Just Chocolate
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, it copyrights to Kishimoto Masashi…
The day of love, Valentine's day. If love is a big cheese, then Valentine's day would be its bad smell. The air is over flying with the sweet smell of chocolate, delicate scent of soft whispers from lovers –
What is love on this Valentine's day anyways? Sasuke thinks.
This whole world seems to be sprinkled by pink and red, and trucks and trucks chocolate fills every store, hell, even that ramen store in the village put on a sign saying "Chocolate at half price", and the lame lovers' accessories which probably were in the stockroom for 10 years are now at their selling peaks.
Just the sound of non-living Valentine's day's supplies is enough to make Sasuke daze, and the thought of being hugged and crushed by countless girls and the ringing of their sharp horny "Sasuke-kun" voices makes Sasuke wishing that Itachi should just kill him back then and end his suffering.
Of course, the reason Sasuke swore to kill Itachi is that he didn't help his little poor brother from whatever suffering Sasuke is facing now.
Itachi is evil.
But thinking that Itachi was in the same brainless situation back then with hopeless screaming girls comforts Sasuke somehow.
Yes, this is the Valentine's Day morning, and Sasuke is lying on his bed and covers his head with pillow to try to think of something to avoid Sakura and Ino and numerous other girls. Sasuke hates different holidays in different ways, but Valentine's Day is the worst, because the most sensitive subject is being brought up to him all day. Every pack of chocolate, every hug from different girl, every "Happy Valentine's Day" makes him remembering his dead clan and question the existence of love.
It's painful, and love isn't supposed to be that way.
Sighing, Sasuke rolls over and gets dressed, cleans up and eats breakfast, ready to report to Kakashi's and starts his strange training.
As Sasuke arrives to the training group, he makes a mental preparation. Here we go… Sasuke sighs and ready to struggle –
"SASUKE-KUN!!!!!!!!" Sakura runs maniacally and hugs Sasuke as he struggles as practiced.
"Where is Naruto?" Sasuke manages to push Sakura off after 10 seconds of the hellish "fighting", the record has gone better.
"That idiot probably slept in." Sakura flips her hair.
"Oh."
"Sasuke, what do you think of my dress today? I did something special to my hair this morning too."
"They are fine."
"Really? You like them? Oh my god! Do you think I should do my hair like this everyday? I'm sure it's hard to move around like this but it'll be fine, since I did this especially for you and…"
Sasuke looks away. Conversations with Sakura have always been awkward, if you even call them conversations when Sakura is the only one who's talking. Surprisingly, Sasuke prefers to talk to Naruto, even though they hardly "talk", all they do is insulting each other and fight with each other and compete with each other, but for some reasons, Sasuke likes Naruto's expression whenever he gets angered by Sasuke's challenge.
Yeah, it's fun.
Sasuke hides the smile from the corner of his lips, he looks away and sees Naruto runs fast towards them.
"Kakashi isn't here, is he?!" Naruto pants as he reaches Sasuke.
"No."
"Ha! I knew it! I'm so smart that I slept in!" Naruto exclaims.
"Sure, and then run like a moron around the village so that everyone knows you are late for your training." Sasuke smirks, it begins.
"Wha-!?!" Naruto isn't trying to fight back as usual, "do I like look very… 'insultable' to you!?"
"Of course."
"AH THAT'S IT!!" Naruto's anger limit is very limited no matter how hard he tries, and the routine begins, Sakura drags Naruto back and beats him and tells him not to be a pain to Sasuke, and Sasuke continues having fun of making fun of Naruto.
"Sasuke…" Sakura moves closer to Sasuke as the three of them cool down.
"What?" Sasuke replies emotionlessly for that he is in his little world of replaying the scenes where Naruto tries to fight back his insults.
"Today is Valentine's Day…"
"I knew that." Sasuke snaps silently.
"I heard people say that if you kiss the one you love at midnight of Valentine's Day, love will stay will you and gives you happiness… it's soo romantic…"
"Your point being, Sakura?" Sasuke shots a cold glare at Sakura.
Sakura ignores the glare as always, "well, I was thinking, why don't you be my date at the Valentine's dance party tonight? And we can…" she blushes, "it'll be really fun… and we can…"
"No."
Sakura's jaw drops, "but Sasuke! Are you going with Ino?! Is that why you won't come? Please!! Sasuke-kun!!"
"I'm not going." Sasuke turns and changes the subject, "why is Kakashi so late today? If he doesn't come in 5 minutes, I'm going home."
Apparently, Kakashi is always late, there's this 3 hours late rule of his, and the poor excuse rule also, and Sasuke never complains, but today, hours seem awfully long and he feels that he is going to explode any second.
And Naruto is quiet all these times, it's unusual to see him being this way. Sasuke glances over Naruto's direction and their eyes meet for half of a second as Naruto quickly turns his eyes somewhere else.
Something about him, Sasuke wonders. Naruto is actually THINKING.
Well, it might because of the Valentine's Day, Sasuke usually gets tons of chocolates from girls, but Naruto hardly gets anything. Sasuke looks over at Naruto's direction and stares at him this time. Naruto must hate this holiday too, he sighs.
Sasuke wonders if Naruto ever gives out any chocolate, he struggles to erase a thought out of his mind, but he just can't – he'd like to get a piece of chocolate from Naruto, even though he never touches any of other chocolates from other people every year.
"Pfft." Sasuke grunts at his own thought. What a stupid thing to think. He comforts himself, well, just the sound of ramen flavored chocolate makes him want to puke anyways.
"Morning, class!" Kakashi's lazy voice shakes Sasuke from his embarrassing thought.
"Oh look at all your poor little angry eyes," Kakashi snickers. "Ah well, sorry I'm late, I was helping a pregnant woman to the hospital…" Kakashi is going to continue on about how the non-traffic village suddenly grows very crowdy today but Sakura's growl makes him stopped, peak at Naruto and calmes Sakura down.
Naruto isn't saying anything, strange. Sasuke frowns, and Kakashi notices it too.
……….
Kakashi's trainings have always been hellish. If it's not for Sakura's begging and use of pathetic excuses such as "but today is VALENTINE'S day!" and "it's the day of LOVE! aka kindness", the three Genins would probably be facing down and vomit their hearts out right now. Sasuke groans as he gets up from the training ground and starts thinking where he will be going.
And that's when Naruto gets up and says bye to everyone and runs down to the village.
"What is that idiot's hurry?" Sasuke frowns.
"It's the day of LOVE, Sasuke," Kakashi says using Sakura's tone. "Be nice, Naruto probably has a date."
"NO way." Both Sasuke and Sakura look at Kakashi as if he is crazy.
"Ah just kidding."
………..
Sasuke walks tiredly into the apartment as he shrugs off the last girl who hugs him all the way from the grocery store. He throws different sizes of wrapped chocolate boxes onto the sofa and collapses on his bed. But then he grunts and pulls himself up to take a shower.
Sun set, the day passes fast. Sasuke looks at the ceiling as he lies facing up on the bed, feeling funny that he was doing the exact same thing in the morning and thought about how horrible Valentine's Day would be. And it isn't bad, he manages to throw off the girls who want to ask him to the dance tonight, and he also manages to carry all the chocolates back.
But the emptiness, and a little bit disappointment just wouldn't let Sasuke sleep.
What is this, pop culture?* It just influences you so much. It's just a stupid day in February, and it isn't even a traditional holiday, but this new myth, this new saying just keeps calling out to you on this day, it keeps on reminding you that it's the day of love. And Sasuke really wants to be loved. To be told that he is loved, to be told that he is not alone, to know the same thing he knew a few years back when he wasn't living alone in this cold apartment.
And Sasuke really wants to know that he is cared by someone whom he cares about.
Stupid Naruto, che. Sasuke murmurs angrily and rolls to his side.
Dong… flip… zssszz… chew… chew…Sasuke opens his eyes wide, sits up quickly and gets on his feet. Someone's in the living room. He can identify the direction of the noise. Sasuke quietly sneaks into the living room, snatched his shurikens and kunais, and ready to fight and catch the stupid thief who is moronic enough to sneak into the Uchiha's household.
The moment Sasuke turns on the light, he is already on the ceiling and aims to the target and –
"NARUTO!?!?! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY APARTMENT!?!"
"Ah the light is in my eyes!" Naruto yells with Sasuke.
Sasuke gets down from the ceiling, drops the weapons and feels shocked but half amused while Naruto waves his arms in the front of his face and tries to block the light.
"What are YOU doing here?!" Sasuke narrows his eyes.
"Ah jeesh, and I thought you were organized! I got tripped over by all these chocolates! Huh, but some of them taste really good… especially the ones in this red box…"
"Ahem," Sasuke can't help it but eye twitches. "I ask you what are you doing in my apartment!"
"Just dropping by."
"You don't DROP BY through the window and eat people's food without permission!" Sasuke pauses, "also, do you know what time is it!?"
"Ah, just about midnight." Naruto smiles and robs his head awkwardly.
An awkward silence stays still between them for several minutes.
"Well, I, uh, just want to give you this." Naruto put his hand into his pocket and drags out a yellow box. "You know, everyone is giving everyone this thing, so I thought I'd give you one."
It's chocolate, same as those sickening piles of boxes on the sofa.
But this is different, it's from someone whom he cares, as much as Sasuke hates to admit, he's glad.
Sasuke takes over the chocolate from Naruto's hands. "Well, thanks." Though the question of why Naruto comes all the way and sneaks into his apartment at such a late hour does not say "Thanks". Perhaps Naruto sees the questioning look in Sasuke's eyes, or perhaps he feels that Sasuke deserves an explanation, he opens his mouth.
"See, I was at the Valentine's party with Sakura, she got nobody to go with. I bought the chocolate after our training, but I never got a chance to give it to you, and hell, there's no meaning of giving out chocolate if it's not Valentine's day, right? So I thought I'd come to your apartment and give it to you, but I couldn't leave the party, and I just sneaked out from there and it's already a bit too late, so I thought I'd just sneak into your apartment and put the chocolate somewhere on the table and…"
"And eat all my chocolates." Sasuke teases, he feels a little bit delighted, it's funny to see how Naruto tries to explain things and tries to hide his embarrassment at the same time.
"Well I'm SORRY! Nobody ever gives me any chocolate!"
Sasuke's smile disappears. Suddenly he feels awkward about his joke. He wants to apologize, but since when does he apologize to that "total moron"? He looks at the yellow chocolate box in his hands, and tries to make a conversation.
"So, uh, is this ramen flavored?" Sasuke looks at Naruto suspiciously.
"No way!" Naruto laughs. "But, ramen flavored chocolate sounds delicious…mm…"
"That was a JOKE, Naruto."
"Uh, yeah, I knew that." Naruto makes a kitty look. "Uh, Sasuke,"
"What?"
"Your joke was pathetic."
Sasuke looks at Naruto, and they laugh it off. There must be something very magic about this, this, not this box of chocolate, not the chocolate itself, but the spirit it brings, but the laughter, the joy and the love it contains.
Surprisingly what a box of chocolate can do.
"Hey Sasuke, open the box, I want to eat some too." Naruto robs his nose and puts his usually sheepish smile.
"Ok." Sasuke opens the box. It is just a normal piece of chocolate, big piece. He breaks it into halves, and hands one half to Naruto. So they sits and eats, none of them say anything. But it isn't an awakward silence, it's rather comforting. To sit like this, feeling each other's presence, taste something that they both touch and wasting the night away.
Wasting the night away.
Sasuke suddenly remembers what Sakura said in the morning before the training. His breath fastens.
If you kiss the one you love at midnight of Valentine's Day, love will stay will you and gives you happiness…
Sasuke looks at the clock, 10 seconds till 12 O'clock. He looks back to Naruto, who looks back at him with confusion.
10
"Hey Naruto."
9
"What?"
8
if you kiss the one you love at midnight of Valentine's Day, love will stay will you and gives you happiness…
7
"Do you remember what Sakura said in the morning?"
6
"About what?"
5
It' all girls talk, Sasuke thinks.
4
Who likes Naruto anyways.
3
Not me.
2
Not me.
1
"About what?" Naruto is about to poke the silented Sasuke when he feels Sasuke's cold lips closed to his. He didn't even see it coming. Naruto's heart stops, then pops, his eyes widens, his whole body softens, his voice becomes a moan and his lips conquered by Sasuke's.
Sasuke pushes away lightly. His face blushes violently as he stares at the floor. And Naruto is more speechless and shocked than Sasuke had imagined, then again, he didn't really image.
What the hell was that!?!? Sasuke beats himself maniacally in his mind. Why did you kiss him!?!? Didn't you just say that you don't like him!? You DON'T! What the hell!?
"Sasuke…"
"What?!" Sasuke jumps at Naruto's voice. He turns to look at Naruto and the colour of complete red just won't go away on his face.
"…you are the first one who gives me chocolate."
What? Sasuke dazes. Gave? No… I was just…oh.
"….and you are the first one who shares the chocolate with me." Sasuke gets up, and picks up several boxes of chocolate.
"And let's eat them all."
……….
It's just chocolate, that's all.
FIN.
A.N.: I paused there at the end, and I wasn't sure that I want it to end this way. In most people's impressions, Valentine's Special is supposed to have hearts, "I love you", "I love you too" and all those things, but I figured that I don't want to write the typical stuff, all I want to express is that love is about one cares for another, always be there for another, and shares the happiness and everything, it doesn't need to be explained or repeated over and over. Saying "I love you" doesn't necessarily make it romantic or loving, I think it's the actions and the real feeling counts. And since I never put this in the fanfic, Happy Valentine's Day everyone, ^.^