Sasuke knocked on Naruto's door at precicely 6:50 like he always did and was greeted by Naruto's adopted father, their old 3rd grade teacher, Iruka.
"Good morning sir." Sasuke said bowing slightly.
"Good morning Sasuke, come on in Naruto will be down in a minute." Iruka said with a friendly smile and showed Sasuke in.
Sasuke sat down at the table with Iruka who gave him a cup of tea. They chatted idly until Naruto ran down the stairs rushed into the pantry and grabbed a poptart.
"I….'m….sorry……ready….to go?" Naruto wheezed with the poptart in his mouth.
Sasuke nodded, said goodbye to Iruka and he and Naruto got into the car. "You'll never wake up on time will you?" Sasuke said shaking his head.
Naruto grinned sheepishly before wolfing down the rest of the poptart, "I don't think it's possible."
"That's why I started coming ten minutes early, at least now we get there on time." Sasuke laughed.
Naruto smiled winningly back at his friend but inwardly wondered what had Sasuke in such a good mood today, normally he was pretty temperamental and took school extremely seriously. Whatever it was, Naruto was glad of it because Ssuke had a great smile.
When the duo arrived at school, they both grabbed their bags out of the trunk and headed towards the art room.
"Why are you coming with me this morning?" Naruto asked, "I already told you that you can't see my project until the Spring Arts show."
"I wanted to talk to Mr. Hatake." Sasuke said feeling a faint blush come onto his cheeks.
"Why?" Naruto asked, Mr. Hatake didn't usually like to talk with people who weren't in the art classes.
"I was going to discuss the payment of my art lessons." Sasuke said feeling more and more nervous with the questions Naruto was asking. He didn't want Naruto to know, he didn't want him to think he was disgusting, or evil or anything besides what he normally is. Naruto is his oldest and best friend and he doesn't want to ruin that.
"Art lessons?" Naruto said raising his eyebrows in surprise, "Sasuke I'd be happy to teach you for free."
Sasuke hadn't thought of that. "Well, you know my parents. They want 'the best' for me, so they insisted on Mr. Hatake. He's a professional." Sasuke lied.
"Oh…" Naruto said quietly.
"Just forget about it." Sasuke said, "Maybe when I get better we can go hang out in the park or something and draw together."
That perked up Naruto's spirits. "Yeah! I know the best place right by the duck pond. Up this huge tree you can totally see everyone."
Sasuke smiled at his enthusiastic friend, he dodged a bullet.
Kakashi was filling up the large gallon pumps of paint when Naruto called out to him, "Good morning!"
Kakashi turned and grinned behind his turtleneck. "Hey, Uzumaki I think your project is coming together nicely. Lots of feeling, good colors." He said nodding.
Naruto beamed with pride.
"Uchiha, did you need something?" Kakashi said casually cocking an eyebrow in his direction.
"I wanted to discuss payment for my lessons with you." Sasuke said flatly, his eyes betraying his tone and laughing.
Kakashi nodded and led Sasuke into his office. He closed the door, locked it and pulled down all the curtains before turning and lightly kissing Sasuke. "What did you want to talk about?" Kakashi said sitting down.
"Well, nothing much really. I just wanted to ask how the painting we were working on is turning out." Sasuke said straddling Kakashi's lap.
"Gorgeous, just like the model." Kakashi said kissing Sasuke again. This time they kissed longer until there was a crash from the room and Naruto's voice calling out, "Mr. Hatake…I knocked over the easels."
Kakashi sighed and said, "Would you excuse me?"
Sasuke nodded. Before Kakashi could return and they could continue, the bell rang and Sasuke slipped out of his office and went to class.
After school, Naruto begged and pleaded with Sasuke and finally got him to agree to take him to his favorite ramen shop. The two boys were sitting in a cozy booth with red pleather seats waiting for the bowls to less copiously steam.
"Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!" Naruto bubbled before tucking in vigorously.
Sasuke sighed, but smiled at his goofy friend.
"So Mr. Hatake said your painting came out well on Saturday." Naruto said after swallowing his noodles.
Sasuke looked up sharply from his bowl. "Did he now?"
"Mmhmm, I asked him how you were doing. Y'know, just cause….whatever" Naruto said making hand gestures.
"He's a good teacher." Sasuke said inwardly grinning at the double meaning.
"The best!" Naruto boasted, "His art work even gets put up in galleries! He's going to be having a show some time around the Spring Arts Festival too. We should go together."
"Yeah, that sounds great. I'd love to see some other things he's done. His house is full of artwork, so is his studio." Sasuke said thinking of all the beautiful things he saw in Kakashi's house.
"I'd just love to see his house! He told us once that he tiled it himself and painted all the walls." Naruto said offhandedly.
The two chatted on for an hour or so until a mechanical beeping emanating from Sasuke's pocket. Sasuke answered his phone and found his mother to be on the other end.
"Sasuke dear, are you alright?" His mother's voice rang in his ears.
"I'm fine mom, I'm with Naruto having some ramen." Sasuke said rolling his eyes. His mother could be so over protective sometimes.
"Oh, well you should have called me! Or at least called your brother! God knows he never leaves home." Sasuke's mother added slightly under her breath.
"I'll be home soon mom." Sasuke said glaring at Naruto who was laughing into his ramen. Once he had hung up, he got a chance to laugh as Naruto choked slightly on his ramen, "That's what you get for eating and laughing at the same time."
Naruto stuck out his tongue.
"Well I guess we better get going." Sasuke sighed.
Naruto quickly finished off his ramen and the two were soon at his house. "Hey Sasuke, after you cello lesson on Saturday do you want to go to the movies? This really cool new ninja flick just came out and I'm dying to see it."
Sasuke shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "Sorry, I can't that's when my art lesson is."
Naruto brushed it off, "Oh okay…hey! Why don't I tag along and then we can just go afterwards."
Inwardly Sasuke was terrified, "No! I mean, that'd be a bad idea. I'd be too embarrassed. You're really good…and I've just started!"
Naruto looked crestfallen, but took it in stride. "Oh…alright. It's too weird for you…well…I guess you can just call me when you're done and we'll go then."
Sasuke felt horrible, Naruto really did look disappointed. "Yeah, of course! I'll even buy the snacks. Really huge tubs of ultra buttery popcorn?" Sasuke offered.
That got Naruto smiling again, "Great! See you tomorrow, bright and early."
As Sasuke drove off, he didn't notice Naruto's eyes not leaving his car until it turned the corner.
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Sorry for the wait. I went to the beach with my "wife" so I couldn't update as soon as I finished.