Painless (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 2

-Zuko's POV-

A week had passed until I had invited Naruto to hang out with my friend group. As it turns out, Naruto fit into the group perfectly. He also lives relatively close to me so I started walking to school with him. I've assigned the job of getting Naruto to school on time and he doesn't seem to be bothered by the fact that he gets woken up in the morning by me jumping on his bed.

"Oi Naruto, lets hang out tonight? I'm thinking the arcade and then some food after school." I smiled at him as I swung my arm around his shoulders as we walked into the academy.

"Yeah, that sounds like fun. Can we get ramen though?" Naruto asked with a spark in his eyes. I laughed.

"You're obsessed with ramen."

"Of course. I've had it for breakfast, lunch and diner my whole life." he grinned pridefully.

"You can't be serious?! Do you want to die?! Looks like I'll have to get extra early to your house to make you some breakfast and share my lunch." I grinned. Naruto's cheeks darkened to a crimson-red.

"You don't need to waste your time, I-" I put a finger to his lips to silence him and looked him in the eye.

"Look pal, I've already made up my mind." I said. Naruto sighed.

"Thanks then." he smiled. His piercing blue eyes looked deeply into mine and my cheeks started to heat up so I looked away.

"No problem." When we made it to the classroom Kiba rushed over.

"Poor Zuko. Don't worry, if you need a shoulder to cry on mine is right here." He mocked as he slung his arm over my shoulder. My arm dropped from being around Naruto's because of Kiba's antics. I could tell because of the eyes on me that Sasuke was in the room but I decided against looking at him. I pushed Kiba away from me but pushing him but the face.

"What are you talking about? Why am I about to cry?" I asked.

"We're shuriken training today." he said. That was all it took to make me groan in agony. I loved training outside, don't get me wrong, but this was the first time we were training with equipment. Before we had just been sparring.

"You were right Kiba, I think I will need a shoulder to cry on." I knew that we would eventually start with the weapon training so I had trained and trained but nothing came out of it. I had absolutely no aim whatsoever.

"Do you think I should fake an illness and go to the nurses office?" I asked as we sat at the table we always sat at.

"After weapon training we'll be sparring just do it." Shikamaru shrugged. I looked at him in utter surprise.

"Aren't you the guy that thinks everything is too troublesome? What the heck man?" I snickered.

"Its okay Zuko, don't embarrass yourself in front of the whole class. We can just skip to get food together." Chouji recommended while he was in the midst of eating.

"Who says I'm going to embarrass myself huh?" I defended myself before throwing my eraser at Chouji. I grimaced when my attempt completely failed.

"Was that supposed to hit me?" Chouji asked before everyone busted out laughing. I felt my entire face heat up to a lobster-like color.

"Its okay Zuko, you'll do just fine." Shino said in his serious tone. I dramatically sniffled and threw myself at Shino and hugged him.

"Shino, you never disappoint mother." I fake-cried. I tensed my muscles when I felt a present behind me. I whipped around to see Sasuke. He was looking down at me with a blank expression. I noticed Naruto frown from the corner of my eye. The girls surrounded the two of us. I stood up to look him eye to eye but he seemed to be a bit taller than me.

"What's up Sasuke?" I asked. I wasn't familiar with him but he didn't seem to dislike me.

"Yo Zuko, you need to learn how to not glare at people." Chouji reminded me.

"Oh. Right." I said before I softened my eyes and relaxed my face.

"I overheard you talking about how you were dreading the shuriken training." he mentioned flatly.

"Sorry, I guess we were being too loud. I'll get those kids to calm down a bit."

"Who are you calling a kid? You're the youngest of the group." Kiba reminded. I grinned at him from over my shoulder.

"The noise wasn't what I was reffering to. I wanted to know if you wanted to train together." Sasuke said. My head snapped around to look at Sasuke so fast that you would have thought I had gotten whiplash. I started to ntice how close Sasuke and I were starring. I also noticed some of the girls in the class mentioning that they might want to see up kiss. My cheeks heated up a bit at that but I ignored them. It was odd for Sasuke Uchiha to offer to help someone. I haven't lived in the Hidden Leaf for long but in the time that I've lived here, I've never seen him try to help someone.

"Are you serious?" I asked to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating.

"Of course." he smirked down at me.

"...Then... sure, I could use the help, thanks Sasuke." I smiled brightly up at him. I saw the corners of his mouth turn upward slightly in something that wasn't a smirk but an actual smile. Had I done that? Woah.