Ino: so wadaya think?

Sasuke: … can you just skip ahead to the lemon?

Naruto: WHA? -blush blush blush-

Ino: NO! You gotta let the story play out… otherwise it's no fun!

Sasuke: humph

Ino: -scowls at Sasuke-

Naruto: Hey Ino! Be nice to my seme!… erm… I mean… teme! (1)

Ino & Sasuke: Naruto!

Naruto: eep!

Chapter 3: Seventeen

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke gathered at the training grounds. The nostalgia was overwhelming. Sasuke was wearing a dark blue sweatshirt, loose black jeans and the white scarf from yesterday. Naruto had on his traditional orange jumpsuit with black detail. Sakura wore a red jacket over a pink shirt and a red skirt with long white leggings to keep out the October chill.

Kakashi sense was late as usual. When he finally arrived, all the members of squad 7 were anxious to get their new assignment. It would be their first mission with all of the original squad members since before Naruto's first chunin exam. Naruto was psyched to say the least.

"YEA!! I finally get a real ninja mission to prove my skills!" Though Naruto had proven his skills many times over, one more time couldn't hurt. He was especially anxious because this time Sasuke would see how great of an ninja he had become over the past 5 years. "ALL RIGHT!! 

LET'S GO!!" Naruto shouted, jumping with one immense leap into a high branch in a nearby tree. Sasuke just shook his head, "dobe" he muttered under his breath.

"Calm down Naruto" Kakashi said through his mask, "it's not that kind of mission." Naruto half scowled at his sense and hung from his branch by his hands before dropping to the ground.

"Then what are we doing here?" Naruto grumbled half to Kakashi and half to himself.

"We are celebrating a very important day today…" Kakashi trailed off, queuing in Naruto to guess.

"Hmmmm…" Naruto muttered, thinking of different things the leaf village could possibly want to celebrate. Then the light bulb went on in Naruto's head. He snapped his fingers to show that he'd figured it out. "We're celebrating the anniversary of the day the Kyuubi was defeated, aren't we?" Kakashi lowered his visible eyebrow, Sasuke rolled his eyes, and Sakura looked concerned.

"You haven't forgotten your own birthday have you Naruto?" Sakura questioned. Naruto's face suddenly got hot and a deep pink blush spread across his face from cheek to cheek. "N-NO! Of course I haven't forgotten, psshh, what kind of idiot forgets their own birthday?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes disbelievingly at Naruto and Naruto's blush deepened. It took all of Sasuke's self control to not smile at how cute Naruto looked with the pink blush tainting his well tanned cheeks. Naruto saw this and quickly turned away. Sasuke taken aback turned away from Naruto, muttering "God Naruto, you're such a dobe."

Naruto's blush faded and he scowled at Sasuke. "Teme!" he shot back. Sasuke scowled back at Naruto, "usuratonkachi!" he growled. The two boys were inches away from each other's faces, scowling at one another. "NARUTO, SASUKE, BAKA!!" shouted Sakura as she grabbed both boys by the hair at the back of their heads and forcefully knocked their heads together; their headbands making a metallic ringing sound as they made contact.

Naruto immediately doubled over, sitting cross-legged on the ground and clutching his forehead. Sasuke fell backwards, landing on his ass with legs spread out. Sasuke quickly pushed his headband down onto his neck and rubbed the spot on his forehead. However, Naruto refused to move his headband, and continued covering his forehead with his hands.

Kakashi sat on the large boulder in the center of the clearing, resting his head in his left hand, which was resting on his knee. He sighed, 'some things just never change' he thought to himself. 'And I really though Naruto and Sasuke were beginning to get along…'

Kakashi's thoughts were interrupted when he heard someone howling. He looked up to see Kiba and Hinata leaping through the trees toward the clearing. Kiba was caterwauling "EH! Naruto! Where's that 17 year old fox daemon ehn?" Akamaru's tongue lolled out of his mouth and he let out a happy bark of recognition as Naruto's scent flooded his senses.

Naruto stood abruptly, forgetting his forehead completely and waved to Kiba and Hinata. Kiba and Hinata landed near the edge of the clearing and ran to greet Naruto. Kiba and Naruto pounded knuckles and Naruto nearly fell down when Akamaru reared up and licked him in the face. "Happy birthday Naruto," Hinata's voice war hardly audible, but it had lost some of its apprehensive shyness over the years. Kiba patted Akamaru's head, then looking Naruto in the eye sneered playfully "Eh, so you're finally old enough to play with the big dogs hm?"

There was a spark in Naruto's eye as he accepted the challenge of Kiba's banter. "HA! Try saying that again dog breath!" he mocked, throwing a playful punch at Kiba's shoulder, letting the other boy block it with an open hand. The two quickly got into a mock fight which ended up with Naruto in a head lock and Kiba dragging him around like a rag doll.

Naruto pulled free in time to see Temari practically dragging Shikamaru across the training grounds. "Don't tell me the party's already started," she said when they got closer to the small congregation.

"You're right on time" replied Kakashi warmly. Shikamaru muttered something under his breath about showing up early for parties, for that he received a quick elbow in the ribs from Temari who just waved her apologies and beamed at Naruto.

During all of this Sasuke (no I haven't forgotten poor Sasuke) leaned against the boulder where Kakashi was perched. He watched as more and more friends arrived in the clearing to wish Naruto a happy 17th birthday. Rock Lee and Gai Sense were next to arrive, by whom Naruto was quickly embraced. Ebisu brought Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon to see the party, but only stayed for a little while. Eventually it seemed that all of Konoha was there (plus the sand squad). The clearing was packed, people had brought cake and junk foods, there was music playing (because there's totally an outlet to plug a stereo into in the middle of the forest). The entire training ground seemed to be a massive writhing sea of people. Sasuke strained his neck to see above the crowd, but couldn't pick out Naruto's bright yellow hair. He looked at his watch, 7:28pm it said. Sasuke smiled inwardly and shouldered his way through the throng until he got to the trees then dashed back towards Konoha.

When he arrived at the Uchiha complex, Naruto was already standing in front of the main gate, holding the yellow rose delicately in one hand. Sasuke felt his stomach tie in a knot, just seeing Naruto standing there made his heart pound in his chest. He swallowed, trying to force his heart out of his throat, took a second to regain his senses and turned the corner to meet Naruto. He swung his house keys casually around his index finger and took his good time getting to the front gate. "You're late," Naruto said as Sasuke started to unlock the gate, Sasuke looked down at his watch, it read 7:32. Sasuke looked at the blond through the corner of his eye and gave a short 'humph.'

The gate swung open with a loud, metallic creaking and Sasuke held the door open for Naruto to enter first. After he had locked the gate behind them, Sasuke took the lead, Naruto following a few paces behind. At the end of the hall was a large pair of double doors, but Sasuke veered off to the left before they reached them, pushing open a swinging door into spotlessly clean kitchen. There was one small table to the right set for two, and all the ingredients for ramen were laid out near the stove.

Naruto stood in the entrance gawking at everything being so clean and neat, a hard contrast from the filthy condition of his own apartment. Sasuke offered him a chair, but Naruto couldn't resist looking over Sasuke's shoulder as he cooked the ramen. Naruto's mouth began to water as the scent of ramen flooded the kitchen and he unpurposefully rested his chin on Sasuke's right shoulder. Sasuke glanced warily down at his blond friend, but made no objections. Within a few minutes the ramen was finished and ready to eat. Sasuke ladled the soup and noodles into identical bowls and handed Naruto a pair of polished black chopsticks.

The two ate in near silence, throwing a comment or a joke out there every now and then. Sasuke finished his bowl first and rested his head on his fists and his elbows on the table, he was staring at Naruto, but the blond didn't notice, he was too preoccupied with the last of his ramen. Just as Naruto had finished, Sasuke stood slowly, his stomach felt like it was full of creepy-crawlies. 'I'm gonna hate myself for this tomorrow,'

"There's another part to your birthday present Naruto," he said slowly, choosing his words carefully so they wouldn't come out too awkward (which is more than the author can say for herself…). "Close your eyes and I'll give you the second part." Naruto's eyes had a questioning look in them, but he closed them obediently all the same. Sasuke walked slowly over to where Naruto was sitting, his whole body was trembling with nervousness. He placed his right hand on Naruto's shoulder; a pink blush crossed Naruto's face, but the blond kept his eyes shut tight. Sasuke leaned in slowly; there was no turning back now. He pressed his lips gently against Naruto's.

Notes:

(1) Seme - the dominante partner in a M/M relationship