Warnings: EXTREME OOC! I'm not very good at capturing Sasuke's personality, so don't flame me!

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me, but this story does. Please don't Plagiarize my story or else I will HUNT YOU DOWN. Thank you.

Author's Notes: Real random idea I came up with. By the way, is this even counted as Sasunaru! Or is it just a random story? Oh well, better to be safe than sorry... please review! But don't flame! One-shot.

Two in the Morning

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Being that he wasn't particularly fond of French pastries—or just pastries in general, for that matter, he found it odd that he was up, two in the morning, dressed in nothing but a tattered bathrobe in the still sweltering hot of July, walking down the lane to the nearest pastry shop to buy… something called a 'choux'.

"Agh…" The blonde mumbled as he rubbed his eyes sleepily, dragging his feet down the sidewalk like a zombie roused from the dead, "stupid…"

Uzamaki Naruto had always found it hard to wake up at a time that allowed him to brush his teeth, take a shower, eat a ramen breakfast and make it in time for work. He couldn't believe it now that he'd managed to get himself off the bed at two just because he'd forgotten that tomorrow (or today, really) was Sasuke's birthday.

Oh, it wasn't like he just forgot. It was like one of those long term forgetfulness's. Sort of like, it was circled on your calendar, and you knew it was coming, and when people ask you, hey, what did you get for his birthday? You were just sort of like, huh? But isn't Sasuke's birthday on the twenty-seventh? And then Sakura could say, you baka! Tomorrow is the twenty-seventh!

Iruka had told him that evening that he'd read something that said that the first step in going insane was forgetting the date. Naruto had thrown a book at him and told him that it wasn't really funny.

Really, he could've gotten his birthday present earlier today (or yesterday, literally). But he just kept on procrastinating.

That morning, when Iruka asked him if he was going to need a ride to the convenient store, he'd just waved it off and told him he'd get the present in the afternoon. In the afternoon, when Sakura offered to take him along in one of her weekly shopping sprees so he could get a present, he'd said he needed to do his homework (and just for the record that was actually true). At night, he just plain forgot since Iruka offered to take him out to eat ramen because the teacher had spent a little too much time grading papers and couldn't bake anything dinner-like fast enough for the both of them to eat within an hour.

To say, Naruto had fallen asleep and would've probably forgotten about the birthday forever if not for the… odd dream he had…

It was a sunny day, with the sun way up in the sky, the birds chirping, flowers blooming, and in the midst of it all, Naruto sat on a rock, face happy. "Ah!" He said, "Ramen!" For the flowers were not really flowers. They were ramen flowers! Made of the most delicious, wonderful ramen ever! Naruto ate and ate and ate, and then he saw... gasp! The ULTIMATE ramen flower! It was large in size, and the flower was a beautiful shade of red. Its aroma was mouth-watering, and Naruto immediately ran after it.

Suddenly, the flower's leaves turned into vines covered with thorns, and Naruto yelped as they wrapped around him and lifted him up in the air. The flower rose up from the ground, and its petals unraveled. Naruto screamed. The flower had Sasuke's face!

"Mwahahaha!" Sasuke-flower said, "Now I will eat YOU Naruto!" Sasuke-flower opened his mouth to reveal a jaw filled with sharp, shark-like teeth. Naruto struggled and tried to break free.

"No! S-Sasuke! You teme! I'm your teammate, you can't eat me!" As it seemed that Sasuke-flower was obviously not listening to him, Naruto panicked.

"Stop! Think about what you're doing! You don't really want to eat me, right? In your heart, you actually care—" Naruto considered what he was saying. He tried one last tactic as he saw the large shark-like mouth draw closer, "what did I ever do to you?" Too late. Sasuke-flower popped Naruto into his mouth and chewed him up. As Naruto screamed as he was being chewed, he heard Sasuke-flower say…

"You forgot my birthday present, you dobe…"

After waking up in a cold sweat, Naruto had immediately gotten out of bed, put on a random robe he found hung on his bed post (when did he get this? Oh well, it was probably Iruka's anyway), hurried downstairs and hobbled out the door, towards that damn French shop that had opened just last week sporting a huge advertisement saying 'You want it? You get it! Choux Bakery open twenty four seven! Order online at or call 1-800-324-CHOX!'

Never mind that Choux was spelled wrong in the phone number, Naruto hadn't been willing to dial the bakery, as number one: Iruka was a light sleeper and would probably just wake up when he heard the phone numbers being pressed into the receiver (as he had a wireless telephone right next to his ear on the dresser squished next to his bed) and number two: Iruka had caller ID and would probably want to know what the heck Naruto was doing up at two calling the local French pastry café that only a few blocks away from their house. "Lazy," Iruka would call it, "No more ramen for a week."

Naruto cringed at the idea of no ramen as he finally made it to the petite café front, still lit with elegant lights in the front that was supposed to 'create an aura of actually being in modern day France!' Whatever. Having no idea what 'an aura of being in modern day France' actually felt like, he slipped into the store and immediately wished he hadn't. The store had a… smell… he didn't like. Covering his nose, he went up to the counter and stared at the cashier.

A freakishly tall gangly girl with large bottle-cap glasses and a really large smile plastered on her face awaited him. She twitched a little, her smile getting wider. "Hello… sir… how may I… help you?" The last part was a squeaked, making it sound like a question. Naruto looked at her worriedly. Had this girl had too much sugar or what?

He bent down and looked through the glass. Now, what kind of cake would that bastard Sasuke like? He rubbed his eyes again and yawned. It was way too early for this. He pointed at a random pastry and said, "One of those please." Ugh. He hated pastries.

Now, most people assumed that Naruto was a sugar-high freak. Technically, that was true. Naruto loved cake. He loved any type of cake—carrot, ice cream, angel, chocolate, you name it, he'd eat it.

But he hated pastries. Once, when he was six, Iruka had bought an apple scone for lunch and Naruto had thrown the thing on the floor and ground it in with his heel. And then, he had burst out crying. Needless to say, Iruka never brought home pastries every again after that.

The creepy girl had finished packaging the cake, and Naruto paid the bill with the ten he had sleepily grabbed out of his wallet on his way out the door. After grabbing the dangling plastic bag the girl was offering him, he rushed out of the store and shivered. Never again, never again.

He sighed as he made his way back home. It was now two thirty in the morning. He had now bought a Choux cake for Sasuke's birthday tomorrow. It had just occurred to him that he wasn't even invited to the Uchiha's birthday party. Great. He'd probably just drop the cake off at that prat's doorstep or something…

"Naruto?"

The blonde looked up, surprised, that someone who knew his name was up this early in the morning as well. He then wished he hadn't. In front of him was—lo and behold, the ice king of all time, Uchiha Sasuke. And just at this time too.

They stared at each other for a minute. Naruto finally came to terms with what he looked like at this moment. Blonde hair mussed from just getting out of bed, eyes a little red and droopy, wearing an ugly red and green-striped bathrobe that was tattered at the edges with only his boxers underneath, he looked like the ugly zombie uncle from hell. Or something close to that, of course.

Sasuke, in contrast, had his hair neatly combed back in a manner that shouted 'I had just gotten out of bed but dammit all if I'm going out in public with my hair messed up', wearing a dark blue t-shirt with a white long-sleeve underneath and a dark pair of jeans that looked hastily pulled on. It ticked Naruto off that no matter what time Sasuke was up, he always looked good. Why couldn't he be like that?

"What are you doing up so early?"

"What are you doing up so early?" They stared at each other even more. Naruto considered the plastic bag clasped tightly in his hand. Eventually, he shoved the bag into Sasuke's face.

"Here."

"What?" Sasuke stared at the bag within centimeters from his eyes, "What are you doing, you dobe?"

"Your present." Naruto growled, "Since I wasn't invited to your party."

There was a pause.

"Naruto," Sasuke sighed, as he took the bag, "I didn't plan a party this year. No one was invited because there isn't one."

Insert uncomfortable silence.

Naruto scratched the back of his head, shifting his eyes. "Er… well…" He shook his head. This wasn't like him. "Just keep it anyways! I bought it already and I'm pretty sure there aren't any refunds…" He shrugged and attempted to walk around the Uchiha, back to his blissful bed for some well-deserved, blissful sleep. This was interrupted when said Uchiha stuck his foot out and tripped him. Naruto's face, meet concrete. Concrete, meet Naruto's face.

"TEMEEEEEEE!"

"Shut up dobe, you want to wake the whole town?" Sasuke sat down besides him as Naruto carefully picked himself up from the pavement. "What is this anyway?" He carefully removed the plastic bag from a small decorated paper box. Opening it, he observed the pastry inside.

"…you got me a cake?" Naruto winced.

"A chucks! Or choux. Or something like that. Not a cake. A pastry." Naruto glared at him, and Sasuke glared back. There was an uncertain silence.

"Well…?"

"Eat it, Teme, before it gets cold!" Sasuke hesitantly poked it. This was a cake. Or pastry. Given to him by Naruto. Naruto. Would he have poisoned it? He took a closer look at the ca—I mean pastry. Only one way to find out.

"Ok, but you take the first bite."

"What?" Naruto squawked. Did I mention Naruto hated pastries? I think I did, didn't I? "It's your present! You eat it!" Sasuke shook his head ruefully (faking, of course).

"But I couldn't possibly eat all this myself. Besides, it's three in the morning. I'm not that hungry. And besides, don't you want something sweet?" Naruto twitched. Ugh. Eat that pastry? Him? But… the sugar sounded good… Yes. Sugar. Sugar. Wait… Naruto clutched his head. He was going into sugar withdrawal! Iruka always kept an extra can of sugar by the cabinet next to the door in the kitchen, where Naruto would look whenever he went into sugar withdrawal. He went into withdrawal after more than three hours of no sugar. The symptoms were—

"Hey, Naruto…" Sasuke peered into Naruto's face, "Are you listening?" Naruto twitched.

"Well, Sasuke, I would be if I wasn't going into—mmph!" Naruto immediately found his mouth full of soft buttery crust and a very sweet custard filling. Sasuke licked his own fingers off and made a face.

"…too sweet." Naruto swallowed and stared as Sasuke carefully pulled the remaining choux into two separate pieces and popped one of the pieces into his mouth. He looked as if he was carefully considering the pastry in his mouth before carefully swallowing. He gave the other half to Naruto.

"That's not fair! You gave me more than half!" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"So…? Isn't that good?" Naruto looked away. He wasn't going to tell his rival his greatest weakness!

"Oh, I forgot. You don't like pastries right?"

Naruto snapped.

"You BASTARD! You knew and you—you, argh! I hate you! I wish you'd just die!"

"Mm-hm." Sasuke got up, wiping his hands on a small handkerchief found in his pocket, "Whatever. And that totally explains why you went through so much trouble to get me a present, right?" Naruto felt his face flush red.

"SASUKE! I'm going to beat you! I'm so over you!" He jumped up and punched a fist in the air, "C'mon! I challenge you to a race around the town! Now!"

Sasuke snorted as he started to walk away, "Yeah, in your dreams. Do you know what time it is now? Get back to sleep." Naruto stared at the retreating back of the Uchiha. He growled. He had woken up to get a present to a party that didn't even exist and the person who the nonexistent party was going to be hosted for had forced him to eat the thing he hated the most and—and…

And he had eaten it. Naruto stopped on the way back to his house.

He, Uzamaki Naruto, had eaten a pastry. For the first time in nine years. He blinked for a few moments before yawning and rubbing his eyes.

It had tasted good. And sweet. He touched his lips.

Maybe pastries weren't that bad after all... but...

Naruto sighed.

"It's way too early in the morning..."

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Author's Notes: If you are reading this now... thanks for spending some time reading this story! Oh, yeah, I NEED A BETA because I can't survive without one. Email me at: since the email that's in my profile doesn't work. Thanks! Reviews please? I'll give you a choux!