It's Complicated

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or his smexy ass.

Kakashi: I do.

Sasuke: *Glares*

Chapter 9: Birthday

Naruto usually tried his best to stay alert of other people but today he didn't give a shit. It seemed like the world had something against his existence and all Naruto wanted to do was curl up back into bed and let his body rot into the soft mattress. It was his birthday, October 10th, and so far it has gone pretty badly.

He had missed the bus and had to deal with the humiliation of chasing it down. Once he was on the bus and finally grabbed a vacant seat, some kid by the name of Sai called him 'dickless' and poured some energy drink on him. Great, just great. One bus ride later and he arrived at school and that leads us up to the present and Naruto was inwardly seething.

'Man, I hate today..'

"Morning, dobe." a pleasantly familiar voice said. Naruto watched as Sasuke pulled up on his motorcycle and he smiled to himself.

"Morning."

Sasuke got off the bike elegantly, not on shaky legs as Naruto had done a little while in the past. Naruto envied Sasuke's fearlessness and his blunt attitude. If the raven wanted to do something, he'd do it without batting an eye. Naruto however, once this way, now hesitates before doing even the most basic of things.

"What's that?" Sasuke pointed to the sticky, blue stain on Naruto's white shirt which was partly shielded underneath the blond's Shinjeki No Kyojin hoodie.

"Oh. Some guy named Sai was acting big on the bus and decided to spill his drink on me and some such shit." Naruto waved his hand dismissively as he turned and began walking toward the large building, with Sasuke in tow.

Sasuke's plain face now held and angry expression.

"You said 'Sai', right?" Sasuke asked for a comfirmment.

"Teme, it's fine. Don't worry about it. I'm used to it." This didn't help the case. It was still wrong and disrespectful.

Once they made it to their designated lockers, Sasuke wanted to press the issue more. He leaned against the side of his locker and watched Naruto rummage around in his own.

"You get bulled a lot?" It was more of a statement than a question. Naruto sighed.

"Yes, Sasuke, I get bullied a lot. Now please drop it."

"But it's not-" Sasuke grew agitated and was cut off by an exasperated Naruto.

"I know it's not right." Naruto said in a soft tone. He looked to Sasuke with pleading eyes. "But you getting involved isn't going to help the issue. Please leave it be." Naruto ended the sentence, and their conversation, when he closed his locker door a little bit harder than he had intended.

"Hn."

Naruto began walking to their first hour class and Sasuke joined him, but not before slipping a blue letter into the blond's locker without his noticing.

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"Okay, now that you mongrels have learned the basic stitches, it's time to start your projects." Kakashi-sensei announced to the class.

"You will be making a pair of pajamas, a dress shirt and a pillow. You will need to buy your own fabric but I will supply you with everything else you may need." Kakashi handed out lists of clothes sizes and those sizes explained how much fabric we would need for the garments and even an extra yard of fabric for the pillow.

"You may spend the rest of the period thinking and discussing what you will make. Now if you will excuse me, I have some fine literature to read~" Kakashi sing-songed.

"You mean porn?" Ino said out of boredom.

"You may call it what you may, but it is indeed a form of literature."

With that said the students all went into their social status groups. Ino, Sakura, Sai, and Tenten went to one corner, Naruto and Sasuke stayed in their own, Neji, Gaara, Kiba, Lee and Shikamaru went into a corner and the rest of the students went into the last one.

"So what fabric ya gunna get?" Naruto asked Sasuke with no hint of excitement.

"Dunno. Something dark."

"Any particular pattern?"

"Lightning, maybe? Don't know."

"Sounds cool. I'm probably going to get a plain blue or somethin."

Sasuke 'Hn'ed in acceptance of Naruto's choice.

Naruto laid his head on the desk and let out a weary sigh. He was tired and the day hasn't even really started. The raven eyed the boy with interest.

"Whats' wrong?"

Naruto's eyes met Sasuke's.

"Nothin' really."

"Liar." Sasuke said knowingly. Sasuke knew that Naruto tried to hide when something was wrong. One of the many things that he had discovered about the blond thus far.

The raven heard some girls squealing about birthdays and it brought another question to Sasuke's lips.

"Oi, whens' your birthday?"

"Today." Naruto dead-panned.

"No, really. When?"

"Today." Naruto gave a blank stare.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

"Really..?"

"Yeah..."

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tic-

"Why didn't you say anything?!" Sasuke said a bit loudly, drawing a little bit of attention and Naruto stammered,

"Y-You never asked so I thought it wasn't important.."

"Yes it's important, dobe! How else was I supposed to know so that I could spoil you for a day?" Sasuke let out without filtering his words. He froze.

"You want to spoil me?" Naruto asked flattered.

"Yeah. You're my friend and I got a bunch o money that I don't use so I might as well." The raven said as-a-matter-of-fact-ly.

A smile smile etched it's way onto the blond's face.

"Hehe. Then spoil me."

Maybe today wouldn't be so bad for the blond?

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Lunch came around and Sasuke was nowhere to be seen. This disappointed the blond.

"So much for spoiling.." Naruto mumbled to himself. He didn't care about money, he just wanted to hang and have a good time with his best friend. Yes, that's right, best friend. Naruto finally let himself open up, but only to the raven.

"Oi, blondie! It true that it's yer birthday?" Kiba asked he draped himself over Naruto's small frame from behind.

"Gah!" Naruto let out in surprise and hidden disgust because someone had touched his so familiarly. He watched as the Inuzuka boy howled in laughter. He really was like a dog.

"Yes it it,dog breath." Naruto answered irritably.

Kiba took Naruto's irritableness into account.

"Wheres' pretty-boy?" Aka, Sasuke.

"Dunno.." Naruto's eyes shone a glimmer of sadness.

"So, how old are ya?" Kiba changed the topic quickly once he picked up on the tense atmosphere.

"Eight-teen."

Kiba whistled lowly in envy.

"Damn! Wish I was eighteen! I still got half a year to go!"

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The day had come and gone and Naruto stood at his locker with his mask in place.

'Should'a known it was too good to be true to have a decent birthday..'

Naruto sighed heavily and reminded himself that he was going to get a letter today, or at least he hoped. Today wasn't exactly going as he ha planned.

He opened his locker but din't dare look inside just yet. He had his eyes trained onto the ground and hoped, pleaded that there was a letter. Those letters helped him get through the day and the blond had become dependent on the sweet nothings that were written elegantly on every page. Naruto never did decide to write back to his admirer, in fear that he'd scare the mystery man away.

Something bumped into Naruto's foot and it caught the blond's attention. It was a miniature blue balloon.

'Huh?'

Naruto snapped his eyes forward and drew in his breath.

His locker was filled with various items. Ribbons, streamers, flower petals, roses, cards, stuffed animals, small boxes and above it all in it's usual place was a blue letter. Naruto snatched it quickly and opened it with trembling fingers.

Dear Naruto-kun,

I heard that it was your birthday and so I called in a few favors to get you some things. Hope it isn't too messy.

Naruto's eyes began to water. He wiped the wet substance away and continued reading.

Even though we can't be together on your big day I still wanted to let you know of your importance to me. Before anything else is said, please open the box that is labeled 'number one' before continuing reading.

Naruto knelt down on his knees and gently laid the precious letter gently on the ground next to him. He looked to his locker and to the many small boxes that filled it. He took each individual box and examined it thoroughly. There were ten boxes in all and five of them were numbered. He took number one and peeled away the shiny blue wrapping paper to reveal a small cardboard box.

He ran his small fingers over the clear tape that bound the box before peeling it away along with the wrapping paper by his feet. Once the box was open he pulled a small gift-bag out of it and pulled out it's contents.

In it, there was a CD. It's color of its clear plastic case was black. The cover of the case only said:

When I Think About You

This made Naruto's heart flutter unexpectedly. He turned it over to the back an read the words that were on it.

On the inside of this case lies the songs that make me think of you.

Naruto opened the case and on the inside was a blue disk that had a starry sky design on it and on the inside of the cover was a list of songs.

All About Us - Owl City

Kiss Me Slowly - Parachute

I Wouldn't Mind - He Is We

Falling In Love - Falling Up

Without You - My Darkest Days

A Thousand Years - Christina Perri

I Choose To Love You - Hyorin

Love Story - Melody

Aishiteru - Kourin

Naruto smiled gently and laughed to himself softly.

'Please don't let this be a dream.' He pleaded.

He picked up the letter once again.

I hope you like the songs, that is, if you're willing to listen to them. Although their words don't even come close to my feelings for you.

Now, open the second box, if you would.

Naruto did just that. Inside the second box was another gift bag and insie that gift bag was a small mason jar filled with fortune cookies. On top of the lid to the jar was a white sticky note that said,

'One A Day'

Naruto giggled at that and he went back to the letter once again.

There are thirty fortune cookies, each with personal fortunes that I wrote myself. Hope you enjoy them. Now, to box number three. I'm sure you get the gist of this.

Naruto opened the next box. This time there was no gift-bag but it was filled with multiple bags of sweets. Kisses, Reeses, Skittles, Dove, M&M's, etc. So many choices!

My love for you is sweeter than candy. Okay, that was cheesey... Heh. Moving on! Number four!

Inside box number four was a notepad full of poems and on the inside of the cover was an email address and a note.

If you ever need someone to talk to I am always here. my-mutilated-heart

Konoha was so big that they owned their own email. Weird.

Nuff said. Onto the last of the numbered boxes!

Naruto hesitantly opened the final box, although it wasn't exactly 'final' because he had five more non-numbered ones. Inside the box was another notepad. On the front, 'Coupon Book' was scribbled in pen. Naruto rose a questioning eyebrow at this.

'Huh?'

Naruto opened it and the entire notepad, all seventy-two pages (No coupons on the back of each page, only on the front and each coupon was it's own individual color) were filled with goofy coupons. Naruto looked back to the letter and it said,

If you ever wish to use these coupons, all you have to do is place them in the usual spot that I lay my letters and each coupon will be fulfilled. I hope these gifts make you smile and I hope that I, myself, made you smile. I hope you have a wonderful birthday and I will always be near if I'm needed.

Naruto's eyes filled with tears and they spilled over heavily. He stared at the letter with a blank face, not revealing each and every emotion he was feeling all at once. Amidst of his fluttery-ness was a small hint of fear.

"Naruto!" Was screamed and he could feel strong hands touching his face an wiping away his never-ending tears.

"Naruto, please talk to me! What's wrong?" Sasuke's voice sounded desperate. He was gone most of the day preparing more things to spoil the blond with and he finally was able to come back just in time to speak with the blond. But what he didn't expect was to see the blond on the ground, crying with a emotionless face.

Naruto opened his mouth to speak but only a choked sob came out. This ripped at the raven's heart. He shook Naruto gently, trying to coax an answer out of the boy.

"Please tell me what's wrong."

Naruto curled into himself, his hands covering his face. No! He promised himself that this wouldn't ever happen again!

One last choked sob racked the blond boy before he let out a scratchy,

"I think I'm in love.."