Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters.

A/N: Little bit about Sasuke. He's being an idiot, I know. Part of that is his guardian, which was brought up in chapter 8. Along with that, and the fact that he practically grew up in the public eye as a very popular actor and was close to no one, used by everyone, his instinct is to push away anyone he feels he can get close to. Itachi is the exception, and even then he's a bit closed off from his brother, which Itachi is trying to fix. I'll talk about Sai at the end of the chapter.

Enjoy!

Chapter 9: Sai

When Kiba had burst into his apartment in a blur of loud excitement, opening the door so hard it flew back and slammed against his wall with a bang, it caused Naruto to jump a mile up and slosh milk from his cereal on his jeans. "Jesus hell dude you don't have to scare me like that!" he cursed, ripping off a square of paper towel to try to dry his jeans.

"Sorry, I'm just really excited to tell you about what happened last night. My phone died which is why I didn't call."

"It's fine. I just assumed Neji had strangled you and dumped you into a lake or something. What happened? Did you get into her pants?"

Kiba was silent for a moment, giving Naruto his best 'are you serious right now?' look. "We're talking about Hinata here, what do you think?" he said sarcastically. Naruto grinned. "But no. We weren't too busy at work and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, even with Neji there. He was actually helpful, and I got a decent amount of tips. Customers can't resist my sexiness!"

The blond scoffed. "What sexiness? As your apparently bisexual best friend, you are not sexy!"

"And I'll thank you to keep thinking of me that way, thanks. No hitting on me!"

"No worries, mutt. Anything happen after work? You said you were doing your project together at the library."

"Yes!" Kiba practically all but screamed, and Naruto sighed and dumped his dishes in the sink. "It was kind of awkward at first but I brought up wanting to get to know her more and she said she felt the same, we have a date this weekend!" His best friend was gushing. Like a little schoolgirl. Naruto couldn't help but feel happy for him.

"I can tell you and Hinata will be a great couple."

"We will. My main worry is being on the good side of her family." They both shuddered at the thought of Neji Hyuuga. "What about you? You had to spend time with Sasuke last night for the project, right? Did your truce break yet?" He could tell Kiba was expecting it to.

"No, it went fine. It got kind of personal for both of us, I won't go into those details, but we talked about other things. His career in Hollywood, his brother, parents, I told him about my lack of shit-giving when it concerns anything after school, and I told him how we met and became best buds when we were six, and—"

"Eight."

"Huh?"

"We met and became best pals when we were eight, doofus."

"Oh, I was off a bit. Same difference," he laughed. "Could have sworn it was six, but oh well. But yeah, I was feeling sappy or something and asked him if we were friends, and he pretty much said no."

Kiba was silent for a while, and Naruto thought he could see pity in those eyes. "Do you want to be friends with him?"

"I guess, yeah. It'd be nice. I consider him a friend, but it's whatever."

Kiba ran over and elbowed him in the side. "So I'm not good enough for you now?! Is that it, huh?!"

He ended up toppling the blond to the floor and they wrestled a bit before Naruto spotted the clock hanging on the wall and yelped, shooting up and grabbing his apartment key. "We have to go!"

The brunette rolled his eyes. "Don't know why you're so frantic, you know our first class is English. You know. Taught by Kakashi. The guy that's at least 15 minutes late to class himself?"

"Just get out, he's not the only teacher who can spot us coming in late and you know it." Kiba blew a raspberry in his direction and left the apartment, and the two trotted downstairs and out of the apartment building. He glanced at Sasuke's house the moment he got outside and saw that the car was already gone, but Itachi was outside. He did a double-take and realized the man was watering flowers. The older Uchiha saw him looking over and gave a cheery wave, and Naruto waved back slowly, trying not to laugh at the sight.

They got to class right as the bell rang, and he saw his usual seat was taken by Sakura's purse. When the pink-haired saw him come in, she smiled and removed her purse, ignoring the sulky looks the other girls were throwing her. Naruto sat down, giving her a thankful smile, also glad to see that they were still friends. Sasuke sat in the desk next to him as usual, but didn't look over as he sat down.

The minutes trickled by, and Naruto spent the time conversing with Sakura, Kiba, and Shikamaru. Every so often Gaara would give his input on something, and Naruto would always grin encouragingly at him.

Kakashi eventually entered the room, twenty minutes late. Naruto and Sakura stood up and pointed and, in unison, said, "You're late!" accusingly. They did this multiple times a week.

The teacher waved a hand at his two students dismissively. "Yes, yes, apologies," he said behind his mask. "I had to help this poor little girl with her Easter egg hunt."

"It's September," Kiba pointed out. He was ignored.

Naruto got bored when Kakashi started talking, so started doodling a picture of the teacher helping a cute little girl collect plastic eggs, with a crocodile sneaking up on him from behind. Sakura was leaning over and was trying to add bows to Kakashi's hair.

He was trying to slap her hand away when he felt a finger poke him in the shoulder. He looked over to see Sasuke's impassive face looking over at him. "Class ends in a few minutes, we should head out."

The blond was still pretty sore over the friendship rejection, so he did his best to look just as emotionless as the other boy. "Sasuke, I think you don't need any more help with the school layout. Besides, you don't even have a class next hour."

Dark eyes narrowed just a little bit, and he sat forward once more, crossing his arms over his chest. "Fine," he said stiffly, and Naruto rolled his eyes at the petulant attitude and turned back to his doodle. He glared when he noticed Kakashi now wearing a frilly dress, and Sakura was giggling at her addition.

The bell rang, and Sasuke was the first to be out of the class as if he just saw Itachi about to burst in through one of the windows. Naruto checked the windows to make sure that wasn't the case, and headed to Math. He wondered what Sai would say to him today. What would he say to Sai?

When he entered the room, greeting Yamato as he lounged outside the doorway as he passed, he saw Sai was once again sitting at Naruto's table, waiting for him. "Hey Sai." He smiled nervously as he slid in beside him, and Sai inclined his head slightly in response.

"Do you work today?" he asked.

"Nah, I work tomorrow and Sunday and that's it for this week. Why?"

"Go on a date with me this evening, then." Naruto stilled. A date? With Sai? He bit his lip, mulling over the decision. The kiss he still thought of as nice, maybe it was possible for him to like the other boy as more than a friend.

"Okay," he agreed. Sai let himself smile.

He and Sai agreed that they would leave right after school and he would drop Naruto off at his apartment afterwards. That was how he found himself in the school library once again, waiting until the end of the school day and for Sai's last class to end. The bell rang and Naruto stood up, and saw Sai by the main entrance, a soft smile on his face, and Naruto felt his doubts wash away when he saw it.

Naruto followed the other boy to his car and got in, and he drove to the nearest grocery store. They agreed earlier to pick up some food and go to the park with it, since it was a nice day and they should be enjoying the weather while it lasted. They entered the store and headed straight to the deli, browsing the large glass case that the food was behind.

The deli worker was starting to get impatient, as were other customers; some had just walked around the two and ordered what they wanted. The two eventually settled on some chicken strips, potato wedges, sandwich meat and cheese, coleslaw, and grabbed a fresh loaf of bread from the bakery. They went to the front to pay for their purchases—they split the cost—and went back to the car, bags in hand.

Finally they were in the park, and Naruto was content sitting on top of a picnic table, as opposed to the bench, enjoying the breeze. Sai was sitting on the table on the other side, their backs pressed together. Naruto had to admit it was peaceful.

"You know," Sai said after swallowing some of his sandwich. "My brother and I used to do this all the time. Grab some food and go somewhere with it. Park, beach, a roof."

Naruto was honestly surprised to hear Sai had a brother. "I didn't know you have a brother. Is he away at college or something?"

"Mmm, nah, and he wasn't really my brother. My mom sent me to this stupid summer camp thing when I was a kid, I met him there. We referred to each other as brothers, though." Naruto had noticed Sai's voice now had a sadness in it. "We lived a few hours away from each other, so we'd email, write letters, webcam. Visit during school breaks. But he died in a hit and run when I was eleven."

No wonder he sounded so sad talking about him. Naruto leaned back against Sai, trying to offer his comfort. "I'm sorry," he said, knowing it really was a cliche thing to say in a moment like this.

Sai had leaned his head back so that it was resting on Naruto's. "Don't be. I was given the chance to have known him, and for that I am grateful."

Naruto's phone started going off, and he plucked it out of his pocket to see that Sasuke was calling him. Slightly curious and confused, he denied the call so his phone would shut up. His text alert went off a minute later.

Sasuke: Just wanted to know if you wanted to do anything. I'm bored, Itachi's driving me crazy.

The damn boy was bipolar. Sai twisted his body a bit to look at Naruto as he slid the phone back in his pocket. "Important?"

"Nah."

Naruto smiled, and felt Sai's fingers in his own, and squeezed. He didn't try to disentangle them. "I'm reminded of this one time Jiraiya and I did something similar. I was twelve, and he was wanting to spend the day at a beach and have a picnic. Turned out it was a nude beach. He swore up and down this woman was eyeing him a few yards away so he tried hitting on her, and she dragged him down to the water and shoved him in it." He always tried and failed to forget the memory of having seen his guardian in the nude.

Sai was laughing, Naruto grinning, feeling at peace. After the past few days with Sasuke and Sasuke's rejection and the talk with Jiraiya about his parents, it was a nice feeling to have. And it turned out Sai was pretty fun to be with when he wasn't being weird and shouting about penises.

The pale boy had hopped down, grabbing up their empty food containers. "How about you and I go to the arcade?" Naruto perked up at the thought of air hockey.

"Hell yeah! I'll kick your ass!" Sai smirked at the blond's foolishness.

And foolishness it was, to Naruto's frustration. Out of fifteen games played between the two, Sai had won nine of them. A small crowd had gathered around them, interested in the two boys' intense air hockey competition. Each game took a while to finish, and by the time the fifteen games were played and others were showing interest in wanting to play, his arm was killing him.

"You're not bad at all," Sai smirked, giving the table to another couple.

"Still not good enough," Naruto muttered, though he felt himself grinning like an idiot as he tried to massage his arm. They were in the parking lot again, taking their time walking back to Sai's car. "I had a good time today, though."

"A better time than what you were expecting. I know a part of you dreaded seeing me." No matter what, Sai was always going to have his blunt tendencies. Naruto flinched, knowing it was true.

"I'm sorry. You understand though, right? I go my whole life thinking I'm just simply straight, and then someone I just met brings up the fact that I may not be. It kind of shook my world, thinking back and realizing he may be right, especially when I asked my other friends and they noticed it too. It just took some time getting my head around."

Sai nodded, smiling still. "I understand that. Things turned out fine, I think, it was a fun date."

"It was a really fun date. I should thank you, I guess. For, you know, opening my eyes. I guess."

The other boy snorted. "You're... welcome? I'm just happy I got to you first."

Naruto stopped, confused, leaning his arms against the car and looking at Sai on the other side. "Got to me first? As opposed to who? Sakura turned me down, surely you weren't worried about her."

Now Sai just looked at Naruto as if he was missing something obvious, then looked amused. "Before Sasuke."

Silence. Then Naruto laughed. And laughed some more. He was doubled up, arms wrapped around his stomach, unable to stop laughing. He was starting to worry if he was going to laugh up a lung, but finally it subsided, and he was able to straighten up while wiping away the laughter-induced tears.

"That was funny. Obviously. Sasuke doesn't even want to be friends, much less more than that."

Sai just kept looking at him, as if warring with himself on whether to say something or not. He shook his head, shrugged, and opened his door. "Fine by me," he said before sliding in. Naruto chuckled a little bit more before joining his friend in the car.

Halfway back to Naruto's apartment, Sai broke the silence once more. "Since I got to you first," he said jokingly now, "would you be against being my boyfriend?"

He was silent for a long while, all traces of mirth gone, and he stared at the driver. He liked kissing him. He had a great time today, and he was enjoyable to talk to in general. He didn't have much experience with relationships in general, but he was sure Sai could easily be more than a friend.

"Yes," he answered as the car slid into a parking space outside his building.

Sai's face closed off and his lips puckered a bit, and Naruto realized his mistake. "No, I mean... gah. I'll try out this boyfriends thing. Just... I want to take it slow."

His face had gone from upset to ecstatic instantly, and Naruto felt awkward when all he did was get smiled at. "Sai?" The boy in question didn't say anything, just leaned over the console and kissed him gently for a few seconds.

"I'll see you tomorrow, boyfriend."

Naruto snorted at the silly, teasing look on Sai's face and exited from the car, being sure he grabbed his backpack before he closed the door. He gave Sai one last wave before he went into his apartment.

He was confused again when he got to his floor and saw Sasuke leaning against the wall by his door. "Uh... hi?" Was something wrong with the Uchiha or something?

Sasuke greeted him with a customary glare. No, things were normal on that front. "Where were you?"

"Out with Sai."

"Why?"

Naruto was gobsmacked. He stood there staring at the raven for a while, gaping at him. "Because he's part of my group of friends? Because I agreed to go on a date? It's not like I promised to hang out with you today or something, so what's the problem here?"

Along with the glare, Sasuke's mouth was twisted like he was just force-fed something sour. "No problem. You and Sai dating. Cute." Naruto feared he was about to drown in the sarcasm.

"If that's all, I'll be going in my apartment and doing homework now."

Sasuke said nothing. Not even a 'hn.' Just straightened up from the wall and brushed past Naruto and left. Naruto sighed and banged his head against his door, wondering why he got so easily stressed by the raven.

I know some of you are frustrated by the SaiNaru. And I normally won't do this, I feel it spoils the fun in any story, but I'll go ahead and tell you it doesn't last long, and nothing explicit happens between them in any form. In fact, the break-up happens in chapter 13. But along with the fact that I am a fan of Sai in the series, this (short) relationship will serve a small purpose for the main pairing.

Hope you enjoyed, don't forget to review! Luvs 'em, they're invigorating.