Naruto entered the apartment with heavy steps and closed the door behind him. His stomach was full, almost unpleasantly so, as he had stopped at Ichiraku's before heading home after giving his mission report to Tsunade.
"I'm home!" he told the empty apartment before his smile dropped and he sighed. Even if Tsunade hadn't told him Sasuke was still away on his mission, Naruto would have known the moment he opened the door. Disregarding the slightly stale smell of the air, to someone who had lived alone for the biggest part of his life the feel of an empty home was easily recognizable.
Naruto quickly removed his bags and weapons and while walking towards the bathroom started divesting himself of his clothes which he threw in the direction of the clothes hamper. The clothes landed haphazardly around and on the hamper and Naruto knew Sasuke would have made a fuss about that if he were there (the fuss mostly consisted of glares and raised eyebrows but was still surprisingly effective). He couldn't be bothered to pick them up and depositing them in the hamper properly though and he privately felt that the fact that he rememberd the hamper at all should count for something.
Once Naruto was stripped down to his pants he felt a bit better and could turn to the more important task at hand. He entered the bedroom and, after opening the window slightly to get some fresh air in, quickly started going through each of the closets. Clearly not finding what he was looking for he proceeded to look through the drawers before turning to the well made bed. He made a face at it. It was obvious it had been Sasuke and not Naruto who had been the last one to leave the apartment. Not that Naruto wouldn't have made the bed, he just wouldn't have done it so... prettily. Seriously, who cared if the bed covers were just tucked around the entire bed instead of being folded down at the top? Well, he amended, rolling his eyes, Sasuke clearly did.
Naruto reached over and removed the plain blue bed cover off the top half of the bed, revealing his favourite bedding. They were dark blue with orange swirls and from the way Sasuke had blushed when Naruto had first seen them and proclaimed his approval he knew Sasuke had bought them for him.
After establishing that what he sought was not under the pillows and comforters Naruto left the bedroom, having thoroughly mussed up the previously well made bed. He entered the living room area and started eyeing the bookshelves, particularly the part where Sasuke's books were kept. He made as if to walk over there and start searching through them when he suddenly stopped and slapped his hand to his forehead. What was he doing? He shouldn't be looking where he thought Sasuke would leave it, he should be looking where Sasuke expected Naruto to look!
Armed with his sudden revelation Naruto made a beeline towards the kitchen and opened the cupboard where the instant ramen were kept. Sure enough, sitting there innocently among a collection of ramen was the small acorn he had been looking for. In a move quite uncharacteristic of Naruto he ignored the ramen completely in favour of his prize and, with a silly and more than a little embarrassed grin on his face, pressed the acorn to his cheek.
Naruto then walked into the bedroom and gingerly placed the acorn on his bedside table. Still smiling, he entered the bathroom again to finally take the hot shower he'd been dreaming of for the duration of his two week mission. Once he was in bed a little while later, despite it being only shortly after dinner time, he snuggled into the middle of the bed and took a deep breath, smelling Sasuke faintly on the pillows. When he closed his eyes he made sure that the acorn sitting on his bedside table was the last thing he saw.
Being a week late to return from an estimated three week long escort mission didn't necessarily mean anything bad had happened. It just meant the client probably walked a bit slower than they expected. Or he was a very hospitable host and insisted that his escorts accept his hospitality for a little while before heading back. At least, that's what Naruto tried to tell himself. Just because Sasuke and Sakura hadn't returned yet didn't necessarily mean something was wrong. Although he did feel a bit uneasy about Sakura being on this mission as well.
Since lovers weren't allowed to go on missions together Sasuke usually only did solo missions these days, but this particular client had offered to pay double for a medical ninja to come along. Apparently he was an elderly politician but still in good health and Naruto thought it a little suspicious for someone to offer to pay so much for a service they didn't really need. Perhaps it was just about impressions or perhaps, Naruto thought, he was just being paranoid. It wasn't unlikely that he was, most other ninjas were and he supposed he should consider himself lucky to have escaped it for so long.
Naruto had just returned from another mission a week after he expected Sasuke to have returned when he found, much to his disappointment, that the apartment was exactly the way he'd left it. Having retrieved the acorn from where he'd put it for safekeeping and placed it back on his bedside table, he decided to go find Iruka-sensei and see if he wanted to go out for ramen. It would hopefully take his mind off the various theories as to why Sasuke and Sakura's mission was running late, and Naruto also felt a bit guilty for not having been to see Iruka for a while and decided it was time to make up for it.
He told himself that it was good that Sasuke wasn't back yet since he was a possessive bastard and tended to get a bit cranky when Naruto wanted to spend time with someone else. To be fair Naruto didn't suppose he was any better but it wasn't nearly so obvious since Sasuke wasn't very social and really only interacted with other people when he was on missions or when Naruto or Sakura dragged him with them to meet their friends.
Dinner with Iruka, though enjoyable, was a little more quiet than usual despite Naruto's best efforts not to let his worries show. Iruka entertained Naruto with stories of the various pranks and misbehaviours his current batch of students had come up with; though none of them were as bad (or good?) as Naruto had been in his academy days, they made up for it in sheer numbers. The way Iruka described it you got the impression that the entire class had conspired together to claim the title: "the most troublesome class in history".
As they were about to part for the night Iruka placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Don't worry too much about Sasuke and Sakura," he said. "They'll be back before you know it."
Naruto turned his head away a bit embarassed, he hadn't realized he'd been so obvious in his worries. He then remembered that he hadn't mentioned Sasuke and Sakura at all that evening. "How did you know they were late to return from their mission?" he looked at Iruka with an inquiring gaze.
Iruka blushed slightly before replying. "Kakashi-san saw the others from your team today and came over to let me know you were back. He mentioned as well that Sasuke and Sakura's mission was taking a bit longer than expected". Iruka removed his hand from Naruto's shoulder and ruffled his hair with a smile. "It's not unusual for escort missions to run a bit late, you know. I'd even go so far as to say that they run late more often than not!"
Naruto smiled at his former teacher. "Thank you Iruka-sensei."
"I'll see you around Naruto. Thank you for dinner", Iruka replied before waving and taking off in the direction of his home.
Naruto returned home himself, feeling better and deciding that dinner with Iruka-sensei had definitely been a good decision.
A few more days passed and Naruto was becoming increasingly more nervous. He tried to keep himself busy but had taken to putting the acorn away every time he went out, even if it was just a trip to the grocery store, on the off chance that Sasuke would return while he was out.
It was the middle of the afternoon 11 days after Sasuke and Sakura had been expected back from their mission when Naruto found himself making an inventory of his and Sasuke's weapons as well as cleaning them and sharpening. He'd returned from an intense training session with the rest of his team (who were now sporting numerous bruises and cursing him relentlessly) only to find he still hadn't managed to burn off enough of his nervous energy and that he needed something to occupy himself with. This hadn't really turned out to be such a good idea though as Naruto kept sneezing and nicking himself on the various weapons he was handling.
He was bandaging yet another cut on his forearm when he heard a key unlocking the door which swung open to reveal a tired looking Sasuke. Naruto could only stare numbly for a few seconds before his mind caught up to the fact that the person he'd been worrying about and imagining in various near-death experiences for days was entering the apartment, now looking slightly annoyed as Naruto didn't seem to react at all to his return, but completely unharmed.
Naruto, relieved that his fears had been unfounded, flew up off the couch towards Sasuke who was depositing his backpack on the floor. He cought him in a bone crushing hug, arms around Sasuke's middle, his head bowed and pressed into his lover's neck, breathing in his scent. The momentum caused them to collide painfully with the wall, reopening the half-healed cuts on Naruto's arms, but he couldn't care less.
Sasuke, instead of complaining like Naruto expected him to, snaked his own arms around Naruto and pressed him closer. "Dobe," he whispered into Naruto's ear, his smirk evident in his voice, "miss me much?"
Naruto tightened his hold on Sasuke and bit his neck lightly. "Teme..." he whispered, voice nearly breaking on the single word.
And that was all they needed to say.