Title: my heart stumbles on things I don't know
Summary: When it came to love, Sasuke was clueless as ever.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Prompt: Fish Out of Water
Rating: T
Warning(s): None, I believe.
Comments: Because I love awkward!Sasuke with all of my heart. And to me, he is canon. SO NO OOC IN THIS HOUSE IN MY OPINION.

For the first time in his life, Sasuke was at a complete and utter loss about what to do.

Dealing with an ambush of talented ninjas was fine—he could keep control of the situation, here. Hell, even as he was faced with the Juubi, Madara and Obito, he could still keep his mind running for solutions and plans. He had no problem keeping his composure in front of a room full of incredibly unhappy Kages and scornful Elders, and it was easy to deal with delusional hordes of fangirls.

But letting the girl he liked know of his feelings? He didn't know how to do that. He didn't know how to go about it.

He was completely out of his element.

"Teme, this is getting really pathetic."

Sasuke glared at his best friend with a quiet fury, curling a hand in a tight fist. "Shut up," he ground out. "I don't know how these things work."

"Clearly," Naruto said, rolling his eyes and remaining unmindful of his friend's growing deadly aura. "I mean, what the hell made you believe that inviting Sakura on a one on one training—and not the sexy kind!—was making a move?" He threw his hands in the air in desperation. "You do that all the time already!"

"I don't," Sasuke snapped back, fisting his hand tighter. "You and Kakashi are always there." He paused. "And I invited her during sunset."

Naruto stared at him incredulously. "And that's supposed to make it romantic?"

The pointed look that was given to him in response was all it took to make his jaw drop in disbelief. "You… you are an idiot," he said. "I mean, I knew you were probably going to be romantically retarded but this." He gestured to Sasuke's whole self, then. "This is just sad."

"If you keep insulting me like that, I'm going to pummel you," Sasuke retorted angrily, his embarrassment taking the best of him. "Besides," he went on, "I didn't exactly spend my teenage years going through romance movies and novels, or running after girls."

"Did you run after boys, then?" Naruto joked, nudging his shoulder.

The severe glare sent his way made him swallow nervously. "Kidding," he chimed, throwing his hands up in defeat. "Obviously kidding."

"I didn't exactly have any example to follow either," Sasuke growled, fixing his blonde best friend with a knowing stare.

"Hey!" the latter protested loudly. "Nobody taught me how to approach girls, either, but I still did alright!"

He snorted. "Sakura rejecting your every advance clearly proves that."

Naruto snarled. "Well at least she knew I was making a move," he snapped.

Silence.

"…Hn."

The Hokage-in-training rolled his eyes, before sighing and taking pity on Sasuke once more. "Look, maybe I can help you out," he said, turning on his seat so he could face him fully. His ramen lay forgotten, for once. "You really like her, right?"

There was a pause, as the remaining Uchiha stared at him for a moment, as if contemplating. Then, he lowered his head and mumbled something incomprehensible.

The blonde leaned his ear closer, saying, "What was that?"

Sasuke looked up to him and glared, but it didn't seem so vicious anymore. When Naruto only blinked back, he sighed, shoulders slumping. "Yeah," he admitted quietly. "Yeah, I do."

He felt very vulnerable, all of a sudden. Naruto had known for a while of Sasuke's feelings for their pink haired teammate—but Sasuke had never outright told him that, not intentionally anyway. He'd let it slip once when he was drunk off his ass, but otherwise, he'd only implied it.

But now, saying it so openly, so freely—it felt like he had just exposed something major about himself. Like he'd just revealed a huge weakness.

"You need to do something obvious, teme," the other said, resuming his task of slurping noodles.

Sasuke stirred his chopsticks in his meal and mumbled a bit, before rolling his eyes. "I tried. That didn't work either."

Choke. "You—hang on, when the hell was that?" Naruto cried hoarsely through hacking coughs. "You never told me about that!"

A hand came down on his back to dislocate the food caught in there. A muttered thanks was his response, but his friend was still giving him the expectant look.

Sasuke sighed, irritated. "It was a week ago." He started, "I left a flower in her office—her favorite one, too! But she didn't even thank me for it—she didn't say anything to me about it!" He was getting agitated, speaking faster and looking more and more frustrated as the seconds went on. "I thought she'd ask me why. I thought she'd maybe even figure out what I was trying to say. But she didn't and…" He trailed off, running a hand through his hair nervously. "It's like she's stupid or something."

Silence.

"Sasuke…"

The man lifted his head up and glanced at his best friend, sitting beside him and looking as though he was trying not to laugh. His eyes narrowed.

"What?" he snarled, impatient to know what was so funny. What had he done, this time?

"You didn't leave a note." The way Naruto said it, like he was sure of it, or like he had already heard…

He froze. "Did she… did she tell you about this?" he slowly asked, blinking in surprise.

Naruto laughed. "Oh man, I can't believe it was you!" he exclaimed, still laughing. "I mean she was all excited about it because she thought she got a secret admirer! Always babbling about how it had to be someone she knew well because he knew her favorite flower, and since he didn't leave anything to clue her in, he had to return and leave her something else!" He shook his head, grinning in amusement. "She got all depressed that he didn't come back and leave anything else. She thought someone was just messing with her."

He put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder, then. "And now it all turns out it was because some stupid guy who was head over ass in love with her didn't know he had to leave a note and thought she could figure it out on her own."

At this point, Sasuke was flushed a shade of bright pink, and looked utterly mortified. "I just thought she… I mean with all the hints I was giving her…"

"What hints? Inviting her to one on one training sessions during sunset, telling her she heals really well and doesn't have a slimy chakra like Kabuto—yes, I was there!—paying for her meal by telling her she needed to save her money for her apartment—which by the way, was completely insulting because she told me it made her feel like you thought she couldn't handle her own money—and telling her really randomly that she was good at handling kids—she thought you were really weird there, seriously—those are all hints to you? Really?" Naruto rolled his eyes. "You're romantically retarded if you think those are all proper hints."

"I don't know how this works," Sasuke repeated angrily, having finally had enough of being insulted. He stood up, gave the owner a few bills for his meal, before he turned back to Naruto with furrowed brows. "I'm trying, here. And you're not helping like you said you would." He paused. "It's not like I'm intentionally trying to make myself look bad!" he finished, shoving his hands in his pockets and grumbling to himself.

"No, you just naturally do that, apparently," Naruto said, grinning lightly.

"Fuck you!" Sasuke spat out, having finally breached his limit.

His best friend just stared at him, unimpressed. "You want my advice, Sasuke? Truly?"

Sasuke gritted his teeth and looked away. Eventually, he nodded.

"Just kiss her."

Well. He didn't think it was that simple.

A/N: Sorry for the late update, some unexpected plans came up. My friend is taking summer classes and she's got an exam coming up, so when she asked me to help her study I couldn't refuse lol. The next day I had a whole day planned for the beach with my best friend. But yeah.

I think I will skip the next two days (Our First Place and Grounded) because I don't feel like rushing myself to do them. SSmonth is supposed to be fun! So yeah, skipping two days to come to today's prompt. I hope I won't have to do that again, but I might. Got a few plans, still.

Hope you enjoyed nonetheless. :)

DeepPoeticGirl