The sun had barely begun to rise when Naruto arrived at the bridge, his bag thrown over one shoulder as he yawned tiredly. His hitai-ate made the messy bedhead look a little neater, but it was quite obvious that Naruto hadn't even run a comb through his hair before he left that morning.

Sasuke had been at the bridge a half-hour early himself, already warmed up and stretching for their mission, but as soon as Naruto dropped his pack next to his, he froze as he looked up at his teammate. The blonde scratched at his stomach absentmindedly as he flopped cross-legged onto the bridge with another yawn before sprawling backward across the deck.

"Morning," he mumbled without looking at Sasuke, "how much you wanna bet Kakashi-sensei will be here three hours late?"

"His average is over four hours," Sasuke answered back quietly as he stared at Naruto from the corner of his eye. He hadn't slept more than a few hours last night after realizing that he liked Naruto, it was the first time he had ever had a crush on someone and he wasn't certain what he was supposed to do from there. He doubted bringing up Naruto's proposal now before they were even friends would work in his favor because he still wasn't sure if Naruto meant it as a proposal or not.

He certainly acts as if he likes Sakura romantically, he thought as he leaned back against the bridge railing, Naruto fawns over Sakura almost as much as she fawns over me. A tendril of jealousy sinuously wove around him and his jaw tightened as he tried to banish the strange emotion from his mind, it was absurd that he would be jealous of Sakura of all people. She didn't even like Naruto, but he didn't like that Naruto's attention wasn't directed towards him—the person he proposed to.

Sasuke pulled his pack towards him and rummaged through it for the new apples he had just bought yesterday evening in preparation for the mission today. This time though, he placed them inside a protective container just in case something happened and his pack got crushed again. "Catch," he said, throwing the apple at Naruto's chest as the blonde quickly fumbled to catch it.

"Hey teme, some warning would be nice!" Naruto groused as he sat up with the apple between his hands.

"I said catch."

He held the apple up by the stem, scrutinizing it closely as he slowly spun it around. It was a shiny red color with flecks of yellow in the skin, certainly nicer looking than any apple he had seen at the market near his apartment and his stomach grumbled appreciatively at the unexpected gift, but Naruto didn't trust it. He gave Sasuke a side-long glance that was full of suspicion as if he were judging the raven's very soul, "...It's not poisoned, right?"

"If you don't want it, then give it back," he said, reaching out to take the apple back, but Naruto snatched his hand back to cradle the fruit against his chest.

"You already gave it to me, you can't take it back!" Naruto took a big bite out of the apple with such voracity that Sasuke could hear the moment Naruto's teeth sunk into the crisp fruit. He chewed loudly, using the sleeve of his jacket to wipe his mouth from the juices running down his chin, and hastily added, "I-it's just not like you to be so...nice."

Sasuke snorted, turning his face away from Naruto's inquisitive eyes as he pretended to clean his apple of invisible dirt, "I just happened to have an extra apple, that's all. I wouldn't call it nice."

"It's nice to me," he whispered, nibbling at the sweet fruit now that he claimed it as his own after the huge first bite. He wasn't very fond of vegetables, but he liked fruit and always savored it when he had some. It was just usually too expensive for him to buy it fresh and the canned fruits were too sweet with the syrup they were preserved in. "Usually the only person who gives me food is Iruka-sensei when he takes me for ramen."

He wasn't certain how to respond to that and so shrugged his shoulders as they lapsed into silence. They both ate their apples slowly, the trickling stream and awakening birds the only noises around them, and Sasuke found his body relaxing little by little. Being around Naruto was more comfortable than he thought it would be, while he never felt the need to fill the silence with incessant chatter, he normally felt separate no matter how many people surrounded him. But with Naruto, that intangible wall seemed to just disappear—even when they were arguing or fueling their rivalry with silly competitions, he felt genuine affection towards the blonde and sensed the same from Naruto.

Sasuke glanced at his teammate surreptitiously, the sun had finally risen high enough to bathe them with its warmth as well as cast a golden hue around Naruto. For once, he looked as bright and dazzling as he acted with the sunlight sparkling behind him and Sasuke felt the corner of his lip curl into a slight smile. Now that he admitted to himself that he did in fact like Naruto, he couldn't seem to get the blonde out of his head—not that he was having much luck of that before coming to that conclusion, but it was now worse than before.

Following Naruto around had given him a new perspective, watching from afar as Naruto went about his daily routine and how genuine he truly was had given Sasuke a newfound respect for him. No matter how he was treated by the villagers or ignored even by those he tried to help, he continued to try and every time he was overlooked, he'd repeat—sometimes loudly and sometimes quietly—that one day they would all acknowledge him.

And I want to see that happen, Sasuke thought as he took another bite of his apple, surprised to find just how true that statement was. He wanted to see the entire village recognize the good in Naruto, even if he had to force them all to do it one by one. He might need to avenge his clan, but there was no reason he couldn't help Naruto achieve his goal at the same time. If he accepted Naruto's proposal, then he would support him as a spouse should and that included in his chosen partner's dreams.

"Good morning, Sasuke-kun," Sakura said cheerfully as she gave a friendly wave, self-consciously tucking her hair back when Sasuke briefly flicked his eyes towards her, "morning, Naruto. Have you guys been here long?"

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto chirped, immediately perking up at the kunoichi's arrival as his smile widened and he waved back at her. "Nah, we just arrived not too long ago ourselves."

She timidly dropped her hand back to her side as the amiable air between the two boys disappeared so quickly that she almost wondered if she had imagined it. But she had watched Sasuke long enough to see every minute change from the way he sat up straighter to the way his impassive expression turned brooding and dark. "That's a relief," she smiled weakly as she sat down across from them and wrapped her arms around her legs, "I thought I was going to be late and didn't even have breakfast this morning. I hope Sensei doesn't keep us waiting too long today because I might just starve to death if we don't even start until after lunchtime."

"You can have the other half of my apple," he offered, holding out the fruit to her. Part of him didn't want to give it to her, he wasn't sure when he would be able to eat them again or if Sasuke would ever share his food with him again, but he couldn't take it back now.

Sakura shook her head, "Thank you, but I'll be okay. I've got a few ration bars in my pack if I really need to eat something."

"It's rude to give away what's been given to you," Sasuke muttered with a scowl that darkened when he looked at Sakura. How could he offer her my present? He shouldn't be trying to give away anything I have given him. He didn't even care that Sakura had turned Naruto down, just the fact that Naruto even offered it to her made jealousy rage beneath his stoic visage.

"Once it's been given to me, it's mine to do what I want with it, teme," Naruto said, sticking his tongue out in a childish attitude that instantly soothed Sasuke's jealousy.

Sasuke wasn't certain just when Naruto had wormed his way under his walls, but he felt conflicted about how he should act around the blonde now. He wanted to warn Sakura away from Naruto even though he knew she had no interest in him, but as their engagement wasn't ratified at this point, he had no right to tell her to stay away and he wasn't certain he wanted anyone to know just yet when he himself wasn't quite certain if he was accepting it or not.

There was still more he had to consider, he might have admitted he liked Naruto, but that didn't change the fact that they were both men and that accepting the blonde as his spouse would mean the end of his clan. He had taken an oath to one day revive his clan, but he would have to abandon that if he and Naruto married, not unless they agreed to infidelity for the purpose of reproduction. I already hate that he likes Sakura, he thought as Naruto went back to eating his apple, I don't want her to realize that sometimes he can be cute.

"You..." Sakura asked hesitantly, looking between the two boys quizzically, "gave Naruto the apple?"

Sasuke shrugged, carefully schooling his features even as he leaned marginally closer to the blonde, "I just happened to have an extra apple and it'd be a hindrance if his stomach growling gave us away on the mission."

She laughed, the sound tittering and false even to her ears, and smiled at him even as she tried to decipher just what was going on between the two of them. Sasuke had always just ignored Naruto when they were in the academy and even if they were teammates, she was his teammate too, but Sasuke still treated her exactly the same as before. "Oh yeah, I remember how loud it was when you were tied to that tree trunk!"

"It wasn't that bad," Naruto whined, pursing his lips into a pout as the tension building between Sakura and Sasuke suddenly dissipated.

"It was!" Sakura insisted, laughing once again with more genuineness this time, "I bet even the Hokage heard your stomach."

"Sakura-chan!"

"I could hear it halfway across the field," a deep voice interrupted, the three genin immediately on their feet as Kakashi stepped onto the bridge, surprisingly on time for the first time since they met him. "Ready for your mission, kids?"

"Yes!" Naruto yelled, jumping to his feet as he shoved the apple in his mouth long enough to get his pack onto his back. He quickly chomped through the remainder of the apple, tossing it into the tall grass growing next to the stream, and turned to Kakashi with a cheerful smile. "What's our mission, Kakashi-sensei? Bandits? Finding a missing treasure or guarding it? I've been practicing my kunai and shuriken and I know I've gotten a lot better."

"Well, we are looking for something that's missing..." he said, shoving his hands into his pockets and strolling away, the three genin immediately falling in line behind him as he led them towards their mission. "We're searching for a cat in the forest just outside Konoha's walls." 

Naruto's shouted, "A cat?!" could be heard for miles around as Kakashi laughed at his poor students and the difficulty they would be facing chasing after a 'simple' cat.

Sasuke crept silently through the forest, ducking beneath a wayward bramble that's thorns reached to tangle something within its grasp, and glanced around him for any sign of this damned lost cat.

Was there really someone out there willing to pay a ninja team to find a cat?

Of course, he was beginning to think that this wasn't any ordinary cat because it had already escaped their grasp five times, which was insulting and demeaning when he considered that somehow a damned cat was outmaneuvering him. Their target was supposedly a regular old brown housecat named Tora, and the cat had learned well enough how to blend in with the trees so that finding it wasn't as simple as they had thought—especially after he had lost the red bow that had been tied around his ear originally.

It was already nearing three in the afternoon and they were working on their sixth attempt as Kakashi just observed them from somewhere above in the trees. He could sense their sensei and even caught a few snorts of laughter with every failed attempt, but otherwise, he hadn't shown himself since they entered the forest. They were all tiring and Sakura had already shared the ration bars she had packed with them as they discussed the best way to trap their prey. That was before their fifth try failed miserably with the three of them ending up in a dog pile without a cat at the bottom of it. And at the moment, desperation was fueling them more than ingenuity.

"Ouch, damn it!" Naruto cursed lowly and Sasuke glanced over his shoulder to see the blonde fighting with the same bramble he had ducked beneath while Sakura just watched him with a stifled laugh.

"How can you be that dumb, Naruto?" she asked, laughing harder as the blonde struggled harder to get the thorns off of him.

Sasuke shot a withering glare at Sakura when she didn't move to help Naruto, the kunoichi flinching back as Sasuke gracefully stalked toward the blonde. Sakura had already become the bane of his existence in many ways, but now she was also his enemy since the person he liked seemed to like her. Watching her mistreat Naruto was causing him to become more and more irate to the point that he felt quite certain he was going to do something to her if she continued. "Stop moving, you're making it worse," he hissed, reaching up to carefully grasp the vine and gently pull Naruto free of the thorns, "you need to be more aware."

"I thought it was just a vine," he said, effectively chastised for being caught by something as easily avoided as a thorny bush, "I didn't see the thorns."

Sakura waited until Sasuke was finished untangling the vine from Naruto's clothes before she hesitantly asked, "Did any of the thorns scratch you? They shouldn't be poisonous, but they can still make you itch or cause swelling."

"Thanks, Sakura-chan," Naruto threw her a bashful smile as he embarrassedly rubbed the back of his head, "but I'll be okay. It just got stuck to my clothes, not my skin."

Sasuke rolled his eyes as he briskly bumped shoulders with the blonde, annoyance seeping into his tone, "I'm the one who freed you, dobe, so why are you thanking her?"

"I'm just being nice, teme, why are you such a jerk?"

"Because I'm stuck out here with the two of you," he retorted as he scanned the area for any sign of the damned cat, and because you're looking at Sakura instead of me. "Now stop talking and help me find this stupid cat so we can go home."

They fell once more in line with each other, Sasuke immediately taking point and leading them deeper into the forest as they scanned for any sign of their quarry. He walked a little faster, his movements full of irate energy, and steadfastly refused to look over his shoulder at Naruto and Sakura. He didn't want to see that insipid look on the blonde's face whenever he looked at the kunoichi and he certainly didn't want to see the same expression on Sakura's face either. Was it really too much to ask that Naruto notice him?

He was the one who proposed to him!

But maybe it was, while Naruto might have inadvertently proposed to him nearly a month ago, he had only come to the conclusion himself that he liked the blonde less than a day ago. It was a well-known fact that Uchihas always fell harder than anyone else and that once they chose someone, there would be no one else for the rest of their lives. It was even rumored that because the Uchihas capacity to love was so deep and all-consuming, that it was dangerous and could lead to mental instability. But with Naruto's pariah position within the village, it was possible that he didn't realize just what he had set in motion by kissing Sasuke and tying him up.

It had turned Sasuke's attention towards him, someone who prior to that moment had been all but invisible to him was now the focus of all his affection—as warped and stilted as it may be. Sasuke could admit to himself that he certainly wasn't the poster child of normality, his family had been about as dysfunctional as one could get, and he wasn't exactly certain how to express his endearment towards Naruto without being an asshole at the same time. But he was willing to try and he wanted to know more about his prospective suitor, it didn't matter if Naruto knew he proposed or not, he had, and Sasuke planned on giving him a proper answer one way or another.

As they approached a small pond, Sasuke curled his hand into a fist and held it up—a sign to come to an immediate stop that the others followed without hesitation. He crouched down silently, allowing his teammates to see what he saw: Tora asleep in a small patch of grass that was being warmed by the sun through the boughs of the trees. At least they weren't the only ones who were tired after running around all day, but the question now was how they were going to capture him without the damned cat noticing them first again?

Sakura tapped him on the shoulder, mutely signing to her teammates a plan that played to Sasuke's strengths, which may have been the smartest idea since he had proven to be stronger, quicker, and more agile than Naruto or Sakura, but Sasuke could only focus on the look of disappointment on Naruto's face. Her plan had her sneaking up behind the cat while Sasuke came from the opposite direction with a net and had Naruto hiding nearby in case Tora somehow bolted away from them, with the pond next to the cat, it meant there was only one other direction he could run.

It also meant that most likely it would be the two of them capturing their prey while Naruto was left out, a thought that twisted Sasuke's stomach. Now that he was paying closer attention, he noticed just how often Naruto was alone, excluded by the village—ostracized and forgotten—and just how hard the blonde fought to be noticed or recognized by his peers. Sasuke didn't like seeing that dejected look on the blonde's face even though he agreed to Sakura's plan and for Sasuke, it was the last straw.

They split off with Naruto remaining where he was, but instead of heading in the opposite direction of Sakura, he doubled around until he was far enough away from Naruto for the blonde to not see what he was doing. He knew Naruto would in no way approve of his slight changes to the plan and would most likely try to stop him, but Sasuke wanted to take Sakura down a notch or two. The kunoichi was certainly beneath him and Naruto in terms of skill and he was ready to prove it to all of them. He reached into his weapons satchel, removing the small spindle of ninja wire and tying it firmly to the end of a kunai. Spinning the kunai, he calculated Sakura's gait and threw the kunai with deadly accuracy so that it would be almost completely embedded into the soil and fully hidden by the grass. He tied the other end to a nearby sapling so that the wire would only be two or three inches above the ground, just high enough to trip someone without it being obvious.

He quickly slinked through the forest to his designated spot and signaled to Sakura that he was in place. He kept his eyes trained on the cat that was still peacefully sleeping and removed the net so that it at least