Chapter 25 – The Rift in Perfection

Author's Notes: I have reasons, like always. As explained at the bottom of the page.
As usual (Which some aren't used to), I'm doing exactly what you didn't expect. Hate me, love me, kill me. You need me to get to the end.
And guys, stop bashing Sakura so hard. She isn't the wicked witch of the world alright. Calm down.

Disclaimer: Nothing. Nothing that is copyrighted that is mentioned here I do not own.

Dedication: Everyone who reviewed to help me get to over 700!!! You all make my shitty week so much better.

Warnings: D-R-A-M-A begins. Enjoy.

Chapter 25 – The Rift in Perfection

Naruto let his umbrella fly open at the end of school, and let Sakura huddle underneath as they waited on Ino and Hinata.

"What are you doing this afternoon?" Sakura asked politely as she huddled closer when a few drops assaulted her.

The blonde blinked his eyes before thinking of the first thing that came to mind, "Going out with Sasuke. We had a date planned after we finished our work."

The girl nodded in a slow understanding, her lips in a thin line in a thinking sort of way while she stared off at the ground, and the blonde swallowed hard in worry.

"He really likes you, doesn't he?" Sakura asked suddenly.

Naruto flushed and cursed himself for the girly action, "I can't speak for him, but, through his words and actions, I think so."

Sakura smiled kindly in what looked like a pained gesture, "I'm glad. It's hard to find someone good these days."

The blonde furrowed his perfect brow, "What do you mean?"

He was genuinely curious. Sasuke had plenty of flaws, he was pretty sure he was the only one smart enough to see them for what they were, and it took some time before he got to this 'good' she was speaking of. Sakura sure as shit needed to take Sasuke off of that pedestal she held him on.

Sakura shrugged and ripped Naruto out of his musings of making Sasuke into a human and not some god like Sakura did, "He just seems like he would be the type to treat you well."

Naruto remembered the teasing – all of it. The name calling – which he still gets, then the butt grabbing, and not to mention…!

"I've just never dated a … good guy? I guess you'd call it that." Sakura mumbled.

Naruto huddled under the large umbrella when the wind blew another direction and his back began to get pounded with rain, "What do you mean, Sakura? I'm lost."

"This Kiba guy," She began and Naruto shuffled on the spot, "seems like someone I can actually date. If Kakashi can make Hina-chan that happy, then I'm hoping Kiba-kun can make me that happy. I guess…I guess I understand that Sasuke-kun won't notice me anymore. He never really noticed me in the first place. You're the first girl he actually took notice to, and, well…Kiba is the first guy who really noticed me."

Naruto shook his head lightly to show his confusion, "Sakura, I'll bet my bottom dollar that's a lie."

Sakura let out a sweet giggle, "I mean, notice me Naru-chan. Not for my body. I asked him to go out on a date, not him. He didn't say yes ogling me like a peace of meat. Did you know this is the first guy to actually go out on a date with me? I know this sounds weird because I barely know him, but guys around here usually aren't the greatest, but he seems different. He doesn't seem the type to only date me for sex."

The blonde swallowed, "Guys actually…?"

He wasn't that type. Sure, he stared at Sakura, he admired her body, but he would never go as low as to only date her for sex. His father might have been the second biggest pervert in the world, but he raised him right.

Sakura looked up at him with wide confused green eyes, "Come on Naru-chan, you never had guys act like complete assholes towards you?"

When Naruto heard Sakura act like this was the most natural thing in the world, that men were to treat women unfairly, something inside hit him roughly.

Right now he was seeing the innocent Sakura who he had originally liked, who he had pursued and adored. He now knew before he pushed her away and broke her heart with 'Kiba' and ruined the friendship between her and 'Naru-chan', that he had to give this girl beside him the date of her life.

"Can I have one?" Sasuke asked under Shikamaru's umbrella in the back lot next to his car.

The other teen turned to give his friend a lost look and a questioning one while he fumbled to light his cigarette. "Alright Uchiha, you need to tell me what in the fuck is wrong with you. I let you smoke one time last year when your parents came home for a month and I thought you might possibly have a mental breakdown after you lost all Uchiha-ness and had a panic attack…which I haven't mentioned untill now. Like I promised. Troublesome prick. What in the hell is wrong?"

Pale fingers snatched a stick and flipped it through the digits with a long sigh before snatching the lighter without so much as a sideways glance, "I get you're a genius Shikamaru, but you'd never be able to figure this one out."

The two watched as Temari's car only pulled into the parking lot, and Shikamaru gave his friend a look of disappointment, "Really? Fucking rocket science, Uchiha."

The raven took a pull from the stick and grimaced, "I don't know how you smoke these things…they're horrible."

Shikamaru sighed, "I take it that you and Naruto have reached a dilemma? Or really, it's been there all along, and you just thought I didn't know."

Sasuke eyed his friend as the girl quickly approached through the pouring rain, "I hate when you dance around shit, Nara."

Shikamaru smiled at the girl as Temari was but a few steps away, "I take it Naruto's cross-dressing act is finally causing some real problems between the two of you."

Naruto was dropped off by Hinata after school while Ino went to Sakura's house to help her get ready. The blonde looked helplessly to his clock and realized he didn't have a long time to get ready and try to figure out how to afford the most expensive place in town.

Yesterday he was going to treat her to fast food and a two dollar flick, obnoxiousness with a side of sarcasm.

Naruto sighed because he realized, no one really deserved that.

Before he tripped and fell on his face like he seemed to do every other day, he knew he should treat her to a wonderful date before supposedly crushing her heart.

Naruto yanked out some shirt and his wonderful boxers that he thanked for every night before he fell asleep, and grabbed an old faded pair of jeans before he threw them on in a blink of an eye.

Not to mention without falling.

He already knew it was going to be awkward with Sakura driving because she had offered to pick him up, and now the blonde had to go stand in front of his best friend's house why he himself wasn't even home.

Kiba and Hinata had gone off on another date.

The blonde scratched at his head in the middle of his room, absently wondering why in the hell were a bunch of high school students going out on dates on a Monday.

Some things are better left unanswered.

Naruto gave one last look at the screen of his cell phone while he hastily wrote a note to his father, a large part of wanting Sasuke to call while the other, for some reason unknown, wish he wouldn't.

The blonde reached his hand up on top of the refrigerator and hoped his dad would understand from borrowing from his book fund. His dirty novel fund really, and Naruto technically knew Kakashi wouldn't understand.

The blonde tucked his phone in his pocket and walked over to Kiba's house to get himself in another tangle.

Absently, Naruto wondered how long it would take to get himself caught in this web and trip in the knots.

After a rather heated argument in the back lot of Academia, Temari finally agreed to return to her car so Shikamaru and Sasuke could talk.

Only after she insulted Sasuke seventeen different ways and attempted to swing at him for making her come all this way through the rain in a white shirt.

After the teen was running back to her car, onyx eyes landed on one teen with the coolest demeanor possible when talking about his best friend dating a guy cross-dressing.
Sasuke hesitated, his mouth stuttering silently before Shikamaru talked for him.

"I am a genius," He drew like it answered everything, "And some things are obvious. Troublesome. I did figure it out before you, but I kept my mouth shut when you said you were dating him."

Sasuke took a pained drag of the cigarette with a grimace before flicking it away with a cough. He'd find another way to get rid of his stress.

"At first I could tell it was to keep girls away, even though you put him up as target practice, but I noticed real feelings start to develop, and I didn't want to interfere. And now, here you are, head over heels and in a dilemma. You, Sasuke, are such a fucking woman. Troublesome asshole."

The young Uchiha snapped his mouth shut that had taken to being in the open position before he leaned back against the wet car in his spare uniform, his original soaking one was now in his bag.

"Should I start from the beginning?" Sasuke eyed his friend out of the corner of his eyes.

Shikamaru finished a text message and then watched Temari's hand wave from her window and then watched as her car started and disappeared from the lot.

"Alright Uchiha, but it's a hundred an hour and in someplace dry and warm."

The young teen spared a chuckle, "And your smoking preference?"

"You'll be bitching, let's move."

The drive was far less awkward than Naruto even imagined, even when the blonde explained the nail polish and waxed brows as a blame on 'Naru-chan'.

How that was awkward explaining.

Sakura talked enough for the both of them, and Naruto couldn't help but absently think it had to be some type of accomplishment to out talk him.

It was pleasantly nice.

The only person that was ever really able to keep up with him in conversation was Kiba, and even that had taken practice. For the longest time it was someone talking over the other, or arguments breaking out over nothing, or the other not letting the other speak.

It was now just second nature to talk in blended sentences at top speed at the same time and catch every word.

The movie.

Naruto twitched.

He couldn't stand romance movies. They usually made him laugh at all the cooing, gushing and crying the women did in the theater. So when they arrived at the movies and he saw the action packed comedy he'd been dying to see sitting next to the fluffy ball of hell Sakura mentioned, he wanted to cry.

He felt like he was handing over his sanity when he handed over the ticket he bought her. After they got their drinks, and walked into theater room twelve, he caught sight of the other unfortunate souls. Men were sitting next to women looking around as if searching for an escape route, the girls prodding them for conversation and attention.

Naruto wanted to die.

It was easy holding a normal conversation in the theater room with Sakura about random things till the previews started. It was easy to get through half the movie without laughing or falling asleep – mostly.

But when Sakura's hand brushed his, he knew he was fucked.

He pretended he didn't notice, squinting at the screen and acting as if the movie was amazingly interesting while the girl one screen ranted on about something he hadn't quite caught before he felt Sakura do it again.

He knew he could turn and be jerk, and ask her if something was wrong, or if she had an itch or something insanely stupid like that. He knew he could pull it off.
When he turned to look at her and saw her looking at the screen in determination, a blush to been seen through the dark room covering her face and neck, Naruto knew he couldn't be an asshole.

Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he knew he'd hate himself later for this.

Dark pools of black watched fingers across from him play with shapes carelessly, finally coming to form a diamond almost calmingly.

"Do you really need to think hard and concentrate to speak?" Sasuke interrupted their conversation to address his friends' odd quark.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru muttered almost darkly at the fact that he was speaking more this year than he had his entire life.

Sasuke knew that Shikamaru was talking more than ever, mostly because of him, and because of what was going on with Naruto.

"Hn."

"So, then you kissed him?" Shikamaru rubbed at his temples with an exasperated sigh when his fingers pulled away, needing to calm the upcoming headache.

A cigarette was floating dangerously close to his hair while his eyes were slammed shut to fend off a rather persistent headache that only seemed to come when something was too troublesome or talking seemed to come to be more than just a sentence.

"Yes." Sasuke glared after his eye roll.

"Why?"

The teen shrugged, "To prove my point I suppose."

Shikamaru took a drag from the stick before slamming it in the ashtray, "You Uchiha's. Never one's with words but actions."

Sasuke smirked down at his soup at the true to the word statement. "I'm getting better."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, his fingers playing with shapes once again, "Because of Naruto, now keep going."

Sasuke sighed, "That day at the school when he caused Chouji to have breakdown…"

Shikamaru snorted, "Troublesome. The guy killed two bags of his chips. You expect Chouji to just be alright?"

Sasuke chuckled, "Well, Naruto had an outburst."

The other teen rolled his eyes yet again and lit another cigarette, the smoke trailing oddly from the movement his fingers made before it was swiped to his lips, and back to the odd habit of calming himself. "I'm so shocked." He drew sarcastically.

"He, in a rather round about way, told me he was confused about how he felt for me."

"And thus, this was born…" Shikamaru waved his hand lazily in the air.

Sasuke glared more at his drink than at his friend, "Again, you have no idea."

"No. I don't."

Sasuke shot the teen a withering glare. "Do you even know why Naruto was doing all of this? The cross-dressing?"

At the shake of the head, Sasuke decided to answer, "He was trying to get closer to Sakura, and yes, I know it wasn't well thought out."

"Then you came in and ruined his fun, Prince of Darkness." Shikamaru smiled playfully.

"He's on a date with her." Sasuke finally snarled to get to the point.

Shikamaru sat up straight, "Back up and let's try this again."

Sasuke talked and Shikamaru did his best to listen, but seeing as there were no clouds in site in the restaurant, he had no other option. Sasuke tried to explain everything from the beginning, how everything happened so fast and he still wasn't exactly sure how it happened. The two ignored the couple being seated on the other side of the glass that was to separate the smoking and the non-smoking while the young Uchiha ended on the explanation between luring Sakura in to Naruto, the two of him and Naruto beginning to see each other, and the next morning Naruto agreeing to a date.

"Why did you let him?"

Sasuke sighed, "I understood why. I…" He hesitated and cut himself off.

"Will never admit to being afraid of losing someone you care for."

Onyx eyes glared while he listened to his friend continue talking, the usually silent teen only seeming to talk around a select few, and right now he was irritated he was one of them.
Sasuke watched as his friend's eyes look at his own fingers that now played with a diamond shape.

Shit.

"Never felt this before, have you? It's positively terrifying, and you don't even know why. Mr. Figure-it-all-out-Uchiha can't put his finger on this one, and it's scaring him even more. You're supposed to be icy and impassive, and here comes some moron who works his way into your life and what I assume is your heart. You know that little black rock that's wedged in your chest? The one thing that makes you and breaks you is your feelings, those things you deny you have, and he holds yours in the palm of his hand. You don't know what he'll do. You don't know if he'll return every little feeling. You don't know if he'll choose her over you, and you can't be a man and admit that you're fucking scared because that's just how you are.

"You don't know if you're more scared about him having a bad time or a good time on that date, either. He could be upset it went bad or happy it went bad. A good time could mean he pushed Sakura away or because he enjoyed himself. It can go too many ways and you don't know how to handle it. It's called love jackass, and you might want to wrap your troublesome head around it."

Sasuke pulled himself together enough to comment, "I'm not in love with him-"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "You're getting there you troublesome idiot. Maybe if you let go of the fear a little you'll be able too."

Sasuke slid his eyelids shut lightly, "When did you tell her?"

Shikamaru actually spared the energy and laughed, "Two days ago."

The young Uchiha rolled his eyes, "Two days ago you wouldn't have given m-"

Sasuke stopped when he was in mid sentence at the sound of a loud obnoxious laugh, that to him sounded wonderful, mingling with a giggle that sounded to him like nails on a chalkboard.

The other teen knew that giggle all too well himself, he heard it a lot mixing in with Ino's before he met Temari's wonderful chime laughter.

He didn't have to be a genius to know that Naruto and Sakura were on the other side of the iced glass.

"I can't believe they put us so close to smoking." She complained, and the two saw her hand wave off non-existent smoke.

"I thought you said a friend of yours smokes? Sasuke's best friend?" Naruto asked back casually as he threw his elbows on the table.

"He does and it smells awful! He's a nice guy and all, but I just hate the smell. If you meet him, don't tell him I said this, but I really don't know how he got Temari. The girl Naru-chan told you about?"

Naruto let out a rather awkward chuckle, "From what Naru-chan tells me, Temari is wonderful, and from what Sasuke tell me, Shikamaru is just as good. They sound perfect for each other."

Shikamaru nodded in Sasuke's vision as they both stared at the iced glass as if they could see through it, and then snorted.

"How?" Sakura asked genuinely curious sounding.

"Well, Naru-chan says Temari is bossy, pushy, and loud and she has that sweet and caring side that she shows on occasions. Shikamaru is lazy and doesn't let anything get to him, and Sasuke says he has those rare moments when he really is nice. I think they sound like they were made to counter balance each other."

Shikamaru's eyebrows rose, "He read more into it than even I did."

Sakura giggled, "Wow Kiba-kun! I never thought of it like that…What are you a match maker or something?"

Sasuke watched as Sakura reached out the shadow of her hand across the table, and watched Naruto take it in his, and he felt like he had been punched as hard as someone could throw into his gut.

"I'm just good at reading people."

"Well…" Sakura blushed, "What…vibes or whatever do you get from me?"

Naruto chuckled, "Something I will never forget, that one's for sure."

Bright blue eyes just caught sight of Sasuke's form as he stormed out of the restaurant.

Shikamaru followed Sasuke easily, and even spared Naruto an easy wave before leaving and the blonde fell relatively silent after that. He let Sakura hold up most of the conversation like she did in the car, and he mentally nit picked things when he wasn't worrying.

He wasn't sure whether or not Sasuke had followed him there or not, but seeing as he went there on a whim, and Sasuke was with Shikamaru, he was betting it was bad luck.
When Sakura dropped him off, he could tell she was waiting for a kiss while she played with her lips and batted her eye lashes.

After Naruto made a hasty escape and made a fool out of himself with shaking her hand, he stumbled out of the car and made his way towards Kiba's house awkwardly till he heard her car fade off in the distance.

Kakashi was busy on the phone when Naruto walked in the front door and spared him a light wave while he ran to his room in his haste.

Sasuke didn't pick up a single one of his calls, and eventually, Sasuke's phone was cut off.

Author's Notes (long and extensive):
-Well…for those of you who are now leaving…it was nice while it lasted. Pleasure, and sorry you didn't want to stick it out, because it gets pretty damn good. Everyone knows Nevi has crazy methods to her over-the-top madness, and well, it always turns out wonderful according to you all. SO, to everyone staying, see you soon.
-For those of you who want to beat me, torture me, kill me and so on - please stay on the line as a muse will be with you shortly. Shortly, as in, after they beat me for throwing them to the mob…
I swear I have reasons. I swear… I know you don't want to listen and you want to kill me… but…
-And Sakura? I thought no NaruSaku…there isn't. He held her hand, and if you count that… then, well, I've paired up with a lot of my friends. Honestly, there is a reasoning behind his sentence. Points, cookies and love to people who can figure it out.
And no, Sasuke isn't a little emo bastard with no feelings. Writer's out there… stop treating him like that!