Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters, that's the job of M. Kishimoto

A/N: Prewarning, the future of the fic should contain some good old boyxboy smut, so if your not into yaoi then feel free to leave (like seriously what are you even doing clicking on this story). If you areeeee into that then please enjoy.

I basically wanted to write quite carefree, in character, sasunarusasu fiction whilst improving my smut writing skills. My style here is a lot more relaxed and maybe silly at times, but who doesn't love a bit of that, am I right? Anyway leave me your thoughts in the comments below.

Thanks,

Sylvana.

CHAPTER 1: INTO THE RABBIT HOLE

The warm rays of sun felt nice against the skin, even the gentle breeze coming in from the window felt refreshing as it ruffled the curtain. What did not feel good was the blaring alarm clock that filled the room with noise, that was just a pain in the ass.

Naruto let out a sleepy yawn, rubbing my eyes with one hand and using the other to fumble for the stop button on the clock. Eventually, after way too much effort was exerted on his part, the apartment fell silent and the working day was on its way to getting started. After the initial disorientation made between the passage of his bedroom to the bathroom in the hall, Naruto rinsed his face with the cold, flowing water from the tap.

A glance in the mirror would tell you one thing, Uzumaki Naruto was not one for mornings. Running his fingers through the blond mess that was his hair, he gave one last tired sigh, watching the reflected blue eyes become more alert and awake. The sun tattoo on the palm of his hand tingled as it did every morning, it happened so often he barely noticed anymore, but today it stung a little more significantly, to which Naruto completely ignored.

Naruto swung the cabinet door open, taking out his toothbrush and spreading a liberal amount of toothpaste on it. Holding the brush under the water, he hummed in approval once he was able to feel the minty flavour enter his mouth.

After a moments pacing around the room, there came a sight creak of footsteps from the hallway. Normally Sasuke never made any noise when he walked but then again, he wasn't his sharpest in the mornings either. As the noise got louder, Naruto turned to face the door, watching as his roommate emerged through the door with an annoyed expression.

"Gooph mooming!" Naruto mumbled cheerful upon seeing Sasuke, squinting his eyes in a foamy smile.

Sasuke stood in the doorway unimpressed, rolling his eyes. "Don't talk to me when you brush your teeth, usuratonkachi." He cautioned, pushing past Naruto's shoulder to get to the sink.

Meh, always so bossy. Naruto gave a small sigh, moving a little away to give Sasuke some more space as he continued to brush furiously. Naruto leaned against the wall as he watched the other get his own toothbrush ready. Sasuke looked the same as always, his duckbutt hair defying gravity, his smooth skin looking slightly pale in the bathroom light, dressed in his black pyjamas. You would think it would kill him to dress in a colour less morbid, but then again Naruto really couldn't imagine him wearing orange, fish-cake boxers like he currently was.

Sasuke turned to look at Naruto, and somehow he still managed to frown even with a toothbrush in his mouth. It only made Naruto chuckle, Sasuke never did look as threatening in the mornings, he was more like one of those grumpy cats you shouldn't touch unless you wanted teeth dents on your arm.

Sasuke narrowed his ebony eyes at Naruto as the blond boy snorted at his own analogy, it was almost as if Sasuke could tell Naruto was insulting him even if it was mentally.

Naruto leaned towards the sink, spitting out the paste and rinsing out with water. He got back up, casually wiping the back of his hand against his mouth, "Has anyone ever told you how amusing you are in the morning, Sasuke?"

Sasuke scoffed, shaking his head as though he had already heard too much of Naruto's voice for the day, despite the slight amusement on his expression. He too leaned towards the sink, giving a few more good scrubs before spitting the contents down with water.

"Has anyone ever told you how annoying you are in the morning, dobe?" Sasuke replied, as he stood up straight, grabbing the nearest hand towel to dry himself.

"Yes, actually. You never fail to remind me." Naruto snorted, placing the toothbrush back in the cabinet, moving around Sasuke to get to the door.

"Only because it's true." Sasuke explained, as he stayed in front of the mirror. He grabbed his foaming cleanser from the side, dotting the cream across his face.

"Your opinion, Sasuke." Naruto called as he crossed into his room. Quickly yanking on his orange trousers that lay strewn across the room.

He could hear Sasuke's loud muffled retort from the bathroom, but the boy was too far away to be heard clearly. After removing his pyjama top and grabbing his black mesh one, Naruto stumbled back shirtless to the hall to continue his discussion with Sasuke. "Yo,what did you say? I couldn't hear."

Sasuke sighed impatiently turning around to face Naruto, "I said, name me one person who would disagree?" He frowned as he noticed Naruto's shirtless form standing in the doorway, he rollied his eyes and turned back to the sink.

"Ahhh...I dunno, I guess Hinata wouldn't call me annoying." Naruto replied, pulling the shirt over his head. "Though I don't think she could insult anyone even if she wanted to."

"More like, she doesn't have the backbone to do it." Sasuke retorted, washing water against his face.

"More like, she just a nice person, Sasuke. You should try it sometime." Naruto made his way back into his room, in search of his track suit top, Naruto heard Sasuke follow him also. Naruto looked over his shoulder to see him leaning against the doorframe.

"I've been back at the village for over a year and you're still determined to reform me." Sasuke commented, watching as Naruto rifled through his closet.

"You're not trying to kill me or the Kages, so that's reformed under my standards." Naruto spoke after successfully locating his track jacket. He turned towards Sasuke with furrowed eyebrows "Why aren't you getting ready?, we have a mission today remember"

Sasuke ran his hand through his dark hair, arching his eyebrows pointedly. "I always remember. Hn, since when did you care for being on time?"

"Since Tsunade threatened to take my Ichiraku ramen coupons away." Naruto pouted, remembering how dead serious she seemed when she said it too, not fun.

"Don't worry, dobe. We still have about twenty minutes before we should head out, and I'm sure doesn't actually care about your coupons, I know I don't." Sasuke smirked, pushing himself off the frame and retreating to his room to get dressed.

A small smile that crept on Naruto's face, yeah, Sasuke's shitty way of trying to comfort him. He really couldn't complain though, he did feel a little better about the coupons at least. Overall Sasuke was an alright roommate, better than Naruto had imagined, despite being bossy and anal control-freak from time to time, he had quite a lot of handy attributes that made up for it. One being the clean state he kept the apartment, though he refuses to go near Naruto's disorganised room, Naruto couldn't ignore how useful it was to have everywhere else in order. Plus Sasuke can, sometimes, be relatively funny, though Naruto's sure most of it was unintentional.

As minutes passed, the time soon came for them to leave the house and Naruto had only just managed to chug down a carton of milk. Sasuke was as punctual as always waiting by the door, he wore the customary ninja attire, similar to that of Kakashi's or Iruka's, he had abandoned his previous robe because it apparently made the villagers too nervous of him. Despite Sasuke was the one who was told to rush in the first place, the raven haired boy waited by the front door holding out Naruto's ninja headband.

Naruto grumbled thank you, before tying it around his forehead. He was pleased to see Sasuke also wearing the hidden leaf symbol, though Sasuke had been at the village for almost over a year now, the reminder never failed to make him feel content and proud.

"Stop smiling, usuratonkachi." Sasuke warned.

The pair made it to the Konoha gates in record time, apparently when ramen coupons were one the line shit got real, well at least for Naruto that was. There waiting for them was an Anbu ninja, the person was holding a package, their expressionless mask looking as creepy as ever. They had a simple task that day, deliver the object to neighbouring village, normally such mundane tasks wouldn't be given to the two saviours of Konoha, but according to Tsunade it contained S-class information that needed to be delivered without fail.

For some reason Naruto also got the strange feeling that the package would bring more problems than it should. But, he shook the feeling off as needless paranoia, maybe being around the bastard for prolonged hours was starting to rub off. Sasuke didn't look too pleased with it either.

As the relinquished the item from the Anbu, the ninja vanished in a flash, only the wisps of dust evidence to their presence. With the package safe in Sasuke's hands - apparently Naruto couldn't be trusted - they made their way outside the confinements of the village.

The journey passed much as usual, they ran between trees, crossing borders without much interaction. Sasuke never did talk outside the apartment, it must have been a deep-rooted habit of his. Naruto assumed it was to maintain his distance from strangers, which was affective in that case, since Sasuke rarely got approached by fangirls anymore, but Naruto also assumed it was his way of keeping attention on potential dangers. Naruto was the opposite, he enjoyed talking on missions. Even though Sasuke never replied, the occasionally nod every once in a while was enough for Naruto to know his friend was vaguely listening. It didn't mean that Naruto was being reckless either, Naruto had significantly improved his chakra detection as of late and that allowed him to be a bit more carefree with his speech. It did mean though, that whenever Sasuke did start talking, it signalled something wrong even if Sasuke didn't explicitly say it in his words.

"-ne, and I never really understood why Kakashi loved the miso-juice eggplant, because it tastes really gross. Personally, I think ramen is..."

"Naruto, I think we should take a bearing soon." Sasuke ordered in an almost inaudible whisper, as they continued to travel forward.

Naruto looked over his shoulder, surprised when he caught the red colour in Sasuke's eyes. He had activated his sharingan but what alerted Naruto more was Sasuke's expression of hostility and focus. Naruto didn't say another word, instead he concentrated on the chakra around him, trying to pick up the signature of the enemies. Naruto frowned as he felt the tiniest hint of a presence coming directly from the right, it seemed they weren't too far away. What unnerved Naruto was that from a distance that close the intruders should have been easily detected, but they weren't which suggested they must have been high ranking ninja, trained in masking chakra scents.

Naruto began slowing down, so that he was level with Sasuke, they exchanged looks which was all they needed to be synchronised. It was weird how Naruto could spend hours arguing with Sasuke to get him to understand but the moment they're on the battlefield they knew exactly what the other was thinking with a single look. Naruto never really understood it but he was just really glad it existed, because right now, he could tell Sasuke wanted to attack before the enemies had a chance too.

Naruto reached down into his weapons pouch, setting four shuriken between his fingers. The was only a moments hesitation before he rapidly flung them in the direction of the enemy with as much power as he could muster. Two kunai knives, that sasuke threw, came soaring from over his shoulder hitting each other at an angle before striking the opponent metres in front.

From the sound of metal colliding, to the sound grunts coming the forest trees, three men revealed themselves. It appeared to Naruto that they had used some advanced level invisibility jutsu. While two of the attackers deflected the incoming objects, the remaining advanced forward with a sword in hand. Sasuke unsheathed his katana, cutting the air in two as he gracefully wielded the weapon in his hand. He clashed swords with the adversary, a metallic pang hanging in the air. Naruto always admired Sasuke's talent of manipulating the katana, his movements were effortless, Naruto had nowhere near that level of skill. However, where Naruto lacked in weapon wielding he made up for in sheer power.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto cried, being the first to use ninjutsu in the battle. Two shadow clones appeared either side of him, launching towards the assailants. Naruto was immersed in physical combat immediately, blocking the punches and kicks while keeping steady on the trees branches.

Naruto kept stealing nervous glances at Sasuke, not because Sasuke was losing ground but more because his opponent seemed frighteningly confident, there was no doubt to who was the ring leader. They traded equal blows, for every powerful hit Sasuke gave, he received one just as hard.

"Concentrate on your own fight, dobe!" Sasuke warned, not taking his eyes away from the enemy in front of him for a second.

"I am, teme!" Naruto shot back, emphasising his words with a finishing kick to one of his opponents, that sent the man flying into the back of a tree. "Do you need my help?!"

Sasuke turned to face Naruto, a look of offence tarnishing his features. "Like I need anything from yo-..."

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, expelling all the air from his lungs.

He could see it. Sasuke couldn't see it because he was looking away... but Naruto could see it. Even though it's as cliché as hell, Naruto honestly felt as though everything had slowed down, because he could see the the individual hand seals the opponent was forming across from Sasuke, he could see that even with lightning reflexes Sasuke wouldn't make it away on time. As the light of chakra began to form in the hands of the attacker, Naruto felt his body compelled to move forward regardless of his own well-being or better judgement, he leaped in front of Sasuke at an impossible speed, just in time to feel the shock of the jutsu course through his body but the body of Sasuke too.

Naruto felt the technique thrum through his body. He felt the branch from under his feet disappear as he propelled towards the earth, he also felt the warmth of Sasuke behind him as he too fell to the ground.

There was the impact as Naruto made it to the ground but then it was over. What ever jutsu the attacker had used on the both of them had ended and there was nothing but silence.

Naruto groaned, as rolled of onto the grass, streaking dirt against his face. "Sasuke?" Naruto managed to croak "...Sa-Sasuke are you safe?"

There was a silence. Naruto turned his head towards Sasuke despite the slight spin of his surroundings. Naruto's gaze caught on the boy, Sasuke lay on the ground with eyes shut, body immobile. "Sasuke!" Naruto tried once again, his panic rising with each void second.

With the lack of response, Naruto forced his body to move, despite the ache his felt in all his muscles. He felt his own heartbeat thud hard against his ribcage, a pounding in his ears, a familiar sensation of fear. His mind was ambushed with the memory of the ice dome and Sasuke's body covered with poisonous spikes, it was the first and only moment Naruto feared the death of his best friend.

Naruto manoeuvred towards Sasuke, so that he could view his face from a profile perspective. "Sasuke." Naruto repeated, his mind and body alert with adrenaline.

"Sasuke!"

Naruto began shaking the shoulders of Sasuke, lifting his body into a seated position, with each shake came more strength. "Sasuke, wake up." The silence was almost deafening, Naruto could feel the start of tears prickling in his vision as he continued to relentlessly shake. "Sasuke, teme!"

Naruto gave a hard slap across Sasuke's face. Seconds passed and just Naruto was raising his hand up to do it again, a groan emerged for the raven-haired boy.

Sasuke's eyelids fluttered open, his jaw clenching and unclenching, his expression slowly transforming into one of serious pissed-offness. "What the fuck do you think your doing, Naruto?" Sasuke gritted.

Naruto could already see the red mark blooming across Sasuke's cheek but he couldn't quite bring himself to care. He laughed, giving Sasuke the manliest hug he could muster at that moment, allowing time for the preliminary tears to recede back.

"First you slap me, then you hug me. You have serious issues, Naruto?" Sasuke grumbled, becoming less annoyed despite his best efforts.

"I thought something happened to you." Naruto explained into Sasuke's shoulder.

"If you haven't noticed, something did happen to me." He replied bluntly.

"Yeah, I know. I mean, I just thought that...it's doesn't really matter."

"If it doesn't matter can you get off me then." Sasuke huffed, removing Naruto from his proximity with force.

"Oh, uh, yeah sure." Naruto coughed, running a hand through his own blond hair. He pushed himself up, quickly regaining the balance on his feet. Through he muscles kept locking up, he found that his body was considerably less achy.

Naruto held out a hand, which Sasuke gingerly took. Sasuke leaned into him as he wobbled under his own weight, which was rare sight to say the least, Naruto had to hold back his smile.

Sasuke brushed the dirt from his trouser and palms, detaching himself from Naruto. "Where did the assassins go?" Sasuke scrutinised, activating his sharingan to take a scope of the area.

"They were gone when I opened my eyes," Naruto explained, "Maybe we fell unconscious for longer than we thought? You were knocked out pretty bad."

"No. It can't have be more than a few minutes." Sasuke interjected.

"Sasuke, I know it's kinda embarrassing that we let ourselves get hit, but it's probably been hours."

"I dont care about my pride, teme. We couldn't have can't been down longer than a few minutes because the sun is still at the centre of the sky. The only other conclusion is that we've been out for a whole day which I highly doubt." Sasuke huffed in annoyance.

"Oh." Naruto exclaimed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, maybe they fled?"

"Why would they leave without..." A look of panic crossed Sasuke's face. He abruptly reached for his inner vest pocket, his features relaxing as he gripped the package hidden there. The relief was soon replaced by confusion."...Why would they attack us and then...not take the package? That doesn't make sense."

"I, uhh, don't know." Naruto replied, with a frown. "But we should probably go back to the village to get checked out by Tsunade-baachan"

"Our orders were to deliver the package without fail, Naruto."

"Yeah, and if we collapse on the journey there because of this jutsu, the package still won't get delivered and probably get stolen too. She doesn't value the package over our health." Naruto explained rather adamantly, his blue eyes not wavering.

"I guess so." Sasuke mummered, rubbing his temple to relieve the headache forming underneath his skull.

"Well, let's go then. If we hurry we can get there in about 45 minutes. Do you think you can go full speed?" Naruto questioned, gathering up their kit that had fallen on the floor as preparation.

"I told you not to worry about me, that's how we got in this mess in the first place."

"Yeah, blame the guy who is just concerned for his teammate." Naruto replied incredulously.

"I will, It's your fault for asking stupid questions during battle. I had it under control.." Sasuke emphasised, snatching the gear from Naruto's hand

"Sure you did." Naruto retorted, rolling his eyes. He gave Sasuke one last once over before charging up the old oak tree in front of them, finding his footing on its branches.

"Hn, whatever." Sasuke muttered as followed up the tree, he tried his very best not to smirk.

As they both raced towards the village, everything went by amiss. Their surroundings looked exactly the same, but it felt different. They couldn't exactly pinpoint what had exactly changed. Fortunately, they wouldnt have to wait much longer before they found out for themselves.