Okay so I worked really hard to have this uploaded for naruto's bday and guess what happened? my laptop failed me!!
Now everything is okay though, and Samantha is doing fine ( That's my laptop)
Anyways, this is Naruto verse sorto off... oh and if you're not following up with the manga there might be a little bit of spoilers on it, but whatever
As always I don't own anything... not until I get Kishimoto to marry me, make him write in his testament he leaves me naruto and all the characters and then kill him and finally get Sasuke and Naruto together and happy hehehe
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Naruto was perched on his windowsill, one of his legs dangling from the open window and the other bend toward his chest.
He has already disposed of his dirty and sweaty t-shirt tossing it to one of the corners of his messy bedroom, the only place Sasuke had no access to.
-"That little neat freak…"- mumble Naruto in a low voice, he knew really well how good hearing his friend? Housemate? Acquaintance? Rival? – what was him anyways? - could have.
He knew how much Sasuke hated loud music and so he had to settle to listening to his music on an mp3 player; he did have to give it to Sasuke, he had given him said mp3 player and later on an IPod, but Naruto knew that it wasn't much of a friendly gift as more like a way to get the blond to shut up. It was still appreciated.
One of his favorite songs started playing on his IPod.
Nee, nan dakke sagashite ita mono
Are ha, sou ne itsu dakke
Bokura ga inryoku ni sakarainagara deatta koro
(Say, what was it that I've been searching for?
When, let me think, was it?
That we met as we defied gravity)
It would be almost one year since Sasuke had come back… had Sasuke come back? No, not really, but a mere shadow of what Naruto remembered from the raven was still there in a way.
He could almost see it in the way Sasuke's lifeless eyes would faintly seem to sparkle whenever they would face each other on a training spar or the way his frown would furrow when reading a scroll…
Why was he even noticing these things about Sasuke?
He shouldn't care anymore…
This was the man that had tried to rip him in two by a Chidori and then almost 3 years later had attempted to pierce him with his sword Chokuto and then had tried to siege his village with a group of weirdoes as a team and then…
-"I better not think about it anymore…"- whispered Naruto not really knowing why he needed to whisper in his own house.
He heard the muffled sounds of feet stepping on his wooden floor going and coming around; the raven must be busy making dinner for both of them, not that he would call it that; to Sasuke it was a necessity and since he hated Naruto's cooking he just took over.
You would never caught Sasuke calling on Naruto with something like "Dinner is ready!", it was more like grunting through the closed door "food" and that was it.
The blond liked to think of this as Sasuke's own way to say thank you, since the only time in his whole life he had ever heard those words leave the fair skinned man's lips was when they had fought their last big fight.
It was when, after running after Sasuke for what felt like the entire world, that he had come to meet up with Pain, the man that had attacked Konoha and killed their sensei.
Naruto sighed as he sadly remembered the man that had taught him so much. He sometimes wondered how Sasuke must have felt when he learnt of this, but he had a faint idea.
When Sasuke had found out about it he had gone berserker on Pain and his team of controlled clones or whatever they were; if Naruto hadn't stopped him on time he was sure the raven could have lost his eyesight and could have burned down half of Naruto's team with the Amateratsu.
The blond had intervened in time and in a way he had helped finish the dreaded Pain once and for all even if the price had been high; he had been severely injured and through his mind crossed the idea of dying there.
He remembered having thought of Sasuke and being happy at having fought his last fight with him.
'Naruto, don't you dare die!'- he heard a voice yell as if in the distance.
He had always wondered who that voice belonged to, but never dared to ask.
Next thing he knew he had woken up in a hospital bed in Konoha hospital, on the chair next to his bed, flanked by two ANBU guards was Sasuke Uchiha with that same aloof expression, looking at Naruto as if it was of natural occurrence that they both would be like this.
Nothing was said; nothing needed to be said actually…
-"Food"- heard the grunt from the other side of his door. It smelled like onigiri and something else… could it be? No it couldn't! It certainly smelled like ramen, but the raven absolutely hated ramen, he couldn't possibly comply to Naruto's constant request on ramen, could he?
The song on his IPod ended and a new one started.
So now think of fear, as a person who, wants to know everyone, and what they love,
And he comes at nite, while you're laying there, he just knows, oh he knows, he gets in your head
Ace Enders voice was blaring through his earplugs as he recognized the song.
Now walk through the door, the same one you came in, so we can go back, to how things used to be,
And just walk through the door, the same one, you came in, so we can go back, to how things used to be
He wished he could tell the other male just that, he would tell him to come in and then when they walked back out through that same door everything would go back to being the same it was before Sasuke left…
But who was he kidding; he knew it would never be that way…
It wasn't like the old Sasuke was very talkative anyways; it was just that it made Naruto a little bit uneasy sharing a household with someone that have a repertory of a total of ten words, all of them said with a bored tone.
-"Are you coming or not?"- grunted Sasuke through the still closed door.
Naruto looked at the door almost seeing through it: Sasuke standing on the other side with an angry frown on his features.
Naruto rapidly propelled himself up the windowsill and without knowing why he felt such a strong need to see an expression, any expression on Sasuke's marble carved features. When he did reach the door and pulled it open he found himself in front of an expression he could have sworn to Kami he had never seen on the raven's face: surprise.
-"I…"- was Sasuke stammering? His left hand was reaching towards what Naruto thought it would be the door handle. Was Sasuke going to go into his room?
The raven looked both confused and shocked at having being caught red handed on the act that he had attempted to do several times, but never gathered enough courage to do so.
-"Let's eat"- said Naruto trying to take importance out of the matter, but the grin plastered on his lips was telling other wise. He wasn't quite sure why he felt so happy at the fact that Sasuke had made an attempt to approach him, but why question his good luck.
They both seated and to Naruto's surprise Sasuke had indeed fixed him a bowl of ramen; on the ravens' plate was a portion of onigiri and a tomato salad, well more like a salad it looked more like tomatoes sliced and put together in a plate.
Naruto always wanted to ask Sasuke about why he included so many tomatoes on his diet, but never got around to it.
-"Stop that"- grunted the raven without making eye contact with the person at the other side of the table.
Said person in question stopped dead on his tracks, the chopsticks half way to his mouth, noodles dangling from them, his eyes now glued to the other male in front of him. It took him a moment or two to realize what the raven had been talking about.
'The slurping'- thought Naruto as he very slowly and as soundlessly as he could place the noodles on his mouth avoiding at all costs to make any slurping sound with his mouth, all the while his eyes were lock on the person across from him.
-"Stop that too"- grunted Sasuke again, but this time he did stop and raise his eyes to meet the blue ones on the other side of the table: -"Just eat"- he mumbled averting his eyes from the bright ones; why did Naruto's' eyes had to be so bright? It was annoying at times.
Naruto put his chopstick down feeling slightly frustrated and observed Sasuke as he ate; it was even a little frightening how Sasuke had such a poise even to eat, he never took bites too big, he ate at a slow pace, his left hand was not in sight and Naruto thought it was very likely placed on his left leg holding his neatly folded napkin.
Now he wasn't some weirdo that liked to watch one and every single move his housemate did, but you try to live with a freaking mute and see how you do. The only thing he could think up when bored and sited silently sharing a meal with the raven was observing him.
He gazed back at his bowl of ramen and then shyly back at the raven – shyly!? What the funk was happening to him!? – and decided that it was more important to eat than to try not to irritate Sasuke by his slurping sounds.
He ate contently in silence; that should be a first for Naruto, eating in silence…
-"You are awfully quiet today…"- grumbled Sasuke without making eye contact, what was with him and avoiding eye contact?
-"And you are awfully talkative today"- retorted Naruto not quite sure why he suddenly felt angry at the other male, maybe it had to do with the fact that he avoided eye contact so freaking much!
They both kept eating in silence, but they could both feel the tension in the air; well at least Naruto could, because Sasuke seemed immune to it or maybe chose to ignore it and so none made any comments and the blond stuffed himself with the noodles as quickly as he could.
-"Gotchiso sama"- mumbled Naruto as he stood up taking his bowl to the sink without more words.
Sasuke followed him very discretely with his eyes, but the blue eyed men noticed, but decided not to comment anything about it. Was this Sasuke's' way to demonstrate he cared? Naruto was getting a headache at trying to decipher the raven, so he desisted.
-"I'm gonna take a shower"- announced the blond not very sure why he felt compelled to share this information with the other.
-"Hn"- nodded the raven not sure of what else Naruto expected him to say.
Once he was in the shower he thanked all the gods in heaven for inventing such a thing as showers, although it wasn't any god that invented them, more like modern man, but that's okay.
Soon enough he was happily humming in the shower one of his favorite anime ending songs.
'17 and still with those stupid animes'- thought Sasuke to himself as he heard Naruto shriek or what the blond thought to be singing.
When Naruto finally finished his shower – and his concert of shrieks and yells – Sasuke was starting to doze off on the living room couch; when he heard the bathroom door being open he couldn't help himself from looking.
His eyes roamed through the tan skin of Naruto's thorax, is not like he wanted to see the dobe naked, not at all! He was assessing how much muscle the other had, that kind of information came in handy when they sparred, yeah! That was the reason!
-"Take a picture you perv!"- said Naruto making his way to his room not even bothering in covering himself more, why did Naruto wear that small towel to cover himself? Had he never heard of modesty?
-"Don't be so conceited, I wasn't perving over you"- grumbled the raven as he averted his gaze from the tan skin that moved around the small apartment.
-"Whatever"- said the blond flashing the other one of his famous foxy grins and opening the door that led to his room, by doing so a great deal of sunshine filtered through the open curtains in Naruto's room.
When Sasuke turned towards the blond a halo of light was covering him, making look like an angel. And no, he had not just called Naruto an angel!!
-"Just get dress will ya"- mumbled Sasuke shield his eyes from the sunlight with his forearm.
-"Don't be shy. You know you wanna look"- retorted the other male with that grin still plastered in his lips and his fingers playfully pulling at his little towel what little flesh wasn't showing.
Sasuke just turned around, his back now facing Naruto.
The blond sighed in defeat and an outburst of laughter could be heard outside his window.
He entered the room feeling a little defeated by the others' attitude, but there would be other opportunities to bring that man back into the realm of living breathing beings.
When Sasuke heard the door been shut closed he turned towards it… Closed, again closed…
'I should take a shower too'- thought the raven as he stood from the couch, but any further attempts to do so were stopped as he heard a glass been broken and then a muffled "Fuck!" coming from Naruto's room.
He bolted to the door and when he entered the room he found a naked – yes, NAKED – Naruto standing in the middle of the room, the glass of his window had been broken and Naruto was holding a shard of the broken glass and a big rock, there was a small cut on his left eyebrow and blood dripping from the hand that was holding the broken glass.
-"Naruto, are you okay?"- asked Sasuke running to the blonds' side: -"What the hell happened?"- asked the raven looking at Naruto directly in the eye.
-"I…"- stuttered Naruto as he lowered his gaze; if there was one thing he hated more than Sasuke's unresponsiveness was his own weakness been display and most importantly in front of the raven.
Through his earplugs that now lay in the floor, was blaring another song from Suneohair.
Mitsume atteta kimi no hitomi ni
Utsuru jibun ga yureteru
Toboketa you ni kuchi wo aketa mama
(When I gazed at you
I saw myself trembling in your eyes
I opened my mouth as though I had a blank expression)
Sasuke took the rock that Naruto had been holding onto and with long angry strides he reached the broken window and leant out the window, when he found nothing he just angrily throw the rock out the window.
-"Sasuke… is okay… sometimes they…"- Naruto was having difficulty at expressing himself, stumbling with the words.
Then a loud bang was heard by the entrance door and then shouts from the hallway just outside their apartment.
-"Shine bakemono!!"- heard Sasuke and he could recognized the flinching in Naruto's shoulders as he too heard the words.
-"Get the hell away from here you haters!"- they both heard the female voice on the other side of the door and then another loud bang against the floor: -"Go hate somewhere else!"- screamed again the female voice and this time a gentler but urgent knocking on the door could be heard: -"Sasuke-kun, Naruto, are you guys there?"- asked the voice they immediately recognized as Sakura's.
-"Get dress"- mumbled Sasuke as he made his way towards the door.
-"Matte…"- said Naruto and without realizing it he had reached and grabbed Sasuke's wrist.
The raven noticed the strong but shakily grip on his wrist and then made eye contact with the other.
-"Thank you…"- mumbled Naruto as he very slowly let go of the hand.
The raven watched as the tan hand left his and saw that now his hand was covered in Naruto's blood.
Now this would normally call for a friendly gesture on behalf of the other party, but this was Sasuke we were talking about, so none came.
-"Guys, are you there?"- called Sakura's voice with urgency and then Sasuke found the perfect excuse to leave the room.
When Sasuke closed the door behind himself, Naruto could feel the known stings on his eyes, tears were welling up but he blinked them away; Sasuke had seen enough weakness for one day.
He looked at his own hand covered in blood; he wouldn't need to cure it, Kyuubi would cure it immediately, but he wondered what Sasuke thought of this.
It was rare for the old villagers to come here and "paid his respects" to him…
-"Oh hello Sasuke-kun, how are you? Naruto is here right?"- he could hear Sakura's voice on the other side of his closed door.
Where had he left his boxers? He spotted them laying on top of his mattress.
'Why did they come over? They just come to bug once a year on…'- though Naruto as he fumbled with his boxers trying not to stained them with blood.
-"I can't believe those people! One would thing they got over it but, I guess they are stupid"- again Sakura's voice filtered through.
-"They threw a rock at his window"- this time it was Sasuke's voice, it seemed to be dripping hate.
-"October!!"- yelled Naruto when it finally hit him; now it all made sense, Sasuke being nice and fixing him a bowl of ramen, the rock and the banging on his door, even Sakura's visit.
And as his epiphany hit him full force he felt this sudden urge to tell both his best friends that it was his birthday and so for the second time that day he bolted to the door and when he opened it he found again, for the second time on that day, a stunned Sasuke reaching for the door knob.
-"Sasuke is my birthday!"- he exclaimed with a full out smile plastered on his features, he then turned to the other occupant of the living room: -"Sakura, is my birthday!"- he said and barely contained himself from jumping up and down.
-"So you are a natural blond; I have always wanted to ask you"- said Sakura off handedly as she pointed towards the little pubic hairs that were showing from the top of Naruto's boxers; in the hurry of sharing this piece of information he had not slip them all the way up and thus the showing of a little too much.
-"Sakura-chan!"- yelled Naruto feeling all flustered by the comment and covering his family jewels.
-"I bet Sasuke-kun already knew though, because you do tend to be a little flashy"- stated Sakura as if this was of natural occurrence.
-"Is not funny at all, besides that's completely not the…"- Naruto started rambling about, but was cut out by Sasuke's voice; he had completely forgotten he was there! God please, if you are up there let there be and earthquake so the earth opens up and swallows me! – That's what Naruto felt at that moment, and who wouldn't - .
-"Go get dress, Sakura doesn't want to look at your…"- Sasuke was trying to grasp a word that could somehow convey what he wanted to say without it sounding to crude.
-"Oh Sasuke-kun is jealous!"- said the female with a mischievous glint on her eyes.
-"I must have hit my head really hard with that rock… Sakura… making fun of Sasuke…"- the blonds' eyes were practically coming out of their sockets.
-"What rock?"- asked Sakura her expression changing immediately into medic nin mode: -"Where did they hit you?"- asked Sakura this time standing from the couch and walking towards Naruto.
-"Oh, it was nothing. Just here"- answered the tan man as he moved away a strand of his wet blond hair, it was a little stain with blood, but the wound seemed pretty much healed already.
-"Kyuubi already healed it"- interjected Sasuke and Sakura stopped midway.
Naruto briefly wondered how did Sasuke know this; had he been observing him too?
-"You should clean the blood though"- mumbled Sakura as she walked towards the kitchen in search of a wet rag.
Naruto adjusted his boxers and averted his gaze trying at all costs not to make eye contact with Sasuke.
When Sakura reentered she handed the rag to the raven and went back into the kitchen, leaving them again in an uncomfortable silence.
-"I'll clean myself"- said Naruto extending his hand towards the other and still avoiding the dark eyes.
Sasuke watched the extended hand towards him. It was covered with blood as well and it seemed to be trembling a little.
-"I'll do it…"- mumbled the raven shyly? What did he have to be shy about? This was just Naruto standing in the middle of their living room with those orange boxers he had seen a couple of times.
He came near the tan skinned man stopping just a few steps away from him.
There was a difference in height of 1 inch, not that it matter much; Naruto had manage to pin Sasuke to the floor even with that 1 inch difference.
The raven saw his own hand move towards Naruto's left eyebrow and removing the strand of wet blond hair, that had resettled itself back again, he then started cleaning the blood.
Naruto gasped out of reflex and closed his eyes moving his head away even if just a little. But then he realized that it had not hurt at all… Sasuke was being soft to him.
Somehow this bothered him, he didn't need anybody's pity, most importantly not Sasuke's.
-"Does it still hurt? It shouldn't"- whispered Sasuke not quite sure why he should be whispering to the loud blond; he somehow felt that whenever it came to the blond there was only loud tone. But you don't yell at people when you are standing 3 inches away from them do you? No! You don't! That's why he was whispering…
-"No it doesn't…"- mumbled Naruto his gaze trying to look for something to distract itself with.
Wow! He had never noticed how white were Sasuke's toes, maybe because he was standing so close to his own tan ones that made his look like so white; were Sasuke's toe nails pedicure? How weird was that! No, maybe he had to look closer.
When he felt Sasuke's hand on his chin pulling his face back up, he stiffen and couldn't avoid making eye contact with those inexpressive dark eyes of the raven.
-"Don't move"- grunted said raven but somehow it still sounded too soft even to himself.
Naruto was still trying to avoid those eyes, but it was as if somehow they were pulling him. Stupid dark hunting alluring eyes!
He then saw Sasuke's lips, they were in a thin line, unmoving, and almost as if they were a completely different entity that lived within Sasuke. They seem soft and inviting, unlike their owner, who always appeared so unapproachable.
He felt the wet rag move to his cheek and he briefly wondered why would the rag need to be on his cheek; but the wetness felt so nice on his hot face that he decided not to question it.
Wait… Why was his face hot anyways?
Sasuke had noticed how the blue eyes were now fixed on his lips; why would the dobe be looking at his lips? But he too, was busy with musings of his own.
He had always wondered if those marks on Naruto's cheeks were real whiskers or if they were just scars of a past he didn't even knew he had.
And so he let the wet rag wonder downwards to the cheeks.
It felt weird to touch them… They were indeed scars… He had never asked him how he had gotten them or if he had had them since birth or if they were part of having the Kyuubi sealed inside of him… Could they be healed? Could they disappear?
-"How could you have forgotten your birthday"- asked the raven not knowing why he needed to hear the other voice.
-"I… don't know…"- mumbled the blond; why was Sasuke making small talk? Sasuke never did small talk. Did this mean this was making him as uneasy as it was making Naruto? Or was it because he was trying to be nice to the blond? He didn't need nice from Sasuke!
Naruto turned towards the kitchen and by the doorframe was Sakura leaning into the door, a mischievous smirk in her lips.
-"Should I leave you guys alone?"- asked Sakura when she noticed her presence had been noticed.
Sasuke immediately stepped away from Naruto averting his eyes from the whiskered cheeks. Stupid Naruto and his whiskered cheeks!
Sakura regretted her interruption, but what was done, was done.
-"Let's go get you a cake!"- said Sakura cheerfully as she pushed herself from the wall.
Naruto turned towards his own room not sure why he felt angry; it probably was due to Sasuke pitying him! Yeah, he pitied him! That little bastard, so full of himself!
Sasuke just stood there, the wet rag still on his hand. He looked at his hands; why was one of them covered in blood? Oh yeah, the dobe had reached over and grab his wrist back in his room while still undress and wet… So not thinking of that right now!
The raven watched mesmerized how he cleaned the blood from his wrist, it seemed so surreal. He, holding a wet rag stained with Naruto's blood, his own wrist stained with that same blood…
Without noticing it he had started scrubbing himself a little too hard, his pale skin was starting to look red.
-"Let's go!"- came Naruto's voice and pull him out of his obsessive behavior.
Having Naruto's blood on his hands was something he didn't like…
The 3 made their way to the entrance of the apartment all of them wondering different things, but none of them expressing them.
They wandered about the city, stopping every once in a while when Naruto yelled something like "Oh I want that!" or "Look at that!"
Sakura looked contently at Naruto's antics about the town, a smile plastered on her features.
Sasuke on the other hand, was having trouble discerning if he should feel "happy" – as happy as an Uchiha can be of course – or if he should hate Naruto's guts for making him look like a fool.
It was his birthday, yes, but is not like he owed him anything or something did he?
'Yes you do ungrateful bastard!'- provided his conscience and why did it sounded so much like Kakashi? –Stupid old dead pervert – He was certainly not being and ungrateful bastard.
Sure, Naruto had chased after him throughout the entire world, had helped him kill Pain, had forgiven him for having tried to kill him… several times, had given him a house and stood up for him in front of the entire Konoha and the council, hell if he was walking through this busy streets he owed to the blond!!
What was his point…? Oh yeah, ungratefulness…
Damn! How can anyone stay mad at the blond if he goes around been nice and charming all the fucking time! He even made him a birthday party for Christ sake! Who does that? How can anyone be as good as to throw a party for the same person that ran away from you and tried to kill you… several times…?
He had even given him a set of two swords made out of special conducting-electricity material that had the Uchiha fan on the hilt as birthday gift.
Damn blond and his niceness! He now felt compelled to be nice to him and it felt weird!
It wasn't supposed to work that way! The blond was supposed to be the nice one in their messed up friendship and he was the one to be pushing him away.
He didn't want to be nice to Naruto, the blond didn't required niceness and even if he did, he could get it from someone else.
Between them there should be only roughness.
-"Here! I wanna eat here!"- yelled the blond flashing one of his infamous foxy grins.
It wasn't really half bad and surprisingly not a ramen stand either, just a normal cafeteria bustling with people going in and out of it. Most of them greeted Naruto with a smile or wave.
They sat at a far corner of the place; Naruto and Sakura started chatting away as the raven tried with all his might not to pay to much attention to the talk.
Hinata and Neji had showed up to congratulate Naruto, and so had Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji, and then Kiba and Shino, and then some horde of random people he didn't even knew Naruto associated himself with.
After having heard what felt like a gazillions of "Happy Birthday's" and about 4 hours latter and two – yeah TWO cakes! – The raven was more than ready to go back home.
-"Well Naruto I hope you had a good birthday"- said Sakura as she started standing up and stretching.
-"I did! Thanks for the gift"- grinned the blond as he eyed his pile of gifts. Who would have guess Naruto to be so popular this days!
-"Well I will be heading back home. You should too"- she said eyeing Sasuke and waiving her goodbye as she exited the place.
Naruto sighed content, he had never felt so great!
-"Let's go"- grunted Sasuke as he gathered some of Naruto's gifts and made his way to the exit.
The blond quickly gathered the remaining gifts and waiving the waitress a polite goodbye he exited the place jogging to catch up to the other male.
He saw Sasuke's broad back a few feet ahead from him.
Why was he helping him carry his stuff? Again the "niceness", this was so out of character for Sasuke; it felt weird to have Sasuke be nice to him. Their relationship wasn't supposed to be nice, Sasuke wasn't supposed to be all nice and soft and stuff. Why was he doing this anyways?
TBC…