Title: The 8th floor
Category: Anime/Manga » Naruto
Author: Gwyn97
Language: English, Rating: Rated: M
Genre: Romance/Humour

This is the second rewrite of this chapter.

The first time I posted this story I was 14 years old. Then, when it was rewritten, I was 15.

Now, I am 16 going on 17 years old and I only just rediscovered this story. I'm not a gigantic fan of Naruto anymore, however, there are so many reviews asking for an end, that I will oblige.

Sorry for the two years of waiting.

The Eighth floor

Sasuke Uchiha sighed angrily, banging his head against the wall outside of the Real-estate agency; he had been lining the windows for quite a while now, and he was beginning to get a headache. The raven male continued to bang his head against the window, a small thud sounding each time he did so. He noticed an elderly lady staring at him, worriedly as if he were insane. Sasuke turned his head to face her, and glared, the elder woman looked away immediately in fright. The young Uchiha's glare sure was scary.

The raven continued lining the agencies window with posters and pictures of apartments and houses alike, Why did he have to be the one that did the bloody window's today, wasn't that usually Karin's Job?

Most normal people wouldn't complain about doing the windows in this kind of business; most normal real-estate agent companies weren't as large as this one, and they usually stuck to smaller houses and crappy apartments too, but no, this place was huge, and not only was it a real-estate agency, it also had departments specialising in architectural design where clients could have houses designed and built to suit them on floors 8 all the way through to 24.

Sasuke had at least 7 boxes of pictures, full of different type's houses, apartments and condos. It would take him all day to line the wall with them, and that was just the west wall, there were plenty more walls that needed to be lined with pictures of expensive homes that almost nobody would be able to afford, why his father bothered, he really didn't know.

A few minutes later, the youngest Uchiha had-had enough, he stormed back into the building, a grimace plastered to his face as he hastily made his way back to his office, completely ignoring Karin at the front desk, which had made an attempt to "talk" to him, pfft, more like hit on him for the hundredth time that day.

God, women were incredibly annoying.

It had taken two hours, two long gruelling hours, of lining all four walls with the new pictures of houses and Sasuke had-had enough, at least a box full of new pictures of houses came in a day, and Sasuke was the one who had to put them up, Well... that wasn't entirely true, he made Karin do them sometimes, but he still had to do them the other 90% of the time, and goddammit, that wasn't right! He was the Manager of his floor, his department! Someone of a lower status should do that shit.

As soon as he was in his office, he was calling Itachi, his elder brother, to complain.

Sasuke walked through the door of his office, only a little bit surprised to see Itachi already there, sitting in his seat looking up at him silently, seemingly quite content where he was. It was Sasuke's seat, Of course.

"What do you want?" Sasuke snarled, making his way past Itachi to his coat rack, shrugging of his black suit jacket and throwing it onto one of the fine porcelain holders.

"I said, what. Do. You. Want?" Sasuke grit out with his hands placed on his hips, death-glaring Itachi with every bit of hatefulness he could muster.

"Can I not visit my little brother?" Itachi replied in his usual cool stoic tone, his hands up in defence, pretending to be innocent. Like hell he was.

"Not when he doesn't like you," Sasuke replied, before coming to a realization that Itachi was still in his seat. "And get out of my seat, will you?"

Itachi stood up slowly, his posture perfect and straight as he strode across the room, now standing at the door, holding it halfway open. "I just came to tell you that Father is moving you to the 8th floor, looks like you won't be doing windows for a long time" Itachi smirked before stepping completely outside of the room and closing the door behind him. "Goodbye, little brother" was heard from outside the door, along with a pair of fading footsteps.

Well, looks like Sasuke wouldn't have to complain after all.

Sasuke stepped off the elevator at the eighth floor, carrying a box full of his belongings and important documents. Though Sasuke had never had an office on this floor, he had been up here a few times, so he knew his way to the new office he would be residing in for the rest of his time at the company, Assuming he wasn't promoted again, or demoted, but that was highly unlikely, After all, he was the second best in his field, after his brother, of course.

Sometimes Sasuke still couldn't believe that his father could take something as simple as real-estate and change it into a multimillion dollar industry, although he did tweak the concept of it a bit.

Sasuke made his way past his new secretary, Sakura, and into the main office, the pinkette staring at him and blushing as he did so, he could have sworn he saw some drool coming from her mouth.

'Not another one ' Sasuke cried internally as he brushed a pale hand through his hair, frowning slightly.

Many people stared at the raven newcomer, a few female workers giggling and whispering among themselves like school girls, the males just rolling their eyes and getting back to work at their individual cubicles.

The raven ignored them all though, opening the door to his new, much larger, much nicer office, he dropped the box onto his desk and removed his jacket, placing it with his other things, revealing his black vest and white work shirt.

It was about time he got a bigger office, and damn the view was great too, the whole back wall was glass, and it gave a great view of the streets and offices below, Sasuke liked this office much more than the old one.

Much, much more.

The morning in the apartment was still, birds could be heard tweeting outside and a few rays of light shining through the cracks of what curtains had failed to cover flooded the room. Orange covers on a bed moved slightly as a body underneath them rolled over, two long tanned arms extended over both sides of the bed, a loud yawn from the owner of them broke whatever silence there was left that wasn't ruined by the birds.

The tanned arms came up and rubbed the owner's eyes, attempting, and failing, to rid the sleepiness that plagued them. They then sat up, revealing blond hair and half lidded, tired blue orbs.

The blond was named Naruto Uzumaki, a 25 year old who was in desperate need of a job. Naruto had been searching for one for a while, and was beginning to get behind on rent, and now had to rely on his friends to help, which he absolutely hated doing, so you could imagine he was relieved when he finally got an interview, which was set for 12:30pm today.

Naruto looked over at his clock and nearly flew through the roof, it was 12:10pm, and he had to be there in 15 minutes! (It's always good to get to an interview at least 5 minutes early)

He scrambled off the bed and over to the dresser, clothes flying everywhere as he found an orange tie, a white work shirt and some black slacks. He had decided to jut skip a shower, he had one last night anyway, so he would be all right. He practically threw on the clothes and ran out the door, only stopping to grab a pop tart on the way out. The blond frowned, it wasn't ramen, but it was something.

Naruto rushed into the agency, getting here was an absolute nightmare; the train was a few minutes late so he had to run there to make up for the time.

He looked up at the clock on the wall as he sucked in air his lungs demanded, he really wasn't a good runner, he needed to work on that. The clock had read 12:43pm, damn, he was a little bit late, but it couldn't be that bad... right?

"Excuse me, do you need something?" a feminine voice asked, Naruto looked up to see a red-haired girl with glasses looking at him questioningly.

Naruto straightened his back and cleared his voice, his nerves beginning to kick in.

"Uhm" he paused, his eyes darting around the room nervously, "yes! I'm here for an interview?" The blond said, smiling at the secretary whose nametag read Karin.

"Oh" she scowled, "you're late" How dare anybody be late for an interview with her Sasuke. Naruto lost his grin and his whole body seemed to droop a little bit. Did this mean he wouldn't get an interview?

"You're lucky, he's out and told me to inform you that he would be late, he should be here any moment now." She cleared her throat, "his office is on the 8th floor, 5th door to the left" She said before turning back to her computer, completely ignoring anything the blond might want to say.

Naruto immediately brightened up, "Thank-you!" he shouted a little bit too loudly, before running to the elevator. Boy was it his lucky day! He would get the job, pay the rent, save up, get out of there and find a better place, and then finally get a girlfriend! everything would be great! Naruto had lost himself in a cloud of sunshine.

Sasuke walked into his office only to be greeted by a stunning blond man, with bright blue eyes and lightly tanned skin. Sasuke already liked him, he would have to woo him sometime... that is, if he was worthy to be hired.

"Naruto Uzumaki?" The raven questioned as he shook the blonde man's hand, the blonde looked up at Sasuke and found himself speechless, and this possibly was going to be his new boss? Naruto wasn't into guys or anything, but damn, Sasuke was gorgeous!

Naruto found it hard to form words with Sasuke looking at him directly, but managed to answer the question with a slight blush, Sasuke looked at him quizzically, a delicate eyebrow raised. The Raven-haired male ignored the blonde's strange behaviour and sat opposite him at his desk, pulling out the resume from a drawer that Naruto had submitted earlier on in the week.

"So you're applying for head of design, yes?" Sasuke said, flipping through Naruto's resume, to be honest Sasuke really didn't care, the resume seemed fine enough, and Naruto didn't seem too stupid - yet. The Uchiha just didn't see the point in long interviews, he'd much rather have a short and simple one, just getting the basics he needed to know, he didn't need a freaking life story for god's sake.

Naruto nodded to Sasuke's question, followed by a happy, yet somehow dazed "Yes, sir".

"Well, you're resuming seems good " Sasuke paused, thinking over what to say next, everybody else who applied wasn't as qualified as the blond, and they certainly weren't as attractive... Sasuke would have to work with whoever got the job; so he'd much rather have eye candy, than an eye sore, like the other girl that had applied... what was her name... Ino? It wasn't like she was ugly or anything, it was just the boobs, they were constantly in Sasuke's way, the girl obviously didn't get it that he didn't like them very much, because she kept shoving them in his face.

Naruto definitely was the best way to go.

"I'll tell you what, I'll hire you if you can come in first thing Monday morning, and if you stop acting like a dobe, and actually speak properly"

The blond didn't know what to think, he was being hired and insulted at the same time, Naruto's eyes widened... he got the job, he nailed it and got the job!

"Oh my god, thank-you so much, I don't know how to thank you!" Naruto all but shouted in Sasuke's ears, "...Hey, wait a second; I'm not a Dobe, Teme! What makes you think you can go around calling people that, bastard!" the Uchiha grimaced; maybe he made a mistake in saying he didn't speak enough.

"It's not my fault you're an idiot," Sasuke teased as he stood up and walked over to the door, opening it for Naruto. "See you on Monday" Sasuke said smirking, gesturing out the door with his hand for Naruto to leave.

"Why you little" Naruto stopped himself, this was his new boss, he couldn't afford losing this job just after he got it!

"I mean... err... thanks" he grimaced.

Sasuke smirked. Naruto puffed his cheeks out in anger, that bastard! The Uchiha would have laughed, if he was somebody else, but alas, he was not, so he stuck with a small smile and a quiet chuckle.

Naruto glared at Sasuke and ran from the office, he couldn't believe he thought that asshole was attractive, and what was he thinking? He was a total bastard. Naruto sensed nothing but mischief from him.

Naruto stumbled drowsily behind a crowd of people from the 8th floor elevator, yawning silently in the process as he rubbed at his cobalt orbs; He had barley slept last night in fear of being late to his first day at work. Naturally, the blond was tired and cranky, and it didn't help him that he had to report to the basta- Sasuke.

Naruto walked past Sakura who have him a fake smile and a greeting, to which the blond eagerly replied with a blinding grin, he had no idea that the smile was fake, in fact he believed Sakura had liked him, even thought he could ask her out. The pinkette stared after him, glaring, as he got the position close to Sasuke. Well, at least Ino-pig didn't get it…

The blond continued to fantasize about a date with the Pinkette, his spirits lifting, nothing could change them now except for maybe-

"Good morning, Naruto" Sasuke smirked as he leaned against the door to his office.

Too late.

Naruto grimaced at Sasuke, an overwhelming feeling of hatred and gloom filled him, and He seriously didn't want to talk to the Uchiha right now.

"Good morning, Sasuke-Teme" Naruto glared.

Sasuke smirked at the new nickname, it didn't bother him one bit though, in fact, he actually quite liked it.

"You shouldn't be calling your boss that, Dobe" Sasuke retorted, an even larger smirk evident on his face.

"What are you going to do about it?" Naruto bit out, not really caring anymore, he knew Sasuke was just teasing and wouldn't fire him… besides, it was kind of fun. Sasuke simply ignored Naruto and jumped into business, the blond sighed in defeat, knowing Sasuke wouldn't continue to bicker with him, and that he had clearly lost, even if Sasuke hadn't said anything.

"Now, I don't have much for you to do today, so I'll take you to your desk so you can settle in, and then you can come with me for a tour around the place"

"Will I get to talk to people?" Naruto said hopefully, a particular pink haired girl on his mind.

Sasuke looked questioningly at Naruto's hopeful gaze, Hn, he probably wanted to talk to the pink haired brat, he didn't see a problem with that, but he couldn't help feeling… jealous? Sasuke shook his head at his thoughts and spoke,

"Sure, but not for long, I don't want you interrupting everyone from their work"

Naruto let out a loud whoop (In his head of course) and smiled, at least he had a chance to talk to others besides Mr pole-two-meters-up-his-ass Uchiha.

The two walked in silence to Naruto's new desk, which was right by Sasuke's office, giving the Uchiha a good view for keeping an eye on Naruto.

It would give Sasuke a good view of the Blonde's ass. Hey, just because he didn't particularly like Naruto didn't mean he couldn't like his ass. It was perfectly normal to find people you didn't like totally hot, right?

When they'd arrived at the desk, Naruto put his box of items down with a loud 'Plonk' before sitting in his chair, one leg loosely crossed over the other, leaning back with his arms crossed behind his head, which sported a very large grin like a Cheshire cat's.

"Set up here, and quickly, I'll be back in a few minutes to show you around"

The raven strode away towards his office gracefully, leaving Naruto to deal with his desk. Naruto began pulling things out of his box, arranging the various office supplies in pictures in an orderly fashion.

"Hey, Blondie!" a rough voice called, causing Naruto to look up in shock, his azure eyes settled on a short young man, about his age, with wild brown hair and two red upside-down triangle tattoo's on each of his cheeks, giving his appearance a sense of wildness. The brunette wore black slacks and a white, untucked work shirt, not bothering with a tie. How on earth was he working here? Wasn't one of the main rules "keep yourself presentable"?

Naruto snapped out of his thoughts and realised that the brunette had been speaking. "Me?" Naruto pointed to himself, it was a stupid question really; he was the only blond in sight.

"Yeah, you" The mystery man said, grinning foolishly as he walked from his cubicle to Naruto's. "The Names Kiba Inuzuka" The man now revealed to be 'Kiba' said, holding his hand out for Naruto to shake. The blond took it eagerly, smiling brightly at Kiba, a new friend already?

Naruto felt like bursting into happy little bubbles, now he wouldn't feel so alone here anymore!

"Naruto Uzumaki" the blonde stated with a nod.

"Hey Chouji, come say hi to the new guy!" Kiba yelled behind his shoulder, and right on cue, a rather large robust man sat up from one of the cubicles, holding a bag of what appeared to be barbeque pork potato chips. Chouji walked over with a smile on his pudgy face, his hand extended in the air as a greeting. "Naruto, meet Chouji" Kiba said, moving his hands back between them as a gesture to shake hands.

"Nice to meet ya, Naruto" Chouji said as he munched on some chips before qiping his hand on his shirt to shake Naruto's hand. Naruto hesitated for a moment, but shook it.

"Chip?" Chouji offered, extending his bag of chips out to Naruto. The blond took one as he spoke; "Thanks, Nice to meet you too" The smaller boy said, eating the chip he was offered with a smile. "So… what position are you here for?" Kiba inquired with interest as he took a chip from Chouji, earning a slap to the hand.

Naruto almost laughed at the look on Chouji's face, and the mischievous grin plastered on Kiba's

"I'm here for head of design" The boy beamed. Both Kiba's and Chouji's face fell, poor Naruto. "Oh, damn, I feel sorry for ya man, real sorry" Kiba said forlorn, shaking his head slightly, Chouji only nodded in agreement. "Why, what's wrong?" Naruto suddenly felt ill, what had he got himself into?

"You gotta work with Sasuke 90 precent of the time," Chouji said, eating another potato chip. A "manly" scream sounded through the whole of the 8th floor, followed by a thud which one would assume was the sound of a body falling to the floor after passing out.

Naruto hated life. No. Naruto hated the universe, the world, and his very existence at this moment in time.

Naruto had been at the company for about three weeks now, and was practically glued to Sasuke.

Against his will, of course.

Naturally the blond was unhappy about this, for god sakes, it was making his time here a living hell! Sasuke was piling work on him, occasionally squeezing his ass, or making inappropriate comments here and there. It seemed that was all raven was capable of doing around Naruto.

Unbeknown to Naruto, Sasuke was just as unhappy and confused as the blond. He didn't even intentionally grab the blonde's ass, (it was quite a nice ass though) and make those comments; they all kind of just… slipped.

Sasuke didn't particularly like Naruto, or so he thought, but he couldn't help feeling warm and calm around the adorable blond, not to mention he found him highly attractive.

The two worked together awkwardly, effectively, but awkwardly. There would be times when the blond needed an eraser, or a pencil as he was working on a house sketch and Sasuke would pass him one or the other, but his fingers would linger over the blonde's just a second too long, or he would stare at the blond and daydream about squeezing his round mounds of flesh without even knowing it.

Naruto sat at his desk, finishing the final plans for a client's dream house.

Besides the fact that he was stuck with Sasuke, Naruto loved his job; he could fulfil all of his clients dreams by providing them with the perfect plans, he had great friends like Kiba and Chouji and he believed that he was slowly getting Sakura to open up to him. Everybody knew that she hated him, and he wasn't making any progress, but they let him believe that anyway.

The blond sighed dreamily, thinking of the pinkette before his thoughts were disrupted by a rather loud voice. "Sup, Uzumaki" Kiba said as he plopped himself down on Naruto's desk, almost ruining Naruto's plans. The blond snatched the Plans away and growled at Kiba, telling him to watch were he plants his fat ass.

"So Naruto, Sasuke being any less of a bastard than usual?" The brunette said, grinning; he knew he wasn't, and he absolutely loved watching Naruto bitch about the raven, it was absolutely hilarious and quite the source of entertainment for him. The blonde's mood darkened significantly, of course the bastard hadn't changed, and didn't Kiba know that he would never change?

"Yeah, he's still a super Teme like usual, but…" Naruto trailed off and his cheeks became a dark pink. What was Naruto thinking about?

Kiba's eyebrow rose questioningly as he leaned in farther.

"But?"

"W-well, I- I think he's been coming onto me" Naruto looked down bashfully as his cheeks reddened, what on earth did he just tell Kiba?

Kiba grinned evilly, but Naruto didn't notice, he was too busy looking at the ground in embarrassment.

"Oh yeah? How come?"

"He's been grabbing my ass and saying weird shit"

Kiba's eyes widened, wow, Sasuke was really gay? And he thought it was only a rumour….

"Then tell him to fuck off" Kiba said bluntly, that'd do the trick.

"That's the problem you see I… I think I like it" Naruto looked away, clearly embarrassed.

"I thought you liked Sakura" Kiba said as he grinned, oh, this was getting good.

Naruto shot his hands up defensively, "I do it's just that-"

"You're a flaming homosexual?"

"Yeah! I'm just- wait… WHAT?" Naruto shrieked, earning many stares and glares from around the office, Naruto gave a quick apology before turning back to Kiba.

"I am most certainly not a homosexual" Naruto spat at Kiba, giving him an icy cold glare, which almost matched that of the ice prince, Sasuke's.

"But you like getting your ass grabbed by a dude?" Kiba laughed out, covering his mouth to avoid being loud.

"That's different" Naruto said nervously.

"What's so different? He's a guy, you're a guy. That makes you pretty damn gay" Kiba chuckled.

Naruto knew Kiba was right, he tried to deny it, but he couldn't just ignore the fact that he liked Sasuke, and when he thought about it, he remembered that he thought he was hot from the start.

"What about Sakura?" Naruto asked sounding defeated.

"Well for one thing, she absolutely despises you, and you'll never have a chance with her, and secondly? Well, you don't look at her like you look at Sasuke, you look at her like a friend or a sister, but you look at Sasuke like something more." Kiba snorted "you're seriously confused, dude"

"God, that sounds cheesy" Naruto snorted, trying to hide his obvious blush.

"Inuzuka, stop bothering the other workers or I'll fire you!" Sasuke yelled from his office.

"Just think about what I've said, alright?" Kiba said almost worriedly, before slipping off Naruto's desk, leaving the blonde to ponder their previous conversation.

"But I don't want too!" Naruto whined, stomping his foot, fully prepared to have a tantrum as if he were an infant being refused the sweetest of candy.

"I'm telling ya' dude, stop being a pussy and get this awkwardness over with and do it." Kiba spoke almost sternly as he and Chouji backed him farther into the corner of the men's toilets.

"B-but, what if he rejects?" Naruto peered up at both of the other men with bright innocent orbs; he was terrified of rejection, and plus, if he was rejected, he'd could be sacked. Sasuke was, after all, his boss.

"Why would the guy who has been coming onto you and grabbing your ass for weeks, reject you?" Chouji said, his voice sounding muffled through the mouth filled with chips.

Naruto was silent for a moment, Kiba's words from yesterday still echoed in his mind; maybe he should just ask Sasuke out? No! If he did that he would be giving into his manliness, he liked women, he knew it! He was just a little confused, that was all. Naruto smiled to himself weakly at his horrible reasoning, but frowned as he continued to speak.

"But, what if it doesn't work out? I'm pretty sure like girls," The end of the sentence sounded more like a question than a statement, and Naruto knew it.

"Then end it if it isn't working" Kiba shrugged before continuing "just try it, you could find that you like it" Kiba said, attempting to get Naruto to just give in.

Naruto knew he had lost, it was just better to give in to the other men, and it would save him a whole lot of time and trouble.

"Ugh, fine!" Naruto said sounding exasperated, before continuing with a more humoured tone, "you guys suck, ya' know that?"

"And you love us for it" Kiba said, patting the blond on the back whilst whooping with his other hand to Chouji in victory

They both grinned at Naruto evilly. Win.