Title: Summer Rain
Author: shadlez
Rating: G
Pairings: friendship sasuxnaru
Disclaimer: Nope. Not Sha's. I thought it was obvious since this is a fanfic! Oo
Inspired by an old challenge in one of the LJ communities about rain and waiting, as well as my own LJ revamping.

The rain pattered down from the darkened skies. It wasn't really that cold, but the small set blond boy still huddled tightly beneath the eaves. Classes had been over for a very long time, but he still could not go home. He shivered rather pathetically whenever the wind blew splatters of rain into him. It had been hot this morning, and he had forgotten his beloved orange jacket. Now he shall pay for his foolishness. He shivered some more as a particularly cold breeze brushed across his exposed arms.

"Dammit Iruka-sensei, you promised that we'd go get some ramen," he sulked, his lower lip jutting out as he glared into the rain. He knew his teacher had to go to an emergency meeting, but his small heart still couldn't help but feel a little bit lonely. It must be nice to have parents to pick you up. He sighed as he tried to shrink against the wall some more.

Well, at least he wasn't that alone now though.

Not that far next to him was another lonely looking boy. Naruto had seen him around occasionally, seen him sit next to that lake that he passes whenever he went home. On some level, Naruto thought that this boy was like him. He too didn't have anyone to pick him up. But then, he couldn't possibly spare any sympathy for his only worthy rival. This bastard could do everything perfectly, from shuriken practise to just breathing, this guy could do it all with out a smudge of flaw.

Sasuke too had forgotten to bring his umbrella. If it hadn't been raining so hard, he would have gone home instead of standing here with no one for company except for a certain universal pest. He caught the blond boy staring at him out of the corner of his eye. He snorted softly in contempt. He was the ultimate trouble maker in class; loud, obnoxious and down right annoying. They'd passed each other numerous times, to and from school, in between classes and during class. It wasn't until now that Sasuke had to spend this much time alone with this idiot.

Yet time and time again, Sasuke found his eye drawn back to the curled up ball of black and orange on the ground. Both of them had watched the other children's parents come and go, both of them had watched the laughing and grumbling forms of the content families retreat into the grey sheets of summer rain. Both of them had experienced the exact same pain of loneliness that threw daggers into their young hearts.

They were opposites in everything, but they had something so similar that it made everything else seem almost paltry in comparison. It wasn't a good thing that connected them together, but it made everything just that little bit more tolerable. Heck, they hadn't even spoken to each other but they still understood one another perfectly.

Indeed, when Iruka found the two later, he was amused to find slight smiles upon their young faces. Of course, neither was facing the other and would have rather died than admitted it. This was the first time Sasuke ate Ichiraku ramen, and the first time he came up with the all too familiar insult for the blond. It was the first time Naruto spent a night at Ichiraku with someone other than Iruka, it was the first time he fought properly with the stuck up bastard.

And, it was the first time they acknowledged each other.