Naruto and Sasuke went to eat ramen at Ichiraku's since Naruto had nothing cooked and Sasuke had not been in the mood to cook.

"Naruto!" Naruto's favorite team entered the ramen shop. "Grandpa told me you were finally out of the hospital." Konohamaru said as he took a seat near Naruto.

"Yeah, I just got out and the teme here offered to buy me ramen." Sasuke glared at the blonde but was brushed off.

"Good, 'cause we improved our harem no jutsu and we want your approval."

"Didn't you try it on Ebisu or on Jiraya?"

Konohamaru laughed as he remembered Ebisu's reaction at the improved version "Those two would fall for anything. They don't have an eye like you."

"True, true." Naruto nodded, pleased with the compliment. "So what happened?"

"Jiraya said something about writing it down before he forgets and Ebisu fainted from a nosebleed."

Sasuke rose an eyebrow "Ebisu fainted?"

"Yeah. Some teacher, right? And he is chuunin."

"Well then let's see what you've got!"

They went in an alley where they would not be bothered and the three younger kids made the hand seals. When the smoke vanished Konohamaru turned into a girl with black hair that was falling on her back up her waist. Her outfit was hiding almost nothing and she had her arms wrapped around the other two girls. Her head was turned to Moegi and was almost kissing her while Udon's fingers slid under Konohamaru's v shaped neckline. Moegi had an equally reveling outfit and her curly hair was tied in two pig tails. Udon's transformation had lost the glasses and although she was not as beautiful as the other two her expression was full of lust.

Naruto and Sasuke were impressed, they had to admit that.

"I suppose this is one of those times when the student surpasses the teacher." Sasuke pointed out making Moegi giggle and Naruto hit him with his elbow.

"There are more possibilities in three." Naruto added. "Maybe we should ask Haku to learn the oiroke no jutsu."

"Why does Haku need it?" Udon asked confused and both Naruto and Sasuke burst in laughter.

"That's so true." Naruto managed to say before bursting into another fit of laughter.

"For the curves maybe." Sasuke added.

Udon gave this a moment of thought "You've got a point there."

For a moment their worries were blown away and everything seemed to be the way it had been before and Sasuke was happy again.

That evening the boys were laid in bed, facing each other and Sasuke couldn't stop smiling.

"What?" Naruto asked smiling slightly, content that his best friend was happy again.

"Nothing, I'm just glad that I can spend time with you like this again." Naruto put his hand on top of Sasuke's and laced their fingers.

"We'll go through this together." Sasuke nodded slightly.

"I won't let father have it his way although he has an entire clan to back him up." Naruto's smile faded. He didn't like to admit it but he wanted Sasuke to defy his father just this once. His reason was selfish and he knew that family should come first but he was too afraid of being alone again.

"Why did you space out?" Sasuke asked with concern in his voice and his smile faded too.

"I always thought what having a family would be like. When I see children going shopping with their parent or to the park I always think that having a family will make you automatically happy. What went wrong with your family?"

"I guess father did. You would have loved mother and Itachi if you had had a proper chance to meet them. Mother would have probably even accepted you if it wasn't for him."

"I'm sorry that your family doesn't make you happy and I'm sorry that you have to leave your mother and brother behind because of your issues with your father."

"Yeah, me too but mother needs Itachi more than I do right now. She suffers a lot but she can't defy father."

Naruto barged into his bedroom after taking a shower and getting dressed "Sasuke wake up!"

The raven groaned not at all content that Naruto chose to be so loud in the morning. "Why?" he asked with his face still buried in the pillow.

"Because I'm hungry and you have to help me with breakfast."

"We don't have to be anywhere today so why in the world did you wake up so early?"

"I thought you liked waking up early, Sasu." Naruto said confused.

Sasuke got up and grabbing Naruto's shirt he dragged the blonde towards him then pushed him on the bed enjoying the slightly frightened face the blonde was making beneath him.

"Since we'll have to live together for a while let's make some things clear, Uzumaki." He said with fake annoyance in his voice. "First you never call me Sasu again, did I make myself clear?" Naruto nodded "Second I don't always like to get up early, there are days like this one in which I want to stay in bed late, get it?" Naruto nodded again and Sasuke rested his head on the blonde's chest enjoying the smell of oranges from Naruto's soap. "I missed you. You have no idea how frustrating it was to not be able to see you. I watched the sunset and sunrise hoping that you were watching them too somewhere."

"I did, mostly the sunsets. I missed you too, we all did." Naruto started playing with Sasuke's hair and the raven moaned under his touch.

"And I missed you doing that too."

Naruto laughed "But now you'll start missing that comfortable bed of yours."

"I figured that since you can live with less stuff I could do too and who knows, one day we'll get A rank missions and afford a better apartment."

"Are you sure you can live like this until then?"

"Sure."

Haku decided to throw a party to celebrate Naruto's release from hospital. Nothing big just a few friends of Naruto's some food and drinks and of course party games. He had never done that before so he asked Sakura to help him plan everything out and when he told her that Sasuke was going to be there she became more than eager to help out.

"Truth and dare is a must play at parties." She explained like a teacher would to her student.

"Why is that?" he asked confused. Haku has never been to a party before since it had always been only him and Zabuza and they didn't celebrate birthdays either. He did want to go to one but there was never a chance after he came to Konoha so the only thing to do was throw one.

"Because you can find out people's secrets or you can make them do embarrassing things."

"How do you know they will tell the truth? Do you use jutsu on them or something?"

Sakura pondered on that for a moment. "That's not a bad idea but no. It's truth or dare, they have to tell the truth. If they don't, they can pick dare and that is fun as well."

Once the guests arrived he watched Sakura spin a bottle and start the game. The bottle pointed at Konohamaru and he had to pick truth or dare.

"Truth." He said very confident in his choice.

"Who do you have a crush on?" Sakura asked. Her lips curved into a smile as the younger boy blushed.

"Come on Konohamaru…" Moegi teased him as she gave him a gentle nudge. "Say it!"

"Ino Yamanaka." The boy almost whispered but they all heard. Sakura looked shocked and Naruto started laughing.

"So you like older girls?" Naruto asked.

"She's not that old, she's your age." The boy yelled, his cheeks still tainted pink. Grabbing the bottle he gave it a spin and it landed on Haku.

"Truth I guess."

"Tell us the most embarrassing moment of your life."

"Why? It's embarrassing." Sakura sighed.

"That's the point. You have to answer once you said truth."

"When I was hired at the hospital they gave me a nurse uniform." Everyone started to laugh except for Sasuke who only smiled and Haku diverted his gaze to his lap in embarrassment. He never wanted to share that with anyone and now everyone was laughing at him.

"I wish I had been there to see their faces when you told them you're a boy." Naruto said.

"They all blushed and scattered except for Tsunade who called them a bunch of incompetents and called her assistant, Shizune to show me around."

"Spin the bottle, Haku." Sakura urged him and when he did so it landed on Naruto.

"Dare." He said with a grin.

"What should I dare him to do?" Haku asked undecided.

"Anything you want." Sakura explained "Just don't ask for something dangerous or illegal."

"I can suggest something." Konohamaru had a mischievous grin plastered on his face. He went closer to Haku and whispered something in his ear making the older boy blush.

Naruto, who watched them closely, became nervous "What?"

"You have to kiss Sasuke." Haku basically said out loud what Konohamaru had told him.

"What?" Naruto asked exasperated "That little creep told you that, it doesn't count." Sakura jumped in to support him too since she didn't want the blonde bastard to steal Sasuke's first kiss.

"I want to see it too and make it more than just a peck on the lips." Haku said with a straight face making Naruto wonder if he was a friend or an enemy.

"It's no big deal, Naruto. If they want to see it then who are we to deny them the pleasure." Sasuke said totally unaffected and calm considering the circumstances. It took Naruto some time to gain his composure from the shocking request but as he leaned closer to Sasuke he realized that it didn't feel awkward at all. In the end it was Sasuke who closed the distance and he put his hand in the golden locks to prevent Naruto from backing up. The blonde was tensed but the reaction their public had was still priceless. Sakura looked horrified and about to cry. Konohamaru and Haku watched closely with interest while Udon was watching with his mouth open.

Little did they know that Sasuke was watching them.

"Sorry for stealing your first kiss." Sasuke said not looking sorry at all. Actually the state Sakura was in was making it worthwhile.

"Moegi…truth or dare?" Naruto asked.

"Truth." The girl was too disturbed to go through a dare herself.

"Who do you have a crush on?" She fidgeted a little and blushed but answered none the less.

"Itachi."

Naruto gave Sasuke a nudge "Hear that? I hope your brother is not taken 'cause my favorite girl over here has a crush on him."

"Hooking them together would do my brother a favor. Shisui has a bad influence on him."

Hearing the two boys talk casual about her and Itachi as a couple in spite of the age difference and everything else, made Moegi blush even harder.

"Will you two stop fooling around?" Sakura yelled at them. "It's highly unlikely for that kind of relationship to work. Just spin the bottle Moegi." Sakura was not in the mood for this anymore but the bottle landed on her and she said 'dare' hoping that Moegi will give her a dare that was not too embarrassing.

"I didn't want to give you a dare so I guess you can kiss Sasuke. I know you want that." Moegi's tone was reflecting her disinterest in Sakura's person. She had always liked to hang out with the boys more than with the girls and Sakura was too girly for her taste.

Sakura's eyes became brighter and mood changed suddenly. Walking on all four she went closer to Sasuke. She looked in his eyes for a moment then closed the distance and put all her love in the kiss. It wasn't deep or full of passion but it wasn't shy either. It was tender and had all her feelings poured in it. Sasuke would finally understand the feelings she has for him which cannot be expressed with words. He will regret kissing Naruto.

Sasuke was still, like a marble statue under her touch. He would have liked to push her away but that would have been against the rules of the game so he just waited for it to be over.

The game ended with Udon confessing his crush on Hanabi Hyuuga which made Konohamaru laugh hysterically and they all decided to go home since it was late. It wasn't that late but Konohamaru and his friends had to get home before dark and neither Naruto nor Sakura wanted to hang around any longer.

"You should have seen the look on Sakura's face when we kissed." Sasuke said rather amused as he closed the door to Naruto's apartment.

"Why did you have to force me into that kiss?" Naruto asked not looking at Sasuke.

"I pulled you into it, I didn't force you. You could push me away if you wanted to." Naruto turned around and when their eyes met his eyes were a darker shade of blue.

"You know I couldn't do that. It was a dare!" He yelled. "We could have finished it off with a normal kiss but you had to pull me and make a show in front of Sakura. Now she'll hate me even more as if she doesn't hate me enough already. Why did I have to be the tool you used to get her off your case? You're not on our team anymore so you don't care but she's still on my team and in the last month all I heard was that your father got you out of the team because no sane parent would want their child on the same team as me, as if I didn't already know that." He sighed but calmed down a bit after getting all that off his chest. "I just want to be a ninja…become a chuunin someday and now you ruined my chances."

Naruto went in his bedroom and locked the door then slid against it embracing his knees. He didn't want to be with Sasuke in the same room for now.

"Naruto, I'm sorry." He heard Sasuke's voice from the other side of the door. "I never thought of you as a tool and I didn't know she told you that."

"What hurts more is that she was right."

Sasuke leaned against the door that was separating him from Naruto "I just want her to give up on me and I thought this game was a good opportunity to do something about that. I didn't think you would mind."

Sasuke felt miserable. He had never thought that he and Naruto would ever fight. Up until then Naruto had always been there to make him feel better when he was angry or sad and it worked but now Naruto was the one angry with him and there was nowhere for him to go, no one to talk to.

"Please open the door." He pleaded. He wasn't expecting to be forgiven easily but he just needed to see Naruto. When he heard the key being turned he turned around to look at the blonde.

"I guess we just had our first fight." Sasuke stepped into the room as if afraid that he will be locked out again and wrapped his arms around the smaller boy.

"I guess we did and I'm sorry. I'll do anything to make it up to you."

Naruto buried his face in Sasuke's neck but did not return the embrace. "You don't have to do anything. I just don't want us to fight again."

"Me neither."

"He did what?" Naruto jumped from his seat on the couch and almost got in his teacher's face. Kakashi leaned back a little and gently pushed Naruto backwards.

"You don't have to yell, Naruto. My hearing works perfectly."

Realizing his outburst Naruto made a step back. "Sorry but I can't believe it."

"If you think I came all the way here to pull a prank on then you are wrong. I've got better things to do."

"Yeah right, to read porn." Naruto snorted and Sasuke smirked.

"If you really want to know you and Sasuke in your oiroke versions are quite some characters in Jiraya's latest novel Icha Icha Yuri." Naruto rolled his eyes and turned to look at Sasuke who was still sitting on the couch.

"Do we want to know?" Sasuke shrugged.

"Sure."

"Yeah, sure but later. So it's true then that Jiji retired and that we'll have a new Hokage?"

"That's what I've been saying."

"And who will be the Godaime Hokage?" Sasuke tried to sound like he didn't really care too much, like he was just curious but the truth was that he was nervous. The implications were huge and if the Hokage was someone who didn't like Naruto then they were in some serious trouble.

"Tsunade."

"It's not so bad then." Naruto took his seat back on the couch. "She was really nice when I was in the hospital."

"Just don't get on her bad side. She can be quite scary." Kakashi advised the boys since he learned it the hard way. "Oh and don't mention Jiraya's literature to her or the fact that you inspire him, ne? And never do the oiroke in front of her." Sasuke quirked an eyebrow at him.

"As if it would work on a serious person, especially a woman."

"Yeah, she's not a pervert." Naruto added.

"Whatever." Kakashi brushed them off. "Tsunade has assigned Sasuke back on the team and she decided to take Sakura and Haku as her apprentices. She also wanted me to enter you in the next chuunin exam but I declined."

"What?!" Naruto yelled. "Why did you do that?"

"I thought I made myself clear about team work."

"It's not our fault Sakura won't work with Naruto." Sasuke pointed out receiving a glare from the jounin.

"But it's definitely your fault that she won't work with you." Naruto looked away as he remembered the scene Sakura had witnessed not a long time ago. He couldn't believe that someone had actually recommended him to enter the chuunin exam and he would miss this opportunity because of…. Because of what? Because of Kakashi, Sakura, Sasuke or because of what was sealed inside of him? Why did things have to be so complicated? Why couldn't he just be a normal person on a normal team? He assumed the other kids from the academy would enter the exam.

"If it was Haku on our team instead of Sakura it would be easier to work as a team." Naruto turned to look at his friend and once again team mate.

"That can't be changed I'm afraid. I'll talk to Sakura but I want you two to behave too." Sasuke rolled his eyes as Kakashi turned away to leave, using the door for once. "Oh and Sasuke you are not allowed in the Uchiha district anymore. You will be arrested if you are caught around."

"I wouldn't go back anyway."

"Are you really ok with that?" Naruto asked once they were alone again.

"I was expecting that much to happen."

"I know but still…are you?"

"Yeah. If mother and Itachi want to see me they can come to me, right? How about you? Are you ok with not entering the exam?"

Naruto sighed "No, not really."

Sasuke was walking on the familiar path that led to Sakura's house with his hands in his pockets and a scowl on his face. He didn't want to do this but he had to fix the mess that he made.

He had told Naruto that he would do some shopping before the stores closed for the day but the real reason why he decided to go out was to see Sakura. Of course he will also do the shopping but only after he was done with this.

Stopping in front of the familiar white house with rose bushes in front, he took a deep breath of evening fresh air before climbing the few steps to the door. A woman he recognized at Sakura's mother opened the door and he asked to see Sakura. She invited him in but he refused saying that he just had to talk to Sakura about something really quick.

Sakura came downstairs when her mother called her and was surprised to see Sasuke standing in front of her door.

"Sasuke?"

"Look. This has to stop." He said vaguely. What was this? Everything. He did not think what he was going to say before.

"What do you mean?" She asked confused.

"You chasing me, trying to get my attention… I don't like you that way and I need you to understand that once and for all. I'm sorry for what I did at the party, it was stupid and Naruto and I had our first fight over that. And stop giving Naruto a hard time because of me. It's not his fault that I don't like you."

"Tsunade has offered to train me. I will become stronger and worthy of you." She clenched her fists in determination.

"This has nothing to do with your strength or with the fact that you don't belong to a clan. When will you understand that? I think we can be friends for the sake of the team but nothing more."

"Will I ever be as important as Naruto is to you?"

"Maybe, one day."

"You know, I also want to become a chuunin. I suppose I could put more effort into our team work."

"That's all I ask."