"Well that went better than expected." Sasuke leans back against Naruto's couch and breathes a sigh of relief.
They just returned home from having dinner with Sasuke's parents and brother, and Sasuke was exhausted.
"Yeah." Naruto agrees. "Itachi wasn't his usual self tonight." "Normally he's constantly trying to push your buttons." The blonde comes back from the kitchen with a glass of water and sits next to the raven.
"Hn. I don't know about that." Sasuke rests his head back and looks up at the ceiling recalling the events that happened over dinner.
"Sasuke dear. Oh, Naruto! How have you been dear? It's been awhile since we've seen you around here. Sasuke says you are graduating the academy in a few months? I bet that's exciting." Mikoto rambles on while she leads the two boys to the dining room.
Naruto blushes at the woman. Mikoto is the closest thing to a mother Naruto's ever had. Since his parents died when he was just an infant, he never really had the nurturing experiences a young boy is supposed to have. When Sasuke became his guardian Mikoto changed all that. Naruto was a spoiled child in the hands of Sasuke's eccentric and caring mother.
"Sasuke over here is always stuck to my side. It seems he doesn't like me to leave his sight. Which is really hard if you're trying to use the bathroom."
Mikoto giggles.
Sasuke gives Naruto the signature Uchiha glare. "No, but really I've been good. It's been awhile since I've had your cooking I can't wait to dig in."
The two boys go ahead and take a seat at the table. "As for the academy, I know I'm excited. I can't wait till I become a genin so I can train more and become stronger. One day I'll become stronger than Sasuke."
Mikoto asks the two what they want to drink and as she goes to the kitchen to retrieve them, Sasuke turns to Naruto.
"Dobe, you only wish you could be as strong as me." Naruto narrows his eyes and just as he was about to reply back Mikoto came back into the room, drinks in hand.
She smiles a soft smile. "I remember when Itachi and Sasuke graduated from the academy." "You know Sasuke used to say the same thing when he was about to become a genin?" "He looked up to Itachi a lot. They were so close back then. Now a days all they do is argue anytime they are in the same room."
She turns to her youngest son. "I love you two either way. Just behave tonight. Your father had a tough day at work and is kind of grumpy. You remember what happened last time you two got on his bad side."
Sasuke remembers quite clearly.
Let's just say there was a bunch of cleaning up to do and they had to redo their whole backyard. His mother was not very happy about that.
"Itachi should be here any minute now."
Just as she finished her sentence, the front door slides open.
"Hn." Sasuke grunted and crossed his arms.
Mikoto sent a glare his way.
A few seconds later Itachi entered the room. "Itachi dear, so glad you could make it." The woman stands up and kisses her eldest son on the cheek. "Of course mother. I wouldn't give up a chance to visit young Naruto, as it seems Sasuke has been hiding him away all for himself."
Sasuke shot his brother a glare. "Jealous Itachi?" the young raven snidely questions.
"Of you little brother? Of course not, I'm just stating the obvious." Itachi smirks.
Naruto looks back and forth from each brother and sinks a little in his chair.
The two continue to glare at each other until Sasuke's father enters the room. Once Sasuke eyes his father he turns back in his seat.
"Fugaku, just in time, dinner is almost ready." She turns to her husband and kisses him chastely, then heads to the kitchen to serve dinner.
"Good evening father. How have you been?" Sasuke asks his father politely.
"Fine." Fugaku replies shortly. "Haven't seen you around lately. Thought you might've forgot about us." His father says seriously.
"Sorry." Sasuke quickly apologizes.
Naruto stares at Sasuke. He's realized that the strong and cocky Uchiha becomes a weak defenseless animal when confronted by his father. From what Naruto has gathered is that Sasuke has always been trying to gain his father notice since he was a child. Itachi has always been the one to gain Fugaku's praise. This is one of the reasons Sasuke strived to become stronger. He was always behind Itachi, looking at his back, never really catching up. Even now Sasuke wants to earn his father's approval, but the stone elder Uchiha always seems to look down on his youngest son. Mikoto though told Naruto once that Fugaku always talked about Sasuke. When he was a child, Fugaku always praised Sasuke behind his back. He really did love both of his sons, but he gave Itachi special attention because the eldest son was to take over as head of the Uchiha clan. With that came high expectations for Itachi. It was a hard childhood for both the boys.
"Dinner is served!" Mikoto chimed, carrying in the dishes.
They all started to eat the delicious meal Mikoto had made. Naruto digging into his was elbowed by Sasuke to knock it out and eat slower. Mikoto just giggled and Itachi grinned. They all made small talk, conversing about what little things were going on in each of their lives.
"So, Naruto what are two doing tomorrow anything planned for the weekend?" Mikoto questioned the young boy who had rice on the side of his face and a dumpling sticking halfway out of his mouth. He swallowed his food quick to respond.
"Oh yeah! Sasuke is taking me and Sakura to the training fields tomorrow to train." "Since I have trouble in some areas Sakura and I both thought it'd be a good idea to ask someone with more experience to help teach us some new techniques. Plus, Sasuke won't let me go anywhere without him so he was the first choice." The blonde continued to stuff his face.
Itachi looked at the young boy and said with a straight face. "You know Naruto, if you ever need someone to train you I could always help. I have a few years on Sasuke and know a thing or two more when it comes to training strategies."
Sasuke turned his head towards his brother and just gave him an "I will end you" look.
Naruto looked up from his plate, "Thanks for the offer Itachi, I'll be sure to keep you in mind." The boy gives a big grin and continued on eating the rest of his food.
Everyone could feel the tension between Sasuke and Itachi except for Naruto who seemed to be completely oblivious to his surroundings.
Mikoto spoke up breaking the tension, "So I made dessert, anyone want dessert?" Naruto popped his head up and about spoke up but Sasuke intervened, "No thanks mom. I'm so stuffed I couldn't eat another bite, plus Naruto and I have to get up early tomorrow to train."
Mikoto nodded her head and smiled, "Of course dear, you two should get some rest. Naruto is a growing boy and needs as much sleep as he can get."
"Thank you for understanding. The food was terrific just as always. Thank you mother." The young Uchiha stands up and crosses to his mother who has already stood up to start clearing the table. He wraps his arms around her and gives her a kiss on the cheek. He turns to his father and nods his head.
Turning around he spots Itachi wrapping one arm around Naruto. "Goodbye Naruto, Train hard tomorrow, kick my brothers butt."
"Trust me Itachi I'm going to kick teme's butt across the training field."
Itachi chuckled and turned to his brother, "Nice seeing you little brother, don't hurt yourself too much tomorrow."
Sasuke smiled at him. "I'm not the one who's going to be hurting tomorrow but thanks anyway." "Goodnight everyone."
"Goodnight, thanks for the food." Naruto waved at everyone. The two boys walked out the door of the Uchiha manor and started their walk back to Naruto's apartment.
"Well still, your mother's food was amazing just as I remembered." Naruto says before taking a sip of water. He sits the glass on the table and leans back into the couch, "We should visit your mom more often." Naruto yawns and Sasuke just makes a noise in approval.
Naruto turns his head a little to say something to the Uchiha but notices Sasuke has fallen asleep. The blonde sits their awhile longer staring at the raven, noticing how much more peaceful he is when he's asleep. He likes Sasuke when he's relaxed and not stressed, he's a lot nicer, but Naruto hasn't seen Sasuke fall asleep before him in a long time. Come to think of it he always falls asleep before Sasuke and wakes up after him. Always awaking to breakfast made or a note saying he went somewhere and he'll be back soon.
Naruto yawns once more and goes to stand up so he can go to his room when he's tugged back down. The blonde yelps and looks down noticing his arm is in a death grip of Sasuke's. He tries to pry the Uchiha's fingers from him and succeeds but is rewarded by the Uchiha grabbing him and pulling himself to him.
Naruto starts to get a little angry; he is tired too and is not in the mood to play Sasuke's games. He turns to the raven, "Hey Teme cut…"The blonde stops mid sentence noticing Sasuke is still dead asleep. "Ugh!" Naruto groans inwardly. With a defeated sigh he relaxes into the Uchiha and falls asleep within seconds.
The next morning Sasuke awakens to find it's quiet and peaceful in the apartment. Come to think of he realizes its too quiet and peaceful. Normally he would wake to the sound of Naruto's obnoxious snoring. He gets up and walks around the small apartment and notices Naruto isn't anywhere. Wondering what time it was he looks at the clock to find that it's almost eleven. He doesn't sleep in that late unless he just arrived home from a mission the night before and since he has the duty of watching over Naruto he rarely has any of those missions. Stretching he realizes he feels quite relaxed and hasn't slept that well in a long time. Turning towards the kitchen he notices a note on the table.
Opening he reads; Hey teme did you know you talk in your sleep? You kept mumbling on about giant tomatoes chasing you. HAHA! Bet you feel pretty embarrassed but then again knowing you you're probably scoffing as you read. Anyway you looked like you were sleeping well so I'm going ahead to our usual training field to train with Sakura-chan. Don't keep us waiting to long you promised to train us and you know how Sakura can get. When she gets in a bad mood she tends to punch the closest thing to her, which is normally always me. xxNarutoxx
Sasuke smirks and sits the note back on the table. After quickly getting his training gear on he heads off towards the training field to see if Sakura punched Naruto through a tree yet.
Arriving on the field he's surprised to see Sakura and Naruto actually sparing and not goofing around, or Sakura not beating the hell out of him. After watching the two exchange punches and kicks he walks farther towards them and clears his throat, "Your guy's taijutsu is greatly improving. I apologize for being late, I normally don't sleep in as late as I did." The two stop fighting when they see Sasuke approach.
"Oh Sasuke it's fine!" Sakura chimes. "Naruto has actually fought more serious since you weren't here, normally he spaces out and just stares at you the entire time."
"Hey! Sakura-chan! I do not stare at that bastard!"
Sasuke looks at Naruto and can see red tint his cheeks and the tip of his ears. He's such a bad liar. Sasuke shakes his head.
"Naruto I'm flattered that my presence clouds your mind from actually focusing on the task at hand but if you are to pass the drill next week you need to concentrate on form and movements."
Naruto just crosses his arms turns his head away from Sasuke.
"You only wish my attention was on you. As if I'd lose focus over you."
"You're such an idiot." Sasuke looks at Naruto then at Sakura. "Alright you two, you wanted to learn some new moves, as well as Naruto practicing the clone jutsu right?"
They both nod their head.
"Let's get down to business then. Sakura, your form is already perfect you just need to focus on your speed and strength put into your hits. More force behind one of your punches could put any jonin in the hospital."
Sakura smiles and nods in acknowledgment.
Sasuke turns towards Naruto. "Naruto, your form is sloppy but your movements are quick and with a little practice and hard work your taijutsu could almost reach my level. Let's not focus on your taijutsu at the moment though. You have a clone jutsu drill next week and Sakura tells me you lack in this category. I'll help you with that right now." "Sakura just sit back for a few."
"Now Naruto, show me your clone jutsu."
Naruto nods and steps back, forming the hand signs. A cloud of smoke appears and after it clears Sasuke about busts out laughing. In front of him Naruto has formed a clone but it lacks in life and just limply lies on the grass. Sakura bursts out laughing and Naruto goes red.
Sasuke rubs his head and groans, "It's going to be a long day."
A/N:
Oh my gosh. This chapter took way longer than expected. I did not mean for it to take this long. I got busy with school and finals and graduation and work on top that. I was so distracted and plus I just didn't have the urge to write anything. After several months of putting writing off I finally finished chapter 3. I know it's not much but i felt so bad for leaving this story for so long I wanted to post something. My college classes are starting real soon but I hope to continue with this story. It might take a little bit for me to write chapters but it won't be as long as it took for me to finish this chapter. Hopefully.
Anyway reviews are greatly appreciated. I want to know how I'm doing. I got a review a while ago saying they couldn't wait for new chapters and again I apologize greatly for my lack of updating but I'm not going to quit this story.
Thanks for reading! =^_^=
