"Naruto?"

The blonde boy blinked and looked up at the speaker. It was his teacher, Kakashi.

"Yes?"

The older man sighed with resignation. Three days had gone by and the blue-eyed boy had been spacing out more often than the usual. The teacher, was of course, worried about his usually loud and energetic student. Was it because of Sakura's absence over the week? No. He was still happy for 4 days when he and his archrival, the remaining person in the Uchiha-clan, is present in the training sessions.

Of course it is Sasuke's unexcused absences. What would Naruto be without the challenge of his enemy, whether in battles or in heated verbal debates? Sasuke is the only one who can supply the challenge Naruto constantly wants.

"Look, it's only three days...besides, he could only be sick with sore eyes or something..." Kakashi reasoned out.

"He WOULD NOT leave for 'sore eyes or something'. YOU know how he wants to train and learn difficult jutsus more than anyone else Kakashi-sensei." Naruto said quietly, but his voice was dripping with venom.

The copy ninja automatically raised an eyebrow. "So you DO care about him..."

"So what if I do? And besides, he's a challenge." Naruto replied, bored.

It was his usual reply when his teacher accused him of actually liking the other boy.

And the teacher sighed again...when an idea formed in his mind...

(The Next Day)

Naruto got his shuriken that was stuck in the tree bark. He's shooting at random targets out of boredom and his teacher is reading the latest CCP.

And then, a person limped in the clearing. His body suggested weakness but his eyes have fire...Sasuke.

Naruto could only stare at the broken arm of his teammate. Its heavily bandaged and his face showed that he, the Uchiha Sasuke, the once strong, sharp shooter of the shuriken, is nowhere near comfortable nor relaxed. He tried so hard to mask a wince that Naruto could only help but pity his long-time crush. And then, Naruto dropped his shuriken and went to his injured teammate.

He tried to act naturally, as would a teammate do to and injured one of the group.

"Dude, what happened? Someone got your ramen? You shouldn't have ran after him to get it back! Now you have a broken arm!" Naruto told his friend...okay, acquaintance or whatever, trying to make the situation funny and comical, like he always do whenever Sakura forgot to brush her hair.

Sasuke glared at Naruto with pure hatred. "It's not funny."

The younger boy felt his chest tightened. "Or I guess you think you have the upper hand now, do you? Having both arms okay? Well, think again...the Uchihas have a lot more determination than that of what you're thinking." And the older boy limped away to their sensei..

Naruto just looked at the boy who had taken hold of his heart who stood underneath the tree Sir Kakashi was on, explaining why he was gone.

"I think you wanna know what happened right? Well, I tripped when I'm running to the training grounds. I was afraid to be late unlike you, sensei."

"I feel the love, Sasuke...well anyway, you should have called me or Naruto to help you out."

"I'd rather be dead than be 'helped out', thank you very much."

"Uh...well!" Kakashi stated as he tried to change the topic. "It's a good thing you showed up today...and I guess you can do without the help of Sakura."

"What is it then?" Sasuke asked him, bored.

"Rank B mission!" Kakashi said, eyes twinkling. "All you have to do, is peek at the girls' bathroom and sketch that one for me!"

The 2 boys sweatdropped despite themselves. "No, just kidding. You have to assassinate a syndicate in the far side of town since the hokage's having a huge headache over the petty crimes...that's all."

"THAT'S ALL?" they chorused, as if it was the most easiest thing to do in the world.

Kakashi smiled. "That's all..."

And after both boys have gone to the said syndicate's address, he had written in the paper, Kakashi smirked at his own matchmaking plan for the 2 young lads. He had presented himself before the Hokage last night, requesting to be given the permission to have a Rank B mission for his team...

"I just hope they'll fall in each other's arms..." Kakashi sighed to himself as he took out his CCP and began reading again.

-Owari no Chaputeru ni

(Sept. 10, '04)

(Sigh)...well, we have no classes today and I hadn't joined the camp-in. It's good I didn't coz you want to have a second chapter right? ... well, here you go. And ya, thank you for all those who reviewed. I was never expecting reviews in this fic but hey...thank you again...ja matta ne!

P.S. I really don't know how to rate the missions so I made it Rank B instead...