Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of its associated characters!

Summary: COMPLETE. Six times that Naruto tells Sasuke he loves him, and one time Sasuke believes him. SNS, Modern AU, Oneshot.

A/N: This fic is dedicated to the anon on my tumblr! We're playing with present tense today. What do you mean there's a million things I have to do for school?

(6+1) Times

They are eight years old, and it's pouring rain.

It's pouring, pummeling rain, and Sasuke's parents aren't home yet. But that's okay—Itachi is upstairs, and mom and dad will be home soon.

Sasuke shifts so he can cross his legs. He likes this little ledge—he pulls the curtains shut when they play hide and seek—where he can watch the road. There isn't much to see, most days, but the sky is nice, and it's quiet.

Today, though, it's pouring rain.

And Sasuke has been sitting, on his favourite ledge, for at least half an hour now, watching his dumb neighbour trip over himself. Over and over again.

He's chasing something on the road—he's chased it from his house to Sasuke's—arms out ahead of himself. Sasuke can't see his face, but he'd seen it enough to guess—wide, blue eyes, and a big dumb grin—

Faceplanting into the ground.

And Sasuke laughs, because Naruto's fine, but he's just so stupid all the time, and before he knows it, the front door is open and Sasuke's in the rain, too—

"You're all muddy," he greets Naruto.

"You're all muddy!" Naruto retaliates, already shoving himself to his feet. His hair is drenched and sticking to his face, and he shoves it away—all it does is wipe the mud onto his face, too—

Sasuke laughs at him.

And Sasuke isn't sure what it is, then, that makes Naruto stop—but he does, and he grins at Sasuke as if he was the one being an idiot—

"I gotta save Gamakichi," Naruto mumbles, as if Sasuke had voiced the question—but all that does is make more questions, because—

"Whose Gamakichi?"

"He's Gamakichi—" Naruto flails, standing up (finally), and it's only then that Sasuke sees the toad frantically hopping away from them—

"Get off the road, Gamakichi! It isn't safe," Naruto whines, waving his arms as if they'll make the toad understand him. "Come on—"

"You don't even know if he's a boy," Sasuke points out, and Naruto sticks out his tongue at him. They're both drenched, now, and maybe Sasuke could have picked some better shoes or grabbed his coat, but it's too late now (and if Naruto can handle this rain, then it shouldn't be any problem at all for Sasuke)—

"Wah!" Naruto's foot slides along the ditch—right on the side of the road—and the grass turns to mud as he slides even more—Naruto's arms flail out and they grab ahold of Sasuke at the same time Sasuke grabs ahold of him—

"You're dumb," Sasuke tells the boy in his arms.

"You're dumber," Naruto responds, but he's pouting down at himself instead of Sasuke—

"You hurt yourself." He can tell from the way Naruto's voice had been quieter—from the way he hadn't sounded angry at all—from the way his weight still leans on Sasuke, even though both feet are on the ground—

"No," Naruto immediately moves away, "I'm—"

"You hurt yourself," Sasuke insists, and he moves away, too— "I'm gonna get Gamakichi."

"I wanna take him to the pond!" Naruto calls after him, his steps uneven and slow—it's probably his ankle, Sasuke thinks, from the way he doesn't want to walk on it—

"Then we'll take him to the pond," Sasuke says. "Go over there."

"What?"

Sasuke points to the other side of the road.

"Go stand over there."

"Why?"

"'Cause there's two of us!" Obviously! "And you're just scaring him and we're never gonna catch him if we don't—"

"Oh! Oh, yeah, okay!" Naruto calls back, and then he's hobbling across Sasuke's driveway—

"Chase him to me!" Naruto claps his hands together, and the mud splashes with the rain—

"Okay," Sasuke whispers—more to himself than to the toad—and he steps forward.

The toad hops away.

He takes another step.

The toad hops to the side.

"No, Gamakichi—" Sasuke reaches out, trying to get him to go straight, again—didn't he know they were trying to help him—

"Oh! Hang on!" Naruto hobbles to the side as Sasuke freezes, until he's a little closer, too— "Okay, keep going!"

And Sasuke does, stumbling forwards with his arms out—and Naruto does, too—and Gamakichi hops in between them until—

"Got—wha—no!" He slips right out of Naruto's hands—he's so big and slippery and Sasuke drops to his knees—

"I got him," Sasuke said, holding his hands together—gently, though, so—

"You did it!" Naruto cheers, jumping all around him as if he had never hurt himself at all. "Sasuke! I love you!"

And Naruto laughs, pulling him towards the "pond" which wasn't really a pond at all, blabbering about how cool toads were and why he named this one and how he named all of them—

But all Sasuke could hear was 'I love you'.

"Oh, Sasuke! Please come in."

They are twelve years old, and Sasuke likes Naruto's mom. She has pretty hair and she smiles like Naruto does, most of the time. She's always nice to him, and he's pretty sure she likes him too—

"I brought Naruto's homework," he says quietly, and her face lightens into a laugh.

"Thank you, Sasuke," she says, closing the door behind him. "I don't think he'll appreciate it, but we certainly do."

She laughs again, and Sasuke smiles with her—it's a joke, between him and Naruto's parents, how he always manages to get Naruto to work. Sometimes they'd call Sasuke over when Naruto just didn't want to listen to them—

"Is he in his room?"

"Mm." She nods, glancing towards the stairs. "He might still be contagious, though. I can—"

"I want to bring it to him," Sasuke says, pulling the bags away from her hands. Naruto won't do his homework unless Sasuke is there to make him to it. He knows it. Naruto needs him.

It's only another moment before she relents with a smile.

"Alright. But try to stay some ways away, will you?"

Sasuke nods, already moving to the stairs.

Naruto's door is closed, but Sasuke doesn't bother knocking. Naruto never does, so why should he?

"I thought you were faking," he greets him, eyeing the way the blankets are twisted, piled up around a small puff of blonde hair—Naruto's eyes open and for one long moment, there's no smile on his face—

"Jerk," Naruto sighs, but the smile stretches across his face as he pushes himself up. His face is paler than Sasuke remembers, and he's never seen the bags under his eyes look so dark—

"I brought your homework." Sasuke lifts up the bag.

Naruto flings the covers over his head.

"I'm asleep. I'm dead. You can't find me."

"Naruto—"

"Nope, not here. I'm gone. Come back never."

"Naruto—"

"I'm sick," he whines, and for a moment, Sasuke considers relenting—

"I brought ramen."

Naruto is immediately sitting up again.

"Did you really?! I love you! Give—give, gimmie—please—"

"You get it after you finish your homework." Sasuke slaps the papers into his outreached hands.

Naruto looks up at him in utter betrayal.

"Why?" He breathes, as if Sasuke has run off and left him for dead—

Sasuke rolls his eyes.

"Because we have a test in two days," he says simply. "Shove over."

And Naruto does, grumbling all the while about how cruel Sasuke could be—but he grabs his pencil and sits up, and he lets Sasuke sit beside him.

Sasuke gets sick two days later, and misses the test.

Naruto is convinced he planned the whole thing.

They're fifteen, and Sasuke is in the hospital.

Everything is white, and clean, and quiet—and he hates it. It makes him sick. He doesn't want to eat. He doesn't want to wake up. Itachi hasn't even woken up, yet—

And his parents never will.

Sasuke dry heaves over the side of his bed. (Everything else is gone, now.)

When he comes to, Naruto is at his side. He knows it's him from the way his voice never wavers. Naruto always talks without taking a breath.

Sasuke doesn't open his eyes until the next day.

Naruto is still talking.

And when his eyes finally focus—when his vision stops spinning, along the sides, and the fog clears, just a little—he can see the tears on Naruto's face. He can see the slight shake to his fingers, as he holds Sasuke's food out to him. None of that had been in Naruto's voice, but it's here, in front of his eyes, and Sasuke desperately wants to close them again.

This is a reality he doesn't want.

But Naruto keeps talking, keeps talking, keeps talking, and Sasuke stares at the wall and listens.

And Sasuke still hasn't eaten, when visiting hours end, and it's as Naruto's leaving that he whispers "I love you" and Sasuke hears his voice break for the first time in two days—

Sasuke picks up the plate.

They're eighteen, and Hinata is standing in front of Naruto.

It's graduation—the day full of goodbyes, and every single person in that room knows what she is saying to him.

Sasuke can't look away.

It had only been a matter of time. It was a miracle it had been this long. Naruto is bright and warm and he had grown into his body a long time ago. The people circle around him as if they are planets and he is their sun—and Sasuke…

Sasuke is hardly better than a moon. Rough, dirty, and dull—sticking around the sun if only to gleam a little of its glow, but without it—

"Hey." Naruto shuffles back, hands in his pockets. His smile is smaller and faded, and Sasuke frowns at the sight of it.

"You rejected her."

It made no sense. What should have been a smile and a—touch (kiss, hug, something affectionate that made Sasuke's stomach turn)—had been a bowed head and steps stuttered away. It had been rejection, and Naruto was—

"Oh," Naruto rubs the back of his neck, ducking his head down, "that obvious, huh?"

And it was, but Sasuke is confused. This makes no sense. Naruto is kind and compassionate and always agreeing to things that would make others happy even when it would hurt himself—Sasuke had had no question in his mind that if ever someone confessed, Naruto would absolutely unabashedly say yes if only to spare their feelings—

"Why?"

And Naruto shrugs, but Sasuke stays in step with him so he knows he won't accept that answer. And Naruto does know, from the way he bites his lip—from the way his eyes flicker up to Sasuke's before they roll—

"I told her the truth, asshole. I told her I already had feelings for someone."

Sasuke freezes in his steps.

Naruto notices—turning to face him as if he hadn't said anything out of the ordinary, but this is the first time Sasuke has heard of this.

Naruto doesn't keep secrets. He can't. With the endless flow of words ever-coming from his mouth, it's a miracle he can breathe at all—

So why hasn't Sasuke heard of this?

"Who?" he asks, and the word drums through him as if it's his heartbeat.

Naruto stares at him for a moment longer, and then he smiles.

"C'mon, Sasuke," he says, slapping at his shoulder, "you know you're the love of my life."

He winks, and Sasuke rolls his eyes, but he doesn't ask again.

They're twenty, and Naruto is bisexual.

And Sasuke is furious, because he only found out after Naruto started dating someone. Some guy on campus that Sasuke had never met before— that Naruto had dated for a week, before Sasuke even knew—and then another week, as Sasuke pretended neither one of them had ever existed—and then another, where—

"Does it bother you this much?"

Sasuke turns, and Naruto is in the doorway.

He isn't smiling.

"What?"

"Because I hate to break it to you," Naruto says, crossing his arms, "but when you met me, when we were four years old, I was bisexual. When I was sick, and we slept in the same bed—I was bisexual. When I visited you every fucking day in the hospital—I was still bisexual. I'm not any fucking different, Sasuke."

Naruto is breathing heavily and his eyes are flashing. He takes a step forward and it makes Sasuke take a step back, and Naruto eyes the motion as if Sasuke has punched him right in the gut—

"Is it because I said I loved you?" Naruto's eyes flash, again, and his words thunder through Sasuke's mind littered with memories. "Because I won't take that back. I won't."

"It's not," Sasuke interrupts, because this has gotten way out of hand—

"Then—"

"I just don't—I don't like him." It wasn't a lie. He didn't like him. Not the slightest bit. He didn't like anyone at all who came so close to Naruto, no matter how little say Sasuke had—

But Naruto rocks back on his heels.

"What—really? That's it?"

And Sasuke crosses his arms and hates the fact that he has to nod, because 'that's it' makes it sound so fucking small, and it isn't—it isn't—it isn't—

"Jesus fucking Christ, Sasuke," but Naruto's smile is back, and so is the hand running through his hair, and so is the beat that Sasuke's heart is skipping, "use your words, next time."

He breaks up with the guy the next day.

They're twenty-three, and Naruto is drunk. Sasuke isn't much better off, but he can at least stay stable—and Naruto is relying on that, apparently.

"Get off me," Sasuke says, unmoving his arms from around Naruto's waist. Naruto only grins and buries his face into the nook of Sasuke's neck, and Sasuke can feel his breath along his skin—

"Oh my god, get a room, guys." It's Sakura that breaks the moment—Sakura that makes Naruto move away from him (and Sakura that Sasuke glares at as if his eyes could kill)—

"Please, Sakura," Naruto laughs, but he's pulling away, "you and I both know Sasuke is way outta my league."

And they both laugh, that time, as if it's a hilarious joke that Sasuke can't quite get—it's not funny and it's not true, and Sasuke is half a step to offended at the way Naruto seemed so ready to accept it—

He doesn't reply—but he doesn't let Naruto go, either.

Not for the rest of the night.

Not even as they're walking back, to the apartment that Naruto had convinced him to split the rent for—not even as they get to the door, and Naruto takes too long to find his keys, so Sasuke reaches into Naruto's pocket and finds them for him—and Naruto laughs, turning back and whispering something like—

"S'a bit forward, don't you think?"

But he doesn't pull away, and neither does Sasuke.

"Why are you always flirting with me?" And he meant it as a joke, but it came out as the truth—Naruto was always kidding. Always laughing—always joking about this, and Sasuke didn't understand how it could be so casual, so simple, so small to him—

But Naruto only rolls his eyes.

"'Cause I'm in love with you," he says, pushing the door open with his back, "duh."

"One of these days," Sasuke says, letting go of him, "I'm going to take that joke seriously."

Naruto laughs—and Sasuke expects that—but what he doesn't expect is the way Naruto spins around, with something hard in his eyes—

"Yeah," he says, one hand gripping the countertop, "hurry the fuck up, will you?"

They're twenty-three, and Sasuke's in love.

He's hungover, tired, and hopelessly, endlessly in love.

He pretends to be asleep, as Naruto slips into his room—he can smell the breakfast (that he had heard Naruto clattering around the kitchen with), and he hears it as Naruto slides it onto his bedside table.

He also feels it as Naruto's fingertips brush his palm.

It's as if the warmth brings back a million words—a flood of memories, of all the things Naruto has ever said—

"I love you."

—it's a whisper, but Naruto's voice chimes with every other time Sasuke's heard it before—

Sasuke opens his eyes and grabs Naruto's hand before it can slip away. His eyes are wide and worried and terrified—

"Sas—"

"I'm taking you seriously." His heart can't take it anymore. He's too tired—too drained, from the way Naruto has danced at his fingertips for the last seventeen years—he's—

Naruto sits down on the floor and hold his knees to himself (with one hand. The other is still is Sasuke's grasp, and he sure as fuck isn't letting go).

"Fuck," Naruto sighs, leaning forward with the breath, "fine, okay. Listen."

And Naruto looks up at him, as if making sure Sasuke will—as if Sasuke hasn't heard every word Naruto has ever said—

"I love you. And I know you don't—feel like that towards me, okay? I know that. That's not what this is about. It's—sorry," he runs his free hand through his hair, obviously not looking at Sasuke because if he did he would see the absolute disbe-fucking-lief—

"Sorry—what I mean—what I want—I just want you to know. Like to actually know and believe me because you've been taking it as a joke for years and it's never been one. I've never been kidding. Not once."

He sighs, again, but Sasuke is already moving.

"You," Sasuke starts, halfway off the bed, "complete fucking imbecile—"

And he only catches a glimpse of Naruto's wide, scared eyes before he's on the floor, too—before he's knocking Naruto on his back, lips pressed to his with some sort of desperation he couldn't express in any other way—

"Idiot," Sasuke says again—and Naruto breathes in— "You stupid, stupid, idiot moron—"

And Naruto's laugh pierces the room, coloured with disbelief and exhilaration and pure, pure happiness—

"Say it," he breathes—

"Moron," Sasuke can feel Naruto's smile against his own, "I love you too."

A/N: Something short and cute for this Friday evening. I think this is the first time I've ever started and finished something in the same day!

Hope you guys liked it!

Till next time,

- Kinomi