It wasn't until early the next morning when someone had trenched through the snow covered grounds to get Sasuke from Kiba's small cabin. Naruto and Sasuke had shared a blanket next to the roaring fire in the fireplace and Sasuke was the first to get up the next morning. He carefully peeled off the thick, brown blanket and edged his way out of Naruto's tight grip. This wasn't the first time the two of them were forced to share a blanket, but every time Naruto had placed him in the same tight grip sometime during the night.

Whether he wanted to be or not, Sasuke was an early raiser. The sun was just coming over the horizon when he got out of the blanket and Naruto's grip. The fire had gone out long ago and Sasuke grabbed the extra firewood next to the fireplace and started a new fire. Once the blaze was big enough, Sasuke went over to the kitchen to make breakfast. If Kiba was anything like Naruto, he would be rather happy to find that breakfast was already done by the time he woke up.

Sasuke looked inside the cabinets and ice box for anything he could make breakfast with and gave up when he saw that there was almost nothing left. He grabbed the bread that Kiba had used the night before for the sandwiches and the last couple eggs out of the ice box. Toast and eggs it was. Sasuke turned the gas on the oven on and was about to crack the first egg into the pan when a slight knock sounded on the door and the sound of someone coming in stopped him.

He turned around and found the silver haired butler, Kakashi, entering the cabin. The older man shook off the extra snow clinging to his clothes and turned his one visible eye towards Sasuke. "You must be Sasuke Namikaze, correct?" A little stunned at the sudden appearance of the head butler Sasuke just nodded, his hand still clutching the egg over the frying pan. "Good, now follow me."

Without another word Kakashi left, expecting Sasuke to follow after him. Sasuke quickly turned off the gas on the stove and shoved the food back into their original places. He raced out of the cabin and slammed the door shut behind him. Sasuke trailed after the footprints in the fresh snow and found the silver-haired man at the castle entrance. Sasuke caught up with Kakashi just as he was opening the door. The older man looked at him and motioned for the younger man to go in as if Sasuke was with him the entire time. Not letting his irritation show, Sasuke walked inside the large castle.

Sasuke couldn't help the gasp that escaped his lips after seeing the inside of the gigantic castle. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. The walls were pure white and sparkled when the candle light from above that hit them at just the right angle. Thousands of individual candles hung from huge, beautiful chandeliers.

Pure gold lined the walls and the furniture placed carefully around the room. Two large staircases were at the end of the entrance chamber and lead to the second floor. Magnificent doorways lined the upstairs and down and the floors were freshly waxed so Sasuke could perfectly see his reflection in them.

"I've been looking for you forever, Itachi. Did you hear that you're supposed to get a new butler today? I wonder how long this one will last." A deep voice said behind him and let out an amused chuckle. Sasuke completely ignored the voice since it didn't have anything to do with him, or so he thought. "Hey! Don't ignore me, Itachi!" And a hand grabbed Sasuke's shoulder and turned him around.

Sasuke held in his surprise, there was no way this guy was a perfect. His skin was dyed a deep blue and it looked like… he had gills on the sides of his face. "Opps, my bad. You're not Itachi after all, but are you his brother or something? You sure look a lot like him." The blue-skinned man flashed his sharpened fangs at the stunned Sasuke.

"Kisame, this is Sasuke. He's Itachi's new butler." Kakashi stepped in between them and removed the newly named Kisame from Sasuke's shoulder. He would never admit it, but Sasuke was entirely grateful when Kakashi had stepped in between them. Something just didn't… feel right about the other male. It was feeling of a predator watching its prey. "Further introductions must happen later, Kisame. Sasuke and I have somewhere to be."

Sasuke held in a shiver and bowed. "It was nice meeting you, Kisame." Before the raven was even upright, Kakashi had grabbed him by the arm and was already pulling him away from the shark-like man. Kisame flashed the two of them a fanged smile and gave a slight wave.

When the doors shut behind them, Kakashi gave his companion a small grin. At least… that was what Sasuke thought he was doing under his mask. "So, what did you think of our military general?"

Military general? "Your military general is an imperfect?" Sasuke asked. It seemed that he learned new things every day. Imperfects were higher up in the social status around here than he thought they were.

Kakashi nodded, "Most of the people in the castle are imperfects. There are fewer perfects in the world then you know. Kisame is great at his job, not even the Uchihas were reluctant to let him become the General." Kakashi focused his one good eye at Sasuke, "I'm an imperfect, you know."

Sasuke wasn't exactly surprised at Kakashi being an imperfect; it was kind of obvious that the older man was hiding something under his mask. "If you're the head butler and an imperfect, why is everyone freaking out about me becoming the Uchiha's new butler?"

Kakashi looked completely amused at his question, "So, Iruka didn't tell you the specifics, huh?" Sasuke shook his head; most of what the brown haired man had said to Naruto and him were about Naruto's job. Iruka had told them after they had gone into silence when the explanations were done that he had lingered more on Naruto's job since he didn't really know what Sasuke had to do to please the Uchihas.

Kakashi seemed to mull over his choice of words for a few seconds before saying anything more. "Well, not really specifics, but what happened to the others that were brought in for your job." When Kakashi said this, the words of, I wonder how long this one will last, Kisame replayed in his head. The older man must have sensed what he was thinking and placed a comforting hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, those were just rumors," and Kakashi squeezed his shoulder before putting it back at his side. However, I wonder how long this one will last, kept bouncing around his head against his will. After all, all lies are based on truth.

*Imperfect Love*

Six months later and Sasuke hadn't seen hide nor hair of his master. Over time, he had learned that he wouldn't be the butler to the entire Uchiha family, but the personal butler of the heir to the family, Itachi Uchiha. Apparently the Uchihas were instead living in a mansion at the edge of the castle's territory and that was why he hadn't seen any of them.

These last six months had been used for Sasuke to learn the proper ways to be a butler. Of course he had been trained for his job before actually doing it, it was the Uchihas for Pete's sake, and he had to learn everything perfectly. Sasuke had been drilled over and over again in how he should speak, act, and move until it had become part of himself.

Sasuke thought his new job would be torture, but it was actually the exact opposite. He had his own room in the castle, he had warm water to bathe in, he had food that was made by other people and, best of all, he wasn't always looked down upon. Of course there were the few stuck up perfects around, but most of the perfects in the castle had grown up with imperfects and treated them with almost complete equality.

Sasuke walked out of the library and silently cursed Kakashi. The older man had been the one to teach him over the last six months and the older man still found new ways to irritate him. Today he had to balance a plate of heavy tableware on one hand. Seems easy right? Wrong. Yes, he had to balance the tableware, but Kakashi had made him wear different sized pumps with different length skirts saying that butlers had to wear different kinds of clothing during the job. Of course, after many curse words and a very pissed off Sasuke, the raven had gone along with the… unusual practice session. It wasn't until the very end of that session when Kakashi finally said that the clothing was for the female butlers.

He cursed Kakashi again and many of the other people in the corridors took great lengths to avoid him. It wasn't that he wasn't liked in the castle, it was actually the opposite. Kiba hadn't been kidding when he said he would be popular with the female staff. The other people were currently avoiding him because they had long ago realized that he shouldn't be messed with when he was angry.

Ino, a maid in the castle, had one day worked up the courage to ask him out. Sasuke would have politely turned her down, but she had the luck to ask him after a session with Kakashi. Sasuke had, almost literally, bitten her head off. After he had blown off the steam and let the guilt sink in, he had sought out the blond girl and explained his out of character behavior. Ino, being the rumor starter and social gatherer, had gotten the word around about his awful mood after being with Kakashi and, now, people had taken her words to heart and stirred away from him when possible.

"Sasuke!" Well, everyone but one. Sasuke turned his head and growled at the approaching blond blur. "I finally found you! Iruka wants to see you." Naruto gasped out and stepped in stride with the raven.

Sasuke's bad mood evaporated the moment Naruto mentioned Iruka. If Iruka wanted to see him it had something to do with his job. Was he going to be fired because he didn't stand up to the Uchiha's standards? Or was he finally going to see the famous Itachi Uchiha and get started on the job he had been training for, for the past six months?

"Why does Iruka want to see me?" Sasuke turned his coal black eyes to his overly hyper companion and saw he was wearing the same goofy smile as usual. He hadn't seen the blond very often these past few months in the castle, but when they did meet it was mostly by pure chance. Sasuke mostly stayed inside the castle since most of his work revolved around the insides. Naruto, however, was the opposite. Since the blond worked with the different animals stationed there, most of the time he was outside.

Of course Sasuke had missed Naruto since they saw each other so few times, but he would never admit or show it to anyone. His pride wouldn't allow such feelings to be shown to anyone. Naruto was another story though. He always wore that big, goofy smile all the time and Sasuke couldn't tell if that smile was for him or if it was some kind of default the blond always had on him.

"Iruka just said to tell you he wanted to see you, but the way he was acting I'd say it has something to do with what happened in the courtyard yesterday," Naruto commented.

Sasuke raised one of his eye brows, "The courtyard? What happened in the courtyard?" He knew that he didn't really know what happened around the castle and the rumors going around, but with the way Naruto was acting whatever happened had to be big and he should have heard about it.

Naruto's bright smile wavered a bit, "You mean you don't know what happened? The whole castle, hell, the whole town has been talking about it."

"Well excuse me for not caring about other peoples' trivial business," Sasuke murmured.

Naruto started to laugh as if what he had said been the most hilarious thing he had heard all day. Sasuke was taken back by the sudden outburst from the blond. What the hell was so funny anyways? When Naruto was finally done with his laughing attack he answered his partner's question. "Sorry about that, I just would have thought you would have known since it revolved around your future master."

This was about Itachi? Then why the hell didn't he hear about it? "Just tell me what happened already, Naruto."

Naruto wrapped one of his arms around Sasuke's shoulders and gave the raven his signature foxy grin. "Be glad that I was actually present when it happened so you won't be hearing any rumor crap from the castle."

"Sure, sure, sure," Sasuke rolled his eyes, but allowed the offending arm to stay where it was.

"Well, in a galaxy far, far away… wait, that sounds familiar."

Sasuke glared, "Cut the crap, Naruto." Why did the blond always have to get a laugh in on serious subjects? They were serious for a reason; he shouldn't be joking around about this.

"Alright, alright, don't get your panties in a bunch. Itachi and his father, Fugaku, had an argument in the courtyard. Apparently, Itachi is gay and his father wasn't at all happy about it."

"Why was he angry? I thought same gender relationships were accepted here."

Naruto chuckled, "Well, wouldn't you be angry if the heir of the Uchiha family was gay and wouldn't prove a child to carry it on?" Sasuke sighed; damn, Naruto had a point there, but what did this have to do with him? He shook his head; he would just have to ask Iruka once he got there.

*Imperfect Love*

Sasuke barged into his room late that night and fell, exhausted, onto his bed. I never would have guessed Iruka was even more of a tyrant then Kakashi is; Sasuke mused. Naruto had been wrong on why Iruka had wanted to see him; it had nothing to do with what happened in the courtyard. It did, however, involve his job.

He had spent the last eight hours demonstrating all he had learned from the past six months in front of Iruka. It was a test. A test to see if he was ready for the job that was handed to him… and he had passed with flying colors. It was only after those eight hours was he told that he would soon actually begin his job. He had all of tomorrow to get ready and pack before he was shipped off to the Uchiha manor that night.

Sasuke kicked off his shoes and wrapped one of his blankets around himself. He knew he should take a bath and take off all the grime, sweat and dirt from his busy day, but he couldn't bring himself to get up. Sasuke heard the clock tower in the courtyard chime off twelve notes and allowed his eyes to close themselves and quickly fell asleep.

*Imperfect Love*

Sasuke's coal black eyes flickered open and he groaned. Why did he always have to get up early even when he needed extra sleep? The raven sighed; he was already up, he might as well get ready. Sasuke heaved himself out of bed and pulled off his shirt. He was just about to turn the knob on the bathtub when a knock sounded at his door.

"Come in!" Sasuke shouted and turned around to face his early visitor.

A bushel of silver hair flashed in the doorway and Sasuke had to stifle a groan. "Hey, Sasuke, I hear it's your last day."

"Then you heard right; I'm leaving for the Uchiha manor tonight." Feeling eyes on his back, Sasuke turned around and found Kakashi looking him up and down. Feeling conscious for the lack of a shirt on his body, Sasuke uselessly tried to cover himself with his hands and arms.

"My, my Sasuke, I didn't know you liked me that much," Kakashi said and walked into the raven's bedchamber. He closed the door, crossed his arms across his chest and leaned against the doorway.

"Go to hell you perverted old man!" Sasuke shouted and grabbed the nearest thing to him, a scroll on the Uchiha clan's history, and threw it at his silver-haired sensei.

Kakashi effortlessly caught the scroll and placed it on a side table by the door. "You really need to control that anger of yours if you want Itachi to keep you as his sla- ah, butler." Sasuke turned red at Kakashi's comment on his anger and looked away, embarrassed, at the other's words. Ignoring his student's change in skin color, Kakashi opened the door and grabbed something from outside. "I brought you your breakfast; take it as my congratulations on passing Iruka's Nazi test. Oh and meet Naruto at the stables once you're all packed; he'll have a horse ready for your departure."

Without another word, Kakashi placed his breakfast, a plate of steaming pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon and orange juice, on the same table as the scroll and left the room. After hearing his stomach rumble, Sasuke decided to prolong his bath even longer and picked up his breakfast.

*Imperfect Love*

This was it. Sasuke picked up his bag, this was all he had since Iruka had taken Naruto and him without any word beforehand, and stepped into the footholds on the horse's harness. Naruto held his arms up in case he lost his balance and fell, but Sasuke got on without any problems.

The blond looked at the overhead raven with saddened eyes. "We seem to keep getting farther and farther away from each other every time, huh? First we got separate jobs around the castle and now… we might never see each other again." Naruto paused, "I'm going to miss you, teme…"

Sasuke looked at the blond in surprise; it had been such a long time since he had heard that nickname. "I'm going to miss you too, dope," and Sasuke let a genuine smile creep across his face. Not one for long good byes, Sasuke kicked his horse into gear and the black and white horse started up a steady trot.

"Sasuke!" He stopped his horse and stirred it back around to look at Naruto.

"What is it now, Naruto?"

"I… I… I lo-," Naruto stuttered. The blond composed himself and started over. "I hope you have a good time with the Uchihas."

Sasuke nodded and muttered a small 'thanks' and turned his horse back around. He forced the horse back into a trot and headed off for the Uchiha manor. Never at all realizing the tears that were currently streaming down Naruto's face in rapid force or the real words that the blond wanted to say to him.

I love you, Sasuke. I always will. Please… don't ever forget me, Naruto thought as he watched the raven ride into the setting sun…

Whoo! I updated! And you guys only had to wait about a month for it. ^^' Sorry about that; I've been very busy lately.

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