Chapter 7: Errors and Experiments

A pencil was put in between the pages in his marble notebook to keep his place as Sasuke closed his journal and placed it on his nightstand. Rethinking the security of his household, especially with Naruto around, he instead decided to place the book inside his dresser drawer. Underneath the underwear. That should keep anyone out.

Quickly, he got up and went into the bathroom adjoining his bedroom, closing and locking the door just in case he had anymore unwelcome visitors. He silently thanked a random deity that it wasn't this particular bathroom he had chosen decimate earlier. After all, what's an uptight Uchiha to do without a mirror to study his extravagant and handsome looks in? Scoffing as his lack of upkeep of his appearance as of late, Sasuke reached over to turn the knob of the shower to 'on'. He let his black pajamas and boxers pool at his feet before stepping into the stream and relishing the feel of the hot water on his muscles.

He let the side of his head hit the shower wall with a soft sigh, smoothing the skin on his face with his hands. He looked down at his genitals quixotically; as if his penis had a mind of its own when dealing with whom one is attracted to. He absentmindedly thought of Sakura, slightly coming to realization as to why she was always so much of an annoyance to him. Sasuke honestly thought that his repel towards her was strictly because she constantly harassed him.

And, it was half because of that, and half because he really didn't notice her in the way she wanted him to.

He watched the soap run down his lithe, pale frame slowly and quietly; not remembering exactly what parts of him he had washed while lost in his thoughts.

As he worked shampoo into his raven hair, he again thought about the difference between Sakura and his other teammate. Gender, obviously; but what else? Surely somebody as anal as Sasuke could have to love something about Naruto besides his looks. He already knew that besides Sakura's breasts there was nothing else that, well, sort of interested him.

Sasuke rinsed his hair and rubbed the offending soapy substance out of his eyes, feeling around clumsily for the shower knob. As he stepped out of the now dripping shower and pulled a towel loosely around his waist, thoughts about what he admired about the blonde wandered around in his mind.

Sasuke put his hands around the dresser knobs and pulled, aiming to pull out a pair of undergarments so he could get dressed. As he shuffled through the drawer, he whispered a curse as something pointy stabbed into his knuckle. He got mad at himself for deciding to hide his journal in that drawer, and for having such a sharp pencil.

His notions of getting dressed were forgotten when he scolded himself once again for having Naruto in his head 24 hours a day. He pulled out the book and flipped backwards through the pages, stopping momentarily to pull up his slipping towel.

"I guess I like that he's not really afraid to argue with me."

"But he can just chew my head off and I can tell him to shut the fuck up and he can tell me fuck you and then tomorrow it'll seem like it never happened."

Sasuke frowned and fumbled with his towel again, thinking deeply about his words and studying the page as he slowly turned to the next entry.

"There's something in Naruto's eyes that tells me that underneath that ignorant persona he has, somebody really honestly cares about my welfare."

"…Somebody honestly cares about me…" Sasuke mumbled softly, looking over the scribbled pencil with interest.

"Well, duh, if I didn't care about you I wouldn't check up on you so often."

Sasuke let out a rather girlish scream and dropped his book on the floor, sending the pencil bouncing towards the offender's feet. He knew it was Naruto, and he knew after this he absolutely had to triple bar his front door. With the side of his fist he slammed closed the dresser drawer, imaginary steam coming out of his ears as he turned towards Naruto.

He threw out an angry finger to point at his teammate and began to yell: "Why don't you know the meaning of fucking knocking, Naruto?!"

"Well… I, umm… uh, Sasuke…"

"WHAT?!"

"Your… towel…"

The brunette swore he saw a hint of red on Naruto's cheeks before he started whistling and put his hands in his pockets. A small whimper escaped Sasuke's lips, and he slowly looked down to the floor, fearing what he thought he would find.

And sure enough, his unreliable towel had slunk to the floor, collecting around his feet.

He immediately turned every shade of red in the book, hastily picking up the towel and wrapping it firmly around him. This time he decided he would hold it in place. He aimed an angry pout at Naruto, who was scratching the back of his head in mock embarrassment for Sasuke.

"What the fuck did you see, asshole?" Sasuke demanded, the unrelenting male query of 'I hope his dick isn't bigger than mine and I just humiliated myself' running through his head.

Naruto shrugged, refusing to meet Sasuke's eyes.

"We're both guys, you know… it's-"

Sasuke cut him off right then and there, pushing Naruto out of his bedroom and locking the door, mumbling something about how he had to get dressed. He pressed his back against the door and bit at his bottom lip, scrunching closed his eyes as he willed his heart to stop beating so fast.

Naruto just saw my penis, he just saw my penis, Naruto saw my penis… shit…

…why am I getting a hard-on?

Sasuke rubbed at his temples, not sure of what to do with himself. He wondered what Naruto was thinking, or if he even cared. He did seem like it was no big deal, being that we're both guys and all. Hmm. He quickly threw on some clothes and picked up his notebook and pencil, deciding to put them back on the nightstand. After lacing his shoes and running a comb through his tresses, he gradually opened the door and peeked out, seeing if the blonde was still waiting for him. When he spotted Naruto looking oddly at a random painting on the wall, Sasuke walked out to confront him.

As he stopped in front of the blonde, he tore his eyes from the painting to look shyly at Sasuke, still pink in the cheeks as he was before. His fingers wiggled nervously in his pockets, feeling charcoal eyes burn into his face.

"I'm sorry, man… I guess I should really stop doing that." Naruto let out a nervous chuckle before giving Sasuke a cheshire smile.

He watched Sasuke shuffle his feet with embarrassment.

"You know I was right, stupid."

Sasuke let out a low growl from the nickname.

"We both have dicks, you know. You don't have to be embarrassed; we've been friends for a long time, after all."

"Shut it, Naruto."

Sasuke was very tired of hearing about his genitals. Especially with that fact that he was currently hiding an erection. And since Naruto wasn't saying anything specific about his penis, it was a big erection at that. (Hey, he had to get up his ego somehow, with him not knowing the size of the blonde's penis after all.)

He bit his lip, trying to will his hard-on away, when his eyes wandered to his partners lips instead. He was biting his lip as well, and Sasuke was curious as to…

"Sasuke, about that favor."

Oh, yeah. Naruto held out a tape and Sasuke reluctantly took it. He quirked an eye at him as if silently asking him what it was for.

"I'm going on a mission this afternoon, and I want you to tape a show for me while I'm out."

Sasuke looked at the tape and back at his friend, somewhat relieved.

"This is what you want as a favor?"

"Well, yeah. I won't be able to watch it, and it's a new episode, so… I was hoping you'd tape it for me. I'm assuming with how rich Your Highness is you have a VCR, right?"

With a quick slap to the shoulder, Sasuke already knew things were back to normal. He was right about how Naruto thought, how he wrote in his journal that anything could happen between the two of them and things would always just turn out alright. I guess he really did like that quality.

He snapped back to reality and nodded to Naruto, following behind him as they both walked towards the front door. As Naruto stepped outside onto the porch, he gave Sasuke a lopsided smile, and he knew that it was a combination of a goodbye and an apology for doing what he had done. After learning what show was to be recorded and what channel and time it was on, he lazily waved his friend goodbye, shutting the door behind him.

It was barely lunchtime, and Sasuke could already hear the phone ringing and Sakura's daily messages being recorded on his answering machine. He watched the workers he hired fix up his first floor, before going back upstairs to his bedroom. He threw the tape onto the bed and then sad beside it, pulling out a hidden bag of cookies from under his pillow. Grabbing the remote and turning on his television, Sasuke began to relish in the normality of today and be slightly happy that things weren't going as bad as he felt they were. Well, good enough for Crabby McCrabbypants, anyway.

----------------------------------------------------

Sasuke rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times, adding a yawn to the precession. He languidly turned his head to the read, catching his eyes on the red number on his digital clock.

6:04 p.m.

"FUCK!!" Sasuke shot up in his bed, remembering that Naruto had said his show was on at five o'clock!

"Shit, shit, shit…" He mumbled to himself as he quickly recapped his afternoon, eyeing the tape that was still lying on his bed, albeit underneath some blankets. Sasuke scratched his head and continued cursing to himself, recalling that somewhere about four o'clock-ish the hot cocoa he had drank had probably made him sleepy.

Although it might have been that he went out for some light training as well, but Sasuke was never the type to fall asleep during the day. In panic, he called Sakura. He called Rock Lee. He called his sensei. He called everyone he knew the number too and asked if they watched the show and if they by any chance had happened to tape it.

Nobody.

Sasuke mentally half-scolded himself for going through all of this trouble just for Naruto, mainly because he was never that kind of guy in the first place. But, a favor was a favor. And he said he'd do it. And Sasuke Uchiha never goes back on his word.

About 20 minutes and a half a dozen calls later, the inevitable happened.

Knock knock knock.

"Fuck! Naruto! Grr, of all the times to actually knock for once…" Sasuke chewed his fingers as he paced quickly around his bedroom, but then deciding there was no use prolonging the wait until Naruto's disappointment, he walked downstairs. He hesitantly and slowly pulled open the front door.

"Yo, Sasuke-teme! Did you like the show?"

Sasuke's mouth twitched.

"Don't tell me you didn't even watch it as you taped it!"

"I fell asleep."

Naruto laughed heartily, letting himself in to plop down on the couch of the newly semi-refurbished living room.

"Aw, come on Sasuke, it could have been that boring."

Sasuke stepped in front of the blonde sitting comfortably on his leather couch.

"No, dobe, I mean I fell asleep before I taped it…"

As if coming to a sudden realization, Naruto's face melted into an expression that was a mix of disappointment and anger. He stood up and gave Sasuke a push to shit shoulders, showing that he was irritated at the boy.

"Geez, I ask you to do one favor, and you fall asleep? We had a deal after I won the match, Sasuke."

"No, we didn't. You decided we had a deal."

"But you said you'd do it for me!"

"And I was going to, but I fell asleep! There will be repeats, Naruto."

Naruto folded his arms defiantly across his chest, sticking out his bottom lip in a pout. Sasuke was rather satisfied with himself, but still felt bad... a little bit. He huffed loudly and dropped his arms to his sides, staring at the blonde's pouting... inviting lip.

"You owe me another favor, Sasuke."

He put his hands on his hips and narrowed his eyes at Sasuke. Sasuke looked from the lips back to Naruto's eyes, and saw the tiniest hint of genuine hurt. He sort of thought that Naruto should have known he was an asshole and probably wouldn't do it, but with him saying yes and all... I guess it didn't seem too nice to him.

Sasuke's felt his pants grow tighter as he kept lingering his eyes on Naruto's lips, and he cautiously moved a hand to his genital area to keep the other boy from noticing.

Naruto huffed and gave the smallest smile, shrugging his shoulders at his friend.

"I guess it's no big deal. Don't worry about it... teme."

While Sasuke seethed at Naruto calling him a bastard, he inwardly smiled a little at Naruto's passiveness towards the situation. He knew his journal was correct, and that made him the tiniest bit happier, yet still annoyed at having to deal with this situation. As the realization of what he really liked about the other boy came into view, he felt himself struggling with his hard-on trapped in restricting jeans. And with Naruto's lips looking so inviting, it really wasn't helping that much.

He could vaguely recognize Naruto's hand waving in front of his face, as it often did when he became lost in his thoughts. With no coherency whatsoever, Sasuke took hold of the wrist of that waving hand and held it firmly.

"Sasuke?"

He didn't hear his name being called, and he didn't hear Naruto ask 'what the fuck are you doing' when he snaked his other hand to the base of his neck. He couldn't hear Naruto's stuttering, either, when he decided to inch his own face closer to the others.

It's as if his ears were full of cotton, but he could have sworn he heard Naruto whimper as he softly and hesitantly pressed their lips together.

Author's Note: Ahh! Cliffy! xD Next chapter will be a journal, I'm so eeeeeeeeevil! But I promise I'll follow up on this, don't worry. And don't kill me. ;; Review, please! I must get reviews before I continue.