Oh my god, I cannot apologise enough for how long it has taken me to update. I feel bad inside. But you may have to get used to it, I suck at updating… And writing it seems. I'm sorry if this chapter is bad, but I wanted to flesh out their relationship before I got on to anything serious.

Thank you everybody who reviewed, favourited or put this on their alerts, I love you all so much and your reviews helped kick me into gear.

Warning: AU, Fem!Naru, sane Sasuke, majorly OCC, lots o' fluff. This is un-beta'd as I have no idea what beta-ring even is so I'm just relying on spell-check.

Disclaimer: Believe me, if I owned Naruto, it would go a little more like this story. But I don't, so it doesn't.

~SASUXNARU~

SPOV

"Ino-pig, move!"

"NO! You move, forehead!"

In vain did I try to tune out the two voices yelling next to me, it didn't work. It never does.

Taking a glance at the girls sitting either side of me, shrieking over my head, I hoped Naruto would arrive soon. She knew a way to get rid of fan girls that didn't involve murder.

She's so lucky.

With a bang the door to the class room slams open, revealing a panting Naruto. She checks her watch and grins when she realises she still has five minutes until the bell. I smirk slightly, causing the fan girls to swoon a little. For once I don't mind, when Naruto sees them in her seat, Bubblegum and Blondie would be visiting the nurse in a matter of minutes.

As Naruto ascends the stairs in an almost dramatic slow pace, I almost smile when I saw that as each step she takes closer to us, the tenser Dumb and Dumber get.

When she's got about half way up the stairs, Naruto glances up and frowned. What little colour Pinkie and Perky had, whooshed out of them. There was a reason the fan girls didn't harass Naruto, even though she sat next to me on a daily basis, so she could –as she put it- see out of the window.

The girl could be damn scary if she wanted to be.

Haruno and Yamanaka foolishly stay in their seats, possibly too scared to move, or they really are just that thick.

The seat avenging demon [A/N I bet Kyuubi would be so miffed if he heard that… Mwahahahaha!] had just lifted her foot to stomp over here, no doubt to teach the banshees a lesson, when the resident mutt of the class decided to ruin my fun.

"Oi, Naruto, over here!" Kiba called as he pointed to a free seat between him and Shikamaru. Sakura and Ino looked towards Kiba as though he was their lifesaver, which he probably was.

I watch in growing dismay as Naruto doubled back to sit next to the Dog.

Forehead and Pig celebrate their continuing lives by screeching at each other again.

I glare at the Dog.

I am not happy.

At all.

~SASUXNARU~

I was trying desperately to scare the girls –hopefully to death- with my glare, when I heard loud cackling laughter.

My gaze travelled to Naruto and Kiba, heads together, they had an evil looking expression on, which no doubt means they are planning a prank.

I suddenly felt a very tight feeling in my stomach, one which had nothing to do with the fact that they're probably planning to prank me, and I had a vicious urge to go over there and pull Naruto back to her normal seat, next to me.

How dare that… thing try to steal my only friend! The mutt may not know it, but still.

That fact had me pausing. No one knows we are friends. It's kind of weird because it's not like we've been hiding it or anything, in fact, it's pretty obvious. We walk to and from school together on most days, we sit next to each other all the time, we pair up together in class and we even have lunch together!

Why is no one willing to believe we like each other?

I was shoved quite rudely out of my thoughts by another round of obnoxious laughing. Glaring at the Flea-bag, my one thought was,

'Mine!'

I decided to go over there and break them up, in which ever way is possible. My mind made up, I stomped over there.

Only later would I realise how childish I was.

When I got within a metre of them I said,

"Oh, look, the morons are having a convention together. I wonder what kind of idiotic things they're talking about."

I hadn't thought about how Naruto would take it. I only realised when I saw the look of hurt flash across her eyes.

I immediately feel guilty. Recently, when Naruto and I fight –yes, we still fight, it'll be the end of the world when we stop- we wouldn't really mean the words…mostly. We're still rivals, but I'd like to think we're friends before that.

So as to have such words as the ones I had just used against her, and said with such sincerity, like I honestly believed them, would be horrible for Naruto.

As everyone laughed at her and Kiba, I could see her put her mask on.

Not her overly bubbly one, no, one much worse than that. This mask blocked out all out. All people, places and emotions. Although she did smile reassuringly at Kiba, who smiled back, embarrassed.

And then Iruka walked in, exactly 3 minutes after the bell. Immediately everyone shut up and went back to whatever they were doing, everyone knows how protective Iruka is of Naruto after all.

But Narutos mask stayed on, she stared straight ahead, blankly, like nobody else was around her. Iruka almost did a double take when he saw her so still and lifeless, in fact, everyone did. We have all grown used to her loud outbursts and it felt weird not to have them and their lively speaker jumping all over the place.

After casting a concerned look at Naruto and a suspicious glare at everyone else, Iruka spotted me standing there and said,

"Sasuke, could you please sit down?" I nodded slowly and went back to my seat, the guilt weighing me down and making my demeanour somewhat sluggish.

Iruka sat down at his desk and started calling the register. The class was bereft of any noise apart from people calling 'Here, sir!'.

It was weird.

Even for me, who loves silence, it was uncomfortable. And I just knew that for the rest of the day it would be the same.

~SASUXNARU~

Walking miserably, only on the inside though, out of the front gates, Sasuke plotted ways to make up to Naruto.

He could apologise- but he was never very good at those, plus his pride wouldn't let him. Anyway, it would probably take more than a measly apology to get her to forgive him.

Treating her to ramen wouldn't work either; Teuchi had gone on holiday for two weeks, he thought as he spotted the desolate stand on the street.

And it wasn't like he could just leave her like she was, their class would probably start killing themselves.

He walked along, thinking deeply, and sighing in annoyance.

Then, the answer literally came to him in a flash.

He was passing by the older, less populated stores that led to the compound, when the sun reflected off of something in a shop window. Curious, he went up on tippy-toes to get a closer look. And there, on a little velvet cushion, were two identical necklaces.

Silver and shaped kind of like guitar picks, they had the words 'Sonzai ni naru koto ni yotte, anata wa watashi o kenshō, engraved onto their faces. And on a little plaque next to them, it said you could get pictures engraved on the other side.

It was perfect.

Trotting happily into the shop, he asked the old man behind the counter how much they were.

The man had a kind face and smile lines around his eyes. And although he was clutching a stick, Sasuke thought it was amazing how such a frail person could look so energetic. His grey eyes had a mischievous spark that made them look like they should belong to a child, and were currently slightly wide with surprise that a child was in his shop.

He idly thought that he and Naruto would get on well, and maybe he should bring her here.

Azami, as he told Sasuke to call him, brought it out from behind the window and showed it to him. He said it was 13,992 yen [A/N that's roughly £115]. Sasuke nodded, he could somewhat afford that, he had inherited all the Uchiha's money after all.

"So," Azami started, "who's it for? Friend? Best friend? Girlfriend?" He waggled his eyebrows a bit and Sasuke blushed slightly, but answered,

"Ano… best friend, I think."

"Hm… Anyway, would you like to have a picture engraved, it's a little more expensive but it makes it unique and special?" Sasuke considered for a second before nodding, it would be cool, he thought.

"Okay then, do you have a picture of you and the other person? I need to scan it on the machine."

Checking his pockets, Sasuke pulled out a crumpled picture of him and Naruto on the pier. She was smiling softly, for once not wearing the usual massive grin, and her blue eyes were shining happily. Sasuke himself was attempting to crack his face muscles and was managing a small upturn of his lips; his normally cold eyes were warm and content looking.

It was his favourite picture of them, and there are a lot since Naru found his camera.

Handing it over, Azami's eyebrow rose before he smiled,

"So it is for a girlfriend, huh?" Sasuke's eyes widened before he practically shouted,

"NO! We're just close!"

Azami just smiled.

Because he didn't have all the money on him and Azami need time to engrave the picture, Sasuke walked out of the shop, empty handed for now.

When he got back, he was met with the sight of a grinning Azami.

"I hope ya got the money, cos' this one's a stinker!"

~SASUXNARU~

Sasuke stepped out the little shop for the second time that afternoon, a small velvet bag sitting in his pocket. A smug smile spread across his face as he celebrated his success.

However, his happy-high didn't last long. He paused at the end of the street.

He had no idea where he would find Naruto.

She wouldn't go back to that shit-hole if there was still sunlight, and the compound was empty, he had checked.

So where is she?

If anyone had been looking on the particular afternoon, they would have seen Sasuke Uchiha slap his forehead in shame.

He swore that girl's stupidity was rubbing off on him.

~SASUXNARU~

When Sasuke arrived at the lake-

No, their lake! Nobody else seemed to go there anyway-

The expected sight of Naruto swinging her legs on the end of the pier greeted him as he awkwardly stood at the opposite end.

Both knowing the other is there, yet not talking.

Sasuke noted the irony of the reversal of their positions. He snorted when he thought that, and decided he'd dawdled enough. He swaggered to the end of the pier as if it wasn't a make or break situation of keeping his –only- friend.

He's an Uchiha, dammit! They're not, and never were, good at all the emotional, friendship, gooey things. And it should be noted, one of the highest levels of a sincere apology is a somewhat meaningful and/or expensive gift.

It was one of the only ways, really.

Sitting down next to Naruto, he saw the slight red marks around her eyes, signs that she had been crying, but wisely refrained from saying anything.

Sasuke never was a great conversation starter, so for a few minutes he enjoyed the calming view of the lake and the soothing sounds of the mini waves lapping up on the beach behind them.

Building up his nerves, eyes stubbornly looking at his hands, he said,

"I'm s-s…sor-…sssss…" he really was having a hard time saying it, damn pride, "Sor…ry?" Glancing at Narutos face he could see that he had her attention, but his words were making little sense. Sasuke took a deep breath.

"I'm Sorry! I didn't mean to say it! I won't say anything like that ever again, promise!"

Naruto finally looked up, "Why were you so mean, teme? We were doing nothing wrong."

"I-I…" he clenched his fists "I didn't like seeing you with him!"

"You didn't like seeing me with him?" She repeated slowly, Sasuke bowed his head shamefully.

"Well, yeah." Seeing her raised eyebrows, he was quick to defend himself. "You're my friend he has no right to steal you from me!" It came out louder and angrier than he meant it to be. After half a minute of silence, she said,

"Sasuke, you'll always be my best friend, you know that, right?" he nodded, "Good." She turned back to the water, looking satisfied.

Sasuke was thinking of his apology and how un-Uchiha like it was. Uchiha's apologise with… Oh yeah.

"Um, Naruto?"

"Hmm?"

" I got you this to say sorry." He handed her the bag. As she pulled out the black cord the charm hung from, he showed her his from where it was already around his neck.

"See, this way we'll always be close to each other's hearts." He said as she pulled out the charm with his picture on, he had the one with her face. "I thought they could be special, to u-"

He was unceremoniously tackled hugged. Now, normally, he wouldn't have minded. But since he was near the edge of the pier, she pushed them both right over the edge and into the water.

He emerged, coughing, and glared at a soaking, grinning and still hugging him, Naruto.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is the nicest thing anybody's ever done for me!" His glare softened for a second and he hugged her back briefly before he pushed her off.

"Still, there was no need to tackle me! Now I'm soaking!"

"That's revenge, Teme. Anyway, I just thought your hair would be more at ease with its brethren." She gestured to a nearby flock of ducks.

The glare returned.

"I hate you."

"Love you too, S'uke!"

"I told you to stop calling me that!"

"Did you really?"

"Yes, only yesterday, in fact."

"Really? I don't remember."

"That's cos' you're a dobe."

"Grr, I told you to stop calling me that!"

"Did you really?"

~SASUXNARU~

I know, you honestly didn't believe it could be that crap. But it is. *sighs* I'm a bad author.

Anyway, sorry the tenses keep changing and for any grammatical errors, I kept coming back to the story and so the tense and plot went everywhere. Hope you haven't lost hope in this.

Sonzai ni naru koto ni yotte, anata wa watashi o kenshō: according to google translate, this means 'by being in existence, you validate mine. I thought it was cute.

I got the idea for the necklace from the cover of chapter 411 of the actual Naruto manga, check it out here:

.com/manga/naruto/v44/c411/

Actually, I pretty much got my inspiration from this image… so yeah.

Until next time I bother to update.