AN I have no computer at home so updates will be slow since I cannot always make it to the library. I'm low on cash, and gas- even though the prices are slowly dropping- are still somewhat pricey for me with rent and phone bills to pay and all. Necessities like food are becoming hard to come by as well and I'm basically living off the McDonald's dollar menu. (u.u;) With only a Big n Tasty, a fruit parfait, and water to last me an entire day, I feel like I'm going on a diet. (x.x;) Just a rant on my troubles but please do bare with me on this story. I'm not neglecting it or anything, I'm just a very busy person.

Well- for now anyway- I hope you enjoy this new installment of Fluttered Perception.

Disclaimer: My plot, their characters.

Fluttered Perception

Chapter 2
-Of Mercenaries, Memories, and 'Home'

Not again, thought Sasuke as he took a sip of his tea. Why does this always happen to me? Inwardly groaning but remaining calm nonetheless, he took a deep breath before slowly lowering his cup to the table. Luckily, today was visiting day and so there were no crashes or the sounds of the guards being knocked unconscious.

"Don't even think about it." A grumble was heard from behind and from the corner of his vision, he watched Naruto shuffled dejectedly pass and sat himself down with a flop opposite of Sasuke. It was becoming quite easy to read the male and knowing that he had ruin Naruto's chance of jumping him from behind, he allowed a satisfied smirk to adorn his lips. Naruto had to roll his eyes as he took notice of it and cutely pouted.

Since Naruto did not seem incline to speak, Sasuke went about instead to pouring himself another cup of tea and slowly drank while unobtrusively studying the male. From his tussled locks to his disheveled clothings, but mainly from the scroll and envelope in hand, Sasuke easily deduce that Naruto had something, possibly important, to tell him. Of what, he hadn't a clue but Sasuke himself did not seem incline to speak as well and thus, continued to silently enjoy his tea. It was his tea time after all.

After an endless moment of silences, Naruto cleared his throat. Loudly. Sasuke glance up and give him the briefest of look, brow rose inquisitively a moment before he returned his attention to his tea. If Naruto wanted something from him, he would have to speak up. Sasuke could continue this all day if he'd wanted to but knowing Naruto's short hold on patiences, Sasuke knew it wasn't going to last for much longer.

"Oi."

"This is good tea." Sasuke softly countered, acting as if Naruto hadn't spoken at all.

Naruto's lip twitched slightly in annoyance.

"Bastard..."

Was he trying to sound intimidating? Sasuke smirked. It wasn't working.

"You say something, Naruto?" Oh. That was intimidating, Naruto's name being spoken so softly, the Uchiha's deep voice pronouncing each syllable with an overly sweet and polite intensity. Sasuke was anything but polite and Sasuke hated anything sweet. Naruto grimace. Bastard. Glancing down, lips twitching all the more, he cleared his throat again.

"Here." Naruto place the scroll with the envelope beneath it on the table and slid it over to Sasuke who only wearily glanced down at it. Should Sasuke be weary of it? Sighing and placing his cup down, he reached for the scroll. Carefully unwinding it and giving it a quick skim through, his brow immediately furrowed into a frown. With much held calm, he placed it back on the table, his eyes closed shut a moment, indecisive of what he should say as his mind spun with questions.

A mission? Now? Why? Sasuke didn't know whether if he should be excited or bothered by such. What was Sasuke to think of it? It was sudden, if one counted being cooped up in the appointed house for a year being sudden anyway.

Maybe- Sasuke thought then- I'm just not giving myself enough credit. I've followed their rules. Done what they've told me to do. I... deserve this. Don't I? Placing a hand to his head, Naruto momentarily forgotten, Sasuke was somewhat startled by the sound of the other's voice.

"Sasuke?" his revere broken by the soft and worried tone, Sasuke sighed.

"I-" He paused, for once, at a lost for words. "I don't know what to say," Sasuke softly admitted and sighed again before bringing his attention to his blond friend. Having been so self absorb, he hadn't notice that the other had practically closed the distant between them as Naruto placed himself atop the table, leaning towards Sasuke with wide blue eyes and a broad smile.

"Sasuke. Stop being such an ass and always making things complicated." Naruto's smile broke into a all out opened teeth grin. "Just say yes."

So sincere in his word, opened and revealing in all his emotion. That was who Naruto was, and Sasuke knew now, and had long come to realize, that he was no match for such.

A year long mission, huh? While inwardly sighing, and outwardly smirking, Sasuke reached over and lightly flicked Naruto atop his forehead. "Dobe." How bad can it possibly be?

Naruto, who was currently acting the part of an over exaggerating drama fanatic, rubbed a hand to his 'fatally' wounded forehead while grumbling to himself. As much as he dislike the term given to him by the other, he allowed it to slip by as he instead urged Sasuke to opened the envelope that followed the scroll, unable to now hold off the excitement he was feeling.

Sasuke, paying little heed to the other, peered cautiously down at the letter, unease now settling in. Although unsure why he was feeling thus, he picked it up and turned it towards the front to gaze a moment at the writing that was written there in emerald-green ink.

Ignorance is bliss, Sasuke suddenly thought. Deciding it was best that he pay no attention to the changing letters before him, he read the now readable words:

Ms. Tsunade, Fifth Hokage
Top floor, Hokage Tower
Village Hidden in the Leaf,
Konohagakure

Although it was not addressed to him, Sasuke figured that there must be a reason as to why it was being given to him. Dealing with the mission no less, he silently assumed thus, he carefully turned it onto its back and noted now the purple wax seal that was there of which bore what he assume to be some sort of crest with a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake that surrounded a large letter H. Although the letter was already opened, the seal was still perfectly in tact, each engraving quite clear and recognizable.

Strange.

From across the table, Naruto fidgeted about, annoyed and growing quite exasperated at how long the other was taking his time with examining the envelop. However, Sasuke continued to ignore Naruto still and leisurely went about slowly opening it and pulled out the thick parchment from inside before unfolding it to gazed down at the same emerald-green writing before him that began to rearrange itself into a language he could clearly understand.

After an endless moment of silences and confused perplexity that grew into weary acceptance after the third time of reading the letter, Sasuke could clearly feel the onslaught of a headache pushing its way through his already aching head as he refolded the letter and placed it back into the envelope.

"So," he slowly began, leaning forward and bracing his chin atop a closed fist, "what do I need to do?"

From the Cheshire-like smile that spread across the blond's face, Sasuke knew he was in for a long three months.

--

In a land that the people of Konohagakure have never heard of and have ever thought of coming into contact with, a young male at the tender age of fifteen was going through a totally normal stage of a hormonal teenager. If one called a wizard in training who was shouting at the top of his lungs normal anyway.

"I'VE DONE EVERYTHING FROM SAVING YOUR SKIN TO FACING DEMENTORS! BUT WHAT DO I GET?" The bespectacled boy shouted, face flushed in anger. "NOTHING! THAT'S WHAT! NO ONE TELLS ME ANYTHING. I'M LEFT IN THE DARK WITH NOTHING THE WISER THAN PEOPLE WHO HATES ME FOR BEING WHAT I AM!" Harry was breathing harshly, all of his pent up emotions and growing frustration now at it's limits.

Ron and Hermione stared at their friend, the former in shocked and the latter on the verge of tears. Their attempts to explain were quickly fired back at them as Harry continue to shout out his resentment, his anger. When things did settled down a bit and Harry was pacing to and fro about the room, he glanced up at the two as the mentioned of guards were brought up.

"Guards?" he asked. "For who?" There was a hint of sarcasm in his tone as he already the answer to said question. Rolling his eyes and letting out a heavy sigh, Harry plopped himself down upon the bed.

"Now Harry," began Hermione, looking a bit red around the eyes and her hair in a dishevel frenzy. "I'm sure they are only doing so with your best interest in mind."

"But I can take care of myself," he grumbled out, annoyed. "I've been doing so for the past years anyway. Haven't they figure that out yet?"

"We all know you can," Ron chirped in quickly. "But Dumbledore is the one who appointed them so we basically have no say in the matter." Sighing, the red head teen placed himself beside the other, a hand to Harry's shoulder as he tried his best to console his best friend.

His shoulders tensing a moment, he then relaxed them before turning weary green hues to the other.

"So, you hear anything else about these so called guards? They must be very powerful if Dumbledore is recommending them."

Hermione, who had pulled a chair and was now seated before the two boys, grew thoughtful. "From what we've heard from the twins Extendable Ears, I had heard them mentioning something about mercenaries."

Harry eyes grew wide. "Mercenaries?"

"Yes, mercenaries," Ron continue for Hermione. "I heard they'll do anything for money. With just the right amount, they'll kill, steal, guard- you just name it, they'll do it."

It all sounded quite unbelievable to Harry and it took him a moment to digest this new information.

"Also, I heard they were muggles," Ron added then, now sounding rather perplex.

"Muggles?!" Harry's mind was now in a flutter of disarray, disbelief filling his eyes. Feeling another outburst coming, he bit down on his bottom lips to stop himself in time before turning his thoughts over in his head.

What is Dumbledore thinking? How do he expect muggles to go about protecting a magical school like Hogwarts? His thoughts following along such lines, it drown out the voice of Ron and Hermione who were now talking of other things when his thoughts were quickly interrupted by Hermione's startled yelp of surprise. A loud crack resonated throughout the room as two figure then materialized out of then air before them.

The twin, Fred and George, apparated into the room. Going on about other information he had yet to here and hearing of the mischief the twins had been in, it brought a slight smile to Harry's lip. After a while, the time ticking away, they all thought then it was a good time to head down for dinner.

--

What an understatement it was, Sasuke thought, exactly two months past the day since he had read and accepted the mission that was given to him. Not even three yet and already, Sasuke felt as if he had been at this for an entire year. After weeks of vigorous tests and training, Sasuke had quickly gain the status of chunin to jounin in the first month and then to what the Hokage called a pre-ANBU in the second. He would not be made into an official ANBU until he returned safely and successfully from the mission. If ask if the Uchiha was proud to have achieved such a feat so quickly, the male would say otherwise and wish instead to be back inside the house he had long since become accustomed to. It would undoubtedly be better than what he was facing now.

With a evil slave driving blond who was currently enjoying his position as ANBU captain, Sasuke wasn't sure he actually like seeing this side of Naruto. Then again, Sasuke suppose he was now getting his just dessert, especially with all that Sasuke had done to the other in the past.

Exhausted from the day's work, Sasuke laid upon his futon and stared lazily at his ceiling. With idle thoughts, he found a rather morbid fascination with them of which only returned his blank stares with its own; reflexing his thoughts that were equally empty due to his tiredness.

An interesting many weeks it had been, Sasuke wasn't sure now what was going to be in store for him for the last remaining month. Anything could happen, especially when Sasuke had a hyperactive blond as his would be teacher who seem to be more interested in making fun of the Uchiha than not.

What's the worst that can happen now? Sasuke groggily thought then and closed his eyes. Thinking not of how sardonic that sounded to him, sleep slowly descended upon the tired Uchiha while troubled and unwelcome dreams invade his mind soon after.

--

"Come on Sasuke, you can't just sit there forever, ya know!" exclaimed Naruto as he pace back and forth before the Uchiha.

It was early afternoon, the weather still warm even though winter was just about to settle in. In front of Sasuke, past Naruto, were the disorder of a long neglected garden that was indeed passed it's due in a makeover. Weeds loitered every creak and cervices in the ground while the shambles of a broken fence surrounded the crude looking area. If Sasuke had even the slightest care to look behind him, he could easily note the state the house was in as well or would have cared to notice when he had first arrived. With its shingles falling, floors creaking and doors broken here and there, it could hardly be called livable.

"Geeze! This place is a mess!" Naruto shouted from somewhere in the house, having left the Uchiha's presences as all of his progress in trying to get a response out of Sasuke was proving fruitless. Seeing as it had been like this ever since the ANBU had brought Sasuke here two days ago, Sasuke had only given the place a brief glance through unfocused eyes before sitting himself down on the back porch that looked out into the shabby garden. When Naruto would come to visit, Sasuke was always there in that same spot.

Sasuke was completely out of it. Even though he had agreed to the proposition, he didn't care of the things about him. Even now, he thought it was quite pointless that he was being kept alive. With Itachi gone, there was no longer a reason left for him to remain here. His sole purpose, ever since then, had been put to pursuing him but with him gone now, there was nothing left here to keep him in the world of the living- or so he thought anyway when Naruto's face appear in his line of vision.

This. Sasuke thought. This. Him. He is what is keeping me here… Sasuke wasn't sure if he should be happy or sadden by the thought.

Wondering why this was so, the brooding male sighed, closed his eyes and turned his head away.

"Go away," he said sharply, missing the hurt expression upon Naruto's face. The blond's presence here was somehow just to much to take and all he wanted was to be left alone.

"Don't be like this, Sasuke." Although unable to see his hurt expression, he could clearly hear it in Naruto's tone. "Just when I thought you were you're old self again, you become like this. Not that you any less different from how you were before, but still! You need to snapped out of it already." Naruto placed himself next to Sasuke, staring out into the withered garden. "Sakura's worried and she really wants to come and see you but the old lady keeps Sakura with her all the time."

Sasuke could hear the slight tumor in his voice and of how unsuccessfully the other tried to hide it with a cheerful disposition.

"But you know what? Sakura always ask about you when I go see her."

Sasuke couldn't have cared less of the matter and tuned out Naruto's voice. He didn't want to hear it. Didn't want to feel the guilt stabbing ruthlessly at his heart. It was an unwelcome force that continued to invade his stubborn heart no matter how many time he wished to be free of it.

"Go away," he said again, the words spoken softly now. "Go away, Naruto." He was sounding desperate and he hated it. "Just leave me alone." Silence followed his words. A dreadful silences that made Sasuke feel so ashamed of what he had said and he wished dearly to take them back but knew already it was to late.

"See you tomorrow, Sasuke." Spoken as if he hadn't heard the other, Naruto stood and quickly left. When the silences engulfed him once more, darkness began to invade as well. The symbolic sun had left and now the darkness was free to roam.

"Damn!" The words muttered out in anguish, Sasuke slammed a fist down to the wooden floor and with a jolt, everything began to slip away as he was awoken by the sound of the howling wind. Clouded still by the remnant of his dream, Sasuke slowly sat up, a hand placed over his eyes as he gave his head a slight shake to help clear his fogged mind.

"Another dream, huh," he mumbled and heaved a heavy sigh. Turning his attention to the opened window of which he didn't remember opening, he gazed out into the still darken sky with tired eyes before raking a hand through his already tussled locks. These continued affliction of unwanted memories were taking a toll upon him and Sasuke wondered if they would ever stop. They were meant to be forgotten but these dreams of memories had a way of springing upon him when he least expected it.

Heaving another sigh, Sasuke slid off his futon and head outside, placing himself upon the exact same spot his dream self had been and for once, allowed his mind to just wonder and to forget the calamity of his past. Allowing this slight reprieve, dawn came soon enough as the early morning light illuminated the sky.

--

"Tomorrow, you will be leaving for your mission," stated the Hokage.

Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke stood within the Hokage Tower, reviewing over their appointed task.

"You are to arrive at the place known as the Leaky Cauldron to meet up with a man by the name of Severus Snape who will then take you to another place of which the name was not disclosed due to wanted secrecy," she continued as she then handed each of them a large envelope. The three stared at it curiously a moment before returning their attention back to the Hokage. "Inside hold more detailed information of the school you will be protecting, a complete profile of the boy, Harry Potter, and among others, including information of the teachers, relatives and friend that surrounds the boy." She glance from one face to the other, lingering a moment on Sasuke, before turning away. "Are there any question?"

Naruto stepped forward. "Just out of curiosity, what form of transportation will we be taking to get there? The place isn't exactly nearby, you know."

Tsunade looked thoughtful a moment before she replied. "Floo powder." Sakura and Naruto blinked, trying to remember what that was when it dawn upon them.

"You mean—?"

Tsunade nodded.

The trio looked thoughtful. They had read about this form of traveling and had to wonder of how safe such a thing could be but voice naught of it.

"Is there anything else you wish to know?" When none came, she quickly dismissed them, ordering them to return home and pack for tomorrow's trip.

Outside the Hokage's office, the three exit the building together. Sakura, in-between the two, glance from one face to the other. Something was off.

From Naruto's face, Sakura could see that Naruto was looking quite thoughtful. His usual exuberant self gone. From Sasuke's face, Sakura noted that he was looking more paler than usual.

"Ne, Sasuke-kun? Are you alright?" That seeming to jog Naruto out of his thoughtful dazed, he gaze wonderingly at the other, concern written now all over his face as he noted the slight change in the other as well.

"It's nothing," Sasuke mumbled in reply and turned his face away. "I'm fine." He didn't want to let them know what he was feeling. He did not wish for them to worry. However, Sakura and Naruto read the other easily enough.

"No you're not," the two said simaltaniously and smiled wearily at one another. "So just spill it alread." Sakura added. Sasuke sighed.

"I-" How was he to admitted to them that he was feeling rather self conscious of his surroundings. After having been wholed up in the house for such a long time with limited contact to the outside world, somehow, everything seemed so aliened to him. "I feel out of place," he finally admitted, his tone soft. This place was suppose to be his home but it felt nothing of the like. Sasuke had to wonder if he was looking rather pathetic at the moment when he felt Naruto's presence on his other side, a hand slung over his shoulders. They had come to a stop in the middle of the road and Sakura was now in front of him, peering at him with a rueful grin upon her face. Glancing from the two, a brow rose up in question.

"Is that all?" Naruto asked and laughed. "Teme. Didn't I tell you to stop worrying so much. With Sakura and me here with you, such things shouldn't be bothered with at all." Naruto offered his well known trademark grin. "Didn't you know that 'home' is only when the three of us are together?"

Staring from Naruto's cheerful grin to Sakura's serene smile, Sasuke knew they were right and couldn't believe how dense he was being. Shaking his head to hide the barely noticable smile that adorn his lips, the three continued on their way, heading 'home.' A long journey awaited them but they knew- they knew that if they were together this time, anything thrown at them could be easily overcome if they were together.

TBC

AN Like? Updates will be more frequent. Hopefully anyway since I will be getting my internet back soon.