I'm one of those people who writes a lot of crap fic and actually enjoys posting it up. Quantity always trumps quality!

The Course of True Love
No one said it was smooth sailing!

…

"I love you."

Naruto had been on the receiving end of many confessions of love. Not that he could ever compete with Sasuke, mind you, but he had his fair share.

His favorite had been the time one girl, a third degree black belt in something (and Naruto believed it! That girl was ripped) had sashayed – monkey style – towards him before class one day, rose in mouth, chocolates in hand, before romantically flipping him onto his back and dislocating his shoulder. Granted, the dislocation had been an accident. And she'd never spoken to him ever again. But he would've gone out with her if only she'd had the nerve to ask him again. Actually, Naruto never knew what happened to her since she never came back to class after that. Where did she go…?

Anyway. Then there had been that one time, when another girl, who apparently worked as a zookeeper at the local zoo, had ridden out elephant-back with the words "Marry me, Naruto!" spray painted along one side of the poor, hulking animal. Security tackling her from the back of the confused elephant had been the highlight of Naruto's whole damn month. He'd never learned her name, but it came as a close second to his favorite confessions.

Or maybe his favorite had been the time someone had gone through Sasuke to get to him for once. The look on Sasuke's face had been worth it. Kind of. Because, truthfully, Sasuke's expression never changed. But Naruto liked to think his internal facial expression had blown a gasket over the fact someone's world didn't revolve around him. Actually, she had been pretty sweet. He'd dated her for a few weeks. In other words, it didn't last. But that wasn't the point.

The point was, Naruto was a great catch, if he didn't mind tooting his own horn. He knew he was good looking, had matured out of the awkward middle and high school years into a strong adult body. So, normally, Naruto was happy to receive such confessions. It took guts. Real guts that deserved his full attention and consideration.

The point was, Naruto, who had received many confessions – never as many as Sasuke – and had dealt many rejections – never as many as Sasuke – and had accept many proposals – for once, way more than Sasuke – was, for the first time in possibly his entire life, absolutely floored.

Because the one confessing to him was none other than his best friend, receiver of one million love confessions and acceptor of none, Sasuke fucking "leave me alone, I'm a douchebag who doesn't think you're worth my time" Uchiha.

"Naruto."

What?

"I love you."

"Just give him a chance," Sakura said as she twirled her straw uselessly around the glass.

Naruto tried not to glare as he slurped from his own. He straightened to stare her in the eyes. This would require some serious thought.

"What good will that do? I don't want to get his hopes up. For fuck's sake, this is my best friend we're talking about. I can't just, you know, stop seeing him once shit goes bad. And the shit is going to go bad, believe me."

"You don't know that!"

Somehow, Sakura didn't quite understand that Naruto had never once expressed any interest in men, let alone Sasuke. This was unusual, because Sakura was a smart girl. Or so he had thought. But it was what he liked about her. Before five minutes ago, when he realized she was not that smart.

When he had told Sasuke, "I'll think about it," what he had actually meant was, "No way in hell." Apparently, Sakura too held firm in the belief that Naruto was actually going to think about it.

"Look Sakura. I'm not interested. I mean, the thought of someone's dick shoved up my ass really doesn't appeal to me."

"Naruto!" Sakura sound scandalized. Naruto almost grinned at her furiously blushing face. "You don't, you don't have to sleep with him!"

"You can stop imagining it then, please."

The blushed darkened and Sakura defended unconvincingly, "Shut up!"

Contrary to whatever Sakura failed to make Naruto believe, she had thought about it and imagined it rather explicitly several times. Many times. So many times that she had freaked herself out. It wasn't that she was some giant perve, fantasizing about her two best friends. She just, well. Okay, maybe she was a little pervy, but it was completely unintentional.

She considered them nightmares at first. The whole world knew she had been in love with Sasuke until grade eight and maybe a third of their tight circle of friends knew she had been in love with Naruto from then up until when they graduated high school. It was just her luck that her first crush would crush on her second crush.

Lame. Not that she was still in love with either of them, but lame nonetheless. And besides the point. The point was, Sasuke had confessed to her one day. It was a weird sentence. Sasuke confessed. To her. Until one broke it down, that is.

He didn't confess to her. He hadn't even confessed to her about Naruto. Sasuke always had that stupid little (attractive) frown on his face that only went away whenever Naruto was around. It was sort of cute and what she took to be his grand declaration of undying love for his best friend.

And then he had gone and done it. He had confessed – verbally, mind you – and literally blown Naruto's socks off. She meant literally too, because Naruto showed up barefoot at her house to give her the great (she thought so, anyway) news. Where did his socks go? Did he try to choke Sasuke with them? No, nevermind, not the point.

The real point was, Naruto was a pretty damn good catch, one that could maybe make Sasuke happy and, most importantly, himself in turn.

Naruto was a good guy that made people feel better about themselves. It was more than the simple, "Hey, you look hot today, Sakura," which never hurt, of course. It was the way he made people believe in themselves, brought out their inner beauty by forcing people to confront their insecurities. It was what had made her fall in love with him in the first place, after countless cruel rejections from Sasuke (which she knew she deserved; she was young and naïve, damn it!).

She was confident it was that exact charm that had drawn Sasuke out of his shell after his dark middle school days. Sure, they had fought a lot, taking turns sending each other to the infirmary but she had seen the immediate afters of one their fights: up alone on the rooftop, they had sat staring up at the sky in companiable silence. She hadn't been able to intrude and instead walked home alone. It was the kind of friendship that came once in a blue moon: two people so absolutely perfect for each other.

If Sasuke and Naruto as best friends were perfect, what could they be as lovers?

Sakura knew the answer. She knew Sasuke knew the answer.

And she would be damned if she let Naruto mess it all up.