A/N: Sorry, still not much time to write. Although I tried to polish this one up more than I usually do.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
XXX
Uchiha Sasuke was in need of a distraction.
At least, that's what Uzumaki Naruto thought, as he watched Sasuke dig through the closet of their shared college dorm frantically. Although he wouldn't admit it, he was nervous about the upcoming family dinner he had that night- a once a year occurrence, with the parents who always focused on his prodigy elder brother, Uchiha Itachi. Who was also going to be there.
For the eight years Naruto had known Sasuke, from the tender age of ten, he had never really spoken about his brother- except in contempt. Which Naruto guessed he could understand.
But even if he would never admit it, Sasuke was nervous, and Naruto felt that as his best friend, he should help him out a bit. And since Sasuke was never one to open up about these sort of things, Naruto had to invent creative methods to help him with his problems, appealing to other parts of his character.
Today, Naruto planned on doing this by taking advantage of the fact that Sasuke could never back down from a challenge.
"Oi, teme! You remember when you told me you'd been in love with someone for nine years but they didn't have a clue? About three months ago?"
His response was a shoe from the aforementioned closet meeting his temple.
"'Told' is a loose term, dobe- more like had it squeezed out of me after weeks of torture. And do you remember what I said about knocking your teeth into your stomach if you brought it up again?"
"Calm yourself. If I don't know who it is, I can't do any harm, can I? But anyways, back to my point- I have a challenge for you, Sasuke!"
"Are you drunk? Usuratonkachi, I don't have time for stupid stuff like that tonight!"
"Really? Then I guess I have no idea how your fan club got a hold of our room key..." And if the challenge didn't work, a little blackmail usually did the trick.
Sasuke sighed, playing down just how afraid that thought made him, holding up two shirts that looked exactly the same and comparing them in the dim light. "Fine! Just tell me so I can get on with my life!"
"I challenge you to tell the person you love how you feel at exactly 9:00 tonight!"
At this Sasuke froze and turned to face him, his features carefully left neutral. He seemed to size Naruto up for a minute, weighing his options carefully, before a slow, devious smirk made its way across his face. "Fine. Fine. Okay, dobe. I'll tell the person I love exactly how I feel about them, if at exactly 8:45 tonight you show up at the restaurant with Gaara as your date."
Naruto paled, before regaining his overwhelming confidence. He grinned. "Alright then! If I fail to do this, then you don't have to complete the challenge and I give you thirty dollars. If you fail, then you have to buy me ramen for a week."
Perhaps it wasn't evenly balanced, but Naruto couldn't be bothered to think it over.
Such was the price of helping out a friend, after all, Naruto thought as he stood outside what Sasuke knew to be his secret crush's room, hand poised to knock. There he was, trying to make Sasuke feel better by placing him under twice as much stress as he had been, and he made him do this. That bastard couldn't appreciate anything he did for him, could he?
XXX
8:43 p.m.
Sasuke sat across the fancy candlelit table from his parents, trying desperately to draw as little attention to himself as possible. Not that he had any trouble doing that- his parents were completely focused on the man sitting next to him; the intelligent, talented, and gorgeous Uchiha Itachi. For the last half hour, actually, all he really had to stumble through were some awkward, half hearted greetings. But really, even just hearing his voice...
Sasuke shook his head, and glanced at the clock. 8:44 p.m. He should have known the dobe couldn't do it- honestly, he had. That's why he had asked it of him. Cruel maybe, but desperate times...
A loud and obnoxious voice was heard throughout the room. "And me and GAARA will sit right..." A blonde and casually dressed eighteen year old pointed to a spot not two tables from Sasuke's own. "Here!"
The color drained from Sasuke's face, and his mind went blank. No fucking way in fucking hell. No. He shakily reached for the two hundred dollar bottle of wine his parents had ordered, before pouring himself a generous glass. His parents were too busy ignoring him to say anything, and all his brother did was give him a slightly puzzled glance before returning his attention to his parent's conversation, face cleared of all emotion.
...call for desperate measures.
He wondered just what Itachi's face would look like when...
Oh god.
XXX
Naruto glanced at the clock as he and Gaara took their seats, not even two tables from the Uchiha; who was paler than usual, before an interesting blush covered his face and his eyes turned downcast, looking ill, horrified, and defeated all at once.
"Perfect timing!" He exclaimed, he exclaimed in a voice only slightly quieter than usual. He looked across the table at the slightly perplexed, but mostly amused red head. "Thanks for coming here with me, Gaara."
"It was no...problem. Although, I'm not quite sure what's...?"
XXX
Naruto steeled himself before knocking on the solid wooden door. After a few nerve-wracking moments, the door opened to reveal a pale red-haired boy.
"Aah. Uzumaki Naruto. What brings you here?"
"Umm... I..." Naruto blushed before taking a deep breath. "Hey,greattoseeyou, say, would you mind doing me a favor and going out to eat with me so I can help my best friend feel better, not that I wouldn't want to go out with you normally, but-" he stopped abruptly and waited for a reply.
"Uh...sure?"
"Oh! Great!" Naruto glanced down at his watch. "Shit! It's 8:25- we have to hurry!"
He grabbed Gaara's arm and dragged him out of his room and on the most frightening drive he had ever experienced.
XXX
"Oh, you'll see! Any second now, Sasuke will get up and go proclaim his love!" He sounded almost like his enthusiastic friend Lee for a frightening moment.
But Sasuke didn't get up. Instead, he reached and poured himself a glass of wine, which he downed hastily. This confused Naruto. Sasuke hated drinking; not to mention the fact that he was only eighteen...
Minutes passed, and Naruto watched as Sasuke helped himself to more wine than could possibly be good for him. What the hell? The Uchiha wasn't seriously chickening out, was he? Naruto glanced at the clock once more. 8:56 p.m. Was he seriously going to be treated to ramen for a whole week?
And at 8:59 p.m., the Uchiha finally did something other than drink away what looked to be expensive wine. He glanced at the clock, set his glass down firmly, looked Naruto straight in the eye for about thirty seconds- before reaching out and knocking a fork off the table. His brother was the only one at the table who spared him what could have been a questioning glance.
"Oops, how careless of me, I'll get that..." Sasuke mumbled, before disappearing under the long white tablecloth.
Naruto and Gaara looked on intently in utter confusion as he vanished. Nothing happened. Naruto thought he might have actually tried to escape this by crawling away, until Itachi gave a sudden jerk and then froze in what appeared to be complete and total shock, which he expressed with widened eyes.
His parents stopped talking for a moment. "Itachi?" Uchiha Fugaku, Sasuke's father, questioned.
Itachi shook his head dismissively, but remained strangely tense and pale.
It was only after a loud and quick ZIIPPP! filled the room and Itachi's hands came up suddenly to grip the edge of the table that Naruto and Gaara's jaws dropped in shock, eyes unable to leave the scene as they finally understood what was going on under the table.
Mikoto and Fugaku looked at Itachi, slightly unsure, as his face flushed and his breathing became the tiniest bit irregular.
"Itachi? Son, what's wrong?"
"I-it's nothing." He shifted slightly and his hands subtly left the table to grip at something underneath it.
His parents looked unconvinced. It was at this point that Mikoto noticed Sasuke's absence.
"Huh? Where did Sasuke go?"
"Bathroom." Itachi muttered tersely, the slightest bit of sweat visible on his brow. He squirmed a bit in his seat.
"Oh. I see. He's hardly touched his dinner, we should probably have it wrapped-"
She was cut off by a violent shudder and choked noise from Itachi.
There was a tense, silent moment where everyone's mind seemed to slow down as they stared at Itachi.
It was broken by Sasuke not so subtly climbing out from under the table and returning to his seat, wiping his mouth as he did so.
"That's alright mother, I'm rather full, actually..."
His parents stared at him in disbelief as the wheels in their minds began turning.
At this point that a flustered Naruto walked up to the table and threw him his entire wallet, murmuring something about him winning, spending the night at a hotel with Gaara and seeing him in the morning before dragging said red haired and faced man out of the restaurant.
Sasuke stood up calmly, before meeting his mildly disheveled brother's eyes. "Well, I guess my place is free, so..." A wordless agreement passed between them and Itachi stood up, nodding to his parents politely; "Mother, Father..." before he grabbed Sasuke bridal style and rushed out the door.
And that was the last Uchiha dinner Sasuke ever had to worry about.
XXX
A/N: Sorry if it was a little rushed. Hope you enjoyed it.