The Return

Chapter 12

 Sasuke's Love

"What are you doing here, dattebayo?" Naruto grumbled, standing in his doorway.

"Who is it?" a figure emerged by Naruto's side. "Oh, Sasuke! Nice to see you again," Hinata smiled warmly. "Do you want to come in for some tea?"

Sasuke instantly regretted his decision to get relationship advice from Naruto. He couldn't interrupt his home life like that. Besides, what advice could Naruto give? Then again, he was married now. Ugh, it was so annoying trying to get advice from that loser.

"Uh, never mind," he turned to go.

"Wait, dattebayo!" Naruto called after him. He gave an apologetic look to Hinata before chasing after him. "Come on, let's go and get some ramen" he suggested.

"Don't you have dinner waiting at home?"

"It's fine! Come on, I insist" Naruto draped his arm around him. Sasuke rolled his eyes, secretly grateful for his company.

At Ichiraku's, the old man and Ayame greeted the two of them enthusiastically. Sasuke had to deal with a lot of people looking at him questionably after his betrayal and return to the village, however, not those two. The shop owners always greeted him with a smile, just as they did with Naruto and the other villagers.

"Yo!" A familiar voice called, turning on his seat towards them.

"Kakashi sensei?! Shouldn't you be at the Hokage's office?" Naruto demanded.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, he was always so loud and troublesome.

Kakashi laughed nervously. "I just needed a quick escape."

"He's been here since 3 pm" the old man crossed his arms.

"Nothing gets past you, does it?" Kakashi sighed. "Well, I guess I'll treat these two since we're here."

"You got it! Let's go, Ayame!" The old man called enthusiastically.

As they chowed down on their ramen, Sasuke stared into the bottom of his bowl.

"So, what's up?" Naruto asked with his mouth full.

Sasuke couldn't take him seriously like that, but Kakashi's expression told him that he was listening at the very least. He sighed and pushed aside his bowl while Naruto went for round two.

"It's Sakura," Sasuke started then looked away. This was ridiculous, at this rate, he'd find it easier venting his emotions to Aoda.

"What about her?" Naruto questioned, blankly.

"Forget it, this was a mistake." He turned away, plotting his escape from this awkward situation.

"Now, now, I think what Naruto means is: what's on your mind? Trouble in paradise?" Kakashi grinned.

Sasuke swore he was just as bad as Naruto with this sort of thing. However, he knew that if he didn't tell other people how he felt, they'd never know. He sighed and asked for a second bowl.

"The thing is, I...well...I l-" Why was it so hard to say the words out loud? He turned to Naruto and bit back his fears. "How did you know you loved Hinata?"

Naruto slurped a noddle, looking at him, confused before grinning wildly. "Well, I was kind of oblivious to her feelings at first" he chuckled. "Once I realized how she felt about me though and started to spend more time with her, everything just sort of clicked." He looked up at Sasuke, then smirked. "So, are you realizing anything about Sakura yet?" he asked, not-so-subtly.