The Wind To His Fire

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Naruto decided that although he liked his teammates, they were really weird. Sasuke-teme acted really nice with him and even praised him after sparring, which he noticed was actually improving his Taijutsu. Sakura-chan always tried to tell him how great the teme was. And Kakashi-sensei told him about perverts, molesters and danger signs. Naruto lived in the red light district dammit, he already knew about those.

But the strangest thing that happened was when Sasuke stopped him after the mission asking, "I'm making tomato ramen today. Would you like to come to dinner?"

The teme had apparently figured out his weakness to Ramen and Naruto had no choice but to say yes.

They walked to Sasuke's apartment which was in the nice part of the town. Naruto noticed that Sasuke wasn't as tense as he used to be in the academy. His face was relaxed which apparently suited him as it didn't make him look like the absolute teme he was.

He began to cook ramen when they entered the apartment. "I've never had tomato ramen before." Naruto commented.

"Tomato is my favorite food." Was that a blush on his face?

Despite his flaws, it turned out that teme was an excellent cook. The ramen was as good as ichiraku's. Naruto had eaten his fill and was rubbing his stomach contentedly when Sasuke spoke up.

"So, why do you like Sakura so much?"

"What do you mean? She's so pretty and smart?" It was obvious, isn't it?

"That's it?" He frowned.

Naruto thought about it. "Well, she was really nice to me. Before the academy, I mean. She played with me the park one day, when no one else would. Then when we entered the academy, she didn't even remember me. I just want to be acknowledged by her."

He looked at Sasuke warily, waiting for him to make fun of him for being silly, but he was just looking intently at him.

"I cannot give you Sakura's acknowledgement, but I can give you mine. You are Uzumaki Naruto, a ninja of Konoha and my best friend."

"Best friend?" he asked, baffled.

"You don't see me having any other friends except you, do you?"

"I didn't know we were friends, teme." He hadn't wanted to assume.

"So you regularly go to stranger's apartments to eat ramen, dobe?" he asked, smiling. He looked even prettier than Sakura-chan when he smiled. Naruto felt a flutter feeling in his stomach.

Did he eat too much ramen?