Dear readers... Okay, I am suitably embarrassed. I, foolishly, didn't think when spewing out a summary for this darling project of mine, and so forgot that the order in which the names are written determines the seme/uke. xx -thwacks head-
So, upon returning to check that everything was in good order this morning, I discovered that you, dear readers, were expecting Sasuke to be uke! Of course, he wasn't very happy about that. But as the mistake was mine, I shall do my best to accommodate you. It'll be more fun, for certain!
On a different note... Updates won't usually be this close together; hopefully every week, although I will be gone for ten days as of Friday. I was just so excited to get so many reviews that I set about to writing immediately! See, this is what I do during my boring classes.
So without further ado, I present to you...
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Chapter Two: The Uzumaki Residence
The elevator was out of commission - again, for the five hundredth time - so he took the emergency stairs, passing Shika and his dog on the way, Chouji huffing his way down the steps looking put out, and Hinata, who smiled shyly and gave a little wave. Naruto grinned widely. She was the kindest person he knew, although she was also hopelessly shy. He usually made a point to stop and talk to her, but today he was on a mission - a very, very important one that was essential to his continued well-being and good reputation. He laboured on.
Naruto lived on the third floor from the top. By the time he was halfway up - the tenth floor - he decided that he was going to kill, or at least severely mutilate Kakashi. The apartment manager couldn't be bothered to fix the damn elevator properly the first time this had happened...
"Naruto-san!" Came a loud, exuberant voice from above him. Naruto groaned.
"Aren't you glad that this wonderful opportunity has arisen? I will thank Kakashi-san - I am certain he had allowed the elevator to disintegrate into well deserved disuse so that we may enjoy the summer of our youth!" Lee, aka Caterpillar-brow, leaned over the railing and gave Naruto an enormous grin and a thumbs up.
Naruto resisted the urge to shield his eyes from the sheer... green-ness of the other man's track suit.
"I'm sure... He will appreciate... your en - " Naruto stopped for breath. "En - thu - siasm."
Lee disappeared from the railing and reappeared a second later beside Naruto, fairly vibrating with energy. It made Naruto tired just looking at him, never mind thinking about the impending ten stairways that still loomed overhead.
He reached back and grasped the railing for support as Lee encouraged him. "Naruto-san, I shall help you in your endeavor!"
-- -- --
Lee's 'helping' was a bit more than the blond had ever hoped for. He was mournfully out of shape, and the cheerful exclamations that followed him all the way up the stairs didn't help much.
Naruto stumbled into his apartment and kicked the door closed, collapsing on the tattered couch.
"Can't... breathe..." He wheezed, wincing as his poor, abused lungs twinged when he tried to draw a breath.
The door of his apartment opened and Lee stuck his head in. "I'll see you around then, Naruto-san!" He called. "Make sure to drink lots of water so you don't get dehydrated!"
"I would... if I... could walk..." Naruto gasped, adopting a state of bonelessness formerly reserved for invertebrates and small children. Lee didn't appear to have heard him, or perhaps thought it unimportant, for the door slammed energetically - Naruto had no idea how it was possible, but it was - and there was blessed silence.
He yawned and contemplated sleep, blackmail or no. Sakura would kill him slowly and painfully for ditching her, and he would likely lose his job... He remembered Iruka's last words to him before he moved out on his own.
"I'm so proud of you, Naruto!" Iruka ruffled his adoptive son's messy blond hair, deaf to Naruto's protests. Then he paused and leaned up so that the two were at eyelevel. His normally kind brown eyes narrowed dangerously and he said: "And if you lose this job, you'll regret the day you were born."
Naruto shuddered at the memory. Iruka-sensei was scarier than he looked! The man could make him feel like he was fifteen again and begging for ramen money. (This was a frequent occurrence in the Umino-Uzumaki household, as was the subsequent frightened yell as Iruka chased his wayward protégé out of the house.)
He sighed as he came to the inevitable conclusion. There would be no escaping Sakua's french-manicured claws, alas, which meant he would have to leave the comfortable haven of pillows he had telekinetically created for himself on the couch.
With a groan, he rolled off the couch and dragged his lead-filled limbs into the bathroom to shower.
-- An hour later --
Clad in the dressiest clothes he had - dark jeans and a collared shirt, amazingly not orange - Naruto fished his keys out and locked the door behind him as he left the apartment. He was refreshed! Excited! (Well, no, that was a lie.) ...Prepared to take on the world -
- Wait. There were still twenty-odd staircases to conquer...
"Ugh." He slumped against the door. Sakura was going to kill him for getting sweaty again! She had already called to berate him four - no, five times.
--
"Are you done yet, Uzumaki?"
"Can't... talk... must find water..."
"What are you doing?"
"..."
"Whatever. Just hurry up!"
--
Ring... ring...
"Hey, this is the Uzumaki answering service! If you're Iruka, stop leaving messages! I haven't died yet. If you're someone else, don't bother 'cause I'm probably screening my calls!"
"Uzumaki, you'd better not be ignoring me."
--
"Y'ello, Naruto speaking?"
"I'm not waiting another minute, baka! If you get fired when Sasuke finds an anonymous note on his desk tomorrow... it's on your head."
"Patience is a virtue, Haruno!"
Click.
--
At which point Sakura began calling merely to bombard him with verbal abuse.
The quiet snick of a door opening snapped Naruto out of his misery. He looked up to see his neighbour stepping out of the apartment across the hall. Blue eyes met piercing green.
"Uh... Gaara-san," He said, giving the redhead a tentative smile, which withered sadly away when it was returned with a blank stare.
Gaara - he still didn't know the man's last name - was creepy as hell and about as unfriendly as Rock Lee was friendly. In fact, the two were like complete opposites. Lee was cheerful, youthful and energetic, with a black bowl cut and enormous eyebrows; Gaara was silent, slightly bizarre, and never smiled, with short red hair and no eyebrows. (And what was up with that? It was like Gaara's eyebrows had migrated to Lee's face. The first time he saw them together he'd had to look twice.)
Naruto supposed that they canceled each other out. They did coexist amazingly well... Or at least, Lee wasn't dead yet, which to Naruto was as well as anyone could coexist with Gaara.
His eyes slipped away from Gaara when a voice came from inside the apartment.
"Sabaku-san, could you pick up some organic buttery spread while you're out... oh!" Lee stopped abruptly as he stumbled upon the two, Gaara still staring impassively and Naruto shifting from foot to foot in a nervous manner, fingers fidgeting with his keys.
"Naruto-san! Heading out so soon?"
"Umm."
"On a date?" Lee asked slyly, eying Naruto's less-than-casual outfit.
"You could say that." Naruto muttered.
The other, still clad in his overwhelmingly green shirt, though he was wearing jeans now, thrust his thumb out the door in a heroic pose that made Naruto grin in spite of himself and cried: "Good luck!"
"I'll need it." He remembered the girl waiting at the bottom of the stairs, probably listening to that hideous music and whinging to herself about inconsiderate men. Served her right for trying to date a gay man.
Naruto nodded at the oddly matched pair - Lee now had his arm around Gaara's shoulder and was peering down at what appeared to be a shopping list - and he edged away from Gaara's stare as fast as he dared. When he was safely out of sight, he broke in to a sprint and tried not to trip over his feet on the stairs.
--
"What were you doing in there, building the Great Wall of China?!" Sakura yelled at him as he came tumbling out the door, shirt untucked and hair disheveled.
Naruto grinned. "Yep." He informed her cheerfully. "Out of empty ramen cups, actually."
/End Chapter
-R&R svp
More NaruxSasu goodness is on the way!
