Chapter 4

"Aaaaah…"

The following weekend Naruto woke up at ten, feeling very satisfied with his weekend off.
Sure, it meant a bit less money, but he'd been working so much lately, with both school, his job at the bakery, and now even his school newspaper job, even if they hadn't really started doing the tough assignments.

Through the drapes a bit of sunlight shone in on him, warming his body as he lay in his bed. Like always, his covers were laying half on bed, half on the floor, and his pillows randomly placed around him. This was not a slight bit surprising, seeing as he stirred a lot in his sleep, and had ever since he was a young boy.
He scratched his naked belly in comfort, dragging his night shirt up to his chest (a big white t-shirt that is).
This weekend was going to be nice. Just relaxation.
Feeling very pleased with his decision to take the two days off, Naruto got out of bed to get some breakfast. He liked starting the day with a nice meal, and made himself French toast, one of his favourites.
At the taste of the first bite, Naruto immediately remembered vividly the night he'd eaten toast last time.

He had been thinking about that last Tuesday night a lot the following days, and he had been a little… okay, very, embarrassed then and there both for listening in on Sasuke like some crazy stalker, and for falling asleep and falling into his arms. Damning his own clumsiness, Naruto sighed. But, even if it had been somewhat awkward, that still didn't change the fact that Naruto had had some pretty weird thoughts about the other boy.
Like, he'd thought Sasuke was really handsome. And that past tense was perhaps wrong to add too. He still knew Sasuke was handsome. But when he'd been in his arms, he'd seen it in a way he hadn't before. The feelings attached with it were new.

'Kinda like when people say they have butterflies in their stomach…' he thought to himself. That was the only phrase he could come up with that described the tingling well enough.
And what worse was, he still liked being in Sasuke's arms. He could understand the first time, that was natural. When being comforted, a hug is nice. But this time he shouldn't have felt the way he did, in his own opinion.

And he didn't much appreciate it.
Even if Sasuke was special, the whole thing was still disturbing.

But…

With a small smile, Naruto continued eating his toast, deciding not to think too much about his little dilemma at the moment.

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Later that day, Naruto was walking around in the nearest mall. A game he had been waiting for had just been released a few days ago. Knowing where the best (aka lowest) price would be, he went to buy a new addition to this hobby of his.
He'd just bought it as he walked over to grocery store in the large mall, to get some food for the weekend.

"Hi, Naruto-kun!" the small Hyuuga Hinata suddenly stood before the blonde, as if popping out of nowhere.

"Hinata!" Naruto said, startled.

"Good afternoon," she said, nodding courteously, "Didn't you see me walking over? You seemed surprised, Naruto-kun,"

"Ahaha, sorry Hinata, I guess I was daydreaming again!" he looked down at her, smiling guiltily.

"Th-there's no need to apologize, Naruto-kun!" she blushed a bit, "What are you doing here at the mall anyway?"

Holding a plastic bag out, Naruto grinned, "I just bought the new KH2 game! And now I was just on my way to get some groceries. Gotta eat, you know. How about you?"

"Oh, I'm here with Sakura and Ino and a few other girls. I just wanted to get something to drink, so I left them for a bit,"

"Well, wanna come shopping with me then? If you're buying a drink, it's much cheaper in the grocery store, and that way I'll have some company too," Naruto smiled at the Hyuuga girl. He liked Hinata, she was always so nice and pleasant to be around. Even if she was very timid and shy, it was nice to be around her.
'She is a good friend,' Naruto thought to himself. She would always listen to whatever he rambled on about, and the few times she herself told him something, it would be interesting and fun, because she got so easily embarrassed of her own words. Even if they didn't hang out that much, she was still a friend.

"Really?" Hinata said, eyes large, and as Naruto nodded back at her, she replied "Y-ye-yes, that w-would be nice, Naruto-kun!"

He didn't get why she would act so timid sometimes, but Naruto still enjoyed her company.

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As they walked out of the store a bit later, Naruto with one bag of food in each hand and Hinata carrying a soda, five girls came walking toward them.

"Oh, hi everyone!" Hinata said to the group, smiling, "Sorry I'm late,"

"No problem, Hinata!" a blonde girl named Ino said, smiling at the Hyuuga.

"Hey Naruto," a couple the other girls said, and Naruto greeted them back.

"Naruto!" Sakura said, grabbing his arm, "I need to talk to you!" She looked back at the other girls as she walked away with the confused blonde in her iron grip, "Sorry girls, be right back, kay?"
The two went into a café nearby in the mall, and sat down in a corner.

"What's up this time, Sakura chan?" he said, putting his bags next to his chair, smiling at his pink haired friend.

"I just wanted to see if you had the first update for me!" she smiled back, "You know, from gathering information as my spy," she added, slyly.

At that, Naruto blushed like mad.

'Oh, crap! What am I going to tell her!' he thought panicking to himself, 'I'm such a horrible liar, but I can't just tell her everything that happened! But, she didn't want to know about me and Sasuke… Just Sasuke! That's good! But… Ah crap, I hate doing this to him! I'm the worst person in the world…'

Across the table, Sakura eyed Naruto closely as his expression went from embarrassed and panicked, to relieved and then depressed. 'What the hell is he thinking about?' she thought to herself, not having a clue as to what made the slightly weird blonde act so… well, weird.

"So?" she finally said, "Got some information for me?"

That brought Naruto back to reality and he finally met Sakura's eyes again.

"…Um… I dunno, what do you wanna know?"

Rolling her eyes a little, the girl said, "You know, what's he like when it's just the two of you, and if you know if he has any hobbies or things he likes and dislikes… Just random things, I want to hear it all!"

Painfully deciding that he at least had to tell her something, since he had promised her, Naruto thought for a moment and then started, "Weeeeell… when it's just the two of us, he's kinda nice really. Not as cold like he seems out in public. And he's really smart!" Naruto tilted his head a bit, thinking, and continued, "And the only things I know he likes are music and French toast really… Oh, and plants! He's got to like plants, their garden's like the most amazing thing I've ever seen! And-"

"Wait!" Sakura interrupted, "You've been at his house?"

"Well, yeah, sure, we had to work on our paper assignment," Naruto shrugged.

Then he thought of what he'd just said. He hadn't really planned to tell her that much, even if it wasn't anything really big… but he had at least not meant to say it that excitedly, he thought confused to himself. When he'd started, he'd kind of lost his plan and just said what came to mind. And at that thought, he felt a bit of panic again, if he'd continued, he might have said something that really was big! He needed to get a hang of himself, he couldn't just loose control like that!
Mentally scolding himself for his recklessness, Naruto shifted his focus back to Sakura again, meeting her eyes as she spoke.

"Anything else?" she said, looking at him.

"…No, not anything special really," Naruto lied, trying to convince himself of his statement as well.

"Okay… But, oh, you're so lucky!" she squealed, smiling, "I can't believe you actually got invited to his house! Even if it was to work, I still envy you!"

Naruto smiled awkwardly back at her, and laughed a small laugh, "Ah well, shouldn't you get back to your friends now?"

"Oh, yeah, I should hurry and call Ino to see where they are now!" she said, getting to her feet while finding her cell phone, "Thanks Naruto, I owe you one," she said while walking away.

When she was out of sight, Naruto sighed and got his bags. This whole ordeal was going to be tough; the next time would be even harder than this one had been...

But, he felt a bit confused now.
Sakura… she, well, was cute as always today too, but… he didn't feel that same slight excitement when he saw her that he usually did.
Not sure why it was like that, Naruto shrugged inwardly to himself, not feeling like doing more soul searching at the moment. He got up and walked back to his apartment, eager to try out his new videogame.

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"Aaaaaaargh! I'm coming, I'm coming! Hello?" a very stressed out Naruto grabbed his cell phone.

"Hi, it's Sasuke-"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I can't talk right now, making dinner and the phone is in the way, stuffs gonna get burnt, so if you wanna talk you'll have to call back later or come over, bye!" he rambled on in one long and extremely quick sentence before hanging up.
Feeling kind of surprised, and yet not at all (Naruto was a bit strange after all); Sasuke just sat there in his chair in his room with the phone in his hand, having just been hung up on.
He then remembered what the blonde had said.

Call back later or come over.

Call back later, definitely.
Or…?
No, no, call back later.
Or come over?
No… call back.
Or…?
Okay, come over! That sounds better.
Yeah. Sasuke was feeling kind of bored really.
And the blonde seemed to always bring some sort of excitement or at least something interesting along with him.

He got up and headed for his car, making his way over to Naruto.

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"BZZZZZZZZZZ!"

"I'm-coming-I'm-coming-wait-wait-wait-wait-wait!"
Naruto ran over to his door.

"Sasuke?"

"Hey Naruto," the black eyed boy replied, "Wow, you look… awful," he laughed a bit after taking a look at the sweaty, dirty boy in front of him.

"Yeah, thanks," Naruto replied sarcastically, reaching his tongue toward Sasuke, before running in again, toward his stove, "Come on in; I have to take care of the food,"

"So, what are you making anyway?" Sasuke said while walking in, taking his shoes off at the door.

He had never been in Naruto's apartment before. He'd driven him to his house the last Tuesday, but had never been inside. He took a good look around when walking over to the blonde.
It was nice really. Not really big, but it was big enough, and had a warm and comfortable feeling to it.

"I'm making steaklets with béarnaise sauce, potatoes and some veggies, but they aren't cooperating, so they take turns trying to boil over the pans' edges or trying to get burnt," he said while glaring at his dinner-in-the-making.

"Wow," Sasuke said, looking and feeling honestly surprised. He wouldn't have thought of the blonde as the type to make such an 'extravagant' dinner.

"What wow? I'd think you were used to better stuff than this, with a mansion and cook and all," he smiled at the obviously impressed Sasuke, feeling a bit proud.

"I just didn't think you were the type, that's all," he replied with a shrug.
Naruto removed the pans from the stove and put them on the kitchen table, and said with a small laugh "You shouldn't categorize people, you know, Sasuke; especially when you know so little about them!"

Sasuke smirked a bit, "I think I know you a bit,"

"Ohoho, if you only knew!" Naruto grinned slyly at him, walking over to the cupboards.

"Well, I'd like to know," he said, looking straight at the blonde.
He meant it; he wanted to get to know Naruto. He knew just by looking at the apartment that there were so many things he didn't know about him, but he didn't want to admit that to Naruto. He did sometimes jump to conclusions about the blonde, but far too often, he was completely wrong. He knew a few key things about the boy, but he wanted to know more.

At first, Naruto looked surprised at the slightly taller boy next to him, but his expression quickly changed to a warm smile, a small blush painting his cheeks, as he replied "You'll just have to stick around then, now won't ya,"

'He's so cute,' Sasuke thought to himself, feeling a blush claim his cheeks as well, at the warm smile given to him. 'And he always seems to say just what I want him to say, at the right moments…'
"Yeah," he replied, "You're my friend, and a guy should know his friends, right?"

And then…

He smiled.

'Oh… my…' Naruto thought to himself.

Sasuke genuinely smiled, for the first time, and that made Naruto's heart beat like mad.
It was such a warm, and not to mention beautiful, smile… And together with what he just said, Naruto felt his heart race.

Sasuke thought of them as friends as well!

He had been hoping the Uchiha thought of him in that way, and when he said it just now, Naruto felt incredibly happy.
At that, Naruto smiled widely at the boy in front of him, "Yup!" He felt his chest feel light, and felt like hugging Sasuke, where he stood in front of him smiling the warmest smile Naruto had ever been given.

Aw, what the heck!

Jumping a bit forward, Naruto quickly embraced Sasuke, before letting go only a moment later, blushing like mad. He giggled a bit, and smiled at the other boy.
Sasuke blushed as well, looking at the blonde with a very surprised expression on his face.

"Want some food?" Naruto then said, just wanting to enjoy the hug without any questions asked, "I made too much anyway, and I have some ice cream we can have for desert after!" He smiled again.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed, Sasuke took a moment before replying "Yeah, sure, that'd be nice,"

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Half an hour later, the two were sitting on the floor, backs toward Naruto's bed, facing his TV.
They were playing on Naruto's PS2, the newest edition of the Tekken series. After a bit of nagging after dinner, Sasuke had agreed to play with Naruto, and the two were now pushing buttons like crazy.

"So," Naruto said while delivering a special attack on Sasukes character, making him fly back, "why'd you come over anyways?"

Sasuke retaliated, punching Narutos character several times, "Just to tell you that I got an e-mail from the editors of the school paper saying we'd get a new assignment next week. It said it'd be a bit more work than last time, and I thought I should tell you, since you don't have a computer. I tried calling, but you remember what happened then,"

"That's nice of you," Naruto said, while trying to kick Sasuke's character. The attempt failed however, and gave Sasuke the perfect opportunity to deliver an attack knocking Naruto out.

"Wha- how can you be this good!" Naruto exclaimed, "You said you never play videogames!"

Sasuke smirked, "I don't," he replied, "Just talent I guess," he taunted a bit.

"One more time!" Naruto exclaimed, wanting to win at least once.

However, five matches later, he still hadn't won.

Sasuke laughed a bit, "You're kind of funny when you get competitive," he said, smirking.
Naruto felt annoyed, 'Damn,' he thought, 'Loosing to a guy who never plays videogames! How lame isn't that!'

"Stop smirking," he glared a bit, not really that angry.
That however, made Sasuke just smirk more, and he laughed again.

"Shut up," Naruto said, sulking.
Sasuke laughed more at that, Naruto was so funny and cute when he was upset!

"Shut up!" he exclaimed again, getting more annoyed.
That was too funny, and Sasuke laughed even harder.

That was it.

"Aaaaargh!" Naruto turned around and jumped on Sasuke, making the two fall over, and pinning Sasuke on the floor with his arms on Sasuke's shoulders.

"I may not be able to beat you in a videogame, but I can take you on in real life!" he grinned.

"Oh yeah?" Sasuke replied, seeing this as an obvious challenge. He grabbed Narutos arms, making them give in, and used his legs to lift the blond off him, and tossed him onto the bed they were lying next too.

"And here I thought you were strong," he teased as he stood up. The already worked up Naruto took the bait, and leapt off the bed, tossing his arms around the raven-haired boy's neck, making him sway massively and spin before the two fell over.
Crashing on the bed, Sasuke felt the air almost being knocked out of him, as the blonde attached to his neck fell on top of him.

"Good lord, you're heavy," he moaned, "I give up, you win,"

"…Ow," Naruto replied muffled into Sasuke's chest.

"What? You're hurt?"

"I hit my nose on that damned concrete chest of yours,"

"Hey, are you okay?" Sasuke lifted Naruto's head of his chest with his hands so that they had eye contact.
Naruto blushed at this, feeling a bit embarrassed to be lying in such a way on top of Sasuke.

And again, liking it.

"I'm fine," he said, hiding his head in Sasuke's chest again.
Sasuke felt his face flush at this, Naruto hadn't gotten off him. Why?
Naruto asked himself that exact same question, blushed yet again, and quickly got up, now sitting on top of Sasuke.
He looked down on Sasuke, with a slightly frightened expression on his face (and a bit red), felling very confused. Suddenly, so sudden it almost startled the raven haired boy, Naruto's face turned to a big grin.

"I win!" he said, "I said I'd be able to take you on, didn't I?"

Sasuke just lay there, before shaking his head a moment later, "Yeah, by weighing too much,"

"Whatever, I still won!" the blonde grinned, "So! Want some ice cream?"

"Yeah sure," Sasuke answered, as Naruto got off him, and walked toward his fridge.

Deciding it best to not mention anything about what had just happened at the time being, Sasuke sat down at the kitchen table with Naruto, who now seemed like his usual self, smiling and enjoying his ice cream.

"But, yeah, thanks again for coming over to tell me about the assignment!" Naruto said, smiling at Sasuke.

"Yeah, I thought I'd tell you so you didn't make to many plans in case we'll need a bit of time to work on it," Sasuke smiled a bit back, enjoying his company much more than the far too sweet toffee ice cream.

"Oh! I just remembered!" Naruto then exclaimed, licking ice cream off his lips, "Sakura, Hinata, Kiba, Shika and a bunch of other people are going out next weekend! I met Hinata earlier, and she asked if I wanted to come. Hey, you wanna come too? It'll be great, a few drinks, but not too many, of course, some nice music at the party before, and then we could go out! Hit a club or something! I don't go out like that too often because of work and stuff, but I really want to go this time, 'cos it's to celebrate Shikamaru's birthday and all. You wanna come too? You should, you know, you'll meet some really great people, and have tons of fun!" He grinned and added, "But I guess you knew that it'd be fun, since I'm going too,"

He laughed a bit, and looked excitedly at Sasuke, eyes filled with hope.
'How the hell can I say no to those puppy dog eyes,' he mentally sighed to himself, 'Just too cute,'

"Fine, count me in," he finally said, failing to resist Naruto's pleading.

"Ah, yay!" the blonde exclaimed, reaching his hands upward in celebration before digging into the ice cream again.

Sasuke looked at him as he ate the rest of his ice cream, and shook his head.
Next weekend… It could be okay, but he had a feeling that it would be mostly troublesome. After all, those girls would be there… Cursing his weakness for his friend, Sasuke sighed and finished his ice cream.

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A/N : Hi everyone

Uhm, first off, I'd like to say YES, I know this chapter is duuuuuuull, but it kinda needed to be limited in action, to get the timeflow/feeling of time in the story to be right... You know? Ehem... yeah

But don't worry, next will be good, muahahahahahaaaa... :D Just wait, I'll make up for making this one.

But finally Sakura got to play her role some more! And yeah, I know I kinda make her seem... well, not very nice and sweet in this fic, but I really do like Sakura. She's cool. But I want her to be like she is in the beginning of the manga/anime, when she kinda sucks.

Ehehehe, sorry, I won't ramble on much more now. Next update will probably be sooner, but I have a big-ass assignment due in ten days, so I have to work on that too (animating, weeee, fun :3 but lots of work ...)

Before I say bye, I'd like to say THANK YOUU AGAIN for being so nice to me :D So nice, I love getting comments and reviews, I appreciate every single one very much, so sank yuuu :D

Okay! Hope you lived through this chapter Until next time, lots and lots of love from P.Peachy!