After the Storm.

7.

"Happy Birthday Sasuke!" Naruto banged against the young boy's cells as hard as he could. Sasuke cringed hearing Naruto's voice crack as he spoke.

"I'll be glad when puberty hits you in the face or something." Sasuke groans as he lays there. The clanging of his cell beingg thrown open made him jump. Before he could properly react, he was snatched up and pulled off the bed. Once he'd realized that Naruto was indeed the culprit of all this, he quickly used his hand to swat Naruto away from him and kick him in the chin. Naruto fell backwards as Sasuke landed on his palm securely, propelling himself up so he can land on his feet. He then straightened himaelf looking at Naruto.

"That's what you get for touching me." Sasuke says with a small frown. Although he was amused at Naruto's childlike state— rubbing under his chin where Sasuke had kicked as he sat on the ground indian style with a pout on his face. Hinata giggles from the cell opening at their little tiff. Sasuke looked towards her before looking back at Naruto.

"Smooth move loser." He then kicks the blonde's sandal before offering his hand. Narto mumbled something inaudible before taking Sasuke's aid. Upon getting to his feet, he grinned mischievously as he then took the raven into a head lock. Sasuke grunts and frowns although internally, he was happy he and Naruto shared such a bond.

"Happy birthday asshole!" Naruto says as he runs his knuckles into Sasuke's scalp. Sasuke grunts from annoyance but Naruto knew Sasuke wasn't really annoyed.

"Let go of me you loser!" Sasuke grunts as he tries to release himself from Naruto, who only laughed at his friend's fails.

"Naruto let 'em go." Kiba crosses his arms seeing the two boys rough house.

"Yeah, it's no use saying happy birthday if you strangle him to death." Shikamaru smirks, relieved that Sasuke isn't the same introvert he used to be.

Naruto finally let Sasuke go. Sasuke straightened himself before shoving Naruto in the shoulder as hard as he could. The blonde stumbles to the side, snorting before shoving the Uchiha back. The two chuckled at each other. Sasuke then turned his attention to his classmates, with the exception of the late Neji Hyuga. Sakura & Sai were also not in attendance.

"Why did you all come?" Sasuke asked curiously. "I assumed you all hated me for betraying the village."

"You may have betrayed the village Sasuke." Shikamaru says with a sigh. "But none of us can deny the fact that both you and Naruto were the key to keeping the lives that we value so much. It's no hard feelings. This is your home and you protected it. That's all that matters. Happy birthday."

"Happy birthday Sasuke!" The others chimed in. It made Sasuke's heart warm knowing they didn't hate him. Being accepted almost made him want to cry. His entire time in this cell he's thought about how he'd be treated once he was free of this cell. He thought everyone wouls steer clear of him and shun him. It's nice to know that even his classmates have no bad blood with him.

Naruto nudged him. "Say thank you, idiot." He harshly whispers.

A pink tint formed on the raven's face as he looked down. "Th-Thank you all." He says. "I-I appreciate it."

His eyes traveled around the many faces, even Kakashi was in attendance. But he was missing one person. Someone that mattered to him. Someone he cared about.

Where is she?

******

"Done." Sai smiles at his finished product. "Thank you for being my inspiration Ugly." He then looks up and smiles at the girl who frowns from being calle Ugly. Everything in her body told her to punch him, but she didn't want to leave a bruise for Ino to see. Or maybe she should.