How to Love
Summary: Uchiha Sasuke dated three people, each different, each teaching him something about how to properly love a certain blonde.
1. Outgoing Extrovert
When Sasuke is 15 years old, he starts dating Yamanaka Ino. She's the first girl he's ever shown the slightest interest in and to satisfy his growing sexual curiosity he decides to date her.
Ino is unlike the other girls at school who just blush and stutter in front of him. She's bright and energetic and loves to be physical with him, something he learns to like. She likes to cling to his arm, not to show off that he's her boyfriend but because Ino is a physical person and likes to be in constant contact with him. She's also outgoing and when they're not in school, she drags him to the streets of Shibuya to shop, play at arcades and eat sweets. Sometimes it's with her friends as well and they end up at karaoke, at first he hates it but it's at these kinds of situations that Sasuke sees Ino shine.
She's the type of person who is able to read the mood and get the rest going. She gets her friends excited and in the mood, the songs are almost nonstop but so is the laughter and happiness that Ino seems to be able to bring out. Karaoke inevitably ends up being something Sasuke looks forward to because he likes to see Ino shine, her pale blue eyes twinkle and there's something in that energy that Sasuke just seems to gravitate to.
Almost every weekend, they end up at a motel to do what their teenage bodies nag at them to explore. Ino is a good lover; she's passionate and willing to try almost anything with him sexually. And Sasuke, well he learns he likes to have sex often and for prolonged amounts of time. Especially when he finds that Ino doesn't go around boasting that they have sex to her friends, she keeps that information private, as it should be.
If they can't meet, Ino texts him often and keeps him company with her quick-witted responses. She says she misses him but never accuses him of neglecting her, something else he likes about her. But just because all of these things that he likes about her are many, it doesn't mean that Sasuke doesn't eventually figure out he doesn't like like her.
Sasuke breaks up with her two years after they started dating and Ino doesn't cry, doesn't reproach him. She takes it to good heart and although Sasuke knows that she probably will cry later, she doesn't show it to his face. He still hopes they're able to be friends because he genuinely liked hanging out with her. And they do remain friends, she still invites him to hang out and still calls out his name at school even though everyone knows they broke up.
With Yamanaka Ino, he learns to love an outgoing extrovert.
2. Fire Maelstrom
Uzumaki Karin has a shock of bright red hair, wears glasses and has a figure that other girls would kill for. They date for approximately one year.
He meets Karin when he's starting his last year of high school at the academy where he takes his afterschool classes. They're both taking advanced college courses and she stands out right away to him, both because of her hair and because of her temper. Ino had a temper but it was always mellow compared to Karin.
He sees Karin explode in anger outside the academy when an old man waiting for the bus carelessly flicked his cigarette her way and almost hits her. She's a bright fiery storm that makes something twist just below his stomach, she doesn't use a quiet tone rather she yells and causes a scene but the crowd agrees with her and turn ugly gazes toward the old man who apologizes and escapes.
He catches her eye, smirks at her and walks away. The next day, she approaches him after classes and they go to one of the cafes around the area together, and maybe because Sasuke hasn't had sex since he broke up with Ino, they end up at a motel and the inevitable happens.
Sasuke asks her out the next day, not because he feels obligated now that they've had sex but rather he wants to see her in her fiery rage mode again. There's something so attractive about that that he wants to keep seeing her.
And Karin is somewhat similar to Ino, they both like to be physical but whereas Ino was outgoing and always the center of attention without meaning to, Karin is less outgoing in a social sense. She concentrates on her studies as she's planning to attend medical school and so they can only meet during Saturdays.
Sasuke doesn't really mind, he also has to study for the college entrance exam but he does like to hang out with Karin, he likes to poke at her sometimes in hopes of seeing her angry again. Her red eyes always shone like a bright maelstrom when she was angry, she was alive and that made Sasuke feel alive as well.
It's not just that, Karin, when she wasn't angry or treating him sweetly, would engage him in the most interesting conversations about whatever topic she had read about on the medical news. Karin was smart and Sasuke liked that as well, they were able to engage in a battle of ethics sometimes over certain topics and sometimes Sasuke said certain things to ruffle her feather because she would huff a little but not lose her temper in order to prove her point of view. She was able to reign in her anger when necessary.
But eventually college exams got the better of them and mutually they decided to break it off. Karin is glum when they break up but she doesn't cry, in a very Karin-like way, she stomps off in anger even though they both agreed.
With Uzumaki Karin, he learned to love a maelstrom.
3. Beautiful Strength
In his second year of university, Sasuke spends most of his time at the library cramming as much information as he can into his brain in order to keep up with seven class course load. His table is a messy array of multiple business statistics, accounting, and economics books. His notes are plied neatly to the side and his laptop is playing back a lesson as he listens with his headphones on his ears.
He looks up and smiles at the pink haired girl at the table across from him. Her table is possibly a worst mess that his, several thick medical books lay across, notes strewn about and pink haired messily held back by two pins. Her green eyes look up from her notes at him and smile before turning her attention back at her notes.
He's been dating Haruno Sakura since they both started school. Sakura is a second year medical student, she's often buried in books at the library and so is Sasuke and because of that they can't even sit together, they both need to be spread out but it's okay.
Sakura is unlike Ino, she's bright but doesn't have the outgoing, extrovert attitude that Ino did nor does she have that fiery rage maelstrom that Karin did. Instead Sakura is a sweet, quiet presence beside him.
They hang out during the weekends, most of the time they're too tired to do anything but hang out at his apartment have sex and then lay around watching TV or going out for dinner. Sasuke is okay with that, with Sakura he holds some of the most interesting conversations about medical diseases, half the time he's convinced he has one of them.
Still he really likes Sakura, likes that she's incredibly independent and strives for a better future for herself. Not only that, Sakura is also strong and he doesn't just mean emotionally, because she's also tough as nails, but physically strong. Possibly a bit stronger than him.
When they began dating and after one of their dates, they had been walking hand in hand down the busy streets of Harajuku when a group of men walked by and one of them had the audacity to slap Sakura on the ass. Sasuke just hears her small yelp and before he can react and protect her as he feels he should, she's pulled the man by the back of his collar hard enough that he slams on the concrete hard enough to knock the wind right out of him. Sakura takes her chance and kicks him right in the nuts hard enough that Sasuke and every man in the vicinity wince in pain.
"You disgusting groper! See if you're going to get away from this!" She yells and pulls out her phone, calling non-emergency services to report the incident. Sasuke feels mostly useless but there's something like pride blooming in his chest, Sakura is a woman capable of taking care of herself.
However during their third year of university, they're both too busy. He has internships and Sakura is up to her eyeballs in medical school. He almost doesn't see her for three months, their schedules just not lining up at all.
In the end, Sakura breaks up with him. He doesn't blame her, they're too busy. In fact they're both workaholics, both seeking a future that doesn't have time for a relationship while in school.
But Sakura left a deep impression on him of what he wants in a romantic partner.
With Haruno Sakura he learns to love a strong individual, one capable of standing equally with him.
4. Uzumaki Naruto
Sasuke is bone tired. He's 25 and already two years at his current job at one of the big accounting firms his family owns. He has to work his way up just as his brother did; no one cuts him any slack. While no longer the youngest accountant there, he's still low on the ladder but making good headway.
He's proved himself capable.
"Tired?"
He feels some of the tiredness lift off of him at the sound of a certain blonde. He had started dating Uzumaki Naruto (Uzumaki Karin's very distant cousin, imagine the shock Sasuke got when he found out Naruto's last name) almost three months ago after another two months of relentless flirting at the café that Naruto owned.
During his lunch breaks, Sasuke goes to Naruto's café, which is conveniently right across the street from his company, and there he spends time with Naruto.
Naruto is unlike all his past relationships, while all of them taught him something none of them prepared him for the absolute adventure that was one Uzumaki Naruto.
Naruto was like Ino in that they were both energetic, easily grabbing and holding the attention of a room but he was also like Karin, able to blend into the background and allow someone else to make the atmosphere. He's like Sakura in that he's strong, physically and mentally but somehow just a bit softer, and fiercer in his love for Sasuke.
Unlike all his past lovers, Naruto sometimes becomes a recluse. He needs time to himself, time to gather his being before he's back to being the blonde sunshine that he loves. Sometimes Sasuke will sleep over at Naruto's apartment and he'll wake up in the early hours of the morning to find Naruto either by the veranda looking up at the sky or gone. Naruto comes back before Sasuke has to go to work and Sasuke never probes at him to know why.
He wants Naruto to tell him on his own free will when the time comes.
Aside from those moments, Naruto is sweet to him. Sometimes he'll bring him lunch to the office or have a bath drawn for Sasuke when he gets to Naruto's apartment. And sometimes, it will be the quiet moments in which they both lay on the mattress after having sex and Naruto traces his face with the tip of his finger as if he can't believe Sasuke is there at all.
Naruto is a lover unlike any he's had and Sasuke is prepared to discover new things each day about a certain blue eyed, blonde man.