Chapter Text
~Chapter 14~
“Okay,” Sasuke said, taking a deep breath in, “Maybe I do have a type, but that doesn’t mean jack,”
“We aren’t trying to imply anything here,” Sakura said. Both Sasuke and Sai looked at her.
“Okay, maybe we are trying to imply something,” Sakura admitted, “But hey, it’s all for your own good,” She then proceeded to look at Sai as if she were asking him for his help. Sai in return just shrugged as if to say: Don’t look at me, I learnt how to make friends by reading a book.
Sakura sighed. She looked at Sasuke with a pained expression on her face and took a deep breath. She then looked at Sasuke again with an awkward smile and oh god, Sasuke knew that smile. It was a smile Sakura made before she would say that would potentially piss someone off. Sasuke took a deep breath and mentally prepared himself.
“Sasuke,” Sakura started slowly, “Don’t you think that maybe, just maybe, you might have feelings for Naruto?”
“Sakura,” Sasuke said, looking dead straight at her, “I don’t like Naruto, not romantically at least. He’s my best friend, my pal, my, my homie,”
“Damn,” Sai said, “Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine the Uchiha Sasuke use the word ‘homie’,”
“That would be a wei- You know what? Forget I said that, I hope you understand what I’m trying to say here Sakura. Sure, Naruto has a great body, a beautiful smile-”
“That sounds kinda gay,” Sai gracefully interrupted.
“Sai-” Sasuke tried saying something but Sai beat him to it.
“Look, I’m no expert, but what you said right now sounds pretty gay to me,”
“I’m an expert,” Sakura said, “and that sounds pretty gay to me,”
“Ugh!” Sasuke cried in frustration, “You guys aren’t getting my point!”
“And you aren’t getting ours,” Sakura said, a little sad smile forming on her face, “We’re your friends Sasuke, me and Sai both. We just want to help before you regret it”
“Thanks a lot you guys,” Sasuke started, “I really appreciate it, but trust me, I do not have feelings for Naruto,”
But Sasuke knew, the moment those words left his mouth, it was a lie. He looked back towards Naruto once again and he was sure of it. There was no way in hell Sasuke did not have a crush on Naruto.
Their small meeting had ended shortly after Ino managed to get away from Akko. Ino politely dragged Sakura away from the group, leaving Sasuke, his girlfriend Akko and Sai together, staring at each other awkwardly.
“Want some punch?” Sasuke asked Akko.
“Sure,” Akko replied with a small smile. Sasuke got up to get some punch.
“Hi,” Akko greeted Sai, trying to ease the tense and awkward vibe.
“The Egyptians believed that the most significant thing you could do in your life was to die,” Sai replied.
Damn, Akko thought, Not talking to him again.
~*~
The party was uneventful for a while. After everyone caught up with each other, they decided to huddle up on the ground and play something.
“What should we play though?” Kiba asked.
“I brought my Twister mat,” Sai suggested.
“No!” Naruto said, a little too quickly. Sasuke side-eyed him.
“Uh, I mean, there are way too many people to accommodate, so it wouldn’t be so fun,” He explained.
“I guess that makes sense, a pity, really. I was looking forward to drawing the interesting poses for educational purposes,” Sai said.
“What?” Shikamaru asked.
“What?” Sai asked back.
“Wha-You know what? Forget I asked,” Shikamaru deadpanned.
“How about truth or dare?” Ino suggested.
“Nah, it's actually boring. Half of you pussies are gonna choose truth and we won’t have any juicy questions to ask and the dares won’t be remotely fun,” Kiba said.
“You’re literally one of the said pussies, man,” Shikamaru pointed out.
“My point still stands,” Kiba replied shamelessly.
“So are we like, gonna waste our time thinking about what to play rather than actually playing something?” A girl with two buns pointed out. Sasuke recognised her as Naruto’s coworker. What was her name again? He wondered, Was it Seven-Eleven?
“How about uno?” Ino suggested again.
“Uno, with all of us?” Neji arched his brow. Ino’s smile twitched.
“Hey,” Thirteen-Forteen said, “Remember when we bought like 5 packs of uno cards and merged them together during middle school?”
“Wait,” Ino narrowed her eyes, “I actually have them, I think,” She added the last part as an afterthought. She ran downstairs to probably fetch those cards.
“Damn, haven’t seen those in years man,” Naruto said, breaking the silence.
“I know right! I’m sure even Ino herself forgot about them,”
“How’d y’all manage to forget merging five fuckin’ packs of uno cards together?” Kiba asked.
“It’s not like you remembered it either, genius!” Shikamaru bit back. Kiba opened his mouth as if to humour Shikamaru’s comment but Neji beat him to it.
“Why are the two of you still beefing?”
“Hearing Neji say ‘beefing’ was not on my bingo card this year,” Choji commented.
“On god,” Sakura said. Sasuke noted that phrase wasn’t something she would say. It sounded more like something Ino would say, and Sasuke barely knew the girl. Sakura’s being influenced by her girlfriend for sure. The look on Naruto’s face confirmed Sasuke’s suspicions. Fuck, now that Sasuke (finally) acknowledged his feeling for Naruto, he couldn’t look at him without blushing and feeling giddy like some high school girl. What has his life become?
He turned around and looked at his girlfriend Akko. Was it fair to her? Sasuke thought. Sure, they weren’t really serious about dating but it still feels so, so wrong. He saw her sitting awkwardly between him and Neji (Sasuke was pretty sure Neji was sitting between Kiba and Shikamaru, when did he get over here?). Sasuke felt a wave of guilt flow through his body.
“How are you holding up?” The fuck, that did not sound like something Sasuke would say.
“I’m holding up fine, Sasuke-kun. It’s actually fun here- Oh! And I’m friends with Hinata-chan now,” Akko said with a smile.
“That’s nice,” What the fuck Sasuke? He thought, feeling guilty as fuck. He knows that the two of them are dating for the fun of it, but it felt like he was betraying his girlfriend. Heck, he didn't even have the slightest feelings for her, but it still felt wrong, repulsive even. And who the fuck is Hinata anyway?
“I’m back~!” Ino announced, waving her arms, with two fatass decks of cards in each hand. She raised her brow, as if sensing the tension.
“What did I miss?” Ino asked, blowing her bangs out of her face.
“Nothing much, just the usual, Kiba and Shikamaru bickering,” Neji said, rolling his eyes.
“Tough shit,” Ino said as she proceeded to sit next to her girlfriend Sakura (a fact Sasuke was still digesting). She placed the cards at the centre of the weird circle they had made as they sat.
“I hope you all remember the rules because I am not going to tell them,” Ino said, “We good?” She didn’t wait for anyone to say anything before starting again, “Should we start with seven or-”
“Seven” Both Kiba and Fourteen-Fourteen said. They looked at each other, surprised.
“Seven it is! Now, everybody please take seven cards from the deck and NO CHEATING. I’ll know if you do,” After everyone took their cards, Ino asked Choji to shuffle the deck since he was the MVP of the party.
Sasuke honestly lost count of the number of rounds they played. They started off with a pretty chill vibe, laughing their asses off every time they had to take cards from the deck. But of course, you cannot have a light-hearted uno game with these competitive fucks. The atmosphere became tense, slurs were thrown and the only people who were winning were Shikamaru, Sakura, Neji, some girl who looked like Neji and of course, Sasuke. The last game was ‘surprisingly’ won by Naruto, but Sasuke wasn’t shocked. He always knew Naruto was smart, he just didn’t use his brain as much.
“Dammit, I can’t believe I lost to Naruto,” Kiba sighed.
“Why can you not believe?” Naruto asked, “I’m like, so smart dude,”
“Keep tellin’ yerself that,” Kiba grumbled. Naruto rolled his eyes.
“Now now, I’m sure we’re all surprised that Naruto actually used his brain for once,” Ino said, which earned her a “Hey!” from Naruto, Ino ignored him in typical Ino fashion, “But I need to wrap this party and clean this place up. Thank you all for coming, this party wouldn’t have been the same without each and everyone one of you and yes, I mean it, Shino. Now, I will be accepting volunteers to help me clean this shitshow up!”
“I’ll help!” Sakura raised her hand, causing everyone to stare at her.
“What?” She asked, “I’m her girlfriend, of course I’m gonna help her clean up!”
“Oh, I’m sure you will,” Naruto saud with a smirk, making the room laugh and Sakura almost breaking his skull with her punch.
“Anywho, I think I’ve graced y’all with my presence enough, so I’m gonna dip. Night.” Shikamaru said lazily.
“Uh,” Ino said, “No you’re not. You’re helping me clean up,”
“As if,” Shikamaru said, getting up from where he was sitting, flicking Ino in the process.
“You will, or else I’m telling your mom where you hide your stash of weed,”
“The fuck Ino?” Shikamaru glared at her, “Well then, I’ll tell your mom about your little parties,”
“You probably lied to your mom and came here anyways, so I’d like to see you try,” Ino said as Shikamaru glared daggers at Ino.
“How can I possibly let the MVP of this party go home alone at this time of the night?” Shikamaru asked, placing an arm around Choji’s shoulder, using him as a last resort to weasel his way out of cleaning.
“I can stay and help,” Choji offered.
“No!” Shikamaru and Ino said in unison.
“How can I make the MVP of this party do the cleaning? Are you crazy?” Ino huffed.
“Yeah man,” Shikamaru said, “And why would you add more workload on purpose?” Ino glared at him.
“Oh Shikamaru, sweet, sweet Shikaramu. You don’t have to worry about your best friend having to go home alone,” Kiba said, giving Shikamaru a tooth rotting smile, “I’m here, aren’t I? I can drop him home, safe and sound,”
“You mean we are going to drop him home, safe and sound,” Shino said, probably glaring under his shades.
“Uh huh, that’s exactly what I said,” Kiba said quickly, “Well, gotta bounce. Bye Shikamaru! Enjoy your cleaning!”
“Fuck you!” Shikamaru yelled as Kiba, Shino and Choji, who gave a small wave and shot a sympathetic look at Shikamaru, left.
“Are you leaving?” Naruto asked Sasuke, which started him.
“Uh yeah,” Sasuke replied awkwardly, cursing at himself internally. “What about you?” Sasuke recovered quickly.
“I’m staying. Gotta help Ino out with cleaning, she would ask me to anyways and make sure Shikamaru doesn’t die mid-way,”
“Right, but won’t it be too late by the time you’re done?” Sasuke asked, concerned. His face still flushed, which didn’t go unnoticed by Sakura, who shot Sasuke a look. He ignored it, focusing on Naruto, which made the heat on his cheeks worsen.
“I guess, so I’ll mostly stay over,” Naruto said, making Sasuke uneasy. A sleepover at Ino’s house? Naruto was hell-bent on not coming over for Sasuke’s but he didn’t hesitate to stay over at Ino’s? And Sasuke was pretty sure Naruto hadn’t even discussed it with Ino, so saying this with so much confidence meant this certainly wasn’t the first time Naruto was doing, and probably wouldn’t be the last.
Sasuke felt an evil, ugly emotion swirl in his gut. Jealousy.
“Uh, Sasuke,” Naruto asked, “Are you okay? Your face is red as fuck. Are you sick?” Naruto placed his palm on Sasuke’s forehead. Fuck, It felt so warm. His hands were callous from working out and- hold the fuck up. Sasuke flinched away from his touch.
“I’m fine,” Sasuke snapped, and regretted it immediately. “I’ve used up my social battery, that's all,” Sasuke lied.
“If you say so,” Naruto said, not convinced. “You should probably go, Akko-san is waiting for you,” He pointed out. Sasuke turned around, and there she was, in her flesh and glory, waiting for her by the stairs.
“I guess,” Sasuke replies, looking at Naruto.
“So, I’ll see you at school?” Naruto asked. School. Monday. Two days from now.
“Y-yeah,” Sasuke managed to get out. He was sad that he wouldn’t get to see Naruto for two whole days, but at the same time, he needed more time to sort out his… feelings for Naruto. He waved and walked towards Akko. She smiled at him as he grabbed his arm. From the corner of his eyes, Sasuke saw Naruto stare at them for a second too long before turning around.
Can’t wait for Monday, Sasuke thought.