Oops…Oo…forgot the disclaimer.

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By the Riverside

A lone blonde sat at the edge of the long river. He stared into it, staring right into his own reflection. Wondering if the person he saw in that river was somebody to be proud of.

The sun was setting, laying an orange hue over the entire sky. Orange was his favorite color. He wore it on his jumpsuit everyday for training. But not today, definitely not today. Today he wore a loose, white T-shirt and light blue shorts. The summer times were hot these days, in the hidden city of fire.

He sat at the edge of a never-ending river and the stars began to come out, one by one, lighting up the sky in little pieces. Finally, though it had been hours, it felt like mere minutes, the sun had set, the sky was a light-sprinkled black and the moon lay full above his head, reflected, grace and all, in the river below.

The blond didn't move. He merely sat there, thinking. Invisible but there were tears that managed to make their way across his cheeks and stain his loose shirt. He ruffled his hair, not wearing the regular Konoha headband. Not today, definitely not today.

Just hours ago, he was walking through town, bored senseless, it being his day off. He was a wanderer obliviously receiving hateful glares at the back of his neck by the accusing townspeople. He could feel them boring into him and occasionally scratched his neck to relieve himself of the discomfort.

Yes, he walked, wandering through the crowded streets. Through deserted alleyways and packed roads all the way up to his team's meeting spot at a lovely bridge.

But before he could make his way onto said bridge, he spotted two figures, standing quite near to each other. He walked closer, carefully, ever so carefully. All his ninja training would come to his aid at that very moment. Silently, he made his way towards the two figures and the closer he came, the clearer they became. He was able to make clear of one of the two figures immediately. Her pink hair could not hide her at all. Never had the blond ever heard of a pink-haired ninja until he met her. Pink was just not concealing enough for a ninja's hair.

Seeing Sakura there intrigued the blond quite a great deal. Why was she at their meeting place? It was definitely their day off, wasn't it? Of course it was. Sensei was nowhere in sight.

But it wasn't until the blonde made clear the second figure that his heart began to clench. Slowly, little by little, piece-by-piece, a dark haired ninja came out of his former, dark blur. Why was everything so dark today? Yes, he saw his second teem-mate leaning over the first and that's when his heart tore into a million pieces. 'What is going on? Why do I feel so…so hurt? So…broken?' Were questions that he asked over and over to himself as he abandoned his subtleness and ran, quick as a fox, out of his hiding place, through the forest and to the river. However, his actions were not unnoticed yet he didn't care at all.

Now he was here, alone and broken, analyzing the events that took place during the course of the day. But every time he remembered what had happened, his heart just shattered a little more.

Sakura, with her pink hair, was the blonde's first crush. A love he thought, at one point, was intense and everlasting. He was sure he would carry a burning desire for her forever. But now he saw how wrong he was. He was a fool to believe that a love like that would carry on forever. Day after day, he spent so much time convincing himself and those around him that he loved Sakura. But it was only a few hours ago that he realized that his love for her had wilted away.

Because it was only a few hours ago that he realized that he was, very much so, in love with someone else. And it was only a few hours ago when he realized that there was a love much more intense that existed out there.

For it was not when he saw Sakura that his heart tore in two. It was when Sasuke came out of the dark. At the river, he kept trying to convince himself that it was not true. But the truth was persistent and would not hide from his soul. Hard as he try, he would never be able to say to himself that he was jealous of Sasuke. For the truth said otherwise.

"Naruto," it told him from deep within, "get over it. You were jealous of Sakura."

And so he had given up telling himself that he loved the pink-haired girl and just wallowed in his own heartache knowing that his former crush had beaten him to his new love.

More tears streamed down his face as he recounted, over and over, what he had seen and what he had wished to forget. He stared into the river, at his own reflection, and pitied himself for never being able to love someone and have them love him back.

How would their daily training be now? If he could not even look at his dark-haired, stoic teammate without breaking into tears, how was he going to go through life being forced to see him, day after day?

These questions were left unanswered as he braced himself for the days to come, going through worst-case scenarios over and over again in his mind.

It was not until he looked back into the dark river that he noticed that another reflection had joined him. He saw, reflected on the face of the river, the reason for his heartache. The person he least wanted to see, now and forever.

He let out a forced laugh that came out more of a sob and in the water, he saw his companion's eyes change. They weren't as hollow as before. They weren't as empty anymore. The dark-haired boy must really have found true love because that is all the blonde saw in his eyes.

He looked straight into his companion's eyes to make sure they were no longer hollow and saw a passion in them, burning like fire.

He could not take it anymore. He stood up, causing his companion's head to jerk up, and took off to anywhere and nowhere, as long as he was away from him.

Sasuke decided not to follow, sensing the need to be alone. And that, in turn, made his heart ache. He decided that he needed to be alone too. Did the oblivious, always oblivious, blonde really care that much for the pink-haired girl? The thought alone made his heart wrench and he looked at his own reflection in the depth of the river, wondering silently to himself if the blonde would ever get over his obliviousness and come to realize what was really going on. He took off, back to the Uchiha estate, knowing that he would get no sleep tonight.

Said blonde sat, in front of the Hokage mountain and just sat there, wondering silently to himself if the dark-haired boy would ever get over his obliviousness and come to realize what was really going on. The silence was unnerving, in the dead of night, yet he sat there, looking up to the mountain that he believed he would be immortalized in. A shooting star passed by, standing out of the darkness it shot through, and the blonde made a silent wish. A wish for a mutual love and a rid of loneliness.

Sasuke looked out of his window, remembering what happened earlier that day. How he leaned over Sakura to reject her with a spiteful passion so it would make it's way through her thick skull and register itself into her brain. How they were so close that Sakura probably enjoyed the rejection this time. How he heard a rustle in the bushes nearby and turned, just in time to see a blonde blur whiz by. How he saw the blonde's tear-filled eyes and just wished he could make all his worries, all his sorrows, go away, leaving only the happiness and untainted innocence that he had grown to love.

He too noticed the bright star whiz by past his window, in the dead of night, and made a heart-filled, sincere wish. A wish for a mutual love and a rid of loneliness.

The two boys knew parts of the truth, but didn't understand the whole. They saw the worst in each situation and didn't bother to check for a silver lining. And love never found it's way to them last night, no, definitely not that night.

A/N: This can be a one-shot or a multi-chapter fic. Depends on the reviews. Please, don't be too hard on me. This is my first fanfic and I'm only 13 . Please Leave Reviews :)!