Only Fools Fall For You (SasuNaru)

• Part 22 •

"Naruto, I think you're good enough to join the rest of the class."

I was afraid he was going to say that. There wasn't that much time left in the class but he was hoping that he would suck long enough for Kakashi to be his partner until the end. "Are you sure? I don't think I'm whisking quite right."

The teacher's dark eyes studied him with an almost devilish grin as he gazed out at the class. Naruto looked back with him, his eyes automatically fixating on the familiar boy that he had been avoiding for the week. Sasuke's technique was obviously superior to his partner's as he led her across the floor with the most precise and elegant of movements which made up for the fact that she was a step behind. He felt his fists clench at his sides as he cursed the Uchiha's persistence throughout the week. It was not enough that he had blatantly told him to fuck off, but Sasuke was damn determined to try to talk to him, making avoiding him one hell of a chore.

"Sasuke is the best dancer in the class," Kakashi confided with a light pat to his back. "It seems natural since he comes from a genius bloodline."

"He's not that great," Naruto said with a grimace as he forced himself to look at the floor. Damnit! Now he knows I was looking at him.

"You seem even more out of sorts than before," Kakashi observed as he leaned against his desk. "Did something happen?"

"Nothing happened." And that's the way it should stay. If he could just stay away from him until they had to part ways then Sasuke and Hinata could get married and he could go on with his life like he should.

"It is best to smile through bad times. Look for the good in everything and for the good in you," he added which reminded Naruto of what he would see on a fortune cookie.

"There's... nothing good about me," he answered with a determined stare to Sasuke. "I don't seem to do anything but mess up everybody's lives. I can't see the good that isn't there."

"Sometimes you have to see darkness as a different kind of shining."

The bell rang but his words were too mesmerizing to ignore. Darkness was a different kind of shining... What was his darkness? His eyes trailed to the Uchiha who had gone to the other side of the room to get his bag. Before he had the chance to catch up, Naruto quickly gathered his things and walked briskly to the theater room.

Sasuke was someone that troubled him from the very beginning. He seemed narcissistic and pretentious at first and was always more than willing to fight back whenever he had the chance. But that was before Naruto had gotten to know so much more about him... He was alone in the world too, even when he had so many people near him. No one ever took the time to ask him how he felt or what he wanted out of life and he learned to guard himself against people because of it, and even so he still opened up to Naruto. There were times when he did things for him that were truly kind and selfless because he never asked for anything in return. Uchiha Sasuke wasn't the coldhearted person he had been trying to see him as the entire time, and it was unfair that he had been trying to.

"Naruto! Do you have a monologue for us today?"

"Umm..."

"NARUTO!" His group members yelled in unison, making the blond shrink into the corner of the room with a textbook in hand.

Two days until he would have to act in front of his peers as well as important public figures and he was without his little speech. He thought that he could randomly pick one and try to act it out but when he did it just didn't feel natural. Too many emotions interfered with his acting and the scene would never turn out the way it was supposed to. If he was going to do this right, he had to figure out his own feelings.