I was tapping my foot impatiently as I stood waiting for Sasuke to come through the front door. He had sent me a note earlier saying: "Come up to my apartment at 3 o'clock tomorrow afternoon. There's something I need your help with. I might be gone at that time so let yourself in with my extra key. It's hidden in the shrub next to the front door. (If you tell anyone where it is, I will murder you so much that no one will be able to recognize you.) I need you to clean up my closet for me when you get there too. Just get everything in the basket hung up. I'll explain everything later. –Sasuke" I'm still not quite sure why he wanted me to clean up his mess, but I guess he has to have some kind of reason; so I did what he asked me to do. Why I did, I really don't know. He's never done anything for me before, and he definitely has never let me into his actual apartment. I mean I've never seen anyone go in there with him before, let alone, by themselves. I mean, pretty much everyone knew where he lived but no one's ever been invited inside. C'mon, it's Sasuke we're talking about here. He gives the cold shoulder to everyone. I had to pretty much sneak in here just in case if someone had seen me, most likely Sakura or Ino, because they probably would have tried to kill me right then and there. Thankfully, I just happened to live in the same apartment complex as him, almost exactly two floors down, so I guess I was pretty lucky for that. But why did he need my help? Sasuke's an irritating bastard who thinks he's great at everything he does, so why in the hell is he asking for help? Especially from me, he's never asked me to help him before. He just thinks that I'm really weak. At least that's always been my impression. He hasn't told me the reason why he treats me the way he does. He thinks he's so high and mighty, that stupid bastard.
I had already been waiting inside his house for an hour now, excluding the time it took me to clean up his mess. My stomach had started growling, so I gave up being polite and headed for his refrigerator in his kitchen. Who said I was polite anyways? I do what I want to when I want to. I looked inside the cold door and found a delicious looking glass of milk. It had been hours since I've had something to drink, breakfast-time I think and that was about six hours ago, so I snatched it. I was heading for the cupboard to scrounge for something to snack on when I spotted a rice cooker on the counter that was keeping the rice warm. I don't think he'll mind if I take some. If he does, then I guess he shouldn't invite people into his house and leave food out while he's gone. I served myself up a bowl of rice and sat down in the closer of the two chairs at his square table. I scooped up some rice onto my chopsticks that I had grabbed out of his utensil drawer and hungrily shoved it into my mouth. I only got one bite of the rice before I heard the sound of the front door clicking open. Of course that was my luck, I was hoping to be able to eat the whole bowl before he came back, oh well. I ignored it, assuming it was Sasuke and continued to eat my lunch.
"What the hell are you doing?" Sasuke asked sounding peeved. He was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, glaring at me (like that was new).
"Eating. What does it look like I'm doing?" I asked a bit irritated at his glare and shoved another bite of food into my mouth. His glare always pissed me off because he was always judging me with it. It was as if his eyes were mocking me saying: I'm better than you so you may as well give up trying. (And people think I'm stupid. I can read people's emotions. I'm not stupid. Only people who say other that people are stupid are the stupid ones, I mean, why else would they do something stupid like that? I can read people just as well as anyone else can. Most of the time I just chose not to. Is that why they say that I'm stupid?)
"When did I give you permission to eat my lunch?" Sasuke asked annoyed as he took a step towards me.
I angrily swallowed my food and replied, standing up, "Well, maybe you shouldn't leave your food out. You never specified in your message not to eat your food."
"I never specified you could eat my food either," he argued back. He sighed as he rolled his eyes. It was strange; his tone was something I had never heard him use before. When he spoke, it sounded as if he had something else on his mind. It kind of bothered me. Sasuke sighed and gave up (For once. Normally, he'll keep arguing until he wins). He walked towards his bedroom and I sat back down and ate the rest of my food before he could confiscate it.
"Did you pick up my clothes like I asked you to?" Sasuke called from his room.
"Yeah I did," I called back with a mouth full of food. "Whyawyuteatinmewikea *cough cough* wikeamaidanywayz?"
"What?" he asked obviously bothered. He's always hated it when I talked to him with my mouth full. He even hits me on the head when I do it! I don't even know why either. He eats likes that too, like when he's in a rush or like when Kakashi-Sensei's talking to him, so I don't see why he's so irritated by it.
I swallowed the rest of my food, nearly choking on it, and quickly threw my dishes in his sink in order to chug the rest of my milk down so I could head for his bedroom.
When I stepped into the doorway of his room I repeated myself. "I asked you, why are you treating me like a maid, teme?" I scanned around the room for him, but he was nowhere within sight. "Sasuke? Sasuke, where are you? Come on, stop screwing around." I was getting irritated at him again. First he gets pissed at me because I'm eating food that he never specified I couldn't have and then he disappears on me. Great. I hate this guy.
"I'm right here, baka," I heard him say from his closet. I walked around to the right side of his bed so it was directly behind me, thus I was able to see him through the open door of his closet as he stared down at something on the ground. What the hell is he looking at? I looked past him and found nothing interesting; he was just staring at the carpet. Is he stupid or something? But then again, he cared about the stupidest things.
"Sasuke? What in the hell are you doing? Didn't you say you needed me to help you with something?" I asked him as he just stood there, staring off at the floor. "Sasuke?" I stepped towards him cautiously. Okay, I'll have to admit. He was acting weird and it was starting to worry me.
He suddenly turned around and looked right at me. "Thanks for cleaning this up for me, Naruto," he said almost appreciatively. Now I was really starting to worry. Sasuke was never nice to me. There was only one time that he was nice to me and it was when I was tied to that damn log. I didn't ask for him to give me his food. He just gave it to me!
I didn't want him to think I was freaking out so I tried to act normal and asked, "Is that what you needed my help with?"
"Yes, there was that, but there's still something else I need your help with. Just give me a second," he replied in a strange tone with his trademark smirk. The first thing I thought of was something that really didn't seem like Sasuke's character, but I couldn't think of any other meaning than that. I mean I was in his room. What else was I supposed to think? I quickly tried to think of something to say in response before I started changing colors.
"Okay, that's fine, but I don't think you're going to get anything done in there, unless you're rearranging your stuff or something," I said to him trying to relax myself.
"Don't worry, I'm coming out of the closet," he assured me with his smirk again and started walking towards me. But then out of nowhere, just as he stepped outside of his closet, he threw a kunai aimed right at my head. I flew back onto the bed in order to dodge his attack. I heard the thunk of the kunai landing in the wall as I quickly propped myself up onto my elbows and glared furiously at Sasuke.
"What in the HELL was that for?" I yelled at him.
He had kept walking after he had thrown the kunai so he was now standing right in front of me. He almost freaking KILLED me and here he was just smirking at me!
"How else was I supposed to get you on the bed?" he asked with a sly grin.
I just looked at him confused. "Uh, you could've just asked me instead of trying to kill me!" I replied pissed off. Really, he couldn't have just asked me to sit on the bed like a normal person instead of trying to plunge a kunai through my head. And exactly why he wanted me on the bed, I have no idea. It couldn't be that. Really, it couldn't.
"This is what I need your help with," he said casually.
Then Sasuke grabbed both of my wrists and pinned them down next to my head on either side. He climbed over me until his face was directly above mine. Wait, he did WHAT? His actions completely took me off guard. But I didn't do anything. I didn't struggle or fight back. I just stared at him because I was immediately distracted by the smell of lavender soap on his skin (Not the bad smelling kind either, but the good kind; the expensive kind of soap…). It was a pretty strong scent so I assumed he had taken a shower not too long ago. He smelled…really good actually. I know it's strange. I don't usually pay attention to that kind of stuff with anyone, not even when I liked Sakura, but with Sasuke it was different, I noticed everything about him. The way he smelled, the way he walked, the way he trained, when he had had a bad morning or a good morning, and even the way he glared at me. When he glared at me with his cold, charcoal eyes, I could tell when he really was pissed off at me and when he was only doing it for show to keep up his reputation. The reason I paid attention to all of this was something that I didn't figure out until recently. I like him. Like, I like him like him. No, scratch that, I love Sasuke. When I look back on it, I guess I've always loved him like that. I admire and hate how he does everything with the simplest of ease. It always amazes me. So when we were competing against each other in the Land of Mist when we were climbing up those trees, it made me happy, because, well, one, I got to be alone with him for once, and two, because it proved that he was human too. He's not perfect at everything. It was kind of stupid of me but I really used to think that he was inhuman. I mean is there any other explanation to how someone could be so good at everything?
I love Sasuke, but that's not something I'm going to admit to him right away. I mean, I'm pretty sure that he doesn't like anyone like that, especially me and I don't blame him. I mean, were both guys. It's not like he's going to change his preference for me any time soon. Speaking of which, is this all right? Is this wrong for me to like another guy? I've only seen men and women coupled together. I've never seen two men or two women together. This isn't breaking some kind of big taboo, is it? I don't know but I really don't care about that either. I can't help my feelings toward him so those things don't matter to me. I just can't help it; Sasuke is incredible. Sure, he's good at virtually everything, but that's what's awesome about him. He gives me something to strive for, something to be better than. I guess he's almost like a role model to me even though I don't really want to admit it. Cause there's no way in hell that I'm going to lose to that bastard.
Sasuke is practically perfect, something that I've always want to become. Everyone loves Sasuke. They all think he's the coolest of all of the guys. He's the prodigy of the village. He is…the complete opposite of me. Everyone has always hated me because of that stupid fox sealed inside me. No one has ever shown me kindness or acceptance because of it. But Sasuke did, he was the only one. Whether he knew it or not, he was the first one to really acknowledge that I am actually capable of something; that I am a real person not a monster like what everyone else thinks. I believe that's what drove me to love him in the first place. He was the first one to accept me as a friend.
I could feel my face turning red as I contemplated these feelings with him so close to me but I still looked him in the eye. We were supposed to be friends. We are friends. I can't do anything. If I do then it will probably completely ruin the relationship we do have. I noticed that he had that same smirk he's always showing off on his face. He probably liked the fact that I was turning into a tomato. I furrowed my eyebrows in response to his smirk.
"Stop doing that. I hate it when you look at me like that," I pouted and I looked away from him in an attempt to hide my blushing face, which, I will admit, didn't work at all.
"Heh, fine then, if that'll make you happy," he replied as I glanced at him and saw his expression change from a smirk to a smile before I turned my head back to the side. Wait a minute, what did he do? I did a double take. I hadn't seen wrong, he was smiling. Sasuke was actually smiling. And not just any smile, it was an honest-to-God sincere smile towards me. It was something that I've never even considered of seeing from him before and that made me blush even more. Sasuke curled the corners of his mouth at my beet-colored cheeks but suddenly put on a very solemn and almost troubled face. He brought a hand up to my right cheek and I flinched. I thought that he was going to slap me, or something to that effect but he didn't. His touch was soft and delicate on my skin. Without changing his expression, he used his thumb to trace the markings on my cheek.
"Sas-Sasuke?" I asked him nervously.
He didn't reply to me, he only stared at my cheek, which started to make me feel awkward. What is he doing? He was petting my cheek and staring down at me. I had my right eye closed against his hand but I could still see Sasuke start to talk in such a quiet voice it almost a whisper.
"I know why the others hate you. It's because of that thing sealed inside of you, isn't it?" he began. "All of the adults think of you as a monster and that's what they've told their kids. That's why no one likes you. I don't get it though. Why are they blaming you for something that you couldn't help? It's not like you had a choice to have that thing put in you. Why can't they see you as a real human being just like the rest of us? I don't understand it at all. They're all so stupid. Why can't they see you the way that our friends do? The way that…"
Sasuke sighed and sat there for a moment in his thoughts. I knew that he really wasn't talking to me; it was more to himself. But what was the last thing he was going to say? I closed my eyes to make an effort to hide the tears that were trying to break through. No one's ever said stuff like that about me before. I thought it was kind of sweet. He really does think of me as a friend. He does care about me then. I think I was just happy that he said those words. It was enough for me to be happy for the rest of my life. I halfway opened my eyelids and saw that Sasuke was closer than he was earlier. He carefully cupped my open cheek in his other hand as he slowly progressed closer and closer.
I squeezed both eyes shut and quickly asked, "What the hell are you doing, Sasuke? You're getting too close,"
I squinted opened my eyes to see that he was looking at me with a serious expression through half-open onyx eyes. "Kissing you. What does it look like I'm doing?" he asked and his lips gracefully met mine.
My eyes automatically shot open. I even almost tried to get away from him. I had never expected anything like this from Sasuke. Never in a million years! Yet here he was, making what's only happened in my dreams come true. His lips were as soft as velvet, just like how I always imagined they would be. At that moment, I came to the conclusion that his lips revealed his true nature. He only acts smug and rude to cover up the fact that he's actually kind and considerate.
But suddenly his lips were gone just as fast as they had arrived. I didn't like that at all. He had pulled back to look at me when he realized that I wasn't doing anything in response. It was completely impossible for him to miss my glowing cheeks that were even redder than before, which I honestly didn't think was even possible. And my big, blue eyes were wider than they've ever been in my life before with shock. He smiled in response to my expression.
"Is something wrong?" he asked me amused. But I couldn't answer him. I was utterly surprised at his actions that it left me speechless. And he was showing those emotions to me again that I have never seen him express before. So how does he expect me to respond when he keeps doing stuff like this to me? He likes doing this to me. I know he does. He must love to torture me. It's sometimes frustrating but I like that he's so upfront with things. That's just the way Sasuke is.
I love Sasuke. I knew that, but he loves me? I can't believe it. That's something that just can't be true. It's just impossible. It has to be impossible. It is supposed to be unrequited love. It made the most sense. No, he doesn't love me. He doesn't love anyone. He doesn't even like anyone. He hates everyone. So, why did he just kiss me now?
"You know," Sasuke said as he crossed his arms and sat on top of me, " I kind of imagined that you would have a different reaction." He was almost beaming as he saw the look on my face.
"What did you just…but…I…huh…no!" I blurted out completely flustered.
"Heh, shut up," he said as he lay on my chest and wrapped his hands behind my head to be more comfortable as he kissed me again. I had the same reaction as before; but it didn't take very long for me to close my eyes and give him an answer back. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him as close to me as he could get. I could feel Sasuke smile when I did so, and as a result he began to kiss me even harsher, this time demanding me to open my mouth (this was the way that I had pictured him kissing me, not delicately like before). I denied him though. This time, I was the one in charge and he couldn't change that no matter how much he wanted to. I liked the fact that he wasn't getting what he wanted. I knew it irritated him. He always gets what he wants but not this time.
We broke away from each other for air and he glared at me as we caught our breath. "Something wrong, Sasuke?" I asked with a smirk.
"You just love to piss me off, don't you, Naruto?" he asked still glaring at me.
"You know I do," I smiled and pulled him down for another kiss. This time I was the one trying to open his mouth and he hesitated for a second, probably debating whether to not to take revenge on me, but he ended up giving in. I knew I didn't deserve him but he's going to be mine as long as he can. I don't care if it's only the rest of today or if it's the rest of my life. Either way, this moment was real.
It was the most amazing thing of my life. I never thought that Sasuke would ever love me, but he does and he proved it to me then and there. The only thing I can say is that I love Sasuke with every cell in my being and nothing is ever going to change that.
We broke apart for air again and I smiled at him as he started to sit up. He smiled back at me. "Naruto, there's something that I want to say," he said sweetly.
"Yeah?" I asked turning red for a third time. There he went yet again. Showing his nice side to me, getting me all flustered all over again.
"I…I love you," he said as he started turning red too. I laughed at his face. O, come on, I had the right to. He laughed at my face like three times! The only time Sasuke has ever blushed was when I impersonated him to get to Sakura.
"How much do you love me?" I asked him curiously.
"…As much as eternity will hold," he replied confidently. A huge, beaming grin appeared on my face when he said that. It couldn't have made me any happier.