TITLE: "Stuttering"

PAIRING: SasuNaru

RATING: rated M

SUMMARY: Everybody knows that Uzumaki Naruto isn't the brightest crayon in a box so when he came up with a theory, even he can't believe how accurate it is. and that theory is that one Uchiha Sasuke stutters when he is in love. too bad it still doesn't change the fact that he is dense as fuck.

DISCLAIMER: Do I look like I'm Masashi Kishimoto? no. not owning The Used and Snow Patrol either. *sighs*

A/N: hey guise, RaiDen here. so this was supposed to be my 8th story since I started writing here but unfortunately, I can't fucking open my previous account and add to that, I can't fucking find my flash drive. so I'm sorry to say that those who was able to read "A Dollar for your thoughts..." And "Acknowledgement", that I won't be able to continue it. if you don't know what account and story I'm talking about, it's IAMITACHI'SWIFEBOWDOWNTOME It really piss me off that I wasn't able to continue those two. I love those babies so much. *cries* I think I'll just have to move on, which brings me to this new story. It's supposed to be a one-shot but I can't help but to make it longer since it would look like rushed if I just make it a one-shot, so maybe a two-shot or three? I'm not yet sure. I'm in the process of writing this and I'm just posting it since I want feed back and stuff. so you guise can review please...:D

unbeta'd.

STUTTERING

A lot of people know that Uchiha Sasuke is a man of intelligence and pride. No matter what asked, he always has and always will have an answer to it. Even if the question is somewhat out of the world like what his best friend, Uzumaki Naruto, would always ask. Make him recite a poem by Shakespeare or even Edgar Allan Poe, he'll recite it flawlessly. Ask him to do an Impromptu speech in front of a thousand students, and he'll give a very precise, clean and straight-to-the-point speech that makes all of the student body and even the professors gape their mouth at him. It's like talking, socializing not included, public speaking and anything that involves Sasuke and his mouth – no pun intended – will always result to a magnificent performance from the raven haired boy. He already won 13 competitions in interschool debate and an award for Excellency in Public Speaking. Everybody admires him, Looks up to him and just likes him in general. And if you're friends with Sasuke, expect a very sharp and witty or sometimes sarcastic, depending on what you are saying, comments from him. That's why, only one person is able to tolerate Sasuke and his snarky comments and bastardly attitudes. And that is his best friend for eight years, Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto is the exact opposite of Sasuke. Naruto isn't good with words and sometimes comes up with the most stupid, irrelevant question of the century and if you're not Sasuke, you'll be the one looking stupid when you can't answer Naruto's question. Their classmates and teachers would say that they are truly meant to be together because without Sasuke, Naruto being in school is a lost cause and without Naruto, Sasuke might turn out to be a hermit who will live outside society. It's just a fair combination. But because of an Incident one day, everything change for both Sasuke and Naruto. It happened when they first met their new literature teacher, subject where everyone expected Sasuke to be the number one student at.

"Sasuke Bastard! Wait for me, you ass…" Naruto shouted, running where his ass of a best friend went off to. He turned around a corner not knowing that Sasuke stopped and because of the speed when he was running, Naruto wasn't able to stop at the right moment and bumped into Sasuke and caused them both to stumble forward.

"YOU IDIOT!"

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO STOPPED BASTARD!"

The two tangled mess on the ground kept on shouting at each other and ,not doing a very good job at untangling themselves, was not able to notice a man standing in front of them with an amused smile on his face. Finally able to sit up straight, Sasuke looked up and saw a gorgeous creature in front of him, smiling his most gorgeous smile. Though the man looked average, Sasuke's heart still can't stop beating hard because of the man's genuine and just AH-MAZING smile.

"Want me to help you?" The man asked, making the scars on his face right across his nose move slightly, making Sasuke think that it's so cute and started blushing, while holding out his hand for Sasuke.

"Hey bastard, think you can stand up?" Naruto now standing up, asked worriedly at his frozen and red-faced best friend. Maybe the impact really was strong? Thought Naruto, looking at his friend.

"Uhm…Uh…" Sasuke started but can't seem to express anything in front of the man whose hand is reaching out to him.

God.

"Here, let me help you." The man volunteered again, but was stopped when Naruto grabbed his hands.

"Talk to him again." Naruto whispered to the man while looking at his best friend with an unreadable expression on his face.

"What are you – "the man asked, confused on what Naruto's doing.

"Just…Ask him, anything!"

"Oh. Uhm. What's your name?" The man asked Sasuke, now smiling amusedly at both Naruto and the still stunned boy in front of him.

"M – my..n-n-name? Huh..What's uhm…name? " Sasuke stuttered, not knowing what to say. For the first time of his 15 years of existence, it's the first time it happened that he stuttered. Even when he's only a little kid, he never stuttered. But now, what's happening? Both Naruto and Sasuke thought, the former almost laughing evilly and the latter still confused and frozen.

"HAH, I knew it!" Naruto shouted, pointing at Sasuke who until after 5 minutes of staring and smiling is still sitting at the floor stunned. "I JUST KNEW IT! THE GREAT UCHIHA ALSO HAS ITS WEAKNESS!"

"Uhm, what are you talking about?" The man with the scar asked, scared that this two insane kids will be one day the leader of their country. Our future is doomed.

"Oh. Sorry. He's okay uh…"

"Umino. Umino Iruka." Iruka smiled at the grinning blonde and shook his hands.

"Well, Iruka-san, Sasuke's alright. He's just having his moment."

"Okay. So are you sure I can leave you two now?" Iruka asked skeptically and nodded his head at Sasuke's slouching – and still frozen – figure at the floor.

"Yup. Like what I've said, he's just having his moments. Everybody has that right Iruka-san." With a last wave of his hands, he left the two teenagers. Naruto can't stop laughing when Sasuke was able to stand up and have his composure back after Iruka left.

"Shut up Idiot or you'll regret being born in this world." Sasuke snapped at the still laughing blonde, slapping his thigh as an emphasis at how much he's having fun on what happened to his broody best friend.

"Come on Sasuke, admit it. You like Iruka-san!" Naruto declared in between laughter. Sasuke brushed his pants and glared harder at Naruto.

"If you will not keep your mouth shut this minute, I will not be responsible for my actions and just throw you in the nearest wall or even put you in a guillotine."

"See? You're back to your old self. But when Iruka-san asked you a question, you started to stutter." Naruto said, now able to calm down a bit.

"I did not." Sasuke huffed, walking straight to their class room and stopped again when he saw who's standing in front of their class.

"Oh..hey Iruka-san, or should I say Iruka-sensei?, It's good to see you again, right Sasuke?" Naruto smirked when he saw Sasuke froze again at the door and emphasized on saying Iruka and Again.

"Oh, you're one of my students in literature too?" the literature teacher asked, smiling more widely.

"Yep. Right Sasuke-bastard?" Naruto grinned, elbowing his best friend.

"Uh..ye – yeah….haa.."

And at that moment, everyone who was inside their classroom was so shocked and some even fainted because of Sasuke's unlikely answer and attitude. And at that moment also, Sasuke's perfect record was ruined because of his nonstop stuttering whenever he is around the scarred man.

And therefore, Naruto concluded that, when Sasuke stuttered, he is definitely in love.

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After a year and a half, Sasuke found out that his first love and one and only love is in a relationship with one of their teacher. Sasuke was so crushed when he found out about it that they are already dating for 3 years and that he can't have Iruka because he's only known the man for a year and a half. That, and the fact that Iruka's lover is none other than Hatake Kakashi, the second most perverted professor in their academy. The first one is their history professor, Jiraiya. Sasuke was so heartbroken that he became so emo, more emo than his usual emo self. At first, Naruto and Sasuke's brother Itachi, thought it was funny, but after a month or two, it started to irritate them. Sasuke would always listen to snow patrol at exactly 7 pm and will change the music to The Used. And what irritates Itachi more is that both Snow patrol and The used isn't even an Emo Band. The older Uchiha kept on reminding his brother that when time comes, and Sasuke have chance to meet The Used, Bert wouldn't be too happy knowing that their song was used for the younger Uchiha's Emo moments.

"Sasuke….Naruto-kun is waiting for you outside!" Itachi shouted outside Sasuke's room, irritated at the song playing inside.

Sasuke sighed and turned off his stereo and unplugged his iPod putting it inside his pocket and went down the stairs. He grabbed his coat and put on his sneakers before opening the door and greeting his dobe of a best friend.

"Sasukeee…."

"Hn."

"I haven't even said anything yet." Naruto huffed, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Then keep it that way." Sasuke snapped back, still not in the mood.

"As if…" the blonde started, "Anyway, we're only a month away from our graduation. I'm so fucking excited." Naruto continued, crossing his arms behind his head and walking backwards facing the raven.

"Excited? You're not even sure if your grades will suffice and deem you worthy of a diploma, Dobe." The Uchiha smirked at his glaring blonde best friend while they continue on walking. Where? He has no idea.

"…such an ass, You teme. And I am sure that I will graduate because unlike someone, I don't stutter in front of Iruka-sensei." Naruto finished and stuck his tongue out at his Uchiha friend and started to run in circles when he saw the angry look from Sasuke. "I'M JUST TELLING THE TRUTH! THE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE WHOLE TRUTH, SO HELP ME GOOODDD!" Naruto kept on shouting while running away from Sasuke's evil fists of Emonstorsity.

"Oh yeah, Naruto, so god help you that I won't be able to catch you." Sasuke whispered under his breath then continued on chasing at the blonde. They chased each other around the block and soon ended up at a currently empty park near their neighborhood. Naruto saw a huge tree at the other side of the park and charged forward there, hoping that he can climb the tree before Sasuke catches him. He looked back and saw Sasuke nowhere and chuckled evilly. Hah, the teme's too slow, he thought as he climbed at the tall tree, making sure not to grip a loosen branch. When he was finally seated properly, he looked down and saw Sasuke smirking at him from below.

"Dobe, you think you can hide yourself there? Can't you remember that I'm the one who thought you how to climb a tree?" Sasuke taunted smugly, then smirked when he saw Naruto's eyes widened in realization. The blonde gulped and tried to glare at his friend.

"Well teme, I'm just stating a fact…"

"A fact only for you Naruto."

"Well, well…" Naruto stopped speaking when he felt something hairy crawled on his arms and when he looked at the where it came from, he shrieked – a very girly out-of-the-world shriek – and started flailing his arms.

"WAAHH…SHIMUNSHANG SHIMUNSHANG!(1) GET IT OFF ME GET IT OFF MEEE!" Naruto kept on flailing his right arms, not noticing that the branch that his left arm was holding was about to break.

"Naruto, what are you talking about? What is a shimu…wait wait…Naruto stop movin – "

Before Sasuke could finish his sentence, Naruto already fell off the tree and fell on top of Sasuke's awaiting arms. Insert sarcasm there. The blonde one sighed heavily when he turned to look at his arms and noticed that the creature that scared him was now out of sight. But unfortunately, his skin where the creature stayed awhile ago started to itch.

"Do…be get off…me." Sasuke tried to push the blonde off of him but stopped when he saw Naruto scratching his arms almost violently. "Naruto. Naruto, look at me. What happened?" the raven asked concern, grabbing the blonde's hand to look at the now bruised and red skin.

"It's a fucking wooly caterpillar. Fucking itchy…Ugh!" Naruto started scratching again the moment Sasuke released his arms.

"Naruto," Sasuke slapped the tanned hands away from the irritated skin, "you're going to make it bleed, stop it."

"I can't Sasuke it's just too…ugh, Itchy."

"Come on, let's get you home." Sasuke said, helping the blonde to stand up and lead him to the Uchiha residence where they first came from.

When they got there, Sasuke called out for his brother but no one answered so he led Naruto to his room and instructed him to just scratch it lightly so that it won't bruise more. He went to the kitchen and took a bottle of vinegar with him and a used candle with a lighter then went back to his room and lead Naruto to his bathroom.

"Take off your clothes dobe." Sasuke instrtucted, opening a first aid kit.

"What? Why do I have to take my clothes off?" Naruto asked, losing his patience.

"Just do what I tell you. And go inside the tub, just keep your boxers though, I don't want to be scarred for life." Sasuke glared then lit up the candle he brought while waiting for Naruto to position himself inside the tub.

"Tsk, asshole."

Nodding his head at his friend, Sasuke grabbed the full bottle of vinegar and asked Naruto to extend his arms for him.

"It's a Euproctis chrysorrhoea. It's a very hairy caterpillar that once it brushes on an exposed skin you will start to itch and the skin will break into a rash." Sasuke started explaining while washing the skin with the vinegar slowly. "It's impossible to wash off the itchiness with just water that's why we're using vinegar because of its acid."

"What about the candle?" Naruto asked, eyeing the lit up candle. "Are you going to do something kinky to me?" Naruto joked, wiggling his eyebrows, feeling much better than before, although there's still an itch.

"You wish. I'm just going to use the melted wax on your skin so it will peel off the unwashed hair from the caterpillar." Sasuke explained again, making sure that the vinegar won't spill on his clothes.

"What?" Naruto asked blankly.

"What what, dobe?" Sasuke finished washing the skin with vinegar and set aside the bottle, and took the lit candle.

"W – What are you going to do with the candle teme?" Naruto started squirming but Sasuke's hold on his other arm prevented him to move farther.

"Just stay still, you wouldn't want to set your skin on fire would you?" Sasuke hissed, positioning the candle just above the tan turned red skin of Naruto.

"Sasuke….that's hot. How would I stay still when I know that you're going to be dripping melted wax into my skin?!" Naruto started, panicking.

"Sshh…it's not that hot, Dobe."

"Easy for you to say, you're not the one going to – HAH…HaH..Sssshhhhhhittt! TEMEEE!"

Outside the Uchiha residence, one Uchiha Itachi was supposed to go back inside, when he heard a very loud shriek from a very loud mouthed blonde and he smirked to himself.

"It's about time." He smirked then shrugged, turning around and going back to where he came from. "I guess I'll just have to stay the night at Kisame's. Wouldn't want to disturb my little brother and his little blonde angel."

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After a lot of shouting, struggling and cussing, the itchiness subsided and Naruto was now lying on Sasuke's bed sniffing softly. It is quite hard to admit but he did cry a little when the raven haired Uchiha dripped the melted wax on his skin. After shouting obscenities to whoever made that epocritis fucking fuck – Naruto's exact words – He suddenly felt exhausted and just waited for his friend to come back from cleaning the bathroom.

"You're still crying, huh Dobe?" Sasuke chuckled, looking at his best friend's slightly damp face.

"I'm not crying. Just got a little teary….those fucking epocritis caterpillar." He mumbled softly, almost pouting. Watching the scene in front of him, Sasuke can't help but to feel sorry for his best friend but still find it adorably cute when Naruto looked so fragile like that.

"It's a Euproctis chrysorrhoea, idiot." Sasuke corrected, walking over to Naruto, pushing him slightly so he can lie down beside his pouting blonde friend.

"Yeah, whatever Mr. Smarty pants. I prefer calling it, shimunshang (1)." Naruto mumbled weakly, rubbing his skin softly.

"Hn. You're so weird." Sasuke chuckled then took Naruto's still red arms and started doing the rubbing instead. Naruto looked at him weirdly but then shrugged it off and rolled over to his side so that he's facing Sasuke and that he can rub the skin more easily.

"I'm leaving Japan, you know." Naruto started in a whisper, afraid to ruin the moment.

"I know." Sasuke sighed, but still continued on rubbing smooth circles on Naruto's skin.

"Just for 4 years though. You wouldn't forget about me right, teme?" Naruto asked, nudging Sasuke's shoulder. Sasuke stopped rubbing Naruto's skin and looked at him straight in the eye, not noticing how close the two were.

"Of course, who would forget a Dobe like you? And it's a good thing you're going to go back there. After all these years, you would think that you've been good at speaking in Japanese, but unfortunately you still suck at it." Sasuke teased although his voice was only above whisper and the two kept looking at each other's eyes.

"Pft, it's not my fault I grew up and lived in America for seven years." Naruto bit back but still smiling softly.

"You lived there for seven years, Dobe, but you've been living here for almost 9 years now." Sasuke said quietly and kissed his best friend's forehead when he noticed that the blonde's eyes are already closed.

"Night, Dobe."

"Goodnight, Sasuke-teme…"

Sasuke was about to close his eyes when he felt a very light touch on his lips and saw Naruto moved slightly and smiled in his sleep, not able to witness the out-of-character blush that spread on the usually stoic Uchiha's cheeks.

"Sh..shi…shit." Uchiha Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise and stuttered for the second time.

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After the incident that night, Sasuke tried his best to avoid talking to Naruto, afraid that he might start stuttering in front of his best friend. Also, Naruto is the only one who knows about the real reason behind his stuttering thus, the avoidance. But of course, the blonde being the dense idiot he is, didn't notice his best friends attitude towards him. He just thought that Sasuke is very busy for the graduation being the class valedictorian and all so he just let Sasuke be.

Walking back to his locker, Naruto passed Iruka's room and saw Sasuke and his sensei talking to each other. It's not surprising seeing Sasuke and their literature teacher talk since he is a student of the said teacher, what was surprising was the lack of stuttering from a certain Uchiha.

"Yes Sensei, I'll bring it to you this Friday." Sasuke said flawlessly and bowed his head before leaving. Naruto waited outside the room and grabbed Sasuke's arms when he didn't noticed Naruto.

"So, looks like you've move on eh, Teme." Naruto teased his best friend and was rewarded with a glare. "What? You're not stuttering in front of him, does this mean you're already moved on?" he asked again, smirking at the Uchiha who's walking faster now while avoiding looking at him.

"Oh, hey there Uzumaki, Uchiha." A brunette guy greeted Naruto and Sasuke when the two finally got to their locker.

"Oh, Hey Kiba, sup?" Naruto asked, putting away his books messily inside his equally messy locker.

"Nothing much, just going to ask Uchiha here if he already have the curriculum vitae that Yamato-sensei asked you to give to Kurenai-sensei." Kiba informed them, leaning his back on the other locker. Sasuke just nodded and was about to give the said paper to Kiba – without talking at all - when Ino, Sakura, Lee and Hinata came and surrounded them then started talking to Naruto and him.

"So Sasuke-kun, ready for your speech?" Sakura asked, smiling at Sasuke while texting on her other hand without looking.

"I…uh.." Sasuke started but closed his mouth when he felt Naruto's presence beside him. I was going to stutter for sure, he thought.

"Of course he is, he's Uchiha Sasuke after all." Ino butted in, making Sasuke sigh and Sakura frown at her and started a fight by calling her a pig.

Sasuke breathed a sigh of relief and turned to his other side – the Naruto-less side – and was just about to escape from the circle of friends when Lee suddenly talked to him and asked him a question about youth and all those things that comes out of lee's – and Gai-sensei's – mouth.

"Hah, as if Sasuke has anything like that." Naruto teased, encircling his arms around Sasuke's neck, which, in turn, made the latter froze on the spot.

All of them looked expectantly to Sasuke, expecting a very punch-worthy retort from him and it made Sasuke more nervous. Add to the fact that his sole reason for stuttering has his arms wrapped around him affectionately.

This is not happening, Sasuke thought grimly.

"I…uh…" He gulped then tried again. " You're such…a- a a-…nn. Id- id- idiot!" Sasuke shouted then run as fast as he can away from his group of friends whose jaws are gaping and eyes widened in shock. After a minute, Naruto face palmed and remembered something.

Sasuke stutters in front of his crush.

Then he looked around and saw that there are a lot of people surrounding them. So it means one of their friends is his best friend's crush. It's time for operation find-out-who-is-the-teme's-crush. And so, Naruto started stalking Sasuke and observed him from afar but just right to hear them talk and check who is the one that Sasuke has a crush on.

The first one was Ino. She called Sasuke for help in a last project in Science but it seems it's not her because Sasuke looked so composed and aloof as usual like any other day.

"And you can always add the synthesis after reading all the related studies here." Sasuke explained to Ino. "And why the hell are you just doing this now?"

"Eh, you know how busy I am Sasuke-kun…" Ino blushed sheepishly then thanked Sasuke before running outside their classroom.

"Tch…woman." Sasuke muttered.

Naruto pouted in a corner, hoping that it will be easy for him to find out who Sasuke is crushing on but it seems that he still have 4 people to spy at. Nodding his head in determination, Naruto waited for anyone of those 4 to talk to Sasuke. And Lee did just that.

"Sasuke-san, why the long face? Today is a very bright and sunny day! Youth is all over the place and since we're already a month away, it is time to rekindle those friendships that was lost before." Lee stated animatedly, smiling widely showing his shiny teeth in the process.

"Hn. Maybe you're the one who should do the rekindling with Sakura since you haven't made any progress yet after 4 long years." Sasuke bit back, and looked at Lee blankly which in turn made the previous happy and youthful boy pout and leave the Uchiha alone.

At the same corner as before, a blonde boy hit his head on his desk and sighed audibly because of what he saw. 'I don't know if I should be happy that he's not Sasuke's crush or I should be sad since I'll still have to wait for lunch to spy him with Kiba, Sakura and Hinata talking since they're not in the same class as ours.' Naruto thought morosely, and started doodling on his notebook, still with his head on his desk that he didn't notice the same Uchiha looking longingly at him, with a red tint on his cheek.

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When lunch time came, Naruto ate before all of his friends get together in their usual table since he has a mission. And that mission won't be possible if Sasuke is surrounded with all of their friends. It will only bring more confusion. So he opted to wait for Sasuke to be alone with any one of those four 'contestants'. After 30 minutes of waiting just around the corner outside the school cafeteria, Sasuke came out with a talkative Kiba on tow. And Naruto felt another failure came into him when he saw and heard Sasuke talking like his usual self without the stuttering when he was being asked.

"So yeah like…wait, where is Naruto by the way?" Kiba suddenly asked the bored looking Uchiha beside him.

"Hn. Probably trying to be more of a dobe than he is." Sasuke replied nonchalantly though inside he's also wondering.

Kiba's howl of laughter was cut off when Naruto suddenly went out of his hiding place to defend himself for being called an idiot.

"What the fuck did you say teme?" Naruto growled at his friend whose smirk suddenly vanished from hearing his voice. Kiba sitffled a laugh at the shock look that's plastered on the usually composed Uchiha.

"Shut up Kiba." Naruto turned to look at the brunette. "You teme, calling me an Idiot."

"Hn. But I'm just…te…te..telling..fuck." Sasuke's eyes widened in realization. At first he thought that he can speak again in front of Naruto without stuttering but then it still happened in the end. He will never hear the end of it, he thought grimly. And the only solution that he can execute without embarrassing himself more was to – although still a bit embarrassing – was to run.

And run he did.

Naruto looked at Sasuke's retreating back confusedly then turned to look at Kiba who only shrugged, obviously not understanding anything happening. After that, the blonde boy continued on with his mission but then it all proved him nothing. When Sasuke was talking to one Haruno Sakura, it's like he's only talking to a very close girl friend, even more like a sibling and he doesn't stutter a bit. When it came to the Hyuuga Heir, well, it was Hinata's turn to stutter in front of the Uchiha.

"Fucking failure…" Naruto mumbled dejectedly on his way home. Sasuke wasn't with him at the moment because of a sudden meeting in the student council board and of course, he is Uchiha Sasuke the council president, that's why he's there. And it's only logical since he's the one who called for the meeting.

Walking back home dejectedly, Naruto started to ponder about what had happened the whole day. Specifically speaking, the whole Sasuke-is-stuttering-again issue. None of those people from the time he found out about Sasuke's regained stuttering are the cause of the said problem. Everyone who was surrounding them that time isn't the cause and suddenly, something hit Naruto's head, like a hammer hitting a nail and his eyes widened in disbelief.

"…Is Sasuke…stuttering cause of me?"

Well, that's another hypothesis that he's going to find out.

(1) Shimunshang is what me and my friends call this insect. it's a funny story really cause here in our country, the hair inside of a human's nose is called shimunshang. old people call them that, here. so when we saw the wooly catterpillar, it's like a moving human nose hair and we called it that. haha. funny right? meh.

review please? should I continue or not? what cha think?