Author's Note: Just random birthday sap, possibly with a hint of shounen-ai. It was actually written at the end of September, but I didn't get to post it on 10/10 'cause I've been buried with homework and drawings for people.
Disclaimer: I own pasta. That is all.
The Difference
It was just like every other morning.
He got up and performed his daily hygenic rituals before consuming his morning bowl of cereal and glass of almost-bad milk. He dressed in the same orange jumpsuit he always wore, with the same abused hitai-ate around his forehead. He looked in the mirror and gave himself his usual convincing grin.
But that morning was not every other morning. That was the morning of October 10th, the anniversary of the day the kyuubi was sealed.
That was the morning of Uzumaki Naruto's birthday.
He locked the door behind him as he headed out of his apartment. Things were a little different today... just a little. As he made his way out of the building he lived in, the stares that he was greeted with were not hateful or insulting as they usually were -- instead, these stares were mocking and triumphant.
He felt compelled to shout out to them all, to yell, "What are you looking at?" And point fingers and pull stupid pranks. But instead...
...He smiled. He smiled a sad, but genuine smile at all of Konoha that morning.
Because really, the village was so much more beautiful when it was celebrating. And on that day every year, he sacrificed his own celebration to let the whole village revel in its own.
Well, almost the whole village.
Coming up on the bridge where he was to meet the rest of cell 7, he noted the most comforting sight: Sasuke and Sakura, waiting there for Kakashi and pointedly not Naruto, just like every day. Of course, Sakura still flicked her eyes toward him and Sasuke still turned his head just a bit in the other direction, and Naruto waved and shouted his exuberant good morning to Sakura and pointedly not Sasuke.
When Kakashi came relatively on time, jaws were dropped and eyes widened. Naruto's eyes, however, held more of a subtle, knowing fear than surprise.
"Good morning, Cell 7! Sorry, I got lost on the road of life again this morning. Such a tricky trail that is, and I'm sure-"
"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura interjected, still with a remnant of shock, "you're on time."
"Oh, I am, am I? Well then, your duties today are..."
Naruto nearly sighed with relief. After all, a mission had been his last hope for normalcy.
"...to go home and get ready for the festival, because there are no missions."
So unfortunately, Naruto's relief was very short-lived. "But sensei, isn't there something? Even a boring, old D-rank mission we could do? I mean, we don't want to get all weak and stuff by not training!"
"Naruto, you're not going to get weak from taking one day off. Today is a national holiday; I couldn't get you a mission even if I wanted to."
The blond then made a terrific show of pouting until his face was almost completely contorted. Kakashi merely shrugged and gave a wink before disappearing in his signature puff of smoke.
"Idiot, get that dumb look off your face."
Naruto's cerulean blue eyes immediately snapped to those of the deepest black, which seemed to be filled with bits of humor and irritation simultaneously.
"Who are you saying has a dumb face? At least I don't look like I'm constipated all the time!"
Here, Sakura felt the need to comment. "Naruto, stop insulting Sasuke-kun!"
"I can defend myself, Sakura."
"But-"
"Then what do you have to say for yourself, bastard?"
"I said you had a dumb look, stupid. Maybe next time you should listen to what's said to you before you try to make a comeback."
Sasuke was still looking calm and collected, and Naruto was gritting his teeth together and squinting his eyes in anger and annoyance. Just like usual.
So beneath the slim layer of his usual brash emotions was just a sliver of a sparkle, a silent appreciation meant to go unnoticed.
It didn't, of course.
"Sasuke-kun, why don't we forget about Naruto and you and I could maybe... go to the festival together?"
"No," came the easy answer with his back turned. For a moment, though, the raven-haired boy turned back. "But why don't you go... with Naruto?"
"What?" Two surprised faces abruptly accosted him. Naruto was dumbstruck, and Sakura looked horrified.
"As if!" the kunoichi exclaimed as though insulted, and then she spun around on her heel to walk away, making sure to shove Naruto forcefully on her way past. Naruto fell with a grunt, not exactly fine, but not exactly hurt, either.
What had just transpired... was not usual.
The blond turned to face the source of this unexplained anomaly, only to find it walking toward him casually.
"So," it began standing before him with its hands in its pockets, "what has the idiot upset today?"
Naruto couldn't help but be a bit shocked that Sasuke had noticed. But that shock wore off quickly as he remembered that the Uchiha was their year's number one rookie, complete with sharingan and keen demeanor. He was perfect; he noticed everything.
"Nothing has me upset!" Naruto crossed his arms and legs where he sat, as if that was exactly where he'd wanted to be all along and Sasuke wasn't going to bother him with his stupid accusations.
"You're not upset, huh?"
"Yep, nothing gets me upset."
"I suppose that makes me nothing, too, then."
Naruto's eyebrow twitched at such a simple disproval of his claim. Sasuke reached out a hand to him.
Naruto's first instinct was to smack the appendage away and yell that he didn't need any help from the likes of the other boy. Remembering, however, that swatting the other's hand away would be exactly what Sasuke expected of him, grabbed it and hoisted himself up. The other boy stayed firm, as if he had predicted Naruto's psychology and was once again right. As if he'd won, just like usual.
The shorter ninja sighed and gave up. So much was the same, and yet so much was different. What sort of environment was he really in? It was then that he noted that their hands still remained locked. He curiously examined them for a few moments.
Pale, slender and graceful fingers wrapped unevenly around a tanned, coarse hand. Shorter, dirty fingers with jagged nails clasped a soft, fleshy weapon. No matter how he looked at it, regardless of which angle from which he gazed, their hands remained the same, and he got the distinct feeling that if he were to capture Sasuke's hand the next day and look at them again, it would somehow be exactly the same.
"Today is my birthday."
Sasuke's long eyelashes batted upward for the briefest of moments. "Hm. I wonder if that's lucky, being born on the same day that the kyuubi was defeated."
Naruto chuckled. "I don't think so." And then he began to wonder something.
The blond raised his free hand to Sasuke's face. Lacking any sort of delicacy, this made the taller boy flinch slightly, which made Naruto grin -- a smile that was completely different from the one he'd given himself in the mirror that morning, and different from the one he'd given to the village when he stepped out of his apartment building.
He began at the top of Sasuke's hitai-ate. He allowed his index finger to trail as slowly and lightly as it and gravity agreed along the downward curve of the boy's forehead, airily noting the temperature change between the cold, scratched metal, the rough cloth, and the warm skin. His finger dipped with the bridge between those deadly eyes, and as Sasuke's brow furrowed he felt the ridge clearly. He then trailed down the nose -- a smooth, quick arch down the very middle of the boy's face. He skipped a centimeter or so down to the upper lip, which wasn't so stiff as the expression claimed ninja should have. Rather, it was soft and warm, the shallow dent leading down to pale, pink lips, parted just the tiniest bit. Here, Naruto went slowly, feeling the hot breath cascade gently from Sasuke's nose and mouth down his index finger and knuckles and letting it make the skin on his wrist tickle. Finally, he dragged lightly downward, pulling at the bottom lip just enough to reveal the faintest hint of the darker pink hidden beneath, and skimmed the firm, pale chin that finished off such a perfect arrangement of features.
Sasuke was blushing.
Naruto did the same to his own profile, though in a much less thorough fashion, as if to mean that his own face didn't merit anywhere near as much attention as the taller boy's.
"You know, it doesn't feel that different," he commented after his analysis was complete.
Sasuke then took his own free hand (his other was still entangled with the younger boy's) and ran an index finger down the center line of his own face, as though preparing to verify Naruto's statement. Naruto smiled again as he watched Sasuke's eyes cross, and thought that he'd never seen the dark boy look so very... young.
He was still smiling as Sasuke moved to touch his hitai-ate, and even as the finger made it's way slowly to his lips.
"Here's the difference, right here," Sasuke said.
The blond was just beginning to realize how close they were to each other, cursing inwardly because Sasuke had probably noticed it first. His smile unconsciously began to dissipate.
"No, no, leave it there."
Then Naruto scowled. He was about to make a comment about the Uchiha not being able to tell him what to do, but Sasuke instead shook his head lightly as if such a thing just wouldn't do.
"Like this," Sasuke said as he gave his attempt at a grin.
Naruto couldn't help noticing that even though his teeth were perfect, his smile was lopsided and awkward. It appeared that Sasuke was good at everything but grinning. And after this thought occured to him, Naruto's smile came naturally again in the form of the grin that Sasuke had tried to make.
The next thing that came to Naruto's mind was that the two of them must've looked really strange as they stood there on the bridge, holding hands and grinning like fools.
Sasuke must have realized the same thing, because he quickly suggested, "Good, now let's go get you some birthday ramen or something, you dolt."
-END
And then Sasuke runs off to sound and invalidates the entire point of this fic. -cries-