Author's Note: Next chapter! Took a bit to update, but holy hell, my uncle has been keeping me busy. Max has continued to be my main update reason, though you, my readers, and those of you that are kind enough to review and enjoy my fic enough to favorite/follow it give me the inspiration as well. So, once again, here is a chapter dedicated to Max, and you, readers!

Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own Naruto.

Chapter Two

I am awoken in the morning by the smell of pancakes and to the sound of Naruto singing. Even from my room I can hear him. I try at first to go back to sleep, but after a particularly high note from the blond, I deem it impossible, and climb out of bed. I go to the closet where I have already unpacked my clothes and hung them up in their respective places, then grab a pair of tight jeans and pull them on before descending the stairs, still rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

As I walk into the kitchen, I see Naruto in front of a griddle with his right hand wrapped around a spatula, and his left thrown up in the air in an odd pose as he sings out the last line of his song. It's after this that he notices me, then smiles that beautiful smile and puts down his arms. "Morning, Sasuke," he greets, then turns back to the griddle where he flips a perfect pancake to it's other side.

"Morning." I probably would have thrown in a,'dobe' there, but it takes me awhile to wake up, so I leave the insults for when I can think correctly.

"I'm made you food,"Naruto says, pointing to the stack of pancakes he finished making before I came down. "It's pretty late, and I would have waited so you could help me, but I got hungry and didn't feel like starving to death."

At this I look towards the stove and squint my eyes a bit to see the time. My eyesight isn't horrible, but I do have a prescription for glasses and things like numbers are hard to see from this far away. It's 12:36. I have to admit, I am a bit surprised at the time. I sleep late, but never this late. When Naruto and I were younger, I was the one who always got up early, and he slept in. He would come to school tardy and by out senior year I was showing up at his house around seven a.m. to wake him up and give him a ride. After we graduated though, I guess waking up at seven carried on with him, because he never gets up later than 9 every morning whereas it used to be around eleven. I, however, began to sleep as he did, waking up at ten and eleven every day. I blame it on my pushing myself so hard in high school, and, now that I have some slack, I'm able to relax more. Naruto, on the other hand, is just so full of energy he no longer needs the sleep.

When our schedule became like this we started a system. Naruto would wake up, take a shower, shave if he had to, then go in the living and watch TV for awhile. Once it hit nine forty-five, he would get up and start the coffee-maker, ready for me when I emerged from my slumber. Then, when I woke up and sat at the table drinking my life force, he would ask,"So, what's for breakfast, Teme?" and I would reply," Whatever you want, Dobe, as as long as it's not ramen," and he would whine a bit and curse my healthfulness and then begin to make what he was craving that morning.

I walk towards the stack of pancakes on the counter, counting them (there were five) and then grabbing the plate and turning around to sit at the table. Naruto begins singing again, much quieter, but I don't pay attention to the words as he brings me syrup and butter from the fridge. Soon, the blond is sitting down across from me with his own stack of pancakes, except instead of butter he puts peanut butter on his. We used to always give each other shit about it, and once I accidently called him an uncultured swine and he laughed so hard he cried and then made fun of me for a week straight about how I used an insult from Toy Story. I had to explain to him then that my mother used to put it on for my brother and I while we were younger and she needed to cook or clean, so without meaning to the memorized dialogue had carried on to my vocabulary as a teenager. Now, however, Naruto and I sit in a comfortable silence as we eat our breakfast, him still humming along to the song he's been singing all morning while I silently bask in the beauty of his voice.

"Hikaru wants us to go to his side of the lake today," Naruto says without warning, and I stop chewing for a moment, then start again when I look up at him and see his innocent eyes.

When he doesn't get a response from me, he continues,"It'd be nice if you came, Teme. he's actually a really great guy, and I think you'd like him. After all, you put up with me, don't you?" At this he grins, and I have to admit that he has a point.

After a few minutes of me still being silent, Naruto looks dejected and I realize that he looks that way because I never said I would go. I finish up the rest of my pancakes, get up from my seat and rinse off my plate, then sit back down and say,"Okay."

Naruto, who has been picking at his food and taking a bite about once every minute, suddenly brightens at my words and grins again. "Okay! He said he'll be down by the south side with a few friends. He also said to bring swimsuits."

It's at the last part I groan a bit, then narrow my eyes at a chip on the table. After a bad experience with swimming when I was younger, I didn't like it much, at least in lakes and open water. Pools I were okay with, as long as they were clean, but anything else? Nope. "I think I'll just stay on shore,"I say.

Naruto's eyes narrow a bit. "Nuh-uh, Teme, you're going swimming. In all the years I've known you you've only gone swimming in a lake once! Have little fun." At this Naruto abandons his clean plate in front of him (he had at least a pancake and a half left thirty seconds ago; how the hell did he eat it so fast?) to stand and walk behind me. He stops when he's a few inches from my back, and my heart is already beginning to beat faster. He places one hand on the side of my neck and the other on my shoulder, and if I thought I was tense before, I'm now resembling a rock. He begins kneading my shoulders, slowly, but with force, and he says,"Relax, Sasuke," so close to my ear that even though my heart speeds up three times as fast, I allow my muscles to loosen and eventually I lean back in the chair. Naruto continues to rubs his fingers into my shoulders, then moves down to in between my shoulderblades, and then to my lower back, avoiding the chair's back as if it weren't even there. I eventually lean onto the table, laying my arms down and then putting my cheek on them, and close my eyes. Naruto begins his hum again.

I think, This is nice, and then the other thoughts start bombarding my mind. A memory that started out quite like this, except it was at my own apartment back in Konoha and the scent of alcohol was all around me and in my own mouth and everything was quite fuzzy, and I remember strong, tan hands - the same strong, tan hands that are on me now - running all over my skin and wonderful lips and a beautiful stomach and that damn swirling tattoo and-

- And suddenly there is a knock at the door. It jolts me out of my thoughts, and I hear Naruto chuckle a bit and then leave his space behind me to answer it. I, however, am trying to control the sudden onslaught of memories from that night, the night that I was never supposed to think of again, for the Dobe's sake. They keep coming, though, and I notice another problem, quite a noticeable one, that originates a bit farther down. I stand up from the chair, my back feeling much more relaxed that it did when I woke up and walk quickly to the bathroom. Halfway there, hell bent on getting rid on my 'problem', I hear Hikaru's voice and Naruto's laugh. Oh, no you don't, I think, and then I instead walk upstairs and into the bedroom to grab a jacket to tie around my waist. Once I'm done, I quickly go back downstairs, where the Dobe and Hikaru are chatting idly in the kitchen, Naruto cleaning up the mess he made while cooking breakfast as the other boy leans against the counter, watching.

When I get there, I sit back down at the table, crossing my arms and slumping down quite a bit, with what I'm sure is a scowl apparent on my face. At first I don't think Hikaru notices me, but then he looks at me without surprise as I'm glaring at him, and says,"Hey, Sasuke, are you coming with Naruto and me down to my side of the lake to hang out with my friends for awhile?"

I don't even reply with my customary,'Hn,' just grunt a bit and then look back down at the chip on the table from earlier.

"That's 'Sasuke Talk' for 'yes'," Naruto explains, smiling in my direction, but I'm too angry to look back at him and instead continue my staring contest with the chip.

"Well," Hikaru starts,"we better get going, so you two get grab your swim trunks and I'll meet you at my cabin, yeah?" He grins, his white teeth spreading like a sharks, and Naruto lets out a whoop of approvement before high-fiving the brunet and then walking him to the door. Afterwards, Naruto stands in front of my chair, his arms crossed and looking down at my scowling face with a scowl of his own. "You could be less of an ass to him, you know?" he says, but I only allow the angry lines in my face to deepen.

"He pisses me off," I say, as if this is reason enough for my actions, but even Naruto knows that it's more than that.

He sits down on the table about a foot away from me, sighing. "What am I going to do with you?" he says with a small smile. It's times like these that I appreciate how well Naruto knows me. He can recognize when I'm not ready to talk about something, and I have the feeling this is one of those times, otherwise he wouldn't be letting it go so easily. Having someone know you even better than he knows himself can be irritating as hell, but I'm also not one for emotional conversations on my part, so when it does come to the time to have one, Naruto can tell when it's time to start really getting on my case about it and when he should just let it go for the time being.

When I don't look up at him or even reply, he lifts his hand to start weaving it through my dark hair. He's done this ever since we were younger, to calm me down when I got too pissed off or too anxious or even just when I was sitting down in the living room watching TV. I've noticed Naruto does it to me when he's upset too, so I have a feeling that the action calms him as well.

"Do you still want to come, Sasu?" he asks, using the customary nickname for me that he developed when we were around seventeen.

I suddenly feel bad for my actions. I don't regret them, because Hikaru really does piss me off, but I regret that they make Naruto have that look on his face, like he's the one that's being a dick to one of my friends. I remind myself though that if it had been Hikaru and I friends instead of he and Naruto, Naruto wouldn't have even thought anything of it. He'd probably encourage me to go out and spend time with someone other than him for once, and then bombard me with questions about how it went when I got back. He wouldn't feel the overwhelming jealousy I do whenever I see him and the brunet together; he wouldn't get angry and be an asshole, and he wouldn't feel a tinge of pain in his chest when he saw the brunet and I getting along. No, Naruto would be happy for me. I wish I could be like that for him and Hikaru too, but with the blatant way that Hikaru is always coming on to Naruto, it's hard for me to not be jealous of the attractive man.

"Do you want me to come?" I ask, my head still down and my eyes continuing to stare at the same chip in the table.

Naruto sighs a bit, but doesn't stop his motion of running his fingers through my hair. "I would like it. I like having you with me, Sasuke."

I feel my heart beat faster at that, and even though I know he doesn't mean it in the way I would if it were I saying those words, for a moment I let myself pretend he's saying them that way and it makes the moment that much more bittersweet, while reminding me that I will never have this beautiful boy as my own.

I let out a quick,"Fine," but don't let him hear the hurt that would be otherwise present in my voice had I not masked it. Naruto brightens up a bit, his lips spreading out into a large grin and then he takes his hand out of my hair.

"I'm going upstairs to get changed then!" he says cheerily, and I get up from my seat on the chair as Naruto goes bounding up the stairs to his room. I follow soon after, while giving myself a small pep talk. You're a fucking Uchiha. What was it that Itachi always told you? Don't let your emotions get the best of you. And Mom, Mom always said that jealousy was an ugly thing. Just let it go, Sasuke. You're letting your manliness slip away again.

I get changed quickly, then walk back downstairs where Naruto is already waiting with two towels in his arms, one black and one orange. His swimming shorts are an even brighter shade, with a swirling design in black that runs all over them. Mine are much more simple: just a dark blue with a red drawstring and two pockets on one side, one of them black and the other the same shade of red as the drawstring. Naruto's odd, swirling, tattoo around his bellybutton stands out in the black ink on his stomach, and my eyes are inevitably drawn to it as I descend the stairs. To be honest, I've never liked that style of tattoos much. But on Naruto it looks so unbelievably sexy and fits him so well, I have to wonder if that's the love for the blonde talking.

I take the offered black towel from Naruto, and throw it over one of my shoulders. He wraps his halfway around his neck, then grabs onto each end with each of his hands. I open the door, and he grins that fox-grin at me again. I let go of my shitty, over-emotional self, and vow to let Naruto have a good time today. Then I smile at him back, a small smile, but I know he'll see it for what it is.

And then we close the door and start walking down the driveway.

Around forty-five minutes later, we're at Hikaru's side of the lake. We approach from his driveway, and I notice his cabin is much like Naruto's, albeit smaller and the back of the cabin is facing the lake, while the front is towards the driveway. I have to say that I like the Dobe's and mine more, simply because it faces the sunset, which Naruto loves, so I expect it will bring forward a lot of requests from him for he and I to sit out on the small pier that juts out into the lake as the sun descends behind the mountains.

The lights in the cabin are all on, and even though the blinds are shut, through a window we can see what looks to be someone swaying back and forth to the music 's laughter, and Naruto and I walk up to the door. He raises his hand to knock, but before he does the door is thrown open and a grinning Hikaru is standing there. He's looking at Naruto likes he's a meal, and I feel my blood boil despite my vow to let him have a good time today and tonight. The brunet lightly grabs Naruto's upper arm and drags him inside, and I try to hold my anger as I walk through the threshold myself and then close the door behind me.

The setup of the cabin is basically the same as mine and the blonde's, except the kitchen isn't raised and the stairs are on the left side of the room rather that on the right. Besides that though, it holds the same aspects, without the warmth that I feel at the other cabin. To my left is the person we saw dancing in front of the window as we were walking up, a girl, with sand-colored hair in an odd hairstyle consisting of four ponytails on each quadrant of her head and green eyes. Her slim body is covered in a thin-strapped light purple tanktop and a pair of shorts, her stomach showing a good few inches. She's not wearing any shoes, so I'm able to see the small tattoo on her foot of a flower I don't recognize having it's petals torn by a gust of wind. She is staring at me with her eyes half-lidded, raking up and down my body and suddenly it's as if the dance is three times as sensual as it was before. The girl doesn't move from where she is though, and I'm grateful for that, especially considering I don't much feel like being felt up by her when I'm shirtless.

I hear a bark of laughter that sounds like Naruto, and calmly turn my head towards the kitchen, where the blonde Dobe is laughing with Hikaru and another one is another brunet, like Hikaru, but he's taller and has more muscle. His hair is spiky like Naruto's, and his brown eyes are surrounded by a purple paint which is also on the rest of his face in a symmetrical he sees me, he stops laughing but continues to grin, then walks towards me, followed by Naruto and Hikaru. "Hey, who's this guy?" he asks as he stand in front of me, crossing his arms over his chest and cocking his hip to the side in a slightly feminine gesture, yet he still manages to remain manly.

Naruto suddenly perks up, then walks to stand next to me, swinging an arm around my shoulder. "Oh, this stoic bastard?' he says with a grin. I shoot him a warning glance, but he doesn't even look at me. "This is Sasuke, my best friend."

The man looks at the two of us disbelievingly. "You're telling me the ray of fucking sunshine is best mates with the ice prince?"

Naruto laughs. "Yup!"

"How the hell did that work out?"

At this, Naruto smiles a bit evilly. "Well, you see, the Teme may look like an ice prince, but in reality he's a huge sweetheart who treats everyone as if he has a pole shoved up his ass."

I glare at him then, not allowing the slight blush I accumulated from being called a 'sweetheart' show, before whacking the blond upside the head and crossing my own arms across my own chest like the purple-face-painted brunet. "Shut it, Dobe, before I shove that pole up your ass."

The man laughs, then says,"Well, I'm Kankuro."

"Hn."

Kankuro raises an eyebrow at my response, looking towards Naruto for clarification. "He's a social once, ain't he?"

Naruto places both of his hands on my shoulders, kneading them twice before replying,"You have no idea."

"And why didn't you introduce me, asshole?!"

I turn around only to come face to face with the girl that was previously dancing. She has both of her hands on her hips in an angry gesture, and is glaring at Kankuro. "I believed you were old enough to introduce yourself, dear sister of mine," the brunet replies with a shrug.

The blonde huffs, before turning to me and holding out her hand. "Temari Sabaku, at your service." Her smile is warm but daring, and I'm sure that it would hold an effect on any other male that wasn't gay as I was, and come to think of it, even if I were straight I don't think she would be my type. I hold out my hand to hers and she grabs it, shaking it once before letting go, but she purposely lets one of her fingers trail my palm before taking it away.

I hear a huff of air being let out near my ear, and turn that way to see Naruto with a bit of an angry look in his eyes. The look confuses me; Naruto rarely dislikes someone, and he never let first impressions deem his opinion. Hikaru suddenly speaks up. "So, you guys all ready to swim?"

Naruto and I both shift our bodies back around to see the brunet grinning and in swimming shorts. His face instantly makes me angry again, not that I wasn't annoyed before. Temari and Kankuro both nod, then start making their way towards the back porch and then to the edge of the lake. Hikaru engages Naruto in another conversation, this one about video games, and they move to go out the back door as well. It's as I'm about to follow them that I notice another person in the room, a boy that can't be older than seventeen or eighteen sitting on a stool in the kitchen. His hair is an unnatural color of red, and his emerald green eyes are piercing through me with a look that indecipherable. He's keeping his hands folded on the counter, but his back is straight that gives off an air of danger. I don't let it phase me, though. My own brother has given me a worse look when I pissed him off enough. The boy nods to me once, and I nod back before making my way outside.