Well ... New story.

It's like a sort of random project that I've been working on between long hours of revision for the millions of exams I have coming up.

So don't expect me to update every day, or every week for that matter. I'll update if and when I want ...so no moaning.

Enjoy it and review with constructive criticism!!

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters in this story, or Naruto on a whole for that matter.

Roommates

A Naruto fan fiction by Beautifulx-Tears

Chapter 1: Between homes

Raking a hand through his short and rather messy bright red hair, Gaara muttered an ill-conceived sentence mostly consisting of a colourful array of curses and swearwords, as he looked through the roommate adverts in the piles of newspapers that were spread out all over his older sister's kitchen table.

After a slight scuffle with his previous roommate, the haughty red head had been thrown out onto the streets and was now ... officially ... homeless, though personally Gaara preferred to think of it as being between homes instead. It wasn't the first time it had happened and he highly doubted that it would be the last, but with business at his record label going a lot slower than usual, with very little fresh talent walking through the doors, the red head wasn't really looking forward to having to get a new place to live.

It wasn't the end of the world ... but it was definitely a pain in the ass.

His older sister, however, was slightly less open minded about the whole situation.

"Oh hell no! You DID NOT get kicked out of your flat!" Temari yelled, when she opened her front door one morning to see the emotionless face of her younger brother.

"Wow Tem how'd you guess!" he replied dryly, barging past her with a twist of his muscular shoulders and promptly walking down the hall to the living room where his sister's husband, Shikamaru, was watching a documentary on the discovery channel with Gaaras 18 month old niece Kisa.

"Back again I see" Shikamaru said not really bothering to look up from the TV as the red head entered the room. Gaara was so often "between homes" that the lazy accountant was used to him suddenly appearing at random times with his bag and bad attitude.



"Yeah yeah, well I'm off out, so I'll catch up with you later" Gaara replied, before turning on his heels back through the door and down the hall, where his older sister was still fuming.

"What the hell Gaara you just got here!" She screamed at the reappearance of her brother who only raised one no-existent eyebrow in return.

Not a good idea when Temari was on the war path.

"Cut the crap! I'm fed up with you turning up and then leaving again, just because you're between homes or however the hell you put it! You're not staying!" Temari screamed, grabbing the front door and yanking it closed before Gaara could walk through it.

"Well open the door and I'll leave then" the red head smirked, reaching for the door handle.

Temari forehead wrinkled slightly as she let out a long and exasperated sigh.

"Oh don't do that Gaara! All I'm saying is I'm fed up with you treating me like crap for taking you in whenever you get kicked out. All you ever do in return is shower me with arrogance and bring every slag in London home with you for some sort of sick booty call! I'm not having it!"

"Oh stop being such a primadonna, it's not my fault the local girls want to sleep with a successful record producer!" he spat at her, folding his arms in irritation and leaning sideways against the closed front door.

"Oh stop being cocky! If you're that successful buy your own fucking flat! I don't want every hooker in the city walking out of your bedroom in the mornings, especially not with Kisa in the house! This time around I'm having rules and you ARE going to stick to them!" she spat back, grabbing her brother by the scruff of his neck and frog marching him down to the kitchen.

Despite the fact she often let him do whatever in her house, Temari had finally snapped and Gaara knew it.

And when Temari snapped, it was never good for who ever had made her snap.

Throwing him into a chair at the kitchen table, Temari sat down opposite ,banging her fist on the table as she did so.

"Rule number 1: NO MORE GIRLS!!" she yelled, jabbing her finger on the wooden surface with every syllable.

"Wha ..."

Temari waved her hand to silence him, adding in an icy glare that assured Gaara he would die if he dared protest anymore than those 3 letters.

"Rule number 2: You're going to pay me for your keep! That means £100 a week and you're helping with chores!" she continued.

Gaara glared at her ... but kept his mouth shut.

"And Finally Rule number 3: You're not staying any more than 2 weeks! I'm not joking Gaara! If you don't have anywhere to stay by then I'm chucking you out! Starting tomorrow you're looking for a 

roommate, either that or you ring one of your good for nothing mates to see if you can crash at theirs instead." She finished forcefully.

For the first time in a good few months Gaara was nothing less than completely stunned. Had she completely lost it? No one ever treated him like this. He honestly thought Temari was intelligent enough to know this.

"Are you insane? I can't do that in 2 weeks! It's bloody impossible even if we are in London!" the red head moaned, raking his hands through his hair in frustration.

"I don't care, you might be "between homes" but I'm kicking you out after 2 weeks ... end of discussion." Temari said in a tone that signalled the end of the conversation.

And that was that. Gaara had officially got less than 2 weeks to find a new home, and he wasn't getting very far. All those advertised in the papers were either old, gay or completely out of area to his work.

"AARGGHH" he yelled, pummelling the table with his forehead, before jumping a mile as his phone started to go off.

Looking at the front of his phone the red head winced as he saw the words "Naruto cell phone" printed across the screen.

After a few minutes of trying to ignore the incessant noise, he finally gave in, and reluctantly flipped the top of the phone open and placed it to his ear.

"Hey man I heard about losing the flat!" Screeched the loud and overly sunny voice of a certain Naruto Uzamaki.

"Bit of a bummer, but no fear for I have a solution! Can I come over?"

Naruto was one of the few people on this planet that Gaara could actually get along with on a basic human level. Having met in college when the blonde had moved over from Japan, the pair had become good friends (though only after Gaara had picked a fight with him without knowing hat the blonde was a highly skilled martial arts artist). After contemplating University at the end of their courses, the pair had eventually gone into business together several years back, joining Gaaras love of music and Narutos love of a challenge to create what was now a pretty successful record label.

Jinchuriki records had offices in the UK, Japan, America and Australia and boasted relatively talented artists that were pretty successful in all four corners of the globe, with Gaara handling management and Naruto dealing with the artists that they signed.

This didn't change the fact, however, that Gaara often found the blonde more annoying than thought possible. Especially when it came to his so called "solutions" which really did cause more harm than good.

Gaara decided to humour him though; after all he probably would be crashing at his place for the next few months if he hadn't found anywhere better to go.

"Yeah fine come over whenever" Gaara sighed, closing the phone before Naruto could say anything else.



True to his word Naruto turned up at the door a few minutes later ... with a cup of instant ramen from china town and an advert that appeared to have been ripped off of a lamppost.

"Ahh sorry man Tem said no girls in the house." Gaara smirked when he opened the door.

"Oh shut up you twat" Naruto sighed hitting the red head over the back of his head and walking through to the kitchen, laughing slightly at all the newspapers spread out over the table, as he strode over to the sink.

"Holy crap Gaara I didn't even know you could read!" the blonde chuckled, whilst pouring some water into the kettle and ripping the lid off of his instant ramen.

"You want that ramen on you head blondey?" Gaara retaliated with an annoyed sigh, a clear sign for Naruto to cut the crap and give him an explanation for his visit.

"Ok whatever, now read this and stop moping" Naruto said throwing the dog-eared advert over to Gaara.

The red head took a look at the paper and moaned with annoyance at what it said.

Roommate wanted for a Notting Hill Apartment. Male or female aged between 20 and 30 with a steady job.

The words were pointed in large font and, despite much searching for more information, covered the entire A4 page. Though how the person had managed this was beyond Gaara.

"What do you think? You up for it?" asked Naruto, sitting down at the table with his ramen, looking like he just saved a kid from drowning.

"Your insane, this persons probably a drug addict if they're advertising with crappie posters! It's unbelievably unprofessional, I'm not touching them with a barge pole" Gaara said throwing the paper down on the table.

"That is where you're wrong! Because I know this person! She lives right around the block from the studio so it's close to work, plus she's really hot mate ... but don't even think about sleeping with her! She is off limits even if you don't take up the roommate thing." Naruto beamed.

"... You're kidding? All the girls that you have ever met are either lesbians or insanely ugly! You don't do hot, how the hell do you know her?" asked the red head.

"She's my cousin" Naruto replied.

"Oh really? Well what's her name?"

"Sakura Haruno, she's a doctor at Konoha Hospital"

Yeah ... well you can probably guess where this is heading.



Reviewing is appreciated, but I prefer it to be useful! Tell me which bits you like/don't like and how it can be improved.

More from this when I next feel the urge to get typing.

(Looking forward to hearing your opinions ... the more detailed the better!)