Birthday one-shot for Naru-chan! HAPPY BIRTHDAY OUR LOVABLE BLONDE IDIOT!

Sasuke: He's my idiot thank you very much.

Naruto: Why am I an idiot? I have my smart moments, nobody can deny that!

Sasuke: Yes darling, you're very smart when you agree with me on something. Like for example, sleeping with me!

Me: Boys? Birthday? Fanfiction? Here please?

Naruto: Thank you so much! :hugs author until she pops: OMG WHAT DID I JUST DO?!

Sasuke: Oh well, not much we can do to save her now.

Naruto: But teme if she dies then who will finish 'Who Are You?' and post 'Life Giving Rain'?!

Sasuke: Holy shit you're right! Wake up AG7878, I still need to kill Naru-chan's stalker-bitch and I have to know what the hell will happen during our wedding! DAMMIT WAKE UP! :starts smacking author back and forth:

Me: What the hell Sasuke, you didn't have to hit me so much! Give a girl a break for crying out loud. Let me do my disclaimer and I'll go back to work on my other projects.

Sasuke: I'm going to hold you to that and I don't care how much you love Halloween you had better focus on your fanfictions too!

Me: Holy crap. Okay well THIS story has a few things you need to know. They're all sixteen, Sasuke never left the village and went all cuckoo, the village was never attacked by Pein, Naruto is still sort of an outcast, Tsunade is Hokage and she chose Naruto as her diplomat because of her fondness of him, and everybody is pretty OOC. This focuses mainly on Naruto and Sasuke but I threw in Sakura even though I don't like her at all. If characters weren't needed as plot pushers, she wouldn't be used at all here. But be happy my haters, I was nice to her and the SasuNaru is light! Don't come yelling to me that 'they're not gay and you should kill yourself for thinking they are' like you always do. I'm expecting it, even though I know it will ruin the day for me. For everyone else, please enjoy the birthday fic I randomly thought up for Naru-chan! I don't like it half as much as I like Sasuke's but I'll leave that for you all to decide.

I own nothing but the plot, Masashi Kishimoto sort of kills the dream I have to own Naruto and redo 698-700 and the last along with the upcoming movie. If I had my way then I wouldn't be in so much pain when I think about the ending. Sadly this isn't Burger King, this is life.

For however long I could remember, I had never had a very special birthday. When I was much younger the day was actually dreaded, if you can believe me. I would sit in my tiny apartment and surround myself with the tattered stuffed animals and torn blankets I owned as I prayed for the villagers to leave me alone. Back then I didn't understand why I had to do such a thing. Now though, at the age of sixteen, I am more than well aware of the reason. But unlike my birthdays upwards of twelve years ago, the day is no longer…spent in fear. It's still not celebrated but I no longer have to cower in a corner and hope I'm still in one piece by the morning. I still remain in relative solitude, an old self-preservation habit that my mind refuses to break, but they've gotten better. The fact remains though that if I didn't know I had to hide on that day every October, it held no special meaning to me. I didn't really see a point in celebrating it – hell I was told all my life that my birth was a bad thing, so I didn't really understand that it was supposed to be special. Sure, I was brought into the world (thank you mother) but other than that it was just counting up the days until you died. So I would make the most out of every day. I would prank the villagers, train my ass off, do mind-numbing missions, eat, bathe, sleep and repeat the process until I took my last breath.

Since I am of this mind-set, I never really saw the need to tell people about my birthday. When I was twelve and had been placed on Team 7 with Sasuke-teme and Sakura-chan, it had been the only time that my birthday had come up in a conversation. Amazingly Sasuke-teme, who was my rival at the time, was the one to do so. Sakura-chan was pestering him about going with her to the Kyuubi festival later that evening and he rejected her rather harshly once again. When I didn't defend her, like I usually would have done, he turned to me and asked what my problem was. Apparently I had been acting strange all day and hadn't noticed that I was giving off a very negative vibe.

"Jeez dobe, you look like we missed your birthday or something," I remembered he huffed at me. When I looked away he seemed to ponder something before he blinked a few times in realization and took a few steps towards me to look me in the eye.

"Come to think of it…we don't even know when your birthday is. You know that mine is the twenty-third of July and whenever what's her names' is…so why don't we know yours?" he asked in a genuinely curious, but suspicious tone.

"You guys never asked about it…so I didn't think it mattered," I answered him. It was a stupid reason really but it was the truth. Looking back on it maybe I should have said something when we first became a team. If we were supposed to work as closely together as Kakashi-sensei wanted us to, trivial things like birthdays weren't supposed to be secrets.

"So are you going to tell us when it is, moron?" Sakura-chan asked, angry that she was being ignored by Sasuke for me.

"Well…it's today actually."

They both had such shocked looks on their faces and Sakura-chan immediately scolded me for not telling her something 'so important' otherwise she would have had time to plan something for me. Sasuke though…he looked a bit lost. I couldn't really remember him ever having that look on his face again but it was okay because I never wanted to. He seemed like a puppy that was left behind by his brand-new owners for some stupid reason like they didn't like what color he was or something. Sasuke quickly shook it off though and called me a dobe before grabbing my arm and dragging me to the middle of town. The glares my teammates noticed were icy and they cut deep into my soul and I could tell that they were both confused. I quickly told them to forget about whatever they were doing and that I would see them later that week before I ran off to reach my apartment. When I saw them next, they both acted like nothing happened but they both wished me a happy belated birthday…my first kind birthday wish.

As the years went by my birthdays got better, but I still held no special place for them in my heart. Again, I thought it was just another three-hundred and sixty-five days I made it without dying a horrible, bloody death. But with my horrible birthdays, and as pathetic as this is going to make me…it meant that I had never had a birthday cake. There was never a party, there were never presents, and most importantly to me, no cake. Don't consider me a freak now but I have never even tasted cake before. With a very tight budget to work with, an apartment to pay for and food to put on my table, I didn't really have the money to spare on luxury items like confectionary foods or candies. I had had plenty of chocolate candies because of Halloween (my favorite holiday ever! Pranks galore and I can't be yelled at because it's like telling the rest of the village 'no pranks allowed!' and taking away part of the holiday tradition) but cake was still foreign to me.

Coming back to my current birthday, my sweet sixteen as Sakura-chan called it – I couldn't help but crave for the fluff I had never had before. Lots of things had changed over the past three years, like discovering I was gay, becoming a Chunin, traveling with the Hokage as one of her diplomats, gradually being accepted by the villagers and last but most importantly; dating Sasuke Uchiha. Yeah he was my rival, still pretty much is; but after my thirteenth birthday when I told him the day I was born he opened up to me a lot. We have been together for around four months so the whole relationship thing is still new. And a very important thing about that is that we're not public yet, at least not to the whole village. Our friends knew about us and they accepted for the most part. Hinata Hyuga was really torn up about it, as were Ino Yamanaka and Sakura-chan but they all decided that if it made us happy then so be it. It was a mutual decision to stay in the closet since he's under lots of pressure from the council to reproduce the Uchiha clan and I'm still not very well appreciated amongst most of the villagers. We both like the arrangement though. He and I still aren't really ready to accept total dependency on one another. I love him, I really do; and he's said it back to me a few times as well, but we've both been alone for quite a few years so bringing someone into each of our daily routines was still frightening.

I keep getting off topic though – I had a cake mix in front of me and I wanted desperately to try it! It was just a basic chocolate cake, nothing really difficult but I had no idea where to start. Cooking from scratch wasn't my thing unless Iruka-sensei helped me make the concoction a couple of times before I did it on my own. When I asked him if he would help me make my cake today, he told me that he was sorry but he had some preparations to do before the festival started later tonight. He did promise to help me later though if I still wanted but I told him it was okay and I would try and ask someone else. So without a clue where to begin making my cake, I decided to venture out to my friend's houses and try to ask them to aid me! If they had any love for me, they would help me! Birthday or not, it's just what a friend should do.

I first knocked on Sasuke's door. I heard him curse a couple times before he came to the door wearing his black apron and as soon as he saw it was me, he slammed said door in my face.

"Sasuke, what the hell?! Open the goddamn door before I break it down!" I screamed.

"Just give me a minute, you idiot; I'm not exactly prepared for company!" I heard his muffled yell through the door. I decided to stand patiently before he opened the door again. This time his hair was ruffled and his apron was discarded but that wasn't what threw me off. I could smell something…something very light and sweet. I sniffed the air a couple times before he came outside and shut the door again.

"So are you going to tell me what you're doing here? I was going to come by your place later with Haruno."

"What are you doing in there?" I asked purposefully avoiding his question.

"It's none of your business, but if you must know it's something that Kakashi asked me to do. And before you ask, no you cannot come in and see it."

"Why not?"

"Because I said so now what do you want?" the teme said forcefully.

"Oh…right, yeah I wanted to know if you would help me bake a cake," I asked dumbly, almost forgetting why I was here.

"Bake a cake? You do realize what today is right?" Sasuke said suspiciously.

"Yes, I know what today is – it's the Kyuubi festival, but I want to try a cake for once in my life before I shut myself up in my apartment for the night. So can you help me? Please…I'll do your mission reports until Christmas if you do," I asked in a pleading tone that I knew would get me what I wanted when it came to my bastard. He surprised me though and shook his head before he sighed.

"What is the other thing that's happening today stupid? God, special to you or not, you should remember when your own birthday is!" he exasperated.

"I know it's my birthday, which is why I want to make a cake! I've never had it before and since Sakura-chan says that my sixteenth birthday is a special one, I figured that I would make myself a birthday cake this year!"

"You don't make yourself a cake for your birthday – that's backwards. You get cake on your birthday, understand?"

I sighed in resignation. When Sasuke pulled common logic I usually had no choice but to give in until he made some sort of compensation with me so that I could forget my miserable mood.

"Look, I have to get back inside. Why don't you go hang out with some of your friends today before the festival starts? I'll come see you later tonight before you do your yearly ritual, which I have to say I still don't approve of," he suggested gently before he begrudgingly regarded my yearly self-isolation.

"Fine teme. You know what time I lock myself in so try to be there before then otherwise you'll get caught in my traps."

"Try and have fun this year, dobe. You deserve to be genuinely happy today so try not to think about things too much."

Sasuke quickly hugged me and kissed my cheek, a big risk considering we were still outside of his house and could be caught, before he disappeared back inside of his home and I was left on the stoop. I took a deep breath and departed from my boyfriends' front porch.

Still wanting my cake, and knowing that I wasn't supposed to make it myself now, I thought I could con one of my friends into buying me some. So I traveled along a few back streets, getting a few waves and smiles from the more accepting villagers and glares and curses from the others, so that I could get to Sakura-chan's house. I came upon the quaint little abode rather quickly and knocked on the door three times in quick succession. Luckily the pink-haired girl I was seeking answered and she smiled when she saw me.

"Hi Naruto, what are you doing here? Do you want to come in?" she asked sweetly.

"No, I'm okay but I wanted to ask you something."

"Okay sure, what's on your mind birthday-boy?"

"Do you know of any good cake shops around here? Or a decent bakery that I could get something at?"

"Naruto, I know it's your birthday but too many sweets aren't good for you. How much have you had already?" she asked rather accusingly. I rubbed the back of my head and laughed a little and she just raised her eyebrow at me like she was scolding me.

"Actually Sakura-chan this is pretty embarrassing but I've never had cake," I confessed loudly, still laughing at the situation. Her eyes widened considerably and she looked horror-stricken.

"Naruto Uzumaki, how could you have lived sixteen years without having eaten any cake?!"

"It's not that hard, I've never had an occasion to," I answered after my ears stopped ringing from the volume of her outburst. Once she had registered what I had said her jaw dropped and she told me to wait a few seconds before she disappeared inside the house. A minute later, ears tingling a little still, she emerged with her purse in hand and she grabbed my arm.

"I can't believe you would say something that dumb; no occasion to eat cake? Ha! You've had sixteen 'occasions' to have the fluffy goodness, so don't give me that excuse! You want cake? I'll give you cake! We're going to Chouji's parent's restaurant so that you'll get the best the village can offer! That will give you cake!" I was afraid to speak to her as she seemed to be fuming to herself rather than speaking to me in anger. I knew better than to provoke an angry Sakura-chan and right now it seemed that I unintentionally did just that.

The two of us came up to a rather nice-looking building in the middle of town with a bright red and blue sign that read 'Akimichi's Best' before we went inside. Lots of people were eating and drinking in the friendly atmosphere, ignoring our arrival, before a portly man with a long red mane much like Pervy Sage's came to greet us.

"Sakura-san, Naruto-kun, welcome to our restaurant! Are you two here on a date perhaps?" he jovially asked.

"What?! Me and this moron?! Date?! Oh no, no, no, it's Naruto's birthday and he just wants some cake is all, I swear!" she quickly explained. I would have been hurt at the haste of her rejection had I not been with Sasuke. Right now I was more frustrated with her for what she just blurted out. Not everybody knew that today was my birthday and I didn't want to be recognized in case the villagers decided to act violently.

"She's right sir, I sort of asked her to tell me where I could get the best and she brought me here," I sheepishly explained. He smiled at me and gave me a strong pat on my shoulder that made my teeth clatter.

"Well you've come to the right place! Come on, I'll give you a table near the windows and bring you a sample of each cake I've got here. It'll be on the house, as a birthday gift!"

I smiled and awkwardly thanked the man before Sakura-chan and I followed him to our table. We were seated and twenty minutes later I had ten different types of cake samples set in front of me on a silver tray. He explained which cake was which and I started with a double chocolate strawberry cake. I felt my eyes widen and the beautiful texture flooded my senses. Cake must have been another word for heaven! Sakura-chan told me to try the white chocolate cherry piece next since she said it was her favorite. We went through all ten samples and I had never felt so grateful for anything in my life!

"So are you satisfied with your first cake experience?" she asked in a superior but curious tone. All I could do was nod my head and thank her. She sipped at her tea before she looked at her watch and gasped.

"Oh my god, you're not supposed to be here right now! Quick, you have to come with me!" she said quickly. She yelled her thanks to Chouji's dad, I discovered, and she dragged me out into the streets. I yelled to ask where we were going but she wouldn't answer. I didn't have to wait long before we came up to the Uchiha mansion. I pulled back against her hold on me and I got myself loose.

"Sakura-chan, I was with the teme earlier and he was busy with something that Kakashi-sensei asked him to do. He told me he would come to my place later tonight for me so let's just leave him alone for now."

"Nonsense; he's your boyfriend you two have to spend the whole day together don't you? I'm sure he'll be happy to see you!" she urged.

"I don't want to bug him and I don't want to be clingy, so why don't we just go kill time before I have to go back home tonight?"

"Naruto you know you don't have to do that anymore, right? You can hang out with your friends and I'm sure that they wouldn't want you to spend the whole time alone. I know I don't want you to," she said meekly.

"I appreciate it but my birthday isn't really something for me to celebrate. I just wanted cake and I've already had that, thank you very much."

"You mean you don't want to see Sasuke-kun at all?"

"Of course I want to see him, I would love to spend the whole day with him but we just aren't ready for that yet. Heck I doubt anything would make me happier than to spend the night with him but I don't think we're at that point with each other," I finished weakly.

Lately I had been thinking about Sasuke more and more and even though I was happy we were a couple, I wanted to get a little more serious. We could still hide our relationship if we spent a couple nights together here and there. We could mask it as teammates getting ready for a mission or training. Sasuke has already lingered at my door a few times and I've done it to him as well so I know we both want it but we still aren't at the point of executing the idea. A lifetime of isolation for me and over eight years of loneliness for him would make one believe that we're attention starved, and we are but we're still afraid to let people in.

"Naruto…just come on, I promise he won't turn us away," Sakura-chan tried to convince me again.

"Alright, but if he's still in his apron we're leaving," I told her firmly. She smiled and started walking towards his door again. Five minutes passed and still nobody answered. She cursed and mumbled something under her breath before turning back to me.

"Looks like you were right after all, Naruto. The festival starts in a few hours…go ahead home and I'll see you tomorrow so that all of us can have a birthday party for you," she smiled at me but I could tell she was upset about not seeing Sasuke. I smiled at her, thanked her for taking me for my first cake experience and hugged her goodbye. After I made sure she got home safely, even though she could handle herself just fine but it was the gentlemanly thing to do, I teleported myself to my apartment and put my key in the lock to open the door. Darkness was supposed to greet me but instead there was a soft but bright orange glow coming from the living room. I looked and saw my boyfriend sitting on the sofa looking at me with a smile on his face…and sitting in front of a three layered blue and orange colored cake lit with sixteen candles. Sasuke got up and lead me to sit beside him on the couch after he noticed that I wasn't moving. He kissed my shocked face all over before closing my jaw with one of his fingers before kissing my lips. That kiss woke me up and I responded happily. I felt him smirk in gratification before we deepened it. We broke our heavy French-kiss after a couple of minutes for air and he hugged me.

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Naru-koi…. Happy birthday to you," he lightly sang to me in a deep voice that had me melting. I was speechless…he could see that and he chuckled briefly.

"Don't wait too long for it, dobe. Make a wish and blow out your candles."

I held my breath, made my wish and finally got to do what I had seen dozens of kids do in the past. I let out the breath and the tiny flames went out all at once. Sasuke got up from the couch and turned on my lights that we both had to blink a few times to adjust to. He came back and sat back down before reaching for a cake knife and a plate.

"Tell me which layer you want me to cut into first birthday boy and I'll give you want you want," he said smugly.

"This is…all for me?"

"Of course dobe, it's not the Kyuubi's birthday. And before you say anything, I know that you've already tried some cake today. You're not all that unpredictable to me, love."

"What are you talking about? I went with Sakura-chan how could you have known that?"

"Who do you think told Haruno to take you out? I needed to keep you busy and I knew that you wanted a cake today. I was also aware that you had never had it before, so I made a special one for you."

"How is this cake special? It looks amazing but what kind is it?"

"It's my great-grandmother's recipe. She was pretty well known for her sweets but since I never had a real liking for them my mother tweaked it a bit. This cake…is the first Uchiha cake made since my mother died. It's all yours, koi. It's a double chocolate butterscotch pudding cake topped with blue mint and a plain orange colored frosting," my boyfriend explained fondly.

I had no clue that Sasuke knew how to bake but it was a welcomed surprise! I was beyond touched that he even thought to make this for me, let alone use one of his precious family recipes. I gazed at the amazing tower of pastry before I told him to cut the top layer first. He took the candles off of it before making the first slice and I could see how moist it was. I guess that's what the pudding was supposed to do for it but I had no idea. He handed it to me with a fork and got his own slice before I took my first bite. This was nothing like any of the samples I had at the restaurant! It was silky and smooth without being overpowering and the butterscotch flavor was light compared to the chocolate. In order to balance out the flavors Sasuke told me that he used a baking chocolate and unsweetened cocoa powder before adding the pudding. I don't really know what happened to make me cry but tears started running down my face. I wasn't sad and I wasn't hurt so I didn't know what to do. Sasuke smirked at me and wiped my eyes before kissing my forehead.

"You're welcome. I won't say anything so go ahead and cry if you want," he soothed.

"B-but I'm not s-s-sad, I don't know w-what I'm c-c-crying for," I blubbered in response.

"You're happy. People don't always cry when they're sad or in pain. It's your birthday and you're actually spending it with someone who cares about you with a cake make just for you. For you, subconsciously that's all you wanted. Like I said dobe you're not as unpredictable with me. I can read parts of you like an open book."

"Th-th-that's not f-fair. You're still so secretive th-that it's hard for m-me to tell what y-y-you're thinking."

"That's not entirely true. You know when I need space and you always seem to know what kind of mood I'm in without asking me. Do you remember when we all had to go grocery shopping for that old woman a couple months ago? Haruno asked you how you knew what I was thinking and you told her that you 'just do'*. It's not just when we spar or when we have missions that we connect, it's with everything. You came to me on my birthday and just offered to listen to me rant on and on about my family which I was more than happy about. You never offered stupid little trinkets or gave me over the top presents and I appreciated your company more than anything, so I figured this year I would give you what you wanted most."

"I hate that you know everything, but I love you anyway," I laughed as my tears stopped while listening to his explanation. I felt light and happy, something that until a few months ago was just a myth to me. Sasuke 'hn-ed' and told me to eat my cake which I then happily dug into. A few hours later we could both hear the festival roaring to life but the noise didn't bother me like it had previously. Sasuke and I were watching movies on the couch still eating cake and talking about nothing and everything. He had one arm draped over my shoulders and I was leaning on his chest comfortably. We kissed each other now and then but never pushed it past anything more than tongue and a little touching but I was happy. Finally nightfall came and with it the fireworks over the Hokage Mountain. Sasuke moved us to my bedroom so that we could see them through the window and just as I got comfortable he came up behind me with a rather large, dark blue blanket that smelled just like him. Securing it over ourselves and leaning back on him, half an hour of fireworks passed in comfort all too quickly. Once they finished Sasuke unwrapped us.

"Time for bed I guess. It's already past eleven," he threw out. I looked at him sadly, knowing that he was about to leave but he surprised me.

"I'm using your shower then changing for bed, so could you put the cake away in the fridge to make sure it doesn't go bad?" he asked as he walked over to a bag I hadn't noticed in the corner of the room. I leaned over to see what he was getting and I was stunned when I saw him bring out a pair of pajamas, his toothbrush and hair products. He looked at me and smiled again.

"Happy birthday dobe. Looks like I'm your present for the night."

I smiled at him widely before springing myself off of the bed and into his surprised but open arms. I thanked him too many times to count before doing what he asked me to do and then getting ready for bed myself. Once we were both showered, dressed warmly and teeth brushed, he spread his big blanket over my orange one on the bed and I saw the Uchiha fan. He smirked and crawled in, ushering me to join him which I didn't hesitate to do. Sasuke wrapped me in his arms, kissed my lips again and I settled against him. But before I fell asleep, I heard one last thing.

"Happy birthday love, I'm happy I could make you smile today. To think that all it took was a cake."

My boyfriend was right, but it wasn't the cake that made it special…it was him.

Side note: the (*) by one of the lines that Sasuke said is based on a very good fanfiction that I read years ago. I'm not sure exactly what the title was but if I find it I'll post it as a review here so you guys can go check it out. And yes, 'Life Giving Rain' is the third part in my 'Thunder' series and it'll be posted in a just a few more days.