Dog Whisperer

Chapter 2 - It's a Platonic Bond, it definitely is

Sasuke looked into the mirror, checking if he needed to fix anything. He fidgeted with his shirt slightly. Even though both of them wanted this to be friendly, Sasuke subconsciously wanted to impress. He caught himself in the act and glared. This was just a simple 'sorry I was an asshole, let's start over' dinner. Nothing non-platonic at all.

Sasuke let out a sigh. The raven decided to take his leave, if he didn't leave now he'd be late for his date- dinner.

His dinner.

A quiet mewl snapped him out of his thoughts. "Nala," The cat responded with another meow, while curling around his legs, stroking her head against his pants. "Come on, you're going to get your fur all over me." He said, making no move to make the cat leave him.

He didn't care about these cats though, they were just something he had to look after because his parents had developed an allergic reaction to them. Mikoto refused to put them up for adoption Itachi apparently had the same allergies and couldn't do it either.

Lair.

Finally the cat decided to find another source of entertainment and left Sasuke alone. Unluckily the source of entertainment was Simba and Nala ganging up to bully Solomon. The dog was bigger than the cats but he cowered away from the hissing duo. "You two need to stop ganging up on him." He came in between the fight, getting on his knees to level with his pets. "Get out of here," He patted his cats slightly, making them leave.

Good thing Sasuke had learned how much the cats loved to tease Solomon from time to time, so he had found someone to look after the pets after he left. The cats were only playing, he knew they had a liking to the Shiba Inu.

He glanced at his wristwatch, checking the time. The caretaker sure was taking his sweet as time. He picked out his phone and decided to shoot Naruto a message just in case he got slightly late.

The pet caretaker is a bit late, so I might get late too.

He had to wait a while before he got a response back.

Don't worry about it, I'll be waiting.

Then after that there was a smile-y face emoji added by Naruto into the conversation.

What did he mean by that?

Sasuke almost rolled his eyes out of his skull. He needed to stop himself and get laid.

Naruto was just being friendly, he didn't need to jump to conclusion like a thirteen-year-old teenager.

Solomon huffed, jumping slightly at its feet, trying to get his new owner's attention. "I get it Solomon," He started walking towards the pantry in his kitchen. "You want a treat." He dug through the piles of… cat and dog foods and snacks. When did he become a weird cat dog lady, he didn't know. He took in another deep breath. Where had his life come to? "Here," He held the treat in his hand for the dog to eat.

Solomon hadn't been shy for too long. At first he'd been a bit distance, probably missing Naruto., but soon enough he had warmed up to the place, Sasuke and the cats. The cats had ignored him at first but probably figured Solomon wasn't that bad a guy after all.

Or maybe they saw how many snacks they little shit got and wanted to take advantage.

Either way, it all worked out in the end.

Finally his intercom bell chimed, alarming him of someone's arrival. "You know you have the keys, right?" Sasuke said in a blank tone, clearly annoyed, as soon as he opened the door.

Itachi was officially unemployed and in the middle of job hunting. Sasuke trusted him enough to be in his home alone for a few hours and besides, the man had nothing better to do.

"Well, brother dearest, I thought I was entitled to annoy you." His smirk annoyed the living daylights out of Sasuke.

"Yeah okay, whatever." He left the older of the two inside his house. "I'll be back by ten." His keys already in his hands and his shoes tied in place.

"You haven't told me where you're going."

"No, I haven't." He opened the door to make an exit.

"You should tell me. I'm taking care of your pets after all." Itachi said petting Nala, the Sphynxs cat already in his hold. She purred. The damn cats loved him more than anyone in the whole family tree.

"And the pleasure could've been forever yours if you hadn't lied about being allergic to them." He leaned against the door, obviously this conversation was going to last much longer than it needed to.

"I have done no such thing." Itachi's eyes gleamed. "I had only suggested that I wouldn't be able to care after them as much as you could. We all know how much you love these two. The new addition to the family is nothing to complain about either." He referred to Solomon. "Though, I'm a bit confused as to what made you decide to get a dog." His smile widened, already knowing the answer to his question.

"That's not anything for you to worry about." Sasuke said frankly.

"Well, I'd have to care while they are all under my supervision. Don't you think?"

"You know enough from the last time you did this." He finally opened the door again. "Goodbye, brother."

He left the apartment, slightly afraid for the life of his pets.

So what if he'd gotten closer to them after a while of looking after them, it was only human to be able to do that.

Sasuke sat in his car, looking into the dark street in front of him. He took in a deep breath. The air choked him as he let it out being startled by the tapping on his driver seat window.

His head slowly looked to the side.

Naruto was on the other side of the glass, smiling.

The raven rolled down his window after he realised he wasn't just imaging the blond.

"Sasuke," Naruto's face showed friendly confusion. "Where are you looking off to?"

"Ah," He didn't know how to respond. "I think the better question is, why are you knocking on my car door window?" He played it off.

"I just parked right in front of you and I was just about to walk into the restaurant, yeah? And I just happened to peek into your car as I passed by and you were staring right back. I waved, ya know, and you kept staring. I had a feeling if I didn't knock you'd been here all night." Naruto in no means wanted to stay and eat in the restaurant all alone. He's look like a loser, of course that was his only reason.

Well, this wasn't embarrassing at all. Sasuke thought.

"Okay, move back. I'm coming out." He turned off his car. Yes, he had not done that yet. Yes, he didn't need you judging him for spacing out. He was judging himself quite well already.

Naruto stepped to the side. Sasuke walked out of the car and proceeded to lock it with a button on his car keys.

The two boys walked side by side, dressed all in casual, as they walked to the front of the restaurant.

Naruto had invited them to a self-barbeque Korean restaurant, not too far from downtown. Sasuke had been a bit reluctant to go at first but Itachi had said it was good to try new things. Itachi had also mentioned that he had been enough of a stuck up bitch to Naruto already… in a much more subtle way of course.

The blond held the door to the restaurant open to let Sasuke inside. The raven muttered a quiet thank you as he slipped through.

The two sat opposite from each other. "Have you ever tried this before?" Naruto began, trying to start a conversation.

"Not really," Sasuke replied. "What about you?"

"I used come down here a lot while I was in college, I mean an all you can eat meat fest. It's amazing." He grinned. If he hadn't moved out maybe his post-secondary life would've been so much easier, but he had never regretted it. So why start now?

"What did you study in college?" Sasuke tried to move the conversation alone. This wasn't too much of a personal question, right?

"Behavioural science," Naruto beamed at waitress who arrived as soon as he answered the question. She asked for their preferences and left.

"Oh, how was that like?" Sasuke asked as soon as she left. Knowing the blond had studies the behaviour of living things slightly scared him. Naruto could probably see right through him time to time.

"It was interesting, it still is." His face held a nostalgic expression.

Yep, defiantly could see through him.

"What did you study?"

"Business and literature."

"A double major, huh? Sounds fun, must be a load though."

Sasuke shrugged.

"Why literature?"

"I had time to pass." There was something… embarrassing in admitting his passion. He didn't know why.

Naruto looked at him for a second then proceeded to flash Sasuke a knowing smile. He was beginning to understand why Itachi was trying so hard to pair the two of them up. He didn't comment on it though. Instead he began commenting on the food. "I like the seasonings they offer here. The food is delicious."

"I'm expecting you to burn most of it to be fairly honest."

"Hey!" Naruto shouted. "I've got four years of experience up my sleeve."

"Idiots don't learn easy."

"You are such a bastard." Naruto pouted, flipping over a beef piece and heard it sizzle.

"Thank you very much." Sasuke stole the piece that Naruto was going in to pick up. "Thanks for this too."

"Watch it buddy, it get personal once you get food involved."

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

The rest of the dinner was… dare Sasuke say, fun. Unexpectedly. It was easy to get along with Naruto even though he made dumb puns and anticipated Sasuke to laugh at them.

Naruto was cute. With his witty sense of humor and attitude. The way he presented himself. The knowing glances and smiles he'd give occasionally. Him being able to look at Sasuke as if he was looking at him rather than what he showed off. It sent chills down his spine and wanted to get to know Naruto more because of it.

They say that curiosity killed the cat and Sasuke wasn't ready to let a cat go yet. So, this would stay platonic for as long as it could.

"Isn't it amazing? Living the ordinary life, Sasuke?" Naruto looked at him with curious eyes.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke dipped a piece of meat in a black sauce and ate it.

"I mean, you know, this." He pointed at the table with his chopsticks.

Sasuke raised a brow.

"The way you can have fun from little things."

"But I have fun from little things." Sasuke argued.

"Like what?"

"Like writing, ah, writing out reports." He refused to say he enjoyed the little times in his day where he could sit down and write. With being able to write it was as if he could do anything he wanted to do. He had a sort of freedom with literature that he didn't have in his own life. He stopped his thoughts. No, he had the liberty.

Naruto's grinned. "Oh, is that so? Why you studied literature in University makes more sense now." Sasuke, as much as he'd was against it, was an open book. To Naruto, in the current moment anyway. "What else do you like to write other than reports, Sasuke?" He pushed on.

"I don't know why but this is starting to feel like a therapy session." He dodged the bullet and started to maneuver the conversation in another direction. "What do you like to do in your spare time?"

"Mostly, I play around with my pet. Unfortunately, he's my only friend but I'm sure you can relate."

"If you want to talk about it in that sense, technically I have more friends than you."

"That's actually very sad, Sasuke. You're like a cat lady starter pack."

"I have a dog too now so I don't think that applies to me."

"I love how you defend your pets but not your own orientation, Miss Sasuke."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "That's Sir Sasuke to you."

"Aww, and just when we started becoming friends too. Why put the colleague status between us?" Naruto faked hurt.

"I wouldn't say you were a friend." Sasuke set aside his chopsticks and took a sip of his water. He was full, and the food had been really good.

"And yet here we are inside an all-you-can-eat korean barbecue style restaurant telling each other things you'd tell a new friend." He cocked his head to a side. "But, who am I kidding? Who would want to be friends with an asshole like you anyway?" Sasuke could snap that cocky expression right off Naruto's pretty little face.

"Seems like the answer is within you." He played it off cool. He didn't understand why but he spoke in uncharacteristic ways around Naruto. Maybe he was catching the idiot from Naruto.

Naruto snorted in response. "It seems so."

Being friends with Naruto might not be such a terrible idea after all.

Naruto rolled around in his bed, trying to search for his phone. It was ringing an obnoxious and loud tone. He didn't remember setting that for anything on his phone.

It was too damn early for this.

He looked at his phone screen which tattled on Itachi ringing him. "What?" He said as soon as accepted the call.

"Did a wake a precious little fox up?" Itachi's smug voice replied.

"Kurama's sleeping, luckily." He didn't want to be dealing with this ass right now. Best friends were a pain.

"Not what I meant." He cleared his throat. "I heard you went out to dinner with Sasuke."

"Oh, ah, yeah. I invited him as an apology." He said, thinking back to the night. It had been a lot of fun. After the dinner they had decided to go hunt for dessert. It had gotten late so they had to settle for McDonald's. It was cheap and Sasuke had talked shit about how unhealthy it was. Naruto told him to just up and eat his damn ice cream cone.

"Is that so? And what do you have to apologize to him for?"

"I'm sure he's told you all the details, so spare me, Itachi." Naruto shifted in his bed.

"Sasuke's started rebelling, he's in that stage in his life." He chuckled. Talking shit about Sasuke was a pleasure.

"Emos tend to stay there from the day they're born." The blond yawned. "He's a big boy now, he can deal with his problems."

"I suppose." Itachi cleared his throat. "Well, why dinner?"

"You don't listen do you?"

"How long have you known me for, Naruto?" He lifted a brow. The answer to that was a well over five years, from the beginning of post-secondary. The only reason Sasuke had never met Naruto through that duration of time was because he had gone to university abroad. after coming back the raven was pushed into piles of work and had no time for meeting Itachi's little friends.

"Yeah, yeah. You know that I ignored him even though I knew him, right? I'm sure he told you that part in detail." He rolled his eyes. "It was only because he pissed me off and I didn't want to start a fight at the old man's party."

Itachi's eyes lit up in amusement yet he was still a bit on the border of his thoughts towards Naruto's current state of mind. It seemed Naruto had started warming up to Minato again. Or it could be that the blond was finally growing up and was starting to understand that some things just didn't go his way. "Oh, and where are you two at now?" He decided to take the safer route in the conversation. They only talked about Minato when Naruto brought it up… now anyway.

"Ah," He sorted through his thoughts. "He's still a complete asshole but I guess he's tolerable."

"I'm sure you noticed quite a handful of things to change your opinion about him."

"Oh, have I?" Naruto hummed. "Sasuke's definitely interesting to me, I won't lie about that."

"Sasuke thinks you're interesting too."

"That helps our friendship." Naruto licked his lips, his mouth was dry from waking up from his sleep.

"Everything starts off there." You could practically hear the evil seep through the phone's speakers.

"And this one will stay here, Thanks." Naruto shot down immediately.

"Well, I wouldn't know."

"Also, while I've still go you. You changed my ringtone for you didn't you?"

"I don't think I know what you're talking about." Itachi said innocently.

"I trusted you with my passcode and everything." Naruto whined.

"That's all on you." Itachi chuckled. "Anyway, continuing on to what I was originally here for."

"...Okay?" Naruto's forehead creased, his face showing clear confusion.

"My brother… you do understand why I need you to be his friend, right?"

"Of course, yes I do. Don't worry, I'll try my best to help him out." That very sentence from Naruto's mouth was the most relaxing song Itachi had heard in years. He trusted the blond for a reason after all.

Sasuke sat crouched down on the floor, he extended his hand out to let the little dog approach him. Solomon staggered towards Sasuke and took a sniff of his palm. He tottered closer and licked Sasuke's palms. Shivers went through Sasuke, this lick was much wetter than those of cats; something he was used to.

"He buddy," Naruto cooed. "You seem to be doing well, very healthy." He ruffled the Shiba's
fur under its chin.

Naruto turned to Sasuke. "He's doing better, seems to have adjusted to your place. You've
started to take better care of him." He noted.

"I've gotten used to him." Sasuke nodded. "The cats' playful bullying has died down as well."

"Isn't that great, Solomon?" Naruto lift up his hand for the dog to put his paw on top of it.

"How are you able to do that?" Sasuke shook his head in disbelieve. "He doesn't do that with anyone else."

"I don't know, I guess he likes me."

"Dog whisperer." Sasuke coughed.

"What?" The blond's eyes twitched in annoyance.

"I said, do you want to grab some coffee?" Sasuke looked at Naruto. "You're about to close right? My treat." He offered.

Naruto hummed. "You've been treating me to a lot of coffee lately haven't you been, Sasuke?"

Sasuke's eyes slightly widened as they trailed away from Naruto. "It's because we've been seeing each other a lot thanks- I mean, because of Solomon. You helped me find a dog, I think it's the least I can do."

Naruto snorted. "You're doing enough by paying me." He rolled his eyes, the blond walked towards the shutter and closed it down, locking the store. "How about I treat you today, Sasuke. I make great coffee, you can step in if you're not afraid of peasant houses."

Sasuke snorted. "Sure,"

Naruto lead the way and Solomon uncharacteristically followed behind them. The dog had a mind of his own and wandered around until he got bored enough to go to his owner.

The sound of the door lock clicking open made Kurama's ear twitch slightly but the fox didn't make any movement to shift from his little bed. Instead he yawned and yipped to let his owner know he acknowledged his presence.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow in confusion at Naruto. What type of animal made sounds like
that?

"And that's what the fox says." Naruto laughed to the point where he almost fell to the floor wheezing at his own joke. He hadn't be able to deliver this joke because no one had come to his place since Naruto had rescued the fox. It had definitely worth the wait.

Sasuke stared at the idiot and Solomon tottered away to find the fox. Maybe he could step on the dumb fox.

Sasuke looked at Naruto in pure complexity, what was this creature even. "What are you? An idiot?"

Naruto glared at Sasuke. "It might be a couple of years late but no one's seen my illegally adopted fox for me to able to make this joke." He explained himself. "Can I live?" A dank meme was. apparently, Naruto's way of living.

"You're pretty openly proud for something like owning an illegal pet. You do understand the penalties for that, right?" Sasuke raised a brow.

The blond led them into his kitchen and started up the kettle. He tapped his foot on the ground, looking at Sasuke. "Smuggling and this and that and blah, blah, blah." Naruto rolled his eyes. "I'm just a normal guy that found an exotic, injured fox." Naruto shoved a couple of coffee beans into his grinder and waited until the roar of the power and crunching of the beans finished to continue. "I didn't understand how this species was able to be here since it's native two borders across but I couldn't just leave him there."

Naruto took off the boiled water and poured it into two mug, one had more than the other. Naruto had met Sasuke for so many coffee meetings that he knew exactly how Sasuke liked his coffee; black, no sugar. He stirred a spoon in Sasuke's cup and handed it over to him. "Black like your soul and bitter like your words, just how you like it."

"You think you're so cute." He grasped the cup, it was warm in his hands. The coldness of the mug and heat of the coffee created a great sensation in his palms.

"Nope, it's a fact, you know, me being cute."

Sasuke snorted. "Shut up." But honestly, he wholeheartedly agreed. "You're ugly." He said instead.

Naruto stuck out his tongue. "I can't stand how friendly we've become." Naruto said thinking back to three months ago when all he wanted was to get the prick out of his hair. As he started meeting Sasuke more and talking to him he figured the bastard wasn't all that bad. They had hit it off really well after they learned to ignore how fucking annoying the other one was.

"Anyway, so I took him in and had planned to give him away to a wildlife foundation or something but all those companies were just too suspicious for me to follow through with that. So, I moved out and took care of Kurama. If dad had found out about my little child I would've gotten slaughtered." Naruto laughed.

"Why take the risk?" Sasuke took a sip of his coffee. The brew tingled at the tip of his tongue. It was amazing.

"I was going to move out either way. If he had found out it would've been easier to do it anyway." Naruto set his cup aside. "Plus, I wanted to be an animal specialist and my dad would've been against it. Everything was telling me to leave so I did."

"He'd be against it? Did he want you to head into politics?" This was something Sasuke was familiar with.

"Not really, He didn't care about that. Anyway, what made you stay in the family business." He changed the topic. No need to get bitter right now especially after going through the struggle of sweetening his coffee too.

"It had always just been there so I thought I might as well do it." He shrugged.

"So you wanted to make your dad proud." Naruto stated.

"I didn't say that." Sasuke took a gulp of his coffee.

"Being verbal isn't the only way to communicate."

Sasuke didn't respond, instead he took another sip from his cup.

"How's Itachi's new career going?" Naruto shifted the topic.

"You two are close, you should ask him directly." Sasuke finished his cup.

"Very true, but he seems to be giving people space lately." Naruto traced his fingers on the rim of his white, empty, cup set on the counter.

"He has had a few offers here and there but he seems to be waiting for a good opportunity." Sasuke shrugged. "I don't understand that industry nor do I follow it so I don't know how to consult him. Though I'm presuming you have been?" Sasuke lift up one of his brows.

"Not at all, I'm exactly where you are in this one." Naruto grabbed Sasuke and his own cup and proceeded to put them both in the sink. "Also, Itachi got where he is because he wants to be there."

"That's not what Itachi says."

"He doesn't say anything like that." Naruto laughed.

"Verbalization isn't the only type of communication." Sasuke let a smirk tug at his lips.

"Yeah, yeah. Very clever." Naruto's smile grew on his face.

"Indeed."

Sasuke walked around the office, strolling to see how the employees under him were working like. It was boring to get all his work done and then have nothing to do.

The damn office needed to keep up.

His eyes glanced to each employee. They'd tighten up as soon as they felt the heat of his stare and let out a sigh of relief as soon as it left them.

Sasuke was scary.

Finally done with his rounds Sasuke decided to head back to his office.

Sasuke ordered for a coffee from his secretary, Suigetsu, when he made his way past the pale haired man's desk that was outside his office."Yes, sir." He had replied and left immediately to grab the drink.

Sasuke flicked through his emails as soon as he sat on his seat.

Still nothing.

Nothing to do for him yet.

He picked up his phone and saw that Naruto had finally replied to a text he had sent the blond. They both texted back and forth a lot. It had somehow become a part of their daily schedule.

'Yeah, but that was your fault.' It read.

Sasuke snorted. 'No, it was not.' He sent the reply.

What a childish fight, Sasuke shook his head. A slight curve forced its way onto his lips. He still really enjoyed these conversations though.

"Oi, boss." Suigetsu walked into the office. "Your coffee." He set it down. "I'd say it was bitter like your face but you seemed to be in a good mood."

A scowl spread across Sasuke's face. "Get lost."

"Jeez, say thanks at least."

"I'm going to fire your ass." Sasuke glared at him.

"Hey, man. I only work part time cause I'm a good friend so go ahead." He walked out laughing.

His phone vibrated in his hand again.

'We should meet up. Last time was a while ago.'

That didn't seem like a bad idea at all. After the launch of the downtown project the two of them had both become equally busy and hadn't be able to do more than text.

'Sure. Why don't you come over for dinner?'

'Gotcha', just don't give me food poisoning'

The raven opened the door to the oven and poked the meat with a sharp wooden needle to check if it was ready. The stick slid into the tender meat, the water that the meat had release had tried out as well. The main piece was ready to be eaten.

He had grilled some pork. The raven decided to make simple garden salad, some mash and gravy to go along with the meat.

He set up the table, expecting Naruto to be there at any time. He had just been on the intercom and Sasuke had let him into the building.

Speak of the devil, the knock at the door declared the blond's arrival. Guess he knew not to ring with a dog in the house ready to bark at any moment.

"Hey," He said, opening the door.

"Hi," Naruto held up a bag. "I brought wine. I know you like red."

"Thanks," Sasuke stepped aside. "Come on in."

"Thank you," He said entering. He took off his shoes and put them on the wrack that was just by the door. The blond also held a pet carrier in his other hand. Kurama was inside of it, sleeping. He would wake up as soon as he'd hear the hinges of the gate creak open.

Solomon and Kurama had actually seemed to get along. Naruto though it was best for his orange fur ball to interact with other fur balls so he took the chance to bring him over. Being alone in their house couldn't have been healthy for him.

This was another great advantage of getting to know Sasuke.

The apartment very closely resembled the one that Itachi had. Spacious and awfully big for one person to be living in alone. "Doesn't it get lonely in here?"

"Not really," Sasuke shrugged, leading the blond to his dinner table.

"I guess it wouldn't be with three pets in the house." Naruto set the carrier down and opened the door to Kurama's freedom. As expected the fox walked out as if he owned the place. Kurama stretched and started looking around as soon as he realised he was in an unfamiliar environment. His head snapped side to side, his nose twitching trying to take in as much information as possible.

"Suppose not." Sasuke was busy with getting plates filled with the food for the two. He tried his best to make it presentable.

Naruto watched as the fox tried to adjust to the place. Kurama had slightly calmed down when he noticed his owner.

A bark from the other room snapped their attentions. It was followed by a few cat hisses than a pair of smug Sphynxs cats making an appearance. Kurama got into a fighting stance, ready to jump and started hissing at the cats. Solomon walked right out after the cats which led to Kurama settling down. the fox patterned to get closer to the dog.

"And you two must be infamous Simba and Nala." Naruto held out his hand for the cats to approach. The two cats sniffed and licked the offered hand and started purring. "So cute." Naruto cooed. He smoothed his hands over their back. The cats tried their best to be petted in all the right places. This man knew what he was doing.

The fox obviously had no liking to the cats trying to claim his master.

Naruto was his.

Kurama had pounced onto the cats which used the giant as protection. Naruto stumbled and fell over his own feet. The do barked and ran over to check for any wounds on his previous caretaker. He licked wherever he could to help out.

Sasuke walked out to see the sight of two fur balls, and two hairless cats, running over and licking a very defeated Naruto laying on the floor. The black haired man put the plates he was holding on to the table and tried to gather his composer. He failed as he burst out laughing.

"Hey! Not funny, you're supposed to help me out. You idiot." Naruto groaned.

"You can help yourself." Sasuke only managed to laugh this much when Naruto was around.

"Sasuke," He whined. "I don't want to make them sad." He didn't have it him to take all of these precious little being off of him.

"Then let them do what they want." Sasuke shrugged, the expression of amusement clearly plastered on his face.

"But the food actually seems like it would taste good." His stomach was growling. "I wanna eat."

"Alright, alright." Sasuke kneeled down. "Come on, you have a food bowl of your own. Naruto isn't food." He managed to get the cats off of Naruto. He picked up the soft animals, one with each hand and walked away to put them in a separate room. "Stay here you two." He ordered as he closed the door.

The cats didn't seem to care as they went about playing in their room.

Yes, they had their own room but that didn't make Sasuke a cat dad.

When Sasuke got back Naruto was standing over the dog and fox playing around, chasing each other. Solomon barked. Kurama yipped.

"The washroom is on the right, down the hall." He pointed out. "You can wash up there."

"Alright, thanks." He flashed his pearly whites and popped off to the directions he was given.

"The food was so good, Sasuke." Naruto complimented.

"Of course it was, I made it." The raven sarcastically boasted.

"Okay, okay. Let's not get ahead of ourselves." Naruto shot Sasuke a playful look.

"You started it with the compliments." Sasuke put down his defense.

"Well sue me." Naruto tittered.

Sasuke hummed looking at Naruto. A smooth curve resting on his lips.

"You look scary smiling." Naruto commented light heartedly.

Sasuke scowled.

"That's more like it," He held back a cheeky snicker.

"Yeah?" Sasuke looked up at him.

"Yeah," Naruto stepped closer.

"Actually?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?" Sasuke's voice was low.

"Very much," They both stood in silence. "I, ah," Naruto slightly leaned forward.

Was that some sort of invite? Sasuke contemplated. Was Naruto asking him to kiss him?

He leaned a little into Naruto's space as well. "You, ah, what?" Sasuke asked. He bit his lips, slightly. He was close enough for their breaths to mingle.

Naruto's eyes widened. What was going on. This was all just happening so fast and he didn't even know what 'this' was.

Sasuke's lips pressed on top of Naruto's and in a matter of seconds were pulled away. It was a simple mouth to mouth touch.

"You… kissed me." Naruto said in disbelieve.

"Yes, I did." It didn't come out as confident as he had wanted it to be. The words were spoken with a hint of questioning in his tone. A slight whisper.

Naruto stared back at Sasuke with his big wide blue eyes. The confusion on his face. The wrinkles that folded in his skin as he expressed the emotions. They all seemed alluring to Sasuke.

The blond didn't know how to respond. So he just stood there looking at Sasuke. Out of many things today that he was expecting this was not one of them.

The whining from Solomon distracted Naruto's attention, he looked back at Sasuke slowly turning away again not knowing what to give more attention.

"Solomon?" Sasuke brushed past Naruto. The blond followed behind.

Inside, Sasuke was cowardly thankful for this distraction. Though, he's never had an issue with being rejected or confessing and even though Naruto's wide eyes were beautiful to him, the blond's silence before his reaction stopped Sasuke's lungs from expanding.

It was annoying. The fact that he couldn't compose himself enough to not kiss the blond. And the way he was scared of a rejection. This was all annoying. But, most of all this wasn't like him at all.

Maybe this was different because Sasuke genuinely cared for Naruto's friendship.

They both found the four pets in what seemed like a battle. Solomon stood behind Kurama, making noises to show his fear. Kurama was down low, ready to pounce. Quiet.

Nala hissed back at Kurama.

"Okay," Naruto took in a deep breath. "Not good." He let out a nervous laugher. "Come on, Kurama. Come here." He made his way slowly to the fox. "No need to fight," He whispered as he got closer.

Sasuke made the move to calm his cats down. "Nala," He said sternly, the cat slowly raised and walked away to follow Sasuke's voice.

"I'll check up on Solomon." Naruto offered. "Hopefully he isn't injured."

"Thanks," Sasuke's was voice much harder than it was necessary. Than intended.

"Solomon, don't worry you're okay. Let me see what's wrong." After checking Naruto had realised that the dog was perfectly fine. Nothing was wrong with him physically. "You seems to be okay." His confusions ran through his words.

Naruto put the Shiba Inu down and picked up his fox. He didn't want him running off and starting another battle in his war against everything that moved or didn't. "Alright, Kurama, that's enough for today. I think it's time we head on home, okay?" He walked over to the open living room. The pet carrier was in a corner next to a sofa. He picked it up and coxed the fox to enter it. "Good fox," He said as soon as Kurama followed the instruction.

He gripped the carrier in his right hand.

Sasuke walked in. The cats weren't with him.

"Oh, Sasuke, just in time too." He said. "I don't know what happened in there but I'm sorry. Kurama caused you such a hassle." Naruto was confused at Kurama's behaviour. Sure the fox got feisty but he had never seen him get so intense.

"No, it probably wasn't his fault. Nala and Simba get really full of themselves." He brushed off.

"I think I should go." Naruto took in a sharp breath. "It's… I feel ashamed."

"Of what exactly." Sasuke lifted his brow, showing his curiosity.

"I…"

"Because I kissed you." Sasuke said. No doubt in his words.

"No," He wasn't ashamed about that… just surprised.

"So you didn't hate it." Sasuke tried to confirm. Maybe he could work his way around it.

"I didn't…" Naruto looked away. Sasuke took a few steps forward. "Look, I don't know. I wasn't looking for something like this. I'm sorry if I gave off the wrong impression." He tried to make this short. They didn't need to make this awkward or bad for their friendship.

Sasuke exhaled, inaudibly. "I had no intentions of being so direct. I value our friendship."

Naruto coughed awkwardly. "You're fun to be around." Way to not make it weird.

They both stood in silence.

"But now that I've made it obvious…" He lingered on. "There's no point in hiding it is there?"

Naruto took a step back. Itachi wouldn't approve of this at all. He, himself, could not approve of this either. He should turn him down to the best of his abilities. He hadn't ever even considered this as a possibility ever.

"Could you go out to dinner with me?" Sasuke asked. "It's also very obvious that you've never considered this at all but could we try to give it a shot?" Sasuke didn't believe in luck but he was hoping that he'd have a bit of it today.

"I'm sorry," Naruto shifted his weight from one foot to the other and back. "I'm… I'm just a bit surprised. I wasn't expecting you to be attracted to me, I thought you'd be more-

"I'm gay." Sasuke interjected, he didn't need Naruto to finish that sentence. "I'm not trying to experiment with my orientation just because you might be slightly into guys."

"How-," He cut himself of. "Did Itachi?" He asked.

"He's my brother, he noticed my… attraction to you from before." He worded carefully. He didn't want it to come out as if his brother was his wingman. It would probably put Naruto off.

"Oh," Now, Naruto didn't understand why Itachi had wanted Sasuke so close to him. "I just… can I get back to you on this?" He needed to think about this.

Sasuke bit his lip. "Sure."

Naruto felt guild stab at his heart. He didn't understand why.

Naruto walked around his cold room. In the last few days off summer transitioning into autumn the rain fell from the skies with no mercy in mind. It pattered against the glass window and blurred the view from the outside.

He looked at his phone, the blond scrolled down his contact list. The letter U was displayed loudly on a little bar on his screen. To think he'd have both of the Uchiha brothers' numbers in his phone. It seemed… weird and he didn't know why.

He looked as Sasuke's name, right under Itachi's. He tapped his index finger to the smooth curve of his phone's corner with his index finger, thinking. The way he was holding the device made it easy for him to do so.

He waited for the phone to ring as soon as he pressed the call button. It did, once, twice- someone picked up.

"Naruto, to what do I owe you the pleasure of?" The husky voice asked.

"Itachi." He said, a slight anger in his voice.

"You can't play angry cop without telling me the reason of my arrest." Itachi said, a monotone voice slipped through the speaker's of Naruto's voice. Whatever was coming his was was going to be interesting.

"You set me up." He accused.

"With, Sasuke?" Itachi asked. "I will say I have no way to defend myself in this position."

"You just fucked around with me so he could make a move. What the fuck?" Naruto didn't think Itachi would ever sell him out, and too his brother too, but yet here he was.

"I do see why you'd be angry but I assure you him making a move wasn't part of the plan."

"Well, then you should've looked over the blueprint of your setup before putting them up for construction."

"Very constructive analogy but not as accurate as you assume it to be." Itachi was having fun, though he wouldn't verbalize it in anyway. If Naruto were here to see the gleam in his eyes it wouldn't have been so good for the long hair's man's perfect visage. A punch that would lead to a black eye, probably.

"Then what?" The blond was getting impetient.

"I'd say Sasuke found attraction towards you the moment he saw you."

Naruto snorted. "Please, I've known him for almost a year now and he's not the type to believe let alone do such things."

"And yet you only found out he was gay yesterday." Itachi held back a snicker.

"He just didn't look at anyone in such a way. I thought he was probably asexual to be honest. Anyway, our sexualities have nothing to do with the situation." Of course the blond didn't miss out on the information Itachi had just given to him. Itachi obviously kept tabs on how Sasuke's relationship with him was proceeding and through Sasuke none the less.

They are close brothers after all.

"Of course, but I think you should definitely give the date a try." Itachi steered the conversation in the right direction. Them dating was probably better for the both of them. They had a balance. The could even each other out, probably.

"I don't feel like it's right for for me to do so." The blond rejected.

"And why is that?" Itachi's amusement left his eyes, being replaced with a curious gaze.

"I became his friend for a certain reason and it was all because of you. I feel like I've played him." Naruto's eyes closed as he let out a sigh.

Itachi couldn't believe what he was hearing. The idiot seriously thought he was the one that had been playing rather than the one that had been played. "You were very against it at first though, you might have started off being his friend for my selfish demands but you stayed because you genuinely thought he would be a good friend to you." If Itachi could help these two get together then he could probably be relationship counsellor.

"Yes, a friend." He emphasized.

"You're being ridiculous." Itachi shot.

"I have the right to be." Naruto let out a quiet yet 'hmph'.

"Do you have a proper reason to say no? It's not like Sasuke could do you any harm." Itachi slipped in.

"I haven't dated anyone since I left university..." Naruto breathed out.

"You're insecure." Out of many things, this was something Itachi wasn't expecting.

"...I might be." The blond flopped down on his bed, laying down. His eyes were glued to the ceiling until Kurama yipped, announcing his arrival into the room. The little animal jumped onto the low bed and found his place next to his owner. He demanded to be pet. Naruto stroked the orange fur.

Itachi didn't respond. He didn't know how Sasuke was in proper relationships. The boy had never really dated anyone seriously. The raven had only used people to satisfy him, and then he'd move on. He didn't know what he could tell Naruto to comfort him. "You've never backed out from something you were allured to. Why back out now?" He instead, put down a challenge for Naruto.

"You're right." He replied after a few seconds of silence. "Why should I?" He smiled. "Thanks, Itachi… though I do find it weird to be going on a date with my best friend's brother."

"I'm not finding this situation weird at all." He chuckled, clarifying.

"It's because you set it up, you sicko." Naruto laughed.

Naruto read through the last messages he had sent and received from Sasuke. The last conversation they had was when Naruto had gone over for dinner. He smiled at the simplicity and smartness to the conversation.

Of course, he was just stalling time.

He reached the end of the line. His last message being: 'I've left, on my way'. Seen two days ago.

He had missed these little banters he had with Sasuke.

The blond took in a deep breath. and tapped his thumbs onto the screen, typing up a quick message.

'I'm free this Sunday, a date sounds good.'

He dropped his phone onto his bed, beside him, after sending the message, for it to never return.

Not too long after his phone buzzed in response.

Sasuke sat on his carpeted floor, heaving out his millionth sigh. The cats moved around him, sensing their owner's worries. They tried their best to comfort him. Solomon flopped onto his back, revealing his stomach- ready to be rubbed. The dog's pink tongue stuck out as he huffed out loud breaths. This was his best attempt at cheering up Sasuke.

It didn't seem to be working.

The raven wasn't one to sulk around. Once someone left him, which rarely happened, it was their loss. Sasuke didn't give a single fuck.

This time, though, he did care.

He exhaled loudly one more time. Nala jumped up to climb up to the pale man's shoulders. She curved her body around his head. She licked the man's face. Simba purred loudly and walked around Sasuke. brushing along him as he did. Solomon yipped, wagging his tail.

They were all trying their best to help Sasuke.

Sasuke heard his phone buzz just when he had decided he wanted to stop being useless and get some work done. He'd just work a bit, then some more and then more until he wasn't thinking about this.

He argued on whether or not he wanted to check the text he had just received.

He might as well, he thought, he was going to get up anyway.

The raven gently removed Nala off his shoulders and stood up on his feet, grabbing his phone from the floor on his way up.

It was a message from Naruto.

The raven sucked in a deep breath, not expecting this at all.

Sasuke's heart pounded fast as he read the first half of the messaged. A slight flutter in his stomach motivated Sasuke to get to the full text as soon as possible.

His palms were sweaty and cold.

I'm free this Sunday, a date sounds good.

Sasuke felt like jumping in excitement and shouting a victorious 'yes' but realised how uncivilized it was and instead constructed their date in his head. He had tried not to think about it just in case he was rejected but now that he had been put up on the offer and he could think about it all he wanted.

He felt like a teen going out on his first date.

He shook his head and lossed his grip on his phone, one he hadn't realised was so tight.

I'll pick you up at 6:30.

It has been continued and very much elongated. Expect around 2 more equally long chapters. :D