Naruto and Sasuke walked back to the bridge, and noticed that, for once, Kakashi wasn't three hours late. Kakashi chuckled when he saw Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto frowned when he heard this.

"And why are you chuckling now?" Naruto asked, suspiciously.

"Oh, Naruto, do I need a reason to be happy?" he asked, grinning.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Tch . . . it was probably something perverted, as usual," he said, only loud enough for Naruto to hear.

"Keheheh . . . yeah."

That's when they both noticed Sakura come out from behind Kakashi's back. She had a tear-stained face and puffy pink eyes. Sakura was sniffling.

"Naruto, I'm sorry about what I said earlier. I was just . . . jealous . . . You have a much better chance than I do . . ." she mumbled. Sakura looked down, a fresh wave of tears flowing out of her eyes.

Naruto smiled, and put a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, Sakura-chan! I just wanna know if you like me still . . ." Naruto's voice trailed off on a hopeful tone.

Sakura looked up at him, and smiled. Naruto wiped the tears off her face. Her smile got bigger and she flung her arms around him. Naruto was thrown off balance by the impact and fell onto Sasuke, who, in turn, fell onto his butt.

"Naruto! Of course I like you!" Sakura said, after a minute. Naruto grinned. Sakura stood up, then helped the blond up. He, in turn, helped Sasuke up.

Sasuke couldn't help but notice something about Naruto's grin. It looked different from the one he showed after Sasuke smiled at him. It was bigger . . . maybe more exaggerated.

Sasuke's stoic expression went sour at this realization. Naruto looked at him with a confused expression. Sasuke shook his head and turned to look at Kakashi, because he felt eyes watching him.

Kakashi wore a very familiar expression; one that said that he would be doing a great deal of meddling in the near future. Sasuke groaned.

"So, sensei, do we have any missions today?" Sakura asked. Kakashi shook his head.

"Nope, just sparring! Oh, and Sakura? You're supposed to meet Tsunade about . . . ten minutes ago!" Kakashi said, opening the latest volume of his manga.

He must have sensed Sakura's 'I'm-gonna-kill-you' aura emanating from around her, because he chose that moment to leave. A second later, everyone across Konoha could hear Sakura yell out, "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, KAKASHI!!!"

Sakura ran off to find Tsunade, leaving Sasuke and Naruto alone. Naruto looked over at Sasuke. Before he could say anything, Sasuke started talking.

"Dobe, your grin back there was . . . brighter than the one you gave Sakura," Sasuke commented, hoping Naruto would explain.

Naruto sighed. "Sasuke-teme, I just didn't want to cause anymore problems with her. I don't want to be part of a burden."

Sasuke scowled and threw a punch at Naruto; it was easily dodged. "Dobe! You're not a burden! Get it through your head!" Sasuke yelled.

Naruto aimed a kick at Sasuke's head. The dark haired boy ducked and swiped his leg underneath Naruto's, in an attempt to trip him. Naruto jumped over Sasuke's leg and tried to head-butt him. Sasuke dodged to the right and dove after the Kyuubi boy.

They continued their sparring for many hours. Actually, you couldn't call what they were doing sparring anymore. It was more like a very physical dance.

Naruto and Sasuke had done the same routine since they established it, back when they were both thirteen. Each of them knew exactly what the other was going to do and neither of them dared to break the rhythm or use a different way of attacking or defending. It could mean a serious injury for one of them.

The only time they fought for real was when Naruto was fighting to bring Sasuke back from Orochimaru. Even then, after a while, they somehow managed to fall back into their old rhythm.

Naruto wiped his lip as he stood there, panting. "Hey, Teme? I think we should make a new routine," Naruto said, hopefully. Sasuke frowned and Naruto answered the question before Sasuke asked it. "Don't call me that, and we should change it because I always end up losing!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but every time you lose, I manage to get roped into buying you ramen. So, c'mon, Dobe. Let's go," he said. Naruto's eyes lit up.

"Never mind! I like this routine!" he exclaimed, tugging on Sasuke's arm.

Sasuke rolled his eyes again and allowed himself to be dragged to Ichiraku Ramen by the Kyuubi container.

They got there and Naruto demanded that this one guy moved. "Hey, mister, you're sitting in my spot," Naruto said, rudely. "Get off."

The man looked up and Sasuke was taken aback by the man's eyes. They were exactly like Naruto's. In fact, everything about him looked like Naruto. He actually looked just like . . .

"Yondaime . . ."

And that's the end of chapter 2. Do you like it? I seem to make it where Naruto gets over stuff pretty quickly...
Heh.

-Taryn