Chapter 2 - Meeting at the Bath House

Forever Lonely
Chapter Two – Meeting at the Bath House

Sakura was thinking hard. She lay silently on her soft mattress, covered by warm, pink colored blanket. But Sakura couldn’t sleep for the moment. She was too excited. Sakura was trying to find a way to hook up Naruto and Sasuke. Sasuke must like Naruto; otherwise he would have never told her he was gay. Sasuke had known what she was up to.

“Maybe I could lock them in a closet together… Nah, too popular. Hmm… Maybe I could give them each a note from the other to meet somewhere, and then they’d spill it. Somewhere romantic… Oh! I know,” Sakura mumbled aloud. She grinned evilly and fell asleep right away.


In the morning, Sasuke woke up rather early with happy thoughts floating through his mind. He went in front of the mirror and spiked his hair in the back with a casual flick, and combed his bangs slightly. Sasuke put on his usual clothes: his shorts, high collared shirt, cloth arm bracers, bandage leg bracers, hitai-ate (headband), his sandals, and attached the shuriken holster to his leg and strapped the tan pouch on the back of his pants’ waist. Sasuke glided out of the Uchiha manor toward his team’s meeting place. He arrived there quickly, before Sakura, Naruto, and Kakashi-sensei. Easily. Sakura usually arrived only a short time after him, then Naruto a short time after her, then Kakashi-sensei, a long time after him.

Sasuke leaned against the crimson rail of the bridge, looking out into the crystalline depths of the river. His reflection was messily redone in the water, distorted due to the rushing water. A voice rang out like a bell, piercing the silent air, aside from the sounds of the river.

“Sasuke-kun, ohayoo gozaimasu! Good morning Sasuke-kun,” Sakura called out in a cheery voice. But not her normal voice that just trilled ‘Look at me Sasuke! I love you!’ This was a genuine, friendly greeting. For so graciously being told good morning, Sasuke decided to respond. “… Hey Sakura.” It was a monotonous tone. Sasuke could tell from Sakura’s face, voice, and general attitude that she hadn’t ran around telling everyone within shouting distance that Sasuke was gay. Perhaps she wouldn’t be bugging him all of the time.

Sakura didn’t try to push it and make him talk more, but sat down on the bridge, leaning against the railing as well, occasionally smiling at the Uchiha. Not long after, Naruto arrived. The instant his eyes laid contact upon Sasuke, Naruto blushed. He turned away from Sasuke, and gave Sakura a friendly wave. “Sakura-chan, kon nichiwa! Heya!”

Sakura waved back. “Good morning, Naruto-kun. How are you feeling this morning?”

“Meh, okay, I guess. Tired, as usual.”

Sakura grinned at the awkwardness between Sasuke and Naruto, which she planned to break as soon as possible. Kakashi-sensei arrived later, and had a mission to refill the village well, which took a surprisingly long time to fill. Once the well was nearly filled to the top, and the three youngsters arms were sore from carrying heavy buckets, the mission was completed.

The three Genin returned to their houses, doing nothing in particular. Well, all except one. Sakura was at her house, sitting on the chair at her writing desk. She had two pieces of stationary, and was writing very carefully. Luckily, Sakura had very good penmanship, so forging Kakashi-sensei’s handwriting wasn’t very hard…


‘Naruto,

Please meet me at the central bath house in Konoha. I have more ninja training to supervise. We will be going over more ninja techniques. The time is 8:00 pm tonight. This is because we are less likely to be undisturbed at night. I will probably be late, as always, so feel free to get into the bath before I arrive. I will attempt to not make you wait too long.

Signed,
Hatake Kakashi’


Naruto received the letter in his mailbox when he checked it that night after the mailperson came. The stationary was even decorated with the covers of Come, Come Paradise. It was 6:00 about, so he had two hours to wait…

‘Sasuke,

Please meet me at the central bath house in Konoha. I have more ninja training to supervise. We will be going over more ninja techniques. The time is 7:50 pm tonight. This is because we are less likely to be disturbed at night. I will probably be late, as always, so feel free to get into the bath before I arrive. I will attempt to not make you wait too long.

Signed,
Hatake Kakashi’

Sasuke received a similar letter in his mailbox after he checked his mailbox after the mailperson passed. Sasuke rolled his eyes at the border of the stationary. Only an hour and 50 minutes ‘till he would go. It would take him about five minutes to get there, so he should leave at 7:45…

At the designated time, after waiting in anticipation for an two hours, Naruto rushed over to the main bath house, clutching Kakashi-sensei’s letter in hand; He wasn’t usually treated to a bath, but he was happy he had been.

Upon arriving, Naruto slipped off his sandals in the main room. He went into the dressing rooms, changed into a towel, locked his clothes up, and walked over to the baths. The second he opened the small wooden door to the baths, steam from the hot water blew in his face, and he walked inside, standing to the side for a moment, waiting for his eyes to adjust. After a few moments Naruto walked over towards the rocky edge of the water. He unwrapped the towel from his waist, and got into the water. It felt great. The water was so warm… Naruto swore he could fall asleep. He folded his towel at the edge of the pool, and laid his letter from Kakashi-sensei on it. Naruto looked around for a few moments. There really was no one here… “Mmmhmm… I suppose I get it all to myself—“ Suddenly, he spotted him over there. Across the pool, Uchiha Sasuke was looking at him. His face was beet red; Naruto could even tell from this distance. Naruto had the faint idea Sasuke might have watched him climb in the water.

Suddenly, Naruto blushed bright red, realizing Sasuke and he were in the same body of water… Naked. Naruto got somewhat closer, so he could at least see the expression on the Uchiha’s face.

“S-Sasuke? Did Kakashi-sensei call you out here, too?”

Sasuke slowly nodded a yes. His face was still bright red, a first for Sasuke. Naruto was so… hot, Sasuke realized, staring at the blonde unintentionally. “H-Hai.”

Both Naruto and Sasuke couldn’t take their eyes off of each other. They were both thinking the same exact words. ‘He is so… hot!’ But neither of them new the other felt the same way, so tried to cover it up. But neither of them succeeded.

After waiting for at least 30 minutes, both Sasuke and Naruto realized Kakashi-sensei wasn’t coming, and this was a set-up by Sakura. Neither of them said anything, but continued to play along.

“Usually Kakashi-sensei’s not this late. I wonder where he could be,” Naruto asked Sasuke, rather loudly.

After utter silence for a long time, Naruto finally spoke up. “H-Hey Sasuke. I got a question for you.”

Sasuke ###### his head to the side slightly, raising an eyebrow. “What?” Even a simple word, Sasuke could make it sound hateful. But this one wasn’t. It sounded like an innocent ‘what?’. Naruto poked his ear a little, thinking he had gotten water in it.

After a moment, Naruto stuttered out, “S-Sasuke? Do you… like anyone?”

And the Uchiha responded truthfully. “Yah. I say this: how about we play a game. It’s called Yes and No.”

Naruto nodded a little, only slightly confused. “Okay… How do you play?”

“I’m going to think of the person I like, and you can ask me yes or no questions until you can figure out who it is.”

Naruto nodded a little, and began. He decided to play dumb, and act as though he didn’t know Sasuke was gay… “Okay, erm… Does she have pink hair?”

Sasuke responded with a grinning, “No.”

“Hmm… Does she have blue hair?”

Sasuke grinned a little, shaking his head again. “Not even close.”

Naruto pretended to be surprised for a moment, before asking, “Is it a boy?”

“Yes.”

Okay, now he was caught up. But Naruto’s heart sunk, knowing Sasuke liked someone else… Finally, he finds someone he loves who’s gay… and he doesn’t love him back.

“Does he have… brown hair?”

“Iiya! Nope!”

Well, that took out Shino, Kiba, Shikamaru and Chouji. Left was Lee and Neji. “Does he… have pale eyes?”

“No!”

That took out Neji… So it must be Lee… How could Naruto loose to bushy brows?! “… It’s Lee, then, huh?”

Sasuke shook his head again, grinning still. He was obviously having fun with this. Naruto looked at Sasuke for a moment before asking, “Is he a Genin?!”

Sasuke laughed. He actually laughed. And Naruto adored it. It was such a cute, genuine laugh… Back to the game. That took out Naruto’s weird suspicion that it was Kakashi-sensei. But who was left?

(A/N: They don’t know the Sand team yet.)

Naruto shrugged, blushing lightly. “I dunno then. Who’s left?”

Sasuke smiled cutely, and decided to help him. Slowly, Sasuke inched forward only a little bit. “Let me help you, then… He has blonde hair, tan skin, and blue eyes…”

Naruto thought for a moment before blushing bright red. It was him. Naruto suddenly wanted to run up and hug Sasuke; but that would just be akward. “… It’s me?” He asked slowly, his face bright red.

“Yah…”

And quickly, Naruto smiled, and shouted, “My turn, my turn!! Go! Guess!”

Sasuke blinked for a moment, before asking. “Does he have a dog for a partner?”

“NO!”

“Does he play with bugs all the time?”

“No!”

“Is he lazy or a fatso?”

“No! He’s determined and thin…”

“Is he a genius or a dork?”

“No! Well, he may be a genius, but definitely not a dork.”

Sasuke suddenly blushed brightly as well. Naruto, that hot boy standing naked in a pool of hot water 10 feet away was in love with him? This was far too much to be true. But slowly, in a cute, innocent kind of way, Sasuke asked, “… Is- Is it me?”

Naruto grinned and nodded bravely. “Yah! It’s you! As long as we’ve been teammates… I couldn’t stand that so many of those girls liked you. So… I guess I replaced it with hatred… Because I was sure you liked all of those girls hanging all over you… But I began to feel happy as you rejected their love… and thought it was a possibility that you didn’t like girls either… Sasuke; I’m so happy…”

Sasuke smiled a little. And oh, what a cute smile it was. Sasuke swam forward a little bit, and reached out to touch Naruto’s hair… He had always wanted to do that… And slowly, Sasuke leaned forward to whisper in Naruto’s ear. “I love you…”

And he leaned forward, to kiss Naruto. The two kissed gently, for only a quick time on the lips. When Sasuke had leaned forward, under the surface, Sasuke’s leg had brushed against Naruto’s leg.

Naruto blushed, and felt the urge to hug Sasuke, just to feel the feeling of wet body touching wet body. But he resisted, and the two kissed again.

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