Warnings: Sai may be a bit OOC, AU

Pairing: Sai/Naruto

Summary: A little 'friendly competition' in art class never harmed anyone, but after class one day something happens that makes Naruto think over a few things.

Genre: Romance

Rating: PG-13 to be safe

""-speech

''-thoughts

Ramen was hungrily slurped down by a pair of greedy lips as the lunch hour slowly ticked away, but the blonde teenager did not care about the time, nor the place so long as he got his ramen.

As of late he had been turning down his friends invitations to sit with them and had headed for the art hall of the school, he knew they were beginning to worry, but he couldn't help but want to be alone, ever since…

'Ever since Sasuke moved away, everything's been different.' Naruto tossed his empty ramen cup into a nearby trashcan and lazily stood up and turned towards the window.

'I can't believe it's been a month since he moved away, and he hasn't even e-mailed me or anything.' He pressed his forehead against the cool glass as he held back tears that were threatening to fall. 'We've been through so much together Sasuke, you, me and Sakura, have you forgotten about us already?' He heard footsteps coming closer and he glanced at the direction of the sound out of the corner of his eye, the art hall was almost always deserted at lunch time.

It was a boy, probably his age, with black hair and black eyes and a smile that looked fake. 'He… He kind of looks like Sasuke.'

The boy walked past him without a glance in his direction and entered one of the art rooms. Naruto's brow furrowed and he bit his lip. 'This guy must be new, or else he'd be picking on me just like all those other guys.'

Naruto had always been a bit of an outcast, until a group project landed him with Sakura and Sasuke and the three of them had become friends, with Sasuke as his ally no one dared to bully him like before. But now Sasuke was gone, and not even Naruto's circle of friends could protect him from everyone.

The warning bell rang and Naruto sighed wearily, gathering his books and casting a look at the room occupied by that strange new boy. 'I wonder if he'll be in my art class.'

After lunch was English, normally Naruto wasn't extraordinary with the subject, but he was lucky enough to sit by Sakura, who although would get easily annoyed if he asked for too much help, she'd always go out of her way to explain things to him.

They'd gotten a lot closer after Sasuke left, so she didn't lose her temper with him as often.

And then there was art class, which sadly none of his friends had. So he was always stuck in a room of complete strangers who for no reason at all disliked him, for over an hour.

Naruto opened the art room door and made his way into the class, moving past tables and chairs till he reached the very back, his eyes widened in surprise when he saw the boy from before sitting at his table.

The other boy lifted his head from his work and blue eyes met black for the very first time.

"Hello, I haven't stolen your seat have I?" He smiled that fake looking smile again and Naruto shook his head. "No, and worry about stealing anyone else's seat, I'm usually the only one who sits at this table." He said awkwardly as he pulled up a stool and sat down across from the other boy. "I'm Naruto by the way, Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto gave his trademark grin, with his eyes squinted shut and the other boy replied with: "My name's Sai." And he went back to sketching.

Their classmates at the other tables were all talking amongst themselves until their teacher let out a loud whistle.

"Children, children, how many times do I have to tell you, you're in grade eleven, act more mature!" She shot a glare at a pair of still talking students. "Isn't that right Mr. Izumo and Mr. Kotetsu?" She leaned in close and both boys sweatdropped. "Yes Ma'am."

"Good! Now today we're finally taking a break from art history and are going onto a new studio project. We'll be making wire sculptures. Now, if you don't want you sculpture to be just wire you can papier-mâché it over, put a nylon stocking over it, I don't really care, just so long as your sculpture embodies one emotion. Anger, joy, frustration ect. Supplies are at the front, now get to work!"

Naruto smiled to himself, he may not be able to draw or paint, but sculpture was something he was good at, or at least that as what Sasuke always told him, and he had no reason to think Sasuke wasn't telling the truth.

Naruto excitedly jumped into the project, an idea already forming in his mind's eye, he was starting to cut his wire and shape it when a voice asked. "Aren't you going to form a plan?"

Naruto looked up at the boy across from him and his eyes fell on the other's sketchbook, the page was opened to an unfinished drawing of a dancing girl, but even uncompleted it was a beautiful drawing. 'Wait, I should probably answer his question before he wonders why I'm zoning out.'

"I'm not good at drawing, so I usually just skip the planning stage and go straight into what my idea is!" "That's a bit reckless." Naruto shrugged his shoulder and grinned and Sai went back to work.

At the end of the period Naruto had already finished the basic skeletal frame and had stapled it onto his base. 'This is going to be my best project ever, I'll get the highest mark in the class for sure!' The bell rang and students rushed out, eager to get out of school, while Naruto carefully put away his art and grabbed his bag, loudly saying a goodbye to Sai, who still hadn't moved from his spot at the desk.

'I guess he just wants to catch up to me, he did spend the whole period drawing after all, either he's a perfectionist, or he's slow.' Naruto thought back to how good the picture of the dancing girl had been. 'Alright, decision made, he's a perfectionist.'

"Naruto! Get a move on!" "Coming Sakura-chan!" Naruto made a mad dash towards his friends, and the new boy was all but forgotten.

The next day's art class started off with a bang, or rather a: "WHAT! How'd you get so much done by just staying after school?"

Sai looked up from his life like wire tree, carefully moving the pliers away from its mini branches and leaves. "I'm a fast worker, Naruto, especially once I'm done with my planning." The teacher had come up behind Sai and smiled broadly, her purple hair blowing dramatically in the breeze cause by the fan that she'd turned on just for the occasion.

"The perfect worker and the perfect artist!" She sighed dreamily. "My best student in years!"

Naruto sweatdropped and looked back to Sai's work, the tree was only taking up half of the base he'd chosen. "What are you gonna do on the right side?" Sai glanced up at him with a smile. "You'll see."

He wasn't sure if it was Sai's arrogant sounding tone of voice, (Well, it was actually quite polite, but Naruto was sure he was mocking him!), or just his own need to be the best, but that period Naruto worked as fast and hard as he could, all the while whishing he could just leap over the table and punch Sai's face in.

'He didn't seem that rude before, maybe his true face is showing.' Naruto scowled and worked vigorously with the war, uncaring of the scratches he got from the sharp ends. 'I'm gonna make the best sculpture Sai, I'm gonna show the teacher who the 'perfect artist' is!'

The bell rang and the other student left, but Naruto wasn't going anywhere, not until Sai packed up his stuff and left, he could be commited to something if he really wanted to be, and right now he wanted to make the best wire sculpture ever! Even better than Sai's of the tree and the dancing girl, obviously expressing peace or serenity. Naruto's was of a snarling fox, lowered to the ground as if ready to leap and attack. He was almost done!

He wasn't sure how long he had been in the art room after school, but when he was finally competed it looked as though the sun was about to go down. He glanced over at Sai and saw that his sculpture was pretty much finished.

'I can't believe he's patient enough to add a ribbon in the girl's hair!' Naruto looked down at his own sculpture, the fox's teeth were barred and its eyes squinted, but it was nearly as detailed as Sai's.

'Grrr. I'll just have to work extra hard on every project until I beat him! He must have some sort of weakness!'

The school year went on and Naruto found that most of his time was being taken up by art, his teacher was delighted by his spirit, but no matter what the project, Sai's was always better than his. Even if he came in early in the morning, at lunch and after school to work on a project, it was never as good as Sai's, and it was driving him insane!

It was the final project of the year, a painting done in acrylic, Naruto's most hated type of art. The teacher hadn't said much about the project, only that it was supposed to look as realistic as possible. It had taken two whole days for Naruto sketch out his idea, it was of him, Sakura and Sasuke all standing in a doorway. Sasuke was leaning against the left wall casually, Sakura was standing close to Sasuke, playing with the hem or her dress and blushing, and he was doing a peace sign to the both of them from.

It had taken him so long to just draw it, it was going to take him forever to paint it! But luckily Sai had been sick for the last couple of days, so Naruto was still ahead of him.

'Just as long as I pace myself, I'll be able to have the best painting!' Naruto thought happily as he entered the art room, uncaring of all the stares he got from the other students, life was good, life was great, life was wonde-

"Hello Naruto." Naruto stopped mid-step and slowly turned around, Sai was right behind him, looking completely healthy. Damn.

Sai had finished his planning in class and had grabbed a piece of canvas minutes before class ended.

Naruto had finished the background by the time Sai had stopped sketching on the canvas and Naruto couldn't help but lean over to try and see what Sai had created.

"You remind me of my brother." Naruto's head snapped up and his eyes locked on Sai, who was walking around the table to Naruto's side.

"I'm not quite sure why someone like you reminds me of him, but you do." Naruto frowned and opened his mouth to retort, but it was soon conveniently covered by a pair of soft lips.

'What the fuck!' Naruto pushed Sai away, his cheeks flushed. "Do you have incestuous thoughts about your brother often then!" He asked, already backing away, but Sai matched him step for step and soon had him pinned up against the wall.

Sai leaned in close and Naruto felt his knees go weak. "S-stay away from me." He didn't sound convincing, not in the least. 'I'm not attracted to Sai! I like girls! I like Sakura-chan!' But even as he was trying to reassure himself he could feel his breathing hitch as Sai loomed closer still.

"I don't know what it is about you Naruto, but when I look at you I feel something…" Sai said with a smile, and Naruto mildly wondered if this smile was as fake as every other one Sai ever gave him. But he had no more time to think that over when Sai's lips were on his again. The kiss was demanding and possessive and just so hot that Naruto had to grab onto Sai's shoulder to steady himself so that he wouldn't fall to the floor.

They both broke apart, gasping for breath and Naruto's eyes widened at what he had just done, He had been kissed by a boy, a BOY and he had kissed back!

He tore himself from Sai's embrace and ran out of the room. He needed words of wisdom, he needed a shoulder to cry on, (not that he was gonna cry) he needed Sakura!

He ran the whole way to her house and pounded on the door until it finally opened and reviled an angry looking Sakura. But the anger faded away when she saw it was Naruto and that he looked on the verge of tears. (Tears that would not fall!)

Sakura lead him up to her room where he had told her everything, his little 'competition' with Sai, the kiss, and well, how he felt when being kissed. And the whole time Sakura listened, a concerned look on her face.

"Sakura-chan, what's wrong with me?" Naruto asked and Sakura felt her heart squeeze painfully in her chest at his broken tone of voice. "Naruto, nothing's wrong with you." "But I like it! I liked the kiss! I liked the way Sai seemed to need me, they way he said I made him feel…" Sakura hugged Naruto close and whispered softly in his ear. "It's okay if you like him Naruto. Neither I nor any of your friends will think less of you because of it." "But-" "No buts young man, tomorrow you're going to walk straight up to that boy, tell him that you like him and then you can get kissed by him all you want."

Naruto pouted. "I think you're missing the point here Sakura-chan." "What that you're ego is too big to admit you like someone." Sakura giggled and Naruto cracked a smile. "Yeah, I guess it's something like that." "Well don't worry about it, just approach him tomorrow after school and let your instincts guide you. Don't worry about the consequences of your words or actions, just do what you think is right."

The next day Naruto didn't go in early, he didn't go in at lunch, he contemplated skipping art for awhile, but decided to go anyway, and he spent the rest of the period in silence, throwing glances over at Sai and wondering what he was going to say to him. And even by the end of the class when Sai approached him and asked him if he was okay he had no words to say to express whatever it was he felt.

So he settled for kissing, kissing seemed like a fine and dandy thing to do. And it was even better when Sai began kissing back.