Chapter Six

The Konoha Festival

It was just another day for Uzumaki Naruto as he starred blearily at the calendar on the wall in his room, his eyes drooped low and the worst sort of bed head imaginable was sitting attop his head. It looked like rats had tried to nest in it during the night. With Naruto's disturbingly messy apartment building it would not be a surprise if they had indeed done so. He rubbed his eyes as they letters written on that particular day came into focus. His eye brows shot up as he starred at the words there. Written on his calendar were the words: Preperations for the Konoha Shinobi Festival! DON'T BE LATE! 10:00 a.m.

Naruto looked over to his alarm clock, expecting to see it earlier then when he had set it, since the thing had never gone off, this was not the case for poor Naruto. Much this his dismay he seemed to have developed a sense of time worse then Kakashi's. It was already 10:30 p.m! "Baka!" Naruto yelped out as he grabbed his clothes and changed at lightening speed. Looked like he had not had any chance for a shower this morning. He could just hope that the swim in the Lake with Sasuke - Naruto paused a moment to grin suddenly. He had actually thought since he had gotten up that it had been a dream. But the wet pile of clothing in the corner was evidence that it had not been a dream at all. With a renewed sense of life, the blonde pulled on all his clothes and grabbed an instant ramen. Naruto filled it with water and trotted off with chop sticks stuck in his mouth, ready to eat it the moment he could.

When he arrived he saw that everyone was already setting up stalls and booths for games and some of the many events that were going to be held that day. "Naruto, you're late," Iruka called when he saw the blonde haired boy who still looked like he had a rat living in his hair.

"Gomen Iruka sensei! My alarm clock didn't go off," Naruto yelled as he went running over to the smiling Chuunin for his tasks. It was never to late to come in and help.

Iruka shook his head, looking a lot like a patronizing mother. "You need to stop being late like that. I am starting to think you're picking up Kakashi's habits," Iruka scolded him slightly. Naruto just laughed and scratched behind his head, looking very guilty as charged.

"NARUTO!" Sakura trilled from behind him. The blonde turned around to have Sakura jump on him and knock him over onto the ground. She practically attacked his mess of hair with a comb that she always kept on herself. "How many times do I have to tell you? If you're going to have longer hair then you have to brush it!"

"Gomen Sakura chan! I didn't have the time!" Naruto squawked out. Had this of been any time in the past the blonde would have probably been blushing furiously. But since he and Sakura had become so close with each other the last few months it had become a fairly normal occurance. Especially now that Sakura knew Naruto was not after him in that sense of mind.

"Nevermind that! How did it go?" Sakura asked, sounding excited.

"Uh... what?" Naruto asked, as the pink haired girl starred at him expectantly with her big green eyes. Her tone was one that she used when she was with her other friends that were girls. Naruto had never expected her to use that tone with him.

"The date!" She replied in exasperation as she dragged him off to where she was doing work to get him to help with some things a few people had not been able to reach.

"Oh! That date! It went really awesome. It almost fell apart in the beginning at the sushi bar. But somehow we pulled it back together in the end," Naruto replied to her cheerily as he began to help with the adjusting of a sign that was a bit high up. He had to stand on his tip-toes to reach it but Naruto seemed not to mind as he stretched out to his full length to attach it up.

"I know! I heard about that! But I didn't hear about you guys pulling it back together. I had been so worried that you had screwed it up!" Sakura replied, still dancing around Naruto excitedly as she tried to get all the details from him before someone else inturrupted them to get the blondes help or take him away from her for some other task.

"I didn't screw it up! It was him!" Naruto replied indignitly, "I had been doing my best!"

"Well how can he screw it up?"

"Hold on!" Yamakano Ino's voice inturrupted the conversation of the two as they spoke back and forth with each other. "Did I just hear that Naruto had a date, with a he?"

Naruto blinked. It had not occured to him that it would be a big deal as to that Sasuke and himself were both of the male gender until this very moment. He was also surprised that Ino, Queen of Gossip and leader of the Sasuke Fan Club, had not already received the news of his date with the Uchiha. "Uh, yeah. You did!" Naruto replied, this time not nearly as confidently as he had meant too.

"Back off Ino pig!" Sakura snapped in irritation as she glared at the other girl. Ino just twirled hair around her finger looking like she felt that she was the most beautiful and powerful person in the world.

"No Sakura. It's okay," Naruto replied with a soft smile before he stepped down and looked over at Ino, who seemed pleased with herself and gave Sakura a cocky smirk.

"Well? Who is it then Naruto chan," Ino asked, using the suffix as a teasing remark more then anything. Naruto ignored it, especially since he had already proven himself to be more dominant then Sasuke from their incident at the Great Lake. Sasuke was to shy and had to much pride to make the first move.

"My date? Oh, you should know him..." Naruto trailed off, looking at Ino's eager expression with a cocky grin, "Sasuke kun."

Ino's jaw dropped and she blinked for several long moments. "Liar! Sasuke kun isn't gay! I should tell him you said that!"

"Tell me what?" Sasuke's cold and monotone voice came from behind Ino. Who practically jumped a mile in surprise before she turned to look at the indifferent face of the raven haired genin.

"Sasuke kun!" Ino screeched, throwing her arms around Sasuke. Naruto grinned, finding this amusing, the look of total searing hate on the Uchiha's face was totally and completely priceless. "They said that you went out with Naruto yesterday!" She trilled loudly into his ear. The Uchiha twitched at the sound and tried to push her off, but to no avail. It was like she did not even realize that Sasuke was trying to get her off of him.

"That's because I did!" Sasuke snapped harshly and with such truth that Ino let go and starred blankly at him. Her mouth flapping like a fish as no words managed to escape her. She stood there for several long moments before she growled and stalked off, sending the evillest glare at Naruto.

"Ehh! Scarey!" Naruto yelped and hid behind Sasuke, peeking over his shoulder at the retreating Ino. Sakura stood beside the two, smiling gentley at the pair of boys as Sasuke starred ahead still with those sightless eyes.

"Naruto?"

"Eh?"

"Get off me!"

"No!"

"Uzumaki!"

"What are you gonna do about it!" Naruto contiued to taunt the Uchiha in a smiliar manner as this. Delighting in his blush deepening, for everytime Sasuke begged Naruto to get off, the blonde would just cling to him harder. Sakura chuckled.

"How troublesome. Just get to work you two love birds," Shikamaru snorted from where he was sitting on a chair, observing the whole thing. Since he was a Chuunin now he did not have to assisst with the putting together of things. He was just a supervisor. Sasuke blushed and hid behind his hair like a shy girl and Naruto 'hmphed' and marched off to contiue helping with things. Leaving Sakura and Sasuke to talk, he thought it would probably be the first time the two of them had gotten a good chance to just be near each other since Sasuke's return. The Uchiha had been so determind to keep away from everyone before now.

Naruto was glad to see that he had managed to lighten Sasuke's mind a little, as the Uchiha had not come out for a public gathering like this since his return. He felt proud with himself and more then a little pleased that he had succeeded at such a task as making the Uchiha at least remotely social. He began to whistle a merry little tune as he helped build several of the other stands. No one bothered the blonde haired boy for the rest of that morning as he seemed so content and pleased just to be helping everyone. His gaze always sliding affectionately to Sasuke who had quickly found himself a nice big tree to hid under. The Uchiha's eyes had closed and he had pulled himself tight into a ball, Naruto imaged that he was listening to everything that was going on around him. It still saddened him knowing that Sasuke would probably never see anything again in his life. Things were going well for the time, but for how long would they stay this way? Naruto had a feeling in his gut that something bad was going to happen, but he pushed it away. It could be wrong after all and he was in to much of a good mood to let it ruin his day.

"Oiy! Naruto!" Iruka called from across the way, the Chuunin was standing at a barbeque, finishing off the lunch for the helpers. There was all sorts of things being prepared by the other Chuunins and even a lot of the Jounins. Naruto looked over to the friendly face of his academy teacher with raised eyebrows. "Lunch time!"

Understanding this immediatly he was about to head over to the barbeque at hyper speed when he remembered Sasuke. "Be there in a minute!" He hollared back at Iruka, who nodded and contiued on with what he was doing at the grill before him.

Naruto trotted over to Sasuke and crouched down infront of him. "Sasuke," he called out, wondering if Sasuke was sleeping. He looked like he was, resting his head on his knees. The Uchiha looked so relaxed, but he stirred the second Naruto whispered his name and his eyes fluttered open. Only to shut again when Sasuke realized that he could not see anything anyways.

"What do you want Uzumaki?" Sasuke asked coldly. Naruto wondered what had happened. The Uchiha was clearly depressed again. He frowned, looking around and wondering who had been the fool to send the Uchiha spiralling back down into the darkness that Naruto had tried so damn hard to keep him out of.

"It's lunch time," Naruto responded, trying to keep his light tones as he tugged on the black shirt that the Uchiha was wearing. Trying to urge the raven haired boy to get up so that he could bring him over to the blankets everyone was eatting on.

"I'm not hungrey," Sasuke responded cooly.

"Okay fine. Then I'm not either," Naruto replied stubbornly, and sat down infront of Sasuke definatly, starring at the Uchiha with his bright blue eyes. But his strength in this situation was not well held for his stomach growled loudly in arguement to his last statement. Naruto was pleased when this got a smirk off of the Uchiha.

"Go eat Naruto."

"Not unless you come and eat too," Naruto replied to Sasuke stubbornly. The Uchiha shook his head and stood up unsteadily. Naruto cheered and dragged Sasuke by the arm to the picnic blankets before Sasuke could so much as utter a complaint against him. He sat down the Uchiha and trotted off to get them both food. When he returned the blonde had to shoe several people away from his pale skinned Uchiha friend and he settled down beside him.

"Sasuke you're foods right infront of you," Naruto told the Uchiha absently. He seemed to be getting used to Sasuke's blindness already. And was learning to tell the Uchiha where things were.

"I can feel it against my leg," Sasuke commented softly in return. Naruto just nodded as he began to slurp up noodles loudly.

"Not that again Naruto!" Sasuke groaned in aggitation with the blonde. The black haired boy had clearly been hoping that Naruto would stop doing that.

"Hey! I only said I would be polite for the date's sake!" Naruto responded through a mouthful of food in his own defense.

"That's so gross," Sasuke commented off hand before going quiet again. Naruto scowled at the Uchiha. He hated seeing him depressed. It was okay if he was annoyed because that was funny. But depressed was something that Naruto was determind not to allow.

"Hey Sasuke!" He asked, suddenly getting an idea in his head and deciding that he was most definatly going to go with it. After all, it was not only a good way to possibley cheer Sasuke up. But it was an excuse to ask him out on another date.

"What Uzumaki?" Sasuke asked dully.

"Want to come to the festival as my date tonight?" He asked cheerily.

Sasuke allowed Naruto to see a smile ghost across his face before disappearing. "Sure."

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Since I am personally a romance/comedy writter when I do this sort of thing I needed a little bit of some lightness away from the angst. Especially cause right now my own life is going to a down hill road of angst and ickyness. So sorry if you're looking foreward to crazy amounts of total angst but this chapter was my break from the sadness and I needed to lighten it up a bit before rolling on down hill again.

But worry not! I am a writter and I know what I am doing!... ... I think... ;