And so the days continued in a rather similar fashion. Sakura and Naruto would wake up, train with Kakashi and Sasuke, take a D rank mission, train again, and then go home. All things were going well Sakura and Naruto had managed to get Sasuke to see them as teammates and almost friends and Sakura had been able to find the two best friends a job in a civilian bar named "The Ninja Hangout" which was luckily a place that no ninja would ever be caught dead in so there was no risk of being seen. The increase in funds had allowed the two time travelers to buy another bed for Sakura and fix up their apartment in general.

This is what led to a month after the forming of their team Sasuke showing up on the duo's door step late at night. It was pure chance that Sakura had worked herself to the bone in her after mission training session and had gone to sleep and that neither had work tonight at the bar. So when Naruto opened the door for their third teammate he suspected nothing was off.

"Teme? What are you doing here?"

Sasuke looked awkward standing in the doorway of the apartment of a teammate that he wasn't very close to. "Can I stay here for the night?"

Naruto glanced at the closed bedroom door which Sakura remained asleep behind. His mind was at war with whether or not he should let Sasuke stay there. On one hand if he didn't then Sasuke would probably never trust them. On the other hand if he found out that he and Sakura were living together there'd be no telling how he would react and who he'd tell. Plus there was Sakura's opinion to consider, but he didn't feel like waking her up.

He looked at little Sasuke. Who, yes, is little when Naruto compares him to his Sasuke, "Yea come on in I'll set you up on the couch if that's okay with you."

"Thank you." He didn't think that he had ever seen Sasuke look so relieved, past or present.

Naruto handed the kid some spare blankets and a pillow, "Make yourself at home. I'm going to bed."

"Hn."

Naruto looked over at his housemate and her new pet as he snuggled into his own bed for the night; she was probably going to be pissed at him in the morning.

Sasuke woke the next morning earlier than his normal wake up time to the noise of a door opening and closing. It took him a split second to remember where he was, but once he did he sat up to meet his host and instead found… "Sakura?"

Said pink haired girl looked less than excited to find a certain pre-teen on her couch and simply raised an eyebrow at him.

"What are you doing here?"

She looked at him blankly, "I live here."

"In Naruto's apartment?" he asked slowly, like the topic was confusing him. After all why would his female teammate live here instead of with her parents?

"Well with the amount of rent I pay and the cleaning and cooking I do it should really be my apartment, but for all intents and purposes it's both of ours apartment."

Sasuke was about to ask another question when he was interrupted by a cat meowing. It didn't have a bow so he couldn't be sure but, "Is that Tora?"

"What are you talking about this is Storm."

In all actuality it was the cat formally known as Tora. When Naruto and herself had earned enough money to start putting some in the bank Sakura had gone and rescued Tora before team Gai could find her and left a dead squirrel henged as Tora so the cat didn't have to go back to her mistress. Naruto had suggested that they named her after Kuarma, Sakura had refused and thus Storm was born.

Sasuke nodded dumbly not really believing her. She threw some clothes at him and changed the subject, considering that Tora was actually the property of the fire Daiyamo's wife. "These are Naruto's. Go take a shower and change. I'll get some breakfast together."

Sakura sighed and grabbed some ice from the freezer, put it in a bowl and added water. She cursed her roommate for not telling her about their current house guest and made her way into the bedroom.

She grinned to herself as she woke Naruto with her trademark ice water wake up. The boy in questions shot awake and rolled right out of bed and onto the floor.

"Good morning Naruto-kun."

Naruto's eyes widened as he tried to get away, that honorific only promised pain. All the while, in the shower Sasuke was oblivious the Naruto's screams of pain.

Five minutes later Sakura left the bedroom and put together a smile breakfast of eggs and toast with some fruit on the side. They'd need their strength because today was the day team 7 got their first c rank mission.

Sakura caught Naruto's eye as they made their way down the path away from the village. "Oh look a puddle of water. How weird. Considering it hasn't rained in weeks. I wonder how all that water got there."

She was actually proud that Naruto hadn't burst out laughing yet as he responded. "Hey Sasuke, let's go play in that no way suspicious puddle."

A strangled sound came from Kakashi's direction. These kids had no idea what the word discreet meant.

Sasuke knitted his eyebrows, "Dobe, I'm not going to play in a puddle on a mission."

They continued walking. "Bye puddle of water," Naruto called.

"Are you sure these kids are qualified to watch me," Tazuna grumbled. Kakashi didn't even bother to reassure him this time and the drunkard took another swig of whatever questionable substance was in his bottle.

Sakura was beginning to get slightly worried last time as soon as she stepped in the puddle the brothers had attacked and now… She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and slammed their employer to the ground as the Demon Brothers attacked her sensei.

The chunin kept running not even bothering to make sure that their target had really died and missed the chunks of wood that would have alerted them of their failure.

Sasuke grabbed a kunai and a shuriken, but before he could throw them Sakura kicked the legs out of one of the brothers causing him to fall to the ground and the other to be yanked back as well. Sasuke shot his shuriken at the chain and used his kunai to anchor it. Naruto stepped on the back of one and Sasuke on the other forcing them to remain still.

"You can come out now sensei," Sakura called out as she helped the drunken Tazuna off the ground.

Their sensei jumped down from the tree he was in. "Ma, Sakura-chan, you ruin all the fun. I was supposed to appear and surprise you all by being alive."

"I'm more concerned with the two ninja that just tried to kill us," she deadpanned, "Buy hey! That's just me."

"Sarcasm is unbecoming of a young lady, Sa-ku-ra."

"It's a good thing I'm only a child then. Ne? Kakashi-sensei?"

"Um guys. Your friendly banter is all well and good, but Sasuke and I have some moderately deadly ninja under our feet so if we could just, I don't know, do something about it that would be great," Naruto pipped up from his perch on the mist-nin.

Kakashi gave Naruto and eye crinkle and came over to do his bidding. "Demon brothers from mist. Chunin level." He crouched down next to the two and glanced over at Tazuna, "Now why would they be after someone like you. Especially when you didn't ask for protection against ninja only protection against bandits. Why, this makes this mission at least a B rank."

Tazuna looked uncomfortable as Kakashi began to tie the two chunin to a tree and sent one of his summons to inform a leaf shinobi.

Naruto snorted, "Do you really have to ask. They're obviously part of the fashion police."

And there went my intimidation factor, Kakashi thought.

"Dobe," Sasuke frowned, "Have you looked in a mirror recently."

Oh yes this was going to be a very long trip.