It was only three days, so counting down days would have been a silly thing to do- so instead, Naruto counted down the hours. He wrote them up on a piece of paper sitting on the corner of his desk.

72 hours

63 hours

57 hours

42 hours…

Each hour since he'd made the list was crossed out with a thick black marker. Hours that had been particularly long just to spite him (the 56th hour had been a bitch) had little flames drawn around them in red ink. Three hours, that was it. That was all that was standing between him and his very first date with Uchiha Sasuke.

Part of Naruto knew that what he was doing was a bit strange. Obsessive, even. He couldn't help himself. A date was official. A date was a statement. Each hour that ticked by was painfully long and annoying.

Sasuke, for his part, seemed little affected by the wait. But Naruto suspected that he was up to something. For one thing, his phone calls always seemed to be ending the second Naruto entered the room, and when he asked what they were about, Sasuke would just wave his hand absently and say 'business, dobe, we do have work to get done'. Another thing was that Sakura kept looking over at him and giggling. She tried to hide it, of course, turning away quickly and covering her smile. But Naruto, being a natural prankster himself, knew a mischievous laugh when he heard one.

A little chime caught his attention and Naruto glanced over at the clock. Smiling joyously, he grabbed a black marker and proceeded to scratch out the '7' written across the paper on his desk. Six hours until he got off work. Six hours until he and Sasuke had their first date.

And he still hadn't figured out what Sasuke was planning.

He'd went about trying to find out rather cleverly, if he did say so himself. Once, when Sasuke left his office (a rare thing, the stupid Uchiha was usually welded to his desk) Naruto had snuck in and hit redial on his phone. Unfortunately, Sasuke did seem to be doing some work because he ended up making a rather embarrassing call to the Customs Bureau in Russia. He figured questioning Sakura would be a waste, because she would know what he was up to immediately. However, knowing Sakura, she wouldn't be able to keep something really juicy to herself. She would tell someone.

Now, Sakura knew better than to tell Ino. For a lawyer, the girl sure did have a problem keeping secrets (she had been the one who had told Naruto about the hall plants). So, if not Ino, who would Sakura spill to?

As if on cue, a cute little Hyuuga turned around the corner holding a messy stack of papers. Naruto beamed. Hinata! Of course, Hinata! How could he not think of Hinata? Doing his best to look completely innocent, Naruto rushed over, catching several papers that had slipped from the pale girl's grip.

"T-thank you, Naruto-san." Hinata mumbled, blushing slightly. Naruto just smiled, following her as she continued to walk to her desk.

"Not a problem, Hinata-chan!" Naruto chirped, grabbing some more of the papers off the top of the stack, allowing the young woman to see where she was going. Hinata blushed. "You should be more careful, carrying a stack like that. You could have fallen and hurt yourself." Naruto chastised playfully. Hinata bit her lip, carefully setting the papers down.

"I-It's no problem, really." Hinata murmured, face getting redder.

"You sure? I could help you out if you need anything else brought over." Naruto offered, smiling innocently.

"Uh…N-no thank you. This i-is everything…" Hinata told him, looking up shyly.

"If you're sure." Naruto responded, giving Hinata his most winning smile. "You know, I was wondering if you could do something for me." The dark haired woman looked a bit weary suddenly, and cast him a nervous glance.

"W-what?"

"I was just thinking- Sasuke and Sakura have had an awful lot of private conversations today. It's a bit strange, don't you think?" Naruto ventured innocently. Instantly Hinata's whole face turned a brilliant shade of red and she looked down at her feet. Naruto grinned triumphantly. She did know something!

"Why Hina-chan! What a lovely shade of pink you are!" Naruto purred. "What could have brought that on?" Hinata just stared at her feet.

"I d-don't think i-it's that s-strange. T-they have a lot of w-work to do…." Hinata mumbled, playing with her fingers the way she did when she was nervous.

"Oh? What is it they're working on, exactly? I haven't gotten a chance to ask. They have run anything by me. Maybe they're working on a…special project?" Naruto hinted, blue eyes narrowing slyly. Hinata opened and closed her mouth, looking very lost.

"Maybe you could fill me in, since Sasuke and Sakura seem so busy. Just what are they…OUCH!" Naruto yelped, swing around. Behind him, Sakura was giving him a dangerous look. Naruto sighed and rubbed the back of his head where she had whacked him.

"Naruto, what exactly are you doing?" The pink haired girl demanded dangerously. Naruto offered her an awkward smile, looking nervously at Hinata who was stubbornly staring at the floor. No help there, he was sure.

"I was just…uh….having a bit of a chat with Hina-chan. You know, the weather and all that…" Naruto offered, trying his best to look perfect unassuming. Sakura wasn't buying it.

"MmmHmm. Well, it's good to know you have so much free time. Maybe well your chatting about the weather, you can ask Hinata about the interview she had to postpone because you still haven't authorized the new positions in shipping." Sakura drawled coolly, tone hinting at danger. Naruto couldn't help but feel a tad guilty- he had forgotten about that- and cast Hinata an apologetic glance. Like a dog with its tail between its legs, Naruto snuck around Sakura, casting her a nervous glance as if expecting another blow.

He got lucky. Sakura seemed to believe her point had been made, and only cast him a scathing look. With a sigh, Naruto made his way back to his office, casting a last, wistful look at Hinata who was whispering anxiously with Sakura. There went his chance. Sakura would be sure to warn Hinata against spilling anything to him now. Naruto pouted, tossing himself into his cushy desk chair.

His only consolation was that his little chat with Hinata had managed to amuse him for about twenty minutes.

Which meant there was only five hours and forty minutes left…

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When Sasuke finally finished work- right on time, for the first time since he had taken over the company- he found Naruto looking completely oblivious, seemingly busy filling out paperwork at his desk. Sasuke smirked, knowing full well that Naruto had been obsessing over this date for the last three days.

"Wrap it up, dobe. We have an appointment, remember?" Sasuke drawled, leaning against the doorframe of Naruto's office. Naruto glanced up, blue eyes looking slightly reproachful.

"Appointment? I don't recall any appointment. Are you sure it was tonight? Because I already have plans. My boyfriend and I are going on our first date tonight." Naruto retorted, giving Sasuke a stern, meaningful look. Sasuke sighed a bit to himself, marveling over what masochistic tendency had led him to fall for someone so stubborn.

"Oh, do you? Lucky guy. Is he late, then?" Sasuke asked as he casually made his was to Naruto's desk. The blond glared at him.

"He will be if he doesn't get his ass in gear." Naruto grumbled, looking back down at his work. Sasuke, who was now leaning against the corner of the blond's desk, glance over and noticed that Naruto was 'work' was actually just an old field report he was doodling on.

"Well, maybe I should take you out for a drink. You know, to keep you busy until your boyfriend shows up." Sasuke offered, giving Naruto a coy half-smile.

"Or better yet, you could stop being an ass and we could get going." Naruto retorted, pouting slightly. Sasuke snickered and rose, giving Naruto a mock bow.

"Very well then. May I escort you downstairs then, darling?" Sasuke purred, voice mockingly polite and with a fake English accent. Naruto shot him a dark look.

"Why of course, my dear." Naruto responded dryly, walking around his desk and passing Sasuke to stand in the doorway. Turning, he struck a dramatic pose and said sharply. "Don't let the door hit you on the way out." And then turned sharply to march in the direction of the elevator. Sasuke chuckled. This was going to be an interesting night.

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It had taken quite a lot of effort on Sasuke's part to think of the perfect first date. Even with Sakura's help Sasuke had been hard pressed as to where to take the blond. Usually something like this would be easy- fancy restaurants, stocked limos, and exquisite hotels were enough to impress any female Sasuke had ever wanted to lay. Naruto, however, had no interest in caviar and arrogant waiters. The down-to-earth male would have been happy eating Ramen out of a cup in his living room.

So, Sasuke held himself back a bit and checked his natural instincts (as an Uchiha, he was trained to throw money at any problem) and go off of Naruto's….Or, to be more direct, Sakura's instincts on Naruto. Of course, he had had to do most of the thinking on his own. Sakura had blatantly refused to do all his thinking for him. The cow.

It turned out better than he would have imagined, because Naruto was positively beaming. Sasuke thought his eyesight might go if he looked directly at the positively glowing blond male. It gave Sasuke's pride a great lift to know that Naruto was this happy because of him.

"Sasuke, this place is amazing." Naruto purred, reaching out to tap one of the glowing rose lights playfully and grinning when it flickered, causing the shadows around them to shift. Sasuke hid a smile behind glass of wine. It hadn't taken as much work as Sasuke had thought it would to get the head of the Spanish embassy to agree to let Sasuke rent out one of the rooms specifically designed for Spanish ambassadors working on foreign policy with Japanese politicians. It seemed even the Spanish knew of the fame of the Uchihas.

The room was amazingly colorful, particularly with yellows, oranges, and reds- colors not often used to decorate high class Japanese hotels. Samples of intricate hand-woven Spanish cloth where hung on the walls and delicately painted vases held rare and exotic flowers native to Spain. The kitchen was lit by rose colored drape lights, like those used in America for Christmas and other holidays.

"Gods, Sasuke, how much did it cost you to rent this place?" Naruto murmured, in awe as he carefully studied one of the particularly detailed murals on the wall. His fingers hovered above it, as if the blond thought it would fall apart at the slightest contact.

"Money is not something I was particularly concern with when I chose this place for tonight." Sasuke commented dryly, amused that Naruto would still worry about the cost. He would never get used to being rich, would he? "I just wanted something I knew you would like." Naruto turned to look at him, blue eyes curious.

"What makes you think this is what I would like?" Naruto asked, the rose colored lighting causing his hair to softer and slightly more ethereal than usual.

"Do you think I've worked with you all these years and haven't noticed your obsession with travel? Usuratonkachi." Sasuke teased, dark eyes softening as he traced the shadows on Naruto's cheek. The blond flushed, and looked down at his feet. He was so childish sometimes…It really was quite cute…

"I feel kind of guilty now. I don't think I would have ever been able to think of something quite this amazing for you." Naruto admitted, giving Sasuke a shy smile. "You're wonderful." Sasuke tried not to blush. It was hard to take, seeing someone as selfless and kind-hearted as Naruto telling him, Sasuke Uchiha of all people, how wonderful he was.

Sasuke caught Naruto's chin in his fingers, and buried the other hand in the blond's soft hair.

"I guess I'll just have to do the thinking for both of us, huh dobe?" Sasuke responded airily, shooting Naruto a cocky half-smile. Naruto rolled his eyes and tugged Sasuke down until their lips were just almost touching. Sasuke didn't see any harm in finishing off the gap.

Naruto's mouth was rough and warm and a familiar need to taste every inch of it welled up in Sasuke's chest. He dug his fingers gently into Naruto's scalp while his other hand traced the blond's jawline and neck. Naruto clung to Sasuke's neck, fingers running gently along the back of Sasuke's neck and along the ridge of his hair shyly. It amazed Sasuke- this uncertain male was the same person that had had him pinned and then sucked him off a few days before.

It made Sasuke wonder what else Naruto was capable of, if properly motivated….

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Author's notes:
One chapter left. I'm actually relieved- when a story starts to wind down, it gets harder to write because there isn't much new inspiration left. You're left just tying up loose ends, which is harder. I started writing my next story (I'm not posting it until I get back in school, because I have more readily available internet access at school.) and I have so much more energy for it. It makes me sad, because I feel like I'm letting this one slip a bit. Which is why I've decided to split up the chapters more- I was just going to meld this chapter and the next one into one long chapter, but I knew that I would get frustrated and start to rush through it, so I decided against it.

Also, I decided to make the last chapter a sex scene (yes, rapid yaoi fans, a sex scene). So I wanted that to be separate as well.

Hear from me soon!

AthenaALpha