Sorrow slow dances
Around the edges of her eyes
Taking no chances
The last one out will win a prize

-"All My Own Stunts" Arctic Monkeys

XxxX

When Naruto pulled into his driveway both Sakura and Kiba were standing in his front yard, along with Akamaru, of course. He slammed the car door shut and greeted them.

"What are you both doing here?" he asked.

"I came over to ask if you wanted to play Xbox with me, then she showed up like two seconds before you got here." Kiba jabbed a finger at the pink haired woman.

"I saw Kiba standing in your yard not doing anything and so I thought I would ask what was up," Sakura said, "So, what were you doing to get home so late?"

It wasn't really late, it was only six forty and it wasn't even dark out yet. Usually, he was home by around six or earlier. So, technically he had gotten home slightly late.

Naruto scratched the back of his head, "Do either of you two know Sasuke Uchiha?" he asked. They obviously did judging by the reactions on their faces. Kiba looked deeply confused as to why he would be talking about the guy and Sakura's eyes had widened at the mention of his name. "So, is that a yes?" he asked.

"What does he have to do with anything you were doing?" Kiba asked.

"I went to ask him about the cave entrance on his property," Naruto shrugged.

"And you lived to tell the tale?!" he gasped. Sakura elbowed him in the side with a pointed look that Naruto didn't understand.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" Sure Sasuke had been a little weird, but he didn't seem that bad. He just seemed a little socially awkward, also a bit of an asshole but he let Naruto get to the cave so that could be overlooked for now.

"The guy gives me the creeps. He probably strangles puppies or something," Kiba spat, "Or cuts the eyes out of girls in magazines, then hangs them up in his room like a shrine."

Sakura glared, "He's been through a lot, that's all. You shouldn't say things like that."

"So what? As long as he can't hear me I'm fine, although I wouldn't be surprised if he could somehow sense me talking about him." He looked around suspiciously, as if he expected Sasuke to have some sort of sinister presence hanging around them. And that sinister presence would obviously be very interest in Kiba talking shit about Sasuke, because that made a lot of sense.

"Why? What's his deal?" Naruto asked, Sasuke hadn't exactly been forthcoming in his dialogue, so it was only natural to be curious about the guy.

"When he was little he watched his parents die," Sakura said quietly, a downcast look on her face.

Naruto felt his stomach drop at that. Having dead parents was bad enough, but watching them die was a whole different playing field of fucked up. Now he felt like an asshole for talking about dead parents, shit. "What happened to them?"

"His brother murdered them, everyone but Sasuke." Kiba said bluntly.

"Why?" Naruto asked in dismay. Why the fuck would someone do something like that?

"No one knows," Kiba said,"They never caught him. He probably just lost it, that's what everyone says but know one really knows what really happened because Sasuke refused to talk about it afterward. People say that his brother crawled into that cave on their property to hide, but the police searched for him and didn't find anything." Kiba's face was serious, but his tone was something like a story teller's. It was a rather fantastic tale.

Naruto couldn't help, but feel unsettled by that bit of information. Although he highly doubted that Sasuke's brother could have crawled into the cave to escape without being caught he felt a prickle on the back of his neck knowing that he had been down in the caves. The caves weren't connected, but it was still a little freaky.

"Sasuke was a always a little weird, he was always sort of... brooding," Kiba continued, "I always felt like he was going to stab someone if they tried messing with him, you know? He has that weird calm anger sort if feel."

Naruto understood what he was saying, but didn't voice his agreement because Sakura started to talk.

"I remind you that he had to grow up being raised by that snake, Orochimaru," Sakura added, as if it were some kind of excuse.

"Who?" Naruto asked, he hated being the new guy. It left him way out of the loop.

"He was this creep that took care of Sasuke when his parents died, there was always something weird about him. He always kind of reminded me of Lord Voldemort," Sakura shuddered.

"He died a pretty amazing death though," Kiba laughed.

"How?" Naruto wondered.

"He was literally struck by fucking lightening," Kiba said in slight wonder, his reaction intensified for effective story telling.

"Holy shit." The odds of that must be insane. "Where was he standing?"

Kiba made a face. "Some field behind the Uchiha house, fuck knows what he was doing out there during a thunderstorm. Probably trying to raise the dead or something, they guy was totally crazy, so I wouldn't be surprised."

"The point is that he was a bad influence on the poor mailable mind of little Sasuke." Sakura said sadly.

"Yep, it made him into a bad person," Kiba confirmed with a smile.

"He is't that bad, he is a good person, just troubled!" Sakura said in irritation.

Kiba laughed, "Oh yeah, I almost forgot, pinkie here had a crush on Sasuke in high school. She and Ino followed him around all the time. They would have been the first he turned on."

Sakura's face turned bright red as she punched him in the head. "Shut up, you."

Kiba rubbed his head sulkily. "All I'm saying is that he, like the rest of his creepy family, is weird," he turned from Sakura to Naruto. "People used to say their family did lots of weird stuff. They came with the people who founded this town and they never left, even when people wanted them to."

"Why would people want them to leave?" Naurto asked.

"Because they were creepy back then too and they got blamed for every weird thing that happened in the town. Pretty soon they shut themselves away," Kiba explained in a creepy voice.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, he wasn't one to judged someone based in his creepy family. Everyone deserved a chance. "He did seen a little weird, but he gave me permission to do some surveys so he can't be all bad, right?"

"Woah, back up, he's actually going to let you near the cave?" Kiba asked incredulously.

"I was already near the cave. He let me see it and said I could come back to survey it." Naruto smiled broadly.

Kiba's jaw dropped, "He must have thought you were a beautiful princess or something, because as long as I've been here the Uchihas have never let anyone near that place."

Naruto made a face and shrugged, "He didn't even put up that much of a fight over it."

"I don't believe you, I'm going to need proof of that." Kiba crossed his arms over his chest.

Naruto pulled out his phone, "I got his number." He offered holding up the display of the little series of numbers.

Kiba squinted at the number. "Correction, he must be totally in love with you. That is the only explanation."

Naruto glared at him. "So, what does he even do? As a job I mean. He wouldn't answer any of my questions."

Kiba shrugged so Sakura filled him in. "He's a chemist, but he works privately doing research."

"How does he get paid?" The blond wondered.

"Not until he publishes his findings,
he has enough money that he wouldn't have to do anything for the rest of his life if he wanted to, but he just shuts himself up him his house," She sighed sadly, thinking about his beautiful face so deprived if human contact and sunlight.

"I don't want to know what he does in there," Kiba said, "Whatever it is it's probably fucked up. Tears the faces off of cats or something."

Sakura huffed, but didn't say anything more. They talked for a while longer then Sakura invited them over for dinner, which they both quick to accept.

The next day Naruto told his boss about his arrangement with the Uchiha. When he walked in everyone was in the office eating donuts that Sai had brought in. Naruto wouldn't trust those donuts. Sai had a face that immediately wonder if they had any pepper spray available to spray at him if he came too close.

"Guys," he announced, grabbing everyone's attention, "You'll never guess what happened."

"What is it, Naruto?" asked Lee.

"He got permission to survey the cave entrance on the Uchiha property," said Gaara blankly.

Everyone looked shocked, some more dramatically than others.

Sai only showed a polite smile, "How exactly did you accomplish that? There wouldn't have been any dick sucking, would there?"

Naruto grimaced, "No, what the hell is wrong with you!? I didn't really do anything, he just decided to let me do it."

Lee was crying, "You have succeeded where I have failed, I will try harder next time, Gai sensi!" he shouted. Naruto didn't know who Gai was, but if Lee knew him than he must be a weirdo.

Hinata was the only one who looked genuinely proud of him, although he was too busy arranging plans with Gaara to notice. She opened her mouth to say something of praise, but the words caught in her throat the way they always did. She sighed after a moment and walked back to her desk to watch the blond talk animatedly with Gaara.

Gaara thought that it would be best to start the surveying tomorrow before the last Uchiha changed his mind and Naruto agreed with him hole heartily. He was so pumped up he felt like he could punch through a wall. He thought about trying that idea but then thought better of it.

Naruto texted Sasuke that he wanted to go start his surveying and to request that he start at nine. The message he got back read: "Let me know before you go out."

Naruto found it very difficult to sleep that night due to his mounting anticipation.

XxxX

In the morning he dressed quickly, and drove over to the large house at more or less nine. He wasn't really a schedules kind of guy. He rang the doorbell, as he assumed that he was intended to, and waited until the door swung back to show the pale, dark haired man. Again, he only opened his door about halfway, peaking out from around the side like a creep.

"I'm here." Naruto said with a blindingly bright smile.

"I can see that." He stepped out of the doorway and the door slid shut behind him. He began walking toward the woods.

"Are you going to come with me?" Naruto asked, slightly surprised.

"Yes," Sasuke nodded.

"Why?"

"Because I want to make sure you don't do anything strange."

"What do you think I would do? It's just a cave and I want to study it. The worst thing I could do would be to go into it and crawl around."

"Still, I will be coming with you." His tone left no room for argument.

They made the walk quickly, Naruto was eager to start the work. As he looked at the hole he couldn't help a, but let a small fear creep up his spine. The information about the Uchiha family was unnerving, although he hardly believed that the murder had escaped into the caves. There would be no way to get food down there. Not unless he ate tiny bugs and dirt, and drank microbe and bacteria filled cave water. None the less he shivered as he looked into the darkness.

While he set up his equipment Sasuke sat on a log nearby, writing into a notebook and glancing up every so often. Naruto didn't really mind, he was too focused on what he was doing. It was really a bother that he couldn't go into the cave, but he could do enough here.

He measured the air current going in and out of the entrance, he broke off part of the stone for analysis, he took accurate measurement of the entrance size and used a digital radar to get a detailed scale of the dimensions for a map.

He hadn't yet completed all of his tasks when Sasuke suddenly sat up, startling him so much he almost fell into the cave. "It's almost time for lunch," he said, flipping his notebook shut.

"Uh, do you want me to leave?" Naruto asked.

The man shook his head. "Come with me."

Naruto didn't like the way this guy was always ordering him around like this. "Instead of ordering me around you could say 'hey, Naruto, maybe you could take a break for a minute and come back to the house with me?'"

"I could," Sasuke replied, although he didn't seem impressed by that and he started walking away. Naruto sighed, but stood and followed him all the same. He was slightly surprised when he walked up to the porch and held open the door for him. After a moments hesitation he stepped through the doorway into the house, mindful of Kiba's warning that the guy was a creep.

He was in a small entryway that had a small coat rack and a larger area for shoes that was nearly empty.

"Take your shoes off here," Sasuke told him as he slipped out of his shoes himself.

Naruto did as told then followed Sasuke through the house, past a large living room and into a large kitchen. The whole place appeared to be completely spotless and it looked shockingly modern when compared to the outside of his house. It was a little weird. It looked a little too clean, the way houses do I'm magazines.

As Sasuke bustled over to the fridge Naruto climbed up into a bar stool and watched him. Almost as soon as he sat down he got a text from Kiba.

Kiba 12:04 PM

You still alive?

Naruto scowled at the message.

Naruto 12:04 PM

Yeah, he's going to feed me.

Kiba 12:05 PM

Watch out he might try to poison you and experiment on your dead body. And by experiment I mean have sex with.

Naruto 12:05 PM

I'll keep that in mind.

"Do you like tomato soup?" Sasuke asked quite suddenly, startling Naruto into dropping his phone, as Sasuke pulled a soup pan from his fridge.

"Uh, yeah," Naruto said as he retrieved his phone, he was not a picky eater whatsoever.

"Grilled cheese?" he asked.

"Yep," Naruto popped the 'p' sound a little too much. He couldn't help it, this was so awkward. He tried to ignore his discomfort as he watched Sasuke get out a little grill and the supplies to make the sandwiches.

As he put in the first sandwich he couldn't stand the silence anymore. "I'll be out of your hair soon," he said quite out of the blue.

Sasuke looked up with a raised eyebrow.

"I can't really do much if you won't let me go down into the actual cave," Naruto explained.

Sasuke returned his eyes to the grill, pulling out the grilled cheese and putting in another one. He set that one on a plate with a bowl of soup he had warmed up. He handed it to Naruto, who took it carefully.

"I might be inclined to let you into the cave," the dark haired man said thoughtfully.

Naruto's heart almost skipped a beat. "And what would it take to let you let me down there?"

He shrugged, "I suppose that you must have heard some things about me from other people in the time you were gone." The Uchiha cast a look over at Naruto to gage his reaction for truthfulness.

Naruto nodded, there was no point in lying. "I talked to Sakura and Kiba, they're my neighbors and they said they knew you."

Sasuke hummed an affirmative response. "Yes, we went to the same high school. As it would happen, unlike with them, I don't find your presence completely disagreeable and it has been a long time since I've been around another person to whom I do not feel anything above contempt." God, the man spoke like a Vulcan.

"So what, in return for letting me in the cave you want me to hang out with you?" The guy wasn't selling himself very well if he was, and what a weird fucking request.

"That is essentially what I am saying, yes. I have been told that I am very socially awkward." That was for sure.

Naruto paused for a moment to think. "Okay," he finally said, "I can't find a way to disagree with that, but if I have to hang out with you then you can't just be all weird and quiet the whole time. Engage in conversation every once in a while. Answer questions, tell anecdotes, I don't care, just talk."

Sasuke nodded, "I will try."

"And I'm probably going to need to go down there with another person for safety reasons," he warned.

Sasuke looked uncomfortable at that, like he thought one person going down there was bad enough, but he gave a stiff nod all the same saying, "If you must."

"I must." Naruto said lightly as he dipped his grilled cheese into the soup and took a bite. It was amazing. "This soup is awesome," Naruto said in wonder as he began wolfing it down. His reaction seemed to amuse Sasuke, who had just finished with his grilled cheese and went to sit in a chair at the table.

"Why are you sitting over there?" Naruto asked, "Come sit next to me, I don't bite."

"I always sit here." Sasuke said as if that explained everything.

Naruto made a face. "So? That doesn't mean you can't sit over here now."

"Yes, it does," Sasuke said, before taking a bite.

"What, you have OCD or something?"

"I just like to do things a certain way." That sounded like about as much of a confession as he would get.

Naruto sighed and moved his food to sit across from him. "I feel like we should probably work on your communications skills. This will be your fist lesson in conversation; what is your favorite color?"

"Favorite color?" Sasuke looked unimpressed. "What point would there be in having a favorite?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, "There isn't really a point, it's just a dumb question, so answer it." He got the feeling Sasuke might just be trying to be irritating.

"Hn, blue, I suppose. And I guess it would be polite to ask yours as well. So, what is your favorite color?"

"Orange," Naruto grinned, gesturing down to his garish orange shirt.

Sasuke wrinkled his nose. "Of course, I should have guessed."

Naruto grinned wildly, "It's a loud color and it suits my boisterous, vibrant personality."

"That it does," Sasuke scoffed.

"Hopefully my orange-ness will infect your blue-ness in the time we spend together." He made a weird melding motion with his hands, intertwining his fingers.

"Then we would both become horrible brown colors," Sasuke pointed out."

"Brown is the color of friendship and cooperation." Naruto proclaimed, but Sasuke gave him a dubious look.

"I would have expected a rainbow to symbolize friendship and cooperation," Sasuke pointed out.

Naruto considered this deeply. "Rainbow is a lot of colors, mush them all together and you get the color of friendship, which is brown... Actually, I think if you have perfect primary colors it's black, but black symbolizes evil most of the time so we have to go with brown."

"Brown is the color of mud, is that really the color you want to symbolize friendship?"

"Yeah, and everyone likes mud!"

"No, you like mud because you go crawling though it like a little worm. The rest of us have higher standards of cleanliness." Sasuke said, turning up his nose.

"Just wait until I infect you with my orange," Naruto threatened, snickering.

"That sounds suspiciously like a threat, should I be worried?"

"You should most defiantly be worried because I'm going to turn you into a fun person," Naruto grinned.

"Well, I wish you luck in that endeavor," the Uchiha rolled his eyes.

Naruto reconsidered, "Well, maybe not a fun person, but one who doesn't make small children want to run in fear."

"Is that what my presence does to kids?"

"Well, I haven't seen it personally but that's what I expect would happen, I mean you kind of give off murder vibes you know?" Shit, maybe he shouldn't have said that. Was it insensitive to bring up murder vibes when Sasuke's brother had murdered his parents? It probably was.

"Good, that tends to make people not bother me," Sasuke huffed, apparently not offended.

"Well, don't go thinking you'll scare me off, because you do not scare me."

"Maybe I should, I am the prince of darkness after all."

"Yeah, okay satan. I would have never imagined the devil himself having lunch with me, and eating tomato soup of all things."

"It reminds me of the blood of the millions of people I've destroyed."

"Ew."

"I want to change my answer," Sasuke decided, "My favorite color is black."

"Do you want to have your soul symbolize evil?"

"No, I just like that black is the absence of light, it feels very... symbolic somehow." Ugh, the emo feels.

"Ugh," Naruto groaned, "You're being too serious. This is no time for seriousness, only silliness here." He jabbed his finger down on the table top

Sasuke looked like a crow with ruffled feathers. "I'm not good a being... Silly."

"Well, I am a silly master, so I will gladly teach you my craft, but for now I actually have a semi serious question."

"After what you just said? I though this wasn't the time for seriousness."

"I know, I realized it as the words were coming out of my mouth and I regret everything, but not enough to redirect the conversation," the blond explained, "So, I wanted to ask what you study. Sakura said that you're a chemist."

Sasuke shook his head, dipping his grilled cheese into his soup. "Not exactly, I'm actually a biologist,
but my work has to do a lot with chemistry because it's biotechnology."

Naruto scoffed, "So, I'm guessing whatever you're doing is overly complicated and over my head."

Sasuke smiled, "Possibly, although as a geologist I'd imagine you know a thing or two about chemistry."

"Yeah, rock chemistry. That's the earth's body, not an actual flesh body," Naruto wrinkled his nose.

"They are two very different things."

"Can you explain it to me like how you would explain it to a child?"

"I'm trying to synthesize life," he said simply.

Naruto wrinkled his nose, "Sounds controversial."

He nodded, "Which is why I don't work with other people. When I complete my work I will publish my papers and people can deal with the fallout." he smirked as if he liked the idea of upsetting millions of people. It must be fun to troll the scientific community.

"Now we aren't taking about like Frankenstein monster style life, are we?" Naruto said nervously, if so then maybe Kiba had a basis for his previously irrational fears. Maybe Sasuke was murdering people to use their corpses to make a monster.

Sasuke almost laughed, "No, I'm talking about very basic life that I can synthase from base elements."

"That's a little less scary," Naruto sighed, "What kind of life do you want to make?"

"Oh, I don't know. A friendly pet, an animal that grows transplant organs, a human destroying monster I can use to take over the world. The possibilities are endless."

"Kiba was right, you are a mad scientist."

Sasuke let out a hair raising evil laugh.

Naruto punched him in the shoulder, cutting the laugh short. "Don't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because it's creepy. You just went from an emotionless weirdo to making an ear piercing noise."

"Do I frighten you, Naruto Uzumaki?" he teased.

Naruto groaned, "I think you're better at being silly than I first thought, that or you don't know how to interact with other humans."

The dark haired scientist shrugged. "Probably both."

"You should probably work on that."

"Maybe, but I don't usually have to deal with people so it's not that big a deal."

"That was then, this is now. I'm going to make you deal with people whether you like it or not."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "I guess I should prepare myself then."

"Yes, you should, because I'm going to rock your little introverted life, no longer will people be freaked out by you."

"I feel like you're focusing in how weird I am, it's making me feel self conscious," Sasuke said lightly.

"I'm thinking maybe if I focus on it you'll change, if I focused on how normal you are then you wouldn't be likely to do anything."

"We've known each other such a short time and already you're trying to change me," Sasuke sighed dramatically, "At least I still have my pretty face."

He wasn't lying, he did have a very pretty face, "I think you're fishing for complements, I'm not going to tell you how pretty you are. Why did you use the word pretty anyway? It's not an especially manly word."

"My handsome face then, you wish you had a face as pretty as mind."

"And here we are back on the pretty word. I'm not going to say that you're pretty."

"But you can't deny that I am physically pleasing, yes?" Sasuke smirked.

"Okay, I am uncomfortable with the turn this conversation has taken," Naruto laughed. It was true though, Sasuke was very pretty.

"You're just afraid of the power that my cheekbones hold."

"Yeah, okay, Benedict Cumberbatch, get you're weird alien face away from me," Naruto said making a face.

"Not until you tell me how handsome I am."

"Ugh, fine, you have a very nice face, happy?"

"Eh, I could be happier but that will suffice for now."

"Great, there's more ego stroking to come. You're not going to try to seduce me, are you?"

"No, I would never dream of it," Sasuke said in a way that was not especially reassuring.

"Wow, now I feel like you only want me here because of my ruggedly handsome looks."

"Yeah, that's deniably it, although ruggedly handsome wasn't quite the word I was thinking."

"And what word were you thinking?" Naurto asked wearily.

"Agreeable."

"I was hoping for virile," Naruto pouted.

"I don't know, you have the boyishly handsome look going for you."

"And you're the dark and mysterious type. Together we would be an unstoppable force of lady killers." That sounded a little too much like a murder thing. Why did it always have to come back to murder?"

"Look out ladies, an unbreakable union has been made."

"Are we forever bound together by the handsomeness of our faces?"

"Something like that, although I would have said something a little more eloquent."

"Nah, I like my words better. It's like we're stitched together by our faces with the power of bro-ship."

"Those words are certainly something, that's for sure."

"You're just jealous at how creative I am."

"Yep, that is so totally my problem with those words you just said."

Naruto giggled, uh, laughed like a man, and they were quiet for a moment before Naruto spoke up again. "Have you ever been down into the cave?" he asked curiously. If he had grown up so close to a cave he defiantly would have snuck down there. Then again Sasuke didn't exactly seen like the type to roll around in the dirt.

There was a pause in the conversation where the air seemed to hang over them heavily, "When I was younger." Sasuke said, although his mood had taken a sudden dark turn.

Naruto got the feeling that he probably shouldn't ask, so he didn't, if only to avoid making Sasuke change his mind about letting him into the caves. He cursed himself for bringing up such an awkward thing after they were having such a riveting conversation about... whatever nonsense they were talking about.

"Sorry," he apologized, although he was unsure that he should say anything at all.

"Don't worry about it," Sasuke waved a had dismissively.

"I am worried about it though, I just piledrived our conversation to a grinding halt."

"Well, if you want to get the conversation to tap out, I suggest putting it into a choke hold."

"Do people tap out in wrestling? I thought that they got pined for a certain amount of time."

"I don't know, I've never watched anyone wrestle," Sasuke shrugged.

"Me either, tv wresting makes me think of bull riders and actual wresting is so awkward to watch," Naruto made a face, "You should have scene the pin for wresting that went on my school's varsity jacket, it looked rather homoerotic."

"I'm sure that made all the wrestlers very happy."

"Oh, yeah, but they were kind if all dicks anyway, so it was okay."

"I never did sports in high school," Sasuke sighed, "Too much being around people."

"I did cross country, I was actually pretty freaking good if I do say so myself."

"Did you have the tiny little running shorts on your uniform?"

"Yep," Naruto grinned, "they were very small and they made us look like pasty legged spider people."

"Gross."

"Very gross, but I rocked that look."

"Yeah, I'm sure you did," Sasuke snorted. Naruto was just happy that the awkwardness had been dispelled.

XxxX

A/N: I'm already regretting posting this without being done with the whole story =_= all I want to do is write One Piece, but no, I felt like shaking it up a little.

Thanks.