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"What the hell are you doing?" muttered Sasuke as Naruto loudly scraped his desk over to his.
Sasuke eyed the marks left on the floor. The idiot seemed to bring destruction everywhere he went. Kakashi-sensei wouldn’t be happy. He was dragged from his thoughts as blue eyes twinkled in front of him.
Sasuke blinked in confusion before shoving Naruto away, his breath hot against Sasuke’s palm as he laughed like he’d just told the funniest joke in the world. "See that Sakura?! See that?! I caught Sasuke off guard!!”
Sakura, dutifully taking notes behind them, sighed. "Don’t call out my name so loud! You’ll get me in trouble too."
Naruto groaned. "Don’t be like that, Sakuraaaa… We aren’t gonna get in trouble! I’ll just blame Sasuke—yeowch!" Naruto yelped, caressing his cheek. "Oi, Sasuke! Keep your hands to yourself! You saw that at least, didn’t you, Sakura?"
Sakura hummed absentmindedly, pen scratching paper. Sasuke sighed. How blissful, he thought. To be (mostly) undisturbed by Naruto.
Naruto grumbled something about favouritism and stuck his tongue out at Sasuke. Sasuke only made a pinching motion, and it was enough for Naruto to wince and get back to his work.
Well, that was what Sasuke had wanted to happen.
No, instead of listening to Kakashi-sensei, the idiot began to scribble in the margin of Sasuke's book, little shuriken and Konoha symbols littering his page.
That dumb loser.
And his dumb face.
And his dumb grin.
And his dumb whiskers that made him look even dumber than he already was.
The poor boy pressed two fingers to his temple, sighing deeply. He couldn’t even mourn the neatness of his book before he was literally shaken back to the present.
Gripping his shoulder, Naruto grinned that dumb sparkly grin at him. God, why was he so bright? Must be the sun reflecting or something. He was mildly concerned about the high reflectivity of Naruto’s teeth and pondered the situation until a piece of paper was shoved into his face.
Sasuke stared blankly until his eyes focused, and the paper was pulled away. Naruto excitedly jabbed a finger at the paper. “Look, it’s me, and you, and Sakura!” He let out an oof as a paper ball hit him in the back of the head.
“What’d I tell you about being quiet, Naruto!” Sakura scolded.
Naruto laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head as if the paper had weighed any more than… Well. Paper.
Sasuke snickered at his misfortune anyway. Lucky that Sakura would never do such a thing to him-
“Ow! Sakura!” Sasuke turned and looked at her with mock hurt and betrayal written across his features. Sakura immediately drew back, guilt-stricken, like she had kicked a lost puppy. However, it seemed his powers didn’t work this time, and the glare returned to her face. “Behave yourselves! Must I parent you two all the time?! Listen to Sensei!”
Sasuke sighed and turned back around, where Naruto had dug through Sasuke’s pencil case and pulled out a bunch of neon highlighters. He watched as Naruto yanked the caps off the neon blue, pink, and yellow highlighters and drew bright mops of hair on the three that Naruto had claimed to be themselves and Sakura.
This was the first time he had seen Naruto so intensely focused with a piece of stationery in his hand, he remarked. Before he could form another thought, it was shoved into his face again.
“Give me a break, won’t you?” Sasuke groaned, pushing the paper out of his eyes so he could look again. Upon finally being able to see what Naruto had drawn, Sasuke childishly laughed before he could stop himself. He cleared his throat, eyes glinting at the opportunity to outshine Naruto yet again.
“Is that meant to be us?” he asked teasingly. Naruto puffed his chest out with pride. “Yeah! Isn’t it obvious? Maybe you ought to get your eyes checked, Sasuke.”
Obvious? Ignoring the jab at his eyesight, Sasuke wondered if he was being serious. The neon stickman-blobs with huge wobbly smiles were definitely… unique, that was for sure. Unique in the way that it looked like a toddler drew it. With their non-dominant hand. During an earthquake.
Flipping to the next page in his book and ripping it out, he smirked at Naruto. “I’ll draw us too.” Naruto begrudgingly nodded, as if giving him permission. He decided to draw Naruto first, for no other reason except the fact that he was right in front of him.
“Stay still, for once.” he chided. Naruto, surprisingly, listened obediently, turning towards Sasuke and blinking at him expectantly.
Sasuke felt warmth creep into his cheeks at the sudden silent attention. He wasn’t used to it. Boy, it sure was getting hot in here, wasn’t it? Yes, that must be it. The heat. Definitely not Naruto's face. He forced his eyes away from Naruto and back onto the paper.
Sasuke made his pencil work. It seemed that drawing Naruto came quite naturally to him, for some reason.
He didn’t look up at Naruto, not once. He didn’t need to.
His fox eyes, his unruly blonde hair, the well-loved ninja headband he stubbornly insisted on wearing from the time they all dressed up as shinobi for Halloween, his whiskers, the shine in his eyes, the way his fangs flashed in the light when he smiled, how his eyes and nose scrunched up a little when he laughed.
Growing impatient like the idiot he was, Naruto broke his pose and peered over at the paper. His eyes shone in the way Sasuke had drawn them. “Sasuke, it’s great! How come you didn’t tell us you could draw before?! It looks just like me!”
Sasuke stiffened, not expecting the earnest admiration from his muse. “Shut up,” he said, cheeks rosy. “I’m not done yet.”
He felt a presence grow behind him as Sakura leaned over his shoulder to watch him too, their eyes boring into him... or, the paper. He willed his brain to drown out his embarrassment before he could sentence the paper to the same fate as one of Sakura’s weapons paper balls. The drawing did quite resemble Naruto, after all. It would be a waste to throw out. (Wait, what?)
Sasuke glanced up at Naruto to study his features, just for reference. The pencil hovered uselessly over the paper. His heartbeat thrummed loudly in his ears, watching as the sunlight filtered through the window and caught Naruto’s hair.
A hand waved. “Uhhh, Sasuke? Are you okay? Um. Psst. Sakura! Something’s up with Sasuke!”
Sasuke blinked back to reality. Really, he seemed to be doing that a lot today. Getting lost in his mind and all that. Damn. How long had I been staring? Why had I been staring in the first place?! He flushed, beginning to fumble to come up with an excuse for his excessive studying of Naruto’s face. Jeez, what was next? Writing Naruto’s name and doodling little hearts with Cupid’s arrow struck through them? Absolutely not. He heard Sakura laughing at his malfunctioning brain, and before Sasuke could whirl around and shake the life out of her shoulders, Kakashi cleared his throat from the front of the class.
Sasuke heaved a sigh of relief. Thank the Lord. Thank Kakashi-sensei. Thank you for saving me from these morons.
Uh, no. Again, that was what Sasuke would have liked to happen.
Kakashi tapped his chalk against the board. “Naruto, you seem to be quite lively today.” As if the idiot wasn’t always lively. “Would you like to answer this question for us?”
Naruto shook his head. “No, sensei! I don’t know the answer!” He answered confidently - almost proudly. Giggles erupted in a wave around the classroom at his response.
Their teacher exhaled, seemingly expecting this answer. “Then, how about you, Sasuke? Surely you know the answer.”
Sasuke blinked, his mind swimming. Why couldn’t he think of anything? Uh. No, better question, why could he only think of Naruto? Quick, just say something, dammit.
“Huh?”
That was the best he could manage? Something was really wrong with him today. He felt his face burning.
Kakashi paused for a moment, then said with a twinge of amusement, “Sasuke, I know you and Naruto are very good friends, but maybe pay attention to my lesson instead of his face?” He turned back to the board, and a chorus of oooohs echoed among their peers.
Sasuke sputtered. “Wha- no, sensei, that’s not—”
Naruto, despite his usually fiery demeanour, stayed silent, yanking up the collar of his jacket in an attempt to conceal his reddening face.
Kakashi held up a hand to stop Sasuke’s ramblings. “Sasuke, Naruto, meet me after class. We need to talk about you two. And those marks you made on my beautiful classroom floor,” he gestured toward the scrapes that Naruto had made while shuffling his desk over to Sasuke’s.
Sakura fell back in her chair, stifling her giggles as she watched a blushing Sasuke turn redder than the ribbon in her hair and witnessed Naruto sinking deeper into his chair, if that was even possible.
Kakashi sighed. “Sakura, you too.”
It was Sakura’s turn to sputter in shock, but her indignant complaints fell on deaf ears.
As class ended and chairs scraped back (much to Kakashi’s chagrin), Sasuke avoided Naruto’s gaze, but still left the class alongside him. Before exiting, Sakura shot him a look. Don’t be weird about it, it said. Sasuke sighed. He knew better than to ignore her advice. He tucked Naruto’s messy drawing of their trio safely into his pocket, a smile tugging at his lips.
Sasuke took notice of his paper still clutched in Naruto’s hands as they headed to Kakashi-sensei’s office. They walked in silence until Naruto stopped in his tracks and turned to Sasuke before blurting, “Hey, Sasuke! I really did like your drawing, y’know?! It’s really good, so don’t be embarrassed about it! Who cares about what those others think!”
It’s not about them, Sasuke thinks. But before he could even begin to formulate a response, he saw Naruto hesitate. “Thanks. For drawing me, I mean. It really is nice.” He swallowed nervously, before continuing. “And, anyway… I like your face, too, if that’s what’s bothering you,” he added quietly, a rosy blush spreading across his cheeks.
Sasuke’s mouth dropped open like a fish’s. What. “Th-... Thanks,” he stuttered, ears burning. Inwardly, he slapped himself. Clearly he had hit rock bottom here. How uncool could one possibly be? Jesus.
Well. What did he have to lose? He grabbed Naruto’s hand tightly, without thinking. “Okay, come on, idiot! Kakashi-sensei won’t like it if we’re late!”
Naruto blinked at him owlishly before bursting out in shocked laughter that only made Sasuke’s face burn hotter. He yanked Naruto down the hallway, before he could notice.
Move. Don’t think about how warm his laughter is. Don’t think about his twinkling eyes. Just move!
And he did, Naruto stumbling behind him, giggling and clutching his hand for dear life.
Sakura trailed a safe distance behind them, huffing to herself as she shook her head in mock disappointment. At least they were getting along.