Hi there my munchkin kittens and tortoises!

This is my attempt at a Naruto Fanfic, I've written it for a friend (who also betaed this chapter) who only reads SasuNaru... There is actually a multiple chapter story in the making, but I wanted to celebrate the end of my exam season and somehow test the waters of if people appreciate my interpretation of the Naruto characters. So please feel free to comment or send me a pm or (people who know me know what I would say next, so I'll just let you guess what options you have).

Please rest assured, I do not claim to own Naruto and happy national holiday!

Jia ne

PS: please note that this is a story with implied homosexuality.

It was rather early when Naruto woke up that Tuesday morning. A glance at the alarm clock told him that it was only eight o'clock. Usually he would be on his way to work by now, but as it was a national holiday, his work place was closed, which explained why he had not woken up in his bed at the flat he shared with Kiba and Akamaru but in his bed at his parent's house.

He had arrived late the night before as he had promised to spend the holiday with them, knowing that there was no one else that he wanted to spend it with. Since Sasuke had left him he had never really felt like doing anything on the National Holiday or any other holiday for that matter. However, he had to do something, so spending these occasions with his parents, who understood that he did not like to make a fuss as he had before, because it made him remember all the happy moments he had spent with Sasuke, was best.

Knowing that Iruka would soon decide that it was time to wake up, Naruto crawled out of bed and put on some shorts which would need a good washing and a t-shirt which lay somewhere on the floor because he had discarded it there the night before and snuck out of his room. He walked down the corridor and tried to open the entrance to the attic as silently as possible. It was a small trapdoor in the ceiling, which could be opened if one unlatched the bolts on both sides and then pulled the handle down. A ladder was attached on the other side of the door, which one could pull out and then climb up to the attic.

The blond went through the steps and went up, noticing happily that he did not have to switch on the light in the attic as sunlight flooded the place. He looked around and it only took him a second to find the box with the decoration for the national holiday. He grabbed it and made his way down the ladder again – which wasn't easy but he somehow managed. He folded the ladder up and closed the door again before carrying the box downstairs.

He did not like making a fuss, but it was no real holiday if the decoration was not right. So he put the box on the small coffee table in front of the sofa and opened it. There were two different garlands, one with the national flag and one with the flags from all the cantons; an assortment of lampions with the canton's flags on them; small flags and paper napkins with the national flag; candles and a table cloth in the national colours.

Tears welled up in his eyes as he picked the garland with the cantons flags out of the box, but he forced them down, walking to the balcony to hang the garland along the balcony rail. After having put that one up there he went to get the other garland and put that up outside the kitchen window.

It was when he came back from putting flags in the potted plants outside the entrance that he met Iruka, who had come down to the kitchen to make breakfast for himself.

"Good morning, Papa", he greeted him with a big smile.

"Good morning, Naruto. You want some coffee?"

"If you make some, sure."

"I see you've been busy decorating." Iruka smiled. He liked it when Naruto put effort in things like this, as he himself liked decorating the house for special occasions as well.

"Not really. I'm just putting up the normal stuff." Naruto shrugged and opened the fridge. "What are you going to eat for breakfast?"

"Hm… Not much. Maybe some yoghurt? I don't really want bread, considering we'll have bread for dinner with the grilled meat." Iruka pushed a button on the coffee machine and opened one of the cupboards to take out two mugs. "I'll start on the potato salad for dinner soon. Will you help me make the pasta salad?"

"Sure. Is Dad going to make the curry croissant?"

"He said he would, so we'd better finish what we want to do before he occupies the kitchen – you know how he is when he's using the kitchen…" Iruka sighed and Naruto laughed.

"Who is coming for dinner today, you said you invited someone?"

"Ah, yes. I'm sorry that it's not only a family affair like you would like it to be… But Tsunade is in town and I could not help but invite her."

Naruto nodded in understanding. It did not bother him that much that someone else would join; especially as Tsunade would not really remind him of Sasuke. What she would remind him of is what kind of stupid brat he had been as a child. Which would probably be more embarrassing but at least less painful.

After eating his breakfast together with Iruka at the table on the balcony, he started swiping the balcony and finishing its decoration. He wiped the table and put on the cloth, it was made of come sort of plastic, so it would not get dirty easily and putting it on the table even before lunch was not a problem. He fixed it on the table so it would not be blown off and started to roll the grill in the right position so that it could be used for dinner. After he had finished that, he came back inside to find Iruka boiling potatoes in the kitchen.

Kakashi still had not woken up.

"I think I'm finished with the decoration around the house and the preparation of the balcony. Anything else I can do before starting on the pasta salad?"

"Vacuum the living room maybe? Oh and prepare the guestroom, I'm not quite sure if Tsunade will be in any state to go home, so it's better to be prepared." Iruka gave him a smile when Naruto nodded and went off.

It was difficult for Iruka to see his son in such low spirits. Well, granted, he was in higher spirits than he had been in a while, but he was still not back to being the happy bubbly young man that he had been before Sasuke had broken his heart. Sometimes Iruka wondered if Sasuke had ever thought of how his actions would affect Naruto. If he had ever considered not going after Itachi when the older Uchiha had taken off to East Asia. Oh well, maybe he had, maybe he hadn't, it was a bizarre story anyway and a stupid story at that since it had hurt Naruto.

Should he have warned Naruto? Iruka had somehow thought that something like that might happen…

The Uchiha family had been well known around the area, as they were considerably rich and involved in politics. Fugaku had been involved in the local government affairs and Mikoto had been in the national parliament for two legislative periods before an accident had ended her life and that of her husband. The older Uchiha child had then been around twenty years old and the younger had just entered grammar school. Somehow, despite that the whole thing had been ruled out as an accident,. However, Sasuke had never seemed to accept the verdict of the investigation and had believed Itachi to haven been involved in the whole affair. Iruka had found that out one day as he had walked in on the boy doing 'research', while staying with them one weekend.

Sasuke had been put under the guardianship of a person named Orochimaru, as he had been appointed in Fugaku and Mikoto's will to be in that position.

Iruka had never met the man, as he had refused to move to their part of the country, but he had also not bothered taking Sasuke away from the environment he was used to. So the boy had lived in his parents'house, which was now officially his and his brother Itachi's, together with a slightly sketchy housekeeper. However, Itachi had left the house after a quarrel with Sasuke. It had only been years after that, Sasuke had been around twenty-three years then, that he found out about Itachi being in East Asia. It was then when he dropped everything and ran after his brother, leaving Naruto devastated.

Iruka was woken from his thoughts by the sound of the kitchen timer announcing that the potatoes were boiled. So he took the pot and emptied the water in the sink and let the potatoes fall into a sieve. He let some cold water run over the potatoes that they weren't that hot to touch anymore and started peeling them. After he had done that, he cut them in slices and put them in a big bowl. Then he took some water boiled it with bullion and cut onions, mixed in some vinegar in it and put it over the potatoes before leaving them for about thirty minutes to see if Naruto had finished readying the guestroom and to wake Kakashi, just in case he was not pretending to be asleep.

Naruto had indeed tidied the guestroom nicely, even putting some flowers from the garden in a vase – thought that was probably to annoy Tsunade rather than to make a good impression, as she disliked flowers. Iruka shook his head smiling.

Naruto was now on his way downstairs to vacuum the living room, which he had put off in favour of doing the guestroom. After that he would probably start on the pasta salad. It was an easy enough recipe, only requiring shell shaped pasta, tomatoes, sweet corn, mozzarella cheese, artichoke hearts in oil, vinegar and green pesto. If he wanted to he could also postpone making it until the afternoon, shortly before Tsunade would arrive. However he knew that Iruka would disapprove, especially because he probably still wanted to prepare some vegetables to put on the grill and therefore would need the space in the kitchen after Kakashi would have finished the curry croissants. So Naruto quickly vacuumed the living room and went to the kitchen to boil the pasta and cut the vegetables and the cheese. After the pasta was boiled, he ran it under cold water to make it cool down so that the cheese would not melt when mixed with it before he poured the sauce consisting of green pesto, vinegar and some salt and pepper over it and mixed it again. He put the bowl in the fridge and leaned against the kitchen counter. He had finished all the tasks that Iruka had given him and hence wondered what he could do now. He played with the thought of finishing the potatoes salad as it did not seem likely that Iruka would be coming down stairs anytime soon – judging from the bathroom door slamming shut on the upper floor. Naruto was quite convinced that he had heard the key being turned in the lock, which could only mean one thing and he did not want to think about what that thing meant except that Iruka would not come down stairs – and neither would Kakashi.

He sighed, feeling a little bit jealous. Maybe it was that, which let him abandon the thought of helping with the potato salad or maybe it was the urge of curling up on the sofa and watch a film, just so he could be sure not to hear any weird sound that might travel down from the bathroom. He grabbed a bar of chocolate and headed to the freshly vacuumed living room and looked around for the remote control before sitting down and covering himself under a blanket – despite it being 20°C outside.

The blond man flipped through the channels. There was the live broadcast of the Roman Catholic Church service from some place or other – no –, there was the live broadcast of the life of groundhogs in the Alps – em, no? –, there were the morning news, which he watched for a moment before deciding that he'd rather have something less depressing. Teleshopping, trashy reality TV – maybe the groundhog documentary wasn't that bad after all? Oh, there was Navy CIS. It was an old episode from 2004. He stayed with that for a moment while he got up and over to his parents' DVD and blu-ray collection. He looked through the films and decided to watch one of his favourite films: Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. He loved that one; he had loved it ever since he had seen it in the cinema when it had come out in 2002. Iruka had taken him to see it as a present after a very taxing dentist appointment.

So he put the blu-ray in the reader and switched from the normal TV setting on the TV to the blu-ray setting, before sitting down on the sofa again and putting in the settings. Unlike when he had been young he preferred watching the film in English now. As a ten year old he had obviously watched the dubbed version but now that his English was good enough he liked the original better – though the songs did not loose much of their charm in translation.

It didn't take long for Naruto to start crying while eating chocolate and drinking coffee. He had simply made the coffee because he wanted to have something to wrap his hands around while watching the film and feeling all the good and bad things together with Spirit, the mustang.

He remembered how Sasuke had laughed at him the first time they had watched this masterpiece together. He had laughed because it had not taken Naruto long to be in tears, because for him, the intro, that song with the sun, following the eagle through the canyons and wide landscape was the same feeling some people get when they see the sun rise on the screen and hear Elton John start the circle of life with that unforgettable "Nantsingonyama". It just got to him and he couldn't help but cry. And Sasuke had not been able to help but laugh at him before hugging him and telling him that it was actually okay to cry because of such things, that this only meant that he had a lot of emotional capacity, which was a good thing.

Naruto took a deep breath. Why did he have to think of the guy who had left him while watching his favourite film? He could not stop his tears and they welled up again. This was not fair, now the stupid git had ruined his favourite film for good! Was it not enough that he had taken most of his joy with him when he had left so suddenly three years ago? Did he really have to still think of him in this way when the only thing he wanted to do was enjoy himself?

He let the film continue, though his mind had wandered off somewhere else. Somewhere where he had still been happy with Sasuke. He thought of the time three years ago when they had celebrated the national holiday together. They had gone camping to a different part of the country, just the two of them. They had carried their small tent and two backpacks and rented a space on a camping site close to one of the lakes in the northeast. The people on the camping site had been very friendly and fun to talk to, so they had agreed on spending the more festive part of the day with them. They had bought lanterns and fireworks as well as a lot of sausages and beer; all that had been put in one cooling box and a backpack. Wearing only t-shirts and bathing trunks the five men had gone to the lake to spend the day swimming and the evening drinking and eating and maybe swimming, depending on how many beers they would drink.

It had been so much fun. One of the guys they had met had some portable music boxes, so they had been able to listen to music all afternoon. Only when night had fallen and the iPod had run out of battery had it become silent. Well as silent as it could be on the national holiday. From the lakeside they had had perfect view of some other town's firework display. They had sat on the edge of the water, feet in the water, butts on the dry land and beer in hand, watching as the colours exploded in the sky before lighting their own rockets and Bengal matches. The other guys had then started to party with some other people who had stayed at the lake and left Sasuke and Naruto alone.

Naruto still remembered how they had sat there at the lake for what felt like hours and how they had talked, just talked, before they had started to kiss. First Sasuke had leaned in and given him a peck on the cheek. Then Naruto himself had grabbed Sasuke's face and smooched him on the lips, which had provoked Sasuke to put his tongue in and they had started making out, not caring that everyone could watch them if they wanted to.

That had been the last holiday they had spent together. Sasuke had left him before Halloween had rolled around. He had left shortly after Naruto's birthday, without even leaving a note...

"Naruto? Sunny? Are you okay?" Kakashi asked as he made his way downstairs.

The ending credits of Spirit just finished.

Kakashi had a look of concern on his face – mixed with the bliss, one that only showed after a good shag. Ugh, Naruto thought.

"No, I'm fine thanks – you done upstairs?" He tried not to sound like he was implying anything.

"Yes. Iruka" Kakashi smirked "is coming down shortly to finish the potato salad and then I'll start on the curry croissants." He sat down next to his son on the sofa. "What do you want for lunch?"

"Mm…" Naruto switched back to the normal TV and turned it then off as nothing really interesting was shown. "How about a tomato tartetatin?"

"Sounds good. I'll see if we have the ingredients, but we should, I think." Kakashi got back up and called upstairs for Iruka to hurry up and then went into the kitchen to check if they had the ingredients while Naruto went up in his room to get a book he could read while waiting for lunch. It was almost twelve o'clock but it would probably still take some time before Kakashi would have lunch ready.

Meanwhile Iruka left the bathroom, rubbing his hip, mumbling something incoherently, not looking as happy as Kakashi had, but still there was a glow around him, telling Naruto that his Papa was not really mad.

The blond smirked. There had been times when Sasuke… Oh he really had to stop. Three years! It had been three bloody years since then and he was still not over it? He rolled his eyes; taking the book he had picked from the shelf and his phone and followed Iruka back down stairs.

He sat down on the sofa and checked his phone messages before starting on the book. There were some messages from people wishing him a nice national holiday, one from Kiba reminding him that he would be on vacation starting the next day and Naruto would be coming home to an empty apartment and one from Hinata, asking him how he was.

He had gone out with Hinata a few times since the beginning of the summer. She was nice, but he was not exactly sure where this was leading. Still, he answered her and also Kiba and the other people and put the phone away to read the book. He had taken up a novella with the title "Death in Venice". He had read Death in Venice three times since reading it in grammar school for the first time. Once he had read it for his graduation exam and twice since Sasuke left. He wasn't sure why he was so intrigued by the book, maybe it was because he felt a bit like that guy, Gustav von Aschenbach, pinning after someone who was unreachable – thought at least he was into someone who was of age and not into a pre-puberty teen…

Maybe it was also the motive of death that had caught his interest, because he did feel kind of dead inside. Maybe the time he had spent with Sasuke was like the time Von Aschenbach had spent stalking the beautiful youth and now he was actually dead. Yeah, maybe that was it. Maybe he was dead since three years but no one had told him so.

He smirked. That was a ridiculous idea.

Iruka smiled. He had come into the living room finding his son enjoying himself with a book. The brown haired man was happy to see his son so content. He had seldom seemed so in peace with the world since three years ago. Maybe he would finally get over it?

Suddenly the phone started ringing. Tsunade called to announce that she would arrive around four o'clock and that she would bring some wine. This news made the three men hurry up with the last preparations. Kakashi baked the tomato tartetatin so they could have lunch, Iruka helped making the filling for the curry croissants so they could be put into the oven after the lunch had been taken out of it and Naruto went to take a shower and put the bathroom in order after having finished eating. Making a good impression was always important.

Naruto put on some fresh clothes and dried his hair in the sun outside while continuing to read. His thoughts wandered again… Though he tried to keep them in check. However this ended up being difficult the minute Tsunade waltzed into the room. She was loud and full of energy. Naruto kind of enjoyed her company, despite her getting drunk way before it would usually be seen as proper. But who cared on such a special occasion like the national holiday? Especially when a drunk Tsunade kept complementing the food…

The four of them had a great dinner. It was fun sitting together and speaking of new things and old times – though it did get embarrassing at times, for all of them because at least one of them always knew some weird story to tell that would make the person involved blush and the others laugh out loud.

After the dinner they watched the neighbouring town's firework display from the balcony and then they continued drinking. When Naruto finally fell into his bed at around midnight, he was happy. Happier than he had been in a while, which was probably why he dreamed of Sasuke that night. It was a dream about how he met Sasuke somewhere he had never thought he would meet him and despite the time that had gone by since he had left and despite the pain Naruto was still in because of that unclean cut, he could not help but feel happy about meeting Sasuke again. He could not help but wanting him back, though his dream self knew that there was another path he could take as well, a path that did not involve Sasuke. However, when he woke up the next morning, Naruto did not know what kind of path that would have been, he only knew that his dream self had chosen to be happy with Sasuke.

He started the day with a bitter sweet feeling of happiness.

Just a quick note: If you want the recipes in this chapter, don't hesitate to ask. :)