MOROSIS

Summary: A twist on the babysitting fic. The one where Sasuke and Naruto lose something but gain something in the end. YAOI. Massacre-less fic.

morosis-(n.) the stupidest of stupidities

Nestled in dense leafy forest stood tall and prideful Konoha. High in the canopy above the city birds flew away squawking and scared from a screech that shattered the tranquil silence. In the training grounds scattered outside the town we meet a strange child. Rather a young adult. Age eighteen with tousled blond hair the same color as the wheat fields in Rice Country and eyes the color of sadness and the sea. He's got marks on his cheeks, with him since birth and even though he's only eighteen he's lean with all muscle but moves somewhat awkwardly. His last growth spurt made his age more believable but he lacks grace and fluidity. He's tan from all the time he's in the sun and he's currently stuck in a simple animal trap that shows his absent mind had taken a stroll and fallen down the rabbit hole.

He flails his limbs and grunts angry that he was caught off guard by the simplest of traps. It wasn't even meant to capture shinobi,...more like a deer or a fox.

He had just been curious! He swore!

Kakashi had just left his book after being called by crow to the Hokage's office. He was going to return it! But he was a smidge curious, who wouldn't be after all? And for his all his curiosities he got caught in a deer net. Huffing and twisting painfully this way and that he managed to reach for kunai and cut through the ropes like melted butter. He was dumped on the ground roughly on his face.

He rubbed his face groaning and murmured,

"Never again. I've learned my lesson."

His commotion must have attracted attention because of in the distance out of the corner of his eye he saw a disturbance among the leaves. It was subtle and silent but the movement caught his attention.

There was the sound of a rock rolling on the ground across the clearing and Naruto whipped his head, and crouched, ready to come in for the kill like a hawk. A kunai came whipping straight for his face.

THUNK.

He rolled out the way just barely and the kunai pierced the tree bark, vibrating with the power.

'A distraction. Gotta be more careful.'

This person obviously knew where he was. They were messing with him, playing a one sided cat and mouse.

Well Naruto Uzumaki was no one's mouse, no siree.

He narrowed his eyes in disdain and stood proud and tall.

"Come out and fight me like a man!"

He was met with silence until Neji Hyuuga emerged from the bushes with a smirk and leaned against the tree, cool and untouchable.

"What's your dea-"

He was cut off by a war cry, and at first he thought it was a very large crow or even an eagle until Sasuke Uchiha jumped out of the canopy and blocked out the sun. He had his katana in his hand, aimed straight to slice him in half. Standing his ground he pulled out his kunai using it to block the bastards swing. The sharp metallic clash of metal on metal was loud and using sheer force he pushed the bastard back. He turned and looked back to where Neji was standing

...Only for him to be gone,

But he's not. Naruto sensed the attack before it came.

"Over here" Neji murmured behind his shoulder, byakugan activated, veins and temples alive and pulsing.

Using his arms and legs to block all of Neji's blows he left his back exposed, unable to fend off Sasuke.

"Never turn your back on your enemy" Sasuke said and he braced himself for the pain, but it never came.

Confused at the sudden stop he turned behind him, still in a stalemate with Neji to find Rock Lee standing behind him, blocking Sasuke.

"What the hell's going on?!" Naruto shouted frustrated and beyond confused.

"Oh Naruto-kun! Nice to see you on this marvelous day! Wanna spar? Us against them!? With our spirit we shall never lose against them!"

He flashed a dazzling mega watt smile that left everyone temporarily blinded.

'What the hell!'

"Yeah?" he shouted back almost more of a question but he was pumped with a dose of adrenaline.

The conversation seemed to take Neji off guard so Naruto bent his wrist and swung his body.

"Jump!" He shouted to Lee and like knocking down a set of bowling pins he swung Neji full force into the bastard, who's eyes had gone comically wide for a split second. The two hit against a tree, Neji laying across a sitting Sasuke.

"Get off" he growled and Neji gave him a look that could make small children cry. Lee pumped his fist and high fived Naruto.

"Never get caught off guard" mocked Naruto with his hands on his hips.

They stood up and both got into defensive positions.

"Ready?" Naruto asked Lee shifting into his own fighting stance.

"Ready!" Lee shouted back grinning his beaming smile at him.

Sasuke and Neji exchanged glances before doing the same.

~OoOoO~

The spar wore on with no definitive winner. Both sides had their advantages. Neji and Sasuke were both prodigies and combined they could easily take them out.

But they didn't. While they possessed strategy, Naruto and Lee could out-stamina them on every level. Their sheer physical prowess helped them keep up hit after hit. And in the heat of battle Naruto's mind could work out strategies. They stood across from each other, exhausted with the sun a bloody red when they finally called it quits. They slumped over tiredly and Rock Lee threw his arm over his teammate who was breathing to harshly to bat him away.

"Tomorrow I will do two hundred push ups and pull ups and run around all over Konoha ten times so I may develop the strength to beat you my dear friend Neji!"

Neji huffed and panted and glared.

"Yea, yea i'll see you tomorrow" he grumbled before turning and nodding to both Sasuke and Naruto as ways of saying bye before disappearing into the brush.

"But wait Neji! We must discuss battle strategies!" Lee hollered before breaking into a dead sprint after him.

Naruto sighed, it was draining to deal with Lee even in small doses. Neji deserved more credit than was given, his patients must be up there with monks and deities. He turned to Sasuke who was grabbing his kunai out of the tree bark. Naruto shoved him in the arm,

"What the fuck was that about bastard. Ambush is not cool."

Sasuke shoved him back "moron" he said narrowing his lacquer black eyes.

"How mature."

"You're one to talk. Neji and I were training together , Lee came out of nowhere and challenged us to a spar. That was coincidence, you merely got in the way."

"Since when do you train with Neji!?"

"I don't. Again, merely coincidental."

"That was kinda fun though, switch things up..."

He said going to retrieve the orange book that had fallen to the ground.

"You read?"

"It's n-nothing!? And I do read!" He said blushing a pretty pink and hiding it behind his back.

"Yea, menus. Is the cover orange, Naruto?" He said with eyebrows raised and a fake look of surprise but subtle amusement.

"Stop doing that. Don't give me that look. You know what it is."

"Stop doing what?"

"Stop acting dumb."

"I'm not acting what is it?" He said coming closer, a ghost of a smile on his pale face. It would've been a Kami-sent miracle on any other occasion.

"It's not mine."

"That doesn't answer the question."

"Icha-Icha" he just barely mumbled.

"What was that?"

He said it louder and looked away embarrassingly bashful.

"Isn't Kakashi going to be upset?"

"I was returning it to him!"

"You were?"

"You guys ambushed me! And you're coming with me!"

"No I'm not. I'm going home."

"Yes" he said and grabbed Sasuke by the wrist and started marching back to town. By now the sun had successfully set.

"And you're going to tell him that I was not looking at it and I was not stealing it!" Naruto's voice shouted in the distance, rising up into the air and into the nights starry sky.