I just want you, the reader, to know that I am typing this fanfiction on a quiet Sunday at exactly 5:37 in the morning, with my feet cold and my brain psychologically throwing me and my feels around into a murky pool of restlessness and unintentional sleep deprivation (not like it matters).

Random babbling aside, here's my first (and possibly only) Naruto fan fiction. I DON'T OWN IT (duh). If I did, the series will fall under the Yaoi genre, Uzumaki Naruto will not have his unexplainable addiction to orange jumpsuits, and Uchiha Sasuke will be less of a sad butt.

'Got the idea from listening to Andy Grammer's song, Fine by Me and Muse's Madness.

UPDATE ALERT: Due to some readers' requests, there's going to be a sequel to this. I'll be uploading it as a different fic so keep checking back on my profile or just simply add me to your Author Follow/ Subscription to find out when I'll be posting it ^_^

Fine By Me

(A one shot)

My name is Uchiha Sasuke. Unless you're a dumbass who is completely oblivious of what is going on around you, you probably already know who I am. Anyone would have heard at least one of my titles before; the Avenger, the Emo kid, the next young genius of Konoha, the excellent young ninja who isn't quite as excellent as his fugitive older brother, the quiet boy with the pretty face, or if you happen to be an acquaintance of the rambunctious blond idiot; the bastard.

I have never really bothered commenting on any of those judgmental titles given to me; simply because I don't give a damn and I have better things to do—in exception to the last one, anyway. The blond idiot will never take my silence for an answer so as irritating as he may be I am always obliged to retort in order to express my annoyance by calling him "dobe". Of course, that still won't leave him satisfied. It never does. He'd keep pressing on a matter regardless of its importance until he gets his way, completely ignoring the fact that he has turned himself into the most annoying person in the universe.

Technically, I don't particularly like anything or anyone. Or rather, I dislike many things—including people. Unless I see a certain purpose for keeping a person around me, I rid myself of their presence the soonest I can. Except for Naruto; don't get me wrong though, I never intended to give him the special treatment. It just happened that there's just no getting rid of him. You can spite him, ignore him, starve him to death, or beat him into a pulp but I guarantee you none of that will work- I've tried doing all of the said tactics a million times over but to no avail. There's of course, a very good explanation to that, and it's quite simple: Naruto isn't as dumb as he appears to be. The 'dobe' is not a 'dobe' at all.

Why I call him that? No reason, really. It was merely a 'pet name' my irritated young self just came up with in the heat of a petty argument some time during our childhood. From there the name just stuck throughout the years of our unconventional friendship (if you can call it that). I suppose it's the same case with the 'pet name' he had given me- except that he's actually right; I AM a bastard.

'Sasuke, bastard.' I smirked to myself. How true is that?

And because I am a real bastard, I had put a strain on our friendship by leaving in the most unrespectable manner possible. As unbelievable as it may sound (even to myself), I do know the things I had to throw away that day I decided to leave Konohagakure. And because Naruto is not a real idiot he knew what I had felt that day without me saying a single word aside from 'shut up' and 'dobe'.

Frankly speaking, I have never seen anyone look so happy and satisfied to receive such words of profanity and obvious displays of hostility. Not even the cotton candy-haired girl who used to tail me around every waking moment of her life could take it. But he did. And he still does. By now I am quite sure he had already picked up the last clue I had left for him at the previous village I had stayed in about a thousand and three hundred miles from where I stand at this moment.

If I had told anyone who knew me about this, they would either be surprised, or laugh in sheer amusement. As I have said, the dobe is not a real dobe. How else would he have the guts to relentlessly pursue me and successfully follow my trails every single time Konoha's Godaime dispatches a search team? But I get away. Every. Single. Time. Why? Because as frustrating as it may be for him, he lets me. I doubt anyone has quite figured that out yet, not even Kakashi-sensei. The man was technically a surrogate father to me, and knowing how my mind works, he may have his suspicions. But those suspicions will never truly be shed light on for as long as the dobe keeps acting like his usual loud, idiotic self.

An old man who ran the ramen stand I had walked into on my way to the border of the next town in my itinerary served me a cup of green tea. "Would 'ya like ta have a bowl of ramen 'ta go with that? " He asked me in a husky voice.

"No. This is enough." I answered flatly without looking at him. I took the cylindrical clay cup into my palms and breathed in the earthy aroma of its content. My mind dwindled back to the 'dobe' as I took a sip of the bitter yet comforting taste of green tea.

I had to go. There are things I had to do. The 'dobe' does not have the right to stop me. NO ONE can tie me down. Despite that, there are still things I don't want to lose. I assume Naruto understood the message fairly well when he lost consciousness during our duel at the Valley of the End; when I had let him live and he had let me go.

We've been in this chase for years now. It had cost many lives, much to Naruto's sorrow-although to his colleagues and anyone around us, such casualties are merely part of the job. Of course, aside from the snarls, yells, and fist- collisions we have exchanged during this on and off years of cat and mouse chase, not once have we had a decent conversation. But to see so many lives sacrificed right before his eyes, I know chasing after me tears him apart. He's just that kind of person.

Sometimes I wonder how long we would be able to keep up with this chase. Still, even if I stop living clues for Naruto to find, I have a very strong feeling nothing will change. It will only piss him off and cost more lives and delays in his missions. But he won't stop searching for me. That is, until he sees that I am convinced enough to let him drag me on my ass back to Konohagakure—a seemingly impossible thing to happen, in my opinion.

I got up from the wooden bench I sat on. I gave my instructions to the cook of the ramen stand for the next clue I am to leave for the dobe: "You will be having a group of customers headed by a lively blond in orange jumpsuit arriving in approximately thirty-six hours. The blond will surely order about twenty-five bowls of your best-selling ramen. I will be paying for his sixteenth but be sure no one among his company will hear about it. Make sure to put a quarter slice of tomato beneath the noodles in that bowl." The bald old man only blinked his droopy black eyes at me for a brief moment, replaced by a glint of interest in the next.

"Well, son. I have 'ta say, that's a rather interesting way of saying "hi" to a friend." His husky voice cracked as he spoke with a toothless grin.

I gave him a smirk and left the payment for the meal on the wooden counter before turning my back and walking out from the shed of his store.

"Are ya sure ya don't wanna wait for yer friend? There's a cheap inn a kilometer away from here!" the old man called out.

I only shook my head in reply without turning back. I kept walking towards the end of the town's border and into the barren forest.

Honestly, I could have stayed for five more hours in this Ramen stand if I wanted to, seeing that it isn't getting many customers in the first place. Unfortunately if I did, I might come face to face with Naruto and the rest of his search team on my way to the next village. Despite not seeing his annoying face for many months now (it had been a year since our last encounter when he had reluctantly let me go for the third time), I must say, I am not quite in the mood to see his face yet as the last brawl I had in the forest with some high class shinobi had worn me out.

My thoughts went back to the dobe's pushy intent of bringing me back to Konohagakure. After all these years, I still have no intention of going back. When the time comes that I have finally found what I needed to find, and done what I needed to do, I just want to keep walking onwards without looking back. And I want him to keep finding me. It may not be the way he would like to picture the conclusion of our friendship, but I rather like the way things are right now between us. Truth be told, that is how I would want it to be for as long as we tread this world.

Whenever I am left wandering about with my own thoughts like this, I like to remind myself that I am not as cold and oblivious towards the people around me as many believe me to be. I am aware of the selfishness I am committing in choosing this path: the pain, the sorrow and the person I am dragging into it despite the distance. At this point, I could not care less if the dobe calls this 'teme' nonsensical and selfish. He should realize by now that how this madness holds the two of us together is perfectly fine by me.

XXXX-end-XXXX

Sometimes things are a little harder to understand from a sane onlooker's perspective. Certain types of masochism isn't always a miserable thing. To some people, the least sensible things hold the best treasures in life.

***ANYWAY... In case you haven't read the introductory blabber I have typed at the very top of this fic: Due to some readers' requests, there's going to be a sequel to this. I'll be uploading it as a different fic so keep checking back on my profile or just simply add me to your Author Follow/ Subscription to find out when I'll be posting it ;-)

FAVORITES, FOLLOWS/ SUBSCRIPTIONS AND REVIEWS ARE MY RAISON D' ETRE for writing.

Works just like non-drinkable tonic boosters.

Won't you give me some love, please? ;-)