xxxChapter 4: Blooming (Part One)xxx

The water fight eventually came to a close, with a very unhappy Sasuke who was drenched to the core.

"So," he glanced at Naruto, "fun enough for you, Sasuke?"

The pale boy felt heat color his cheeks. Naruto may not have noticed when Sasuke had first used his name, but Sasuke sure as hell just realized that Naruto had called him by his.

Why? Why would he catch something like that? He thought about it for a moment, but then just shrugged it off, labeling it as another strange effect the blond had on him.

Naruto blew a damp bang out of his eyes. "Hey Kiba, what time is it?"

"Hm?" Kiba looked at his watch, "2:10."

"Huh...you guys wanna go grab a bite?" He eyed Sasuke with a smile, "On Sasuke of course."

The raven felt his heart speed up and his palms grow warm, but he managed to keep his attitude indifferent and his expression impassive. "Sure," he muttered. Why the hell was this boy, this...nobody, able to pull out such reactions from him? He hadn't even touched him and he still broke out in sweat when the other spoke.

"Right then, how's BK?"

Kiba nodded eagerly in agreement, while Sasuke and Gaara's faces scrunched up slightly in distaste.

Naruto smiled, "BK it is then!"

x-X-0-X-x

Sasuke reached over the tiny table and snatched one of Naruto's fries.

"H-Hey! You ass! That's mine!" The blond sputtered.

He simply smirked and dipped the fry in the other's ketchup. "C'mon dobe, they aren't healthy for you anyway," he shoved it in his mouth.

"Bastard...you keep your anorexic ass away from my food!" He took a huge chomp out of his burger, as if to back up his accusation that Sasuke was some sort of bulimic girl.

Sasuke sniffed at him and uninterestedly looked down at his salad. It wasn't that he didn't like...greasy food, he just didn't prefer it. "Why in the world would you pick this grease-house to eat at anyway?"

"Shut up and be happy I didn't say ramen stand, which was my first choice."

"So, Sasuke,"

He turned his attention to Kiba. "What?"

"Not that I'm...complaining, but exactly how long do you plan on staying with us?"

Sasuke shrugged, "As long as I have to."

Naruto placed his elbow on the table and rested his cheek on his palm. "You never did tell us why you wanted to hang out with us in the first place."

Gaara turned his head slightly in Sasuke's direction, but he was looking down.

The raven let out a sigh and crossed his arms on the table. "I'm..." he sighed softly, momentarily wondering whether or not he should really share his plan with these people. He decided that it couldn't hurt, considering they were already on bad terms. "I'm trying to ruin my reputation as a perfect student."

Naruto frowned, cobalt eyes darkening. "And you think that being seen with us will do that for you?" he stated, more in fact than question.

Sasuke closed his eyes and tilted his head. "I'll admit, the rumors around school and the things people say about you all aren't exactly truthful, but still," he held up a hand, "skipping school, bringing pocket knives and drinking, you guys aren't exactly role models." With each reason he flicked up a finger.

Kiba's brows crumpled. "Look, we know we're not perfect, we don't try to be, but why do you suddenly want to screw up your life when it's going so good for you?"

Sasuke snorted, "Don't let appearances fool you." He bit his lip for a second and released it with a breath, opening his eyes again to stare at the three. "I'm assuming you know of my father, Uchiha Fugaku?"

"Oh yeah," Naruto looked up thoughtfully, "that rich guy that owns Uchiha Corp., right?"

"Yeah," he folded his hands in front of his face, "me and him don't exactly see eye to eye. He wants me to inherit the business right after graduation, along with my bastard brother. I've told him over and over, too many times to count, that I don't want the company or anything to do with my brother. I want to study and become a physician."

Naruto nodded. "That's a good plan, what's the problem?"

"Well, my fucking father doesn't give three shits what I want, that's the problem. And if I go off to college against his wishes, he'll cut off my access to his money and I wouldn't have any way to pay for my classes. I would have to devote less time to them by getting a job. So I figured, if I taint my grades and my behavior, maybe he would back off. He isn't going to want some troublemaker running his company, he'd pay me to leave."

Kiba grinned, "Oh I see...you want to learn to be bad, is that right?"

Sasuke flinched, "Well I-"

"So," Naruto leaned over the table with a breathy chuckle, staring the other in the face and immediately shutting him up while bringing a faint blush to his cheeks. "The little Uchiha wants to learn how to be wild." He looked at Kiba, "Could be fun, ne?" he sat back down.

Sasuke regained his composure and cleared his throat, "Well, since I've already gone and skipped school," he smiled, "I was thinking...why not take it a step further and not go home either?"

Kiba blinked, "What do you mean?"

Sasuke raised a hand, palm-up as he explained. "I've never stayed out all night before, that's sure to piss him off."

"Oh!" Kiba exclaimed with understanding flashing in his eyes. "You know, that's not a bad idea."

"That is of course," he swept his hand over the three boys, "with the consent that I can stay with one of you."

"Sure man, no problem!" Kiba yelled as he smacked a hand on Naruto's back, "Naruto here will take care of you!"

The blond's head did a 180, "WHAT?!"

He nodded with a toothy grin, "Yup, Naruto'll take you in."

Sasuke smirked half heartedly. "Great."

"That is such BULLSHIT! Why do I have to take him?!" Naruto complained loudly.

"Because you two just get along so well."

"The fuck? No we don't!"

"Exactly, good chance for you guys to get to know each other." Kiba flicked his eyes between them, "Don't glare at me like that damn it! You two have got the most problems out of all of us! Make some love, give peace, and become friends."

"When hell freezes over!" The blond screamed with determination, slamming a palm against the table for extra measure.

Kiba grinned and folded his hands behind his head while closing one eye. "Well then, pull out some blankets, cuz hell's freezin' tonight!"

Naruto groaned and hung his head back over the chair, "You son of a bitch..."

x-X-0-X-x

Well, since Sasuke was staying with Naruto, they had decided to part ways from Kiba and Gaara...Truthfully, it was more like Kiba forced them too, but who needs details?

"Now where are we going?" Sasuke drawled.

Naruto flicked his gaze to the other boy, "Teme, you sound like a little kid." He suddenly gasped, "Let's go to the arcade!" and finished excitedly with balled fists.

The Uchiha rolled his eyes and grinned. "Oh yes, I sound like a little kid."

"Shut the hell up!" Naruto ordered angrily, "I like the arcade!"

"Oh I'm sure you do dobe."

Naruto pouted and crossed his arms. "I'm going to have to change that bastard attitude of yours."

Sasuke simply smirked and stuffed his hands in his pockets as he continued walking beside the blond.

"Hey, you know what" Naruto murmured, poking the Uchiha in his side, "I'm hungry."

Sasuke smacked his hand away and shot him a disbelieving look. "You can't be serious, you just ate."

Naruto scowled and shoved the other boy's shoulder. "Look dick, it's not my fault that I'm a bottomless pit okay?"

Sasuke shoved him back slightly with a scowl. "It's ridiculous dobe, you eat like a starving African child."

Naruto threw his head back and pressed his palms over his eyes, "God! You are such an asshole!" He lowered his hands and glared at the Uchiha, "You're just jealous of my healthy appetite!"

"Fatbitchsayswhat?"

Naruto blinked at the string of words in confusion, "What?"

Sasuke dropped his head and snorted a laugh. "Nothing."

x-X-0-X-x

Sasuke stared with mild interest as Naruto took another bite out of his pizza, the gooey cheese following his mouth as he pulled away.

He let out a 'tsk', "I swear, you are the messiest thing I have ever met."

Naruto frowned and put his food down, vaguely listening to the squeals of playing children around the arcade. "I'm not a 'thing' you ass, I'm a person. What happened to the less of a douchebag version of yourself that apologized to me earlier?"

Sasuke shrugged and bit his own pizza, then picked up a napkin to wipe the grease off his perfect face.

"Agh, will you stop doing that?" Naruto growled.

He paused, "What?"

"You wipe that fucking thing across you face after every bite, it's annoying. Why can't you just wait to the end and lick yourself like normal people?"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed at the moronic comment. "Baka, napkins were invented so you don't have to use your tongue like some sort of animal."

"Well you know what? It's a waste of food! All those poor hungry kids out there that would eat your damn napkin just 'cuz its got some cheese left on it from being wiped across your mouth." His hand flitted over his lips to express his words.

Sasuke blinked, "Right...because it's my job to feed the poor," he muttered sarcastically.

"What is it?" Naruto asked, "Are you afraid to lick your fingers?"

"Naruto, why the hell am I going to lick my fingers, when I can just wipe them?"

The younger boy rolled his azure eyes in disbelief. "I swear to God, you are the biggest pussy I have ever met. You and your pristine self need to go and get a life...Give me your hand," he demanded.

"What?"

"Your hand," he pointed, "the left one."

Sasuke raised a brow and slowly lifted his hand to give it to the boy.

Naruto grinned and leaned in a bit, taking a pale finger that was slightly covered with tomato sauce into his mouth and giving it a hard suck.

Sasuke's mouth dropped and he felt a faint throbbing sensation come to life in his pants. When Naruto rolled a tongue over the finger, he yanked it out and pulled it to his chest, "What the hell was that?!"

Naruto licked his bottom lip and sat back down. "Calm down, it's just saliva, it won't kill you, look at your finger."

Sasuke glanced at his treated digit, finding it perfectly clean and glistening with Naruto's spit.

The blond placed his hands behind his neck in a triumphant manner, "If you really want to change Sasuke, you're going to have to change things about yourself as well, not just put up an act for your father. See if you can do it without my help next time, it's actually pretty simple. Pop it in and pop it out, kinda like sex. Not that I think you've ever had any, considering what a prude-""

"Shut up!" Sasuke yelled angrily, completely ignoring the other's insults. "Do you have any idea how that could've looked to other people?!"

Naruto scowled at him. "Here's another tip, stop worrying about what other people think about you. Worry about how you think of you, then maybe your assholishness will go down a few notches."

Sasuke grunted and wiped the finger on his pants. "What the hell do you know" he muttered in irritation.

Naruto smirked. "A lot more than you think." He stood up, "C'mon."

"What now?"

"We're going to play a game, and then we can leave."

"...Fine..." he stood up as well and followed Naruto to what appeared to be some sort of shooting game. Sasuke frowned and picked up the plastic blue gun for second player, "What the hell is this?"

Naruto picked up the red gun. "It's called 'House of the Living Dead Two.' Main objective: blow the shit out of every zombie you see."

"And what's the point of this again?" Sasuke asked with a raised brow.

"Fun. F. U. N. You and me are partners-"

"I don't like it already."

"Look jackass, don't dampen my mood just because you're constantly PMS-ing! Just shoot the damn zombies and be fucking happy for once!" He held his hand out and Sasuke begrudgingly placed four coins in it. Naruto inserted the coins into the slots and stepped on a lever to fill up his arsenal. He looked at Sasuke for a moment, "I'm only explaining this once, so listen, douche: Duck to avoid a hit, shoot to kill, and step on the lever to reload your gun. Got it?"

"Not really."

"Tough shit." He glued his blue orbs to the screen and pulled the trigger when a decaying monster popped out of nowhere, blasting it's head into smoldering scraps.

"Where the hell do they come from?!" Sasuke yelled, stepping back in surprise.

"Shut up teme, you'll ruin my concentration!"

A scowl marred Sasuke's face as he began shooting at random places on the screen, watching Naruto duck down and jump back up out of the corner of his eye - like he was a fucking expert on the thing.

And for all Sasuke knew, he was.

Sasuke growled as a red gash flashed across his side of the screen, slowly depleting his life, while Naruto's was still full, untouched. "Why the hell are they attacking me and not you?!"

"Because you're not defending yourself!"

"Well defend me then!"

"Fuck you! Cover your own ass!"

"You fucking baka! I'm dying!"

"That's not my fucking problem now is it?!"

"I thought we were supposed to be partners!"

"Shut up! You made me get hit! Your fucking gun isn't even loaded! Step on the damn lever!"

For a split second, Sasuke wished the gun was real, and he would turn around and fucking blast the dobe's face off. He frowned when his screen began dripping with blood, red numbers slowly counting backwards from ten. "How the hell did that happen?"

"You died?!"

"Revive me!"

"Fuck no! You revive yourself damn it!"

"How?"

"AGH! Put in more - shit!"

"Shit?"

Naruto dropped the gun and stared at his red screen, then turned to Sasuke. "You fucking jerk! I lost because of you! I've never lost at this game!"

"Fuck this shit," Sasuke grumbled, throwing his gun at the game and turning around. "We're leaving."

"Aren't you even going to say your sorry?! You ruined my perfect winning streak! LOOK!" He shoved his finger to the glass, pressing it against the number "one" spot. "That's my fucking name! See?! NA-RU-TO! You owe me an apology!"

Sasuke spun back to him. "You know what? You are absolutely right, I am so sorry Naruto, it was a horrible thing on my part."

Naruto blinked confusedly. "Really?"

"No."

x-X-0-X-x

It was getting dark when they reached Naruto's apartment, the sky splashed with vibrant oranges and pinks as the moon slowly revealed itself from the blanket rays of the sun.

Naruto shoved a key in his apartment door and slammed it open, still a bit pissed from the arcade incident. He stepped inside and shed his shirt from his chest, allowing it to drop to the floor without a care.

Sasuke felt himself blush at the unabashed behavior of the boy, that and, well Naruto was just plain good looking. Too bad he was a moronic idiot.

He tried to flick on a light switch to get a better look at the apartment, but when he flipped it on, nothing happened.

He smiled, the teasing already piling on his tongue. "Forget to pay the bill dobe?"

Naruto flopped on a small armchair and closed his eyes. "There is no light, deal with it. I don't have money to pay for it. I only get government money and whatever Kiba and Gaara give to me. I have barely just enough to pay for rent, food, and water, the window is good enough light for me."

Sasuke jerked back a step. Great, now he felt bad again. But apologizing was awkward, so he opted for changing the subject instead. "Where am I sleeping?"

"Floor."

Sasuke's jaw dropped. "You're joking, you can't make me sleep on the floor."

"You're no princess here, Uchiha. Floor or outside, make your choice, I didn't exactly volunteer for this in case you forgot."

The raven glanced at the twin bed in the corner, a few feet away from the window, then to a small table in the middle of the room, to the tiny kitchen, and the armchair the dobe was on. "Why can't I sleep on the chair?"

The blond cracked open an eye and grinned. "Because I said so, you didn't think you were going to get away with that whole arcade thing did you? Floor or outside, those are the only choices you have."

Sasuke grunted. 'I can't believe this,' He walked over next to Naruto's bed before plopping on the ground.

Naruto stood up. "Floor huh? Good choice." He made his way to a door and opened it before pulling out a futon, pillow, and blanket which he threw at the sitting boy and shut the door.

Sasuke groaned and laid everything out before removing his pants and shirt and slipping under the cover. It was a bit earlier than he was used to for sleep, but what the hell? It wasn't like there was much entertainment here anyway, besides bothering Naruto.

Naruto smiled and shed his own pants before jumping on his bed and settling his gaze on the moon outside the window.

When darkness had crept into the room, Naruto was still awake, thinking over the events of the past two days. And now that he had cooled down, he found it really hadn't been rational to make Sasuke sleep on the floor. But he wasn't changing his mind now, so the bastard would just have to deal with it.

"Hey Sasuke...you awake?"

"Yeah."

"Oh..."

He waited a few moments before asking, "You didn't seriously ask me that just to see if I was awake, did you?"

Naruto snorted a laugh, "Nah, I was gonna ask if you were gay."

Sasuke felt his breath hitch, and his eyes went half lidded. He didn't exactly remember when he realized he preferred men, he didn't recall ever really liking women anyway. He supposed his sexual preference was influenced by two things. One being a rebellion against his father who was pressed on continuing the Uchiha name, and the other being that he just plain liked boys better. He found girls to be clingy and annoying. Honestly, he didn't care if people knew about his sexuality, he just didn't want to go around proclaiming it to everyone, it wasn't any of their business. "As a matter of fact dobe, I am."

Naruto shot up from his bed, "Whoa! Seriously?!"

Sasuke gave him a confused look, "Yes."

"You do know I was just kidding right? I wasn't really going to ask you that."

The raven blushed and chose not to answer as Naruto laid back down. "Wow, Uchiha Sasuke is gay...actually, that's not a real big shocker. From the way you take care of yourself and what not, and pushing away all those girls that beg to get in your pants, I'm more surprised no one's figured it out yet."

"Hn, maybe it's just you who hasn't figured it out, baka."

Naruto flushed bright red, "Shut up!"

Sasuke chuckled. "Well what about you dobe? Which side are you on?"

"That's none of your business!"

"Uh-huh, so you're gay."

Naruto growled, "For your information I'm bi! Ah.." He groaned and clapped a hand over his mouth in embarrassment. He'd walked right into that one.

Sasuke was smirking like a madman. "Is that right?" he teased.

The blond frowned and turned away from the other boy. "Go to sleep and shut that horrible mouth of yours up."

"So which do you like better? Hot dogs or tacos?"

"Good night teme!"

He was on the verge of a laughing attack, "Would you like me to help you find out which one you like better?"

"Why are you only dirty when we don't want you to be dirty?"

"Is that a yes?"

"Fuck you!"

"Offer?"

"Shut up!"

"Make me."

"I said good night!"

x-X-0-X-x

An hour or so later, Sasuke was lying wide awake on his oh so comfortable futon. That Naruto had provided for him with just so much hospitality and care for the Uchiha's repose.

Bullshit. He couldn't get a wink of sleep on the damn thing.

Neji must have been cursing him somewhere, because as fate would have it, he had to piss. He slowly rose up from the floor and stalked to the door that he assumed was the restroom. And he was right, because hell, he was Sasuke.

When he finished his business, he walked back to his makeshift bed in the same sullen manner he had walked away from it. But something caught his attention before he made to get down.

His eyes widened at the dobe's face, and he leaned down to get a better look at it.

Captivating.

That was really the only way to describe it. Naruto was unearthly beautiful when he slept. How the hell is that even possible? He was sleeping for Christ's sake! But it didn't matter. Sasuke was entranced as he stared at the boy. The moonlight pouring from the open window gave him an ethereal glow, his chest was moving slowly up and down in steady, even intakes of air. Soft lips parted and releasing sweet breaths that ghosted over Sasuke's face, as if caressing it, enticing him to come closer. Golden trestles sticking this way and that, but somehow seeming tame and calm. His face alone was enough to put even the most beautiful of angels to shame.

Sasuke felt a bit of fear coil in his stomach as he realized that he could not tear his eyes away, that had the price of looking been blindness, he would continue to stare.

He hesitantly lifted a hand and cupped the blond's left cheek, running his thumb over the smooth flesh and the unevenness of the marks that marred his flawless skin.

His heart thudded painfully when he felt the urge to bend down and kiss those parted, waiting lips, and he began panting with the effort of holding back that urge. A few tears of frustration leaked down his cheeks, dripping onto a bronzed face, causing the boy to stir slightly.

This was too much for Sasuke, all these feelings and emotions, they were to foreign, too...raw. He'd never had this experience before, and he didn't know how to handle it. One minute he wanted to punch the fucking dobe in the face, and the next, he finds himself breaking down from admiring that same face and wishing he could kiss it until it cried from lack of air.

Why?

His breathing was shaky and unstable as he leaned down to Naruto's face, lips hovering just a breath away from the blond's. "What are you doing to me?" Sasuke whispered.