Love is just a game (SasuNaru)

There's competition

Have I ever thought that Sasuke and I would be together for real?
No..
But..
The cliche feelings of butterflies fluttering in my stomach and that warm feeling in my heart.

That's how people describe it right?
Everything I do, wherever I go, I think of him. Am I too, in love?

I shook my head vigorously.
What am I taking about?!
Me? In actual love?!

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

I jumped into bed, curling myself into my sheets as I rolled around in my bed, freaking out internally.

I, Naruto Uzumaki am NOT in love!

I am NOT in LOVE!
The entire morning in school so far, I have been replaying the same sentence in my head for all of classes. I was unable to concentrate again, and it's all that damn Uchiha's fault!

I was in the hallway, walking to my locker so I could prepare for my next class. Thankfully, the Uchiha and I's path have not crossed since I haven't shared a same class with him in today's morning classes schedule- I caught a glimpse of Sasuke exiting his classroom and entering the same stretch of hallway. I abruptly stopped myself in my tracks and quickly tried to open my locker's door to shield myself from his sharp sights.

Come on, Naruto!
Open the lock, open open open open!
I was fidgeting around the dial when I realised the locker wasn't even mine. I haven't walked far enough. It was a few more steps ahead, but it was towards Sasuke's direction.

What do I do?!

Retreat! Retreat! Retreat!
I swiftly turned around, slamming into an opened locker's door immediately. The loud collision definitely caught his attention.

I was rubbing my nose as the younger Uchiha approached me, "Are you alright?" And right before his hand reached out to me, I jumped back. "Yes! I'm very much alright!" I declared and continued running away, steering clear of any lockers now.

I finally stopped running after turning the corner. Catching my breath, I realise it was getting hard to breathe as my nose was getting clogged. I looked down onto my white shirt, there was drops of red that I know isn't part of the shirt's design.

Fuck.

"Naruto! Your nose is bleeding." The president came dashing towards me after spotting me across the hall way. I pinched the tip of my nose, "I'm fine! Going to the infirmary now!" I waved goodbye to him with my other hand, as I brisk walked further from him.

Sai held me by the waist, spinning me around. "It's this way, blockhead."
"Ah, yes! I knew that."
"I'll walk you there."
"Its-"
"No excuses."
"Okay.." I reluctantly allowed him to walk side by side with me to the nurses'. He told me not to lean my head back and gave me tissues to contain my bleeding.

Nurses asked me if I had taken a fall and I nodded embarrassingly. They let me sit on the bed, tilting my head forward to allow the blood flow out naturally. After the blooding was finally drying out, they placed a towel wrapped with ice on my nose. Sai was still here, patiently looking after me.

"I know you are a blockhead, but now you're a clumsy blockhead. Be more careful with yourself." His hands ran through my hair as though comforting me.

"Naruto.. You said you were fine." Sasuke stepped into the sick bay. Upon catching sight of Sai, he rolled his eyes. "You again.. Annoying."
"Likewise." Sai coldly replied, looking as irritated as Sasuke who was now by my bedside.

"How did you know I was here?"
"I went to check on you in the next class but you weren't there. So I guessed you were here since you-"
"Yes! What a terrible fall that was!" I laughed nervously, interrupting him from exposing what really happened.

Sasuke caught on quickly and didn't persist. Instead, he turned to the president.
"You may leave now, I'll take care of him." He instructed while glaring daggers at him.
The tension in this room was rising.
"No, you can go ahead. We wouldn't want your grades to suffer now, would we?" Sai snapped back smartly as expected of the President.

Sasuke grinned sarcastically, "As president of the student council, you should at least remember who ranks first in every examination."

"But that may not be the case for the finals." Sai returned the smile, he was ranked first of his class but second of the school. But Sasuke and him were not far apart, usually only resulting in a few points difference.

"Take me down if you can, Mr President."

"I will gladly accept that challenge, Uchiha."

"Just so you know, I don't like losing."

"Neither do I."

And it was as if another game has started, this time between Sai and Sasuke. But the pressure and competition was too much for it to be simply just grades..

In the end, both of them stayed by my side until my nose recovered. And by this time, lunch period had already started.
I awkwardly thanked the two boys before escaping to the cafeteria to look for my best friends.

I found them waving at me from across the room and they already had half their food eaten. "Man, I thought you were absent today. You didn't reply my texts!" Kiba muttered as he pulled out the chair next to him for me.

"Yeah, you had us so worried. We were planning to visit you after school." Sakura added, asking me if everything was alright.

"Ah! Sorry, I forgot to check my phone today. Been too attentive for the finals." I chuckled and came up with an excuse to ease their concerns. I couldn't tell them what was happening, I didn't want to shift their focus from the finals that were closing in.

"I heard the president driving you home yesterday-"
"What?! That stuck up prick?" Kiba interrupted Sakura's question to me, "Did he pick on you?! I'll beat him up if he did!"

"No, no. He's actually really nice and determined to help me graduate. He's even tutoring me personally." I stood up to queue for my food as lunch time was running out.

My friends followed me closely behind as they continued the conversation.
"Yeah, I saw that! After years of being in the student council, thats the first time I've seen the president doing that." Sakura stated as Kiba squinted his eyes suspiciously.

"I wonder why he's so nice to you?"

"Like I said, he's just really determined to help me graduate. And my grades are really bad, y'know?" We returned to our seats after I grabbed a burger and a small carton of milk. I brushed off Kiba's doubts as I couldn't see any other ulterior motives.