(A/N disclaimer: I do now own Naruto, Kishimoto does. Enjoy!)

Sai found himself sitting on his rooftop painting the rising sun before him. Painting was the only thing that allowed him to escape the chaotic emotions and thoughts he was encountering. A certain teammate of his was making him question everything and anything he had read from his books on friendship and social normalcy. None of his books contained any information on why his heart would clench when he was talking with or even just being around his team member or why he felt more self conscious around them either. These feelings made him feel more confusion than he's ever felt before. He was at his wits end on how to handle it.

A single thought suddenly stopped Sai's painting and musings. It was an epiphany of sorts. It was the answer to part of his questions about his feelings. It was so simple and so blatantly obvious, it made feel idiotic for not thinking of that option sooner: he could go to the bookstore and get another self help book about his feelings. Those books helped him before; they could surely help him again. Sai quickly exited his roof and put away his sketchbook and paint. He exited his apartment and headed toward the bookstore down the road. When he got there, he anxiously waited for the shop assistant to become available.

"What can I do for you sir?" the shop assistant asked him.

"I need a book about this emotion that I have been feeling as of late." Sai responded.

The shop assistant frowned. "What emotion would that be?"

Sai sighed. "You see, when I'm in the presence of a teammate of mine, I start to feel self conscious and my heart starts to clench at times." Sai paused. "Also, my heart clenching has nothing to do with anything medical."

The shop assistant gave Sai an odd look for his last statement. "Well, from the sound of it, I would say you are in love or feel infatuation for your teammate."

Sai frowned, "Love?"

The shop assistant smirked, "Yep, love. You probably feel anxious and self conscious around them, your chest tightens, and your heart races when you see them, right?"

Sai's eyes widened. "Yes, that's exactly how I have been feeling."

"Then it's definitely love." The shop assistant responded. "Actually," she began, pointing toward the shelf of books in the back corner of the shop. "Those books would help you sort out your feelings and help you with relationships. But my advice is," she leaned forward, giving Sai a meaningful look. "You should just confess to her. It's best to be direct with this type of thing."

Sai furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "The person I feel this way for is male." He paused and cocked his head at the taken aback look on the shop assistant's face. "Is it wrong to feel this way for another male?"

"Er….n-no…it's just odd….well…rare for two guys to love one other in that way." She stammered.

"Oh," Sai murmured.

"But you should still tell your teammate how you feel. Those type of feelings will eat at you if you let them fester." She quickly explained.

"Eat at you? How? I did not know feelings were capable of such things." Sai asked in awe.

The shop assistant quickly realized that she was dealing with a socially inept person and sighed. "I didn't mean that literally. I meant that these type of feelings shouldn't be left alone because they will get in the way of how you interact with your teammate and make things awkward between the two of you." She paused and then added, "And there's always the possibility that your friendship could become strained and end."

Sai nodded thoughtfully as he quickly jotted down the information on what the shop assistant was saying. The said shop assistant stared mystified at his odd actions. 'Yep, this guy definitely doesn't go out that often.' The shop assistant thought.

Sai gave the shop assistant a fake pleasant smile. "Thank you for helping me with my predicament. I will definitely take into consideration about what you have said." He turned and headed for the self help books.

"You might want to try and get some books on social interaction. Those fake smiles and politeness come off really condescending if you ask me." She called out.

"No that's okay, I already have some." Sai called back.

The shop assistant's jaw dropped. "Now that's just sad." She quietly deadpanned.

Sai has spent the rest of his morning leafing through his newly purchased self help books. He was so engrossed in them that he forgot what time it was and was late to his team meeting. He absentmindedly made his way to Training Ground 7. When he arrived, immediately noticed Sakura, Naruto, and Yamato were there.

"Sai, you're late!" Sakura screeched. He noticed that Naruto and Yamato winced at he loud voice.

Whatever you say Ugly," Sai responded.

Sakura's fists balled and tightened as she stood before him seething. "What did you just call me?!" she growled in a threatening way.

"Ugly. That is your nickname of course," Sai instantly responded. "I mean, who else would I be referring to?"

"Oh Sai," Naruto groaned, shaking his head. "You just set yourself up to die."

"What do you mean by that, dickless?" Sai questioned. Naruto's sapphire eyes flashed with rage.

"You just don't know when to stop, do you?" Sakura snarled. She advanced toward him, loudly cracking her knuckles. And at that moment, Kakashi decided to show up.

"Yo." He greeted. He looked thoughtfully at the scene at the scene he walked in on. "Did something happen?"

What gave you that impression, Kakashi-senpai?" Yamato deadpanned.

"I just felt of hostility." He responded.

"A bit?" Yamato snorted. Kakashi just gave him his famous eye-smile in response.

Kakashi clasped his hands together. "Alright, let's start with today's training: Sakura pain up with Yamato and Naruto pair up with Sai. I'm going to go get elemental manipulation jutsu scrolls and then we'll regroup after I return."

"Hai." Everyone responded.

"Let's go dickless, I know the perfect place to train." Sai simply sad, dragging Naruto off to an unknown place. Naruto wildly shouted and flailed in protest.

Sakura cocked he head "I wonder what that was all about?"

Yamato shrugged. "Well, hopefully they don't kill each other." He nodded to Sakura. "Let's go."

"Why are we so far away?" Naruto complained. "We're only going to be training until Kakashi-sensei returns."

"I know but I wanted to talk to you about something first." Sai responded. He stopped and quickly painted some snakes, and has them attach themselves onto Naruto, binding his arms to his body.

"What the hell Sai!" Naruto yelled, struggling against the binds. "Why are you doing this?"

"I need to confront you about my feelings for you." Sai told him.

"What feelings!?" Naruto yelled, struggling.

"These." Sai said. He hesitantly walked toward Naruto and placed a tentative kiss onto his lips. Naruto's eyes widened with surprise. Sai pulled away and dispelled his ink snakes.

"Alright, we can spar now." Sai said,

"What?! You kiss me and expect me to just spar with you like nothing just happened?!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Well, my self help book said not to make a big deal about confessing your feelings." Sai responded, frowning.

Naruto sighed, massaging his temples. "Sai, the way you did that makes your self help book's advice rather….. moot."

"Oh, well the shop assistant told me to tell you and be direct. I didn't know we would have to talk afterwards." Sai explained.

"Sai?"

"Yes?"

"No matter what approach you take, you're still going to have to have a talk afterwards." Naruto told him kindly.

"Oh," Sai muttered.

"Yeah."

"So, how are we going to have this talk?" Sai hesitantly asked.

Naruto snorted. "What, didn't you self help books or shop assistant explain this one to you?" he joked.

"No, should they have?" he asked with genuine confusion.

Naruto face palmed. "I know you have no social skills what so ever, but you really should have just asked a person about this."

"Doesn't the shop assistant count?" Sai asked.

"I guess but maybe you should have asked someone you know like Sakura-chan or Kakashi-sensei or even Yamato-taicho."

"So, someone I'm familiar with and can trust." Sai asked.

Naruto nodded, "Yep."

"I see," Sai muttered. "Now, how do you commence this…talk?"

"Er, well, we talk about your apparent feelings toward me." Naruto stammered.

"I feel physical and sexual attraction for you." Sai stated. '

"Blunt as always I see," Naruto deadpanned. "So you're in love with me?"

"That's what the shop assistant told me." Sai replied.

Naruto sighed, shaking his head. "I don't want to hear about what the shop assistant or your self help books say, I want to hear what you think and feel."

"What I think and feel?" Sai repeated.

"Yes, I want to hear why you fell in love with me, me Konoha's number one knuckle-headed ninja."

"That's what makes you so interesting!" Sai exclaimed.

"What is?"

"Your unpredictability. I never felt so…..surprised in my life. This feeling makes me want to be around you." Sai stopped to think. "I also like it when you smile. It makes my heart speed up for this inexplicable reason. It makes me feel something reminiscent of happiness. It's kind of contagious, your happiness." Sai paused once more. His eyebrows started to furrow in confusion. "When I saw how hurt you were when you saw Sasuke, I started to feel this … pang in my heart, like it hurt me to see you that sad." Sai then swallowed. "I really don't know how to deal with these emotions."

"That's okay," Naruto said, giving Sai a soft smile. "I'll help you."

"How?"

"By figuring this all out with you."

Sai looked at Naruto with confusion. "I don't under.." he was abruptly cut off by Naruto's lips. Naruto broke off, leaving them both panting. Naruto rested his forehead against Sai's.

"Is it safe to assume that you return my feelings?" Sai gently asked.

"Definitely." Naruto murmured.

"May I ask why?"

"Of course," He responded. "It's because you're fascinating and different, that's what attracted me. Your ability to retain your conscious despite going through Danzo's training made me admire you and your strength. And the fact that you tried this hard to confess to me makes me love you even more."

"Thanks…..Naruto." Sai murmured before kissing Naruto. Naruto passionately kissed him back. He pushed Sai back and pressed him into a tree. Sai leaned his head back, exposing his neck to allow Naruto to kiss it. They kissed for a minute before Naruto suddenly pulled away.

"Was I doing anything wrong? I'm very new at this." Sai panted.

"No, you were fine," Naruto responded. "It's just that I feel Sakura's chakra signature coming toward us. I really don't want her to interrupt our moment."

"Oh, I completely forgot we were supposed to spar." Sai muttered.

"Me too," Naruto said, grinning.

"Hey Naruto, Sai!" Sakura yelled, running toward them.

"Why'd she have to ruin our moment?" Sai groaned. "I wish it could have lasted a bit longer."

Naruto smirked. "You enjoyed that didn't you?"

"Yep."

"Hey Naruto and Sai, Kakashi-sensei's back. We're regrouping now." Sakura informed them.

"Okay, thanks for telling us Sakura." Naruto grabbed Sai and Sakura. "Let's go."

"So," Kakashi started after they all regrouped. "How did everyone's sparring go?"

"Fine. Yamato-taicho helped me with my earth affinity." Sakura chirped.

"Excellent." Kakashi praised. "Naruto, Sai how did your spar go?" Naruto and Sai exchanged uneasy glances.

Sakura groaned. "Don't tell me you two argued the whole entire time?"

"Now we were….." Naruto stammered, his face heating up.

"What'd you boys?" Yamato asked, arching his eyebrows.

"We we…." Sai quietly said, a blush crawled up his cheeks.

"We you what?!" Kakashi ordered.

"We," Naruto began. He dawned a thoughtful look before muttering 'to hell with this'. "This is what Sai and I were doing." He grabbed Sai and passionately kissed him. Sai grabbed Naruto's jacket to pull him closer. Sakura frantically looked back and forth between the two. Sai and Naruto broke away after a few moments.

"You used tongue this time." Sai pointed out.

"Yep. I like to change things up." Naruto simply responded.

"You've done this before!" Yamato squawked.

"Yeah, twice before Sakura showed up." Naruto responded.

"Oh, so you guys just started you relationship?" Sakura asked.

"Yep." Naruto said cheerily.

"Good luck you two." Kakashi congratulated.

Naruto smile broadly before wrapping his arm around Sai's shoulder. Sai looked at Naruto in surprise and he responded with a small smile. "I love you Sai." He whispered. Sai smile genuinely at Naruto, the first genuine smile he's given in some time. And for the first time, Sai felt happy.

(A/N I hoped you enjoyed my story. Review and tell me what you thought of it.)