ME (KiyaChan): Hey everyone! I know I'm cutting it close to the due date of the chapter... Work has been crazy and I've been kind of busy with another story -sweat drop- sorry. Um, this chapter is a little shorter then my other chapters so I'm sorry.

DB (DemonicBrat): Oh stop apologizing! -flicks head- Well without further ado please enjoy chapter seven of Cursed!

CH 7

Naruto paced his room looking out the window most of the time, biting his thumb nail. Neji watched the nervous wreck Naruto had suddenly become when he arrived back from his outing with Sasuke. "What has you so worked up?" the wardrobe finally asked with a sigh.

"He's going to kill me." Naruto answered.

"What are you talking about?"

Naruto finally stopped and ran a hand through his hair. "I finally got to see what he was hiding." Neji gulped, he wished he was human so he could hold Naruto or something. "I didn't tell him the shadows had left him, surely he'll be upset that I did not tell him his true form had been shown to me."

"Wait," Neji muttered, trying to get over his slight shock at the blondes words. "You are more worried about how upset he's going to be now that you've seen? You do realize he's a strange creature, right?"

Naruto stared at the wardrobe blankly. "He's still human under it." he said bluntly. He shrugged and sat on his bed running a hand through his messy hair. He stared at the floor trying to figure out what he would say if Sasuke yelled at him. "Have I signed Sasuke's death warrant?"

"What do you mean?"

Naruto looked up at Neji with tears in his eyes. "Well it's just that he needs a girl to break the spell right? But, he got me instead. A complete moron."

Neji chuckled then full out laughed at the blondes words. Naruto was a little baffled at this and wiped away his tears. "You obviously need food Naruto, for you are becoming delusional." This confused Naruto even more. He stared at his friend refusing to move to change for dinner. "If you do not hurry, you will be the one late for dinner."

Slowly Naruto stood and changed into new clothing that was not covered in dirt. Taking a deep breath he opened the door and made his way to the dinning room. The whole way he fidgeted with his hands and the hem of his clothing. He didn't want Sasuke to yell and be mad at him all over again. When he entered the room Sasuke had yet to arrive. He sat in his usual place. Lee and Choji already there, both looking a bit nervous themselves. "Where is Sasuke?"

Lee and Choji looked at one another then sighed. "He will not be coming down for dinner." Choji finally answered, taking a few steps away from the blonde.

Naruto allowed this information to sink in; his hands slowly folding into fists. He slowly stood from his place, the chair scraping against the cobble floor. "Like hell he is going to skip out on dinner." he growled looking to Lee. "Where is he?"

"You are forbidden to go where he is." Lee answered, also stepping away slightly. "He said he wanted to be alone to think. Please, let him."

At first the blonde was going to argue but, with a second thought he shut his mouth and sat back down. "Alright." he sighed looking at the food in front of him. "I understand." this shocked both Lee and Choji. In all honesty they thought he was going to force them to take him to their master.

Dinner was silent as Naruto ate feeling so alone and slightly depressed. Had he made the wrong decision of not telling him. He would not lie if Sasuke asked him about anything that had happened that day. Had he been scared of him? Had he been disgusted by Sasuke's appearance? If he asked anything he would be completely honest.

Sasuke stared out the window of his secret room. He was still trying to figure out why the blonde wouldn't say anything. Had he been making fun of him in his head? Had Naruto found it so repulsive that he didn't want to say anything? That made no sense though. If he had found the form so repulsive wouldn't a normal person not want to see it? Then again Naruto doesn't seem to be completely normal. He thought as he stared up at the waning moon.

"Master." Sasuke looked to the door as Iruka entered. "How about a spot of tea?" he asked. His master sat down and gave a tight nod as the tea pot entered and came closer. "It's been a while since any of us have seen your true form. What brought this on?"

"The cloak faded." he answered taking the cup delicately in his clawed hand. "He saw, so what's the point? He will flee only to be brought back against his will. He will never want to see me again with how disgusting I look."

Iruka fidgeted where he was. Of course he knew better then that, not that he would tell his master so. "I believe you should have more faith in the young master." he muttered, heaving a sigh. "Well I shall leave you be." Sasuke was a little shocked at the tea pots words. Since when had any of them started calling Naruto, young master?

The next morning Sasuke paced outside of Naruto's room. He had wanted to talk to him and see what was going to happen now. To see if Naruto wanted to find a way out of their little contract. He was so nervous, he couldn't even remember the last time he had felt nervous about anything. "What are you doing out here master?" he looked down to find Lee standing there. "You do realize that Naruto has been up and eaten already, yes?"

"The sun has barely risen." Sasuke stated in disbelief. "I thought he had gotten used to sleeping until the sun had risen."

Lee nodded at this then heaved a sigh. "Apparently he had trouble sleeping." he stated. "Something about a stupid, scared teme. Did you not see him out your window master?" Lee asked curiously. "He was headed for the field."

"Field?" Sasuke asked as he turned and started for the stairs. "Which way in the field?"

Lee shook his head. "No idea, he wouldn't say where he was going."

Sasuke growled at this quickening his pace to the front doors. As he walked out he looked around trying to figure out where the blonde could have gone. He looked to the sky where the sun was just starting to rise, sending hues of blues, purples and pinks across the dark blue sky. He took a deep breath of the fresh air to calm himself. He had no idea why he was so upset, after all it wasn't like the blonde could go very far. If I were the dobe and was upset where would I go. the memory of seeing Naruto at night looking at the flowers after they had fought before he had gone to his room flashed through his mind. "The rose garden." he concluded, with a tight nod walking at a decent pace, the green house in sight. He could see a flash of blonde and he smirked. "So predictable."

He stayed silent as he slowly opened the door. He was amazed at how much of a difference there was from the other day. The roses had already started to perk back up within the night. Naruto moved from bush to bush pruning and completely in his own world until Sasuke cleared his throat. The blonde jumped and turned around holding his chest. "Oi, good morning to you too teme." he muttered, barely noticing that the normal veil of darkness around him was not there. With a shrug he turned and went about his work. "Aren't you happy." he laughed slightly, turning around again motioning the plants. "Aren't you happy they are still alive."

Sasuke looked around once more turning to his mothers favorite plant smiling slightly as he noticed the colors were brightening again. "Yes." he admitted, shocking the blonde slightly. "Now, what's this being up before dawn?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head blushing slightly. "Well I couldn't sleep and wanted to surprise you with something." Sasuke raised a brow at this, shifting uneasily as he noticed those damn blue eyes look him up and down before making eye contact. "As an apology for not saying anything yesterday. I just didn't want you to run back to the castle as if it was a shame that you are the way you are."

"Aren't you afraid of me?" Sasuke asked, fear for the answer pooling in his stomach.

"At first." Naruto admitted with a shrug. "As the day pursued I realized that the way you looked did not change who you are on the inside." Sasuke took a step forward not realizing what he was doing until he was two feet away from he blonde. "You are still the emotional bastard I first met." he grinned.

"And you are still the same dobe I first met." Sasuke retorted turning to the roses. He figured he needed something to distract himself with. He couldn't decide if he wanted to hug or strangle the blonde moron before him. "So what was the surprise you were going to do for me?"

"Well, you are already up so you don't get it." Naruto stated as he started pruning another bush. "Perhaps another time though."

Sasuke growled at this taking a deep breath. "Have you eaten?"

"Yes." Naruto answered, Sasuke mentally smacking himself for already knowing that answer. "I am guessing you haven't." he rubbed his tummy and thought about that. "Though I have been working for a few hours so I am kind of hungry. Shall we eat, since you bailed on dinner last night."

"I'm surprised you didn't come after me." Sasuke stated, leading the way out of the green house.

"Lee and Choji told me not to." Naruto pouted. "I wanted to give you a piece of my mind for not showing up to dinner. I'm over it though, still mad but, over it."

Sasuke sighed and ran claws through his feathery hair. "Of course you are." he sighed. "I was just a little flabbergasted that you didn't comment on it. I mean, hello a giant bird monster and you have a normal day with it? You really are a strange one, ya know…"

Naruto laughed out right at this looking up at the sky. "Yeah, granny Tsunade would say the same thing." he admitted his eyes becoming slightly distant. "She would say how much I was like my father. Not that we talked about my parents much; it was kind of taboo."

"What were they? Killers or something?" Sasuke joked, receiving a glare from the blonde. His smirk fell from his beak feeling a killers aura from the blonde.

"They were murdered." Naruto growled. "We still don't know who did it but, that was a few years ago. As far as we know he's dead in a ditch somewhere."

"So, what would you like for breakfast this morning?" Sasuke asked, finding that changing the subject was a better idea then to continue the one they were on. Naruto shrugged at this causing Sasuke to sigh in annoyance. "How do you know so much about flowers?"

"Well," Naruto started, wringing his hands together. "Well, granny got me into it." he answered, blushing slightly. "She said my mother killed every plant she touched but, my pa had an amazing green thumb that could bring back any plant. You could give him the most dried out plant in the world and he could bring it back to life within a couple weeks. Lucky for us your roses just needed new soil and watering. They will be fine in a couple of days as along as they get enough water." he thought about this a bit then chuckled. "You didn't like to prune the bushes much did you."

"I worried that I would do it wrong and some how they would become bare." Sasuke admitted looking down at his hands.

Naruto realized this and took hold of one, ignoring the slight pain as one claw dug into his hand. "We aren't getting any younger." he laughed, pulling Sasuke towards the castle. He looked down at their joined hands noticing the trickle of blood between them wishing that the blonde would let him go. Yet a small selfish part of him wanted the blonde to keep holding on. It had been so many years since a human had touched him. Hundreds of years without human contact and finally; this little blonde kid was showing him kindness something he had completely forgotten about. "Yay breakfast! Round two!" Naruto cheered as they entered the dinning room, the table already set with a variety of food.

"Perhaps we should bandage that first." Sasuke muttered motioning the bleeding hand.

"It's only a scratch teme." Naruto pouted taking a look at it.

Sasuke glared at him for that, delicately taking hold of the blondes wrist. "Just a scratch my butt." he growled, motioning for a hot water basin. "This could get infected you moron." shortly a hot water basin appeared and Sasuke forced Naruto's hand into it, the blonde letting out a small noise. After five seconds he pulled the hand out the blood finally clogging properly. He tore off some gauze and wrapped the hand to hide the open wound. "There, we can eat now."

Naruto looked down to his hand in amazement and grinned up at the man before him. "You are really good at this." he laughed, his eyes shining the like the sun on the ocean. "Thank you."

Sasuke looked away and down at the plate before him. "What ever." he muttered, deciding that food would distract both parties. Yet, as he ate he couldn't seem to stop looking over at the blonde who seemed more then content with digging in. He smirked wondering what other little surprises the kid had in store for him.

KC: Yay! All done! Alright so originally I was going to end it with Sasuke saying "There, we can eat now." but as I was editing the chapter I just felt like that was so not the way to end the chapter... so I added that last tid bit ^^

DB: Yes! My turn! Now, hopefully school wont get too much in the way ^^

KC: Well hope that you enjoyed! Thank you everyone for your loyal support and to all the new people now following this story ^^ You are all awesome!

Both: Until next time!