Hey guys! :D

I hope all you lovelies are doing well! I'm super tired right now but I'm putting that aside to write for you guys because I love you!

Sorry updates are coming pretty slow. I've got an essay to write just about every night and I have to finish 1 cosplay before Halloween and then I have to finish 3 cosplays before December! *wipes sweat off of eyebrow*

Anyways. ONWARD TO THY STORY!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but if I did let me just tell you. Unff.

Naruto groaned lowly as he slid his black turtleneck on, his sore muscles screaming at him to lay back down and go to bed. It was six o'clock in the morning and he'd only ended up with about four hours of sleep. Even so, he had no choice but to get dressed and return to the Sharingan business building to see what Iruka needed to talk to him about, even though he had a pretty good idea what it was about now. Normally he would put it off until after work, but he wanted that time to hang out with his friends.

He slipped on a pair of grey jeans, groaning as his beaten muscles were stretched. At least he didn't have to put on his armor. In the daytime, Assassins have two ways they can enter the building. One being that the can dress in casual, everyday clothes and come in through the front door. The second option being that they can come in their Assassin clothing and enter through one of the building's windows. Usually Naruto chose the latter, but due to his aching muscles he was going to go with the front door.

Picking up the orange scarf that Ino made him, Naruto headed downstairs, his stomach demanding food. Walking into the kitchen, he threw the scarf on the back of a kitchen chair and headed straight for the top cabinet where he knew the ramen was. After skipping dinner last night, there was no way he was going to pass up breakfast. He pulled out a packet and set it on the counter, quickly followed by a pot. Naruto filled the pot with water and set it on the oven, turning it on so the water could start boiling and pouring the noodles in.

Naruto shivered as he went to sit down at the kitchen table, the room being colder than he would've liked. Glancing out the window, he watched as the orange and brown leaves outside fell from the trees and danced together until they disappeared past the window's edge. It was the middle of fall and winter was coming fast, much to Naruto's displeasure. He preferred warm weather, where he could go out jogging, swimming, and camping. Now he was forced to bundle up in scarves and jackets.

After a while Naruto got up to go drain the noodles and transfer them to a bowl, bringing it to the table with a pair of chopsticks and sitting back down. He ate slowly, seeing no reason to rush himself. He didn't have to be at work until eight thirty, which gave him two hours and thirty minutes. Despite not rushing, he was done eating within the next few minutes and got up to put the bowel in the sink. Now the only thing left to do was head out to the Sharingan building.

Joy.

He picked up his scarf as he made his way to the door, wrapping it firmly around his neck before picking up his bag and stepping outside, flinching as cold air attacked his face. As he began his walk to the Sharingan building, Naruto regretted his decision not to grab a jacket. Iruka had reprimanded him more than once for not dressing according to the weather. Naruto realized he should probably start listening to him, seeing as how he felt like his whole body was about to turn into a popsicle.

Naruto breathed into his hands as he walked, trying his best to keep them warm. It took him twenty minutes to get to the business building from his house, time that could easily be cut in half if he had a car. Unfortunately, most of the money he made had to be spent on paying the bills and keeping himself fed. Iruka and Kakashi helped out sometimes, like the other day when Iruka had stocked his cabinets with more ramen.

Naruto was used to the two older males looking out for him, seeing as how Iruka and Kakashi had basically filled the role of his parents his whole life. His biological parents both had been elite members of the Konoha Assassins, his father having died when he was on a high-ranking mission in Kumogakure City to kill a man named Orochimaru, having. After hearing the news of what happened, Kushina quickly made way for Kumogakure to avenge her fallen husband by killing the man responsible, which was Orochimaru himself. It was stated in the couple's will that if they were to die, Iruka would be the one to gain custody over their newborn son. Naruto had been told all of this at an early age in hopes of easing his mind and keeping him from having any mixed feelings towards his deceased parents.

Naruto thought about them sometimes, as well as what things would be like if they were still alive. Now, though, all that was on his mind was what would happen once he was in Iruka's office. After his talk with Gaara last night, his mind was buzzing with concern over possibly getting a partner. He tried to push the idea out of his mind for while, knowing it wouldn't do any good worrying about it until he actually found out what the situation was.

As the houses around him began to thin out and business buildings began to multiply, Naruto tightened his scarf around his neck and kept an eye out for a large red circle with three commas on the inside. There was no missing the building when it came into view, it being one of the tallest ones in Konoha.

Naruto continued forward as he stepped through the sliding doors, sighing in relief as warm air washed over him. He walked over to the front desk, smiling at the blonde sitting behind it as he lifted his head from a stack of papers.

"Hey, Deidara!" Naruto greeted, lying his arms on the tall black counter.

Deidara grinned, his pale blue eyes lighting up a bit. "Hey! What are you doing here so early, un? Usually you avoid this place at all costs, un!"

"Iruka said he needed to talk to me, and I really don't want to spend my afternoon here so I decided to get it over with." Naruto explained, letting out a frustrated huff.

Deidara gave him a sympathetic smile, giving Naruto the suspicion that he knew what was about to happen, and said, "Go on up, un."

Naruto gave him a cautious look before walking around the desk and making his way towards the building's private elevator. Once inside he typed in the passcode for the 19th floor, the main floor for the Assassins part of the building. In total there were 12 floors reserved specifically for Assassins, the other 18 floors being used for the actual business workers, most of them not even knowing what was in the rest of the building. With the passcode, the elevator made not other stops until it had reached its designated floor.

As he was on the way up, Naruto slipped his fox mask out of his bag and put it on. He only let a select few know what his real identity was, deciding it would be safer if he mostly kept his identity a secret.

As the elevator stopped on his designated floor, Naruto stepped out and nodded to a few Assassins that passed by. He started making his way to Iruka's office, grinning behind his mask as he walked by the Beetle, the other giving him a small wave which he gladly returned. He reached the door to his teacher's office and knocked lightly, stepping inside once he had heard a faint 'Come in!'.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei." Naruto greeted, moving to sit down in one of the seats placed in front of the desk.

Iruka looked up from a paper he'd been reading and gave the blonde a smile, sitting back in his chair. "Naruto. Thanks for coming."

Naruto nodded and sunk down in his seat, lying his arms on the armrests. "Not a problem. So...what did you want to talk to me about?"

The smile quickly dropped from Iruka's face at the other's question. He cleared his throat in discomfort, resting his arms on his desk.

"Yes, about that. I'm sure you've heard about the recent surplus of Assassin's, right?"

Naruto nodded tensely, knowing where this was going. He really wished he hadn't talked to Gaara on the phone last night.

"Well, because of this we're requiring that all single Assassins be put into teams of two that we have selected based off of skill and ability."

Naruto grit his teeth, wanting nothing more than to argue and make a statement about how he didn't need a partner. That his skills were already more advanced than most and that a partner would only slow him down. He stayed quiet, though, knowing that Iruka would simply dismiss his protest and give him a disapproving look for not listening to his superiors.

"Do you have any questions, Naruto?" Iruka asked, a little surprised at the blond's calm reaction.

Naruto pursed his lips and shook his head, digging his fingers into the arms of the chair to keep from speaking out.

"Good. Now that that's settled," the elder man began, glancing at the door behind Naruto. "You can come in now!"

Tensing at the sound of the door slowly opening, Naruto forced himself not to turn around, having a dreaded feeling in the pit of his stomach of who it would be. Naruto heard soft footsteps as the person entered the room and took a seat beside him. Finally, he turned his head to the side, having to bite his tongue in order to stay quiet. Sitting there in the seat next to him, his new partner, was that bastard with the red scarf.

"Fox, this is the Crow," Iruka nodded towards the other. "Otherwise known as-"

The Crow lifted his hand to his mask and slowly slid it to the side of his head, obviously not caring that much about his identity.

"Sasuke Uchiha." The black haired man muttered, an almost bored look in his eye that made Naruto want to kick the other square in the face. And then it clicked with him.

Uchiha. As in, one of THE UCHIHA.

Naruto cursed inwardly as he fully realized who he was being partnered with. Sasuke Uchiha was the younger brother of the man who ran and owned the whole company; Itachi Uchiha. He'd heard stories about how Sasuke had been born an Assassins prodigy, passing all classes and courses with flying colors. Not only that, but Sasuke had an insane amount of admirers, male and female both. After hearing about him, Naruto formed the opinion that he was just a spoiled brat who had gotten everything he wanted in life and thought he was all that just because his brother owned the company.

And now they were partners.

"Sasuke," Iruka said, gaining the attention of the two men sitting in front of him. "As I'm sure you already know, this is the Fox. He will be your new partner when you go out on missions and vice versa. I expect both of you to respect each other and learn to work together. Am I understood?"

"Yes, sir." Naruto muttered, glaring down at the floor.

"Yes." Came the monotone reply from Sasuke.

Iruka smiled at the two men, glad, if not a bit surprised, to have no arguments between the two. "Excellent. If you two don't have any questions, you're dismissed."

Both men stood up at the same time, much to Naruto's irritation and left the room. On the way to the elevator, neither said a word to each other. Naruto continuously threw glances at the other as they stepped onto the elevator. It wasn't until the doors had slid shut that the raven-haired man spoke.

"Not going to take off your mask?" He asked, turning his head to stare at the other with piercing black eyes.

Naruto pursed his lips, glancing at the other through his mask. "I don't show my face to people I don't trust."

Sasuke hummed quietly, obviously not going to pursue the subject further. Knowing he can't go down to the first floor with his mask on, Naruto typed in the pass code from before and hit the button for the 10th floor, one of the unused floors of the building. Once the elevator stopped, Naruto stepped off and turned around to watch the elevator doors shut back. Sasuke stared at him as the heavy silver doors began to move, Naruto finding himself unable to look away from his gaze until the elevator doors completely shut.

Naruto shook off the weird state he'd been in from his and Sasuke's staredown and waited a minute before pressing the button for the elevator to come back up. He slipped off his mask and had just put it in his bag when the elevator returned, allowing him to step inside and press the button for the main floor. Naruto was relieved to find that Sasuke was gone by the time he reached the lobby, and stepped off the elevator. As he began walking towards the front door he sent a wave Deidara's way.

"See you later, Deidara!"

The other blonde looked up from some papers he was reading and smiled brightly. "Later Naruto, un!"

Naruto left the building, not in as bad a mood as he thought he would have been, and headed for the restaurant. He had to walk for about fifteen minutes before the small red brick building he was looking for came into view. He pushed through the front glass doors and immediately caught sight of his friend Ino waiting tables, both exchanging small waves before Naruto scurried in through the kitchen and back to the locker room. Naruto went to his locker and tossed his stuff inside before changing out of his clothes and putting on his uniform; a black polo, black slacks, and a white apron. Once he was finished dressing, Naruto went back into the kitchen and clocked in before seeking out Gaara. He found the redhead a minute later, cooking away at one of the stoves and making scrambled eggs.

"Hey, Gaara." Naruto greeted, stopping next to the smaller man.

Gaara didn't look up as he replied, his eyes trained on the eggs. "How'd it go?" He asked, getting straight to the point.

Naruto sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling. "...I got partnered with the big man's younger brother."

At that, Gaara paused and turned his head a bit to stare at his blonde friend. "Uchiha?"

After receiving a small nod of confirmation, the redhead turned his head back to continue working on the eggs. "...I'll be meeting my partner after work."

Naruto nodded and gave his friend a small sympathetic pat on the back. "Good luck." He said before turning around and leaving the kitchen, ready to get started on waiting tables.

~~~AN ASSASSIN'S LUST~~~

Earlier that day

Sasuke Uchiha sat in front of his brother's desk, the clock resting on it reading 5:15a.m. as his black eyes clashed with the older man's red ones. They sat in silence as they fought out one of their common Uchiha staredowns. After a good five minutes of nothing but silence, Itachi finally spoke.

"Sasuke," he began, laying his elbows on his desk and lacing his fingers together. "Do you know why I wanted to see you?"

The younger Uchiha snorted quietly at his brother's question, as if it was foolish of him to even ask.

"I'm assuming it has something to do with the current amount of Assassins that keep getting partners."

Itachi smiled inwardly at his brother spot-on deduction. Of course, his outward expression didn't change at all. Anything else would simply be un-Uchiha.

"That's exactly why I called you in," Itachi confirmed, reaching down and opening one of the drawers of his desk. "You will also be receiving a partner, Sasuke. I picked them out myself."

Sasuke's face hardened at the information but remained silent, knowing it was not his place to argue. He raised an eyebrow as Itachi pulled out a thick manila envelope and slid it across the desk to him. He picked it up and opened it, taking a peek inside. Sasuke frowned in confusion as the first thing he noticed was a picture of a blue eyed, blonde headed man with three thin black scars on each cheek. Behind it were more pictures and what looked to be information sheets. Sasuke looked up at his brother, the unspoken question being obvious.

Itachi leaned back in his seat, resting his arms on the armrests. "That, Sasuke, is the person you will be partnered with. I want you to take that folder home and read over it carefully. That young man is a very..." the raven haired man paused for a moment, carefully thinking about how to word it. "Special person. I can already promise you that it will be rather difficult to get along with him, but I expect you to do your best and at least put forth the effort in cooperating with him."

Curious about what exactly his brother meant by his partner being a 'special person', Sasuke opened his mouth to ask but quickly closed it back, deciding that Itachi would just deny him an answer anyways. Sasuke closed the envelope and stood up, carefully tucking it under his arm. He left his brother's office and made his way towards the elevator, planning to thoroughly read through the folder once he got home.

End of Chapter 2!

Sorry it took so long to get it done but I think I've worked out a system to where I'll be able to get the chapters of all my stories completed faster! :)

Hope you enjoyed it!

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