Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of its associated characters!

Summary: COMPLETE (new chapter up everyday - total of 35 chapters!). Sasuke's a writer whose been writing the same words for years. He's tired, he's annoyed, and his money situation is...pretty messed up, even by student standards. Enter Naruto. Modern AU (College/University), Sasunaru/Narusasu. Posted for Sasuke's birthday!

A/N: Wow! You guys have been so nice! Thank you so much for showing your interest in this story - I'm so excited to get it going :D


Enter Naruto

Chapter 2: Writer's Block

Naruto stumbled up the stairs, playing a dangerous balancing game with the bags on his shoulders and the box in his hands. He didn't need to return all the papers to Kakashi today, but he had been nearby—well, on campus, really, like every day—but it was just—convenient, today. He had the time.

It definitely wasn't because he knew Kakashi had a class a few minutes ago—definitely wasn't because he was hoping to run into—

"Sasuke!" He grinned over the box, nudging the door open further with his hip.

"Moron," Sasuke greeted, an easy smirk spreading across his face as he scanned Naruto over—probably laughing at the way Naruto was so obviously struggling—

"Ah, you do know each other." Kakashi's smile was wide and knowing. "I had wondered…"

He glanced down to Sasuke's paper, and then back up to him. Naruto thought he saw Sasuke twitch.

"Yeah." Naruto heaved a sigh as he plopped the box onto Kakashi's desk, doing his best to dial back his grin. "We met at the café—y'know the one across from the Life Sci building?"

"Isn't that nice," Kakashi responded. Naruto glanced up to see Kakashi looking awfully innocent, and Sasuke's scowl rapidly deepening—

"Uh, anyway," Naruto's eyes flickered in between them—whatever that was, he wasn't sure he wanted to know, "this is the last of them. I can't do anymore, I will die."

Kakashi chuckled.

"I'm not kidding," Naruto said. "The week after next. I can help you then. But the old man's got me running four sessions in five days next week, plus the groups, plus all my classes—I have three papers and a stupid baseline exam all on Friday," he finished with a groan, leaning forward onto Kakashi's desk.

Kakashi patted his back. "Such a hard life."

"You're full of crap." Naruto snorted, and sat up.

"So cruel," Kakashi said, putting a hand over his heart. Naruto laughed.

"Are you still planning on coming home for the weekend?"

"Yep. Better start cooking now." Naruto grinned.

"I'll let Iruka know. Such a needy child…" Kakashi sighed, making a show of turning back to his papers.

"Oi!"

Kakashi chuckled, and then turned to address Sasuke.

"Let me read through this again, and I'll return it to you with your comments next class. I'm very proud of your progress, Sasuke."

Naruto grinned as Sasuke turned away—he didn't need to see the guy to know his face was flushed. It sounded like Sasuke had some sort of breakthrough or something…maybe he shouldn't have been so insistent on not being able to read anything for the next couple weeks…

"I'll see you both later."

"Make ramen!" Naruto called back through the doorway. They heard a snort come from the office, and then the door shut.

"Kakashi and Iruka are my parents," Naruto explained. "I figured you'd be here—I'm surprised we haven't met sooner, honestly."

Naruto flung the stairwell door open for them, holding it for Sasuke with his back.

"But I knew I recognized your name from somewhere!" He laughed a little as Sasuke moved past him. "Kakashi makes me grade his stuff when he has too much, the lazy bastard. He goes through it all later on, but I do the leg work. You've taken his classes for what—like two years? Around there?"

He leaned over, eyeing Sasuke. He almost looked…surprised? Well, as surprised as you could look while maintaining a totally neutral face—

"Yes," Sasuke said finally, turning away. "…Did you read my work?"

Naruto nodded, grinning. Duh. "Yeah, of course—where are you headed, by the way? All the tomato guy stuff—I remember."

"I'm headed towards Main Street…and yes. That was it."

"Oh, awesome—me too. Your stuff was depressing as fuck." Naruto laughed. "I mean, that's not necessarily a bad thing—your thing is your thing, y'know?"

"But it wasn't your thing." Sasuke's voice was quiet.

"No—no, I wouldn't say that. I really liked it, actually." Liked was an understatement, honestly. He had reread Sasuke's writing almost obsessively the first time he had seen it. "But it's more—it kinda made me want to like…give you a hug. Like you had this big burden on you, and you were trying to take it all on yourself—I wanted to…I dunno, lessen it a little."

Sasuke stared at him.

"You didn't even know me," he said quietly.

"I knew enough." Naruto shrugged, feeling a bit awkward. "People put themselves into their writing, you know."

There was a pause. Naruto resisted the urge to run a hand through his hair—was that a bit much? Maybe that had been a bit much.

"Guess that explains the whole 'jerk' vibe you give off." Naruto gestured at Sasuke's whole body with a grin, trying to lighten the mood a little—

It worked.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You're an idiot."

"An idiot who can influence your grades," he teased, turning to walk backwards as he waggled his eyebrows at Sasuke, "so you better be nice to me."

"Isn't that against the rules?"

Naruto laughed.

"Probably. Oh, hang on," he said, spinning back around, "I gotta take a right here. You're going that way, right?" He pointed in the opposite direction.

He glanced over his shoulder to see Sasuke staring at him, standing firmly in place. What…?

"…Did you want to grab a coffee?"

Naruto blinked—once—and then twice—and then—

"Yeah! Yeah, I'd love that!" Naruto felt like his cheeks were going to explode with how wide he was smiling—

He saw Sasuke give a tight nod, and he bit down on his lip, trying to get ahold of his heart.


Sasuke swallowed, wrenching his gaze away from that smile for the millionth time—

Writing. It was good for his writing to be near Naruto—that's why he was doing it.

Definitely the writing.

"Are you okay with Joe's?" Naruto threw him a grin, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "I'm kinda hungry, and they have pretty good food. And coffee!"

"Ah," Sasuke had never been there in his life, "sure."

"Cool." Naruto grinned.

It was maybe two more minutes before they got there—not even that. Naruto clearly knew the area well; most people likely did, but Sasuke hated eating out on almost all occasions. Besides, it was expensive.

"After you!" Naruto threw him a lopsided grin. Sasuke obediently walked through the opened door, but ignored the host until Naruto came in.

"Table for two," Naruto told the waiter, "and can we be by the window?"

"Of course," the man said. "Right this way."

Naruto slid into the booth like he owned it, lounging back against the window to grin at Sasuke.

"So," the blonde slung an arm over his raised knee, tilting his head to eye Sasuke, "the creative writing program, hm?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Do you like it?" After a moment, he added, "I won't tell Kakashi, don't worry."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, opening his mouth to respond just as the waiter came by—

"Ready to order?"

"Oh, um, not yet," Naruto sat up, flashing Sasuke a sheepish look, "could you give us a sec?"

"No problem."

Naruto threw him another apologetic look as the man left.

"Sorry," he said. "I think I'm gonna get one of the sandwiches, but I can never decide which one. You know what you want?"

Sasuke nodded. He had decided on whatever was cheapest the moment they had come through the door—the fact that it was a salad was just a bonus.

"Number two."

Naruto flipped to the page, his grin slowly growing wider as his eyes flickered up to Sasuke—

"What?" Sasuke asked, he felt—almost—defensive under that gaze—

"Tomatoes," Naruto laughed, waggling his eyebrows at Sasuke, "I knew it. Do you hate sweet stuff too?"

Sasuke felt the heat rush up to his face—he rolled his eyes as an excuse to turn away. He kept forgetting that Naruto had read his writing—and apparently remembered it.

"I don't hate it," he muttered softly. "I just don't understand why everyone goes so crazy over it."

"So like...cotton candy?"

"Disgusting." Sasuke didn't miss a beat.

Naruto looked personally offended.

"What?!"

"It's like—hair. Strands of plastic. It—"

"It is not! You—wh—It's like what a cloud would taste like! If it was made out of sugar! It's so cool! How can you not like that?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "The texture is awful and the taste is even worse. It's just dehydrated syrup—"

"You say that like it's a bad thing! You are so weird." Naruto laughed, sitting up a little. "What about...like—chocolate? You have to like chocolate."

"If it's dark, it's alright."

"Ugh," Naruto made a face, "like the super bitter, 98% crap?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"I suppose you're more of a white chocolate, drowned in caramel, stuffed with marshmallow type of person?"

"Oh fuck me, that sounds amazing."

Sasuke ducked his head, feeling the laugh bubble up in his throat.

"You're such a moron."

"It's not my fault your taste sucks—"

"Ready to order?"

Naruto jumped, as if he had forgotten there was anyone else there with them—

"Oh—yeah! I'll get number fifteen. And can I get extra sauce?" He grinned as the waiter nodded his agreement. "Awesome. And, uh," he met Sasuke's eye, "can I get a black coffee with a little bit of cinnamon?"

Sasuke hid his smile behind the menu.

"Of course. And anything for you, sir?"

"Number two. And," he paused for a moment, scanning the menu, "the...s'mores milkshake."

"Any whipped cream on that?" The waiter paused, pen poised in his hand.

Sasuke met Naruto's eye.

"Definitely."

He took intense pleasure in the way Naruto seemed to bounce somewhere between offended and thrilled

"Sasuke!" Naruto dissolved into laughter as the waiter left their table. "I was trying to pay you back for the shitty coffee from last time!"

Sasuke only shrugged, the warmth in his chest only expanding each time he met Naruto's eye—

"It was fine."

"It was not fine! You nearly choked!"

Fighting the smile was rapidly becoming the hardest thing Sasuke had ever done—

"You can owe me, then."

Naruto's smile—already insanely bright—only seemed to grow happier.

"Yeah? I'll pay you back next time?"

Sasuke tried—very, very hard—not to look as eager as he felt.

"Sure."

Naruto, apparently, had no such qualms.

"Awesome!" He grinned, sitting up only cross his legs up on the seat. "Fine. Damn. You so called me out—I've been eyeing that since they put it on the menu."

Sasuke gave a soft laugh, his heart still not entirely back to normal—

"Oh!" Naruto sat up straight. "Crap, I totally cut you off. Your program—you were gonna say if you liked it."

"You didn't cut me off," Sasuke offered—technically, the waiter had. "The program's alright."

"Only alright?"

"It's…" Sasuke tapped his fingers on the table. "Slow. It seems slow."

"Like—the program is boring? Or you don't feel like you're growing fast enough?"

"The latter."

Naruto frowned, eyes flickering to the window for a moment. "Well, it's kinda hard to see—you change a little bit every time you write, y'know? Have you tried going back and reading something from like, high school?"

"Not really."

Naruto shrugged. "Try it. It's kinda like how people grow, too. It's a little bit at a time, so you always feel the same, but...you're not, really—like I don't really feel like a different person than I was in high school, but I then I remember some of the dumb shit I said and I'm like…"

Sasuke couldn't resist.

"I doubt that's changed."

Naruto barked out a laugh, and then leaned forwards to rest his grinning face on his fist.

"So, in your opinion, d'you think you're more or less of an asshole now than you were in high school?"

"Oh, less. Definitely." He thought back to one Valentine's day he had been feeling particularly antisocial…

"Really? Fuck." Naruto's eyebrows were raised. "That bad? I bet our teenage selves would have hated each other."

Sasuke snorted.

"I probably would've punched you right in the face." Naruto grinned.

"You would have lost the fight." Sasuke smirked, making a show of examining his fingernails.

"As if! I would have beat the crap outta you!"

"Tch, I bet I wouldn't even have had a bruise."

Naruto slapped his hands to his face and groaned.

"Aw man, you would have gotten to me so easily. That's fuckin' infuriating—I would've tried to fight you like every day."

"I'm a bit surprised you're not trying to fight me now."

Naruto barked out a laugh and leaned back.

"Nah, I used to be like—super hotheaded. Like goaded into things really easily. I'm way better now—after—like, I met my thesis supervisor and it all kind of built from there."

"Your—supervisor?"

"Yeah; I'm in fourth year, so I gotta do a thesis project. Like a big research thing." At Sasuke's nod, he continued, "I'm looking into mindfulness meditation stuff—I wanna see if doing sessions can impact how you view yourself and the world, basically. Really just involves me teaching people and then getting surveys and interviews and stuff."

"That's…"

"Lame?" Naruto grinned.

"No," Sasuke sat up a bit straighter, thinking, "interesting. It's not what I expected."

"Heh," Naruto ducked his head a little, "I guess that's fair."

"How does it connect back to you?"

"I like meditating!" Naruto laughed. "Kakashi knew Fukasaku—that's my supervisor—already, and he started teaching me to meditate…uh…I think the summer after I graduated high school? Maybe a bit before that. Well, like it was more like a mix of yoga and meditation, which is actually what we do in the program—but, yeah, anyways, it was good. I thought it really helped me. I've done bits and pieces of work for him since then—he's done a ton of studies in the field, but I wanna focus more on like…internal changes and how they work in everyone. Like we know it helps with life satisfaction and coping strategies and all that—but why? And in what kind of people? I dunno if what I find will be that generalizable, but it's a good start, I think. I haven't really been able to find any studies that have looked into it—not as their primary measure, anyways, and everything's so quantitative that I think they're missing the point—"

Naruto cut himself off, sitting up straight.

"And I'm rambling!" He laughed. "Sorry! I get going really easily and then I just kinda keep going until somebody stops me, heh."

"I don't mind."

Naruto laughed, giving him a disbelieving look. "Sure."

The food arrived, and Naruto's eyes immediately lit up. Sasuke eyed his with a frown.

"Mmph," Naruto said, already mid-bite, "I didn't realize how hungry I was 'till now."

Sasuke snorted.


"Do you know what you're going to do after you graduate?"

Naruto gave him a cheeky grin.

"The classic question, huh?" He laughed. "Nah, not really. I like my program and I like the work that I'm doing. I might turn it into a Master's and go into research. I'm pretty sure Fukasaku would give me at least a part time thing if I pushed for it. What about you? Your program's just three years, right?"

"Yeah."

"So we're both graduating."

Sasuke nodded.

"I bet you got your whole plan all laid out past grad." Naruto leaned forwards and grinned. "Bet you got a whole schedule 'n everything!"

Sasuke's eye twitched. "No, I don't."

"Suuuure."

"I mean it, Naruto. Knock it off."

Naruto leaned back as if the words had pushed him, the smile falling off his face.

"Shit, sorry," he ran a hand through his hair, "I didn't mean to be an ass."

Sasuke sighed, and looked out the window.

"It's not—you're not. It's just…a sore spot. For me."

"Ah," Naruto said carefully, "well, I can't really blame you. It's…weird. I've been in school for so long that I dunno if I even know how to do anything else. Maybe that's why I wanna do a Master's." He laughed to himself. "But okay—what about—if you could do anything you wanted after this, what would it be?"

Sasuke shrugged.

"You don't know? Or you don't want to tell me?"

Sasuke looked away from Naruto.

It was obviously the latter. He knew he wanted to be a writer—Naruto likely knew it too. There wasn't much else you could do with a creative writing degree. But he hadn't been able to vocalize that desire in years…not since he had spoken to his parents, and they had laughed in his face. They had practically spit in it.

Sasuke let out a small breath. He felt a soft touch on his hand, and he jerked back into reality—

"Sasuke? You don't actually have to tell me anything. I'm sorry if I hit another sore spot."

Sasuke could feel Naruto's touch as if it was being tattooed into his skin.

"I—" He swallowed. "It's alright. I have a lot of sore spots."

Naruto pulled back with a soft smile, and Sasuke felt a little bit warmer.


"Where do you live?" Sasuke asked, once they had split the bill and gone on their way.

"I have a place near—d'you know the school? Like the elementary one?"

"With the mural?"

"That's the one! You keep going there, and walk all the way to the gas station, and then I'm the first house on that road. Like on the left."

"That's close by."

"Yeah, I love it. I don't have a car, so I need to walk everywhere." He laughed. "What about you?"

"I'm the opposite way. There's a building that looks like a house—the small red brick one, near the board game café. It's actually an apartment building."

"Oh! I love that place! Wh—not the apartment building, I mean the board games place." He laughed, waving an arm at Sasuke. "What's it called again?"

"Snakes and Lattes."

"Yeah!" Naruto flashed him a smile. "That place rocks! I've only been a couple times though."

Sasuke had never actually been there, and yet, it was on the tip of his tongue to ask Naruto to go now. He didn't know what had gotten into him today—he didn't even like board games (let alone public places)—

"Aw," Naruto groaned, rocking back on his heels, "I really wanna go over there now, but I have so much crap to do…"

Sasuke glanced away and shrugged.

Naruto licked his lips a little, his eyes flickering up to Sasuke's. "Next time? Can I grab your number so we can meet up when I'm nearby?"

Sasuke's heart skipped a beat. "Y-yeah." He fumbled for his phone, trying to hide the way his face was flushing—it was just a number, there was no reason to—

Naruto put his contact information into Sasuke's phone and gave him a brilliant grin.

"Text me so I have your number, 'kay?"

Sasuke nodded.

"See ya, Sasuke!"

"…Bye."


Sasuke was getting absolutely nothing done. He should have texted Naruto the moment he had been given his number, but, instead, like some sort of idiot, he had waited until he got home, and had been agonizing over the stupid thing ever since.

And now, it was Sunday, and it felt like far too much time had passed to test him purely for the sake of the number, but too little time had passed to want to talk to him just for the sake of talking.

Not that Sasuke didn't want to talk to him. He really, really did; it was absurd. They had just seen each other. They had talked for hours. Sasuke hated being with people for hours. And yet…

He sighed, and turned the phone over in his hands again.

And yet, if Naruto had asked, Sasuke would have happily gone with him back to his house. Or to the board game café. Or…well, anywhere. He just…

He felt…interested. Intrigued. Comfortable—as if he had known Naruto for years, and yet he still didn't know enough about him. He had never felt so—

He slapped the phone onto his desk, face down, with an angry puff of air. This was stupid. He was being insane. He was—

He glared at the back of his phone, immediately picking it up again.

Well—maybe if he had some sort of reason to text the idiot, that would make more sense. That would be better.

He looked back at what he was writing. Hm.

'Writer's block. What would you do if someone close to you betrayed you?'

He pressed send, and let out a long breath, trying to calm himself. There was no reason to be nervous about this, of all things—

Not even a minute later, his phone buzzed.

'Sasuke? Betrayed like how? Probably chase them everywhere until they explained themselves, haha.'

'Yes, it's me. Thanks.'

He could work with that.


A/N: Y'know when you just click with someone? Like right away? And you're like "where have you been all my life"? Yeah.

I feel like I'm name-dropping all my favourite fics, but the "sore spots" bit is a reference to a Harry Potter fic called Raspberry Jam. It's been too long since I re-read it :')

Let me know what you thought! You've all been so kind so far, thank you so much! I get so excited when you guys comment and stuff.

Next chapter up tomorrow!

Until then,

- Kinomi