trying not to sound angry, or at least being the same amount of rage and irritation that he normally held in his voice.

"I think we did." Naruto sighed happily. His dreamy expression quickly left his face as his stomach growl, bringing the blonde back to reality and reminding him just how hungry he was. "I'll be right back. I'm gonna die if I don't eat something."

As the cheerful boy quickly ran off to go buy his lunch, the rest of the table zoned in on Sasuke, ready and willing to get some answers from the raven-haired boy. "I thought you were going to make up some random chick?" Kiba asked quickly.

"I was. But Karin told me she had an old profile on Naruto's stupid website that she barely used anymore, so she let me use it." Sasuke replied back, a slight hint of venom laced into his voice.

"You didn't even change the picture?" Chouji asked, sounding concerned.

"Well, I was going to," Sasuke started, suddenly feeling embarrassed about what he was about to say. "But the only pictures I have of girls in my house are either of my mother or Itachi's one friend. And I definitely couldn't use those."

"You mean that Deidara chick?" Kiba asked, his confusion very evident in his voice and in his expression.

"Deidara's a boy." Sasuke replied back softly, feeling somewhat angry at his friend for insulting his brother's friend and embarrassed that his brother even knew such an androgynous person.

"…" The brunette remained silent for a moment. "And I thought you and your brother were girly looking." Sasuke glared at him for the second time, which gave the dog lover the hint and shut him up about the topic for good.

"Do think it was a good idea to use a real person's identity for this?" Shino asked as he finally added in his two cents into the conversation. "I mean, what if Naruto accidentally sees Karin randomly one day? Or what if he wants to meet her in person?"

"I'll deal with that stuff when it comes up." Sasuke grumbled, just wanting to go to sleep and give his mind and body the rest that he felt he deserved. "Besides, the moron is happy right now. That's all that matters, right?"

The boys around the plastic lunch table all shrugged and half-heartedly agreed with the pale boy's comment. The four looked at one another, judging the others expression and trying to see if the others actually felt that this was a good idea or not. They were silent for a few more seconds before someone finally broke the heavy silence and spoke up. "You sure that you can keep this up?" Shikamaru asked, suddenly doubting the pale boy's ability to keep up with this façade and the entire stupid plan in general.

"Do I have a choice?" Sasuke asked with a sarcastic laugh to his voice. "You saw how happy he was. I guess I'm suck seeing this one through to end thanks to you guys and your brilliant ideas."

Kiba was about to say something to the arrogant raven, when Naruto came bouncing up to the table and took his place beside Sasuke once again, only this time with food in his hands. The brunette continued to keep his comments to himself as the tan-skinned boy continued to discuss the conversation that he had with "Karin" last night and how excited he was to meet such a cool person. Though none of them admitted it out loud, Sasuke knew by the expression on his friends' faces that they were beginning to feel extremely guilty about the situation that they brought upon Naruto.

Sasuke would have smirked, feeling that the others deserved to feel guilty over this whole mess, if it was not for that nagging feeling he felt in the pit of his stomach that told him that he was just as responsible for the blonde's fake happiness as the others. Ignoring his nagging emotions, the raven-haired teen tried to deny those guilty feelings and tried to eat his lunch, only half listening to the talkative boy beside him.

A few days had passed since Sasuke first made his appearance as the infamous Karin to his blonde best friend, and it seemed as if he was beginning to, as scary as it sounded to him, become comfortable dawning on his knew female persona. It was almost like clockwork now. Every day after school, and listening to Naruto rave about the new girl that he meet online, the raven-haired youth would come back to his home, immediately flock to his computer and send his daily message to the eagerly awaiting blonde.

The whole casual nature of his messages between Naruto was beginning to bug him slightly. Even though the other boy was his best friend in the real world, feeling so comfortable as he pretended to be his current romantic interest was an emotion that the raven never thought he would ever have to deal with in his lifetime.

Yet here he was, typing up another message to his best friend, doing nothing to either stop this ridiculous situation or to push the blonde away from Karin and to stop his infatuation with her (or at least how Sasuke portrayed her). When the raven was finished with his message, he sent it and then waited patiently for Naruto to send back his reply. Though considering how eager the blonde always seemed to be when talking to him as Karin, the pale boy knew that he would not have to wait long before the blonde sent a message of his own.

Before he could receive said message, Sasuke's heard his phone vibrating wildly besides his computer and picked it up while still keeping an eye on his computer screen, less his miss the blonde message. "Hello?" he answered; his dark eyes focused more on the computer screen rather than his phone call.

"Well hello there, handsome." A familiar voice said, playful seduction evident in her voice.

"Ah. Karin." Sasuke replied back, letting his attention drift over to his phone conversation now that he suspected that it would be relatively important. "What's up?"

"Ah, can you believe it? I don't hear a peep from you for over a year and now we've talk twice in the same week. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you actually like me, Sasuke." Karin giggled at her own joke, and Sasuke actually let a small smile slip onto his face.

"Oh is it that obvious?" the raven joked as he relaxed into his chair. "So again, what's up?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to see how your online dating was going. Well, I presume?" the redhead seemed to have been holding back another laugh as she spoke to the pale boy.

"Surprisingly… well."

"'Well'?" Karin asked, somewhat confused. "Do you mean well as in he's no longer depressed or as in he's beginning to like you?" Sasuke paused for a moment, realizing that Karin was also beginning to see the downfall of the plan that he and the rest of his friends had come up with.

"… Both."

"Sasuke. I don't mean to question your judgment, but don't you think that it's a bad idea to let your friend get romantically involved with you while you're pretending to be someone else?"

"I know it's stupid." The raven sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose tightly, trying to ward off the headache that had been trying to worm its way into his head ever since the topic had suddenly sprung up in his brain. "But you haven't been there to see just how happy that idiot is now that someone is actually returning his feelings. He won't shut up about it."

"Returning feelings?" Karin questioned again. "You mean you've been encouraging this whole thing?"

"No!" the pale boy snapped, but then calmed his nerves and composed himself so that he may answer the redhead girl in a more calm and even manner. "I mean… It's not like I've tried to lead him on. I've just been talking to him."

"But by what you've told me of his reactions, he may be getting more out of this 'just talking' than you intended."

Another sigh left the raven-haired teen's lips as his pale fingers racked through his dark tresses hoping that the simple action would give even the slightest bit of relief to his frantic nerves and deep confusion that plagued his every thought. "I know." He weakly replied back, trying to make sure that his voice did not sound half as pathetic as he felt. "But I'm… not sure what to do anymore."

"You've got to end this." Karin said quickly, her voice strict and sure so that the redhead was sure that there was no room for any argument and that the raven on the other end of the phone call knew that what she said was the only course of action that could been taken at a time like this. "If you push it any further, Naruto might get too attached and there will be definitely problem when breaking this… thing you've got with him off. The sooner you end it, the better this will play out for him."

"I know that." Sasuke snapped.

"If you know that then why are you making this harder for both him… and yourself?"

The pale boy fell silent, unsure of how to answer his friend's question or even if he could possible answer a question like that. He thought for a while before he gave up on finding the answers that were obviously not within his reach and sigh yet again before he spoke once more to the young woman on the other end of the conversation. "You're right. I'll end it." His dark eyes opened just in time for them to notice the message alert that had popped up on his screen. His gaze softened at the alert, knowing full well that it was without a doubt his best friend who had sent the message to him, and felt that familiar pang of guilt coursing through his body and mind as he went to click open the message. "… Somehow."

"All right." Karin sighed back, satisfied with her friend's answer and trustful that he would follow her advice. "Be sure to tell me how things work out between you and your friend."

"I will." Sasuke said back, his attention more focus on his computer once again as he began to bring up the message from the blonde. "I'll talk to you later, Karin."

"Yeah. Later."

As soon as the pale boy hung up his phone, his dark eyes were already scanning through his friend's message, Karin's warning about breaking it off with Naruto already pushed into the far corner of his mind. But it was soon apparent to the raven-haired teenager that the more he read of his best friend's message, the less he actually wanted to end the happiness that he had, in a odd turn of events, given to him. Even though he understood that everything that the redheaded girl had said to him should be taken to heart and applied effective immediately, a few happy words from the blonde made all the logic that the young woman to whom he had just spoken had forced into his brain vanish into thin air.

Ignoring the warnings that his friend gave him, Sasuke continued to dawn his "Karin" persona and wrote up yet another message back to the eagerly awaiting blonde.

"I'm going to ask her to be my girlfriend." Naruto boldly said.

Sasuke stopped walking, his feet feeling as if they had suddenly been turned to lead and become far too heavy for the pale boy to move with his strength alone, and turned around to face the blonde-haired boy. Even though his expression gave no clues as to what the raven could possibly be feeling at that moment, inside he felt as if the fear and anxiety that suddenly welded up within himself could tear his entire being apart. Hoping that nothing about his expression or the gestures of his body gave away any of the emotions inside of him, Sasuke finally gathered up the courage to speak. "What?" he played dumb, even though he knew exactly of whom the tanned boy spoke.

"Karin." Naruto clarified as he also stopped walking, as the two of them were on their daily walk back from school. "I… I think I want to ask her to be my girlfriend."

The initial shock only caused Sasuke to be momentarily at a loss for words, but he quickly recovered so that his best friend would be none the wiser to his secret anxiousness. "Why are you telling me this?" he said, hoping that his voice sounded as disinterested as he wished it to be.

"Well, she was your friend." Naruto reasoned. "I wanted to make sure that it was okay with you before I did anything."

"You don't have to ask for my approval." He quickly countered, genuinely confused at the blonde's actions.

"I didn't want to do anything, less there were any lingering feelings between you guys."

The raven-haired teen paused for a moment, to look at Naruto as if he had just sprouted a second head or had begun to speak in an incoherent language. "… I never had any type of feelings for Karin."

"I don't see how you couldn't." Naruto mused mostly to himself as he began to walk again, forcing Sasuke to follow his lead and picked up his own pace so that he could keep up with his friend. "But I'm glad that you don't care. That really calms my nerves to know that."

"…" Sasuke eyed his friend nervously for a second before he spoke up yet again. "Not that it's any of my business, but you've only been talking to Karin for a few weeks now. And you haven't even met in person. Are you sure you really want to bring your relationship to the next level?" Sasuke knew that he was about to tread on thin ice with his friend, but, considering that he was the one pretending to be the redheaded girl, he really felt as if it was his responsibility to stop the blonde's plans now. Or at least attempt to do so.

"I know it sounds crazy." Naruto admitted with a small smile, his blue eyes looking over at his best friend warmly. "Even I sometimes think that I'm out of my mind for doing stuff like this. But, I don't know. Something about Karin just makes me feel… comfortable." The blonde paused for a minute, as if he was going deep into thought. "It's almost feels like I've known her longer than just a few weeks."

There was a short silence between the two of them. Sasuke felt that inevitable pang of guilt rack through his stomach and begin to spread throughout his entire body; he could not bring himself to look at his best friend and just settled to let his dark eyes glared at the cement beneath his feet. Knowing that the long silence would tip Naruto off to the conflicting feelings coursing through the raven-haired boy beside him, he quickly composed himself and did his best to feign a smirk and broke stillness that engulfed them both. "You're right. You do sound crazy." He joked, surprised at just how convincing his voice actually sounded, even to himself.

Naruto laughed and good-naturedly punch the pale boy in the arm at his half-assed joke. "Shut up." His laughter died down and the two of them were once again flung right back into silence. Luckily, Sasuke was relieved of the responsibility of fixing that problem since no sooner than he went to open his mouth, the conversation distracting him from his guilt, did the boy beside him speak up yet again. "You know the weirdest part of it all, is that sometimes I catch myself thinking that talking with Karin is kind of like talking to you."

"… What?" That one sentence actually threw the raven-haired youth for a real loop.

"You know," Naruto continued to explain himself, seemingly unaffected by how embarrassing the situation was for the other boy. "It's like those really, really rare times when you not a royal prick." The blonde laughed again, unaware of the shocked and nervous expression that was breaking through the pale boy's usual mask of apathy.

Sasuke stopped walking once again, though this time the blonde did not notice his suddenly halt in his pace and continued to walk on, completely unaware of his friend's current state. The raven knew he should not act this way in front of the other boy, knowing full well that he truly believed that he was talking to Karin, but Naruto's sudden confession threw him into a state of mind where he could do nothing but question how much the blonde actually knew. His wide, dark eyes stared at the retreating figure of his friend, waiting for him to give another hint or to come right out and confront him.

But he did not do that. "I just feel… really comfortable when I'm talking to her. Like… I could just talk to her about anything and nothing for hours."

That was all that Sasuke needed to hear.

For the past few weeks he knew both from the blonde directly telling him and from their conversation online that Naruto was definitely not shy about talking to him about things, both casual and private. But hearing Naruto say to him personally that he felt as if he could tell "Karin" anything, Sasuke knew that there was no turning back on what he had done. There was no more room for thoughts about trying to cut off ties with the blonde. He knew he was in this thing for the long run; for as long as he was physically and mentally capable of keeping this up.

But the scary part was that it did not bother the raven that much that he was going to pretend to be his best friend's girlfriend for as long as he possibly could. It was the fear of being caught and having to confront Naruto after his secret was, dare it be, revealed.

He quickly shook off his nervousness and shock, trying to quickly catch up with the blonde and acting as if nothing had happened as he continued to have a pleasant conversation with his best friend before they went their separate ways to their own respectful homes.

And that night, when Naruto and Sasuke were messaging one another, Naruto asked Karin to be his girlfriend.

And Sasuke, as Karin, accepted the blonde's offer.

Everyone sitting at the lunch table stared wide-eyed at the beaming blonde.

The expression on the boys' faces ranged from shocked to somewhat disgusted (considering they also knew the truth behind the situation) as their eyes refused to tear themselves away from the overly-happy friend. No one said a single word, for they knew not what should be said at a time like this. They had just been given one piece of news that they never imagine in their entire lives to hear, especially because of people the situation involved.

Their behavior was the result of none other than Naruto announcing to the rest of his friends that he and "Karin" were now officially dating.

Sasuke tried his hardest not to catch the eyes of his friends, in fear of seeing their disgust and repulsion in their eyes. He could feel the others gazes focused not only on the blonde, but he could also just sense their eyes lingering over to his form, making sure that the tan boy did not notice the way their attention was being split between the two of them.

Kiba was the first one to be brave enough to even attempt to speak. "That's… That's great!" he lied, immediately hiding his confusion and mixed feelings as he put on a happy face for his friend, whom he knew was awaiting praise from himself and his other friends.

"Y-Yeah." Chouji joined in, though not as good at acting as Kiba seemed to be. "Congratulations, dude. You finally have a girlfriend."

"…" Shikamaru scowled at the raven-haired boy whom sat beside the happy blonde. He had realized back when the blue-eyed boy had first come into school and began raving and carrying on about how wonderful "Karin" seemed to be, that their stupid plan was doomed to fail. He also suspected that Sasuke had figure out something that simple on his own as well, considering he had personal contact with the blonde on a daily basis and knew exactly what was said between one another. He could not help but feel disappointed in the pale teenager for letting things get this out of hand. "Have you even met this girl in person, Naruto?" he asked, knowing that this would be an event that would force Sasuke into stopping his little act.

Sasuke's dark orbs widened as he heard the other raven-haired teen's voice, speaking of situations that he should not even think about putting into Naruto's head. He thought Shikamaru of all people would be smart enough to grasp that. "… No." the pale boy thought to himself, realization finally setting in. "He wants this to end."

The blonde also looked over at Shikamaru in surprise and slight embarrassment. "Well… no." he admitted with a slight tint of red to his cheeks.

"…Huh." Shikamaru said, turning away from the blonde, hoping that his vague answer would draw Naruto into a conversation that would inevitable cause the end of his relationship with "Karin."

"What do you mean 'huh'?" Naruto asked as his blue eyes narrowed in suspicion at the lazy genius.

Shikamaru smirk, satisfied with the results of his ingenious plan. "Oh nothing. I was just thinking how weird it was that you've been talking to this girl, Karin," Shikamaru stressed the name, his dark eyes flickering over to Sasuke for a moment, "For quite some time now… and she's never asked to meet you in person."

It was obvious by the blonde's furious expression that the raven's words got to him. "Well… Maybe she's just shy!"

"Or that she's not really that interested in you." The lazy boy replied back softly as if he was just having an innocent conversation with his friend instead of secretly tricking Naruto into discovering his best friend's dirty little secret.

"I'll prove to you that she likes me! I'll ask her to meet me tonight!" Naruto slammed his fist down on the plastic lunch table with enough forced to shake the entire piece of cheap furniture. His narrowed blue orbs glared daggers at the lazy boy, almost as if the blonde was secretly wishing for the raven-haired genius to instant burst into flames so that his anger could dissipate slightly.

Shikamaru glanced over at the boy, his dark eyes moving slowly, as a small smirk sprouted on his lips. "That I'd like to see."

"Then I'll do it! I'll ask her to meet me in person. Then you'll see." With those last words Naruto stood up from the table, mumbling something about going to buy his lunch, before he walked away from his small group of friends.

And suddenly, the entire table's attention switched almost immediately to a certain raven, whom had remained silent up until this point.

"You mother fucker!" Sasuke snarled at the lazy boy, his arms reaching out as if he was about to strangle the genius. Luckily Chouji stepped in and restrained the pale boy before he could even lay so much as a finger on the larger boy's best friend.

"Calm down, Sasuke." The redhead offered, wishing that his friends would learn how to interact with one another without trying to kill each other during at least one point in their conversations.

But the pale boy ignored his words and continued to struggle against his hold. "Do you want Naruto to find out what we've done?" he snapped, glaring with such fury that one could have sworn his eyes had a red shine to them.

"I did what I thought was right." Shikamaru said, finally speaking up to defend himself. "Besides… I'm not the one who's pretending to be my best friend's girlfriend." That was the final straw. Sasuke then used all of his strength to try and get himself free of Chouji's strong grip, his frail body wriggling and squirming so frantically so that he may try to get to the lazy teenager and kill (or at least injure) him. But the redhead kept his grip and Kiba even joined in and helped restrain him as his body continued to writhe and bend.

"You asshole!" Sasuke bit back at the raven-haired genius.

"Shikamaru's right, Sasuke." Kiba said as he tried to keep his grip on the pale boy's body. "You took this whole thing way too far."

"You guys act as if you're all so innocent!" Sasuke mumbled, his voice dripping with venom and hate behind every word. "After you guys forced this thing onto my shoulders, you all act as if you all just stood by and watch me commit a deadly sin."

"Well, technically speaking, the idea was ours." Shino said softly yet calmly as he pushed his sunglasses further up the bridge of his nose. "Your actions after that are your responsibility."

"Fuck off." Sasuke mumbled, finally giving into his friend's tight hold on his body and ceasing to struggle against them any longer, both because he knew how futile it was and because of how tiring his frantic movements were on his body. Kiba, feeling that Chouji would be more than enough to hold back the young Uchiha, dropped his hands from the pale boy and sat back down in his chair with a sigh. The redhead boy then carefully pushed Sasuke down, coaxing him to take his own seat once again. Once the pale boy sat down, Chouji released his hold on the boy's shoulders, but never took his eyes away from Sasuke in fear that he would randomly lunge at one of the other boys at the table.

"…" Shikamaru paused, waiting to see if Sasuke would spring back into action or not. Once he was convinced that the pale boy would no longer try to strangle him, he felt it acceptable to speak again. "Besides," he began. "I thought you would be glad to have this ridiculous plan end."

Sasuke said nothing, but turned his face away from the lazy genius as he felt all of the blood draining from his already pale face and his stomach sinking further down into his abdomen. When Shikamaru received no answer from the pale boy, understanding washed over him and the true situation finally became clear to him. "You didn't want to stop being Karin… Did you?"

Again, there was a heavy silence that emanated from the raven-haired boy and slowly engulfed the rest of the lunch table and making the others realized just how awkward this conversation had become in a matter of seconds.

"Dude." Kiba muttered softly, not really knowing any other way to break through the heavy silence that had settled amongst himself and his friends.

"Shut up!" Sasuke barked back, doing his best to sound intimidating and yet keeping his voice to a manageable level.

"Uh, not to belittle your methods, Sasuke," Chouji shyly began. "But if you wanted to… date Naruto, wouldn't it be better to do it as yourself?" Though the redhead knew that the situation was already awkward enough, he could not help himself for slightly stuttering over his words. The thought of Sasuke liking Naruto was a new and slightly embarrassing situation to the larger boy.

"I never said I wanted to date him!" he retorted back to the large boy, instantly whipping his head around to glare at the redhead now that he had spoken up.

"Don't bite his head off, Uchiha." Shikamaru said with a scowl. "He was only trying to help."

"You've all been such a great help so far." The raven put on a fake, sweet smile, which only made the lazy boy even more infuriated with him. The lazy boy inhaled deeply before he trusted himself enough to reply back to pale boy without shouting or letting his temper get the better of him as Sasuke had done previously.

"I did this as a favor to Naruto. I don't believe that he deserves to be deceived to this extent by his own best friend." Shikamaru's gaze was serious and his words held the same somber and severe effect for which this particular situation called. Sasuke's gaze softened to some degree and the weight of his predicament began to resurface from the back of his mind as the lazy boy continued to speak to him. "And I would hope that you agree."

Nothing else was said on the matter, for the blonde-haired boy, whom their conversation had centered around, walked up to the eerily silent lunch table and slowly sat down into his seat, eyeing the boys suspiciously. "Did I miss something?" he asked, letting his blue eyes wander from person to person.

"… No." Sasuke finally answered after what felt like hours. "You didn't miss a thing. Everything's fine."

And with those less than reassuring words from the raven-haired boy, Naruto began to start up a new conversation with the rest of the lunch table, leaving the awkward tension that once again engulfed his group of friends in the back of his mind. While Naruto easily pushed the awkwardness to the deepest confines of his brain, Sasuke unfortunately was unable to let the previous conversation and the impact it had on him go and choose to mull over it while half listening to the rest of his friends.

As the blonde had promised his group of friends at lunch, he wasted no time in bringing up the topic of meeting in person to his new girlfriend "Karin" as they divulged themselves in their daily session of messaging another back and forth. Sasuke considered his small bit of luck that he was granted the rest of the school day to figure out just what he could do or say to get out of the meeting that Naruto wished for with "Karin." Out of all the would-be excuses that ran throughout his mind the entire day, he finally felt as if he had come up with one that was suitable when the blonde-haired boy would pop the inevitable question.

"So I was thinking," Naruto message began. "Since we don't live too far away from each other, maybe we could try to get together in person someday soon."

Short, sweet and to the point. Sasuke expected no less of his best friend. But soon the heaviness of the situation was once again place upon him, making the raven-haired teenager realize once again the seriousness that he need to execute his plans without hurting any party too badly.

Hesitantly, his finger began typing a message of his own back to the eagerly waiting boy on the other end of the conversation. A part of him really hated himself for what he was doing and partially wished that there was a way that "Karin" could meet with him in person. But he figured that the next best solution to this problem, that did not require the aid of a sex operation, was the let down the blue-eyed boy easily and try his best not to upset him too much.

"Soon?" was the first thing that Sasuke typed up on the message. "I'm not sure that can happen. I'm going on a vacation with my family in a couple of days and won't be back home for two weeks." The raven wished that he could have made the vacation longer, but any more than that and it would be ridiculous to believe that a high school student would take off so much time from classes. Though it would give him enough time to try to come up with a different excuse, should his "boyfriend" continued to be persistent in his request to meet in person.

"Really? Man that sucks. But I really hope that you have fun with your family while you're on vacation! Maybe… when you come home we could try again?"

Sasuke had to chuckle a little to himself as he could just picture the blonde trying his hardest to even out his two conflicting feelings of being thwarted in his attempts to meet with "Karin" and his other feeling of really wanting her to have a fun time on vacation. His friend's frustration was just too hilarious to him. But once again he realized that his focused mind frame had vanished once again and he immediately sobered up and regained that cold and stoic expression on his face as he typed back another message. "Sure. Maybe. I guess we'll just have to see when I get back."

"Awesome!" Naruto immediately replied; his eagerness made the raven want to laugh yet again. "Cause I just can't stop thinking about meeting you. Bet you have a beautiful voice."

As the raven finished the message, he actually burst out laughing at the blonde's cheesy lines. His plan of trying to distant "Karin" from Naruto was complete forgone yet again as he slipped comfortably back into their usually rut of chatting for hours on end. "Ha. And I bet you don't look like your pictures." The raven joked, knowing that Naruto would instantly pick up on the joke.

"If anything I'm more handsome than my photos!" the blonde teased as well.

The two of them continued on with their conversation, the doubt and fears that Sasuke had when he first began this conversation had melted away, leaving him feeling more relaxed and at ease now that they had already passed over the bumpy part. This was well worth it. Talking comfortably and laughing together with Naruto, even if they were not laughing and talking in person, he still felt very close to his best friend during their time together.

When the raven slowly realized just how much he enjoyed his time that he spent with Naruto every day, the conversation that his friends had brought up earlier that day began to resurface from the deepest part of his brain. He began to think to himself, his jaw set into a scowl as he concentrated intently.

He wondered if maybe his friends were right… And that he really wanted to date the blonde. Only not as "Karin," but as himself.

Sasuke immediately stopped thinking when he noticed that the blonde had sent yet another message to him. The pale-skinned teen, though the thought of him actually dating his best friend would not leave his brain and caused him to continuously fret over it, decided that he was beginning to go down a dangerous path and the best choice of action would be to stop thinking about the entire situation in general.

He sighed, knowing that know he would get absolutely no peace now that the thought had wormed its way into his mind. He hoped that pretending to be "Karin" for a little longer would ease his unsettled nerves.

A loud ringing ripped the raven-haired boy from his peaceful sleep. His dark eyes opened slowly, fluttered open and closed as they searched around his bedroom for the source of the loud ringing that disturbed his slumber. As his gazed focused in on his cell phone, his dark orbs glared daggers at the small piece of technology and angrily reached out his pale arm, his hand fumbling around for a moment as his fingers searched clumsily for his phone, and grabbed the small device before setting it up to his ear.

"Hello?" he grumbled, setting his head back down on his pillow as if he was going to just go back to sleep before the person calling him could even reply back.

"Hey, Sasuke!" an all too familiar voice said on the other line. "Oh. Did I wake you up?"

"Yes you did, Naruto." Sasuke snapped back, he tried to make himself sound intimidating, but since his voice was raspy from just waking up, he ended up just sounding more tired rather than angry.

"Well, sorry about that." The blonde on the other end said light-heartedly, as if he was already over the guilt of waking up his best friend. "But since you're up now, I was wondering if you would like to hang out with me today."

"Can't I decide in another hour or so?" the raven muttered as his brow creased in his frustration. All the pale boy wanted to do at the moment was sleep, and as much as he liked the blonde-haired boy on the other end of the phone call, he also really enjoyed sleeping in when he was not forced to wake up early for school.

"Come on, you lazy ass! It's ten o'clock already. You can't sleep the day away!"

"The day away? I could sleep till two in the afternoon and still not feel like I've wasted the whole day(2)."

"Tch. I always forget that you're not a morning person." Naruto said before he let out a loud, joyful laugh that, despite his foul mood, was even able to make Sasuke give a small chuckle of his own. The blonde stopped laughing as he heard the pale boy soft amusement and took that as a sign that the raven was slowly but surely waking up fully. "So, do you want to hang out?" he asked hopefully.

A sigh slipped passed the raven's lips before he reluctantly answered the blonde's question. "Sure. Whatever." Sasuke then heard a long string of cries of joy and accomplishment from the other end of the phone call and just let a small smile sneak onto his lips at his best friend's childish and adorable actions. "What did you have in mind?"

"I don't know." Naruto answered back, his excitement and hyper energy seeming to disappear momentarily as his mind began to think up any possible activities that he and the raven-haired teen could possible do. "Hmm. Maybe we could just hang out around the town. Maybe get some late breakfast somewhere."

"Yeah. I could go for eating something." Sasuke agreed as he finally sat up in his bed and let his body stretch and crack, small grunts and moans of pleasure falling from his mouth as his stiff body moved.

"All right. I'll be at your house in a half hour and then we can leave."

"Sure. See you then." With those last words, the two of them ended their conversation and hung up. Sasuke cracked his neck, relishing in the loud pops that emanated from his bones, as he sat up from his bedroom and began to get himself ready before Naruto arrived at his house.

It was not long before the raven heard a knock at his door, signifying that Naruto was at his house and waiting for the pale boy to be ready to leave, and then left with his best friend to walk aimless around the town in hopes of getting something to eat. The two boys decided on eating something first before they did anything else, considering almost as soon as the two of them set out the blonde's stomach grumbled loudly. Sasuke knew that Naruto would just be miserable and annoying if he did not eat soon, so he willingly accepting this option.

They choose the nearest restaurant, which just happened to be a small family owned diner, and were happy that since the diner was so empty that they were seated right away. The waitress set them up in a small booth near the back of the seating area and immediately took their drink order, promising to be right back so that she may drop off their drinks and then get their food order.

As the waitress walked away from their table, Naruto let his head rest of his hands as he propped his elbows up on the table; a small smile played on his lips as his blue eyes stared at his silent friend across from him. "It's been a while since we hung out outside of school." The blonde stated as his tanned fingers tapped against his cheek.

"…" Sasuke looked up, surprised by his best friend's voice, and was at bit embarrassed by the warm expression that seemed to be etched into the blonde's face. As he felt blood rush to his cheeks, the raven quickly looked away, trying his best to keep his stoic expression from breaking under the pressure of his embarrassment and awkwardness. "Well, I guess we've just been busy lately."

"I guess I've kind of tied up all my free time talking to Karin." The blonde admitted sheepishly. "But that's no excuse for ignoring my best friend, now is it?"

The pale boy wanted to laugh at the irony of that statement, considering the fact that he was "Karin" and that, unbeknownst to the tan boy in front of him, because of that, Naruto had been paying more attention to him than ever before. But at the same time, the raven wanted to come clean on the whole thing as the guilt began to resurface, making his stomach sink and twist uncomfortably. Instead, he chose to remain silent and just offered his friend a small smile. "I don't mind. Talking with her makes you happy. That's all that matters."

"Thanks for understanding." Naruto replied back with a huge smile plastered onto his handsome face, which only made Sasuke feel even more guilt piling up within himself and, at the same time, made more blood rush straight to his face, giving some color to his pale skin.

"Yeah. No problem." Sasuke answered as his dark eyes avoided looking anywhere near the vicinity of his best friend.

Sasuke was spared from his best friend questioning his odd behavior, the blonde's blue eyes fluttered up to look out the large window that sat along the wall and focuses on a head of bright, red hair that he would recognize anywhere. Immediately, he stood up and began to storm out of the small diner and headed off in the same direction as the object that had stolen his complete attention and focus away from his best friend. Sasuke whipped his head around in time to see the blonde storming off out of the diner; he reluctantly rose from his seat, feeling guilty about leaving just as soon as they had order their drinks, and hurried after his friend so that he could figure out what he was doing now.

He stopped as soon as he left the diner, his dark eyes focusing on what he believed was the same person that had made the blonde-haired boy leave the restaurant and head off after said person.

Karin.

The raven then opened his mouth to yell out to his best friend, trying to stop him from doing something that would utterly ruin everything that Sasuke had been doing for the past couple of months. But he was too late, and the tan boy caught up to the redheaded girl before he was able to say a single word.

"Karin!" Naruto yelled happily as he walked up to the redhead, whom was accompanied by an extremely tall and intimidating boy with head of vibrant orange hair and another boy whom was about Karin's height and had long, white hair. And if the blonde was not mistaken, he believed that white-haired boy's teeth were sharpened into points.

The young girl turned around quickly when she heard her name being yelled and looked around for a familiar face that could have possibly called out to her. Her red eyes soon focused on the blonde-haired boy walking excitedly up to her, his arm waving and his mouth set into a large toothy, grin. Her eyebrows creased together as she stared at the unfamiliar boy suspiciously, hoping that this stranger was not trying to gain her attention and that she had just heard wrong.

But that was not the case. "Karin! It's me, Naruto!" he yelled out again as he stopped in front of the small group of people. "How are you? I thought you were supposed to be on vacation with your family?"

"…" the redhead grimaced at the blonde-haired boy and adjusted her glasses on her face before she could reply back to the odd boy who seemed to know her from somewhere. "What are you talking about?" she asked, not knowing why this boy seemed to know untrue facts about her life.

"You told me the other week that you were leaving for vacation." Naruto replied back honestly, not sensing the girl's confusion. "Did your plans change?"

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. I've never spoken to you in my life." Karin replied back, scowling down at the blonde as her nose scrunched up in distaste at the rude and bold boy that was intent on saying that he knew her.

"B-But…" Naruto stuttered. "We've… We've been talking online for a couple of months now. O-Of course you know me." The blonde looked as if he was about to burst into tears at the harsh and cruel treatment that his supposed "girlfriend" was giving him. He tried to wrap his mind around this situation and could not understand how this girl could seem like such a wonderful and nice person online and then act as if they had never met when they are finally able to meet in person by accident. It just did not make sense to him.

"Online? Creepy stalkers like you are the reason why I stopped talking to anyone online." Karin answered back as her hand rested on her hip, her face morphing into an arrogant and angry expression. The cruelty that her face exuded broke Naruto's heart. It was so different from the warm smile that she wore in her picture.

"Hey, Karin." The white-haired boy chirped up with a creepy grin playing at his lips, showing off his pointed teeth. "Who is this psycho? Some ex-boyfriend or something?" The boy laughed at his own statement, but it only seemed to piss off the redheaded girl even more than she was already.

"As if!" she shouted at the boy, who seemed to always wear an easy-going expression on his young face. "Like I would ever go out with someone like him!"

"But he knows you're name." The boy continued to tease her, which just added to her rage and to his pleasure.

"I don't know why he does, but I've never met him before!" she yelled at the white-haired boy before her angry eyes turned toward Naruto yet again, full of hatred and loathing all aimed at the blonde. "Look. I don't who you are and I'm sure I've never met you, so just leave me alone or I'll call the cops, I swear!"

"Karin, take it easy." The taller boy added in, hoping to calm down the enraged girl. "He's not doing anything really bad. You don't have to go that far."

Naruto kept silent throughout the entire conversation. His mind trying to figure out if he had done something wrong to make the girl in front of him so angry that she would pretend not to know him or if it was even possible that there were two people named Karin that looked exactly the same. As the conversation went on and the redhead in front of him just got angrier and aimed it all at him, he felt his last bit on stability beginning to fade and break apart and leave him in shambles.

Before that could happen, a familiar voice called out and brought him back to reality.

"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled out as he ran up behind him, pulling the blonde attention toward him as well as the small group of people who stood in front of the tan boy. "Don't talk to them!"

The three people standing before Naruto all stared wide-eyed at the raven-haired teenager as he ran up to the odd boy whom had called out to Karin. They just gaped in disbelief for a moment before any of them got up the courage to finally speak.

"Sasuke?" the white-haired boy yelled out in shock. "Is that really you? I'd never thought that we'd run into you of all people!" A wide smile spread across his face as he took a few step forward so that he could look at the pale boy better. Sasuke felt Naruto's gaze shift between the small group of people and back to him, but kept his mouth shut.

"It has been a while, hasn't it?" the tall boy said with an emotionless face.

"What are you doing with this online stalker?" the shorter boy asked with a mock smile on his lips.

"I'm not a stalker!" Naruto yelled, finally allowing his anger to get the better of him. Sasuke grabbed his shoulder, so that the blonde would not be able to lunge himself at any of the three people in front of him, and let out a long sigh before he answered his old friend.

"Cause he's my friend." Sasuke answered smoothly, locking eyes with Karin, hoping that the redheaded girl would understand the serious expression and the undertones that lay within it. Suddenly realization spread across her face within mere moments after the raven had spoken. Her red eyes widened and her lightly glossed lips parted slightly as she finally put two and two together.

"Oh no." she practically whispered. "You're him. You're the friend Sasuke was talking about." Karin's red eyes shifted from Sasuke over to Naruto the instant she spoke again and her shaking finger lifted up slightly to point at the blonde.

"… What are you talking about?" Naruto asked, completely confused. "I-I don't understand. You talked to Karin about me, Sasuke?" The blonde looked back at his best friend, hurt and confusion evident in his eyes. Sasuke tried to say something back to his friend in hopes of reducing his worries, but, in his frantic state of having his plans ruined right before his eyes, he felt a large lump forming in his throat that stopped him from uttering a word to the blonde-haired boy.

"You haven't told him, have you?" Karin said seriously, bringing the attention back to her. "You ignored my advice and just kept at it, didn't you?"

"…" Sasuke said nothing and just turned his face away from the young girl in front of him, too ashamed to look her in the eye.

"What is she talking about?" Naruto questioned, trying to lure his friend into looking at him, but his words fell on deaf ears. The blonde turned back to the small group of people before him, hoping that one of them would enlighten him on what was going on since his best friend was of no use at the moment.

Karin sighed before she stepped forward so that she was a few inches in front of the blonde-haired boy and gave him a look of pure pity. She truly felt sorry for both the blonde and her old friend for what she was about to do. But it seemed that since Naruto had accidentally bumped into herself, there was no other option but to tell him the truth. "I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but the Karin to whom you've been speaking over the past few months… has not been me." She said, trying her best to keep her voice firm and calm, making sure that there would be no question as to whether or not her word were true.

Naruto's blue eyes widened in shock at the sudden news that he had been given. He shook his head slightly and took one step back, not wanting to accept that everything she was saying was the truth, but knowing deep down that what Karin had just said made sense considering her reaction to him mere moments ago. The redhead opened her mouth again to continue speaking, and she noticed the scared looks that dawn both on Naruto's face and on Sasuke's as well. She ignored them and continued on with what she had to say.

"The person with whom you've been speaking is… Sasuke."

The blonde's mouth dropped open as his blue orbs stared at the redhead in disbelief and awe. After what felt like hours of staring at the girl before him, he turned his head slowly around so that he could look over at the raven-haired boy whom still stood behind him. When he saw that Sasuke's dark eyes were cast down, glaring at the cement beneath his feet, he knew then and there that Karin was right, but he still refused to truly believe her. "Sasuke," he said softly, hoping that it would catch the raven's attention. The pale boy did not moved, but the blonde noticed that his body seemed to tense at the mere sound of his voice, which did not ease his mind at all. "That's not true, is it?" he asked, hoping that even if his best friend could not look at him, he could at least speak to him.

But Sasuke said nothing. His dark eyes just kept his gaze focused downward, not trusting himself to look up at Naruto in fear that it might break through his usual stoic presence and cause him to finally blurt out everything that had been playing on his mind for the past couple of days.

When Naruto received no answer from his friend, his hurt expression changed to one of anger and the blonde marched up to the raven-haired boy and glared at the pale boy with such hatred and rage blaring in his blue eyes. "I can't believe you would do something like this." He hissed, hoping that it was at least affecting the pale boy. "Especially to me."

With those last words, the blonde pushed passed Sasuke, bumping his shoulder roughly as he did so, and stormed away from his friend and the three other people, who all stood there awkwardly as they watch the fight between the two best friends (or perhaps ex-best friends). The heavy silence held firm between the four whom still remain in front of the diner, that is until Suigetsu finally had enough of being confused and out of loop and spoke up to express his complaints.

"So… I'm completely lost." The white-haired boy said bluntly as his purple eyes stared toward the direction in which the blonde-haired stranger had stalked off toward. "Anyone care to fill me in here?"

Karin turn her gaze over to Sasuke, eyeing him suspiciously and cautiously, knowing full well that the raven would not willing speak for himself and would instead leave the responsibility fall onto her shoulders. Though she could not blame him. After all, Sasuke had just been heartbroken. "It's complicated, but basically what happened is that Sasuke's friend from his current school was depressed. Sasuke and a few others came up with a plan to cheer him up."

"And that took the form of Sasuke pretending to be you?" Suigetsu asked hesitantly, his gaze narrowed with both suspicion and disbelief.

"Well… yes." Karin finally answered, knowing that any other explanation she could give to her annoying friend would just a slightly altered version of that highly simplified account of the past few months."As I said before, there's more to it, but that's basically the gist of the situation."

"That's fucked up."

"No one asked your opinion!" Karin shouted, her red hair flipping into her face as she whipped her head with lightning fast speed to face the white-haired boy. Whilst the two were occupied with their tempers, Jugo looked up to see Sasuke slowly, but surely, walking away from himself and the other two, without so much as a goodbye or any vocal signal that would indicate that he was even still there. The boy with vivid orange hair looked down at his two friends before he cautiously tapped them on the shoulder, earning their attention and calmly their rage slightly at the same time. "Jugo?" Karin asked curiously. "What is it?"

"Ah… Sasuke's leaving." Jugo said simply, pointing his finger toward the retreating figure of their old friend.

"Wha-? S-Sasuke?" Karin's focus shifted to the pale boy, slowly walking away from the three friends and was about to run after said boy, but then stopped herself and just chose to stare off as Sasuke began to slowly disappear from their view all together. Suigetsu took a step forward, but Karin held her arm out so that the purple-eyed boy would cease in his actions.

"Why did you stop me?" he questioned, his brows knitted together in his confusion and still evident anger.

Karin did not look over at the white-haired boy, but simple stared off at Sasuke as she spoke up. "It wouldn't change anything if you went after him." The redhead said calmly, understanding the turmoil that was more than likely brewing just beneath the surface of the raven's stoic façade. "None of us are well versed in mending a broken heart." Karin hoped, as she watched her friend slowly fade into the distance, that he would find a way to fix things between himself and his blonde-haired friend, praying that something like this would not end the small glimpse of the deep and meaningful relationship she saw through Sasuke's actions.

It had been four days since the incident with Karin. Four long days of Naruto avoiding eye contact as they accidentally passed by each other in the school hallways, the blonde sending evil glares at the raven when he saw him sitting with their usual group of friends (which caused him to sit elsewhere for the last few days of school) and both of them saying not a word to the other. Though in Sasuke's case, it was not out of anger, but out of fear that Naruto would not even give him a chance to explain himself.

In other words, the last four days had been an utter Hell for the raven-haired teen.

Sasuke was filled with guilt for leading his best friend on and even more so for actually enjoying the time that he and Naruto shared while he was pretending to be Karin. His feelings of guilt and the added fact that his best friend was no longer speaking to him made the pale teen not even want to want to go to school anymore, knowing fully what was in store for him if he went. To top everything off, his group of wonderful friends, whom had gotten him into this huge mess in the first place, were starting to test his last bits of patience with all their constant badgering about what had happened and how he was feeling.

Today was no exception as well.

"Will you at least stop being so emo about everything?" Kiba questioned, trying to make the raven-haired boy beside him at least speak instead of just brooding like he had recently made a habit of doing at lunch time. Sasuke just settled to glare over at the brunette boy, instead of answer his friend's stupid question. "Well maybe you could at least go back to your usual level of emo."

"I'm not emo." Sasuke practically growled.

"HE SPEAKS!" Kiba shouted with a huge smile, which only made Sasuke huff in his annoyance and turned his attention away from the dog-loving teenager and focus on starting at his lunch, which he had yet to touch.

"You don't have to patronize him." Chouji offered, knowing that the raven was not afraid to fight back if Kiba were to push him too far.

"I can't help it." Kiba defended, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "He's being so depressing. I can't take it anymore. Naruto isn't even around to even things out."

"Though with his current attitude, I think he would just make things worse." Shikamaru added in, his voice as flat as ever as he propped his head up with his arm, looking as if he could fall asleep at any moment.

"It's his fault for that." The brunette grumbled to the lazy genius. The simple sentence sent a spark of life to the pale boy's anger and set him off like lightening, his frustration and rage unable to be simply bottled up and cast aside any longer. Sasuke grabbed Kiba by the collar of his shirt and, despite the few inches of height that Kiba had against him, was able to hoist the dog lover off the ground enough for his sneakers to slightly drag along the tiled floor.

"No! It's you! You and your stupid ideas!" the raven growled out, earning the attention of not only his friends, but that of a few other students around them. "This was all your fault!"

"Y-You didn't have to do it!" Kiba stammered, his tan hands clutching onto Sasuke's as he tried in vain to pry the enraged teenager off of his shirt, ultimately releasing himself away from the potential threat of death.

"Put him down, Uchiha." Shino warned, rising from his seat as well. His hidden gaze staring cautiously at the raven-haired boy and the frightened brunette within his grip, not wanting to egg on Sasuke any further than Kiba had already done. Chouji quickly followed suit and rose from his seat and eyed the Uchiha carefully, looking for an opportune time to get the pale boy away from the panicked dog lover. "This was all of our faults. Let's not lose our tempers and rip each other to shreds."

Sasuke's glare never left the brunette, but he slowly dropped the teenager to the floor and slunked quickly back in his seat at the cafeteria table. His dark eyes threatened to stare holes into the cheap plastic of the table as he refused to make eyes contact with any of the other males at the table, which was probably best considering both Sasuke and most of the others at the table were willing and ready to start up another fight with all the built up tension that had developed in the past few days. Slowly Shino and Chouji backed down away from Sasuke and also returned to their seats. Kiba glowered at the moody raven beside him for a moment, as he rubbed both his neck and smoothed out the collar of his shirt, before he slowly sat back down in his own seat at the table. The brunette was currently regretting their choice to allow the over dramatic boy to sit at the table while he was in the confusing and just plain weird situation/fight in which he had found Naruto and himself.

"God damn it." Shikamaru cursed as he shifted his weight in his seat. "I can't take all this anymore! Will you just talk to Naruto already so that you can stop biting Kiba's head off every time he says something stupid?"

The pale boy chanced a glance over at the other raven haired boy, but then let his dark orbs once again settle upon the plastic table in front of him before he dignified the other male with an answer. "It's not like he exactly wants to talk to me right now."

"Since when has Naruto's wants and needs ever stopped you from doing things your way?" Shikamaru retorted, sending Sasuke an annoyed glare of his own.

"Oh. Touché." Kiba chuckled, but was immediately silenced when both Sasuke and Shikamaru turned their glares away from their previous focus of attention and directed all their anger directly on him. He quickly slouched down in his seat slightly, and pretended to ignore both the raven-haired boys' glare and their existence in general (hoping that it would deter them from their anger at him).

"Look." Shikamaru continued on, ignoring Kiba's interruption. "Both of you are utterly miserable right now. And to be honest, you're bringing everyone else around you down as well. So man up, Uchiha and talk to Naruto so we can be done with whole situation already."

Hearing the usually lazy boy put that much feeling behind his words, let Sasuke know that the raven was taking this whole mess seriously. He sighed and let his thin fingers glide gently along his scalp, gripping onto locks of jet black hair as they reached the top of his head. He silently agreed that this period of silence between him and his (still?) best friend. He wished for nothing more than to be able to patch things up with Naruto and have things return to the way they once were, as if this whole Karin episode has never happened.

Though, he solemnly knew that even if he and Naruto did make up with one another that things would never be the same between them ever again. Being Karin for so long had certain effects on the raven-haired boy and Sasuke was certain that the feelings that had popped up suddenly for the blonde would not simply go away. He… He had to come to terms that he no longer viewed Naruto as friend. Nor did he want to be his friend again. He was afraid that he had come to want something more from the blonde. But both his pride and the knowledge that Naruto would forever hate him for his disgusting actions were still too much for him to fully admit why he wanted that.

After all, Sasuke was not an idiot. He knew that it would be a miracle in itself if his ex-best friend would even agree to be civil with the raven after everything that had happened between them.

The pale boy's dark eyes finally parted from their view of the textured plastic table to gaze up at the sea of concerned faces that belonged to his remaining friends. He sighed once more and forced the smallest of pain-filled smiles to grace his thin lips before he finally gathered enough courage to speak.

"You're right." He admitted reluctantly. "I'll talk to him. I promise. Just don't expect anything to happen. I'll be surprised if he even agrees to hear me out at all."

"Well, it's worth a shot." Kiba tried to offer a bit of hope to the raven.

"Yeah." Sasuke agreed. "I mean, what's the worst that can happen? He'll stop talking to me?" His poor attempt of a joke failed to rise and humor within the group of boys. Thankfully, the others stopped in their efforts to coerce Sasuke to speak with the blonde-haired boy, and slowly started up another pointless conversation to try and ease the tension that still lingered around them.

When Naruto returned home from school that day, purposely walking as fast as he could without running out of his last class of the day in order to avoid running into the certain Uchiha whom he was still currently avoiding all contact with, he let himself rest against the front door of his house so that he could regain his lost breath. He slowly entered into his house and found himself settled down in front of his computer, a habit that had formed within him over the past few months. He scowled as he realized what he was about to do and blamed the raven, which was remaining unnamed at the time being, for his actions.

Despite his disgust at what he had done, Naruto did not get up from his computer, but continued on in his actions as he pulled up the internet to do a routine check of all his favorite sites. He stopped though when he came upon his usual networking website. As his blue eyes scanned over the illuminated screen, he saw that he had received a message… from Karin.

Suspicious toward the message and the contents of it, Naruto stared at the screen for a second longer, before ultimately clicking on the message and bringing it up. His face was set into a scowl as he waited to see what Karin could possibly have to say now.

He was legitimately surprised when the message loaded.

"Hello Naruto." The letter began. "This is Karin. The real Karin."

And with one sentence, Naruto was already intrigued and insanely curious as to why the real Karin was speaking to him now. After adjusting himself in his seat, hoping to get more comfortable, he set his mind back to focus on the letter in front of him.

"I know you must think I'm sending this letter to get you to forgive Sasuke, but that would be wrong. I'm not asking you to forgive him… but to at least understand why he decided to play along with this crazy plan."

Naruto was genuinely surprised. It seems that the real Karin was capable of being nice, instead of just that arrogant and annoyed air that she gave off on their only meeting. Feeling no pressure to like or accept what he was about to read, Naruto saw no harm in continuing on with the message. Well, if Karin had gone through the trouble of contacting him, despite barely knowing anything about him, the least he could do would be to read said message.

"To my understanding, you had been depressed lately. Rejected by some girl, if I remember correctly. And Sasuke and your friend thought the best way to cheer you up would be to set you up with someone that would make you forget that girl. And that's where I came in, I suppose. Sasuke asked to pretend to be me and after I had him explain the situation I agreed, only because he seemed genuinely intent on cheering you up. As the weeks went on I continued to stay in touch with Sasuke, asking about how things between him, the fake Karin, and yourself. He spoke of nothing but how happy you were. But when he mentioned that things may be getting to be more than just friendly chatting, I encouraged him greatly to stop all this and from my understanding… so did your other friends. I was sure that Sasuke was going to end things between the fake Karin and yourself the last time we spoke on the matter, but obviously that was not the case. I hear that you two have even donned the 'dating' title."

Naruto felt his face heat up as Karin brought up the implication that he and Sasuke were the ones dating. Ignoring the heat in his cheeks, he pressed on, too curious about what Karin had to say to stop now.

"And then I showed up and threw a wrench into his plans. He looked so heartbroken as you left that day we accidentally met. I couldn't help but pity him. And you as well. For you too looked so hurt find out your relationship had been nothing but a lie. No. That's not true. It wasn't all a lie. There's no way I can believe that Sasuke felt nothing for you if he would ignore the warnings and please of myself and his friends to stop such an outlandish plan. If he did not care at all, why even bother with going through with the whole situation to begin with? Oh. Sorry. I said that I was not trying to justify Sasuke. So before I continue on with my ramblings, I'll leave you with one piece of advice. Talk to him. Even if you can't forgive him, just talk to him again. I'm sure he's just as or more so miserable than you."

The blonde stared at the screen for a while longer, glaring at the last few words of the redhead's message before he finally exited out of the whole site all together and picking himself up and away from the computer. Naruto bit his bottom lip as she slowly walked closer toward his front door, eyeing the piece of wood intently with his bright, blue eyes.

It almost seemed as if the portal to the outside world was daring him; tempting him to follow the real Karin's words and seek out his friend for the first time in what felt like an eternity. What Karin has said was true. He was miserable without his once best friend around him almost every second of the day. And he was sure that Sasuke was also feeling the effect of having to live almost completely without the blonde beside him.

Shaking his head free of the guilt, he thought back to the conversation that he and Sasuke had while he was Karin. He did have to admit that they did remind him somewhat of speaking with Sasuke (minus all the sarcasm and insults that came with speaking with the pale boy in person). He had even told the raven that before he had found out the truth. But Naruto had grown to care for the fake Karin. Even going so far as to want to date her. To find out that the person behind all that was his best friend had shocked him to core, and the blonde was not sure what to make of the relationship they had as Sasuke and as Karin anymore. Were they one in the same? Were they completely different? Were they even real?

The blue-eyed boy stopped worrying about those pesky thought and trudged forward closer to his front door. He needed to stop thinking before he back out of talking to Sasuke about this. He needed to push it to the back of his mind until he found his best friend, then he could ponder these thoughts until they finally started to make sense to him.

As Naruto grabbed the handle to his front door and pulled it open, he saw the very person for whom he was about to search standing in his doorway, his pale fist ready to slam against the piece of wood that was previously between them.

They stared at each other, both too shocked to move or speak, holding each other's gaze for a few minutes before Sasuke finally let his fist fall slightly towards his mouth before he coughed into said hand, snapping both himself and blonde out of their stupor. Naruto blinked and readjusted his position before his blue eyes flickered from the raven's face to the framing along his doorway.

"H-Hey." He stuttered with great discomforted.

"Hey." Sasuke mirrored back to his friend, his dark orbs also avoiding the blonde's gaze. "Um. I wanted to… Well I was hoping that you would-. Well that you would let me explain myself."

Naruto let his eyes fall back on his friends face before he stepped aside from his door and gave the pale boy enough space to walk into his house, which Sasuke did hesitantly. The raven-haired teen moved only far enough into the house so that Naruto was just able to close the door behind him, stopping himself from going into such a familiar place for he still felt as if he was not entirely welcome here.

Before Sasuke could say anything to his friend, the blonde interrupted him as soon as he closed his front door. Though the blonde refused to turn his body to face the raven behind him.

"So I got a message for Karin. The real one." Naruto specified. "She explained some things to me and… Told me I should talk to you."

"And you were just leaving then, I assume." Sasuke practically mumbled still not turning to look at the tan teen to whom he was speaking.

"Yeah." Naruto chuckled slightly, hoping to remove the tension, but only succeeded in creating an even heavier layer of awkwardness amongst the two of them. "So… why did you come here then?" Naruto asked before Sasuke could bring up a different topic.

"… Same reason as you." Sasuke confessed. "I wanted to talk to you about… well everything."

"We'll I'm here." Naruto said nervously, finally turning his body away from his front door to wearily steal a glance at his best friend. "So talk already."

There was a silent pause between the two of them. Naruto assumed it was Sasuke way of stalling before the inevitable happened and their awkward discussion began. The blonde accepted the silence, also wishing for the conversation to be postponed for as long as humanly possible. "I wanted to tell you that I pretended to be Karin." Sasuke finally blurted out, surprising himself that he manages to force it out of himself.

Naruto eyes the boy again before he spoke. "Is that all?"

"… No." Sasuke continued. "I also… I also wanted to tell you that… that I mean every word I said to you as Karin." Naruto's blue eyes widened in shock as he stared flabbergasted at the raven-haired teen before him. He shook his head once, as if he making sure in his own way that he had not just imagined his best friend saying those things to him. He took one brave step toward Sasuke, a little concerned that he had yet to turn and face him.

"Is that true? … Sasuke?"

"…" There was a short pause. Sasuke let one of his dark eyes glance over his shoulder at the blonde-haired boy before his whole head eventually turned to stare back into his friend's pools of blue, offering him a small, timid smile. "Yes." The tanned boy almost laughed, hearing such hesitation and fear coming from the always stoic and fearless Uchiha Sasuke that he had known for a greater portion of his young life. He managed to hold it back and took another step towards Sasuke so that the two of them were less than an arm's length away from one another now.

Naruto swallowed before he equally as timidly responded back to his friend. "Me too. I… I really did mean it all."

"Do you still mean it now?" Sasuke asked quickly after hearing the blonde's words. "Now you know that it was really me and not Karin?"

There was something in the raven's eyes that Naruto could only describe as a look of hopefulness. He offered his own small smile. "Yeah, I think-. No. I do mean it."

"… So what now?" Sasuke asked, turning the rest of his body in order to face his blonde friend completely. He seemed to have regained most of his old confidence back now that the worse part of the dreaded talk was over with. "I mean, what happens to us now?

The blonde thought about it for a second before he, in a moment of bravery on his part, wrapped his tan arms around his friend and with a big, toothy grin said, "We could just pick up where we left off?"

"And where exactly would that be?" Sasuke asked with a smirk of his own setting in on his lips.

"You just became my girlfriend." Naruto chirped happily before he let out a hardy laugh, which earned him a light punch in his arm from the raven in his hold. The dark-eyed boy then joined in on the laugh before his own pale arms placed themselves around the blonde that held him loosely.

"I… I guess that would be fine with me." Sasuke replied back, trying to hold back a blush that was threatening to cover his entire face and neck from his embarrassment. "Aside from the girlfriend part." He grumbled before Naruto could say anything.

The blonde laughed once more before tightened his hold on his friend. "Deal."

He laughed before his blue eyes opened and sought out the gaze of the dark orbs that belonged to the boy in his arms. While they held each other's gaze, Naruto craned his neck slightly, leaning his head ever so slightly toward Sasuke's as his tongue darted out of his mouth to absent-mindedly lick at his chapped lips. He leaned in more, filling the gap and connecting lips to lips in a sort of experimental kiss and kept them there for a second before he pulled away to seek out those dark eyes once more. When the two set of eyes meet again, Sasuke was the one, this time, that closed the space between their faces and initiated the kiss. It as longer, slightly deeper and more confident in the actions of both parties this time and when Naruto pulled back from the kiss this time, he smiled as wide as his face would let him.

Naruto leaned his forehead against Sasuke's, enjoying the calm moment before he finally spoke and ruined it. "I knew I should never believe people on the internet are who they say they are."

(1) Not going to mention any specific sites, but let's just say… it's the one that owns your soul :fire surges in background:

(2) … Not taken from personal opinions… :nervous, shifty eyes:… Okay fine! I totally feel the same. It's only if I wake up after two in the afternoon that I feel as if I've slept too long.

I noticed two things as I wrote this. One: I seem to be able to only write REALLY long stories when they involve anyone from Team Seven. Two: For most of this Sasuke is pretending to be a woman XD. How funny is that? Sasuke pretending to be Karin. I crack myself up. Also, would it technically be a crack pairing? I mean… Naruto thinks he liked Karin, but it was really Sasuke. I'm so confused over my own story. That's sad.

Also, while writing this a spider crawl around and into my laptop! Ew X^. So I squashed it. I'm sorry spider, but when you mess with my laptop, my pride and joy… you die :D.

Hope you enjoyed it. It's my final gift to fanfiction, since I left my last story unfinished.