Warning: NaruSasu pairing, AU/AH, slash, yaoi, romance, mature, hurt/comfort

Disclaimer:

I do not own any of the characters; they belong to the brilliant Kishimoto.

Chapter Four

After leaving the CPC (the central phone and computer room's informal title), Naruto headed over to the change rooms where he figured Shino would most likely be; most of the police personnel liked to warm up before a shift. Sure enough, Shino had half finished changing into his uniform after a light training session at the gym. He turned when he heard the door open, and the brief and slight raising of the right corner of his mouth was practically as close to a smile as Naruto had ever seen. It was not that Shino was mean or cold; just very reserved.

Naruto leaned up against a locker, arms crossed against his chest and smiled saying, "Hey Shino! How's life? Heard that we're on a parolee run today." Shino just nodded in agreement; he had never been one to waste words. There was a brief awkward silence before Naruto said, "So why don't we head off? We can take my car today instead of one of the squad cars. Uh, I'll go bring it round…meet me when you finish here?" Another nod. With that Naruto exited the change room and headed to his car, thinking that Shino was giving off some weird vibes today.

Five minutes later, the passenger door of Naruto's light blue station wagon clicked open and Shino slid onto the front passenger seat without speaking. As soon as Shino was buckled in, Naruto entered the address of the first name on the list into his GPS, and they headed off to the first of several parolees that were due to be checked-in on. The silence in the car was palpable, and growing more uncomfortable by the minute.

After leaving the rundown flat of the fourth parolee, Naruto suddenly pulled over to the curb. He glanced at Shino and back out the window before clearing his throat and saying, "Shino…dude, what's wrong? I mean, I know you are usually quiet, but this is kind of getting ridiculous. Have I done something to irritate you…?"

Shino remained silent for a few seconds before he replied, "I'm not irritated. It's more…that I have something to talk to you about."

Naruto looked across at him, raising an eyebrow. Scratching his head, he said, "Well, you know me, I much prefer to be straightforward," he grinned. "You'll have noticed subtlety is not my strongest point? So yeah…what's up?"

"Chouji mentioned yesterday that you've taken in Sasuke," Shino said. "But I feel as if I should be doing something more to help. You know, I was the one covering the original Uchiha car accident case…and I was the one who signed the document saying Itachi was fit to be guardian to his younger brother. And look what happened – he killed himself. I was wrong and now he's dead. I started this case, and now you're the one cleaning up the mess. I really think I should be doing something to take responsibility."

"Shino," Naruto began, choosing his words carefully. "It's not your fault; it's not your mess. I'm not just saying that, man. I looked over the file this morning – you followed proper channels, and everything checked out. Your report even states that you asked Itachi if he was up to becoming Sasuke's guardian. You did as much as could be done. You can never predict how an individual will react to being put into a hard situation, and so you can't take on the burden of the results. I mean, sure, if you held a gun to Itachi's head and said 'You must be guardian to your brother regardless of your feelings on the matter' then you'd have something to answer for. But you didn't. He made his bed and then found it wasn't comfortable enough for him*."

Shino looked over at him from behind his dark glasses. "Do you really think so? Surely there was some sign I missed; something. That makes it my fault that that young man is sitting back at HQ with no family left." Naruto started when he realised the 'young man' Shino had referred to was Sasuke. The last few days, watching Sasuke grieve, he had been thinking of him as a vulnerable boy rather than the young man he was becoming. Hmm, that was definitely something worth thinking about.

Thoughts coming back to the discussion, Naruto took a deep breath. "Shino. Look, you can't beat yourself up. From what I can see Itachi had thought it would be fine and hadn't taken into consideration the changes he would need to make to his lifestyle to take care of a teenager. Any officer – myself included – would have come to the conclusion that Itachi was an appropriate guardian. Also, the fact that you are this concerned and guilt-ridden just proves that you were honestly working with the boys best-interests at heart. Hell, you still remember both brothers by first name and it's been 6 months since the accident happened." Naruto stared intently at Shino, trying to see whether his words were hitting home.

Shino glanced down before sighing and meeting Naruto's eye. "Yeah…I know you're right, but I just couldn't help playing the 'what if' game – what if I had noticed something, what if I had found someone else to be guardian," there was a pause as Shino hesitated before he asked a question. "Is it true that you are basically his guardian now?"

"Yeah, pretty much. He turns eighteen in like, a month and a half though. After that…well, we'll see, I guess. He's welcome to stay on with me, but he'll be an adult and he can legally do as he pleases."

Shino began to dig around in his briefcase. "Look…I, um, I was thinking about this before…and the only way I can think of to help Sasuke is to give you this," he said, handing over a thick folder of documents. "When I was researching into Itachi and Sasuke after their parents died, this is the folder of stuff that I collected from Child Services on Sasuke that was not worth putting into the report. It's just stuff like his academic history and you know, the stuff teachers had to say about his attitude, intelligence and mental stability, at least as he appeared at school. I figured it might help you, you know, with working out how to make sure he gets through this okay."

Naruto swallowed the lump rising in his throat as he took the file. "Thanks Shino. You're a really good guy. This'll definitely be helpful." Shino just nodded in reply. And just like that the conversation was over. They both returned to silence as Naruto started the car, but this time the silence was companionable as they drove off to finish checking out parolees.

Meanwhile, back at HQ, Chouji and Shikamaru were doing as Naruto requested and trying their best to keep an eye out for Sasuke, whom they could see from the CPC sitting quietly in the tearoom apparently reading a chemistry textbook. Shikamaru sighed and spun his computer chair to face Chouji, who currently occupied one of the chairs the rookies had brought in while practicing directing emergency calls and police units.

"So, how do you think he's doing? Looks like he's avoiding things by hiding behind school work to me," said Shikamaru. "Do you think he needs to talk?"

"Yeah, he probably does but I don't think he's ready to open up. I doubt he would to us, anyway. If anyone it will probably be Naru, since that's who is caring for him. You wanna come with me and stay with him for a bit?"

Shikamaru stood and walked over to ruffle Chouji's soft, brown hair. "Nah, I'll let you go talk first. I'll join you in five when the CPC replacement comes." He smiled, before stretching and plonking himself back into his computer chair.

Sasuke heard the sound of the tearoom door sliding open and looked up from the chemistry book he'd been staring at for the past half hour. He sat up straighter in his seat when he recognised the guy who had come in to talk to him about his housing options in the early hours of Sunday morning following his brother's death.

"Hey Sasuke," said Chouji, glancing at the textbook and munching a donut on his way to the vending machine. "I see you're studying chemistry this year? Never liked that subject, myself. Ah, I'm Chouji, by the way."

"Mm, yeah…I remember you came into talk to me the other day…about where I could stay."

"Ah, I wasn't sure you would remember, considering the circumstances. You want a bottle of something from here?" He was pointing at the vending machine, and already holding a bottle of Peach Fizz in the other. "It's free…"

"Oh, okay…um, I'll have whatever you're having," replied Sasuke, somewhat surprised that Chouji was talking to him. Weren't they supposed to pretend he was invisible, and not let him distract them from working? Chouji swallowed the last bite of donut, before placing a Peach Fizz in front of Sasuke and sitting down heavily in a seat opposite him. Sasuke covertly studied him. He was quite tall, with shortish brown hair. He had a soft, round face and kind eyes. The rest of him was not exactly fat but…solid. He was large, but it was mostly muscle bulk, not flab. Solid was how his mother would have described this guy. He smiled thinking about how his Mom had hated to offend anyone, and then felt a wave of sadness when he thought about the fact that she would never be here to reprimand him for being judgemental again. After a while Sasuke broke the silence. "Are you on break?"

"Yeah, today's turning out to be a quiet one, so other than a bunch of paper work to catch up on—and to be honest, it will probably go home with me tonight—there's not much to do, so morning tea time for me." Chouji bit into a second donut he had pulled from…hum…Sasuke frowned a little, since he saw nowhere that a donut could be stashed. "So, how are you going with the study?"

"Erm," said Sasuke, squirming in his seat. "I guess ok? Well…really I haven't done much today. Usually I am much more focused than this, but I just can't seem to get my mind on target today. If this continues, I'm probably going to screw up my exams."

"Ah, don't worry about it too much. Schools tend to be understanding in hard circumstances, especially if you have people to speak on your behalf – which Naru and the rest of us will do, should that be necessary. Besides, you seem to be pretty smart so they'll probably jump at the chance to help you out," Chouji smiled reassuringly and popped the last of his donut into his mouth. He began through his mouthful of donut, "Just don-"

Shikamaru interrupted, "Hey, if they helped out someone like Naruto, there's no way they wouldn't help you when you're so intelligent. And you actually seem to try, too. You're a schools dream student." Shikamaru flopped onto the only small sofa in the room. "Which is the complete opposite of Naruto. Which is why we are certain they will help you after they helped that loud, troublesome idiot." Chouji frowned.

"Oi, Shika, don't you think you're being a bit hard on Naru? And you're supposed to be his friend."

Shika didn't respond for a moment, just smiled. "An idiot is still an idiot, regardless of whether he's a friend or not. Just remember you used to complain too since he was so disruptive." Chouji glared at Shikamaru, clearly intending to retort but before he could, Sasuke interrupted.

"Naruto got special consideration from his school? How do you know that?" Sasuke asked, clearly not sure if they remembered he was in the room. Chouji and Shikamaru looked at each other, considering the questions.

"Well, yeah, he got special consideration…and as to how we know that, we three went to school together," Chouji replied. "We've known him for how long, Shika? We met when we were twelve or so and now we're each twenty-two or twenty-three. So a good eleven years or so?" Sasuke stared, wide eyed, as Chouji bit into a fruit tart. Where the hell had that come from? And how could one guy be eating so much?

"So you've not only known him for ages, but you all ended up working together too?" he asked.

Shikamaru snorted. "It was no co-incidence. Chouji here didn't know what he wanted to be when we finished school, but Naruto was set on joining the police force and suggested we come along for the ride. We ended up motivating each other since we all had something holding us ba-"

"Hey, I don't remember anything holding me back," Chouji interjected. Shikamaru rolled his eyes before responding.

"Don't play dumb. Naruto was too stupid, you're a fatty and I'm the laziest person that you guys know."

"That's it, you're not allowed in the house tonight. You can just find someone else's bed to sleep in," Chouji said crossly. "You know I hate being called that – I have big bones. And Naruto's going to get pissed off if he hears you've been calling him names."

"Oi…don't blame me for my honesty. He was disruptive and mucked around a lot, playing dumb jokes and being a clown. Plus, have I ever complained about the way you look? I think that you being 'big-boned' suits you," Shikamaru smiled. Chouji's frown softened. Sasuke was…well, frankly a little weirded out by having to listen to the conversation – it felt like they were getting personal even though everything they said was innocent. He coughed slightly to remind them of his presence.

"What do you mean Naruto was too stupid?" he asked. Chouji gave a laugh.

"Don't listen to Shika, Naru isn't stupid. It's more…he's the hands on type; he'd prefer to be in the field rather than doing paper work. The paper test to enter the police academy was almost Naru's downfall since it was hard to make him study. So we all ended up here together since Naru insisted on getting me fit enough to pass the physical side and Shika was dragged along coz he was too lazy to think of something else to do." Chouji then added in a whisper to Sasuke, "Actually Shika is a genius – smart enough to be an engineer or doctor…but he's just too lazy."

Shika sat up and stared at Chouji with an exaggerated pout. "Oi, oi. Why do you keep defending Naruto and not me?"

"'Cause Naru had reasons for being the way he was. He had a tough life, so he couldn't help acting out back then. Plus he grew up and is much more mature now…well, except for when he drinks…and you haven't changed at all, lazy bum. So there," Chouji said triumphantly, before realising all too late what he had said in front of Sasuke. "Ah…"

"…Naruto's had a tough life?" asked Sasuke curiously.

"Um, well he was…you see…" started Chouji, before Shikamaru interrupted.

"Look, when we met Naruto eleven years ago, he had just been adopted by the people whom he now thinks of as his parents. He had a pretty screwed up childhood. I know you're probably even more curious now, but if you have any more questions you should probably ask Naruto, since it's not our place to tell, really. Now Chouji, if you done stuffing your mouth with both your food and feet, it's time to get back to work. We'll see you later Sasuke." With that, Shikamaru stretched and left the tea room.

Chouji got up, dusting crumbs from his shirt. "Ah, I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention to Naru that I let that slip. But like Shika said, just ask him if you wanna know these things – he'll probably tell you. Anyway…good luck with the chemistry work. I'll see ya later maybe." He gave a little smile and wave as he shut the tearoom door behind him, leaving Sasuke with a lot to ponder.

*To make your bed and lie on it – a saying referring to putting up with the consequences of your own actions.

A/N: Hey guys, let me know what you thought of this chapter if you have time =] Actually found it really hard to write this one, since if felt like some of the characters were a little OOC. Especially Shino xD

I was trying to get across the fact that Shino had a strong sense of responsibility towards not only the police force the public whom he feels he has a duty to serve.

This chapter was going to be longer, but I decided that this is plenty for now, and I will move some parts forward so the stories not all squashed. Plus Naru and Sasu are starting to get to know each other more which should lead to bigger and better things…between…them xD

Until next time!

~dusk.