(Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Warnings: Mild language, a chance of OOCness, hints at shonen-ai)

What Are Friends For?

"Sasuke!!!" I yelled as I ran over to him.

He turned and looked at me. "What?"

I huffed and pouted. "No need to answer like that!"

"Well what do you need?"

I paused for a moment and looked at him in concern. He was never this snappish, no matter how much of an ass he was. I shook it off and said, "Ino's being mean. She has color guard today so I'm walking alone."

He gave me a blank look.

"Wanna accompany me?" I tried again.

He sighed and silently pulled out his phone from his pocket. He flipped it open, and quickly dialed a number. He held it to his ear and waited for the person to pick up. "I'm going to walk today. Yes, I'm fine." He flipped the phone shut and pushed it back into his pocket. He seemed really irritated. I just hoped it wasn't because of me.

As we started walking I shot him another worried look. I debated whether to ask him if he was okay or not. For all I knew, he could blow up at me. I gathered up courage and took the risk. "Sasuke, are you okay?"

He glared at me, that slight red in his black eyes showing up clearly. He seemed like he was about to yell at me, but he regained his self-control and looked away. When he looked back, the red was barely visible. "No."

A few seconds later I couldn't restrain myself from asking. "What happened?"

Sasuke grew silent, probably as he debated whether or not to tell me. He summed it all up in three words. "This day sucked."

Going by his unresponsiveness, I wondered if this was the time to keep probing and let him vent, or to let him smolder. Either way, it would be an unpleasant walk for me down the hill. Maybe I should've just walked alone. I stole another glance at him. At the rate he was going, he would explode. Okay, time to provoke.

"So what happened?" I asked again. Sasuke's dark, evil aura infinitely expanded. I subconsciously shifted away from him to the right. When he didn't reply, I tried again. "Oh come on, you can't go pretending nothing big happened. I mean, if it were something small, it wouldn't be affecting you this much. You usually just shrug things off. But this, well, you're going to kill things by just standing next to them, man."

He glared at me momentarily then went back to staring at the sidewalk. At least I was getting to him. "Hey, come on. You're not perfect. Everyone has to vent sometime in their life right? Bottling up emotions isn't healthy. I mean, it's just like any other bottle. Take a bottle of soda for instance, fill it up too much, give it a little shake and the thing explodes." I started babbling mostly nonsense.

"Just shut up, you idiot!" he erupted and yelled at me. Ouch. I think I just got burned. We had stopped walking and he was glaring at me. The red was back.

"See? Just like that! Doesn't it feel good to let your feelings out?"

He raised a fist as if to punch me. He probably would've too if it weren't for some random sixth graders passing by. They went around Sasuke giving him a wide berth. One passed behind me and the others braved walking on the streets. It was sort of funny how they would risk getting run over by a car than going within two feet from Sasuke.

Sasuke sighed, composed himself, and continued walking. I quickly moved to catch up to him. "So you're not going to vent anymore? 'Cause you know, that bottle could still explode at any second."

"Will you shut up if I tell you?" he nearly growled out.

"I guess that'll have to depend on what you tell me. I mean, for all I know, you could be lying." Sasuke sent me a death glare. "Okay, okay! Just…tell me what's wrong, I mean," I paused and sighed. "I'm worried, okay?" His glare softened and his whole body relaxed. Now, instead of absolutely furious he looked…deflated.

"Well…let's see. Today I woke up late and to make things worse, the garage door started having problems. I barely made it into class before the bell rang. After that I almost couldn't find my homework." I nodded. During science I had noticed him running in and then not too long after looking frantically for the homework. "Then during geo(1) we had a sub(2). And we're on a fairly new lesson. That was hell to sit through." I nodded. Subs and new lessons never went well together. "Language arts…that was just killer…really boring. After that…" I noticed as he suppressed a shudder. "She's like…a..." He couldn't come up with a word. "Anyways…Sakura tried helping but it was no use. She just wouldn't take no for an answer. I mean, I tried letting her down gently that there was absolutely no reason for me to go out with her, heck, I don't even speak to her. Ever. But noooo, she just had to keep asking. She even started asking specific days. I finally snapped, I mean who wouldn't, and I just yelled at her. And then she just started crying. Full out sobbing. A no's a no! Even after about a million tries she still thought I would change my answer!"

Sasuke had blown into full rant mode. I had seen him turn down many, many girls (sometimes the same ones repeatedly at different instances) with a simple ease. But back then…he really just wasn't interested. Now, well, I guess he has a more pressing reason to be declining them. And considering how persistent these girls could be, I really wasn't surprised that Sasuke had snapped.

"Sasuke…did you ever think to tell her exactly…why?" I asked quietly, stopping him in mid-rant.

He just looked at me for the longest time, trying to see what I was thinking. Only the smallest hint of red was left. "I thought you didn't want it out?"

"It would've saved a lot of trouble. And even though the outcome probably would've been the same, she'd at least understand why."

"Do you really think it would have saved trouble?" Sasuke muttered, averting his eyes.

It wasn't out of embarrassment. He just didn't want to see my reaction. 'Cause I had no clue what he meant. At all. And I made this known. "What do you mean?"

He chuckled. I think it was part relief from venting, part disbelief at my obliviousness, part slight irritation, and scary to say, part insanity. "If I told her, it would be like using a flamethrower in the middle of the woods with high winds. It'd spread just like that, and then the whole school would know. And you think that would save us some trouble?"

"Well, yeah." I replied simply.

"Do you seriously not know how some people treat gays?" Sasuke asked incredulously.

"Of course I do! Do you really think I'm that stupid? All I'm saying is how is that more trouble than now?"

He opened his mouth to retaliate and then closed it. For once he did not fully know what I meant.

"You hurt that girl," I started softly. "More than you have to anyone before. I mean…not even Sakura was like that." I gave him a slight smile. "She doesn't really have anyone to turn to. Maybe some of her friends would understand, but not fully, you get what I'm saying? If everyone but our friends turned on us, heck even if our friends did, we'd still have each other. And we do understand each other fully."

Sasuke stared at me blankly. He started chuckling, and it grew into a laugh. I frowned. "What's so funny? I meant what I said!" My words went through my head again. I chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the back of my neck. "It did sound a bit corny…"

We finally started walking down the hill again, headed to our homes. "Hey, Naruto?"

"Yeah?" I turned my head to look at him. At the risk of sounding totally idiotic again, my breath was caught. Sasuke was really smiling at me. It wasn't a grin, no, that wouldn't suit him. But those small sincere smiles. They were a rarity with him.

"I think you were right. Venting helped," he spoke hesitantly, not wanting to admit I had beaten him at something.

I grinned. "No problem!"

-what-are-friends-for?-

(1)It's how my friends and I refer to geometry.
(2)Everyone knows that means substitute, right?

A/N: I have no clue what I was doing with this thing. Honestly, I think this is more to get me back on my feet into writing 'cause I haven't written anything for three weeks. February was really busy for me. So I hope March none of my teachers pour too many projects on me. …I doubt it since Open House is really soon…darn. Well, tell me what you guys think. I wasn't being too serious about this, writing it as I went along. This is sort of a connected fic to Love on them like there's No Tomorrow, but it could be taken as separate. Well, don't forget to leave a review!
--NarutoKyuu