Chapter 9

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Naruto tapped the coffee stirrer he was holding idly against the table. His chin was rested in his palm and his blue eyes were staring off into space. Sakura watched him, vaguely amused at his metal absence. He had been like this all morning and it was one long, drawn out sigh away from being pathetic. Feeling a little ignored the pink haired woman raised her hand about an inch from the side of Naruto's face and snapped her fingers sharply. Naruto blinked and sat up straighter, pouting a little in response.

"What?" His voice was gravely and made Sakura feel strangely anxious.

"You know I'm the one who lost my job remember? It's my job to be all pouty and dazed." She reminded him, shaking her ice tea glass lightly so that the ice clanked against the sides. Naruto's eyes immediately softened and he leaned forward so that their gazes were locked.

"I'm sorry, Sakura-chan." He told her earnestly. She smiled a little at the 'chan'. It reminded her of their childhood together, when Naruto had insisted on being in love with her and she had insisted on hating it.

She had been such a foolish, idiotic girl. What she wouldn't give for a guy like Naruto now... but his being gay presented a bit of a problem.

"Pssh. Don't be silly. I'm totally over it." She assured him, waving her hand as if brushing the thought away. "I've got bigger and better things to do. One job isn't the end of the world."

"That wasn't what you were saying last night…." Naruto muttered under his breath. Sakura gave him a dark, ominous look.

"What was that?" She growled, arching a carefully shaped eyebrow and staring him down intently. Naruto gave a nervous laugh and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Nothing, Sakura-chan, nothing!" The pink haired girl still looked suspicious, raising her tea glass and sipping slowly while watching Naruto over the brim.

"Mmmhmm." She hummed out doubtfully and Naruto mustered up the most innocent grin he had. "So why are you so down today?"

"I'm not down." Naruto responded quickly- too quickly. Damn, Sakura's eyes narrowed and her lips thinned.

"I sense a lie. Come on, spill." She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table and laying her palms out flat in the center. Naruto sighed and did the same so that their fingertips touched in the middle of the table.

"I feel like I'm inches away from tumbling off the edge of a cliff." Naruto crumbled, biting the inside of his cheek and staring down at Sakura's French manicure thoughtfully. "I don't know where I stand with anything- or anyone- anymore." He took a deep breath, trying to gather his thoughts so as not to completely confuse the young woman in front of him.

"I'm worried about work. I know you think my recent success had nothing to do with…my relationship…but I'm not so sure. Plus, this whole mess with Kakashi and Shikamaru- who I'm still upset with, thanks for asking- is making me edgy. I don't like people hiding things from me."

"But there's more to it than that." Sakura continued for him, her voice knowing. "What's really on your mind?" Naruto scowled a little to himself, wondering why he had to have a friend who knew him so damn well. It was irritating.

"Sasuke."

"Ahh." Her voice was infuriatingly understanding. "I see. So things aren't going well?"

"No. Maybe. Kind of. I don't know." Naruto grumbled, lifting one hand to push his spiky hair back. "I don't understand him at all. One minute he's all…Uchiha. The next he's a normal, frustrated teenage boy whose life just got ripped to hell. It's…confusing. I don't want to do the wrong thing and fuck him up any worse than he already is."

"You're not his father, Naruto." Sakura reminded him, green eyes trying to catch his. Naruto was evading her well.

"I know that. I do. It's not even about that…not really. It's not that I want to…you know, raise him or anything. But…" Naruto hesitated, pressing the heels of his palms against his eyes as he tried to figure out what he was trying to say. "I do want to take care of him." Sakura leaned back in her chair and watched Naruto carefully.

"Take care of him?" She repeated. "Naruto, what exactly is Sasuke to you?"

"What?" The question startled Naruto enough that he looked up and met her eyes dead on.

"Kakashi asked you to look after him. Why you? You're his brother's ex-boyfriend. Why did Kakashi choose you, of all people? What is Sasuke to you?"

"Since Kakashi seemed to think I was a suitable guardian, maybe you should be asking what I am to Sasuke" Naruto muttered.

"Maybe you should be asking that." Sakura responded, wearing an all-knowing expression that she got whenever she thought she had figured something important out. Naruto frowned, feeling a little petulant at not understanding where this was all going.

"What exactly are you…" Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin when the shrill ring of his cellphone interrupted their conversation, rather efficiently reminding Naruto that there was indeed an outside world. Seeing Sakura nod, Naruto sighed and realized that she had chosen to end their conversation by giving him permission to answer the call. He suspected she only did it to avoid answering the many questions her little interrogation had risen for him.

"Hello?" There was a pause on the other end of the line before a young, rather clinical sounding woman began to speak.

"Is this the phone of Uzumaki Naruto?"

"Uh…yes."

"Uzumaki-san, this is Azuma Hinamika with the Sabushi conservation office. We spoke earlier this week?"

"Oh yeah. About the nature piece, right?" Naruto asked, carefully trying to bring back the details of the phone call to mind. "Isn't that later next fall?"

"Yes sir, but there's been an unexpected opportunity to shoot an endangered breed of fox this weekend at the Hokutaka park and we need someone to come up for a two-day shoot."

"For this weekend? Isn't that a little short notice?" Naruto asked with a frown. Across the table Sakura was making questioning gestures that Naruto was ignoring.

"It was short notice for everyone, we weren't aware it would be possible so soon. We contacted a few companies but they were unavailable at such short notice. One of our benefactors recommended you. She said you had worked with her family a few years ago and we recognized your name from the applicants for the fall program.We realize that at this short notice travel would be difficult and should you accept the job we would gladly make arrangements for you to stay at the nearest resort and pay for any travel expenses." Naruto's eyebrows lifted. They must be desperate. Sabushi was a nonprofit- they never offered to pay expenses unless it was really, really important.

"This weekend." Naruto repeated slowly.

"We would greatly appreciate this favor to us, Uzumaki-san." The tone in the woman's voice told Naruto that whatever gratitude they had would definitely be beneficial to him later. Naruto wasn't a greedy person but as a professional he desperately wanted to succeed- to prove something to himself.

And, of course, to prove something to other people…

"Yeah, no problem. Just contact me tomorrow with the itinerary."

"Splendid!" The woman's voice reverted back to clinically chipper and Naruto gave Sakura a grimace-smile. "I'll send you the information on your lodging tomorrow morning. Hyuuga-san will be so pleased. She gave you such wonderful praise when she recommended you." Naruto nearly dropped the phone.

"Hyuuga-san? Wait, what does…" Naruto's voice was a weak crack as his mind scrambled to understand what had just happened.

"It was a pleasure talking to you, Uzumaki-san. Sabushi looks forward to working with you!" Naruto tried to protest but all that came out was a startled yip that the receptionist didn't seem to hear because the next thing Naruto heard was the clink of the phone being hung up.

"Did you say Hyuuga?" Sakura demanded immediately, having suppressed her desperate urge to interrogate Naruto long enough for him to get off of the phone.

"I think so." Naruto murmured, staring at the phone. "What the hell just happened?"

"I don't know! I could only hear one side of the conversation!" Sakura huffed out, crossing her arms across her chest and huffing with irritation. "I was depending on you to fill me in." Naruto winced.

"I think I was just tricked into something that's going to take up my whole weekend and that involves the Hyuugas."

"And how does that happen, exactly?" Sakura demanded as she shot dirty looks at Naruto's cell phone. Naruto smiled weakly.

"Hi, maybe we haven't met. I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I was cursed as a child."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXThe milk had broken when Sasuke had dropped it and the butter was a lost cause. Not that Sasuke particularly cared at this point. All he cared about was the fact that walking was painful and Kiba was loud. Not Naruto loud, perhaps, but for some reason Sasuke was less inclined to tolerate Kiba loud than he was Naruto loud. He decided not to think too hard about that one.

So here he was, carefully supporting part of his weight on the brick building next to him as he slowly made his way back to Naruto's apartment.

And he was being followed.

"You know, everywhere you go you seem to piss people off." Kiba pointed out, trailing behind Sasuke with his hands shoved in his pants' pockets. "I'd work on that if I were you." Sasuke's eyes narrowed but he refused to look anywhere but straight ahead.

"I'm not always gonna be around to save your ass." The brunet added as he eyed a young girl that was passing them wolfishly. She gave Kiba an offended glare and quickened her pace. Sasuke straightened a bit and experimented with more weight on his ankle.

"Hmph. I should leave you here now. Let those jerks come back and finish you off." Kiba added thoughtfully, giving Sasuke a surveying glance. "You deserve it."

"Hn." Sasuke retorted cleverly, less than interested in making conversation with someone who seemed to think constantly ignoring everything he said was a plea for attention.

"So what's with the last name thing? Neji said you were an 'Uchiha in Uzumaki clothing' or some shit." Kiba slowed down a bit to stay even with Sasuke's still uneven pace. He kept shooting Sasuke curious glances as if there was some hidden sign he was missing written across Sasuke's face.

"None of your business." Sasuke snapped, feeling suddenly defensive when Kiba moved in closer and Sasuke found himself trapped between the wall and the strange shaggy haired male.

"Hmph. Well, I'll just ask Neji then." Kiba growled. "Since you're going to be a prick about it." Sasuke's jaw clenched and unclenched.

"Neji, huh? Who the hell is Neji?" Sasuke grumbled. Kiba snorted.

"Who the hell are you?" He snapped back. Sasuke spared Kiba one sharp, cold glare and an added scowl. They turned the corner nearing Naruto's apartment and was relieved to find that the pressure in his ankle was easing back a bit- that meant it wasn't sprained or anything more serious. One less thing that Sasuke had to worry about…

"Hyuuga." Kiba stated coolly. Sasuke let out an annoyed huff of breath and shot him a cold look. "Hyuuga Neji." He clarified darkly. "You wanted to know who he was. Now you do…if a name makes a man, anyway." Sasuke found that obnoxiously deep sounding for someone so dense looking.

"So….Uchiha Sasuke?" Kiba drawled, eyes scanning the skyline absently.

"Hn." Sasuke agreed, feeling tired. Naruto's apartment wasn't much further and all he really wanted right now was to lie down.

"You live around here, or are we just going to keep walking until you find someone else to fight?" Sasuke shot him a warning glare.

What was that line about bringing stray dogs home and never getting rid of them?

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Naruto called Sai right away to inform him that he would be using the studio that weekend and to make sure that Ino knew to lock up on Friday if she wasn't going to be in on Saturday. Sai responded by very pleasantly by asking Naruto if he would be getting any and if he was going to be the woman.

Naruto was never entirely sure if he hated Sai or loved him.

Love might be too strong a word…

He had then taken Sakura back to her apartment where she had insisted on dragging him in to see her new carpeting.

Naruto should have known it was a trap. Sakura had hardwood floors.

Two hours later he'd stumbled out of her apartment with his hair gelled, his eyes lined with a thin line of black, and his nails painted black. She had rather gleefully commented on how he finally looked like the man-lover he was. Naruto made a rather grumpy comment about promoting stereotypes and what kind of friend was she and how the hell was he supposed to scrape off polish before he got home when he was also trying to drive?

It turned out to be just as hard as he thought it would be.

"Fuck!" He jerked the steering wheel as with one hand while using his thumbnail to scrape off black chips from his middle nail. A car beeped noisily at him and the blond shot the driver an apologetic smile that he would never see because was already passed- but it made Naruto feel a little better about almost killing someone.

Naruto would never understand why women were fascinated with dressing up gay men…and dancing with them.

Actually, the dancing made sense. Straight men were all…gropey. Being friends with Sakura for this long had taught him that much. But still, what was with the dressing up? And the hair doing? And the nails- especially the nails. He was gay, not a woman…

Naruto's mental pouting was cut off when he almost ran a light and had to slam on the breaks. A few moments of startled panting and shuddering (sadly, the closest thing he'd come to sex in…urgh….) and Naruto decided that this whole undoing his makeover would have to wait until he was in the safety of his own apartment.

The next fifteen minutes of driving consisted of Naruto trying to figure out how he was going to explain his punked-out look to Sasuke…if the Uchiha was even still awake. Maybe Naruto would get lucky and he would be asleep….

…at six o'clock at night. Right.

"Why am I even worried? It's not like he's my mother." Naruto grumbled to himself as he parked his car and yanked the keys out of the ignition. "I'm not some kid sneaking home from the prom with lipstick on his collar and condoms in his wallet." Logic wasn't helping, apparently, because Naruto was still scratching uselessly at the nail polish on his pinky finger.

He climbed the stairs to his floor (the elevator was down again. When were they planning on actually fixing that thing? It had been off-and-on broken all month…) and walked silently down the hall to his apartment. He still felt eerily like he was trying to sneak around. Maybe he should…

Wait. Were those voices?

Voices in his apartment?

Suddenly feeling incredibly apprehensive, Naruto dug into his pocket for his keys and scrambled to undo the lock. Whose voice was that? What were they doing in his apartment? Was Sasuke in there?

He shoved the door open almost violently and it clattered against the wall. The first thing Naruto saw was Sasuke standing in the living room looking startled, annoyed, and vaguely confused. The second thing he saw was a strange, shaggy haired male sitting on his kitchen counter with a half-empty bottle of Naruto's special-occasion wine in his hand. The stranger was gaping at him, eyes a little dazed, and then snickered.

"Yo, Sasuke, your pimp is here."

It was then that Naruto remembered the eyeliner and hair gel.

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Author's notes!

Okay, so I wish I could say I have a good excuse for why this chapter took so long, but I don't. This chapter was just unusually hard for me to write and I'm really sorry. I hope the wait was worth it and I hope I'm struck with some divine inspiration for the next chapter and can get that to you post haste (yes, I stay post haste. My only problem with post haste is my debate on whether or not it's all one word or two…)

So forgive me, my darlings, for I am an uninspired slacker who will try to improve herself one day at a time.

On another note, I'd like to open myself up for any questions you guys may have. I want to hear what you guys are interested in. I'm open to most personal questions, there are only a few I won't answer due to security reasons, such as

What's your real name?

Where do you live?

What's your Social Security number?

Where would it be easiest to look through your window with binoculars?

You know, the technical stuff. Other than that, I'm game. After all, I write yaoi smut…what is there to hide from you guys? Plus, questions are fun. I'm a geek that way- bring on the trivia!!! HAHAHAHA!!!

So, yeah. Ask and you shall receive…Also, feel free to choose a punishment for my tardy chapter. I'll take all suggestions in for deep consideration.

Thank you for being ever so patient

(and happy WAY BELATED V-day….For those of you who believe in it. For those who don't HAPPY SINGLES AWARENESS DAY!!!)

AthenaAlpha