Hey Everyone. It's me again. Going to be working on just this story and another story for a little bit so I hope to get it out a bit faster for a little while.

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Chapter 2. Sasuke Returns

Gasps were heard from the people around him. Naruto looked at the people around him. "It's a joke right?"

Naruto looked at the girl who had spoken out, amused. It was Ino. "No Ino. I wouldn't joke about this." He then held up his piece of paper so that people could clearly read the name that was written on it.

"YOU MUST HAVE CHEATED SO WE WOULDN'T GET HIM!" Naruto heard chorus from around him.

"How could I have cheated? I was the last one to pull a name from the lottery." They all began to mumble then, trying to figure out a plausible way and sighing in defeat when they couldn't. Tsunade chuckled. The only two people in the village who weren't participating in the lottery were herself and Jiraiya.

"Alright, everyone needs to step forward to either Jiraiya or myself and tell us who it was that you got so that we can record your progress. Guys go to Jiraiya and girls come to me." Everyone began to do so then. Naruto, not ecstatic to actually do the contest now, was the last one to get in line. Jiraiya smirked at him when he got to the front of the line however.

"So, you got Sasuke Did'ja?" Naruto glared at the smug look on his face but nodded anyway. "Alright." Jiraiya wrote it down but then leaned forward and whispered to Naruto. "You know, I'm sure this will be beneficial to you in the long run." Naruto backed up a bit. He didn't understand what Jiraiya could be talking about and for the first time that he could remember he really didn't want to know.

Tsunade looked at them all again. "Alright. You may all go home now. The contest starts tomorrow. Good luck to all of you." She then walked off with Jiraiya towards her building. Everyone else trudged home. Naruto wasn't sure what had been worse, that he'd been forced to go to the festival, or that he'd gotten Sasuke to try and 'woo' in this stupid contest. He sighed.

When he'd gotten home he immediately went to the cupboards and got himself his dinner of cup ramen. While he waited for the water to boil, ate it, and even got ready for bed, he tried to think of what he could do to convince Sasuke to complete the tasks he had to do without telling him of what he had to do.. He was sure that if he told Sasuke what was going on Sasuke would just make it harder for him anyway so no one had to worry that he would go and tell the guy. Naruto had been thinking about it so much that he was even dreaming about different situations in which he was trying to get Sasuke to ask him out or something. It was rather unnerving in Naruto's perspective.

The next day Naruto awoke and, without really thinking about it, went through his routine, all the while still thinking about this. He was starting to become obsessive and he really didn't like it. He walked over to the usual spot that the team met at, even though Lady Tsunade hadn't gotten any other missions from the villagers or anything like that so all the ninja's were on leave for a while. It worked well for the ninja's anyway who were trying to complete this contest. When Naruto was just a few steps away from the bridge he looked up and realized that he hadn't been the only one who had gotten the idea to come to the bridge. Sasuke was there too.

Sasuke looked over at him but didn't give any other sign that he even knew Naruto was there. Naruto was a bit surprised by this but didn't show it. He stood beside him on the bridge, not really knowing what to talk about. They stood in silence when Sasuke finally looked over at him again. "What is it that you want loser?" He said in his cold tone of voice that he used when he talked to everyone.

Naruto was taken aback and glared at him. "Do I need a reason to stand here bastard? Or is this your own personal zone?"

Sasuke glared at him. "You're not fooling anyone Naruto. You're never this quiet so you must have something on your mind and from the way you looked at me I can only assume it deals with me."

Naruto was surprised by Sasuke's reasoning skills. Not that he'd ever tell that bastard of course. Besides, he wasn't allowed to tell Sasuke about the contest anyway so how was he supposed to subtly take the relationship to the 'next level' without having Sasuke think he was strange or something. He was sure that Sasuke would laugh at this whole situation when it was over though. Heck, maybe even he would. That wasn't the point however. His first priority at the moment was to figure out a way of getting out of this situation without getting killed or telling Sasuke what was going on.

As Naruto thought Sasuke continued to look at him skeptically. Naruto couldn't believe it. He'd drawn a blank. He couldn't think at all of something that would work. "Well?" Sasuke prodded after Naruto had been silent for almost 15 minutes after Sasuke had called him on it. Naruto swallowed some saliva, slightly nervous. He realized then that he'd skipped breakfast this morning when he'd gone through his routine. Naruto glanced over at Sasuke, thinking about something when he thought he heard a soft grumble sound.

Even Sasuke looked surprised at the sound. He looked down and glared at his stomach for making the sound almost as if he thought that by glaring at it he could make his hunger disappear. Naruto breathed in deeply and took the plunge, knowing he'd probably regret it later. "Hungry? I could make something for you. Skipped breakfast myself this morning." Naruto didn't look at Sasuke, preparing to hear the raven haired teen beside him deny that he was even hungry or say something about it being none of his business. He was surprised on both accounts however.

"Sure. Why not. As long as it isn't ramen or something loser." Naruto looked over at Sasuke in disbelief. He almost asked him what he'd done with the real Sasuke as that had been way too easy.

"Of course it won't be ramen. I know you don't like it.. besides. You honestly think I'd torture you that way or something?" Naruto heard his silence and spoke again before Sasuke could. "Don't answer that." He then lead the way back to his place, wondering what he'd cook for Sasuke. He'd been lucky in the fact that Iruka had taught him a few recipes when Naruto had decided to try eating some things other than ramen for a change. The only real problem was that he had no idea what Sasuke would like to eat.

When they had finally gotten to Naruto's place he hadn't been surprised to find that Sasuke hadn't spoken the whole trip. It was about 2 now so Naruto decided he'd make something for lunch. "Uh.. make yourself at home while I make something for us... don't mind the mess. I wasn't expecting to have company." Naruto then went to the kitchen to see what he had to work with. He decided upon a Chicken Cordon Blue with Twice Baked Potatoes on the side. He got to work then, remembering what Iruka had taught him for this meal.

Sasuke, not knowing why he was even here, sat down on Naruto's couch and waited. He looked around, seeing that Naruto's apartment was a bit of a mess but he'd seen messier and this mess, unlike others, gave the apartment a certain, homey feel to it. Sasuke felt quite relaxed here, not that he'd let anyone actually know that. He waited for a while, not knowing what else to do. After a while, he wasn't sure how long because he couldn't see a clock, he heard Naruto's voice from the kitchen. "Come get it." Sasuke shrugged, walking into the kitchen to see Naruto, in an apron, putting the food on the table. The apron, he realized, said 'kiss the cook' and was bright orange like his outfit. He almost expected Naruto to be wearing an orange chef's hat and found he was slightly disappointed when he saw there wasn't one.

Naruto saw Sasuke was staring at him and figured it was the apron. "It was given to me as a gift from a friend when I finally learned how to cook alright? Give it a rest." He then sat down, shaking his head at Sasuke and began to eat. Sasuke shook his head and sat down, looking at the meal and finding himself surprised that it actually looked edible.. not only that but it looked amazing. He picked up his fork and began to eat the meal that had been prepared for him.

They ate in silence for a bit, Naruto wondering if maybe he'd done something wrong or if Sasuke was just being....well.... Sasuke. Naruto sighed, deciding that even though he'd tried that he hadn't accomplished anything today. He was really going to have to work harder than he thought to get this competition thing over. "It's good. Thank you." Sasuke said out of the blue. Naruto literally shot his head up and looked at Sasuke in surprise. Sasuke smirked. "What? I'm not allowed to give compliments where they are due?"

Naruto stuttered in surprise. "N-No... that's not it at all it's just.. I.. I wasn't expecting you to actually say anything."

"Hn. If that's all then you shouldn't stare at someone for it." Naruto glared a bit but didn't say anything more. He continued to eat his food in silence. Secretly though, he had a small grin on his face. That was one of five. Four more to go.

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Ok, I hope you liked this chapter. This one is longer than the first one just because the first one I really wanted to end it that way and I was actually expecting to take longer than that to get there. This one practically wrote itself. I would like to thank my dear Fai-kitty for giving me the idea of having Naruto give Sasuke chicken to eat and my mom and grandma for helping me decide how Naruto should cook it and what he should make with it. PLEASE REVIEW!! The more reviews I get the sooner I'll want to write the next chapter for you guys.. see how that works?