I want to reconcile the violence in your heart

I want to recognize your beauty is not just a mask,
I want to exorcise the demons from your past,

I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart

-"Undisclosed Desires" Muse

XxxX

Naruto was once again led out to the cave were he finished up his job with Sasuke watching him intently, although it didn't seem quite so awkward now and they talked from time to time.

Naruto left the house a few hours later feeling somewhat accomplished. He now had the go to bring in someone and go into the cave, who knew what they would find down there.

High in spirits he went home and had dinner. After that, Kiba texted him asking if he wanted to come play xbox, so he went over there.

"So, how was mister creepy?" Kiba asked, "You're still alive, so that must be a good sign."

Naruto grinned, "Yeah, I got him to let me in. We get to explore the cave!"

Kiba looked shocked, "You must have some intense magical powers, because I've never seen that stubborn asshole give in to anyone, there must me a catch. He can't just be doing it out of the kindness of his heart."

"Well, we did make a deal," he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

Kiba let out an exacerbated sigh, "Natuto, you idiot, you've signed your soul to the devil. It's sexual favors, isn't it? You shouldn't have to whore yourself out like this, Naruto, you're better than that!" Kiba cried.

Naruto tried to kick him but missed, "What? No! Nothing like that. You don't even know that I agreed to, don't pretend you do."

"Whatever it was can't be good."

"All I have to do is hang out with him," the blond shrugged.

Kiba made a gagging sound, "Seriously? That sounds like the worst think ever. I remember him being an arrogant jerk."

"He doesn't seem that bad, he did feed me today. If he keeps doing that he might find himself a friend," his mouth watered, remembering the soup and grilled cheese.

Kiba rolled his eyes, "Whatever, I'm just saying that it's a pretty weird request. He defiantly has some ulterior motive, if he pulls a move on you don't be afraid to punch him. Or do, he's probably a vampire or something."

"Nah, he was outside the while I was there," Naruto scoffed.

Kiba made a creepy face, "Was he watching you?"

"He was writing stuff in a note book, I think he thought I might try climbing into the cave."

"I bet when you go down there you'll find his brother had been living down there, chewing on bats or something like that." Bats didn't seem like they would be very nice to eat.

Naruto shuddered. "I hope not. I don't think that would be pleasant for anyone."

"Just remember that while your crawling though those dark enclosed caverns," the burnet snickered.

"Shut up, asshole, you can't scare me."

"I know, if I could then you would be avoiding the Uchiha guy altogether."

"Why do you hate him so much?" It didn't really seem like hatred, more general unease, but hatred was the best word for it.

"I just get a weird feeling from him," Kiba grumbled, "Akamaru doesn't like him either. Dogs are always right about people, haven't you ever seen a horror movie."

"I just think you're being unfair."

"Whatever, don't come crying to me when it turns out that he's stalking you and stealing underwear out of your drawers while you're asleep. Or when he tries to make a skin mask out of your face."

"Shut up, that's my potential friend you're talking about."

"Right, didn't mean to insult your future boyfriend."

Naruto kicked him in the side, this time landing the hit, and proceeded to beat him up. He deserved it.

The next day, Naruto Uzumaki stomped into the geology office with confidence.

"Guess what, you guys!" he exclaimed.

"What is it, Naruto?" asked Sai, glancing up from his computer.

"I got permission to go spelunking in Sasuke's cave," he grinned proudly.

Sai smiled, "Is that a double entendre?"

"No!" Naruto stamped his foot. "I mean we can survey the cave, you creep."

Sai only laughed as Lee started shouting about something that drowned out whatever Hinata was trying to say.

"Is this true?" Gaara asked from the doorway to his office.

"Yep," Naruto confirmed, "We can set up a date whenever." He grinned.

"How did you manage that?" The red haired man asked.

Naruto shrugged, "I'm not really sure, it just kind of happened and I wasn't about to question it."

Gaara raised an eyebrow, but he also apparently decided not to question it. He just counted himself lucky that Naruto had been hired.

XxxX

A few days later he and Gaara went out to the Uchiha residence to explore the cave. Sasuke met them when they arrived and took them to the entrance, lacking the slightly less cold edge he had when he had dealt with Naruto before. He didn't seem to like people much.

"Follow me," the raven haired man instructed.

"You don't have to come with us, Sasuke," Naruto assured, "I know where to go.

Sasuke just shook his head, "I will take you there," his tone left no room for argument. Naruto had a feeling this was one of those certain ways he had to live his life.

As they walked Naruto tried to start up conversation, but neither of his companions apparently felt the need to indulge him. One awkward walk later and they stood at the cave entrance for a moment admiring it. Sasuke was glowering, he watched with an uncomfortable look on his face as Gaara started into the mouth of the cave. He didn't like this at all, Naruto could tell but he didn't say anything, only watched.

The two of them weren't going to be surveying today, they were just going to see if they could judge about how long the tunnels ran through this portion of the cavern, then they could decided a time frame for the surveying. With one last glance at Sasuke's unhappy face, Naruto followed Gaara into the earth.

The path downward was easier than the other opening, it was larger and easier to maneuver, although they still had to crawl down it. When they were quite far down, the path opened up into a larger cavern, it was only about the size of a small room. It had two paths that they could follow. They chose the right first, it looked wider and they could hear water down the other way. This path went straight for a long time before it started to fork off.

They noticed that at for every split in the path there was a marker in white chalk pointing an arrow down one of the ways. They followed it every time, although Naruto found it a little unsettling, thinking about the lost murderer who had lived in the house above them. He consoled himself in thinking that Sasuke had said that he had been into the cave when he was younger and maybe he had been the one to make those marks.

About half an hour down the path they came to a very big cavern. It was about the size of a small gym, but that wasn't the most interesting thing about it. As they shined around their lights they noticed that there was stuff on the floor, and not the sort of stuff one would usually find in a cave like this. Naruto knelt down to inspect. There was what looked like a tv on the ground, without thinking he flicked it on. He was momentarily blinded by the sudden light. Floodlight, right, he should have noticed that. Once the small floodlight was on, it lit up a big corner of the cavern.

In the light many more things were uncovered. Gaara and Naruto went around turning on all seven of the floodlights in the cavern, making it appear quite bright. The floor was scattered with kids toys. It looked like they had once been packed up in a box, but now they had been overturned and lay all around, abandoned and looking as if they had not been touched in years.

There were G.I. Joes, playmobil people, an assortment of sports balls, nerf guns, light sabers, trucks... Etc. Someone had spent a lot of time bringing all of this here. The walls were drawn all of over in chalk, there was a sponge and a bucket that must have been used if they wanted to erase something, there was a stream flowing on the far left side of the cavern they could have used.

Currently, the wall seemed to display a crude cityscape. All of the shorter buildings had wobbly edges like that a child would make. The taller ones were neater and had more detail. It was obvious who had done this because the artwork had been signed. On the back wall there were two houses drawn, one very much better than the other. The nice one had a sign drawn next to it that said "Itachi" in neat lettering. The other had a similar sign that said "Sasuke" although the words ran over the sides of the sign the way little kids write.

Naruto felt his hair stand on end and a shiver went down his spine. He assumed that Itachi must have been Sasuke's older brother, the crazy one. Those two must have spent hours playing down here before Itachi had killed their parents. Naruto didn't like to think about that, there was something strange about standing in the spot where a murder had been. It unnerved him and it also made him feel very sad. This stuff must have been down there ever since Itachi had lost it. Maybe that was why Sasuke hated this place so much, it seemed like they must have spent a lot of time playing down there close to his brother. Connecting the place he had played as a child with the place his brother had, according to rumor, evaded the police couldn't be pleasant.

Gaara looked just as surprised as he was, gaping slightly around the room.

"Uh, should we?" Naruto lifted a camera to signal his intent.

"Ah, yes, yes we should," his boss nodded. That seemed to snap both of them out of their daze.

They stayed in the room for a while, inspecting the damage that the kids had done to the cave walls and taking a few pictures. The place was creepy. The path had ended there and once they had seen their fill and taken their pictures they turned off the lights and headed back in the darkness. As soon as the lights were flicked off Naruto had a vivid image of something grabbing him from behind and dragging him back into the creepy room flash before his brain. He took a deep breath, now was not the time to be a sissy. Pajama Sam had taught him that there was no need to be afraid of the dark, so he pressed on without a word, but the creepy feeling never left him.

They went back along the path, taking each direction they had passed on the way there. Down one of these paths they found the other side of the cave in that connected the cave to the main system, at least in the location they knew of, although it was blocked in. They went down another long path for awhile, but it was starting to get late and Sasuke had forbade them from staying down there for too long, so they turned back.

They came up at around five thirty in the evening, Sasuke was still sitting there on a log. Naruto wasn't sure if he had been there the whole time or not, but he was there now. Knowing him he probably had been there all along. Wordlessly, he took them back to the house. Gaara parted soon after that, but Sasuke told Naruto that the blond was going to stay for dinner. Naruto wasn't about to pass up an offer for free food, so he did not object.

"Was it just as thrilling as you expected?" asked Sasuke as he stirred a pot of spaghetti.

Naruto hesitated, "It wasn't quite what I was expecting." he said.

"The caves or what you found in them?" he asked with a knowing smirk.

"I was not expecting to find a little kid fort down there. It's not exactly a safe place for kids to play."

"I used to play down there with my brother." he said quietly, "I'm sure you have heard about him."

"A bit," Naruto grimaced.

"We got along quite well up until a year before he, well, you know." He gave a slightly twisted smile.

"I can imagine why you wouldn't want to look at it now," Naruto shook his head.

"Yes, it brings up old memories I'd rather forget," Sasuke sighed, "but I made my peace with them a long time ago, I think it's time that I moved past it."

Naruto nodded, he didn't really want to talk about this much, it was too depressing, so he switched topics in the most awkward manner possible. "So, what's your favorite tv show," he blurted out.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "I don't watch tv."

"No, you have to watch it sometimes."

"Nope, I never watch it."

"Never ever? Not even Netflix?"

"I don't have Netflix."

"You are missing out, sir. Okay, so, if you had to pick a favorite tv show ever what would it be?"

He thought for a moment, "I liked the X-Files," he finally said.

Naruto nodded, "You would probably like Supernatural then, it's like a suckier X-Files, but with a bunch if bible bullshit instead of alien bullshit."

"Hn, that doesn't sound very good. I quite liked the alien bullshit."

"Me too, that why I don't like Supernatural with all my heart," Naruto sighed, "What would you do if you were abducted by aliens?"

"That depends on the type of alien they were," Sasuke shrugged.

"Unfriendly ones."

"Well, if they were unfriendly I don't think they would give me any options to do anything."

"That's true, they wouldn't let you escape."

"But I would anyway because I'm a ninja."

"Psh, whatever. I could out ninja you anyway."

"You would be the most obnoxious, terrible ninja in all of existence."

"I would be awesome," Naruto grinned, taking a huge bite of food. Everything Sasuke ever made was amazing. He had to have some sort of super secret magical ingredient in order to make his dishes so good. It was the only explanation.

Visiting Sasuke became a pattern of exploring and then having dinner at his house over the next month or so. All of his colleges came over with him at least once, each analyzing a different aspect of the cave's nature. There was a lot of information to be gathered and it was hard to work sometimes with Sasuke being inflexible about how they could do things. Naruto could tell that he was trying to ease back on them, but it apparently wasn't something that came naturally to him. The effort was appreciated though, although Naruto seemed to be the only one appreciating it, everyone else he brought with him seemed annoyed.

The dinners were very much something he always looked forward to after a day of analyzing. Sasuke was an amazing cook, Naruto was convinced that he had been a five star chef in a past life. The geologist could continue eating his food forever and die happily, although hopefully he could continue living in order to eat more.

One night when Naruto was being led inside for dinner when he decided that it was time that Sasuke came over to his house instead. When Sasuke tried leading him inside Naruto stopped him by grabbing his arm. Sasuke started slightly at the touch and turned to see what Naruto wanted.

"Let's go to my place, I'll cook for you tonight," he grinned.

Sasuke hesitated at first, but he soon conceded to letting Naruto drive him over. Sasuke seemed to feel uncomfortable outside of his home. Home was a familiar place to hide and outside was sometimes hard to face. Naruto could tell but he did his best to maintain his cool and calm exterior.

"Don't expect anything fancy," Naruto warned, "We can't all be super rich, money bags."

Next to Sasuke's house, Naruto's was simple and a little messy, but looked presentable enough not to be embarrassing. Sasuke wandered around inside it like it was a very strange place, while Naruto made ramen, his all time favorite food. Maybe it wasn't fancy, but Sasuke could deal with non-fancy for once in his life.

"Why the hell do you have so much ramen?" Sasuke asked, as he was going through Naruto's cabinets and shaking his head at the lack of decent foods. There was in place of any and all decent food, an ungodly supply of ramen noodles.

"It's like my favorite food, shut up. I'm allowed to have some quirks too you know," Naruto pouted.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "Are you insinuating that I am quirky?"

"I am, it's not bad when your not being annoying about it," he rolled his eyes.

"I can't find the logic in your statement, but I'd rather not argue with you and focus on the fact that you have an entire cabinet full of this stuff." He held up a handful of packets as evidence.

"I thought I told you to shut up, you bastard."

"You didn't buy this all at one time, did you?" Sasuke wondered, he imagined Naruto pushing a whole cart full of ramen packs through a store. People would think that he was preparing for some kind of apocalypse, they or he was going to take a ramen bath. Sasuke wasn't sure which idea was crazier, or more likely for Naruto to actually do.

The blond laughed, "Nah, I just buy them when I see that I'm low."

"How could you ever be low!?"

"I eat a lot of ramen, okay? Don't judge me." He shoved a bowl of noodles into Sasuke's hands. "Here, eat it and stop bothering me."

They sat down at Naruto's table and started eating, or rather Naruto started eating. Sasuke on the other hand was staring at his fork with an odd expression on his face.

"What?" Naruto asked when it became obvious that Sasuke wasn't going to start eating.

"This fork is too big," Sasuke said in a tight voice.

Naruto's brow furrowed, "How can it be too big? It's just a normal sized fork."

"It's too big," Sasuke insisted, setting it down on the table and glaring at his bowl of food.

Naruto sighed and grabbed the offending fork before it could do anymore damage. He swept into the kitchen, his socked feet sliding elegantly on the hardwood floor, he put the fork into his silverware drawer and picked out another, slightly smaller one. He went to turn around, but Sasuke was literally right behind him. He let out a yelp and slammed the drawer closed.

"Holy fuck, I didn't hear you move. Don't do that! I almost stabbed you with this thing," he held up the fork, which Sasuke scrutinized carefully. He snatched it out of Naruto's hand, pushed him aside and reopened the drawer. After a moment he pulled out another style of fork that had a thin square end rather than a round one. Naruto wasn't sure when he had acquired all of these fork variations, they just seemed to randomly show up. With this new fork in hand, Sasuke returned happily to the table and began to eat.

Naruto glared after him, "You're such a weirdo."

Sasuke shrugged, picking at his ramen lazily. He didn't seem to appreciate his food much. "It's just the way things have to be."

"No, you're just compulsive," Naruto objected.

"So, things have to be this way."

After eating Sasuke was going to leave, but Naruto made him stay to watch at least one episode of Supernatural. So, he stayed longer.

Halfway through the doorbell went off and Naruto quickly got up to answer. In the doorway stood a smiling Sakura.

"Hey, Sakura, what's up?" he asked pleasantly, he was just glad that it wasn't Kiba. There was no telling what might happen if it had been.

"I was just wondering if you had any eggs, I'm trying to make cookies and I need two more eggs," she said apologetically.

"Yeah, sure thing. Come on in and I'll get them for you," he stepped back to let her in, as he glanced back he saw Sasuke's head peaking out from behind the chair he was sitting in. "Hey, Sasuke, come over here and make conversation while if find eggs," he commanded, Sasuke needed to be more social anyway. Sakura's head snapped over into the direction Naruto had called to and her eyes widened at the sight of him sitting there.

Sasuke let out a long sigh as he stood and walked over to the two.

"I know you both know each other, so why don't you catch up or something, I'll only be gone about five seconds, that will be enough time right?"

"Just get going, idiot," Sasuke grumbled, his expression blank but on the verge of unhappiness.

"Got it," he chirped as he went off to get the eggs. Opening the fridge, he took the eggs from the container and put them in a plastic bag, that would make them easy to carry. but it was best to carry them delicately for fear of cracks. Eggs in a plastic bag, he returned to find Sasuke looking uncomfortable as Sasuke was babbling about something that Naruto couldn't immediately recognize, her face slightly red.

She stopped short when she saw Naruto. "Ah, thank you so much! I'll give you a cookie tomorrow." She promised as Naruto cheered. "Well, I'm off. It was nice catching up with you, Sasuke, even if it was only for a minute," she said quickly and darted out the door. She was gone before Naruto could say goodbye.

The blond turned to Sasuke with a raised eyebrow, "What was that?"

"I believe that girl once harbored a crush on me," he said darkly.

"Why do you say that like it's a bad thing?"

"Because I find it annoying."

Naruto made a face, "You shouldn't say that, Sakura's a wonderful person."

Sasuke just replied with a, "Hn." And they went back to the tv show.

When the episode was done Sasuke was staring at the tv, trying to figure out how he felt. "I don't think I liked it," he finally said.

"Whaaaaaat," Naruto was very disappointed.

"I didn't hate it, but it's nothing compared to the X-Files."

"You're just biased, if you hadn't already watched that show you would like this one better."

"Maybe, but I don't care, this show feels too... I don't know." He couldn't quite put it into words.

"But just wait until you get to the later seasons, angels and demons and god and Castiel, the worlds most adorable angel."

Sasuke was now very confused, "That makes me like it less, I don't like watching this kind of bullshit."

"Whatever," Naruto huffed, "Your taste in tv shows just sucks." He looked down at the time on his phone. It was late. "I guess I should probably sent you home," he sighed, "I imagine that you've spent enough time interacting with other humans for one day."

Sasuke nodded, "I'll just walk home then." He stood to go but Naruto stopped him.

"Woah, what the fuck do you think you're doing? It's super dark out there, you'll get lost or attacked by a bear or something."

Sasuke shook his head, "I grew up here, I could walk the way with my eyes closed, besides it's not that long a walk."

"Yeah, it is, and I'm not going to let you go out there on your own all unprotected," Naruto protested.

Sasuke just shook his head dismissively, "I'll be fine, I'm an Uchiha, I live in that shadows."

Naruto grimaced, "That's really creepy, I hope you know that."

Sasuke have him a half smile, "I know." He stepped forward and placed his hands on either of Naruto's shoulders.

The blond raised an eyebrow in question, "What the hell are you-"

"Thank you, Naruto, for a wonderful night," he said, a sharp smile on his face and a glimmer in his dark unreadable eyes.

"Sure," Naruto managed as he felt the hair on the back of his neck raise and his shoulders tingle. And then he was gone, he walked promptly out the door and into the darkness without another word. Naruto was left standing in his living room staring after him with a look on his face somewhere between confusion and alarm. What a fucking weirdo.

There after they went over to Naruto's house from time to time. Naruto enjoyed time spent with Sasuke, he could be very frustrating sometimes, but he could also be funny. Sure he was a little awkward and weird, but he didn't really understand Kiba's dislike of the guy. The more time they spent together the more Naurto liked him. Maybe that was the problem, people hadn't spent enough time with Sasuke. It was that or the fact that he didn't like most people, so he was an ass to them. The latter option seemed more likely.

Naruto was sitting at Sasuke's table one say after just coming back from the cave, they were both waiting for the lasagna Sasuke made to finish cooking. "Hey," Naruto interjected, "Can I see your lab?"

Sasuke blinked, he had never given Naruto a full tour of his house and therefore the blond had never been in his lab. "I guess so." He stepped out of the kitchen and started down the hall toward a door they led down into the basement. He opened the old, unfriendly looking thing and turned on the bright fluorescent lights of the room below, illuminating the whole area. It was all very neat looking, there were lots of complex looking machines, some of them hummed and some did not, and a lot of cases filled with marked chemicals. There were also a lot shelves full of books and a laptop closed on a table.

"Here it is." Sasuke remarked dully, "It's not especially exciting."

"It looks like the lab we had in college," Naruto laughed.

"This is better than my college lab, although sometimes I still have to go out to get things done so it's not perfect but it's nice."

"Ah the things that money can do," Naruto sighed, spending a few seconds to admire it. "Do you get a lot done in a day?"

"Yes," he said curtly.

"Even when you're sitting outside, waiting for us to get out of the cave?"

"Even then."

"Why do you do that?"

"I just do," Sasuke shook his head.

"Sometimes you are ridiculous," Naruto heaved a sigh, "Anyway, you should give me the full tour." Naruto suggested, it was still about fifteen minutes before dinner would be done anyway.

Sasuke nodded and lead up from the basement and pointed to the room across the hall. "That was my parents room." He said opening the door to shed some light on the empty space. It looked like no one had been there in some time, but it was dusted so Sasuke must go in and out to clean it.

They walked into the living room and Sasuke pointed down another hall next to the stairs. "That's where my caretaker used to stay," he said with distain, his lip curling up.

"Sakura mentioned him being odd," Naruto said cautiously.

"He was what he was," Sasuke said shortly, apparently not wanting to discuss it, and then started up the stairs. Naruto was close behind him. At the top of the stairs there was a guest bedroom that was absolutely huge. Down one hall there was an extra room that Sasuke said he used to play in as a child, but it was no longer used anymore. At the end of that hall there was another door. "That was Itachi's room," Sasuke said sullenly, he didn't go in there and he kept the door locked. Some things were best kept locked away where no one could see them.

Down the other hall was Sasuke's room. When the raven haired man opened that door Naruto rushed in. The room was very bland. There were a few bookshelves, a desk, and a bed but not much else. Naruto flopped down onto the bed looking irritated.

"This room is so boring," he said, intentionally messing up the covers on Sasuke's carefully made bed.

"It suits it's purpose," Sasuke said, glaring at the annoying blond as he made his mess.

"But that's no fun, it has no personality."

"You have no personality."

"Now you're just being stupid."

"You're being stupid."

Naruto sighed, staring up at the ceiling, "Don't you ever get lonely living in a big house like this alone?"

"Not often," Sasuke said, sitting on a portion of the bed not occupied by Naruto. "I've never had much need for company."

"What's this then?" Naruto asked, poking Sasuke in the cheek.

Sasuke gave him a hard to read look. "An exception," he breathed.

Naruto imagined that he must have made a very strange face at those words, he had not been expecting them. "What do you mean?"

"You are different," Sasuke said with that same hard to read expression.

"Most people say it like it's a bad thing."

"They just don't see the same way I do..." he trailed at the end and they were just staring at each other. The eye contact was stung out in an intense sort of way. It made Naruto feel like he was underwater being crushed by an unbelievable pressure.

Then they distantly heard the timer for the oven going off and the spell was broken. They headed downstairs and retrieved the lasagna, sitting down for an awesome dinner.

XxxX

A/N: I can't help but feel like this whole plot is a big double entendre: Naruto tried to get Sasuke to let him into his cave. I didn't mean for it to sound like that but...

Ugh, I'm so busy with school now. My life has become all chemistry :p

Thanks.