AN: Tanks for de follows/faves/reviews!


It was a nice day. The sun was shining, birds were chirping, and Uzumaki Naruto was bored out of his brain. He didn't have work, he didn't have plans, and he didn't have a clue what he could do to relieve his boredom. It was only ten in the morning for God's sake!

He was currently draped dramatically on his back across the sofa in his and Sasuke's living room, where he'd thrown himself in a fit of petulance.

It was Thursday! How was it that neither of his jobs needed him right now? His traitorous workmates probably took all the shifts, Naruto thought scowling. Assholes. Didn't they know that they were leaving nothing for Naruto, and that a Naruto with nothing to do meant trouble? Even he knew that.

So, working was out. Maybe one of his friends miraculously also had no work on a Thursday? Hmm… Naruto pondered that for a moment. Well Sasuke-bastard and Sakura-chan definitely had work, their hours were less flexible than his. Sai? No, he had an exhibition coming up and Naruto didn't want to distract him. Kiba? No, he worked every weekday. All his friends did. He couldn't even see the girls because it was Thursday! Fuck Thursdays. Worst day of the week, ever. Naruto huffed. He'd been left with no choice. If he was left on his own for too long, he would inevitably cause some kind of trouble. And there was only one person who could keep Naruto from doing something too stupid. Time to go see Sasuke.


Naruto smirked back at the narrow-eyed stare he was receiving from the dark haired man. While he was sitting sprawled back in his chair, the other was sitting up straight as a ruler, eyeing him across the huge desk. He cut a pretty intimidating picture, with his silhouette outlined with the light coming in from the floor-to-ceiling glass wall behind him.

"What are you doing here, Naruto?" The blond grinned at the affectionate exasperation that was not quite hidden in that bored voice. As if he didn't know.

"Don't you like it when I visit you, Itachi-nii?" Naruto pouted at the older man.

The corners of Itachi's mouth twitched. "I think we both know you aren't here to visit me, little nuisance."

"Awww, Itaaaachiii-niiiii! Stop calling me that!" The pout was real this time. Itachi had been calling him that since Naruto was seven years old and Itachi realised that he was not quite as easy to put off spending time with as Sasuke was. He'd been one more person who couldn't resist Naruto's big blue eyes.

"I will stop calling you that when it stops being true." Naruto could hear the evil cackle that Itachi was surely doing in his mind. As it was, his usually dead black eyes were full of laughter and the twitching lips had turned into a small smirk. Bah. You bug a guy for a couple minutes of his time and you get a shitty nickname for life.

"Anyway," Naruto said pointedly. "Sasuke-bastard's here right?"

Itachi sighed. "Yes. I think it's good that you're here, Naruto-kun. Otōto is in a very bad mood today."

Blue eyes narrowed as Naruto squinted suspiciously at his brother-figure. "What'd you do to him, niichan?" It was an extremely safe bet that whenever Sasuke was really fucked off, it was Itachi's fault. Almost every other person made him irritable, but only Itachi had the power to make the young Uchiha rage.

The smirk on Itachi's pale face was enough to make anyone shiver – anyone but a certain blond blockhead who had never who had never quite learned to heed the warning signs. "I may have sent Kisame-san over to check up on my precious otōto and his team."

Naruto snorted. Itachi knew fully well that Sasuke couldn't stand the large Kiri transfer. Kisame had the unfortunate habit of calling Sasuke the 'Nidaime Itachi' whenever they saw each other. Sasuke hated being compared to Itachi. Naruto had worked hard to beat the inferiority complex out of his friend's brain, but there would always be some remnants drifting around in there, feeding Sasuke's doubts about how he stood up next to his practically perfect brother.

"He's going to snap one day, niichan, and you're going to find that you have carnivorous fish in your aquarium because Sasuke gave them a taste of Kisame."

Itachi let out a startled laugh at the absurdity (not to mention possibility) of Naruto's statement. The blond simply smiled smugly; he enjoyed being one of the few who could make the older Uchiha brother thaw.

"Go and see Sasuke, little nuisance. See if you can't put him in a better mood."

Naruto smiled cheekily. "When have I ever not?"

Itachi did his lip-twitchy thingy and gestured towards the door. "Get out of my office, Naruto-kun. I think maybe it's not just Sasuke who will be pleased to see you."

The suggestive tone in Itachi's voice was hard to miss, even for Naruto. He felt his mouth stretching in a wide grin, even as he asked; "What do you mean, niichan?"

"The whole building has heard Hōzuki going on about meeting Sasuke's blond 'Sex God' friend. I assume he was referring to you."

Naruto gagged. "Ugh. Don't say the words 'sex god' ever again when I can hear you, Itachi-nii. That is just wrong." Then he grinned. "But did he really say that?"

"Would I lie to you?"

Naruto just replied with the deadpan look that question deserved.

Itachi lifted one shoulder minutely – his version of a shrug. "Fine. But I am not lying about this." He watched as Naruto's blue eyes lit up and his irrepressible grin stretched across his whiskered face. The older man hoped his foolish otōto knew what he was doing; if Naruto got hurt in this matchmaking scheme of his, Itachi would make Sasuke's life hell. The little things he did now to irritate his brother would pale in comparison to what he would do if this plan failed.

Naruto saw none of these thoughts on Itachi's carefully blank face. He just sent his older brother figure one last mischievous grin, waved, and went bouncing through the door, headed for his best friend and a very sexy shark man.


When Naruto bounced out of the elevator on Sasuke's floor and down the path between cubicles he always took to get to the bastard's office, he could almost see the light bulbs going off over the workers' heads. He grinned. The majority of them knew him from previous visits to Sharingan Tech's main office; their thunderstruck faces told Naruto that they'd only just clicked as to who Suigetsu had apparently been raving about since Monday.

Naruto couldn't help the happy smile that lit his face at that thought. He'd really enjoyed meeting Suigetsu; the man was funny as hell, easy going, and pretty damn sexy to boot. It was flattering to know that the other man appreciated him right back.

They'd texted a few times since their lunch meeting on Monday and Naruto had really been looking forward to seeing him again in person. As friends, of course. Despite the flirting, Naruto wasn't really sure if he was ready for another relationship yet, and he didn't really do one-night stands or casual flings. He didn't have it in him to not get emotionally involved. Besides, what if Sasuke skinned him for getting involved with one of his subordinates? Naruto shuddered.

He did like Suigetsu though, and it would be awesome if they became friends! Naruto cackled out loud, ignoring the strange looks he was getting from Sasuke's paper-pushers. He got the feeling that Sasuke had avoided introducing them before because he knew exactly what kind of havoc the two of them could wreak if they ever became friends.

Well too bad, bastard! Naruto had managed to get himself introduced anyway! He mentally rubbed his hands together with impish glee, imagining all the things he and Suigetsu could get up too together, and dammit not like that, fucking nosebleeds. Naruto quickly led his thoughts somewhere less perverted as he approached the frosted glass door to Sasuke's office. Jeez, the whole building would probably shatter if there was an earthquake, with the amount of glass in the place. Anyway! He debated the merits of simply slamming the door open, but he thought he should probably start slow, see exactly how bad of a mood Sasuke was in. So he turned the door handle and opened it like a normal person (who had never heard of knocking). The greeting Naruto was about to shout died in his mouth when he saw that there was nobody even in the office.

He huffed a little. All that wasted effort being polite and considerate. Oh well, at least he hadn't made an idiot of himself, bursting into an empty office.

Naruto carefully closed the door and thought about what he should do next. Itachi-nii had said that Sasuke was definitely here today, so if he wasn't in his office, where would he be?

Naruto's eyes lit on the other two glass-walled offices (seriously!) and grinned. These two rooms were larger than Sasuke's office, because one was supposed to be the office for his three direct subordinates, and the other was a board/meeting room. And if he wasn't in his own office, then he was probably in the board room – Sasuke wouldn't spend any extended amount of time in his subordinates' office, the snobby bastard.

Naruto, feeling particularly uncharitable after his wasted effort at being polite, made a split second decision, slammed open the door to the board room, and burst inside. In that one startled instant where everybody inside the room had been busy reacting to his awesomely dramatic entrance, Naruto'd already catalogued the people inside, who they likely were (whoo! Suigetsu!) and the fact that Sasuke looked as though he wanted to kill somebody.

Well okay then. Looked like his bursting in had been a good thing, though maybe he shouldn't mention going to see Itachi first.

The blond grinned manically and went bounding past the large rectangular table towards the head where Sasuke was sitting back in his cushy-looking chair and threw himself into his friend's lap. He heard a startled shriek from the redheaded woman on Sasuke's left and the small "Oomph" that Sasuke himself made as his arms automatically came up to wrap around Naruto and steady him. His dark eyes were widened slightly with surprise. However, when Naruto leaned forward and planted a great smacking kiss on Sasuke's cheek, the surprise turned to exasperation.

"What are you doing here, Naruto? And why did you feel the need to interrupt my meeting?" Now there was a little bit of irritation, but the Uchiha no longer looked murderous so that was alright.

It was weird, but whenever Sasuke was in an especially bad mood, Naruto was in an especially hyperactive one. This was no coincidence; for whatever reason, the more obnoxious Naruto was, the better mood Sasuke was in. Maybe it was just that he provided a much-needed distraction, or maybe Sasuke actually thought he was funny (hah! Yeah right.), or maybe Naruto brought Sasuke the same sense of homesafecomfort that the Uchiha brought him. Whatever it was, if simply being himself made Sasuke feel better, Naruto would be himself and more.

"Bastard! Would you believe me if I said I missed you?" Naruto blinked innocently up at the older man. He thought he heard a whimper from one of the others in the room, but that made no sense to him at all so he ignored it.

He simply got a scoff in return. "Nice try dobe. Why are you really here?" Despite the not-nice words, Sasuke's hands were gentle as they held Naruto steady on his lap.

He pouted. "I was bored! No work today, and nobody else had the day off!"

"So you decided to come and interrupt me at my work?"

"Er… heh," Naruto rubbed the back of his head nervously. "I was bored, teme! You know what happens when I get bored!"

Sasuke sighed and shook his head slightly; of course he knew, because most of the time, Naruto managed to drag him into it as well.

"I for one," a familiar smooth voice said. "Am very happy to see you, Naruto."

Finally the blond man gave the other people in the room a proper look. The woman was gaping (unattractively, to be honest) at him, sitting in Sasuke's lap as he was. Probably Karin, Naruto thought. Sasuke's in-denial-fangirl.

The guy with the awesome orange hair – maybe he was related to Nagato-nii? – looked a little nonplussed, but otherwise had no reaction. That was kind of disappointing.

His gaze fell on the last (but certainly not least) person, who he'd been very aware of from the moment he'd stepped into the room. Naruto let his eyes roam over the man's body and face in blatant admiration.

Suigetsu easily matched Naruto's six feet in height, though he was maybe a centimetre or two taller. His body was leaner, his shoulders not quite as broad, and his muscles not so prominent as Naruto's, but the blond male could clearly see that Suigetsu was strong and firm, whipcord instead of bulk. Jaw length white-blue hair framed a strong, angular face, with glinting violet eyes; Naruto wasn't sure if it was mischief or something else, but whatever it was, it really turned him on.

He grinned brightly at the purple eyed man. "It's good to see you too, Suigetsu." So very, very good. "I told you I'd find you the next time I visited Sasuke." His grin turned cheeky, blue eyes lighting up with laughter.

Suigetsu chuckled. "Somehow, I didn't picture that happening quite like this." He gestured towards the door – which was still wide open – and then towards where Naruto was still seated quite comfortably sideways in Sasuke's lap. Conveniently facing the sharky-man. Wonder how that happened?

One golden eyebrow raised suggestively. "So you've been picturing it, have you?"

He got a toothy smirk in return. "Picturing it, fantasising about it, even got a couple of actions and a soundtrack to go with it."

Naruto honestly probably would have moaned aloud if he hadn't been sitting in his best friend's lap. Talk about awkward. Oh yeah, and the two strangers in the room, couldn't forget about them.

Speaking of… Karin, assuming that was who she was, was glaring at him. She probably thought he wouldn't notice, facing the other way as he was, but honestly the back of his skull almost had twin holes drilled into it by the force of her jealous eyes.

Naruto felt the spark of mischief lighting up inside of him as he remembered that she had a crush on the Uchiha. He briefly entertained the thought of quashing that spark. Very briefly. And then; Nah. He winked at Suigetsu (who he hadn't answered and couldn't answer because it'd probably be something completely inappropriate) before shifting in Sasuke's lap so that he was facing straight ahead, languidly draped along the length of Sasuke's body, with his back pressed against his friend's chest. He didn't even need to see Sasuke's face (not that that would help anyway, blank-faced Uchiha bastard) to know that the black haired man was mentally sighing and rolling his eyes in exasperation and resignation. Naruto knew that just as he knew that Sasuke didn't even have to ask to know what he was doing. They knew each other just as well as they knew themselves.

Naruto's long, tanned arms snaked their way up behind him, hands clasping behind Sasuke's neck. He tipped his head back so that it was resting against Sasuke's shoulder, nose nuzzling the pale neck in front of him. His mouth twitched in amusement as he felt Sasuke's own arms wrapping around his waist, pulling him up against him more securely. He flicked his eyes upward, just in time to catch Sasuke's jaw relax in a way that told Naruto his friend was smiling.

The result was two completely contrasting yet equally sexy men in a very intimate position in an office chair, an infuriated redhead trying to conceal the blood dripping from her nose, and Hōzuki Suigetsu not even trying to conceal his own nosebleed as he stared heatedly at the blond. Naruto was a little disappointed to not get any reaction but bemusement from who he guessed was Jūgo, but then again, Sasuke had said that he tended to get violent when he was emotional. So maybe that was a good thing. He turned bright blue eyes on his new friend – just friend – to gauge his reaction. It couldn't have been better; Suigetsu's violet eyes were fixed on Naruto. He didn't look at Sasuke, in jealousy or lust. For all the attention the Uchiha was getting from the other man, he might as well have been part of the chair.

Then Naruto reminded himself that it didn't matter, because he was not going to go there. No sir, only friendship here.

So he tore his eyes from burning violet and focused instead on burning crimson. And he burst out laughing, removing his arms from Sasuke's neck and sitting up straight, only to double over. That was absolutely priceless – Karin was soooo jealous, her face was practically green. The only reason it wasn't was because the green was fighting with the furious red that was also trying to dominate her face. It left her face all blotchy and twisted, causing Naruto to give in to his laughing fit, because the jealous rage wasn't quite enough to cover up the appreciation of the picture they had made.

"You've had your fun dobe, now get off of me. You've been eating too much ramen." Sasuke shoved him lightly.

Naruto jumped up and pointed a finger accusingly at him. "Teme! Are you calling me fat?!"

The words made Sasuke scoff and roll his eyes, while Suigetsu snickered and Karin slowly frowned, looking puzzled.

"Oh, by the way," Naruto paused and lowered his finger, smiling sheepishly, eyes scrunching up. "I'm not gay with this bastard," he jerked his thumb to where Sasuke was still sitting in his chair. "I'm his best friend. Uzumaki Naruto, nice to meet you!"

"Uzumaki?" Karin spoke before anyone else could. "Your family name is Uzumaki?"

Naruto didn't know what was so important about that, but the woman's face was no longer a – hilarious – mix of conflicting emotions. Now she looked hopeful.

"Well, yeah." He rubbed the back of his head. "Why's that?"

"Doesn't have red hair," she muttered to herself instead of answering. "Blond Uzumaki?"

Naruto could feel himself starting to get curious – and irritated. "Hey hey hey, lady. Do y'think you could, y'know, tell us what the hell you're going on about?"

She stopped muttering and stared at him, lips pursed. He stared back, determined bullheadedness written all over his face. Karin sighed. "All right, fine. I was just surprised to hear that surname. I haven't heard it for a long time."

Now one thing about Naruto, is that he was an orphan. For the first eight years of his life, he lived in one of Konoha's poorer orphanages, surrounded by children who disliked him and adults who were too busy keeping the place afloat to notice. He was found by one Umino Iruka, a teacher at the local primary – the same place he met Sasuke – who took a liking to him and adopted him. Naruto loved Iruka, the man really was the perfect father, but he'd never called him that. Two years ago, when he was twenty-four, he and Sasuke had done some digging – with a little help from Sakura-chan of course. They'd discovered his birth parents, and a lot of things about them. Including how they'd died. There had been a car accident; Namikaze Minato had been killed instantly, while a heavily pregnant Uzumaki Kushina had stumbled off, forced into premature labour. She'd been found by a policewoman called to the scene, told her name, gave birth to a baby boy and died just as she'd named him. Naruto wasn't sure what had happened after that but he'd ended up in the orphanage when the cops couldn't find any family of either of his parents. So now, hearing this stranger talking as though she knew others with the name Uzumaki, threw him. Naruto had long ago resigned himself to having a self-made family. If there really were others… He wasn't sure what he'd do. Uzumaki couldn't be a common name, could it? He'd never heard of anybody else with that name.

"What do you mean?" He asked Karin quietly. If she was surprised by his mood change, she didn't show it. Nobody did.

"I mean," she said just as quietly. "That my mother's maiden name was Uzumaki. I was surprised to hear it from you because all the family of hers I ever met had red hair. And you're blond."

Blue eyes widened. He, no she, no they… Karin could be related to him!

"My mother's name was Uzumaki Kushina. I never knew her, but in all the photos I've seen, she had red hair." He heard himself saying distantly. Inside, his brain was scrambling for something solid to hold onto, hoping desperately and trying not to, questions bubbling like lava in his chest.

Luckily, a smooth pale hand slipped into his at that point and squeezed. As Naruto gladly grabbed hold of this familiar lifeline, he felt Sasuke – who else could it be? – stand and pull him away. "This meeting is adjourned until further notice. Jūgo, you may leave if you wish. Karin, stay. You and I are going to sort this out. Suigetsu," here Naruto felt Sasuke's hand letting go of his own and almost panicked, before he felt another hand take its' place. Still pale, but rougher, fingers not quite as long. "You look after the dobe. Go get some ramen at the place down the road. Dobe," Sasuke's brisk tone softened. "I'll figure this out for you, alright? Suigetsu will bring you home later."

Naruto nodded dumbly, trusting his friend to take care of everything. He squeezed Suigetsu's hand to let him know that he wasn't completely out of it.

"Come on," he said, shoving any and all heavy thoughts out of his mind. After all, he was going on a semi-date with the sexy shark man! (No he WASN'T! Just friends, Naruto! FRIENDS!). He had to be aware for this. "Let's go get some ramen!"


AN: Good or nah? Longer chapter, this one. Er... More SuiNaru interaction in the next one :). Maybe more backstory?

- Kelly