Yes, I know it's been… Years since I've updated this, at least a long time… Sorry for that. The only excuse I have is that I lost interest in the story, and didn't have anything to write for it. But I'd never abandon this fic, so no worries…

Hope you enjoy this chapter.

It's a Nanny's Job

Chapter Eight- So difficult!

When Sasuke's wife divorces him, and leaves him their kids, it's up to him to get a nanny. But nobody seems right for the job. Except for this blonde, who refuses to leave his property until he gets the job. What's Sasuke to do?


It seemed that Bronco had fallen asleep on him. Damn him, he probably fell asleep on purpose, to leave me alone with… Him.

Naruto turned around to stare at Sasuke, who was eating a sandwich and reading the newspaper, carefully ignoring him. Sasuke hadn't even looked at him when he had almost dropped the pan of cookie dough. Luckily, he had saved it just before it hit the ground, and immediately stuffed it in the oven and set the timer.

And the winner of the Ignore Naruto contest… Sasuke! Naruto could just imagine his uninterested face as he accepted the medal while the 'We are the Champions' song played. Dear Lord.. How do people survive not talking for so long? He's reading a newspaper for goodness sake!

"How can you read that thing?" Naruto asked suddenly, making Sasuke look up at him.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "What? The newspaper?" He snapped the newspaper and folded it in half, and set it on the table.

Naruto nodded, "Yeah! The newspaper is really boring! Nothing but a bunch of stories that didn't make it onto the news channel."

Irritation planted itself on Sasuke's face, "I read it because it's interesting." He looked like he wanted to say something else, but decided against it and opened the newspaper to read more.

Naruto frowned for a second before turning around to lean against the counter. He stared at Bronco for a moment (still sleeping), before grabbing the spoon beside his box and scooping up some cookie dough, which he promptly stuck in his mouth and ate. He turned to find Sasuke watching him, his nose wrinkled slightly in disgust.

"Wha?" Naruto attempted to say around the mouthful of dough. Sasuke's nose wrinkled even more.

"Swallow before talking. And don't eat dough from the bucket." Sasuke replied, frowning a bit.

Naruto automatically swallowed, "Why not?"

"You could get someone sick." Was the immediate reply.

Naruto's eyebrow twitched, "I'm so sorry, sir. I didn't know I was diseased." He was slowly but surely getting irritated.

"Not diseased. It's a safety precaution, is all." Sasuke said, pursing his lips in distaste, as if merely talking to Naruto would get him sick.

Naruto threw his hands into the air in exasperation, "I don't know how people put up with you!"

Sasuke's mouth opened a little bit, but then he shut it, not knowing what to say. He didn't need to say anything anyway, because Naruto continued to rant.

"I mean, really! I haven't done anything to you! Drop the high-and-mighty act, alright, because it doesn't work on me! You may be my boss, but that doesn't give you the right to step all over me. We can have a decent conversation once in a while, without insulting each other, don't you think? It isn't that hard. I don't know about you, but I do it all the time." Naruto took a deep breath, and straightened up from his hunched over position where he had been nearly shouting in Sasuke's face, "Why are you being so difficult anyway?" He questioned.

Sasuke leaned forward, raising an eyebrow, "What does it matter? I'm your boss, you hardly have to talk to me." A little voice in the back of his head was screaming at him, telling him that maybe he was going to far, and not to anger the blond anymore, but he ignored it.

A mix of emotions flashed over Naruto's face so fast, Sasuke couldn't determine any of them. The only thing he could see, was that Naruto didn't know how to react to his question. Naruto simply stood motionless, multitudes of emotions flying over his features, before he settled on uncaring. If he acted like he didn't care, then Sasuke wouldn't care, and they could get on with their lives, right?

Naruto half-shrugged, pulling up a strained little smirk, "Hey, never mind, doesn't matter." And with that he grabbed the box containing a now-very-wide-awake Bronco and exited the room, opting to stay in the living room and watch TV until Sasuke had to leave. The cookies could burn for all he cared at the moment.


Sasuke sat frozen in his chair for a few minutes after Naruto had left the kitchen, deaf to the sounds of cartoons on the TV in the living room. What startled him into awareness was the loud beeping of the oven timer, signaling that someone had better take the cookies out unless they wanted their house to burn down.

Sasuke sat still for a moment, wondering if Naruto was going to get the cookies out, but when he heard no movement from the other room, he sighed and got up to do it himself.

As he put the cookies onto a plate to cool off in the fridge, he thought about what had just happened. Why was he being so difficult? Or rather, why did he find being difficult with Naruto, and teasing him fun?

Sasuke smirked, that was an easy answer. It was because the blond was so animated. He always got a reaction, no matter how minimal the insult. He was amusing. Plus the fact that he liked to feel in control. So if he could get a reaction out of Naruto, and Naruto couldn't get one out of him, he felt in control.

Naruto was a hectic person. Sasuke didn't like chaos, he wanted an organized life, he wanted to know where he was going, what time he would get there, what and how much he was eating, he needed to know everything.

And with one person, chaos comes. Sasuke didn't feel as in control as he used to. He didn't know what his kids were doing when he wasn't there, he didn't know if Naruto would take them to the park, or to the grocery store, or if he was telling them stuff they shouldn't know... He simply didn't trust Naruto as much as he should've.

Sasuke sat back in his chair, brow wrinkled in thought. Maybe getting to know each other wouldn't be a bad thing…


Naruto didn't even look around as Sasuke came out of the kitchen, looking perfectly unaffected as per usual. Naruto did notice, however, when Sasuke stopped just behind the couch, not moving or saying anything.

After a few minutes of silence, Naruto tilted his head up, gaze questioning. Sasuke was looking at him, and after a few moments he opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it. Naruto's eyes widened as he saw hesitance in Sasuke's eyes. That just wasn't possible, Sasuke Uchiha doesn't hesitate!

"What?" Naruto asked, unsure if he wanted to break the silence.

Sasuke's eyes hardened, and he stood straighter, as if he needed to be ready and strong to say what he was about to say. "I… thought about what you said, and if you want… We could maybe get together sometime later and learn a little more about each other, to better the employer-employee relationship." After he was done talking, he shifted a little as Naruto looked at him in open surprise, mouth hanging slightly open and eyes wide.

After a few seconds of silence, in which Naruto did nothing but gape, Sasuke stiffened his posture a little with a glare, taking Naruto's silence as a negative, "Close your mouth, idiot, it was only a suggestion." And he turned around stiffly and marched out the door, grabbing his briefcase on the way.

Naruto snapped his mouth shut and jumped off the couch and raced out the door after Sasuke. Just as Sasuke was opening the car door, Naruto grabbed his wrist and pulled him away from the door, and smiled a little sheepishly when Sasuke turned sharply to face him.

"Sorry about that, Sasuke… I just never thought you would care enough to want to get to know me better." Naruto muttered, shivering a little in his short sleeved shirt as a cold wind rushed by.

Sasuke frowned a little, "We need to be able to get along. It's better for us and better for Sarel and William."

Naruto's smile faltered a little, but he picked it up again quickly, "Sure, Sasuke." He tilted his head a little, trying to think of any free time on his schedule. "Well, how about two days from now? I could get Iruka to babysit Sarel and William, I bet he'd love to do that. He's a sucker for little kids."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, and Naruto continued hastily, "Oh, don't worry. He's totally trust-worthy, I would know. He's really good with kids, and he'd do anything for them, he doesn't like loud music, he never cusses, he wears nice clothes, he's never late…" Naruto trailed off, before coming up with something he thought would sway Sasuke into letting Iruka babysit, "Plus, he's like a total prude. He blushes whenever something even near-mmph!" Naruto's speech was cut off as Sasuke slapped a hand to his mouth, determined to end his babbling.

"Moron." Sasuke muttered, an eyebrow twitching just a little in annoyance, "He can babysit, but you have to ask him first, and call me to tell me if he's alright with it, alright?" He removed his hand, waiting for an answer.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Yeah, whatever. You go back to work now." He commanded, laughing a little as Sasuke glared at him for ordering him around. He laughed even more when Sasuke did as he was told and got into his car.


Soon enough, Naruto found it was seven o' clock, then five minutes past, ten minutes past… And neither Sasuke nor Iruka had shown up yet.

Naruto let out a frustrated sigh, before pulling open the dishwasher and putting the dishes he had been washing in. He turned around to find two little people staring up at him curiously.

"What's wrong?" William asked, blunt as always.

Naruto shook his head a little, wiling the blonde strands of hair to stay away from his eyes, "Well, remember how I told you about Iruka?" Both children nodded, "Well, he's supposed to pick me up to take me to Hinata's party, and we have to go back to my place on the way to pick up my present for her…" He trailed off as the doorbell echoed throughout the house, and he moved around the kids into the living room to open the door.

The door opened to reveal a slightly mussed looking Iruka. He waved a little sheepishly, a small smile on his face, "Sorry Naruto… I kind of… slept in." Naruto let his hand drop from where it had been in a mock-stern posture on his hip, and he let the teacher in.

"Not a problem, you deserve some good rest anyway. Say hi to Sarel," Naruto pointed to Sarel, who was standing a little close to her brother out of shyness, "And William." William waved enthusiastically with a big grin on his face.

Iruka waved back just a little, gentle smile on his face, "They're so different from each other…" He muttered, so that only Naruto could hear. Naruto laughed and nodded, knowing that was something he had marveled about more than once.

"You must be Iruka." A voice from behind startled Iruka, making him jump in the air a little before turning around to find Sasuke closing the door behind him. Naruto rolled his eyes, not the least bit startled, being used to the Uchiha's less-than-ordinary entrances by now.

"You're kinda late, Sasuke." Naruto muttered, a small frown on his lips. Iruka rose an eyebrow at him, a little surprised by his less-than-cordial attitude toward his superior.

"I got caught in traffic, blame that. Now you can go to your party, have fun." Sasuke looked at Iruka, a smirk on his lips, "Naruto and I were talking this afternoon, and I'd like to know if you would babysit Sarel and William two days from now, about the time I get home, five o' clock."

The other eyebrow rose on Iruka's face, "What for?"

Naruto grinned, "We're gonna get to know each other better to," He raised his hands into the air, making quotation marks, "'Better the employee-employer relationship'."

Iruka looked back and forth between them for a moment, before a small smile tugged at his lips and he nodded.

"Great! Now, we gotta go, because Kiba'll get real mad at me if we're really late!" He grabbed Iruka's arm, and began tugging him out the door, "By the way, Sasuke, there's som left-overs in the fridge if you want some! See you later kids! Bye!"

A minute later Naruto ran back through the door, muttering something about a 'fuzzball', and went into the kitchen. He came back out with a box, and inside was the rabbit. He ran back out the door, shouting a 'Bye!' behind him and jumped into the car.

And then they were gone, the door shut, and three people were left a little befuddled in the living room of the Uchiha house.


"Ack! Seven fifteen! We're late! We're late!" Naruto shouted, startling Iruka and interrupting the peaceful silent car ride.

"'Not time to say hello-goodbye, I'm late I'm late I'm late!'" Iruka quoted, chuckling as Naruto glared at him, "Calm down Naruto, I'm sure Hinata will understand. I know for a fact that Kiba would have set Akamaru on you, if Hinata weren't there, so you're safe. Stop freaking out."

Naruto relaxed into the seat, but after a few minutes, his impatience began growing. Iruka noticed this when Naruto sat up a little straighter and crossed his arms, a clear sign that somebody better distract him before he blew up.

So Iruka did the only thing he could, he jerked the wheel hard enough to make the car go into the next lane, causing Naruto to hit his head on the window and several cars to slow down and honk at him. He even caught a few drivers giving him the finger.

When Naruto sat up again, he was clutching his head and yowling at him like an angry cat. "What the fuck is your problem? Why the hell did you do that?" He rubbed his head, muttering many colorful curses that Iruka knew he would never be able to repeat.

He shugged, casually flicking on the radio, keeping the volume low as to not piss the blonde off more, "I didn't want to listen to you whine anymore."

"And THAT was your solution?" Naruto screeched indignation along with a 'what the hell?' look on his face.

"It was the only thing I could think of." He shrugged again, and turned up the volume, ignoring Naruto as he pouted and continued rubbing his head.

Five minutes later they were at Naruto's apartment, and Naruto got out of the car, still rubbing his head and growling about this and that. He went into the building, and a few minutes later came out with a poorly wrapped package in his arms.

"I'm not a pro at wrapping presents, so sue me!" Naruto growled in response to Iruka's expression, to which he just rolled his eyes and pulled out of the parking lot and back onto the road.

"What did you get her?" Iruka questioned once they were on the freeway. Cars zoomed past them, and Iruka knew that Naruto was getting more and more impatient with his slow driving. He had always told him he drove like an old granny.

"Just some jewelry I found that I thought she'd like." When Iruka still looked like he wanted to know, Naruto sighed, shifting the package on his lap a little and continuing, "It's just a necklace. It's something I found in a store… I thought she'd like it, because it's got a pale pink jewel in the middle of a little shell. Then it's got little bits of shells strung through the rest of the necklace."

Iruka smiled softly, "Sounds really pretty."

Naruto nodded, "I thought it would match her. Plus everyone knows how much she loves the ocean…" Iruka nodded silently as he pulled in to the neighborhood that Hinata lived in, "Almost there…"


TBC…

Yes, I know, small chapter. I had already done about half the chapter a few days ago, but when I re-read it, it sucked, so I re-did it. I know Sarel and William are hardly in this chapter, but I wanted to focus on other characters more, get more into Sasuke and Naruto and how they react around each other…

I hope you liked this chapter, love you all for the reviews last chapter! Past one hundred, that's a first. :) Thanks so much! See you next chapter!