Spar and Argue.

Those were the only two things Sasuke and Naruto ever did. Almost all the time, they did both. But, those few occasions did exist –mainly when they were on missions- where they were unable to do both, so they stuck simply with arguing.

It bothered Sakura to no end. No only did she dislike people fighting, but she didn't like the fact that it was Naruto- one of the people she hated the most- fighting with Sasuke- the boy she was in love with. She simply wanted to kill Naruto every time the two of them began to bicker. He would be the death of her and probably the death of Sasuke, too.

Kakashi, on the other hand, found it amusing. Sasuke seemed to be the only person who could turn Naruto's perpetually happy mood into a sour one. Likewise, Naruto was the only person who could ever get Sasuke to speak more than three words at a time.

It was obvious to Kakashi (Although not so obvious to Sakura and entirely untrue to Naruto and Sasuke) that the two had bonded. They were friends. Just, in a twisted way.

"Sasuke, you bastard, I could've handled that just fine!" Naruto cried, pointing an accusing finger at Sasuke.

Sasuke calmly placed his hand on Naruto's arm and pushed it away from his face, "No, you'd be dead if I didn't save your ass, moron."

A low growl escaped through Naruto's clenched teeth, "Teme!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and turned his back to his blonde comrade. Kakashi stood a distance off, not at all fazed by the argument. This was their routine. They didn't always argue about the same thing, but they always argued whenever possible. And nearly every single time, Naruto initiated the argument.

"Why do you always do this, you bastard?" Naruto yelled again, clenching his hands into tight fists.

Sasuke paused and glanced back over his shoulder, "Do what, dobe?"

Naruto's fists shook as he tried to keep the sheer anger out of his voice, "Why do you always risk your life for me?"

For a brief second, Sasuke's eyebrows shot up in slight surprise, but he quickly returned it to his normal, hard-ass expression, "I don't know what the hell you're talking about."

Naruto opened his mouth to protest but a harsh, cold glare from the raven caused him to shut his mouth promptly. It didn't, however cause him to stop his grumbling.

The squadron continued on their way back to the village. They were returning from a simple escort mission, but they had been ambushed on the way back. When a surprise attack was threatening to hit Naruto, Sasuke dove in front of him without a second thought.

It wasn't the first time Sasuke had taken an attack meant for the blonde dobe. It probably wouldn't be the last, either.

It killed Naruto, really. Why the hell did Sasuke always do this? Was he truly that cocky and sure of himself? Was he on the verge of thinking he was invincible? Or did he think so low of Naruto that he felt Naruto would not make it out alive without his help? Whatever the reason, it pissed Naruto off.

He could handle himself, dammit!

"Stupid bastard with his stupid superiority complex," Naruto muttered to himself.

The gates of the village came into sight and Naruto sighed in relief. He wanted to get away from that stupid bastard.

"Ja, na, Kakashi sensei. What time are we meeting tomorrow?" Naruto asked, jogging ahead of the rest of the team.

With a scratch of the back his head, Kakashi replied "Same time as always!"

Naruto nodded, ignoring the fact there wasn't exactly a solid time because Kakashi never came at the assigned time, nor at a common time, every day, and ran off to go train. He'd show Sasuke-teme that he was strong and could take care of himself!

There was only one training ground Naruto ever went to. He'd trained there his whole life because nobody ever went there. Well, nobody except him and Sasuke, who frequently crashed his training sessions.

The field was entirely empty- just as he expected it to be- and inviting. Naruto slowly walked into the clearing. He knew he was exhausted after their week long mission and he was low on chakra. And hungry. Yes, he was very hungry. But when was Naruto ever anything but hungry?

He looked around the clearing slowly, deciding what to do. Nothing mattered to him except getting strong to prove that he could take care of himself and that he didn't need that stupid, pompous, arrogant, uncaring, egotistical—er, Sasuke.

Finally, he concluded that he should just fight one of his shadow clones. With a deep breath, he made the oh-so-familiar hand sign.

"Kage bushin no-" Naruto stopped speaking as a familiar chakra invaded his senses.

He turned his attention to the opposite side of the clearing, just in time to see Sasuke waltz in, hands tucked neatly in his pockets.

"What the hell are you doing here, teme?" Naruto fumed, dropping his arms to his sides.

Sasuke raised a brow, coming to a stop in front of the young kitsune, "I'm here to spar, idiot."

A sly smile spread across Naruto's lips. Alright! This was the perfect chance for him to kick that bastard's ass!

"You're on,"

The boys took fighting stances in front of each other. Without a second thought, Naruto lunged at Sasuke. Sasuke dodged the attack easily, countering with a kick. Naruto ducked, flipped and threw a punch at Sasuke. The raven dodged to the right, grabbing Naruto's hand.

He spun and tossed Naruto, who landed on his feet after sliding a little. They faced each other once again. Naruto lunged for the second time- he never was one for indirect or sneak attacks- but was easily dodged. As Sasuke spun to attack the blonde again, he pulled a kunai out of his pouch.

Without much thought he flung his arm down, dragging the kunai through the air. He was more than surprised when he felt it come in contact with something.

Naruto dropped to the ground, his hand clutched around his left forearm.

"Shit. Naruto, I-"

Sasuke's words were cut off by Naruto's blue eyes. The blonde glared at him with so much ice in his eyes, Sasuke wasn't sure how to react. He'd never seen Naruto so upset about something before.

Blood seeped through Naruto's fingers and dripped onto the ground. It hurt. Like a bitch. But Naruto would never let Sasuke know that.

"Here," Sasuke offered, seating himself next to Naruto, "Let me clean it up."

Those icy eyes hardened even more (although Sasuke wasn't even sure how that was possible) as Naruto jerked away from Sasuke, "I can take care of it myself, thank you."

"Naruto, don't be an idiot. Just let me help,"

Said blonde remained silent while staring into those onyx eyes. Sasuke took this hint and reached out to carefully pull Naruto's hand off the wound. He gently rolled up the sleeve to Naruto's jacket so that he could fully see the gash, and was surprised to see that the cut covered just over half of Naruto's forearm. He never intended to hurt him teammate, let alone do something like this!

Quickly Sasuke stood and jogged over to his backpack, which he had deserted at the edge of the clearing. He hustled back over to Naruto and plopped down next to him. In an instant he had some bandage and cloths in his hands.

"Why the hell would you attack me with a kunai? We were just sparring, you bastard!"

Sasuke looked up into those angry blue eyes, "I figured you'd be able to dodge it. It's not my fault that you can't handle simple tasks like that!"

Naruto huffed at that comment, "I would have been prepared if I had known that you would literally attack me!"

Sasuke ignored this comment and dabbed at the blood that still seeped from the wound. Once it was clean of blood he began to wrap it in gauze. Naruto watched with curious blue eyes. Sasuke was taking such care with his arm. His sturdy fingers gripping Naruto's arm actually felt… good.

Naruto's arm was warm where Sasuke's fingers touched. He assumed that it was simply because Sasuke had warm hands. But the heat he felt on his skin seemed too hot to simply be due to warm skin.

Once Sasuke finished wrapping the wound, he looked up to Naruto. Their faces were mere inches apart and Naruto could feel the heat from his arm spread across his cheeks. He could feel Sasuke's breath on his cheek. The pink on his cheeks darkened as he felt his heartbeat quicken. What the hell was this?

"There, I'll think you'll survive," Sasuke's soft voice was accompanied by a slightly amused smirk.

Naruto glanced down at his bandaged wound. He had no worries that he wouldn't be fine. In fact, he'd probably be fine sooner than Sasuke even expected. His accelerated healing truly did come in handy.

Naruto looked up, planning to thank Sasuke for fixing his wound- despite the fact that he had caused it- but stopped when his eyes landed on Sasuke's face. The corners of his lips were tilted up into an all-knowing smirk. Naruto had seen that look far too many times.

"What the hell are you smirking at? This is your damn fault!" Naruto growled, frowning at the amused look in Sasuke's eyes.

The corners of Sasuke's lips tilted up more at Naruto's reaction, "I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually."

"N-nani? What the hell does that mean?"

Sasuke leaned in a little closer, eliciting that warm pink color on Naruto's cheeks again, "Just think about everything that's happened today. You can do it,"

With those words, Sasuke zipped his backpack, slung it over his shoulders and headed out of the clearing, leaving a very confused kitsune.

Naruto sat and thought back to the events of the day. They had completed their mission and returned home. Before leaving, the two had gone off to spar. They argued most of the way back. Then, Sasuke risked his life to save Naruto (which Naruto still resented him for). Then they sparred again and Sasuke left a gaping wound in his forearm. However, he did tend to it and take care of it.

Except for the wound, this seemed like routine to Naruto. Nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing to give him a clue as to what Sasuke was smirking at.

Damn that confusing, smirking, full-of-himself bastard! Naruto would never understand him.

Resigning the thought of ever figuring out what Sasuke meant, Naruto headed home. He figured he'd just pay closer attention to Sasuke in the coming days, just to see if anything out of the ordinary happened that could help him figure out what was going on.

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Naruto arrived at the bridge the next morning, fully prepared to wait some hours for his sensei to show up. Sasuke sat, back against a tree and staring boredly ahead of him. Sakura sat slightly to his right, chattering away about something Sasuke obviously didn't care about.

Naruto forced a smile onto his lips, despite the fact that he was still pissed as hell at Sasuke for cutting him and then confusing him. Honestly, it was like rubbing salt in his wound. He barely got any sleep last night because Sasuke's words wouldn't stop echoing in the back of his head!

"Good Morning, Saskura-chan!" Naruto waved, that smile still on his face. Next, he regarded his other teammate and gave a curt, "Sasuke."

Sakura turned, smiling, to Naruto and waved a little. Sasuke turned his angry eyes to the blonde and gave a short, stiff nod.

Naruto stared for a moment at his dark haired companion. Sasuke nodded to him? Did that always happen? He could swear Sasuke usually completely ignored his greeting in the morning. Naruto shook his head a little, trying to shake any thoughts out of his head. It was a simple nod; it couldn't mean anything. He probably just didn't notice when Sasuke did it all the other days.

Naruto went and seated himself next to Sasuke, laying on his back with his hands behind his head. Sakura returned to her incessant talking about nothing important. She leaned a little closer to Sasuke, who scooted himself a little closer to Naruto.

For a moment, Naruto anticipated that his eyes were the size of dinner plates. Usually Sasuke either ignored Sakura completely or just turned his head the other direction. He never physically moved himself away from her. And he certainly never made a point to be closer to Naruto. That much Naruto knew for sure.

Before he had a chance to ponder this new situation, a long yawn took over. Naruto shut his eyes and stretched, sore and tired from his lack of sleep.

"Eh, Naruto?" Sasuke spoke, "Is something wrong?"

Naruto's blue eyes opened to meet Sasuke's onyx ones, "Eh? What makes you say that?"

Sasuke's onyx eyes softened for only a second, "You just seem really out of it."

"I couldn't sleep last night. Your-" He cut himself off, not wanting Sasuke to know that his words had such an effect on him. To cover up his slip-up, he changed course with his sentence, "There was just something I couldn't stop thinking about."

One of Sasuke's eyebrows shot up at the words. Something that important?

"Well, it better not mess you up today," He replied simply.

Silence wrapped around them and Naruto's mind was once again left to wander. That had to be the most civil conversation the two had ever shared. No name calling, short tempers or yelling. They simply shared their thoughts on a topic and let it be.

What. The. Hell?

Naruto watched Sasuke out of the corners of his eyes. Maybe he was an imposter. Normal Sasuke wouldn't give a damn about what was wrong with Naruto. He'd wait for Naruto to mess up and then ridicule him for his failure. He wouldn't express concern ahead of time.

"Ne, Sasuke?"

The raven turned his head, "Yes?"

The blonde paused for a moment, not sure how to word this. Sasuke would surely kill him for pointing out something like this, but he had to know.

"Are you sick?"

"What?" Sasuke's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Sick? No, he felt fine. He didn't think he looked sick, either, "Where would you get that idea?"

"Well," Naruto turned his blue eyes turned back up to the sky above him, "You were just nice to me. Concerned for me."

"Nani? No, dumbshit. You're my teammate. I have to make sure you're top notch for our mission," Sasuke replied a little too quickly.

And Naruto didn't fail to notice the slight bit of… panic? Shock? Fear? Whatever it was, Naruto saw it in Sasuke's eyes.

Sakura stared between her two teammates, obviously as surprised as Naruto was about the kindness. However, she let it show that she was surprised. Naruto's face remained impassive as he pretended like these sudden changes weren't unnerving him.

Inside, however, he was on the verge of insanity. What the hell was going on? Was Sasuke playing with his mind? Was he trying to make up for actually attacking him yesterday? Or was he trying to further his reputation by being the bigger person and getting along with Naruto?

"Sasuke-kun~" Sakura cried, scooting closer to the boy. She opened her mouth to say something- most likely relating to how much cooler he became by being nice to his enemy- but was silence when Sasuke, yet again, scooted further away.

He placed his hands on either side of body and moved himself till he was directly next to Naruto. In the process, his fingertips rested on top of Naruto's hand, which he had laying by his side, as well. Naruto couldn't help but notice two things: First, a shock went up his arm at the contact. And, second, Sasuke's fingers lingered there just slightly longer than they needed to.

But before he had a chance to focus more on this incident, the fingertips disappeared and everything returned to absolute silence. Without thinking, Naruto raised his hand to inspect it. What was that feeling?

"What the hell are you doing?" Sasuke asked, looking over at his teammate.

Naruto realized for the first time that he had to look rather weird, "Huh? Oh- nothing."

He placed his hand down to his side again, more confused than ever. Part of Naruto wanted to just punch Sasuke in the face. Surely that trumped whatever mind-game Sasuke was trying to play with him.

"Let's spar," The words slipped out of Sasuke's mouth unbidden, but he didn't mind. He knew Naruto wouldn't refuse.

He was correct. In a few seconds, Naruto was on his feet and headed towards the nearest clearing. Sasuke stood up and followed him. Sakura sighed. They sparred nearly every single morning, regardless of what sort of training or mission they had coming up.

The boys stood facing each other again. This time, it was Sasuke to make the first move. He tossed a few kunai and jumped backwards. Naruto easily dodged. He was going to get that bastard back today for the injury he caused yesterday.

In a split second he disappeared, only to reappear behind Sasuke. The raven turned and threw a punch, which Naruto ducked under. He swung his leg out, causing Sasuke to jump and flip backwards. Naruto lunged again, getting there right as Sasuke was standing up. He threw a punch that connected. Sasuke flew a few feet back across the clearing.

He quickly stood to his feet and lunged right for Naruto. Naruto jumped back and faced his opponent. Sasuke came forth again, throwing successive punches. Naruto dodged all, but also began to lose his balance. Sasuke had the perfect opportunity to get one last blow in on Naruto. One that would end the match. He pulled his fist back to attack… and then he hesitated.

Naruto caught Sasuke's momentary hesitation. It didn't give him enough time to regain his balance or counter, but it caught his eye. Instead of delivering the final blow, Sasuke opted to grab Naruto by the collar and pin him to the nearest tree.

Naruto kept his glare harsh despite the jittery feeling he had on the inside. He ignored the th-thump, th-thump that pounded in his ears. He was certain Sasuke could hear his heartbeat at this rate, but that didn't matter. What mattered was Sasuke leaning in closer, closer… until his lips were right by Naruto's ear.

"Did you figure it out yet?" His voice was quiet, but Naruto heard the words loud and clear.

He opened his mouth to answer but was promptly distracted, "Sasuke!"

Naruto grabbed his teammates shoulders and threw him to the side, eyes locked on the incoming kunai. Knowing he didn't have enough time to dodge the attack, Naruto did the only thing he could possibly think of- cross his arms in front of him defensively.

In a matter of seconds, the kunai burrowed into his arm. Naruto ground his teeth at the feeling, but refused to let out any sort of noise. The attacker appeared suddenly, headed straight for Sasuke. Naruto didn't take any time to identify the intruder or his purpose. He didn't think through the fact that it was entirely unlikely that they would be attacked in such a safe part of the village. No, none of that crossed his mind.

The only thing he thought about was how he had to protect Sasuke.

Without so much as any considerations to his actions, Naruto dove forward, his own kunai in hand. He met the attacker, kunai-to-kunai directly over Sasuke, who sat defenseless on the ground. Naruto put all his strength behind the kunai, forcing the attacker to fall back. They fought fist to fist briefly, before Naruto landed a punch in the opponent's gut. He dropped to the ground, breathing heavily.

When the intruder failed to get up, Naruto took a minute to study him. He was dressed in all black. But after a moment, he looked up and Naruto sighed in relief. He'd know that eye anywhere.

"Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing?" Naruto demanded, pointing a finger at his sensei.

Said Sensei stood from the ground and pulled the all black mask off, "Testing your ability to handle a surprise attack. I must say- well done, Naruto. You never let your guard down once."

Naruto smiled triumphantly. He was incredibly aware of the shooting pain in his arm, and the kunai that still resided there, but that was irrelevant right now. He turned to point his accusing finger at his onyx-eyed teammate.

"You hear that, Sasuke-teme? I can take care of myself!"

Sasuke sat on the ground still, eyes wide and mouth slightly open. His mind was working to catch up to what just happened. His dark eyes met Naruto's light ones. The two simply stared at each other for a moment before Sasuke turned his head away.

"Thanks, Naruto," he muttered under his breath.

Naruto smiled a genuine smile, "Consider us even,"

It was then that Kakashi stood and faced Naruto, "Well, now that we got that love-fest out of the way, we should probably take care of your arm."

Naruto winced at the thought. It would hurt. Just like it had hurt the day before. The last thing he intended on doing today was getting his other arm injured. But alas, he couldn't avoid it. He glanced down at his injury and then up at his sensei, silently nodding for him to go ahead.

Naruto held his arm in front of him, avoiding looking at the bloody wound. Kakashi gripped the handle of the kunai with one hand and placed the other around Naruto's wrist to hold his arm in place.

"You're going to want to hold on to something," Kakashi muttered.

Naruto glanced around, not seeing anything to hold on to. Suddenly, Sasuke stood and placed his arm out for Naruto to grip. Feeling slightly awkward, but also thinking it was necessary, Naruto placed his hand on Sasuke's arm.

Just as Naruto turned back to Kakashi, he felt a searing pain in his arm. It was just like Kakashi to do something like this without any forewarning. Naruto could feel his grip on Sasuke's arm tighten as he clenched his eyes shut.

"Damn," He chocked out through his pain.

After a moment or so, the pain subsided and Naruto was able to release his grip on Sasuke. Without so much as a word Sasuke dropped his arm to his side and watched. By now, Sakura was standing mere inches away from Sasuke, watching the scene as well.

"Take your jacket off so I can bandage it properly," Kakashi said, dropping the kunai to the ground.

Naruto did as he was told and unzipped his jacket. He pulled it off his left arm with decent ease, but had to be careful taking it over his fresh wound. As soon as he had his jacket off, he looked up to his sensei, who had his visible eye wide with surprise.

"What happened there?" Kakashi pointed to Naruto's bandaged left arm.

Naruto glanced down and felt a surge of panic flood through him quickly. He didn't want Sasuke to get in trouble for injuring him like this!

"Eh-heh. I cut it on accident yesterday. It's not a big deal…" Naruto scratched the back of his head with his left hand, smiling a little.

Kakashi's visible eye crinkled in a smile. It didn't surprise him that Naruto would do something clumsy and end up hurt. From the corner of his eye, Naruto could see Sasuke staring at him, slightly incredulous. Naruto turned his head away from his wound (he just so happened to turn his head to face Sasuke), and allowed Kakashi to finish.

Sasuke's dark eyes bore into Naruto's, no longer showing any emotion. Naruto mustered a small smile, but gasped shortly after. The pressure Kakashi was putting on his wound hurt.

"There," Kakashi muttered, stepping back, "All fixed up. But I think we should call practice to an end today."

Sakura looked up to their sensei, "What about our mission?"

"Hm? Oh!" Kakashi laughed, "Technically that was your mission."

The three rolled their eyes as their sensei pulled out his book and left. Sakura looked hopefully to Sasuke who, per usual, blatantly ignored her. Naruto bent over to get his jacket and put it back on. Slightly disheartened, Sakura walked away with her head hung low.

As soon as she was out of sight, Sasuke spoke, "Why did you lie about your other injury?"

Naruto turned away from Sasuke, not sure how to respond, "I'm not sure. I just didn't want you to get in trouble, I guess."

Naruto shook his head at his own words. He was embarrassed to admit that he did that simply for Sasuke's sake, but he didn't want to lie either. Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see that it was Sasuke's.

"Well, thanks."

Heat flooded Naruto's cheeks. His face simply felt like it was on fire. Tingles spread across his whole body, starting from where Sasuke's hand resided. And, this time, Naruto was positive the whole village could hear his heart beating. Not only was it beating fast but it was beating hard and loud.

What the hell were these feelings?

"You know," Sasuke whispered so quietly that Naruto actually took a step backwards to be able to hear his words, "You never told me if you figured it out."

Naruto leaned away for a moment, "Figured what out, exactly? I thought about it nonstop, but nothing out of the ordinary happened. Not until today,"

Naruto resisted the urge to yell at Sasuke for keeping him awake, causing him multiple injuries and making his head spin in more than one way.

When Sasuke spoke next, Naruto could hear the small smirk in his voice, "Not until today? No, it's happened before. It was just more obvious today,"

Naruto turned to look into those eyes. As soon as his blue eyes met them his face warmed up. He felt like a hot stove. Sasuke's hand remained firmly placed on his shoulder and Naruto was still clearly aware of the tingles spreading from it.

God, tingles. How fucking girly. Honestly, if Naruto had to describe himself right now, he'd say he was like one of those god-damned fangirls. Which was entirely absurd. Sasuke was a complete bastard! There was no way Naruto could feel anything toward the ass. All Sasuke cared about was himself. He could never love anyone. And Naruto hated Sasuke. Hated—not loved!

"I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to get out of you acting like a bipolar idiot," Naruto muttered, dropping his eyes to their feet.

A quiet chuckle escaped Sasuke's mouth. It caught Naruto off guard. It was a sound he'd heard maybe twice before. "You'll get it. I believe in you."

Sasuke dropped his hand from Naruto's shoulder and exited the clearing for the second day in a row.

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Naruto was about to rip his hair out. It wasn't because he was an idiot and unable to figure out this mysterious thing Sasuke was hinting to. No, Naruto was able to put two and two together. The problem was believing what he had figured out.

He recapped it all in his mind one more time.

Sasuke constantly risked his life for him.

Sasuke took care of him when he was injured. Hell, he felt guilty for injuring him.

Sasuke was worried about him when he was off his game.

Sasuke's finger's grazed Naruto's. And no, that couldn't have been an accident. They remained there for too long for it to be a mistake.

Sasuke offered his arm to Naruto to hold while he was getting his wound tended to.

Sasuke avoided delivering the last blow to Naruto to win their sparring match.

Sasuke thanked him. Twice.

Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke! That damned Uchiha had invaded Naruto's brain and made so signs of ever leaving. Naruto had figured out that these moments indicated that Sasuke liked him. But… really? Sasuke Uchiha like him?

Naruto shook his head, realizing for the first time that he had been staring directly at Sasuke. Sasuke stared back, an eyebrow raised in confusion.

"What are you staring at?" A familiar bite was in his voice

Naruto glared, "What's it matter?"

Yes, he was frustrated. In fact, he was pissed off. He felt like this was another one of Sasuke's damned mind games. There was no way Sasuke actually liked him, so this idea drove him crazy. Sasuke was probably planning on pushing Naruto past the line of sanity without actually doing anything himself. Naruto was the one obsessing over the idea and nearly tearing all his hair out of his head over it.

Sasuke's eyebrows furrowed, "What's your problem?"

"You!" Naruto cried, clutching his head in his hands, "You and your god forsaken mind games. Are you trying to drive me insane or something?"

A small smirk took control of Sasuke's lips, "So you figured it out?"

"I don't even know!" Naruto exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.

Normally, Sakura-chan would scold him for yelling at Sasuke like this. But she had yet to arrive. Naruto and Sasuke sat alone at the end of the bridge.

"Well then, let me give you a hint," Sasuke muttered.

He stood from his routine spot by the tree and walked over to Naruto, crouching in front of him. He was sure by Naruto's reaction that he'd figured out the correct answer. This was exactly how Sasuke expected the young kitsune to react.

Naruto looked up to Sasuke, confusion in his baby blue eyes. Without a word, Sasuke leaned down and captured Naruto's lips. Naruto's eyes widened in surprise. Partially because Uchiha Sasuke was kissing him and partially because he had been correct. Sasuke did like him!

He shut his eyes and returned the kiss, leaning into Sasuke's lips. After a second, however, Sasuke pulled back. He stared into Naruto's eyes.

Without a word, Naruto reached up and traced his lips with his fingers. There was that damn tingling feeling again. He moved his fingers from his lips to rest over his heart, which felt like it was a moment away from breaking through his ribcage.

"You… like me," Naruto breathed, "Me. The town reject,"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, "Who cares what they think of you?"

Naruto smiled before tackling Sasuke to the ground. Naruto's blue eyes shone with the new happiness of being accepted by someone.

Sasuke's lips tilted up slightly in a genuine smile, "I take it you feel the same way?"

"Well, I still think you're a bastard," Naruto replied, climbing off his friend, "But yes."

Sasuke leaned in and planted one more, soft kiss on his lips before retreating to his normal position by the tree and turning his face back into that infamous emotionless mask. Naruto didn't bother hiding his smile as Sakura walked up.

"Morning!" She yelled, bounded up to her team.

Immediately she was inches away from Sasuke, who looked instantly annoyed by her presence. Naruto couldn't help but chuckle a little at the situation.

"Naruto? What's got you in such a good mood this morning?" Sakura asked.

Naruto glanced at her, "Huh? Oh. I dunno. I'm just happy today, I guess,"

But as he spoke, he shot a sly glance to Sasuke and couldn't help but notice the small smile that sat on his lips.