Two pale hands placed themselves on the young man's face. As he released an aggravated sigh he tilted his head up, his hands dragging against the skin until they found a new home on his neck. Hanging his head back down, his hands relocated to the back of his nape. His fingers found themselves starting to massage the tension out of his trap muscles. His stress was starting to get to him and he knew it. "I wish you would talk to someone about it even if it's not me. Even if it's someone you've never even met." With his oldest and most annoying friend's words ringing in his ears the young man made a decision, a decision he might later regret, but a decision all the same. Gritting his teeth and running a hand through ebony hair, he opened his obsidian eyes to glare at his desk. As he opened up his laptop he wondered how much he would come to regret this later. He went back to the email his friend had sent him a few days ago. The link to the pen pal site the blond had found for him didn't immediately scream desperation but upon clicking it found himself groaning at the unnecessarily cheery home page.

With a cartoon sky background and a tagline reading, "Your first and last stop to lasting friendships!" Sasuke simply couldn't roll his eyes further into his head. Of course, this would be the amazing site that his energetic and perky friend would find. It screamed Naruto's personality all over the place. He honestly didn't understand why the blond thought this was a good idea for him, as his personality would seem to be a small black dot in the rest of this site's rainbows and sunshine. The only type of people who joined sites like these were attention depraved lunatics and that wasn't the type of company this particular man needed. Why'd I let that bastard get into my head? I don't need someone to talk to. I am fine. Even while he was thinking those thoughts his hands betrayed him by clicking "create profile".

Sasuke was brought to a page that explained the process and rules. Put in your info...blah blah...algorithm matches with potential assholes...blah blah...choose at least one desperate cunt to talk to. Yeah got it. He was the kind of person who actually read the terms and conditions before accepting them. He enjoyed reading things that others described as tedious. Also, he just needed to make sure he wasn't selling his soul. Before he clicked the "I agree" button, the last line of the conditions caught his attention, "For privacy and safety reasons we ask all members to never reveal their personal info such as names, phone numbers, addresses, and other identifying information. If you are going to send pictures they must not be in an easily identifiable location and not of an intimate nature." He was slightly intrigued by the rule but not at all phased. After all the world was a fucked up place, full of fucked up psychos, psychos Sasuke had first-hand experience dealing with. Sasuke hit accept and began to fill in his information.

After what seemed like an eternity the pale man had only gotten through the fourth page of the questionnaire. The extensive amount of questions went from asking the generics such as his favorite food to incredibly specific like how his relationship with his mother was. Sasuke thought it was all far too intrusive, but sighed knowing it was too late to back out. He hadn't just spent at least an hour typing up all of his answers to give up now. Even if it was just out of sheer stubbornness, he continued. The last question on his current page caught him by surprise, "How did your first kiss happen?" He chuckled to himself, That dumbass accidentally kissed me back in middle school when he was pushed into me. It wouldn't have happened if he hadn't gotten an inch from my face glaring at me like I kicked his puppy. He still got mad at me though like I did it. He's lucky I didn't beat the shit out of him. Granted I didn't need to once the kiss ended and my annoying fan club got a hold of him.

After two more pages of very personal questions about him, the questions about the type of person he wanted to talk to began. Shit, I don't know. Not the crypt keeper? Actually no I want the crypt keeper, or maybe the devil himself. At least the devil might put me out of my misery. Although if I met the devil on here I wouldn't be able to keep a straight face from the irony. I mean this website is so damn cheerful that the only place that'd be more ironic is Disney. He sighed for the second time in the past minute. He honestly didn't care who was writing to him. He didn't care about this pen pal shit at all. He was just doing this so his friend would stop worrying about him, at least that's what he told himself.

Sasuke figured he might as well finish the damned profile. He ran his right hand through his hair as a grunt of frustration escaped his lips once he actually started answering the questions. "What age range would you like to connect with?" That sounds like when your grandpa just doesn't understand you and looks up "how to connect with the youth.". In the end, the next time you see Grandpa he says words like hip and groovy, and you sigh and pretend he isn't trying too hard. Following that train of thought he figured he would probably rather talk to someone near his own age, he clicked "18-24".

"Would you like someone from your hometown or someone far away?" Considering everyone in Konoha either knew him or knew of him enough to where someone could quickly identify him in a conversation, he clicked "far away." The questions about the type of pen pal he wanted were much less intrusive and far more basic. Sasuke found this both comforting and unnerving; comforting because it was easier for him to answer, unnerving because the likelihood of him being nowhere near similar to the people he got matched with was high. He only had to continue the process for a few more minutes before he was done with the questionnaire as a whole. A sigh of relief made its presence known when the three flashing dots came across the screen stating "Working on your matches now! Since this is very important please give us up to three hours to finish!"

Glancing at the clock on the corner of the screen the raven-haired man cursed. 2:07 AM. He had spent three fucking hours filling out that damned profile. If Naruto doesn't appreciate the amount of effort this was I'm going to murder him. A yawn escaped out from behind his hand as he closed the computer and stood up from his desk. The five hours he had to sleep were going to go by too quickly, so quickly he didn't even bother undressing as he just plopped down onto his bed. He fell asleep almost the moment his head to hit the pillow. A small whimper escaped the sleeping man, his face twisting in discomfort. He rolled onto his side, and in the process curling his legs up to where his thighs became perpendicular to his torso. He stayed in that position for the entirety of his restless slumber.

Sasuke growled at the cell phone ringing loudly in his front pocket. He maneuvered his finger into said pocket and managed to hit decline. He was tired, cranky, and felt no need to converse with anyone else. When it started ringing again, he began cursing himself for not remembering to turn it on to vibrate when he got into the office, let alone turning it onto vibrate when he got the first call. Whoever was calling him was not taking no for an answer and since he was trying to not interrupt his coworkers in the other cubicles, he answered the phone in a whisper, "The fuck are you doing calling my cell?"

"Well aren't you in a good mood today?" The man on the other end heartily laughed. Naruto, of course. Sasuke couldn't help but roll his eyes in annoyance, he wasn't exactly surprised it was his friend. After all, the other man was basically the only person he talked to willingly. He just didn't understand why the blond insisted on calling his personal phone when he knew Sasuke had a perfectly working office number. He once again growled lowly as he prayed none of his coworkers had noticed the violation of the building's code of conduct.

"You have my work number twat. Why do you have to be such an asshole?" as if the blond man was physically in front of him, he shook his free hand toward the unused phone on the desk. He was going to strangle his friend one of these days if the man couldn't reel in his inconsiderate nature.

"Anyways, I'm actually at a marketing event in The Compound today," Naruto loved referring to their company complex as The Compound, a nickname the blond man had come up with his first week on the job. The man insisted that the company was actually a cult, his main evidence was that all the employees were seen smiling and there was an intense amount of armed guard on the campus. "Would you like to get lunch in about ten minutes?"

"I brought my lunch," Sasuke hadn't brought his lunch, he had planned to work through his lunch hour. However, if the blond man knew he wasn't planning on eating lunch he'd get an ear full. The man acted like he was his mother. Plus if he did go to lunch with Naruto, his friend was just going to annoy him by prying and he wasn't in the mood for it. So he wasn't going no matter how much the blond begged.

"Too bad. You're coming and getting lunch with me," after a minute of not receiving an answer the blond begged, "Please." Sasuke could practically hear the puppy dogs eyes and pleading hands the other man was surely wearing.

"Shouldn't you be eating with your potential clients? We wouldn't want you to lose your spot as the number one ambassador," Sasuke teased adding a baby voice towards the end of his reply. He knew that the blond hated being near potential clients when it wasn't absolutely necessary for one reason. "I'm sure some would love to have lunch with you and probably dinner too. They'd probably even want to have you over to their place for dessert."

"Just please come down and eat with me. They are frenzying sharks down here and I'm the wounded fish they're circling. I've been given more phone numbers today than a pretty stripper." Naruto whined.

"How many numbers does a pretty stripper get? And in what time frame are we talking? Like in an hour, a day, a week?"

"Get your ass down here you jerk."

"Fine, I'll be down in eight." Sasuke hung up before the blond could respond. He sighed and looked at the amount of work he needed to do on his computer. Even though he was leaving for his lunch hour he would get finished with it well before the end of the day. He wasn't worried about not getting it done while he signed out and turned off the monitor. He was more worried about his friend sticking his nose in places it didn't belong as the pale man stood up and left his cubicle.

He walked to the machine to swipe his employee ID, indicating on his time card he was going to lunch. Not a single head raised to spare him a glance through that process. He loved working near other analysts and programmers, he had once been to the accounting building and it was chaos. They were all just so friendly and chatty over there. Sasuke internally gagged at the memory. Thankfully his coworkers all kept to themselves and some even had earbuds in while they worked. It was quiet bliss.

It was a short walk downstairs and sunshine far too bright was what greeted the pale man as he walked out the glass doors of the building. Squinting his eyes, he wrinkled his nose at the obnoxiousness of the blond man in front of him as he made his way toward his friend. The blond wore navy blue chinos and a soft orange button up, which on its own isn't obnoxious. But against that tan skin, blond hair, and those hauntingly bright azure eyes the outfit made the man even more obnoxious than his personality. When those baby blues met his obsidian, the blond's lips turned up into a smile rivaling the sun above. He walked straight up to his pale best friend wrapping an arm around Sasuke's shoulders in a relaxed side hold. Ivory shoulders went rigid under Naruto's touch as the pale man they belonged to never was a fan of his personal space being invaded. The tan man just ignored his best friend's demeanor. "Oi! Sasuke, my friend! This here is Kiba! He is a photographer for the company and he was just showing me around," Naruto motioned with his free hand towards a brunet man standing near them. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at his friend not even sparing a glance towards the man he was just introduced to.

"You've been here a million times, so either you're a bigger moron than I think you are or that was an awful attempt at lying to me," the ebony haired man responded, knowing exactly what the blond man was up to. "Hn, I don't care either way. Are we going to lunch or what?"

"Sorry about him Kiba, you know how analysts are. Antisocial jerks all of them," the blond waved a tanned hand dismissively towards Sasuke. "I'll text you when we get back from lunch and we can continue our conversation then. Okay?" Naruto gave the other man his award-winning smile and the man just nodded his head and waved as he walked away.

An elbow struck Sasuke in the ribs causing him to wince both in pain and surprise. It had been quite a few years since the blond had laid a hand on him, enough years that he had forgotten how much a blow from those slender arms could hurt. "Do you always have to be such an ass? Like you can't be nice for two seconds? Or even a decent fucking human being for two seconds!" Blue eyes turned to a raging inferno as he became increasingly angry at the man in front of him. The ever-present smile of Naruto's melted into a resentful scowl giving Sasuke the rare chance to see the thin scars on his friend's cheeks. The blond man already had the scars when they met as children, back then they were more prominent and onyx eyes were instantly drawn to staring at them. Even after all this time he still found them fascinating, partly because he didn't know how those scars ever came to grace the tan face. He'd never outright ask his friend, but he was determined to find out eventually how they came about.

Quieting his curiosity and chastising himself for being distracted, Sasuke just turned and walked away from the angry man. He was headed towards the cafeteria across the courtyard from him. The building was about two stories tall with a huge wall of just windows, from the outside one could see just a few high top tables against the wall and a bar facing said windows. The obsidian eyes noticed a few people sitting at that bar, all of them were on laptops while eating. He realized they looked slightly younger than the rest of the crowd. Probably the college interns.

He chastised himself once again for getting distracted while there was an angry Uzumaki around. The last thing he wanted to do was to be surprised by another hit from the blond. So he continued walking, all the while listening for his friend's footsteps and sure enough, they began to follow. Sasuke realized a long time ago the best way to defuse the other man was to ignore that anything was wrong long enough for there to be physical distance between them. With that in mind when he entered the cafeteria he made a beeline for the salad bar. He knew the other man wouldn't follow him there as his friend thought of vegetables as the devil's candy. It wasn't that he was scared of the tan man he just wanted to avoid the inevitable scene that would be caused if the got into a fight on company property. After the cerulean eyed man sighed and retreated to find himself something to eat Sasuke internally sighed with both relief and frustration. He knew exactly what his friend was trying to do back there with that Kiba guy. Naruto had introduced him to that man to try and get Sasuke a new friend. To say that it annoyed the pale man to no end was an understatement. He had to remind himself that his friend was just trying to help him, but it still didn't mean he had to do what Naruto wanted him to. After all, he didn't need him worrying about him and he extremely didn't need him trying to set him up on playdates like a toddler. He was an adult for fuck's sake.

A cough from someone behind him caused the pale man to exit his thoughts and quickly fill his plate with salad and leave the line. It was beginning to bother him how in his head he had been as of late. When he got to the register to swipe his ID to pay for his food he was mentally cursing at himself for being such an absent-minded twat. It was Naruto's role to be stupid after all, not his. Sasuke groaned when he had to scan the sea of eating people to find the aforementioned dumbass. He found that the familiar mop of blond hair was thankfully sitting by himself. He didn't trust the blond to not pull a similar stunt to what he did in the courtyard. He felt a pair of blue crystals surveying his features as he sat across from them. Not one to enjoy being stared at Sasuke returned his friend's gaze with a glare that could turn any fire into ice. The fire that was the blond didn't freeze, didn't even cool enough to turn to a red hue. He just kept staring, trying to find and get to know the pale man's soul. Growing irate with the staring man across from him, the raven-haired man growled, "What?"

"I'm just worried okay? It's been three weeks and you have been acting as if nothing has happened at all. As your friend, I can't help but be worried by that."

Sasuke dropped his fork to his plate and sighed, "That's because it's not that important. It's not important at all. We've all known it was going to happen for a long time. Just because it didn't happen how we expected doesn't mean shit. There have been over ten years for me to prepare for this Naruto. I am fine."

"I wish I could believe you. I mean he was your only family Sasuke. He loved you and you might pretend you don't love him but I know you do."

"That was his fucking fault. All of it was his fault," Sasuke couldn't help but spit the words out from his mouth. His friend needed to mind his own business before he sent the pale man over the edge. Maybe the day he would strangle his idiotic friend had come sooner than he thought it would.

"That's beside the point, Sasuke," Naruto growled, his voice raising enough to attract other people's attention. The blond was quickly growing tired of his friend's refusal to hear him out, "You need to stop being such a stubborn ass and just talk to someone. It doesn't even have to be about him at first, just open up to someone." Blue eyes redirected towards the table and their currently abandoned food. "Just let someone in Sasuke," onyx eyes weren't sure if they could trust what they were witnessing. They watched in terrified fascination as a single tear fell from the oceans made of azure fire. If the tear hadn't left a small wet spot on the table the ebony haired man definitely would have written it off as a figment of his imagination. But there it was, just a single drop of wetness near the edge of the table demanding that it be noticed.

It was then that Sasuke began to not understand his actions. Maybe it was just to get Naruto off his back. Maybe it was because people were staring at them. Maybe he didn't want the blond to make more of a scene. Maybe, just maybe it was that he didn't want his friend to keep worrying about him and he didn't want him crying. Even then, Sasuke wasn't quite sure why he said what he said next. Whatever the reason the pale man replied, "I signed up for that stupid pen pal site okay?"

"You did?" wet eyes shot up in an instant, the vast fire previously there immediately extinguished. Any sign of tears evaporated, replaced with diamonds shimmering in the sunlight flooding in through the wall of windows only a table over. It interested the pale man how easily the blond could be read, actually it interested him just how many emotions the blond felt.

"Yes. So shut up about all of this already."

"How did your conversations go? How many people did you talk to? What are they like?"

Nosy little fuck Sasuke stopped himself from rolling his eyes. He was tempted to point out the fact that the blond promised to stay out of it as long as he was talking to someone, but decided against it. After all, calling the blond a hypocrite would only send him back to his pissed off state. Considering the raven-haired man had just dealt with that, he wasn't trying to go ignite the fire again. Although his answer to the questions his friend had just inquired probably wasn't going to make him happy, "I haven't talked to anyone."

"What why not?" a quick flash of that fiery anger returned to those sensitive cerulean oceans. Sasuke would never admit it out loud but when the fire was in those eyes he felt he was going to get burned. After all, blue is the hottest type of flame.

"Because you nosy little cunt I decided to go to bed. You know that thing adults do?"

"Why didn't you just message someone at least one person before you went to bed?"

"That stupid fucking site takes three hours for it to match you up to people. It had already taken three hours of out my life in order just to sign up and fill out the damn profile. I wasn't giving that awful site another three."

"Oh, that's fair," the blond looked thoughtful for a moment. "So you are gonna message someone after work right?"

"Maybe, probably not," pale lips twitched into a smirk after seeing the other man's jaw clench in annoyance. He might not enjoy when the blond was actually angry but he did enjoy his friend's annoyed scowl. It was an oddly comforting sight to see, maybe it reminded him of back when they were, in the blond's words, rivals.

"Please just do it," it came out as an exasperated sigh, a sigh that gave the raven-haired man a bit too much pleasure in hearing.

"Maybe. So tell me about this week's hot new product." Sasuke's attempt at changing the subject was extremely obvious. He wasn't the most skilled at conversing with others especially when he was the one uncomfortable with the topic. Thankfully the blond just took the bait and smiled that blinding grin.

"Dude! This week I have to try and promote this thong-kini," Sasuke didn't know what that was. He would have asked about it if only to keep the conversation away from the previous topic, but the blond jumped the gun and showed him a photo of this woman in a tiny bikini. Her entire ass was out of the bottoms on purpose. It finally clicked for Sasuke, thong-kini is just where bikini bottoms are a thong. Wow, that was an idiotic moment. Don't let him rub off on you. You'll end up a sappy mess like him and that is just unacceptable. If it was something of any actual importance, even just slightly, Sasuke would have chastised himself more. However what a thong-kini is could not have less significance in this particular man's life so he didn't worry about not knowing what about that article of clothing.

"And like yeah it's cute and all. But do you know how hard it is to promote women's fashion as a man?" apparently Naruto was continuing his rant. "I think I might try and get Hinata to be my model," that made a single ebony eyebrow raise. Even though the woman wasn't a shy teen anymore, Sasuke found it hard to imagine the woman in something so revealing. "She might murder me for even asking though."

"Might?"

"Okay, she will kill me for just asking. But who else can model it for my social media while being authentic enough in my life? Like if I post a photo of a woman in something that revealing and it's not my girlfriend that will cause a shit storm," the blond popped a fry in his mouth. "Like finding a model for women's swimwear is hard because they have to be someone in my life and not just some model or else it affects my authenticity," Sasuke stopped listening after that after all his friend was complaining about the job he chose. So the pale man just responded with a nod of the head every once in a while and pretended that eating kept him from verbally responding.

Sasuke stared at the screen in front of him. His cursor was hovering of the login button. He contemplated just closing the computer and reading. After all, he was reading this extremely interesting horror novel. It was centered on this man who had to eradicate‒ "Please just do it," the blond's words interrupted his thoughts. It was beginning to infuriate the ebony haired man how much that annoying man was invading his brain. His friend had too much influence on him, it was like the man had a choke hold on him and not the fun kind. However, he understood that if he listened to Naruto it would be good for the blond. It wasn't good for him to worry about Sasuke so much.

Clenching a fist, gritting his teeth, and taking the plunge, he pressed login. The page popped up with a message "You have no current conversations! Go to your matches and start one." Sasuke's eyes shifted into a glare, he didn't enjoy being told what to do even by a website. However, he also couldn't just stare at an empty inbox for the rest of his life so he followed the site's command and clicked the tab for his matches.

Sasuke couldn't stop the bored sigh's escape as he scrolled through the list of people, they either seemed just plain too perky like "Happyguuurl862" and "THEChadster" or too desperate like "LoveIsInTheDetails." They all seem like a bunch of basic bitches. I don't do well with basic bitches. He internally shivered These actually remind me of Sakura and Ino, the most basic of the bitches. If they had accounts they'd be "CherryQu33n" and "#ThefutureMRSsasuke." Those two could easily have been any of these people. I really am glad that they hopefully aren't on here. They are too much absorbed in their social media lives to branch out from that. Sasuke remembered Naruto telling him about Sakura's anger at the blond for tagging her in a photo that wasn't the most flattering. She said she lost 50 followers because of that photo. Those 50 followers didn't leave because of the public meltdown she had about the photo, but the photo itself. Yeah, glad I never saw her after high school. I don't know how I'd be able to be around her nowadays. She was such a brat back then, nowadays she probably is just a bitch.

A name caught his attention during his mindless scrolling, making him take a double take. "MySisisGreaterthanyours" was the username. It wasn't that the name was anything spectacular, it just felt different somehow. Sasuke's gut was telling him to look further into it so he clicked into the profile. It was pretty obvious within the first minute that this person had a relative, specifically their sister, create their profile. When asked, "Who do you admire most?" the person responded, "My older sister because she does everything important around here and without her I would just die." Another answer actually admitted the other person's presence in the profile as it stated, "I have the best sister because she's beautiful and she does things like create pen pal profiles because Imma lonely hoe." It was an entertaining profile in the least. He actually chuckled when he saw the response for "Why should someone talk to you?" It said, "Because I'm lonely and need friends so literally everyone message me. Make this lonely boy a slightly less lonely boy. No perverts though. Also, I'm edgy so old people probably won't like me." Sighing and knowing this was the best he was going to get, he clicked the "send message" button.

He wrote, "Dear MySisGreaterthanyours,

First off the profile that I am assuming your sister created is entertaining in a sad kind of way. And because of that, I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't respond. Well, honestly I hope that your sister wrote it because if not you have some incest issues to work through. In that case, I don't think I'm going to be the person to help you there. If it is incest you need professional help and I'm not a free psychiatrist. Please go get help.

I am only here because my friend practically begged me to, okay not practically he actually begged me to. I don't want to be here doing this, but if it gets him off my back then I'll suck it up and deal with it. So yeah. Sup? I don't even know what to fucking say. I guess I could ask what you'd prefer to be called because I'm sure your username is not how you want to be known. However, if it is anything super edgy I will just call you Emo Kid. I don't know anything about you and that's refreshing considering how intrusive this site is. Really the few things I picked up from your profile is that…

1. Your sister has a high opinion of herself.

2. You are a guy or at least I think you're a guy.

3. You must be a very private person since your sister didn't know any actual details of your life. I like that, I don't like talking about myself or others really. I just don't like talking in general.

4. Your sister has a fun sense of humor. When asked about your first kiss she responded, "As far as my siblings know I've never been kissed. I'm terrifying and they can't really imagine anyone finding that attractive."

I really don't understand this site. It's so cheerful, it's disgusting. Nothing in life is this happy, but whatever I guess the point is to escape the real world. Or at least that better be the point because I refuse to believe someone is this fucking happy. If there is someone this happy I hope to never meet them.

Oh, I guess I could introduce myself. I'm Just_A_Person. I live in Konoha metro. I work in data analysis. There's nothing very exciting about my life really, the most exciting thing is my dumb friend who I mentioned earlier. He's the type of person who is just plain annoying but you can't get rid of him. Eventually, you get used to that annoyance to when it's not there it feels weird. He's like some type of parasite. I've run out of things to say so…

Bye,

Just_A_Person" Figuring that was the best he was going to write Sasuke hit send.