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Token Ugly Duckling	By : Sasunarufan13 Category: Naruto > General Views: 1995 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor make profit of it. Kishimoto owns it.

Chapter List
- 1-Token Ugly Duckling
- 1
Author's note: My birthday today wasn't particularly fantastic, so I ended up writing this. Because naturally writing another SN oneshot is a natural course of action nowadays *blinks* A bit self-indulgent this one, so don't expect anything too deep or complicated. This is something I came up with on the fly, really.
NOT FOR SAKURA FANS. There's no real character bashing, but as always she's based on canon and thus not that very nice. So if you like Sakura, best not to read further.
Warnings: Sakura's and Naruto's pov; Alternate universe; established slash; vague references to bullying; implied mature content; famous photographer Sasuke
I hope you'll like it despite its randomness!
Token Ugly Duckling
"You invited Uzumaki?" Sakura asked stumped as she finally got a good look at the invitee list.
She and her best friend Ino had organised a reunion for their old classmates of secondary school. Ino had taken up the task of sending out the invitations, however, so Sakura had no clue who was coming until tonight – and the list she finally saw did nothing but confuse her.
"Yeah, I did. He's on the list, isn't he?" Ino replied distractedly, greeting Tobi and his girlfriend cheerfully.
One hour after the official start of the reunion, more and more people were arriving and the hall they had rented for tonight was quickly filling up; people mingling around in small groups, catching up on what they had missed if they hadn't stayed in touch with each other.
Tables filled with drinks and food ensured that nobody would leave hungry or thirsty and a DJ was playing music as well, for everyone interested in dancing.
"But why?" Sakura tilted her head to the left, smiling at Hinata, who was arriving together with her cousin Neji. Seemed like some things would never change. "Hey, Hinata, Neji-san. I hope you'll enjoy the evening!"
"That remains to be seen," Neji muttered darkly, which made it quite clear that it hadn't been his idea to show up.
Hinata giggled nervously, hanging up her coat, revealing her light purple dress. "Don't mind him, he's just a bit overworked," she apologised in his stead.
"Come on, Hinata. If the gods above have mercy, someone already spiked the punch," Neji said irritated and with a flick of his head, he stalked away, leaving her to hurriedly follow him.
"Some really don't change," Ino chuckled, crossing off their names.
"Ino, why did you invite Uzumaki?" Sakura repeated when it became clear that she wasn't about to answer her.
The blonde woman raised an eyebrow. "He was a classmate of ours. This is a class reunion. Ergo, he was invited," she said dryly. "Took me a bit to track him down, though. He was almost as hard to get a hold of as Shino-san was."
"But it's Uzumaki." Sakura wrinkled her nose.
Uzumaki Naruto could easily be described as the ugly duckling in their group. Throughout his teenage years, he had never been able to get rid of that last bit of baby fat that they all had outgrown, making him look chubby and childish even at eighteen years old. His oily, acne riddled skin definitely hadn't done him any favours and then there was that out of control blond hair of his that never had been styled right and most of the time had appeared like he was wearing some kind of mop on his head. He'd been loud, not particularly bright and quite clumsy with a weird obsession for everything orange and frogs. Overall he had just been too much for everyone and that had translated itself in him being the loser of the class, the one barely anyone wanted to be seen with.
Not exactly the type of classmate you were dying to see again after a while.
Ino shrugged and crossed her legs. She was wearing an aquamarine dress with a slit on the right side, showing quite a bit of skin every time she moved in a particular way. Her high heels were studded with several small colourful stones and with her hair done up in an artistic bun and her smoky eyes, she was sure to attract a lot of attention once she started mingling with the others.
"Nobody says you have to talk to him," she said dismissively. "It's a reunion for everyone. I don't even know whether he's going to show up; his email wasn't clear on that."
"He's going to stand out if he does," Sakura muttered underneath her breath.
She had no idea where he had gone off to after they had graduated, only having kept in touch with her own friends. None of them had mentioned Uzumaki either, so it was likely he had lost contact with everyone in their group once they had gone their separate ways.
Whatever, that didn't matter. She was here to have fun and catch up with people she hadn't seen in years. Let Uzumaki show up if he wanted to, she didn't care.
"Well, hello there," Sakura whistled softly, attracting Ino's attention. "Perfect cutie at ten o'clock."
"What? Who are you – oh my, damn, he's hot," was Ino's less than subtle remark when she spotted the guy Sakura was pointing out.
The man in question had black hair spiked in the back and with a fringe covering his left eye partly. He was partly turned away, but the view he did offer, would make angels weep with how handsome he was; his cheekbones so sharp they could cut glass, she was sure. Tall and well-built with broad, strong looking shoulders, his perfect looking physique made her suspect he worked out often. He was dressed in dark jeans and a blazer and even from this distance, the watch he wore looked expensive as hell.
He had to be the "plus one" their classmates could bring with them to the reunion, because she didn't recognise him at all and a face like his she would definitely remember! There was no way she would have forgotten about him if he had been their classmate. Now the question was: just who's plus one was he? Who was the lucky girl who had snatched up this cutie? Or – and she didn't really dare to hope, but hope was nevertheless blooming up – had one of the guys brought him with them to the reunion?
"Let's go introduce ourselves, he looks a bit lonely," Ino smirked and after draining her glass, she abandoned it on the table.
"You always have such great ideas," Sakura giggled and together they wriggled their way through the gathered mass, making a beeline for the mysterious handsome man.
"Well, hello there," Ino was the first to greet him, making Sakura pout inwardly that she hadn't been quicker. "I don't think I've seen you here before."
The man turned around and the sight of his eyes – an arresting shade of piercing black – had the pink haired woman almost gaping, managing to keep her mouth closed just in time. That sharp gaze did interesting things to her and she nervously brushed her skirt down, cursing herself inwardly that she hadn't worn a shorter one.
"I doubt you would have," the man said amused. "I'm not from around these parts."
¨So which classmate of ours do you know then?" Sakura asked interestedly. Perhaps a friend of Neji's, who had shown up later? They both had that sophisticated look. Or maybe Shikamaru? He was working in a technological field and the man looked smart enough for that as well.
"Hey, Sasuke, the only non-alcoholic drink they have here is apple juice for some reason, so you do mind having that or do you want something from the vending machine outside?"
For a couple of seconds, Sakura didn't recognise the blond man at all. The blond was rather tan, as if he had spent weeks in the sun, and rather slender too, his form accentuated by the tight blue shirt and skinny jeans he wore. His blond hair was playfully messy as if he had just rolled out of bed after an intimate tumble and hadn't seen a reason to brush it. He wasn't bad looking at all, to be honest, giving off playful and mischievous vibes.
Then his eyes locked onto hers, the blue colour sparked a memory, and she pointed at him, gasping, "Uzumaki?!"
"Erm, yes, hi, Sakura-chan," Uzumaki said bemused, his gaze flitting back and forth between the two gaping women and the dark haired man. "I see you've met some of my old classmates already. Sasuke, these are Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino. Sakura-chan, Ino-chan, this is Uchiha Sasuke."
Her ears were ringing as she tried to make sense of what was happening at the moment. This was Uzumaki? Ugly duckling Uzumaki? The loudmouthed weirdo? Where had his messed up hair gone? Where was his acne riddled face? His pudgy weight that made him look like a little kid? He fucking looked like he had undergone an entire transformation, how the hell was that even possible?
And Uchiha Sasuke – where had she heard that name before? It sounded so familiar … How did these two know each other? Why was Uchiha accompanying Uzumaki of all people?
"You're the most popular photographer at the moment!" Ino blurted out shocked, covering her mouth and blushing when she realised how that sounded almost accusingly.
"Hehe, yeah, he's great at his job, isn't he?" Uzumaki beamed. "All his pictures look so magical, don't they?"
Uchiha rolled his eyes. "You're exaggerating," he sighed, but it sounded almost fond.
"I'm not," Uzumaki pouted, narrowing his eyes at him. "Don't act so shy now, you know damn well how good you are."
"With the right muse, everything is possible," Uchiha smirked mysteriously.
"How did you two meet?" Sakura demanded. What was a loser like Uzumaki doing with a famous photographer like Uchiha?
She now remembered why his name sounded so familiar. Nearly every magazine in Japan at this point had worked with Uchiha; each one of them clamouring to schedule him for their important shoots. Uchiha had a way to make every subject shine, no matter the angle, and every picture without a fail looked perfect. Even the most ratty, dirtiest looking shirt would look like a beautiful vintage piece when he aimed his camera on it.
How on earth had a loser like Uzumaki managed to not only meet Uchiha but apparently befriend him to the point that he willingly accompanied him to a class reunion?
"Oh, erm, just randomly, really," Uzumaki answered evasively, rubbing the back of his neck.
"We met at a park where I was practicing a new camera technique," Uchiha replied easily. "I quite literally caught him in my viewfinder and he made such a great subject that I asked his permission to take pictures of him. I paid for it in milkshakes," he smirked.
"Just because I didn't ask for something ridiculously fancy as a whiskey or so," Uzumaki sniffed and crossed his arms. "Be glad you got away so cheap with it."
"You thought Uzumaki made for a great subject?" Sakura couldn't help but echo incredulously. "When was this?"
"A while ago," Uzumaki answered in the same vague tone, but again Uchiha was there to specify.
"Almost six years ago."
"You know each other for six years already?" Ino asked surprised. "That's quite a long time!"
"This was after your makeover then?" Sakura surmised, nodding to herself. That made sense.
There was no way Uzumaki would have been photogenic enough if he still had looked like his old self, but if he had had a makeover by then, she could understand somewhat why Uchiha had wanted to take pictures of him. Who had given him that makeover in the first place, though? They must have had their work cut out for them.
"Makeover?" Uchiha repeated confused, but Uzumaki was turning red and he started tugging at Uchiha's sleeve.
"Hey, look, there's Shikamaru; the smart guy I talked to you about, let's go say hi," he blabbed, but Uchiha wasn't listening.
"What kind of makeover are you talking about?"
"More like a glow up, really," Ino said dismissively, waving her hand. "Nothing to worry about."
"I'm talking about the fact that how Uzumaki looks now is definitely not how we remember him," Sakura said dryly and took out her phone. "Wait, I'm pretty sure I still have some pictures of our class back then."
"You still have pictures of that time?" Ino asked interestedly, leaning over to look at her screen. "Man, I don't even know if I have saved them."
"I barely remove anything," Sakura said and shrugged. "That would take too long, really."
"You really don't have to go through the trouble to look it up," Uzumaki sighed, sounding a tad aggravated.
Just like in school back then, however, Sakura ignored him and kept scrolling through her photo album. She was sure she hadn't deleted those pictures yet, so where … Ah.
"Here," she said triumphantly and showed the screen to Uchiha. "This is how Uzumaki actually looked like before he met you."
It was one of the very few pictures she had of him, when class pictures had been taken and distributed. In this one he was dressed in that ugly puffy orange jacket he had worn so often, but it was unzipped and his tight uniform had had a hard time hiding his pudginess. The day this picture had been taken, his acne had been particularly bad and even through the picture you could feel the embarrassment radiating off him. As one of the shortest students, he'd been placed at the front, so he hadn't been able to hide between other students either.
"That's basically how he looked like when I met him," Uchiha said and flicked his eyes from the screen to hers. "I don't see your point about the makeover, though."
At this point Uzumaki was basically resembling a tomato with how red he looked; his gaze stubbornly fixated on the floor and his fingers clenched so tightly around Uchiha's wrist, it was a miracle the guy wasn't flinching from pain yet.
"I know you're not blind, given your good eye in your photos," Sakura scoffed and nodded at Uzumaki before tapping the screen. "So there's no way you don't see the major difference between this picture and him now. He was basically the ugly loser of the class. Tell me, Uzumaki, who gave you this makeover? Because they did an amazing job, I have to admit."
"Sakura," Ino said under her breath warningly. "Keep it nice. This is a reunion."
"I'm starting to understand why Naruto was so reluctant to come tonight," Uchiha said flatly and eyed her critically. "If everyone is as rude as you are, we'd have been better off not showing up at all."
"Excuse me?" Sakura gaped at him in shock.
"Where do you go off, saying he was an ugly loser? Have you looked at yourself in the mirror?" Uchiha scoffed and Uzumaki's eyebrows drew together.
"Oh, I've looked plenty at myself in the mirror and I'm definitely not ugly," Sakura shot back heatedly, clenching her hand around her phone. "Just because you're friends with Uzumaki doesn't mean you have to pretend - "
"I'm not pretending anything," he cut her off coolly. "And while you may look good in a very basic way, you don't possess true beauty. Women like you are a dime a dozen, really. Nothing that sets you apart from the crowd. Let me give you a life lesson your parents should have taught you sooner: physical beauty is temporary, inner beauty is forever and Haruno-san? Your insides appear to be completely rotten, so if someone is an ugly loser here, it's definitely you and not him."
He gripped Uzumaki's hand and tangled their fingers together. "Now, if you would excuse us, my boyfriend still needs to introduce me to other people. Others who are hopefully a lot better than you are."
And then he strode away, Uzumaki following closely next to him.
Leaving Sakura behind, feeling like she had just got slapped in the face.
"Thanks for, you know, sticking up for me earlier," Naruto muttered and cleared his throat, glancing away.
They were walking back to Sasuke's car after calling an early evening. He had seen all his old classmates, had talked with a couple, and then there had been nothing else left to do. He hadn't been really close to anyone, to be honest, all his conversations with them having been superficial at best. To be quite frank, he hadn't even been planning on attending the reunion, because what was the point?
But Gaara had convinced him, the more vindictive side of his best friend having come out to state that he should show them all that he was far from that lonely loser anymore. That he was no longer the ugly kid, though Gaara had insisted he had never been ugly and just had a skin problem which needed the right products to finally deal with it.
Show them all what they had been missing out on when they had been too focused on physical appearances. Show off Sasuke, Gaara had bluntly ordered, seemingly revelling in making people jealous even though he had never met them.
"And for coming with me to the reunion. I know you don't like crowds," he added, fiddling with his sleeve.
One of the reasons why Sasuke preferred being a photographer was because he didn't have to deal with many people unless he took on special assignments.
"My misanthropic little brother," Itachi often jokingly called him.
It was a fact that Sasuke didn't deal well with crowds. Too many people demanding his attention exhausted him mentally and after huge assignments he always needed at least a day to 'recharge' as Naruto had come to call it. It was why Naruto had been so reluctant to ask him to join him, because from what he could remember, a lot of his ex-classmates could be really loud and or pushy even – two things Sasuke wasn't fond of.
So for him to not only having agreed to accompany Naruto, but also interact with several people, even standing up for the blond – it meant a lot.
Especially because just like in the past, Naruto had had no idea how to respond to Sakura's poisonous comments. He had never understood what he had done to piss her off, but she had never been friendly to him. Was it because he hadn't been as good looking as most of the guys in their class? Was it something else he wasn't aware of? He didn't know.
He only knew his heart had dropped when he'd realised that Sasuke was talking to both Ino and Sakura. Ino had never been that bad perse, but he knew Sakura would have pointed out how much he had changed. She probably had been pretty pissed off to find out that Naruto knew someone as good looking and famous as Sasuke.
They were back in the car when Sasuke lifted his chin with two fingers and kissed him softly. "Of course I went with you, why wouldn't I? And she deserved to hear everything I had to say. No wonder Gaara was so keen on having you show off," Sasuke muttered darkly and shook his head. "So many years in the photography business and I still don't understand people's obsession with this so called beauty."
"Just because you managed to look past my face," Naruto joked, but it was weak, he knew, and he grimaced.
Thanks to his new facial cleansing products and the jogging routine he had started, he had started to feel a lot more confident, but there were still moments – moments like now when other people liked to remind him how ugly he had been – that old insecurities would rise up, reminding him that he had only started to look good in the last five years.
"Hey, don't start with that bullshit," Sasuke said sharply, gazing at him warningly. "Nothing has ever been wrong with the way you look, don't listen to what that bint said. Her hair was a bubble gum pink, for fuck's sake," he said exasperatedly and Naruto cracked a smile unwillingly.
"No fan of pink, huh?"
"Not when it comes wrapped around a load of stupidity," Sasuke said scornfully and stole another kiss. "Come on, let's go home."
"Yeah," Naruto smiled softly, "let's go home."
With those intense black eyes focused on him, cataloguing every twitch, every shiver and shudder running through him, it was easy to forget that once he'd been called the ugly loser, the guy nobody wanted to be around if they could help it.
It was easy to imagine all those taunts and scornful remarks sliding off him like water off a duck's back when slender fingers mapped out his body reverently, touching him and caressing him like it was their first time all over again.
It was easy to feel desirable and sexy when lips kissed him everywhere, nipping him teasingly here and there, sucking light bruises that would take days to fade and which he would hide with blushing cheeks, but which he secretly liked as well. He'd never tell him, however, thinking the other man was already too smug to start with.
Easy to forget everything and only focus on the two of them together when fingers clasped between his and Sasuke pushed inside of him, opening him up even further. Easy to empty his mind and give himself over to the pleasure instead, Sasuke knowing where to touch him exactly to drive him absolutely wild.
And when Sasuke sat up later on, the sheets pooling around his waist, and aimed the lens of one of his most treasured cameras at him, Naruto smiled and listened to the quiet shutter of his picture being taken.
Feeling better than ever before.
The End
AN2: Like I said, rather random, but what else is new in my writing? No idea what I was thinking either, but again, nothing new there.
Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.
I hope to see you all back in my future stories! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!
Cuddles
Melissa
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Token Ugly Duckling