Morning Jog

It was chilly out. The fact that he could faintly see steam each time he exhaled was a testament to the declining temperature.

This didn't bother him though; it just meant that he would have to wear heavier clothing when going out to exercise.

He turned the corner past Leaf Avenue and entered the park, taking in the details of his surroundings as he did.

It was early morning, early enough that the sun had hardly risen above the horizon, allowing the mist to linger a little longer, giving everything a sort of ghostly touch.

Despite how early it was there were people already out and about. There were drunks who had partied too hard and hadn't made it home, and were now sleeping on benches. There were the artists with their easels and various tools to record their pre-dawn environment in paint. Then there were others who weaved in between trees, on and off the main path, jogging just like he was.

He had started to jog after his brother had murdered their family and fled. The incident had left him with nightmares that in turn had caused him to wake up, usually past midnight, shivering and covered with cold sweat. To remedy this he started to run after waking, literally fleeing from the phantoms that haunted him, eventually losing them in the crisp morning air.

The constant rhythm of his feet hitting the ground briefly replaced all his anxiety and fears, letting him feel free. That little taste of freedom was enough for him to get him through the day. His steadily growing stamina and increased muscle tone was also a plus.

"Hey, Sasuke-kun!"

And then there was her.

She was slightly older than him, a bit taller with hazel eyes and long brown hair. She liked to wear black and orange, (what he assumed to be her favorite colors), which was reflected in her choice of tracksuits, which tended to be either color or sometimes a combination of both. Her body was petite but over time he had known her he started to notice her begin to fill out, gaining new curves and facets that distracted him if his concentration slipped.

At first he tried to ignore her "womanly" figure but it was becoming harder and harder each time they met.

"Sasuke? Are you listening to me! I said I haven't seen you in awhile!"

Her pouting face suddenly filled his view sending his mind into a tailspin yet again. It wasn't fair! It was if she knew what she doing to him and was teasing him on purpose.

"Umm hey Katsumi," Sasuke said trying to say something sensible, "I was on a mission."

"Oh really!" Her pout turned to a bright smile, "How was it? Where did you go? Did you anything dangerous? Were there bandits?"

"We went to Wave Country. It's about week away on foot," he explained to her growing excitement.

"It was a C-rank mission to protect this drunken old man who turned out to be more annoying than the Dobe, Fangirl and Scarecrow combined."

He felt warm inside as she giggled at his nicknames for his teammates. Nicknames normally weren't his thing, seemingly inappropriate for someone of his stature and attitude, but around her he could afford to be different.

"Yeah, everything was going fine until we passed this puddle. It was a trap. These two ninjas jumped out of it and attacked us. They killed scarecrow or at least it looked like it. After they "killed" him they tried to kill the old drunk. Dobe and Fangirl froze up but I stepped in and stopped them. Long story short scarecrow showed up, beat the missing nins who were trying to kill the old guy, all because he was trying to build a bridge or whatever."

"They wanted to kill him because he was building a bridge?"

Sasuke shrugged, "This other guy named Gato was exploiting Wave Country's economy and apparently the only solution was to build bridge to bring in trade or something."

"Anyway, we all agreed to help the old guy instead of turning back. But then, barely ten minutes later, Scarecrow told us to duck and then, out of nowhere, this giant sword came flying right at us and got stuck in a tree behind us. Then this weirdo with no eyebrows appears standing on the sword and threatens us."

The avenger stiffened as he remembered the experience. They had decided to put the pause on hold and sit down while he told his story.

"He looked like a weirdo but his killing intent was unreal. I felt like I was drowning in hate filled ice. To make things worse he made this mist so thick you couldn't see five feet in front of you. His voice was everywhere and nowhere telling us he was going to kill us and how he was going to do it. And the way he and Kakashi moved! It was so fast they were just a blurs! I tried to act confident but inside I felt powerless. It was like the massacre all other again.

To his surprise Sasuke felt a warm hand wrap around his and gently squeezed it. He looked at the girl sitting next to him who merely returned the gaze with an understanding smile and another squeeze of his hand.

Sasuke scoffed at the offered comfort but didn't let go of the hand, "So No Eyebrows, (I think his name was Zabuza or something), sent some water clones to try and kill us but me and the Dobe managed to beat them . . . which turned to be pointless since it was just a diversion so he could catch Scarecrow in thisw water sphere. So it was to the Dobe and me to save him."

"As much I hate to admit it The Dobe, while still annoying, is pretty good thinking on his feet, certainly better than Fangirl. You see Zabuza was standing in the middle of this lake next to Kakashi who was stuck in this bubble, so Naruto had this idea to transform one his clones into a shuriken and have me throw another before throwing the clone as a distraction."

The Uchiha waved his hand in vague manner, "I know it sounds complicated but it was actually really simple and it worked. Zabuza had to dodge the clone in disguise as a shuriken but in order to do so he had to release to Kakashi-sensei who wasted no time in beating Zabuza and was about to kill him when this hunter-nin, who we later found was a fake, showed up and took him away. Then Kakashi collapsed and we had to carry him to Tazuna's house."

So deep into his story Sasuke didn't notice that he had stopped using nicknames and switched to using people's real names.

"We reached Tazuna's house which smelled a lot like fish. He had a daughter who was nice, I guess, but her son was a brat. The king of brats if you ask me, worse than Naruto on his best day. He kept saying that we were all going to die because Gato was so big and powerful. It was really starting to piss me off."

"Why did he keep saying that?"

"Apparently his father was the town hero until Gato killed him. Really screwed up if you ask me."

"Oh."

"Kakashi taught us how to climb trees-"

"I thought you already knew how to climb trees Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke glowered at the addition of the suffix to his name, "Using only our feet."

She smiled at his show displeasure reaching out to pinch his cheek, "You're cute when you pout. You should do it more often."

Sasuke waved away the offending appendage muttering about "annoying women", "Like I was saying Kakashi taught us how to climb trees using chakra. It looked easy but it wasn't. You see you have focus the chakra to your feet and regulate it . . . you have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

"I know what you're talking about. Too much chakra and you can't grip the tree. Too little chakra and you fall right off."

Katsumi smirked at his surprised expression, "I'm not all tits and ass you know. I used to be a genin just like you."

Ignoring her vulgarity Sasuke let his curiosity take over, "Why did you stop?"

The girl sighed hearing the question. "My dad was a jounin and during a mission he was poisoned badly. I mean really badly. He recovered but my mom got really paranoid and convinced him to find a new occupation, quote on quote saying "that it was too dangerous" and he should be around to watch me grow up. After that it was only natural that she pulled me out too. I nearly made to chunin before she did."

She paused before laughing at some inside joke.

"In the end dad became a baker, a baker of all things! And I ended helping him in the afternoon baking cakes and cleaning stoves, after completing my morning jug with a boy with duck butt hair and a chip on his shoulder."

Again Sasuke frowned and again she laughed.

"My hair doesn't look like a duck butt."

"Cheer up Mr. Frowny Face I know it doesn't, but you have to admit it is spiky."

Suddenly, she leaned in close enough to cause the Uchiha to blush.

"And it smells like . . . tomatoes?"

Sasuke abruptly stood up as if given a shock and turned away crossing his arms across his chest.

"Come on sit back down. I want to hear the rest of your story."

He didn't respond refusing to acknowledge her.

"Fine, be like that, I'll just leave then."

She made a show of dusting dirt that wasn't there off of her clothing, being extra loud as she did.

She made it five steps away from the bench when she heard him move and begin to talk like nothing had happened.

"Fangirl completed it almost instantly. I was . . . confused, (like hell he was going to admit he was jealous!), until Scarecrow told us that girls don't have a lot of chakra and thus better control of it."

It was Katsumi's turn to huff.

"The Dobe and I were a different story. I have never despised a plant more in my entire life. Too much, then too little. Too little, then too much. It was so frustrating! Eventually the Dobe asked Fangirl for advice and he sort of told me. Either way we both learned how to climb trees by next morning."

"For the next few days we fished and guarded the old drunk and his workers. Scarecrow told us that No Eyebrows would be out of commission for a week so we trained, and before we knew it the week was over."

"It was a cold day. The whole week had been cold, but that day was particularly chilly. Naruto, being the idiot he is, overslept so it was just me, Kakashi and Sakura left to guard the bridge. Nothing was out of the ordinary, noy until a mist rolled in of nowhere and we heard screams. Then Zabuza showed up with the fake Hunter-nin. The workers ran away and he and Kakashi faced off while I fought the phony and Sakura guarded Tazuna."

"He was strong and he was fast, almost as strong or as fast as Zabuza, almost more than I could handle. He liked throwing senbon, which hurt less than a kunai or a shuriken, but still hurt like hell when they start to dig in."

His companion nodded faintly in understanding.

"Things were pretty even, he'd throw his needles, I'd dodge, he'd used a water ninjutsu one handed and I'd dodge that too. We had a rhythm going until he created this damn dome of mirrors."

"The mirrors were made of ice and spaced apart all around me, enough for me see between the gaps, but tight enough that escape wasn't viable. As if escaping were an option because he was throwing senbon from every direction . . . from inside the mirrors."

Katsumi perked up at the comment her face showing confusion.

"He told me it was his kekkei genkai but I didn't care at the moment. At the moment all I cared about was avoiding being skewered by the needles that were literally raining every direction. You see apparently being in the mirrors let him move superfast, so fast I could hardly see them."

"Why didn't you try and melt the mirrors?"

"I tried, believe me I tried." Sasuke said bitterly, "But those damn mirrors were fireproof, or at least my jutsu weren't hot enough. It got so bad that even tried throwing kunai at them."

"Things were looking bad . . . but then Naruto showed up."

Sasuke sighed in irritation as he ran his fingers through his hair.

"The idiot ran straight into the dome instead of calling for help or looking to see what was going on. Then he had the nerve to yell at me for yelling at him for being an idiot."

The older girl clenched her fist but the genin was too engrossed in reminiscing to notice.

"His presence didn't make a difference. As a matter of fact he actually made things worse by being there because there was less room to maneuver. Then I remember seeing a batch of needles of needles heading towards my face and suddenly the world got . . . clearer, for lack of a better word. It was like I had been looking through foggy lenses all my life but didn't know it until that moment. Everything was sharper and more defined. But the best part was that I could actually see the fake move as he passed from mirror to mirror."

"I dodged the needles and the Hunter-nin stopped for awhile. It was then that Naruto told me that me that I had pinkeye or something. It didn't take me long to realize that I had finally awakened my own Kekkei Genkai, the sharingan. After some many years of training, it only took a weirdo with a fetish for needles to awaken it. If I had known that earlier I probably would have taken up sewing."

The boy's excitement was so great that the girl couldn't help but smile along with him. With a hand gesture she encouraged him to continue.

"Seeing that our opponent had apparently run out of ammunition, Naruto and I came up with a plan. He would be distracting as possible as I tried to hit the Hunter-nin with a fireball and after a couple tries it seemed to be working, until Naruto slipped . . ."

The avenger suddenly stopped talking. His jaw clenched along with his fists, muscles bulging with exertion. It was obvious that inside of the young man a war was being waged, what wasn't obvious was which side was winning, or what either side stood for.

"Sasuke?"

"I took the hit." He managed to grunt out. "I didn't think. I didn't breathe. Hell, I didn't even blink! My body just moved on it's own like a freaking puppet!"

Katsumi remained still at his sudden outburst; however, her face was a different story, a myriad of emotions flashing across it, all appearing disjointed on her usually calm face.

"Why did I do it? Why didn't I just let him get hit, take out that damn phony and then worry about him later? I even told him that afterwards!"

"Sasuke calm down! You're making a scene, people are staring."

That statement seemed to have brought the screaming teenager back to his senses as he gradually became aware of his surroundings and slowly sat back down on the benches. Silently, he put his face in his hands and remained there for several minutes before he began speaking again.

"Why did I do it?" I'm not supposed to care about others and just throw my life away. I have to kill my brother before I start caring about anything. Avenge my clan and restore it to it's former glory, that's my mantra, so why did I do it?

Without warning or any provocation a slender arm wrapped his arms around his shoulders that shuddered along with the rest of his body.

"You want to know what I think, Sasuke-kun? I think you do care but just don't want to admit it. I think what your brother did made you distrust everyone, not just him and you're so focused on killing him that you forgot everything else that matters."

"What else matters?"

"First off, you matter Sasuke-kun. It's not all about your dick of a brother. And even if you don't think you matter there are others that do."

Sasuke withdrew his face from his hands and looked at the girl with red rimmed eyes.

"Like who?"

Katsumi smiled, "Like your team for instance. If they didn't think you mattered than Kakashi wouldn't have protected you nor would have Naruto run into that dome."

"What about Sakura?"

The question caused the brunette to laugh, "You know she cares, just in her own squealing Fangirl way."

Sasuke chuckled, drawing warmth from the arm wrapped around him and the girl attached, who reminded him so much of his mother.

"Plus I care Sasuke-kun. I mean, sure you may be broody, anti-social, power driven and a wee bit narcissistic, but I still consider you a friend. I am your friend, right?"

"Right."

Time passed slowly as the two sat on the park bench watching the park become more and more populated with the rising of the sun.

Katsumi yawned and stretched, standing up to let the sun warm her body. A moment later Sasuke mirrored her actions.

"Well I'm hungry and have nothing to do. Want to go get something to eat?" Said the female.

"I don't have any money on me . . . but there's food at my house."

He tried to will the blush coloring his cheeks to go away and it did when he heard, "That sounds great let's go."

The trip was short and quiet, both teenagers enjoying the silence that enveloped them.

Sasuke grunted as they finally approached the entrance to the Uchiha district which was as silent and imposing as it had become since the massacre.

He didn't realize how long he had been standing looking at the buildings with their traditional style architecture that looked ancient with disuse until he heard:

"You sure about this Sasuke, I don't mean to intrude-"

"-its okay," he quickly cut in, "Really it is."

Without any further words they walked down the path leading to the main compound, dead leaves crimpling and crunching beneath their feet. The wind howled causing some window shutters to bang together in the distance and Sasuke to shiver out of reflex. Again he felt a warm hand enclose his.

He didn't need to look to see who it was. That fact alone made him smile.

Besides the sheer size of it and it's placement at the center of the district, the main compound where he lived wasn't much different than any other of the numerous houses surrounding it. The paint had a fresher look to it, the windows weren't as dusty and there were a few underground escape tunnels but that was it in terms of differences.

Navigating his way through the many hallways Sasuke finally managed to lead them to the kitchen which unusually large, even for the big house it was situated in, a reminder it was meant to serve far more than two people.

"I've got rice balls, sushi, some left over tempura and what looks like be salmon wrapped in seaweed, which do you prefer?" said the sole survivor surveying the contents of the fridge

"I prefer ramen, thank you very much," Katsumi chirped in response.

"You sound just like the Dobe. Rice balls and sushi with tempura it is.

The air was amiable, the two adolescents exchanging meaningless chit chat as they ate their way through brunch.

"You know Sasuke you never told what happened after you took the hit."

The Uchiha paused before biting into a rice ball.

"Scarecrow beat No Eyebrows, The Dobe somehow beat the fake hunter-nin, Gato was killed, No Eyebrows and Hunter-nin died, the bridge got built, everyone one lived happily ever after, the end."

"Whoa, hold on a sec, what happened to you?"

Another pause. "I blacked out after getting hit and they carried me to the house."

"Oh Sasuke-kun," the woman cooed, "It's alright just because you didn't he to be the hero."

"Shut up."

He meant to jab a piece of fried shrimp but in his aggravation missed instead stabbing his companion in the hand with his chop sticks.

He expected her to say "ouch!" and that's exactly what she did. What he didn't expect was for her to covered in a puff of smoke.

Coughing as the smoke filled the air it took a couple moments for Sasuke's eyes to adjust, which subsequently opened as wide as saucers in surprise at the sight before him.

The tall long haired green eyed brunette wearing a sleek black jumpsuit was missing. In her place sat a short blond haired male with three identical whisker marks on each cheek wearing an orange and blue outfit that, frankly, was an eyesore to look at.

"Umm . . ." the boy said with a goofball smile, "Want another rice ball?"

Sasuke was left sputtering at the sudden change. That however didn't last long.

With a lunge he attempted to grab the blonde by the collar, but the blonde was prepared and tossed a ball of rice at his attacker's face using the brief moment to make a getaway.

Surrounded by red black pupils became tomoe as Sasuke activated his birthright and chased after the blonde not bothering to wipe the rice off of his face. The smaller boy was quick, he had to give him that, but Sasuke had the home advantage, literally.

This became increasingly apparent with each corridor they ran down, the movements of the prey becoming more and more frantic and desperate.

Finally they came to a hallway that didn't branch off, the only exit being an open door all the way at the end. Seeing no other choice the orange clad figure dived through the entrance with the angry avenger hot on his tail.

To the surprise of the pursued he didn't land on a hard wooden floor or a pile of paint cans. Instead he landed on bed, a soft bed with a blue cover and a stuffed dinosaur next to the pillow.

His time to appreciate his good luck was swiftly ended as he felt a heavier body roughly land on top of his knocking the wind out of him.

The struggling that commenced was short lived. The body on top was fueled by anger and adrenaline while the one beneath was disorientated and dazed.

With some maneuvering the blue haired boy straddled the blonde underneath using both hands to pin down the wrists on his counterpart.

"How long?" hissed Sasuke venomously.

'How long what?" Naruto replied, squeaking as the bones in his wrists were grinded together.

"Don't play games with me Naruto! How long have you been pretending to be a girl!"

"I-I don't know, since I was seven maybe eight years."

"Why?"

"Why, what?"

Again bones were mashed together and again the boy squeaked.

"'Why what', you ask? Why are have you been pretending to be girl? Why have you been following me for not months, but years? Is that how you get your kicks? Disguising yourself as a girl then befriending people so that you can get dirt of them? That's it, isn't it?"

"Let me go!"

"Not until you tell me!" the Uchiha yelled, spittle flying from his open maw and covering on Naruto's face.

Despite how thin Sasuke appeared to be, years of strength training had caused him to build up some serious muscle but not in a bulky sense that others came to expect and an uncommon fact that Naruto was just starting to find out.

Seeing no other option Naruto played the one ace he had left up his sleeve.

"Sasuke please stop. You're hurting me." Katsumi said batting her eyelashes, the face of "the Dobe" now gone and replaced.

The tactic worked, at least momentarily.

Sasuke paused seeing the crying visage of "girl" underneath him, but then his sharingan dispelled that illusion causing his brief feeling of shame to convert back into rage. Rage that physically manifested itself in the form of a swift headbutt that dispelled the henge and gave the jinchuuriki a bump the size of a goose egg on his forehead.

"Don't fuck with me Naruto. I won't fall for the same trick twice. Now tell me before I start beating you!" The Uchiha growled.

A pained groan followed but a few muttered words were the blonde's only reply.

"What was that Dobe, speak up I didn't hear you."

"I said," Said Naruto quietly, "people don't like me."

Of all the answers Sasuke had anticipated to come from the mouth of the boy pinned beneath ranging from "Shut up, the doctor said it's just a phase I'm going through" to simply silence, "People don't like me" was not on the list.

"Well there are people who don't like either. My brother for instance, but doesn't make me want to play dress up and fuck with people."

Naruto snorted. "What I meant to say was that people just don't dislike me, but they actually hate me. They even go as far as sic their dogs on me and openly tell me that they want me to die."

Understandably Sasuke was once again confused by the words coming out his rival's mouth.

"Explain."

The orange jacket clad genin bit his lip carefully considering his next words. "Ever since I was little people have hated me for something that I had no control of, but instead of using logic they blamed me. So to deal with their meanness I created an alter ego, Katsumi, like in the comics. There, end of story, now let me go."

"Not before you tell me why people hate you."

"Nope, I've told you what you wanted know now you are obligated to let me go. Common Decency, Page 22 Section Three."

Sasuke blinked at the obscure reference, "I'm not obligated to do shit and even if I were I still wouldn't. Just answer my questions and then I'll let you go."

The shorter male remained silent stubbornly glaring at his teammate with all he tenacity he could muster.

"It has do with that seal on your stomach, doesn't it?"

The widening of Naruto's eyes was all the verification Sasuke needed.

In a flash Sasuke used one hand to grip both of Naruto's wrists while he used his other to try and strip off his jacket. Even with both hands the task would have been difficult, but one handed it was damn near impossible. To make things worse the blonde's squirming made it difficult for Sasuke to grab where he wanted leading to plenty of awkward moments that caused both boys to blush fiercely.

"Help, somebody! Rape! Rape! Rape!"

"If people hate you like they say you do than nobody going to help you, are they?" Sasuke stated trying once again to strip his fellow teammate of his clothing but only managing to escalate the awkward situation. "Besides no one comes to the Uchiha distract anyway; they all think it's haunted."

His words only achieved the opposite effect as Naruto struggled twice as hard, screaming three times as loud. A noise level Sasuke thought no human could ever come close to producing but leave it to the idiot to prove him wrong

"Rape! Fire! Earthquake! Daleks! Nosferatu! Radioactive spider semen! Please, anyone, help me!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes as Naruto's pleas for help grew more and more nonsensical. Feeling his body grind against the smaller more fragile one an idea suddenly popped into his head.

Not fully believing he was even considering what he was about to do Sasuke swallowed all of his pride, leaned forward, placed his hands on the rough material covering the younger boy's crouch and started to rub vigorously.

Immediately Naruto stopped screaming, the electricity shooting up his spine was too much of a distraction. He tried to escape the hand mercilessly rubbing him through the fabric of his orange pants. His efforts only made his situation worse, adding new dimensions to the pleasure he started to experience.

"Sasuke stop I'm going to . . . ahhh!"

But Sasuke didn't stop instead he released his victim's wrists so he could use both hands to finish the job.

"Just let go Dobe."

"Never Sasuke-teme!"

Even in a ridiculous situation like this their rivalry managed to reveal itself known. And, as always, Naruto was on the losing side though he tried his valiantly to withstand the onslaught to his manhood.

With a final of buck of his hips Naruto gave in, or rather out, collapsing onto the bedspread with a grunt. Sasuke crawled along side him and lay there neither one of them talking.

"Remember how the adults said that the Yondaime killed the Kyuubi with this ultra powerful jutsu that caused him to die." Naruto said. "Well they lied. The Yondaime actually sealed into a baby . . . yeah that's right me. People couldn't handle the loss so they blamed me thinking I was the Kyuubi. That's why they hate me."

Sasuke smiled, "People are stupid."

"Wizard's first rule?"

"What?"

"Never mind."

Time once again passed slowly as the two shinobi stared at the ceiling thinking of nothing.

"Did you mean what you said?"

"About what?" asked Naruto rolling on his side to look at the Uchiha questioningly.

"About us being friends and you caring and all that rubbish." Sasuke said avoiding his teammate's gaze.

This time it was the blonde who smiled, "Of course I did teme. Your more than a friend, you're my best friend . . . maybe more."

Faster than Sasuke could react, Naruto planted a kiss on the other boy's cheek and chuckled at the blush it inspired.

"You play dirty dobe."

"So do you."

Simultaneously they reached out, pulling each other close, words nothing more than burdens as they explored each other.

"Fangirl's going to be jealous teme."

"Shut up."

Omake

Kakashi watched in amusement as his students tried to beat each other into a pulp. So far it was pretty even.

"Go Sasuke-kun! Go!"

Trying his best to ignore the shrill cheering of his team's only female member the Copy Cat Ninja giggled as he turned his attention back to his book.

His reading didn't last long however as Sakura once again raised her voice, but this time with a different message.

"Naruto what the hell are you doing to Sasuke-kun!"

Kakashi lazily looked up from his literature only to be greeted by the sight of the hyperactive blonde making out with his teammate while stripping him of his clothes while the boy being stripped, in return, started stripping his stripper (say that ten times fast!)

"Umm, that's enough you guys. You can stop now." Kakashi said.

But they didn't stop, rather they seemed even more enthusiastic and in no time they were both missing their pants.

Hearing footsteps by his side the elder ninja watched as the petite female started running towards the boys ripping her own clothes to shreds.

"Hold on guys, I want to join in too!" she yelled.

Dropping his book Kakashi took off after her in hurry. Like hell he was going to be fired because his students decided to have a threesome in public!

AN: And there you have it! My first post in a long time, which oddly enough turned out to be yaoi! Seriously I'm not sure when I wrote this. I was just looking through my Documents folder when I found a document titled "Shame On You!" dated back about a year ago. One thing led to another and with a bit of polishing I posted it, just for the lulz. If you liked it then thank you, leave a review while your at it. Enough reviews and I might write more. By the way I made up the whole book of Common Decency thing, it would be awesome if it actually existed XD.