"So it's your birthday coming up soon huh, Naruto?" Ino asked one day at lunch.
"Uh, yeah. It's the tenth." The blonde boy answered.
"We should throw him a party, Sakura." The blonde girl suggested and her pink haired friend nodded.
"My parents would let us use the house for that." Sakura nodded.
"What? I don't need a party." Naruto shook his head.
"Nonsense, you're our friend aren't you? We throw huge b-day bashes for our friends. Don't worry, it'll be awesome." Ino smiled while Sakura nodded with her.
"It's true, these two are probably the best party planners in the school." Kiba vouched for them. "Besides, even if you refuse they'll still force it on you." He whispered. Naruto laughed softly.
"I see. So I guess I don't really have a choice then." He smiled.
"Don't say it like that. Parties are supposed to be fun." Sakura sighed. Naruto laughed.
"Fine, fine. Thanks for volunteering for throwing me a party; I'm looking forward to it." He smiled. The next day there were signs posted everywhere for 'Naruto's Birthday Bash.' "What the hell?" He groaned when he saw the florescent orange posters lining the hallways.
"They went a little overboard. The want to make this your debut or something." Kiba sighed and pat his friend's shoulder.
"Naruto, do you like the signs?" Sakura asked excitedly.
"Well, I'm not really sure what to say." He muttered.
"This is gonna be the biggest party of the year." Ino said excitedly.
"I'm sure it'll be great." Naruto forced a smile.
"You don't look very excited, man." Kiba whispered.
"I'm not used to big parties. I get a bit intimidated thinking about it." Naruto whispered back. Kiba laughed softly and nodded.
"Pretty much anything involving those two is a little intimidating." He smiled.
"Yeah." Naruto laughed.
"Uzumaki, care to explain why there are posters everywhere for your birthday?" Ebisu asked. The two boys winced and looked behind them to see Ebisu standing there. "This is a direct violation of the school's conduct code. You can take all the signs down for detention today after school." He said handing the blonde a detention slip.
"What? I didn't even put them up!" Naruto argued.
"Would you like another detention, Uzumaki?" Ebisu asked. Naruto huffed but didn't argue after that.
"Come on, let's get to class." Kiba said pulling Naruto towards their classroom.
"That ass." Naruto growled when they were far enough away from Ebisu.
"I thought he had it out for me but he hates you even more." Kiba sighed.
"I've had detention at least three times a week all year. This is total bullshit." The blonde growled as they entered their classroom.
"What are you grumbling about, Uzumaki?" Karen asked. The two looked up to see the redhead was the only one in the room.
"Ebisu gave Naruto detention because of the flyers." Kiba said.
"As he should. Those flyers are against school rules." Karen stated while fixing her glasses. Kiba rolled his eyes.
"Of course the class rep wouldn't have any sympathy." He said.
"Oh well, Uchiha is the teacher in charge of detention today so he'll probably let me out early." Naruto shrugged.
"Yeah, Uchiha-sensei likes you." Kiba nodded. Karen gasped and ran up to them.
"Sasuke?" She asked dreamily, the two boys swore her eyes turned into hearts. "You have detention with him?"
"Yeah, actually I have it with him a lot. I mean it's pretty boring, we just sit in his office." The blonde shrugged.
"By yourself?" She asked.
"Yeah, most of the time we are." He nodded.
"I would give anything to get to spend an hour alone with Sasuke-sensei." She sighed. Her eyes lit up and she looked at Naruto. "Let me go in your place?" She asked.
"What? Is that even possible?" Naruto laughed.
"Of course it is. I'm the class rep and therefore have access to student files. Your slip doesn't have your name on it so I can take it and go to detention with Sasuke-sensei and write down that you went." She smiled. The two boys looked skeptically at her.
"Should we trust her?" Naruto asked.
"I don't know. She is the class rep so she isn't likely to do something that would leave a black mark on her permanent record." Kiba said warily.
"True, but she is kind of evil. She could decide to not write down that I went so I'd get into even more trouble." Naruto added.
"I can hear you, you know." Karen huffed.
"Of course you can, we're saying all this out loud." Kiba rolled his eyes. The redhead glared at him.
"Are you gonna give me the slip or not? I'm not gonna screw you over or anything. It's a win-win. I'm getting to spend some quality time alone with Sasuke-sensei so the least I could do is write in that you did go to your detention." She huffed. Naruto sighed.
"Fine." He said and handed her the detention slip.
"This might be the first time an honor student has ever wanted a detention slip." Kiba said. Naruto laughed and Karen growled.
"Shut up, mutt." She snapped and walked off as more students came into the room.
"So, Uzumaki, I heard you were having a party." Neji said as he approached them.
"Yeah, I guess." The blonde shrugged.
"It's gonna be huge if Sakura and Ino are planning it." The pale eyed boy replied.
"Yeah, I guess." Naruto shrugged again.
"The whole school is gonna be there, you know." He said.
"Yeah, I guess." He shrugged. Neji glared at him.
"Is that all you can say?" He snapped.
"Really, I could care less about the party. It was something Ino and Sakura wanted to do." Naruto answered calmly.
"I see." Neji nodded.
"Are you planning to come or something? Cause you're supposed to RSVP to Ino or Sakura." Kiba told him.
"Tsk, who asked you?" Neji snapped at him. "I'm RSVPing to you because I don't want to talk to either of those girls." He told Naruto. The blonde shrugged.
"Okay, I'll tell them." He said and Neji left. By lunchtime half the school had RSVPd. And everyone was talking about it.
"Who would have thought you were so popular, Naruto." Sakura smiled.
"I bet it has more to do with the 'free booze' you advertized than it actually has to do with me. And I got a detention for those flyers, by the way." He told the pink haired girl.
"You did? Dang, I'm sorry." Sakura frowned.
"It's no big deal. I didn't get detention yesterday so I'm sure Ebisu would have found something anyway." Naruto shrugged. He was smart enough not to tell Sakura that Karen had volunteered to take his detention because that would have caused all sorts of Sasuke fan girl drama.
"Oh, did you know that even some of the teachers RSVPd?" Sakura asked, changing the subject back to the party.
"What?" Naruto laughed.
"Yeah, Kakashi, Tsunade, Shizune and Sasuke have all asked to come." She told him.
"No way." Naruto shook his head.
"Seriously, Uchiha must really like you or something, Naruto, if he's coming to your party." Kiba sighed.
"I know. Sasuke talks to you and treats you better than everyone. What's the deal? Why are you his favorite?" Sakura pouted.
"Because I'm handsome and charming. Who could resist?" Naruto smirked and bat his eyelashes at the pink haired girl. She rolled her eyes.
"So, you didn't come to detention yesterday." Sasuke said when Naruto came into his office.
"I had things to do and Karen offered to take the detention for me." Naruto shrugged as he sat down. It had become routine for him to go to Sasuke's office during his free period every Friday. Usually they just sat and talked about nothing important but Naruto always felt himself get excited for their chats.
"Next time she offers, don't accept it." Sasuke growled.
"What?" Naruto asked innocently.
"You do realize I had to spend an hour with one of my worst fan girls, right?" Sasuke shuddered at the memories.
"Was it bad?" Naruto winced.
"She's a very handsy kind of girl. Lots of groping." The raven answered.
"Damn, I'm sorry." Naruto grimaced.
"You better be. And I was gonna buy you a birthday present too." Sasuke huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. Naruto couldn't help but laugh at the pouting raven. But then he remembered his conversation with Sakura and Kiba at lunch the other day.
"Sa- Uchiha-sensei, why do you treat me so kindly?" He asked softly.
"What do you mean?" Sasuke blinked at him.
"Well, I doubt that you let every student come in here during their free period to talk about pointless stuff. And I know you don't buy other students birthday presents. Why are you so nice to me?" He muttered. He was really curious, but also nervous because of the answer. On one hand he wanted Sasuke's answer to be good, but at the same time he knew that their conversation was being filmed so he didn't want Sasuke to say something that could be used against him.
"I don't know. I guess since there aren't many transfer students at Konoha Academy I feel a connection with you because I've been there, you know?" Sasuke shrugged. Naruto bit his lip and took off his glasses, putting them in his lap so that the sound on the films would be muffled.
"Why did you transfer to KA? What happened?" He asked curiously. He had wanted to know for a while but he wasn't going to let the Konoha News teams get any information about the incident from him. Sasuke paled slightly at the question.
"Something bad happened at my previous school so I transferred. It was a miserable experience and the only reason I made it through was because one of my teachers helped me." Sasuke said calmly but finitely, letting Naruto know that was all he was going to say on the matter.
"I see." Naruto nodded. "Ah, were you serious about buying me a present?" He asked quickly. Sasuke laughed.
"Maybe. I don't know. It would probably make the other students jealous." He said. Naruto smiled and nodded.
"Probably. So I guess you shouldn't." He smiled.
"But I will come to your party." The raven quickly said.
"Really?" The blonde smiled excitedly.
"Yeah, a few of us teachers are going to chaperone." He nodded.
"Wow, that sounds really lame." Naruto giggled. Sasuke pouted. "Come on, sensei, what high school kid would want their teachers at their birthday party?"
"It'll be fun, just wait and see." Sasuke smirked.
It was the night of Naruto's party. It had been the hottest topic at school for the past two weeks. Sakura's house was huge and her parent's didn't spare any expenses in decoration the place for a huge party. Ino's parents had booked the DJ and ordered the cake. Kiba's family paid for the food and drinks. The house was packed and the music was so loud you could feel it vibrating your whole body. There was a dance terrace, half of it was inside and the other half was outside by the pool. There were arcade games set up in one corner. Most of the middle of the room was filled with presents and everything else in the room was covered in tables of food and drinks. It was definitely a 'cool' party.
"So, what do you think?" Sakura asked while handing Naruto a plate of food.
"It's loud." He answered back honestly. He couldn't really think of anything better to say. The other laughed.
"Surely you can say something other than 'loud.' Are you at least having fun?" She asked.
"Well, I don't know about 90 percent of the people here even though they're here for my birthday." He said. Sakura scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"Then go introduce yourself to some of them. Make new friends." She said pushing him towards a small group of teens. Naruto carried on a few awkward conversations but once he got used to it he started having more fun and talking more easily. After a few drinks he easily became the life of the party. After an hour of socializing, though, he decided he needed a break and went outside to the gazebo in the middle of the front yard.
"You look like you're having fun." Sasuke said walking up to Naruto. Naruto looked up and smiled.
"Yeah, once I calmed down a bit it was easier to talk with them." He said.
"You want a drink?" Sasuke offered a cup of punch.
"You know there's alcohol in that." The blonde smirked.
"Is there?" The raven asked unconvincingly. "I won't tell anybody." He smiled and Naruto took the cup.
"Thanks, Sasuke." He smiled before taking a drink. The raven sat down next to him and they were quiet for a few minutes.
"I bought you a present." Sasuke finally said. Naruto looked over at him. "I wanted to give it to you when no one else was around." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box. Naruto opened his present and found a leather bracelet with a silver rectangle with a fox etched into it. "My brother makes leather and silver jewelry so I got him to make it for you." Naruto smiled brightly.
"Thanks, Sasuke, this is awesome." He smiled and quickly put it on.
"Naruto!" Sakura called from behind them. "It's time to cut the cake." She smiled.
"Okay, be right there." He answered. He turned to Sasuke and smiled. "Well, I gotta go but thanks again for the bracelet." He smiled before getting up and running back inside. Everyone sang and cheered as Naruto blew out his candles and Ino and Sakura served the cake. Naruto, Sakura, Kiba and Ino were standing around and eating their cake when Lee came up.
"Sakura," He called. Sakura growled in annoyance and glared at the boy with bushy eyebrows.
"Leave me alone, Lee. You don't have a chance." She snapped before grabbing Naruto and kissing him. The room was filled with gasps and cheers. Naruto was pretty sure Sakura saw the heartbroken look Lee had but she ignored it and deepened the kiss. When Lee left, Naruto pushed Sakura away.
"What the hell was that?" He snapped.
"I had to do something to make him give up." She shrugged. Naruto knew Sakura was drunk, he had tasted the alcohol in the kiss. It would have been hypocritical of him to get mad at her for doing something stupid while drunk, but it was too mean to Lee.
"Why? Did you see his face when you kissed me?" Naruto asked.
"No, I wasn't looking." She lied. "You're a good kisser though." She smiled at him and bat her eyelashes. "We should go out." Naruto felt sick.
"No thanks." He shook his head.
"What? Why?" She whined.
"You're not my type." He said flatly and walked away. He spent the rest of the night looking for a certain raven haired teacher who was exactly his type, but Sasuke was nowhere to be found.
