A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourite and follows as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter. I am sorry for the long update but I didn't exactly have an idea of how to write the next chapter.

"This looks really tasty!"

Today was Naruto's day off and the blond-haired girl decided to take Yo's offer of having lunch together. Sasuke hadn't contacted her in the last two days and her boss seemed to get it in his head that she needed to have the whole two weeks off to prepare for the Sports Festival. Like she needed to train. There was no one that could compare to her.

If Sasuke was in the Sports Festival then Naruto would train her ass off, just so she could beat him in school for once. Since there was no Sasuke and no work for her to do, it seemed natural to just go and have lunch with Yo in one of her new favorite ramen stands.

Yo rubbed the back of his neck, black eyes avoiding hers as the waiters and waitress shook their heads at the boy. Naruto just blinked, only licking her lips as her eyes drank in the sight of her favorite ramen. She knew it was normal for Yo to make these kind of behavior, but it was never a sign that he liked her. If you liked someone then shouldn't they be more active about it?

Sakura used to be so active with chasing after Sasuke but then she just slowed down and suddenly stopped asking him out.

'I can't keep chasing someone that doesn't love me back, Naruto.'

Naruto tightened her grip on her chopstick as green eyes flashed with pain and defeat. Sakura had always loved Sasuke and had visited him every day while she searched for Tsunade with Jiraiya. How could someone just give up like that? She just didn't understand what made Sakura-chan stop chasing Sasuke. Ino didn't give up, but then again Ino thought putting so much make up would make her look so attractive.

"Shouldn't you be preparing for the Sports Festival?" Naruto blinked and stared at the curious eyes of the older boy. He tilted his head, knitted his eyebrows and frowned at her. "N-Not that I'm not happy to eat with you, but a lot of people are going to be watching you. Don't you want to win? I heard Endeavour's kid is in it."

"Endeavour's kid?" Naruto tilted her head, eyebrows raised to her hairline as Yo bobbed his head. Was she suppose to know who this hero was? Or who his kid was? Did it even matter? She frowned and put the chopstick on top of her lips, balancing it on her lips.

Yo nodded. "Yeah, it was in the newspaper and everything. I think the whole of Japan would want to know what the son of the Number Two Hero is capable of."

"I will probably beat him, whoever he is." Yo blinked at the easy confidence in Naruto's tone and the blue-eyed girl just slurped on her noodles. Maybe if Naruto didn't have chakra then she would probably be nervous about beating the Number Two Hero. If she actually cared about being a Top Hero or a Hero in general, then maybe she would be more determine.

But she just wanted to bring back her best friend and snap him out of whatever insane plan that was brewing inside of his head. She needed to know what Sasuke was up to, convince him out of it and have him by her side when the school and her find a way back to Konoha…to their team.

But we can't leave this world until I know for certain that the asshole won't go to Orochimaru. She would rather stay here in Japan, in this universe if it meant that Sasuke wouldn't try to go after that pedophile. There was no way that Naruto would allow him to lose his body and soul. Not even his parents would allow it and Naruto remembered how much Mikoto and Fugaku adored their youngest son.

Fugaku might have been an ass, always making Sasuke work for his acknowledgment but he loved his son. His mother adored him too, which was something Naruto used to envy him for because she never knew if her parents would have adored her as much as Mikoto and Fugaku did.

"Something is bothering you." Yo kept his tone light and gentle as his black eyes focused on her and her barely eaten ramen. Blue eyes widened as he smiled at her. Naruto frowned, knitting her eyebrows at the sight of the stretched, fake smile playing on the boy's lips. "So who is the guy?"

"Guy?" Naruto knitted her eyebrow. "What makes you think that a guy is bothering me?"

Yo frowned and regarded her. His black eyes looked torn apart over something like he didn't want to answer her question, which was weird because…why wouldn't he want to answer her question? She knitted her eyebrows together into one straight line.

"Because you look really upset about something," Yo smiled even wider, balled his hands against the chopsticks and continued on. "Y'know I'm a guy so if you want a guy's perspective then I'm all ears."

Naruto honestly doubt Yo could answer anything Sasuke's related, not when she was an expert on her own best friend. Sakura knew Sasuke well too but only because they had been a teammates for a year, so it was expected for them to know and understand each other well. She knew him a little bit too well. Naruto grinded her teeth.

Sakura figured out that Sasuke was going to abandon them and Naruto was blinded by it. She thought the bonds between them was strong enough for him not to do this.

If she couldn't understand her own friend's actions then how would Yo understand? But then again Naruto wasn't a boy. Sakura used to say that boy's brains were wired differently from a girl, although she understood Shikamaru and the other boys quite well.

It wouldn't hurt to hear his perspective.

"If you had a friend that has been there for you through the thick and thin, would you leave them in the dark?" Yo blinked as Naruto stirred her ramen. "Would you just suddenly decide to try and break years of friendship just because you thought it makes you weak? And if it makes you weak then why come back to it? If you think it doesn't help you then why change your mind?"

Sasuke was a stubborn asshole, who wouldn't change his mind so easily. He chose to abandon her instead of staying with her in USJ. Even though she repeated again and again that she cared for him. That she only wanted him to be happy.

She didn't want the Sasuke before the massacre, since it would be impossible for that boy to come back. But Naruto longed for the friend that helped her with her homework. The friend who slept by her bed, hugging her so tight like he was afraid to lose her. She didn't want this for him.

He knew she would try to sway him as long as he sticks by her side.

"What if he was afraid?" Naruto blinked and almost snorted at the thought as Yo stared at her. "Maybe to you, it might be friendship but for him…it might be something else. He might keep coming back because he still feels something in the bond. I don't think a bond that you just described…can be destroyed so easily. Maybe, he still wants to go back to those good times."

Naruto nibbled her bottom lip and stiffened when she felt a familiar chakra presence. Her throat dried up and without a second thought, she swirled her head to the doorway. Blue eyes met familiar black eyes as the waitress smiled at Sasuke.

Even when her friend put the henge, the asshole decided to go as someone as good-looking and that was really annoying for her.

The world seemed to stop as Sasuke flickered his eyes from her to Yo. No emotions shone through those eyes, but she never needed to see his eyes to know what he felt. It was there from the way his shoulder stiffened and the way his hands balled into a tight fist as he clicked his heels, telling the waitress that he would come back later.

Why was he acting like this?

"Was that him? The boy that makes you confuse?" Yo asked softly.

Naruto nodded. "That's my asshole of a best-friend."

"Is he just your best-friend?"

Naruto chewed on her bottom lip and looked at her reflection in the ramen soup. Weren't they best friends? She knew what his favorite color was, which was yellow oddly enough. He liked tomatos and always pulled a face whenever she made something that didn't contain vegetables. He wanted to kill Itachi even though Naruto knew Sasuke still loved him.

She knew he always wanted his father to acknowledge him and that before Team Seven, he struggled with the idea of teamwork with anyone that wasn't her. Sasuke was considered a genius but he used to spend nights, just training in the hopes of defeating his brother. He always get so frustrated whenever he think of the gap between him and Itachi.

Best-friends knew those things, right?

But best-friends don't kiss twice.

Her cheeks burned a bright shade of red as the memory of the Wave mission flooded into her mind. Till this day, Naruto didn't know what cause her to kiss him like that. She was overjoyed to see him alive, to have a member of her family alive…but Naruto would never kiss Kakashi-sensei. She would definitely not kiss Sakura-chan, no matter how pretty her friend was.

But Naruto enjoyed kissing Sasuke and a person could enjoy kissing their best friend, couldn't they?

"I really don't know."

She just knew she wanted him back by her side.

"You know…he is lucky to have a girl like you."

"So how was your date?"

Naruto stiffened as Sasuke appeared out of the shadows of the alleyway that was a shortcut to her home. Thankfully, her best friend seemed to have decided to dispel his henge because Naruto never wanted to imagine her friend with brown-hair. The black-haired boy kept his expression completely blank, his eyes fixated on the pedestrian street.

She frowned and said slowly. "That wasn't a date, Bastard."

Sasuke raised his eyebrow, stared deeply into her eyes and pressed his lips into a thin line. He shook his head, looking at her like she was an idiot and it annoyed her that he would make those expression to her. How was she an idiot this time? She was walking by herself in the alleyway, wasn't she? She paid for her own meal and it wasn't plan at all.

She just took Yo up for his offer.

"He likes you and he took you to eat ramen," Sasuke deadpanned.

Naruto folded her arms against her chest and narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't talk to me like I'm an idiot, Bastard! He offered us to go out for lunch as friends, a couple weeks ago and I decided to take him up on it. That doesn't make it a date."

"Did he pay?"

"Of course not," Naruto puffed her cheeks. "You think I will let him pay for my meals? You know how much I eat! That would just be mean of me."

Sasuke held out his hand. "Then I want pay back for all those times that you make me pay for your meals."

Naruto spluttered and balled her hands into a fist as Sasuke tilted his head at her. If he offered to pay for her meals in Konoha then why would she say no? Beside, she always made their bentos whenever they did a mission outside the village as a way of thanking him. She grinded her teeth, opened her mouth to yell but only to close it when she saw the teasing glint in his eyes.

"You are an asshole, you know that?" Naruto puffed her cheeks. "But if you really want me to pay you back then I will give you some of my savings."

Her Gama-chan was going to be so empty if she paid him back.

Sasuke snorted. "I will take it in interest."

"Would you really make your dearest and oldest friend pay you back?" Naruto clapped her hands together, pouted slight and leaned closer to him so that he had a better look of her eyes. Sasuke faltered slightly, his cheeks flushed a light shade of pink before he let out a scowl and turned his head away from her.

She giggled and pumped her fist up in the air. "I knew you weren't that cruel to do it to me!"

"So if it was just lunch then what were you two talking about? He doesn't look like he is your classmate." There might be no emotion flashing in his eyes but there was a slight curiosity in his tone, telling Naruto that he was genuinely interested to know about what happened in there.

Naruto flickered her eyes from the walking pedestrian to the blank eyes of her best friend. What information could she tell him? The Sports Festival was known to everyone, so he would understand why they were talking about it. But what if he asked her about the security? She didn't know anything about it…so she wouldn't be much help.

There was also no harm to talk about how Yo is her customer.

"We were talking about the Sports Festival." Naruto focused her eyes on Sasuke's black eyes, waiting for his eyes to show some emotion. There was no curiosity in his eyes, no burning desire to know about the security or anything…which was a good thing.

Sasuke shoved his hand into his pocket. "What about it?"

"Yo thinks that I should prepare for it," Naruto chuckled and without a second thought, she linked their arms together. Sasuke blinked and looked down at her, black eyes blinking at the sudden touch and she see a flash of emotion. Just a slight hint of joy and humor in his eyes, which made her smile. "Of course I said that I don't need to prepare for it because I'm so awesome."

"It has been three years and you still have a big head, Idiot." Sasuke shook his head and the blond-haired girl puffed her cheeks at her friend's declaration. He curled his lips before reverting it back to a straight line, which earned a pout from the girl.

She was just this close to getting him to give her that stupid smirk.

"You make it seem like I'm the only one that has a big head," Naruto puffed her cheeks and blue eyes twinkled with mischief. "I'm not the one that thought I could defeat Bushy Brows just because of my Kekkai Genkai."

Sasuke grunted. "I lasted longer than you, didn't I?"

"If we are going to compare our achievement then I won against Gaara." Sasuke stiffened at her words and clenched his jaw at those words. Naruto blinked and blinked, almost feeling at loss at the sudden shift of the atmosphere between them. Why did he just suddenly become cold when she mentioned it? She nibbled her bottom lip.

Sasuke took a deep breath. "Yeah, you were stronger than me."

It should make her happy to know that Sasuke acknowledge it, but it was not worth it when she saw just how much it ate him alive to say those words. I always wanted him to say those words, but it doesn't seem to hold the same meaning anymore. Naruto took a deep breath and stared at the smiling pedestrians that were walking across them.

"I never wanted to be stronger than you…okay maybe a little," Sasuke blinked and Naruto rubbed the back of her neck. This really felt awkward because emotions weren't really her thing. She always pretend to be happy and never really vocalize it. That part had always been left to Sakura. "I wanted you to acknowledge that we were equals."

"Naruto…"

"Look we have been friends since we were six and we have seen each other at our worst," Naruto reminded him and the boy pressed his lips into a thin line. "You watch me give temper tantrums and demanding the Hokage to give us better missions, but you know I just wanted attention. I just wanted someone to acknowledge me and I thought to do that was by beating you."

Sasuke looked down at her blue eyes and there were a flicker of emotions in them. Her throat really dried up and maybe it was time for her to invest in a water bottle. Actually why was the weather getting hot? Her cheeks flushed a light shade of red and Naruto looked away from him.

"I always acknowledged you, Naruto." Sasuke's hands seemed to reach out but then it suddenly dropped, which made her tilt her head. "You are my friend and no friend of mine is weak, which is why I know that you have every right to think that you would win the Sports Festival."

A bright smile decorated her face and her blue eyes glinted with pure happiness. A small part of her would always wonder if Sasuke was being sincere with her, or if he was saying this because he wanted information from her. If this was his way of getting information then Naruto had a better way of getting information out of him.

"So what will I get if I win the Sports Festival?"

Sasuke blinked wolfishly and Naruto curled her lips into a cheeky smile as she pressed her body closer against him. For a kunoichi, her best tool was her body and her brains. Those had been their teacher's words in their kunoichi lesson. Naruto always found it boring and useless, but she knew Sasuke and he had been weak against her sexy jutsu.

Her best friend was still a boy.

"Naruto," Sasuke flushed a barely visible shade of pink as his voice slightly cracked. "What are you doing?"

Naruto curled her lips, fluttered her eyelashes and flashed her bright blue eyes at him. "Well I just remember the Wave Mission and I remembered how good it felt to kiss you. Wouldn't it be a nice repeat if we have a kiss?"

"Naruto, what are you up to?"

She smiled innocently and tip-toed till her breath tickled his ear. "Nothing, I just really want to kiss you when I win the Sports Festival. You know I used to be disappointed that we never had that third kiss. So how about it? If I win the Sports Festival, I kiss you and if I lose then you can ask me anything."

Black eyes faltered and Naruto could see the longing and desire in his eyes. Was she probably going to make the biggest mistake by admitting these facts to him? Was she going to end up changing their friendship forever if she went through with this offer? Yes, but their friendship could survive this. Their bond was strong enough to survive anything and she knew she was going to win, so there was nothing to worry about.

Naruto would do anything to bring Sasuke back to her side.

A/N: As you can tell by now, the final pairing for this fic is with Sasuke. After a lot of thinking and rereading the fic, it seemed like it was only natural that Naruto and Sasuke will be the final pairing. Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter. Constructive Critisim is welcomed.