[[Sakura's POV]]

I ran as fast as I could back through the trees towards the village. Hot tears streamed down my face against my own will and my heart raced at speeds it shouldn't; I had to stop just shy of the road to catch my breath, each one seeming shorter than the last. The image of Sasuke and Naruto imprinted itself in my mind and wouldn't go away. Wiping away wetness from my cheeks and tried my hardest to calm down. I was upset of course; my life long crush on Sasuke had just been trampled on and by that annoying brat Naruto.

While I had always taken his rejection as a means to try harder this was like all of my effort had instead been a constant dark cloud over Sasuke's head. Is that why it always seemed he hated me? A rustle behind me saw Sasuke emerge from the forest with Naruto following along.

"Sakura, listen" Sasuke started to speak but I held up my hand; tears threatened once again to expel themselves but I fought the urge and continued

"Look, I don't know what you think I saw but I didn't see anything, really."

"Were you crying?" Naruto had piped up this time; even though he sounded concerned I gritted my teeth and snapped back

"No idiot, I just ran a half marathon here, I'm just out of breath."

"But your eyes are red"

"Will you SHUT UP!?" I didn't mean for my voice to change pitch as I yelled but he was making it more difficult to deal with the multitudes of thoughts and feelings flying through my mind. I looked Sasuke in the eyes and tried to plead with him through mine that I just wanted to be alone. After a moment of silence Sasuke finally tilted his head to acknowledge me,

"Naruto lets go" He must have understood the signals I gave and as I watched the two of them fade into the streets I had to call out one last thing

"I hope you're happy" Sasuke faltered and Naruto threw up his thumb for a moment then continued without looking back, All I could do lift my hand to my chest to feel my heartbeat come back under control. This was not the end of the world, rather now perhaps, I could move on from something that was never going to happen.

[[Naruto's POV]]

"Do you think Sakura will tell anyone?"

Sasuke shook his head and I turned my attention to the street. It made me wonder if we would ever tell anyone about us. I mean, what would they say, what would they think? I don't particularly care either. Sneaking a peek at him, his expression was stoic and unreadable. How did he feel about all of this?

"What is it" Sasuke had noticed my staring,

"Well do you think we would ever tell anyone about this? Us I mean?" He remained silent for a moment then shrugged, "They don't need to know our business"

"But what if they found out?"

"No one is finding out."

"You sound like you're embarrassed about it."

"Of course I would be, first off were both guys. Second, I'm me and you're you"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're an idiot that can't pass a class. You're not in my league." Even though this was our usual fight part of it hit me differently today, I couldn't explain it. Maybe I was still angry over the fight earlier, my emotions were going haywire. The more I thought about his dumb smirk as I felt the anger in my belly burn.

"You're gonna look dumb for being embarrassed. I'm the future Hokage, the best ninja in the village."

Sasuke scoffed and my fists balled up, this jerk was really asking for it.

"You're not better than me!" I yelled stomping off down the road ahead of him. Not in his league? I had to laugh; I was the only one in his league. So what if we were both guys, though? Sakura already knows and she doesn't even care so why would anyone else care.

A thought of Sakura with her red eyes and wet cheeks popped into my mind. She must have been really surprised, I mean, she just saw Sasuke kiss me. A wave of guilt overcame me; I should have stayed to see if Sakura was really okay. On the other hand she seemed to want to be alone and I think if she saw me again today she might end up giving me a crack over the head. Shuddering at the thought of being on the receiving end of Sakura's fury I decided it would be best to just go home.

[[Sasuke's POV]]

I couldn't understand Naruto's mood swings today, he's the one trying to do all this weird stuff like holding hands and wanting me to say they were dating. What's wrong in that head of his? He has no concept of subtlety or how people may react to it, Us I should say. Actually, and annoyingly, I was wrong. Naruto out of all people knows perfectly well about how people treat those who are different. Remembering his sad face on the swing years ago as others hurled abuse to him for something he couldn't control suddenly mad me angry, like I wanted to make it stop. Maybe it's not that I don't want people to know because it's embarrassing but because I don't want us to be ridiculed and ostracised again after working so hard to make it in this god damn village of fools.

A sigh escaped my lips as I realised I was probably a bit too thoughtless to that idiot. It's his own fault for asking, but I realised I should at least make an attempt to eat together as part of our new daily thing. Is it a date if we do it every day? Whatever, I don't care. Stopping by a small convenience store I purchased two large bowls of instant ramen to take to Naruto's house.

I had to wait a while after knocking on his door which tried my already waning patience for today. Shuffling sounded from behind the door before it opened to reveal Naruto, shirtless. I shoved him out of the way so I could move past before I could stare and longer than I had already.

"What are you doing here, your highness?" Naruto was still stuck on what I said earlier. I threw one of the ramen bowls at him,

"We haven't eaten yet, why'd you walk off." As far as apologies go I refused to comment on what had happened earlier, he was not going to get what he wanted from me again today. However I did want to stop him being angry, it was annoying.

"I walked off because you're always a bastard." He walked across the apartment to boil some water for our food. "But thanks for coming anyway"

That was a turn I didn't expect and hummed to acknowledge it. Naruto came back and poured the water into our bowls. We ate in silence.

Finishing the noodles I placed my chopsticks on top of the bowl and stood up ready to leave. Naruto also stood and walked around the table. There was an awkward moment where we didn't really know how to say good bye. Usually we are in public and just leave, but today we were in the privacy of his home. Abruptly I was aware of the intimacy expected but it was not easy for either of us to fall into a nice couple routine.

"Well, see you tomorrow." Was all I could manage to say, how pathetic. Turning I went to head to the door but felt the sleeve of my shirt get caught on something. Investigating I noticed that Naruto had grabbed it, a sheepish look on his face.

"What?"

"I ah, well. Did you maybe wanna stay here. Tonight.