People I Hate To Not Mind
by Sammy kill joy
"Waff is 'dat?"
The last remaining Uchiha sighed, glared at the blonde boy in front of him, then sighed again. Looking down at the particularly empty piece of paper he had been writing on, Sasuke placed down his pen neatly and responded, "Swallow, dobe, I'm having more trouble than usual deciphering your stupid babble."
Gulping mightily, Naruto's baby blues narrowed. "Sasuke-temeee," he growled with a tint of warning tagging along in his tone. Silence fell on the two in the small ramen restaurant, this time without Naruto's constant broth slurping, and soon the blonde was twitching uncomfortably in his seat. Losing an inner battle, he offered again, this time more intelligently, "What is that?"
Sasuke, who had the pen in his hand once again yet still not writing anything else, looked up from his paper and smirked. "Why do you want to know?"
Naruto answered impatiently, "Because we're supposed to be having a nice, after-mission dinner and you're just... just... just sitting there! With that!" He sputtered, then, satisfied at how easily the banter between them had been restored, went back to inhaling his ramen.
Sasuke would have rolled his onyx eyes, had it not been such an Un-Uchiha thing to do. "We're supposed to have a nice, after-mission dinner, but I ate my fill fifteen minutes ago, you probably don't have the money to cover your Konoha-sized bill so I can't leave (because I'd rather bail you out now then come back and bail you out later), and I'd rather sit in the peace and quiet instead of lounging around outside. I have to amuse myself somehow."
Thinking for a moment, Naruto pointed his chopsticks at his friend. "You mean you wanna get away from those wacko fangirls of yours."
The Sharingan bearer felt his eye twitch. "If you must put it like that."
To this, Naruto laughed, but not with Sasuke (this would be particularly hard, considering that the Uchiha really didn't laugh at all), but at Sasuke. "Chicken," he snickered.
Yes, there was that twitch again, Sasuke noticed. "What was that, dobe?"
Banging his fist against the counter, Naruto snarled, "Stop calling me that, teme!" The force of his fist had caused the wood table to shake and knock over his bowl, and Naruto scrambled about with wide eyes. "Ramen, ramen, my ramen!"
"See, now this is why I keep calling you dobe. If you'd just act like someone even remotely intelligent..." Sasuke said coldly.
"You made me spill my ramen! If I killed you now, I swear I'd have no regrets, teme!"
Bored, Sasuke unnecessarily tightened the straps of his weapon pouch. "Hn."
"Don't 'hn' me, dumb ass!"
"Hn."
"SASUKE!"
"Hn?"
After 10 more minutes of yelling, badgering the old man at Ichiraku's for a free ramen refill (and failing spectacularly), and getting thrown out after Naruto had jumped Sasuke, the two were finally leaving.
"Y'know," Naruto started softly after they had been walking for a while. "You never did tell me what you were doing on those papers." He offhandedly shrugged, as if not knowing didn't bother him.
Sasuke knew it did, however, and smirked a smug smirk. Pulling out his list from his pocket, he handed it over to the eager-but-pretending-not-to-be blonde.
"'People I Hate To Not Mind'?" Naruto snickered. "What does that mean, a list of people that you actually don't hate? Gasp, the impossible!"
Sasuke scowled at the last comment but nodded all the same. "Something like that. I don't like the fact that I like them, but it's just the way things happen, I guess."
Still snickering, Naruto scanned the list while saying, "Heh, only you would actually make a list, teme... Sakura- well, who wouldn't like her?"
"Seven years of being on the same team and having a lot of the same acquaintances does that to you."
"Kakashi- ehh, he's not such a bad sensei."
"No, he isn't. He taught me a lot, although he is annoyingly late most of the time."
"Iruka- he's good, 'cept he yells all the time."
"That's just with you, baka, and with good reason."
"I'm gonna ignore that, teme. Ano... Tsunade- you actually like that old hag?"
"She's respectable but not too stiff. She's a good Hokage, despite the alcohol problem and the gambling."
Sasuke offered a small shrug, but didn't even turn to look at the blonde.
"Oi, oi, where's my name?" Naruto whined, panicking slightly when he realized he had reached the end of the (incredibly) short list and his name was no where to be found. He began flailing his arms about and only stopped once the moody Uchiha snatched back his paper.
"It's on the other list," Sasuke snarled, folding his list precisely before tucking it safely inside one of his pockets. The word other sounded particularly angry and fierce to the prankster and Naruto found himself shrinking away slightly.
"T-teme!" Was his brilliant reply. Naruto internally prided himself for sounding strong and unhurt (and for the tears to not show and for his voice to not quake). What sort of other list did Sasuke have? Ne, ne, was it one of hated people?
Oh Kami, was he with Itachi up there? Was he really that despised? Gah, damn that Uchiha! First saying that Naruto was his best friend, luring him into false security, then bam! Putting him on the bad list, probably all leading up to this exact moment where he could mock Naruto and taunt Naruto and... (yes, this is Naruto's mind- beware the flying tangerines and the potholes and the overall emptiness- joking )
But ehh, why did Naruto care so much? It wasn't as if he really minded if that raven-haired bastard hated him or whatever. Heck, he didn't even know why he was getting so worked up about this thing. It was just a list and he should have known he wasn't on there anyways- if he had been, then Sasuke would have probably hidden the list from him with all his might, just because that was the kind of unfeeling Uchiha he was (A.K.A., Sasuke refusing to let anyone know personally that he has a heart).
So he had set himself up for the disappointment, that was all. Wait... what disappointment? The disappointment of not being on Sasuke's good side? Feh, who wanted to be on Sasuke's good side? How was it different from the bad side, besides the fact that Sasuke usually wanted to kill the people on his bad side, really?
So he had set himself up for the non-existent disappointment. Yeah, that sounded about right... ish.
Well, hm, yeah, er, right...
"Dobe?"
Broken out of his logical and note-worthy train of thought, Naruto snapped back into attention (and reality).
"Dobe, you stopped moving."
Naruto wanted to burst out, "Well thanks for stating the obvious, teme!" but kept quiet lest an undignified whimper passed through his lips instead of the intended insult. Gnashing on his lower lip (because gnashing was much manlier sounding than biting or worrying), Naruto began walking again, albeit a much, much slower pace, without even gracing the Uchiha with an answer.
Sasuke, an annoyed expression on his face, merely muttered a 'Che' and followed him. And in his other pocket hid a piece of paper labeled:
The Other List:
People I Don't Mind To Love
Uzumaki Naruto
owari
Sappy McSap Sap. Any good? I actually kind of liked it. :)
Sammy kill joy and Seika