Disclaimer: Stop asking stupid questions...I'm sick of answering them. But I'll humor you just this once, I don't, in anyway, make money off of this!

A/N: Yay! I updated in a timely fashion! I'm so proud of myself...though I still I have yet to update my other story which I haven't updated since January, the month I started it in too...but that is worry for another day because I have put up this amazing chapter! I have a feeling you are going to enjoy this!

Chapter 21: Mind Over Matter

"What do you mean by 'I might just like you'?" Naruto asked hesitantly, looking Sasuke straight in the eyes. Noticing that Sasuke was making close to no eye contact at that moment. Rather his eyes were darting back in forth frantically as if he was trying to find and escape or excuse. Naruto was sure as hell not going to take any excuse as an answer. He wanted the truth.

"Umm...well by that I mean...You know...It's just that..." Sasuke quickly went through all the possible ways to start a sentence, but wasn't coming close to figuring out how to end one.

Naruto still gazing at him expectantly, not sure of what he would get. "Yeah...?"

The blonde was staring mercilessly at the uncomfortable raven. Just as he was about to push for an answer again, Sasuke finally met his eyes.

Sasuke then did the only thing that his mind could come up with. He figured that since this was the only thing he had managed to come up with that it had to be the right answer.

So the raven locked gazes with Naruto, opened his mouth to speak and then...ran.

Yes, Sasuke ran away like it was nobody's business. He was dashing through the forest, skirting around the trees like he had a map in his head. He was getting the hell out of there, because that was his initial and pretty much, only response. As primal as the idea was he was sure that when in doubt, run away was a solid answer. He was pushing his long legs as fast as they were willing to go.

Naruto stood there, mouth agape. It took a second for it to register exactly what happened. And then another to realize that he was not going to let Sasuke get away without an answer.

So he took of running after the teme.

"Get back here, Sasuke!" Naruto shouted after the raven. Due to his late reaction, Sasuke had been given enough time to make notable headway through the forest. Meaning Naruto couldn't even see the back of the Teme's head. He couldn't be sure he was even going in the right direction, but Naruto figured that there really was no other way for him to run in.

"Hell no, Dobe!"

The blonde smiled happily to himself.

Gotcha.

Stupid Teme, thought he was so smart and yet made the mistake to answer him. It was as good as Naruto calling out "Marco" and Sasuke answering with "Polo". Judging by the fact that Sasuke could hear him meant he was close. And thankfully now from the shout, he roughly knew where he needed to go to get to him.

Naruto wasn't anything if not fit. Sprinting like this was a breeze for him. He was so used to it that he was surprised that he hadn't caught up to the teme yet. Naruto took pride in the fact that he was one of the fastest kids on the block. At his last school he was the star of the track team. And he couldn't say the skill hurt when it came to being a gangster either.

Sure enough, the blonde was able to catch quick, fleeting glancing at the very end of Sasuke's hair. He had to admit navigating through the sporadic trees was a tad difficult, not impossible just a slight hindrance. He occasionally lost his footing on the various dips and rocks on the ground, but it did feel nice to use the trees and his momentum to change directions on a whim.

Sasuke was starting to feel the effects of sprinting for his life. It was taking a toll on his breathing, but when he looked back he was startled to see a very determined Naruto on his trail. Unfortunately, the blonde didn't seem the least bit out of breath. The raven was back to a frantic mad dash.

This was your brilliant idea? Running away?

I didn't hear you have any objections or suggestions when I thought of it.

Yeah, because I didn't think you were stupid enough to actually go with it. What is a genius IQ for when you are not going to use it?

Naruto was full on beaming now: Sasuke was in full view now. And on top of that, Naruto could just make out the end of the trees. They were nearing the area where the carnival met up with the forest. There was no where to hide. They were close to the entrance booth and parking lot. There was just one low lying chain link fence that separated the trees and the cobblestone walkway.

"Well...this is awkward..." Sora trailed off, glancing at his sister. Not knowing what to do after their dates random disappearance. All their food had managed to go cold in that time period. Not that Sora was planning on letting any of them go to waste.

"Yeah...where the hell did they go?" Tora added. "What're they doing? It's been like fifteen minutes..."

"I don't know," he answered honestly. "French fry?"

Just as Sasuke tried to jump over the fence, Naruto made a flying tackle for the raven. Naruto easily knocked the wind out of Sasuke as he made full body contact, effectively pinning him to the stone. The raven let out an audible "umph".

They had made quite the spectacle of themselves. People that were now exiting the carnival milled around them wondering if this was a performance set up by the place, waiting to see if they were going to do anything. Maybe even a fight, if they were lucky. Or at least, get off the ground. Naruto didn't seem to be fazed by all the eyes on him.

"Get off of me!" Sasuke demanded imperiously, though the effect was tainted by his muffled sound...and the fact that Naruto was pressing his face into the ground. He couldn't talk properly. But Naruto understood what he was saying.

"Why the hell would I do that?" Naruto snorted. "You just tried to run away from me. I bet if I let you up you would just do it again."

"I won't, promise. Just let me up. You're crushing my diaphragm!"

The blonde raised an eyebrow. "Your what?"

"I can't breath!"

"Oh!" Naruto jumped up off the raven as if electrocuted. He felt bad for suffocating him, but that is what he gets for not trying to run from him. He was the Kyuubi for God's sake, Sasuke really wasn't that bright, after all.

The blonde offered his hand in apology, helping Sasuke up. He brushed off the remnants of gravel off of the front of his pants. Before Naruto could interrogate him once again, Sasuke shot off like a bullet.

"What the hell?!" Naruto yelled in exasperation, throwing his hands in the air. Just to take off after him, once again.

Sasuke didn't make it far this time around because he didn't have that same stun-effect, therefore, he didn't have the original head start as last time. He barely made it into the parking lot when he was once again pressed against the ground. Sasuke had to admit the blacktop was way more uncomfortable than the cobblestone.

I'm out of ideas...

You say that like you had a viable one in the first place.

"Don't you dare try and run away again. I'm going to let you up, but if I get any sign of you about to escape. I'll pin you without hesitation. Got it, Teme?" Naruto asked. Hoping that if he talked authoritatively that Sasuke might listen to him. Sitting on Sasuke was kind of fun though, made him feel like he was finally in charge. This way Naruto also made sure that he wasn't suffocating him, just effectively immobilizing him.

"Fine..." Sasuke said in resignation.

"How can I know you aren't lying?" Naruto asked skeptically. "How do I know you won't just bolt when I let you up, like last time?"

"I don't know...Just believe me."

"Huh, why should I? You didn't stick around last time when I let you up."

"What do I do then?"

"Prove it to me that you won't run."

"How?!" the raven questioned incredulously. There was no way he could prove right now...face down on the road and all. He was so glad that the carnival wasn't a really popular attraction for the city, he didn't like the idea of being run over by a car, while they were here.

"I don't know. You're the supposed to be the smart one," Naruto mocked.

"I don't kn—how about you take the car keys out of my pocket? That way you know I can't go anywhere even if I run."

The blonde mulled it over quickly in his head and couldn't think of any obvious loopholes. He could catch him with ease if he did try to run because he would be cautious, it would be annoying to chase him again, but he wouldn't get far anyway. So after deliberating he agreed, Naruto snatched the raven's keys and hopped of the teme willingly.

Sasuke took his time getting up this time because he knew he had been backed into a corner now. Making sure that he was in tact after being tackled twice. He was rather annoyed to see that his dark-wash jeans were sporting a rip at both knees, but his knees, themselves, were fine. His shirt was also slightly frayed at the elbows. Anything that he naturally had used to catch his fall to the ground had been damaged.

"Okay, explain yourself!" Naruto commanded, quite convincingly. Not that Sasuke was in any rush to spill his guts.

"Explain what?"

Might as well give him a hard time.

Amen.

"What you meant when you said that?"

"Said what?" Sasuke responded blankly.

Naruto ruffled his hair frustratedly. "You know what I mean! Stop avoiding my questions!"

"I'm not avoiding any question. I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sasuke!"

"Naruto." The raven smirked as he watched Naruto grow more flustered.

"Ugh! Answer the damn question."

"What question?"

"What fuck, did you fucking mean, when you fucking said that 'I might just like you', dammit!" Naruto shouted, fed up...rather loudly...in public. He quickly realized his mistake, flushing a deep red. He ducked his head in embarrassment when he saw that the few people that had been in the parking lot was now staring at him.

Sasuke almost smiled at the Dobe's impulse related stupidity, but knew this wasn't really the time for that. He needed to get himself out of this grave he had dug for himself.

"Why does it matter so much to you what I meant?" the raven shot back, deciding that it was high time to turn the tables on the blonde.

"That's not the matter at hand. I asked you a straight forward question, so answer it, Teme!"

"Yeah, a straight fucking question," Sasuke teased Naruto for his overuse of profanity in his sentence.

"Just answer it!"

"First, tell me why I should."

"'Cause I want you to." He sidestepped the question, childishly.

"You know that hasn't been a valid reason for anything since the first grade..."

"Yeah, well screw that. I know what you are doing here!" He accused.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow in interest.

"You don't want to answer my fucking question so now you are throwing back everything I say in my face."

Hmm...so he's smarter than he looks...or acts for that matter.

Like you should be talking, Mr. I-think-I'll-run-away-yeah-that'll-work-not.

He just shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe I am, maybe I'm not."

"Stop it!" Naruto exclaimed fed up with all the stalling.

"Okay." Sasuke smirked, twirling around, hands in his pockets and started to walk away. Only to be rapidly jerked around by a rather pissed off Naruto.

"You know that's not what I meant!"

"How do I know what you meant? I don't read minds. Even I'm not that amazing." He was starting to find this game amusing in the most juvenile way.

"Sasuke..." Naruto sighed, knowing that the Teme wasn't about to stop being a teme any time soon.

Sasuke almost gave in then, he felt a pull thanks to Naruto's expression. It was almost like he was begging silently with his eyes. Round and sad and blue, kind of like a puppy dog. A golden retriever maybe? Sasuke didn't know why but now that the sun was going down and light was sparse it only seemed to intensify his electric blue gaze. Like they were the only things in the world right know, blinking pleases.

And then his pride took over, snapping out of Naruto's hypnotic stare. "Yes?"

"Answer!"

"I don't know what in the world you might be referring to."

"Bullshit! I just asked you the question, like hell you don't know what I'm referring to!"

"Tell me why it's so important that you know."

Naruto fished for and answer but could think of any. Ending up just sputtering half-responses, like Sasuke had done earlier. "Well...uh...ummm...you know...it's just that...you see...obviously..."

"Well...umm...uh...what?" the raven mocked hoping to get a rise out of the blonde, so that he would end up just be mad and forget all about the question.

"Uh..."

"Uh...what?"

"Umm...well..."

"Umm...well...what?"

"Goddammit, Sasuke!" Naruto yelled in frustration, he wasn't thinking straight anymore. All the push for an answer had jumbled up his thoughts, he was just angry and frustrated now. He was always an impulsive person, even more so when angry. Nothing was computing quite right, all things going haywire.

Sasuke was about to respond with the irritating, "Goddamn what?" As the words were about to leave his mouth, the red-faced Naruto came up to him. Just a hair's breadth away from his face, and then he suddenly felt the Dobe's soft lips on his in a chaste kiss.

The raven was effectively shut up. He was beyond stunned. What the hell had just happened? Naruto's eyes mimicked Sasuke's as they widened in panic when he realized what he had just did. Sasuke paralysis was wearing off, as they stared each other down in shock. He was about to speak when, Naruto broke the silence first.

"Well in the remembered words of the great Sasuke Uchiha—" Naruto was now tearing in the opposite direction towards their cars. He had both of their keys in the first place. Sasuke would be stranded if he made it to his car in time.

Sasuke smiled slowly, when he understood that Naruto was making fun of the fact that he tried to run away from his problem just now...and now Naruto was copying him.

That was funny. Life's pretty funny. Haha...I feel funny, too. How funny.

Go after him and contemplate life's hilarity later!

The raven shook himself out of his dobe-induced stupor, there was no way in hell that he was going to let the dobe escape after what he did. Especially because he wasn't going to let Naruto succeed where he failed: running away.

"So...Should we leave?" Sora asked kinda confused if they should even try to wait for the pair to come back. He and Tora managed to polish off the last of, well, everyone's food. It had been at least thirty minutes since they last saw either Sasuke or Naruto after they stormed off. It was high time to get up.

"Nah, we should go on a couple more rides!" Tora suggested excitedly. "When's the last time we hung out together like this? Might as well make the most out of it!"

"Probably not the smartest idea after eating all that food," he said gesturing towards the multitude of empty trays and packets lying haphazardly across the picnic bench. "But all the more reason to love it!"

"Awesome, I hope that the guys are having fun where ever they are right now."

"Yeah."

"Get the hell back here, Dobe!" Sasuke shouted at Naruto's ever shrinking figure.

"Fuck no!"

They pair zig-zagged around the various parked cars. There were mostly vacant lots, but the few cars there were certainly an obstacle, just enough for Sasuke to lose sight of Naruto. It was like this messed up version of hide-and-seek. Goddamn those SUVs!

The blonde was frantically searching for his car or even Sasuke's car if worse comes to worst. Which to the blonde it seemed like he had hit that point and now it was just a downward spiral to who knows where.

He was surprised, but mostly distraught, that a place as small and off the map as this rundown carnival had such a spacious parking lot; i.e. he had no idea where he was going. Though he was pretty sure that he was going in circles because that silver Honda Civic looked awfully familiar...

Sasuke had given up on looking for the Dobe, he had other plans.

Naruto breathed an sigh of relief. His car, his glorious car. Here it was sitting right where he had left it, not that he remembered where he had left it. But that was all behind them because he had found it, and he was now going to be running away from Sasuke at 50 mph. Success!

The blonde too a minute to rest, bending over resting his elbow on his knee. He was sure that he could afford the break. Straightening up, grinning, he walked around the passenger side of the car to get to the driver's door. He fished his keys out of his pocket then glanced up.

"Hello, Dobe," Sasuke addressed calmly, leaning casually on his door. The raven wasn't out of breath or anything to show his rush, he looked completely collected as if he just happened to be there at the same time, a coincidence.

"AHHHHHH!" Naruto screamed in shock, like he'd just seen the Grim Reaper. Practically falling over from the scare. He thought he was in the clear. "How the hell did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Find my car before me! You didn't even take this car here! How could you possibly know where it was?! Even I didn't know where it was!" He gasped out. "What the fuck, did you apparate here, or something? How did you get here?"

The raven smirked, mysteriously. "Like you said...magic."

"Magic, my face!"

"Think Dobe it's not that hard. I know you are surprised but the answer isn't all that hard."

"Just tell me, dammit!"

"I'm parked right next to you," Sasuke said pointing at his Lamborghini that was, just as he said, right next to it. "It's hardly an inconspicuous car..."

"Oh...well...whatever I didn't know that..." Naruto said feeling stupid immediately, Sasuke tended to have that affect on people. "You parked after I was already in the carnival how was I supposed to know?" He justified.

"I don't know, but if I was you and saw my car and then a Lambo next to it I would bet money that it was Sasuke's car. How many people in this town have the same car as me anyway?"

"Whatever...I still think it's weird that you found it so fast in such a huge parking lot...I blame your memory, stupid genius."

"Stupid genius is an oxymoron. And on the contrary, I used my iPhone to get here."

"Wait, what? Your phone took you here?" Naruto questioned not willing to believe that.

"In a sense, yes. There's and app that uses GPS technology to lead you back to your car in parking lots like this."

"Of course, there's app for that..." the blonde mumbled bitterly. Damn you, Apple!

"Ugh, I feel sick. That second round on The Behemoth was so not a smart idea," Sora grumbled as he leaned over the garbage can just in case. He was hoping that he didn't keel over and die too, his stomach was killing him!

"Sissy!" Tora teased as she skipped over to him, perfectly fine. She hooked her arm through his, tugging at it to get her brother to follow her into the line for the tea cup ride that was basically a cheap knockoff of the Disneyland Alice and Wonderland ride.

"Hell no! I'm not spinning around in tea cups. I feel dizzy enough standing still!" He protested weakly. He knew his sister well enough to know that she wasn't about to take no for an answer. So as of forever ago he decided not to argue all that much. He would cave soon enough, might as well save himself the trouble.

"Nope! We're going on!" They were already standing in the rather impressive line.

"I wonder what Sasuke and Naruto are doing? Where could they have possibly gone?" Sora wondered out loud.

"I bet I know what they're doing~" Tora sang in response, a clear Cheshire Cat smile painted across her face.

"What?" He asked intrigued, mostly because of her expression.

"Professing their love for each other!" She giggled like she spilled the biggest secret ever.

"Whoa, whoa, wait, what?!"

"Come on, Sora keep up. Can't you tell they like each other?"

"I know that...well I know that Sasuke likes Naruto, but how do you know that?" Sora was shocked, this was the last thing he expected his sister to say.

"Duh, it's obvious, I knew from the beginning: that day that the cafe. They were exuding 'we love each other', but didn't look like they were going to admit it anytime soon. So I decided to give them a little...push." She grinned full-watt, the secret was out and she was loving the response she was getting from Sora, or well the lack thereof. He was her twin and he didn't know. If anyone was able to read he mind it should have been him, damn she was a good actress. "I think I should get an Oscar for my performance."

"Whatawhatawhat?"

"Don't you think they look so cute with each other? I was thrilled when I saw Sasuke trailing us, but I was surprised to see you here too...what were you doing here?"

Sora didn't even try to answer the question. "You knew we were following you from the beginning?!"

"Of course, silly. What kind of evil mastermind would I be if I wasn't observant? How could I not miss you guys stalking us from ride to ride? Thankfully, Naruto didn't see you, that wouldn't have gone over well. You guys aren't very good at following people inconspicuously. I was worried for a while...you lost us. But we met again at the Maze. So it all worked out in the end, yeah?

"Now they're probably confessing to each other. They were so jealous all through out the day, it was so fun to watch. Way better than any drama that comes on TV, for sure. I'm the best cupid anyone could ever have, right?" She smiled innocently at Sora.

Quite the actress, indeed.

"So..." Naruto started.

"Yes, Dobe?"

"I don't know...this is awkward." He said glancing down to their intertwined hands. They were strolling around back in the trees of the Konoha forest because they didn't want to leave quite yet. Scared that the magic of this night would dissipate right when they leave. And it would all be like a distant memory.

"What's weird? I like you, you like me. I think this is pretty nice."

"Nice, but weird."

"Fine, I'll give you that much." He smiled down at his blonde. Yes, he could finally say it: his blonde. Take that evil thought process!

Nah, I'm not going to hate today. I gotta give ya props on this one.

"Poor Tora, must be heartbroken right now because I left her back at the carnival." He had sent her a text a couple minutes ago telling her that he wasn't coming back that something had come up so he had to go ASAP and that he was sorry and that he would explain later. "And I can't imagine how she'll take the news of us being together together. I feel so bad..."

"Eh," Sasuke could careless, he felt like there was nothing else in the world mattered right now.

"What about Sora?" Naruto asked. Sasuke must feel bad since he left his own date alone too.

"Oh, we weren't really on a date I just said that to make you jealous...he played along nicely." Sasuke said truthfully now that he didn't have to keep up the act.

"What?!"

Wrong thing to say, genius.

Thanks for reading! OMFG, THEY ARE TOGETHER *does a little happy dance* What did you think? How many people can still say they hate Tora? I thought that was damn good chapter...now what could happen next :P Anyway, WHAT DID YOU THINK? You better tell me something after I cranked out this chapter just for you guys!