Inspired by some manga (a one-shot). It was a part of Donut Letter. If I'm correct, it's the one called... Kirei Kirei. I could be wrong though.
Uzumaki Naruto was twenty-years-old. He had blond hair and blue eyes. He attracted a lot of men and some women. Needless to say, he was very easy on the eyes. Quite the striking young man indeed. He was single as of the moment and he lived alone in an apartment.
But, most of all, Uzumaki Naruto was a messy guy. He could never get the strength to clean his room which was looking even more like a dump site day by day. It was actually creepy. And the miracle was that there were no insects or pests that lived in his place. The other tenants of the dormitory thought that perhaps it was because his room was so messy that even the pests couldn't stand it.
Uchiha Sasuke was twenty-years-old. He had black hair and dark-colored eyes. He attracted men and women alike. He was single – always had been – and wasn't interested in getting in a relationship any time soon. Or, rather, he'd rather have no one inside his pants soon. He was the quiet, studious type that excelled on, as impossible as it sounded, almost every damn thing.
Most of all, Uchiha Sasuke was a very clean and orderly young man. Some would even go so far as to say that he was misophobic. All the clothes that he wore always looked new. There were no wrinkles to be seen, threads to be cut, or buttons hanging loose. His hair was always immaculately in its odd shape. It seemed as if the very ground that he walked on was purified by the soles of his shoes. It was probably true. He might as well put bacteria-killing substances or such on the soles of his shoes.
Now how could these two opposites – the hygienically-challenged and the hygienically-obsessed (if that made any sense or anything) – ever cross paths? It was fate, that was why. There was no such thing as coincidence, after all.
Oh, and there was also the fact that Sasuke grew tired of his parents that thought that the only son they had was his older brother. So he decided to move out of his house and into some apartment that wouldn't eat too much of his money. Not that his family wasn't poor or anything. In fact, they were unbelievably rich. He was just a miser, really.
So he went out of his house and found an apartment building that was made especially for young males. Despite being born into an insanely rich family, he was quite adept in adapting to things. After all, beggars couldn't be choosers, right? Besides, if his parents kept fawning over his older – and, apparently, much better – brother, he had to know how to deal with shit. Obviously enough, shit was what was left for him to feed upon. Of course, what was considered as hand-me-down things and leftover stuff for the rich, it was deemed as treasures by the much poorer.
The dynamics of the world was truly funny.
But going along... Sasuke thought that the apartment building was quite the nice pick. It was also a bit near from his college. And it did look better than those motels and dingy hotels (perhaps they really were brothels) he'd more than often heard the servants talking about. The apartment building might look a bit old, but at least it wasn't that bad. It didn't look as if it was going to fall into shambles soon enough. He sure was lucky.
He quickly went inside the building to get a room. He'd be living a new chapter in his life. He couldn't help but be a bit excited. Though this, of course, was not shown on his face.
He soon got his keys. His room was on the topmost floor. The seventh room of the fifth floor. Ah, well, he was fine with just climbing stairs. It was good workout, right? Not as if he did need any more workout. He was already quite fit. Fitter than most, to be more exact.
The receptionist also told him that there was already someone occupying the room. He was going to have a roommate which also meant that he would pay only half the price of a room which only one person occupied. Sure, personal space meant a lot to him, but that really would be doing wonders for his savings.
He opened the door and he dropped everything he was holding. Good lord, what the hell was this? The stench, the dirt, the piles of books (most of which were manga and some other things that he'd rather not think about) and cup noodles and pizza boxes! Now this looked like a room that had been hit by a tornado. Were there even tornadoes in Japan?! Sasuke then began to think. Oh, yeah, there was. There was one that hit Hokkaido recently...
Wait! They weren't even near Hokkaido!
The state of the room was everything Sasuke had never wanted to see – yet he partially expected that this was going to be the scenario he'd see – in his life. No doubt about it now. It was a guy (an uncultured little brute at that) that lived in here. Ah, well, that guy would so have to conform to his rules.
He rolled up his sleeves and made his way through the dumpster of a room. He'd have the floorboards clean and squeaky before he actually lived in here or else his name wasn't Uchiha Sasuke. And it really did just so happen that his name was Uchiha Sasuke. Then again, wasn't that the purpose of thinking of the whole thing? That was the time that he thought he should just stop thinking about all those frivolities and concentrate on cleaning this godforsaken room. No offense to any religion, of course.
He took off his shoes and placed them beside his baggage – no way in hell was he going to put his shoes inside that room; it reeked of something! He then proceeded to enter cautiously. The first thing he attacked was the shoe cabinet which was situated near the door.
Oh venerable gods and sprites and all that heavenly beings out there... help him.
His face scrunched up in disgust when another smell penetrated his nose. How much he wished for divine intervention right now. And perhaps a broom or a vacuum cleaner, too. While the divinities that were all up there were at it, they could also go and fetch him some air fresheners.
Who the hell could live in a place like this?
Then he heard a sneeze and there was an avalanche of garbage that nearly drowned him. Good thing he had quick reflexes and had jumped away from danger. He stepped inside the room once again when everything was peaceful. He then saw a shock of blond hair. Soon enough, he could see someone sitting up. A guy. It had to be a guy because, well, this was, after all, a dorm for only males.
Cute guy, though. Cute, but still messy.
"You!" Sasuke said.
The guy blinked and looked at him. For the first time, as corny as it sounded, blue met black – or dark gray, Sasuke used to have a color crisis when it came to his eyes.
"Yeah?" the blue-eyed guy asked. "What's up, dude?"
Sasuke gritted his teeth. The disregard of the state of this room by that guy made him so mad.
"Why is this place so dirty?" he asked, desperately trying to calm himself down.
The guy quirked an eyebrow.
"The hell's your problem?" he asked. "I'm the one who lives here. If you don't like it, just go away."
"I would if I didn't live here," Sasuke spat.
"WHAT?!"
That was how Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto's first meeting began. Not at all the best of meetings and beginnings, especially when both found out that there was no way for Sasuke to be moved to another room and therefore, they were inevitably stuck with each other. A fated meeting? Nah. A bated war, more like it.
One couldn't say that it was a big war. Blood hadn't fallen... yet.
Sasuke had gotten his chance to clean the room wholly and properly when Naruto went out, which would be around a week since they first started rooming with each other. The boy was adamant – and he showed it in a very childish way – that the room was dirty, so when Sasuke cleaned the day before, it was only his side that he was able to clean and not the blond's. The sight of dirt irked Sasuke and he wasn't complacent with cleaning just his side.
Needless to say, when Naruto came back, he thought that he came into a different room. He might've continued to think that if he hadn't seen Sasuke on the table that was placed between their beds and in front of the window.
Naruto blinked his eyes and when his garbage – at least that was how Sasuke called it – still wasn't there, he became ridiculously and insanely angry. He chucked a random book that was lying on the shoe cabinet at Sasuke. Of course, the bastard, whom had seen that coming a mile away, dodged it. It just so happened that the window was open. The book flew out of the window and that was where Naruto realized his mistake.
"Shit! We have a Calculus test and that was my book!" he exclaimed.
He wouldn't have minded that he threw his book outside the window if he took notes. Unfortunately for him, he didn't take notes. He immediately ran out of the room to retrieve his book before one of Kiba's dogs ripped it to shreds. Inuzuka Kiba was one of the tenants and he had tons of dogs which the landlady allowed to stay... but in the garage. And the garage, coincidentally, was near where Naruto's book should've fallen. Kiba usually let his dogs prowl the area. They weren't dangerous to humans – Kiba trained them well – but it was different when it came to things.
Sasuke smirked and tried to stifle his laughter. His roomie was so predictable. Things had gone according to plan. That would teach blondie to mess with him and anything else in their room. Oh, and that Uchiha Sasuke always got what he wanted. He internally gave himself a pat on the back for a job well done. He was so sure that Naruto wouldn't be giving him any trouble for a long, long time.
How wrong Sasuke was. Poor guy.
It was a good thing that he'd gotten to his book before Akamaru, Kiba's favorite dog (Naruto was surprised when Kiba said that he had a favorite since the dog boy seemed to love every single one of his dogs), managed to sink its teeth in it. Naruto sighed with relief. His book was still readable and a bit presentable. His professor would kill him if he appeared to class with a book that was beyond repair.
"Fuck you Uzumaki Naruto," Sasuke hissed the next morning as he lunged at Naruto.
And what a coincidence! It just so happened that Naruto, too, held grudges for a long time and was quick on acting out his revenge. So quick that the room was messy – Sasuke thought that it was messier than ever but he could be exaggerating; he was, after all, quite the melodramatic bastard when it came to dirt and germs and such – again the next morning. Naruto thought that almost dying – Sasuke had his neck in a death grip – was worth it. At least he got to see the bastard throw a hissy fit... a violent hissy fit. Okay, so maybe it wasn't worth it.
Naruto quickly made his escape when Sasuke's back was turned to him. He soon regretted doing this because when he came back, the room was clean once again and a smug-looking Sasuke was situated on the study table.
Naruto growled. Fucking bastard. What really was that prick's problem anyway?! Couldn't he just mind his own business and his own side of the room?
From the point of view of a normal and somewhat sane person, Naruto would be the one with more problems. Seriously, what kind of person couldn't live in a room nor wouldn't like a roommate that would clean their mess without any hesitation? Most people would've taken advantage of that. But Naruto had never been like most people.
Internally, Sasuke was wondering – and lamenting, too – why in the world he'd gotten stuck with a loony roommate. Though the thought that dominated his mind was the fact that he'd won this round. He was in the lead of their little war. Hopefully Naruto would let the room retain its cleanliness now. There was no use in battling. Sasuke was obviously utterly determined in keeping things in order.
For sure, it sure sucked to be Naruto. Someone in their dorm would pity him if it wasn't for the fact that they were actually happy that Naruto's room was clean. Very clean. In fact, it was now the cleanest room in the whole building... if not the noisiest.
"Why can't you just let me be?!" Naruto asked, growing tired of not having his messy space. "I'm not telling you to clean the room, aren't I?!"
Sasuke snorted.
"I can't live in a dump," he said. "And what's your problem?"
"That's supposed to be my line!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Your line? What idiot would want to live with garbage surrounding them every damn second of the day?"
"I like the messiness! I think it's artistic! It's expressing my inner thought and all."
"Oh, it does fit your supposed inner thought. It screams clutter-brained."
Naruto growled.
"Why don't you just leave my side of the room alone? I won't get garbage on your side!" he said.
"Why are you so stubborn? You should be happy that you're living in a clean place. You can get diseases in dirty places," Sasuke pointed out.
"I'm already used to it! I'm immune from garbage-induced stuff!"
"Where were you raised? Are you a garbage baby or something?"
"Garbage baby?! What the hell's that?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes. Idiot. Naruto growled once again when he saw his roommate's actions. He sat down in front of Sasuke Indian-style and glared at the boy.
"Look 'ere," he started, "you just work on your side and I'll keep to my side. That's already a pretty nice compromise."
Sasuke was silent for a bit. Naruto thought that the bastard was actually reconsidering this time. Who knew that speaking things without shouting them did wonders?! Naruto now knew that if he wanted things to go his way, he'd speak in a softer manner.
"No," Sasuke said after a while.
Naruto let out a frustrated sound – it was called a sound because Sasuke couldn't decide whether it was a sigh, a growl, a snarl, or something else.
"Why do you want things to be clean anyway?!" Naruto asked, obviously still frustrated at the stubbornness – yet again, like he should talk – of his roommate.
Sasuke's eyes darted away from Naruto's form. Naruto blinked. Was the bastard actually shy?
Sasuke then mumbled something. Naruto, since he was used to loud sounds, did not hear this.
"Whatcha say?" he asked.
Sasuke mumbled yet again, but it was slightly louder. Naruto scooted closer to where the boy was and asked him to repeat it again.
"I'm fucking misophobic!" Sasuke all but screamed at Naruto.
Sasuke turned away. He looked at his roommate once again when he did not hear any laughter coming from the blond. The confused-looking blond.
"Wait... so you're... afraid of miso?" Naruto asked. "The hell's that got to do with dirt and stuff?"
Sasuke refrained from banging his own head on the table. He would, though, like to bang Naruto's head on the table. God, the blond could be such an idiot. If the first blond that he had met was Naruto, he would've believed all those derogatory blond jokes.
"I have misophobia, you idiot, which means that I'm afraid of being contaminated with germs and dirt. Or, to be more exact, I'm not at all that fond of dirt that can be seen with the naked eye," he explained slowly. He knew that one couldn't escape germs. They were everywhere. And he wasn't bursting his veins (and perhaps dying of internal bleeding at the same time) because the blond was wasting his time. Hey, it was for the proliferation of knowledge. He could afford to be patient with that one.
Naruto nodded after Sasuke's explanation. Ah... misophobic. He then began to stupidly grin. He now had a joke to tell Kiba and the others. Then he remembered what he and his dearest roommate were talking about in the first place and became angry. Naruto was a master at mood switching, for sure.
"Get over your fear then!" he exclaimed. "What are you... some girl?!"
"Listen, you chauvinistic know-nothing, I just can't stand the sight of dirt," Sasuke said through gritted teeth, "and it's easy to just be clean. It could benefit you, too, you know."
"No!"
"You're such a kid!"
"If you want things to go your way, why don't you just go home or something?!"
"I can't go home!"
Naruto blinked. Just before he was about to inquire as to why Sasuke couldn't go home, there was a knock on their door. It was soon opened and Gaara – one of their neighbors who lived on three doors away from them and was also, admittedly, one of the scariest guys on the planet; he was polite and homicidal! – soon came into view.
"It's your turn with the baths now," he said. "And Neji told me to tell you two to be as quiet as you can. Tsunade is wallowing in despair and is slowly killing herself by drinking insane amounts of sake. Neji also told me to advice you to be quiet tomorrow, too, because it is already quite obvious that she will be heavily hung-over and extremely moody."
Neji was Gaara's roommate.
Gaara got out of the room and closed the door behind him.
Sasuke sighed. A bath sure sounded good right now. He stood up and got his bath things. Naruto did the same. They temporarily forgot their argument. Tsunade, their landlady, sure could throw some killer punches. For now, they were in a pact. They didn't want to get sent to the hospital or, much worse, get killed soon.
"But, really, why don't you like cleaning your room?" Sasuke asked as soon as he and Naruto were settled in the huge bathtub.
"I just... you know..." Naruto said.
He blushed. He decided that telling Sasuke exactly why he hated clean places would be alright. But he was really shy when it came to that.
Sasuke quirked an eyebrow.
"So, why?" he asked.
"I'm afraid of ghosts and I thought that they would appear if there was any free space," Naruto murmured.
Sasuke snorted, but when Naruto looked up, there was a small smile on the bastard's face. Naruto frowned. That prick. He must have found that amusing.
"You don't... have to be afraid, you know," Sasuke muttered. "Because I'm here. You don't need to be afraid if I'm here."
Naruto blinked. Then he smiled, too.
It was Saturday and it was night, too. For Naruto, that meant that it was time to crash one of his friends' room. This week was Kiba's room. The whole crew was there, save, perhaps, for Sasuke who didn't like noisy gatherings and avoided them as much as he could, Gaara who just didn't go well with crowds, and Neji who had the same reason as Sasuke.
Naruto blinked. What the hell was that on the table and why was everyone surrounding it? And why was Kiba smirking? Kiba didn't smirk. No, it was only Sasuke and Neji that smirked.
"Naruto, my boy, have you heard of the ghost that resides in this apartment building?" Kiba asked.
Naruto's eyes widened. Everyone knew that he was afraid of ghosts...
"There's no ghost here!" he nervously said.
"Oh but there is," Kiba said, "he used to live in the apartments, too. He was obsessed with cleaning stuff and all. He rooms with the person with the messiest room. Here's a picture of him."
Kiba then showed him a picture of the aforementioned ghost. Naruto gasped. Holy shit! The guy on the picture... was Sasuke! He then began to connect the dots... Wasn't Sasuke also obsessed with cleaning? He was living with a ghost!
"And on the table is an oujia board," Kiba continued. "We're going to contact the ghost. And you're going to be the one who does it."
"WHAT?!" Naruto exclaimed.
The guys smirked. Chouji and Kiba got Naruto's hand and put it on the coin or whatever circular article it was that was on the board.
Naruto trembled and he desperately tried to pull his hand away. NO! Then, the coin started to move. Naruto shrieked. Someone whacked him on the back of his head. Naruto looked at the offending appendage and found out that it owned to Sasuke. And he also noticed that there was another finger on the coin. The finger also belonged to Sasuke.
Naruto had never felt so relieved before. Then he growled at Sasuke. Fucking bastard make him almost get a cardiac.
"What do you want?!" he angrily asked.
"Where's my Psychology book, dumbass," Sasuke asked, obviously irritated.
That son of a bitch nearly scared him to death and all for a freaking book?!
Naruto briefly forgot his new revelation as Sasuke dragged him back to their dorm for him to search the missing Psychology book. Of course, Naruto remembered that he'd learned that Sasuke was a ghost when they were all alone in their dorm room. Needless to say, it was quite awkward for Naruto.
He was scared out of his wits even as he was on his own bed, desperately trying to sleep.
"Just go to sleep, moron," Sasuke muttered. "The tension coming from you is making its way to me and now even I can't sleep."
"Ye-Yeah," Naruto said.
"What's your problem, seriously?"
"Noth-Noth-No-Nothing, bastard!"
Sasuke sighed.
"You know, I was also... serious while we were in the bathroom. You don't have to... be scared... you know... because... because I'm here..." he said.
Naruto didn't know what to reply to that one. But he did feel safe after those words. Oh, and he also realized that he shouldn't be scared of anything. Anything but the person who said that he shouldn't be scared, of course.
For a week, their lives were fine and dandy. Naruto messed up their room while trying to forget that Sasuke was a ghost and Sasuke kept on cleaning Naruto's mess. All of that changed, though, on a bright, Sunday morning.
Naruto had just come back from his breakfast (ramen, of course) and was surprised to see a still messy room. Sasuke normally cleaned during the time he was out. Though it did look a bit cleaner, but only on Sasuke's side... it was far too clean on Sasuke's side. More like devoid of anything.
Then it hit Naruto. Sasuke must be going to heaven!
As much as the statement should make him happy, it didn't. It made him feel sad and empty. And so, he decided that he liked the bastard being here very much and that maybe Sasuke would come back if he cleaned up the place. He did clean up the place. He desperately cleaned it. He put his books where they should be, put his shoes in the shoe cabinet, he fixed his bed, and he cleaned the floor of any dust with the ever-so-trusty broom.
There was still no Sasuke by the end of his little cleaning spree. Naruto was frustrated. Very frustrated.
"I swear that I'll clean every single day, Sasuke, just don't leave me!" Naruto yelled.
He didn't want to be alone. He didn't know what this feeling was, either. His chest was aching at the thought that Sasuke was really gone. He felt like dying from the pain. It just hurt so much. He clutched his chest and bowed his head as he slumped to the floor. He didn't even care if Sasuke was a ghost anymore. Even if Sasuke was a ghost... Sasuke... Sasuke...
"Oi, moron, stop yelling, I can hear you from the next room!"
Sasuke was in his fucking doorway!
Naruto stood up and jumped Sasuke, surprising the latter and knocking him onto the floor. Naruto sobbed on Sasuke's shirt and Sasuke patted him on the head and on the back, all the while feeling awkward.
It was a little while later when Naruto found out that no, Sasuke was not a ghost and that Sasuke had just moved into the room beside theirs since Naruto wouldn't comply to the cleanliness rule and all.
Naruto had never been more relieved than before. There was no ghost and Sasuke was real and still there.
It was on the next Sunday when Naruto and Sasuke visited Sasuke's home.
"You could've at least told me that you were changing rooms," Naruto muttered.
"And you shouldn't have listened to those silly little stories Kiba and the others were telling you," Sasuke retorted.
"I hate you."
"Yeah, yeah. I love you, too."
At Sasuke's house (mansion, really), Naruto found out that the ghost that everyone was talking about was actually Sasuke's brother, Itachi. The guy on the picture Kiba showed him did look a lot like Sasuke, but there were lines under the face of that guy... And Naruto also found out why Sasuke couldn't come home. Or, rather, why he wouldn't come home. The family tension and all of that.
"Wait, so I'm dead now?" Itachi asked after hearing from Sasuke the supposed legendary ghost of the dorm building. "I just got hospitalized for four days. I swear that those guys are so melodramatic. Idiots just had to go enlarge the problem."
Naruto laughed. He didn't even care anymore about what the background story was. All that mattered was that Sasuke was still there and with him, even if the guy was a room away.
The end.
It was short and choppy, but that was how I saw the ending of the aforementioned one-shot manga.
Thank you for reading this and please don't hesitate to point out any mistakes. Comments would be much appreciated.