Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, its characters and/or ideas. All rights belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

A/N: I meant to have this chapter out months ago, but sometimes things don't work out the way we want them to. I do apologize for the long wait, nevertheless.

10: It's Your Birthday, Shorty! Part I

O-0-O-0-O

"...No way, Sakura."

"Oh, c'mon Naruto! Don't you want to have a party for your birthday next week?"

"No. No, I don't."

"I'm actually surprised at you, Dickless. I thought you of all people would be thrilled for such an occasion."

"Shove it, ass breath!"

"As much as I hate to agree with Sai and forehead, I'm going to have to side with them on this one. You're about to turn seventeen, yet you're acting as though it's the end of the world. Why don't you want to do anything for your birthday?"

Naruto's once annoyed expression morphed into slight bemusement as he stared back at the three eager faces awaiting his answer from across the table. For the last fifteen minutes of their lunch break, Sakura, Ino, and (un)predictably Sai had been hounding the blond about his upcoming birthday. The crowd of students in the cafeteria had drowned out the four's discussion while the rest of their friends had either talked amongst themselves or had watched the others from the sidelines. Yet as they witnessed their usually wayward friend behave in an uncharacteristic state of silence, the group of peers all turned their heads to see how the other would respond.

One of the things most people didn't fully understand about Naruto was his lack of interest pertaining to his date of birth. With the exception of Sasuke and a number of his relatives, no one comprehended that Naruto viewed his birthday as some sort of sinister omen. Of course, any person would think of their special day in such a fashion if they had had to deal with what the blue eyed boy had had to deal with a few of those times.

It had all started a year after he had been born. Minato and Kushina had planned for his one year birthday party, preparing to invite friends and associates alike. The morning he had turned one, a rival of his father's had attempted to kidnap and use him as insurance. Fortunately, one of Minato's loyal colleagues had botched the endeavor while the remainder of the party guests had been kept in the dark. And although Naruto had been too young to remember the incident, it still left a bitter taste in his mouth that someone had been willing to exploit him.

Six years after that first occurrence, around the time he had met Sasuke coincidentally, the golden haired boy had just been released from his classroom when he heard the familiar jingle of the ice cream truck cruising through the neighborhood. Having forgotten that he was supposed to wait inside the school building for his parents, Naruto had chased after the sound from across the street, inattentively unaware of the vehicle heading straight for him. He had been hit dead on, but had received only minor injuries. The boy had then stayed in the hospital for a few days, and the scratches on his cheeks had been stitched up for him. The whisker marks on his countenance were the visible remnants of his foolishness.

Lastly, on his thirteenth birthday, a serial killer known merely as the infamous 'Kyuubi' went on a murderous spree in his city, taking the lives of nine individuals. That night, instead of having a peaceful dinner with his family, Naruto had been subjected to the horrors of one human being as he along with Minato and Kushina had watched Kyuubi flee from the police on live television. Eventually, the man had been caught and arrested by the authorities, but the fact of the matter was that the Uzumaki had had a ruined birthday.

So, in regards to Naruto's thinking, he thought his birthday could do without a proper celebration.

"Leave him alone," interjected one black haired Uchiha when it became apparent that the mentioned three weren't going to let up on Naruto. "If the moron doesn't want to celebrate his birthday, he doesn't have to."

Naruto shot the older teen a quick, grateful smile before resorting back to his loud antics. "Yeah, it's my decision—hey, wait! Who're calling a moron, moron?"

Sasuke's dark eyes twinkled as he retorted, "The fact that you have to ask that question again when you know it clearly relates to you justifies me in calling you a 'moron'."

The blond growled at the blatant affront as the throng of friends laughed at his expense; secretly though, he was glad that Sasuke was trying to sway their attention from him. It always made Naruto feel good to know that his best friend was willing to have his back, even when he insulted him afterwards. To outwardly shield the giddiness in his chest, Naruto went right into his boisterous actions, yelling back at the superior mortal solely recognized as Sasuke Uchiha.

Sai's customary smile faltered just a bit as he watched Naruto and Sasuke go back and forth in their verbal brawl. The two aforesaid males, for some unknown reason, rubbed him the wrong way. He wasn't sure whether that was because of the pair themselves or because of their friendship. Either way, he was determined to have the very last word. Maybe tweedle dee and tweedle dum are willing to drop the subject for their 'precious Sasuke', but I'm not...

"I still say you should have a party for your birthday," Sai disrupted the pearls of chuckles around the table. "You could hire strippers as entertainment." His grin from before expanded as both Sasuke and Naruto threw him heated looks.

"I wholly agree," Kiba pushed his way into the conversation, ignoring the glare from Naruto as he put a friendly arm around the younger's shoulders. "It could be like a covert bachelor-birthday smash! You would've all the honeys lining up to get with you and all the dudes around wanting to be you. It would be awesome!"

"Get your paws off me, dog boy," Naruto hissed.

Kiba removed his arm as though he had been burned; wincing when he saw the amount of anger that was swirling in the blond's cerulean orbs. Before anyone could comment on Naruto's strange behavior, the school bell rang throughout the campus, prompting students to clean their trash and head for the auditorium's exit. Naruto was the first one of the group to part away, seemingly leaving his friends in irritation.

Sasuke released a sigh as he dumped out his food in the bin and followed his fellow pupils out of the said building. In the corner of his eye, he saw a cluster of girls staring in his direction. He at first thought the girls were focused on him; but as he left the cafeteria and the afternoon sun shined on his face, he realized that they had been observing his group of friends intently. Sasuke couldn't pinpoint what those females were pondering about; he just hoped that whatever it was, it wouldn't become anything too serious.

O-0-O-0-O

Naruto faintly smiled as he departed from his last class of the school day. Even though he was still irked that some of his friends had had the audacity to bring up his birthday, he walked with a skip in his step, wanting to appear as he typically did—like an unpredictable, yet playful blond. As he sauntered amongst the horde of students that had just been released from some of their classes, he noticed that a handful of teens were both gawking and pointing at him.

The crammed hallway seemed to fall into a hush as Naruto continued on with his trek. It was as though a majority of the students in the corridor were watching him. It wasn't until he was several feet from his dorm quarters that he heard the whispers.

"...I think you should be the one to ask him..."

"..Me? Why me?"

"...Because you're closer—" The three girls that had been trailing behind the blond ceased conversing abruptly when Naruto spun towards them with a click of his tongue.

"Look, whatever you want to ask me, just ask me. No more secrecy, please," Naruto said with an exasperated pout.

The girls giggled at his sour appearance, one of them going as far as to say 'too cute' underneath her breath. The so-called leader of their pack took the initiative to speak as she strode closer to the aggravated looking boy.

"Well, um, we were kinda wondering when and where your birthday party was going to be."

"...Come again?"

"Your birthday party," the leader girl repeated more slowly, as though she were talking to a mere child. "We know it's sometime next week, 'cause everybody's been talking about it, but we want to know the details."

Naruto shook his head in order to clear his racing thoughts. "I'm sorry, but did you just say everybody's been talking about it?"

The leader rolled her eyes as she plainly stated, "Duh."

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs, disregarding the startled expressions on the teen females' face.

Without waiting for the girls' response, Naruto took off in the opposite direction, a destination set in his mind. While ambling through Seasonal Leaf's halls, he rummaged in his pockets to take out his cell phone. He pressed the device to his ear after sorting through his call list, internally pleading that the one person he needed to see would indeed answer his phone before he reached the other's dorm room.

The person on the other line picked up after the third ring. "What is it, Naruto?"

"Are you in your dorm room right now?"

"Yes, but I—"

"Good," the blond teen interrupted smoothly. "I'll be there in a few."

Ending the call to his mobile, Naruto then put it back in his slack's pocket and made his way to the upper dorms on the other side of campus. Reaching the familiar door some minutes later, the Uzumaki knocked on the barricade urgently. When the door didn't open after a significant amount of time, Naruto's face flushed in frustration, pounding on the wooden surface again in his mounting temper.

"Sasuke!" yelled Naruto, disturbing some of the residents in the hallway nearby. "You better bring your ass out here before I—! Oh, um, hey Neji. How's it goin'?" The younger boy sheepishly stroked the back of his head subsequent to Neji opening up the door and staring at him.

The long haired brunette merely raised an eyebrow at the other in amusement. "I'm doing quite well, seeing as though you last saw me a couple of hours ago."

Naruto chuckled uneasily. "Er, right," he dropped his hand to his side and said. "I, uh, need to speak with Sasuke, if you don't mind."

Neji moved to the side, gesturing in the room with his hand. "Be my guest. I'm heading out anyway; I have a project to work on with Tenten."

"Thanks," muttered the whisker scarred boy as he entered the room before Neji sauntered the other way, closing the door as he did so.

Sasuke was currently sitting in a lone chair in the corner, typing away on the available laptop that was situated on a brown painted counter. He had replaced his uniform with a gray T-shirt, blue jeans, and white socks. Naruto appreciated his choice of casual wear, making himself comfortable on his boyfriend's straightened bed. Naruto knew he wouldn't be able to keep the quite up for long.

Amazingly, the raven teen was the one whom broke the silence as he stated without turning around. "What was so urgent that you had to race over here to see me?"

"I wanted to know if you heard what must be 'rumors' about my 'supposed' birthday party."

"Yes, unfortunately."

"What? How? Please explain this to me."

"I'm assuming it all started during lunch break, when we had been discussing your birthday. Apparently, some girl named Ayame heard us talking and told her friends that you were having a party. She along with some other girls as of late have been organizing for preparations to make the event a possibility."

"How do you know all that?" Naruto questioned, absentmindedly biting at his fingernails as he stood upward.

Rotating the laptop around so that its screen faced Naruto, the Uchiha answered. "It's all over the bulletin board on the school's website."

Naruto bent down to take a closer look, his eyes widening when he read the given information. "You think you can stop all this, S'uke?"

"I've been trying, but I don't think even my influence can stop the rumors. It's in too deep."

"Aw, man," Naruto complained, sitting back down on the edge of Sasuke's bed. "Well...I guess I will go along with it for now, since people are willing to use their money on me. It still blows, though." Lowering his head in defeat, the blond boy was surprised when he felt a soothing hand tilt his chin. Sasuke gazed at him with magnetic onyx irises, trying to ease the other as he sat down beside him.

"You don't have to go along with it," the brunette proposed, using the same hand from before to tuck a stray hair behind Naruto's ear. "You have a choice, you know."

Naruto smiled a sad sort of smile as he whispered, "I wouldn't be who I am if I didn't sacrifice something for the greater good."

To Naruto's chagrin, the gossip behind his approaching birthday party wouldn't die down as the days passed. If anything, the gossip had become one of the first topics of a lot of the students' conversations. Within the following week, Naruto had tried and failed to dissuade his peers' silly notions involving his date of birth. He had even gone as far as announcing that there would be no party, and that the whole thing was only a rumor. What that got him was some laughs and an unknown person throwing an empty yogurt carton at him.

By Friday, a day before his 'planned' party and two days before his actually birthday, Naruto remained tight lipped, declining to correct people when they brought up the get-together. After his final class, the golden teen robotically stalked to his dorm room and jumped into his bed after he had gotten inside. Overlooking the fact that he was still dressed in his uniform, the blond wrapped his comforter around his body and shut his eyes to sleep.

Several calls coming from his cell phone were missed as he reveled in his slumber, the vibration of the device reverberating all through the muted room. Out of those calls, only one person left a message: his grandmother, Tsunade.

"Hey brat, it's me, she left on his unanswered voicemail. "I was just calling to let you know that your parents sent you a package in the mail early this morning. When you get a chance, please stop by and pick it up. And I know you have qualms about this, but the pervert and I would really like to see you on your b-day. Talk to you later kiddo, bye.

O-0-O-0-O

Saturday, October ninth.

The day before his hated day. The day before he dreaded...everything.

The day before he would imagine evil creatures from beyond the grave somehow finding him and swallowing him.

The very idea wasn't too farfetched. Halloween was just around the corner, after all.

"Can someone remind me why I'm doing this again?"

The two glamorously dressed girls flanking Naruto's side rolled their eyes in unison as he continued to grumble; they then grabbed each of his arms and dragged him toward the over 800 foot structure standing right in front of them. Ino and Sakura had done a lot to get Naruto out of bed, and they weren't going to stop now just because their friend was being so difficult.

The aforementioned structure was a luxurious hotel that was similar to an Art Deco design. The building was made of stainless steel, Chrome, inlaid wood, and brick and the interior housed about fifty-five floors, excluding the indoor swimming pool, gym, bar and ballroom—where Naruto's party was selected to be held. The three said teens entered inside the ballroom's entrance belatedly at eleven p.m. The party had been scheduled to start at nine o'clock, but Sakura thought it would be 'inspiring' for them to arrive later.

The ballroom was just as lavish as its outside counterpart. The large space was of a rectangular shaped width with bamboo floors, well-built windows on the four sides, and tasteful wallpaper. The preparations were what added to the splendor; there were blue and white balloons huddled together in some of the corners, several tables covered with white linen were presented with food and drinks, a DJ and his stand were situated on the left hand side, a massive five foot cake sat on top of a serving counter and...the people! There were so many people around! Naruto was sure that more than half of them he didn't even know.

"Look who's here!" Sakura shouted over the music and the dancing slash conversing crowd.

Heads turned as the three sauntered forward. As soon as the multitude of teens saw Naruto, applause and whoops surrounded the room with some of the people taking the time to walk over to the blond and greet him properly.

"I hate this," Naruto mumbled underneath his breath, being pulled from one person to the next. He usually enjoyed people paying attention to him, but this was too much.

"H-Happy Birthday, N-Naruto," Hinata welcomed bashfully, pushing her two index fingers together as Naruto was literally shoved in her direction.

"Thank you, Hinata," Uzumaki offered sincerely, winded. "Not that I wouldn't appreciate it, but I hope you didn't get me a huge gift," he flinched when he spotted the amount of wrapped presents that were on the other side of the room. And those are just the gifts I've seen so far...

The lilac haired girl blushed and giggled kindly. "I g-got you a couple of g-gifts, but this one's not too e-extravagant." She dug into her party dress that had a hidden pocket. "Here," she said, handing him the envelope that she had brought out.

Naruto didn't waste any time opening the sachet. His eyes nearly bugged out of his head as he took in the gift card inside. "You got me a two year subscription to Ichiraku's?! Oh, thanks, Hinata! You're the best!"

The embrace bestowed upon the girl had Hinata turning so red she was almost purple. "Y-You're welcome," she stuttered. Naruto removed his arms from around her seconds later, smiling at her handsomely as he stepped back. Hinata was truly enchanted with the look. "Um, Naruto, I hope you don't think me too forward, but would you mind danc—?"

"Hey, Uzumaki!" An unfamiliar feminine voice bellowed out.

Both Hinata and Naruto twisted their heads around to see which person had called out to the blond. A red headed female with brown eyes and pale skin stalked toward the pair, a set of gray haired twins following behind her with smirks on their faces. Naruto appeared confused as the trio halted their movements in front of him.

"Um...hi. Do I know you three?" asked Naruto.

"I'm Tayuya," the redhead introduced. "That's Sakon and Ukon, good friends of mine. Do you want to dance?"

Naruto was taken aback with her abrupt question. She hadn't even said 'happy birthday', not that he particularly cared about that. "With all three of you?"

"No, with me!" Tayuya snapped heatedly before a sickening sweet smile adorned her face. "Let's go," she grasped his elbow and pulled him away before he could say anything else. Hinata watched the four teens leave her with crestfallen expression.

Tayuya guided Naruto to the center of the room where most of the occupants were dancing to a contemporary, fast-paced song. She then released his arm prior to seductively grinding her hips against Naruto's. The blond stood still as numerous bodies moved all around him; he looked from left to right, wondering where the girl's male friends had gone. He also was on the look out for Sasuke; having a jealous boyfriend wouldn't be fun.

"You're supposed to move your hips. Like this," she proclaimed, showing Naruto by putting her hands on his waist and steering him from side to side.

The blue eyed teen slightly shoved the redhead from his personal space. "I don't need dance lessons," he said with attitude, his cheeks flushing to a nice pink.

"Could've fooled me, dork," Tayuya teased with a cruel smirk.

"I'm not a dork! Who the hell are you to say that?!"

Instead of seeming offended, Tayuya looked pleased as she leaned forward to whisper in the male's ear, resuming their swaying. "I knew I would like you. You're feisty."

Naruto sputtered, feeling flattered and snubbed at the same time. "Uh...thanks?"

"Yeah," she continued, her hand traveling to rest on Naruto's lower back. "I won't mind at all being your first."

"...My first, what?"

The tanned boy's body jumped in shock as he heard the next word from the other's mouth.

"Fuck."

Yeah, it ends on a cliffhanger. Sasuke enters the party next chapter. Stay tuned.