disclaimer i don't own naruto.

SASUKE

chapter four – best friends

"…Yeah, so that's pretty much how I met Hinata," Sasuke finished off, eyes glued to his laptop screen where he smashed a few enemies with his character and defended both he and his best friend.

Naruto guffawed so loudly Sasuke thought he heard it in real life even though they were a country apart. Yeesh, when someone can match even the power of Skype calls, you know things have gone a bit too far. "Sasuke, you suck!" he managed to gasp out between hysterical bursts of laughter. Sasuke deliberately let an enemy almost drain all the HP out of Kurama, Naruto's character. "OI!" came his indignant cry as he scrambled to get back up and heal himself.

"I didn't tell you this to be laughed at," Sasuke icily bit out between gritted teeth, furiously trying to fight down his feelings of embarrassment.

"Oh, teme, you are such a noob – YEAH, BEAT THAT DATTEBAYO! – in the ways of love. Chasing after the only girl who doesn't even –"

"I. Don't. Like. Her."

"Oh! I know." Susano'o and Kurama sat down to heal. "I'll help you guys along. What's her kik?"

Sasuke was wary about his plans. Firstly, what if Hinata maintained her feelings for his best friend from their childhood together? He found that thought displeasing. This whole plan of getting them… 'closer' would probably backfire. But then again, at the rate that they were going, it would probably end up being one of those superficial friendships where you talk fervently for the first few days and completely stop all contact afterwards. He didn't want that. So as much he didn't want to admit, he needed Naruto.

So with heavy reluctance weighing down on his fingers, he typed his female friend's username in the chatbox. Two seconds later, he felt his phone vibrate. He quickly unlocked it only to see a three-way conversation between him, Naruto and Hinata. "Naruto!?" he exclaimed in utter confusion, though he really should've seen this coming.

"Yay! I haven't talked to Hinata-chan in a whiiillleeee. Okay let's go finish this mission and then I gotta go, so I'll help you with your love life later ~" Naruto cheekily said as Kurama teleported away.

This was so embarrassing.

Naruto Uzumaki hinata-chan! remember me?

Sasuke Uchiha you don't saayyy

Hinata Hyuga hi naruto-kun. of course :)

Naruto Uzumaki shut up teme, no one needs your sarcasm.

Sasuke Uchiha whatever. brb

Naruto Uzumaki how have you beeeen hinata! it's been a while aye

Hinata Hyuga oh, i've been well. you?

Naruto Uzumaki same old, same old. so how did you meet this douchebag? i never thought i'd ever see you guys talk to each other!

Hinata Hyuga we met on instagram. do you have instagram?

Naruto Uzumaki yup! it's narukage

Naruto Uzumaki oh yeah, it was your bday! happy birthday! :D

Sasuke Uchiha back. delayed much

Hinata Hyuga thank you :)

Naruto Uzumaki let's play truth or dare!

Sasuke Uchiha it's 10pm and you want to play truth or dare.

Naruto Uzumaki and it's 12am for me. there's no truth or dare curfew ok! what do you suggest we do, considering both of you are on the other side of the world?

Hinata Hyuga i'm happy with what naruto-kun suggested.

Naruto Uzumaki great! sasuke, truth or dare?

And so the three hopelessly bored teenagers played the most classic of classic games until the sun finally rose at Naruto's end of the world and he declared he was about ready to die from exhaustion. Sasuke had to admit, it was a really fun night and he didn't know what he would do without Naruto, even if he had made him admit and do equally embarrassing things that they all promised they wouldn't share with anybody but each other. (Really, they wouldn't have known whether he did those things or not, but the greatest and worst thing was that they all trusted each other enough to believe that they would all do the right thing and not cheat their way out.)

Then again, the flip side was that he learned more about Hinata in a few hours than he ever would in a private conversation for possibly weeks.

Sasuke immediately regretted changing the rules of the game. It had been two days since the first and most recent time they had played, but the three decided to change it up a little. Dares took a while and being 'new' friends meant that there were still juicy secrets left waiting to be uncovered by truths, so now the version they played was 'truth or truth'. Basically, in this game, one person asked all. It was all going fairly well, considering it was a truth or truth game, until Naruto popped the one question Sasuke had dreaded ever since they started playing. Well, a variation of it anyway.

Naruto Uzumaki if you could marry anyone in our grade, who would it be?

Ohhh shiet. Did he really have to ask that? He knew exactly what he was going to say! Or was this his way of helping?! Sasuke's inner panicking was put to an end by the messages on his screen by none other than –

Hinata Hyuga omg.. T_T

Hinata Hyuga i'd probably marry naruto-kun…

Hinata Hyuga because i've known you for a while! and my family knows you

If Sasuke could describe what he was feeling, the best thing he would come up with is the feeling that he would've gotten if someone had come and deleted his very well-off character account and then proceeded to smash his laptop away for absolutely no reason, and then take said laptop away and give him a box computer from the 2000s with absolutely no way to connect to WiFi.

Like, he could feel his heart sink down so low Titanic wouldn't rival it. It was that bad.

In a separate private conversation, Naruto came to offer his sympathy.

Naruto Uzumaki well.. shit.

THANKS Narutard. Now he could go peacefully die and be buried along with all his hopes and dreams of being even considered a closer friend to Hinata despite all the hard work and all the time he had spent with her as opposed to the.. what? One, two days of talking to her childhood friend who hadn't spoken to her in years and moved on from her as a crush as soon as she unintentionally walked out of his life.

God-frickin-dammit.

Back on the group chat, Naruto tried to unawkward-ise everything with his bright personality and wise words.

Naruto Uzumaki oh wow, thanks hinata-chan XD what about you sasuke-teme

As if he could admit such a thing now.

He guessed he might've taken a bit long because then –

Hinata Hyuga sasuke-kun, if you're afraid we'll judge you we won't… it doesn't have to be a girl :)

Oh my shit, was she… was she insinuating… that he was gay? Was she referring to that one accidental time when he.. oh god.

Sasuke Uchiha IT WAS ONE TIME!

Naruto Uzumaki IT WAS ACCIDENTALLLLLLL

Hinata Hyuga O_O but you kissed!

Even on opposite sides of the world, Sasuke could feel both his and Naruto's pride being flushed down the drain with the mention of that one horror incident that had happened in sixth grade. And somehow, news of that incident had reached even the other classes in their grade and some seniors, too.

Sasuke Uchiha i can assure you, i'm perfectly straight.

Sasuke Uchiha if i had to marry any GIRL… i'd probably marry you, hinata

Sasuke hyperventilated for a few seconds, horrified at what he had just typed. He could sense Naruto sitting silently, anticipating what the girl would say, not wanting to ruin what he had worked so hard for.

Hinata Hyuga aww sasuke-kun, that's so sweet of you :D then again, i suppose everyone else is just a fangirl, ne? better to marry a friend ~ hypothetically anyway

Sasuke never thought that this particular word would apply to him. Until today.

Uchiha Sasuke was officially friendzoned.

author's note

- laughs hysterically - hello everyone! this is probably the last you'll see of me on this fanfiction. i've lost inspiration for this, but i decided to upload this one last chapter that i wrote a long, long time ago because you all deserve it. who knows if i'll pick this up again sometime in the future. sayonara, dearest sasuhina buddies!