A/N: Is this story raised from the dead? I don't even know…

DISCLAIMER: I really don't have to say, do I?


Naruto stared down at the book he had to read for his literature class, but he wasn't really absorbing in the words or taking in the actual story. He sighed and pushed the book away, deciding to take a break until he could get himself back into the zone again for studying. Sai was busy at the moment, he texted his brother just an hour ago and they broke their conversation when Kyuubi said he needed to head to work (and then a party later), and his parents downstairs were doing whatever.

There was one person he could text…

His… boyfriend.

Instantly, his face flushed at the thought that he and Sasuke were actually in a relationship. It was just too weird for him.

First Sasuke was just a guy to him, just a senpai, then he starts getting closer and his feelings grow a little stronger for him by each passing day and time he spent with him. Then the incident happens at the stairwell and now he's in a relationship.

Oh man… what was he going to tell Kyuubi?!

How would his brother react?

His brother already knew about Sasuke (sort of) but he didn't really have an approval stamp on him even though he had never met his boyfriend. And Kyuubi's opinion mattered most to Naruto, so he hoped that he could work up the nerve sometime soon and tell his family about his new relationship. He really liked Sasuke and he didn't want to be in one of those secret relationships where they snuck around their parents in order to be together.

No, Naruto liked honesty.

And he knew Sasuke told him that it's okay to not tell your siblings thing right away and it had eased Naruto for a bit. But he was much closer with Kyuubi than Sasuke was with his brother, so it meant more to him having to keep secrets from him.

Pulling out his phone, Naruto went through his contacts and selected someone call. He put the phone to his ear and waited until the person that he was calling would pick up. "… Hi Sasuke."

"Hi Naruto. What's going on?" Sasuke asked from his end, some papers Naruto could hear being shuffled in the background. He vaguely thought that he might have been doing homework. "You want to talk about something? Or you just miss the sound of my voice?"

Naruto snorted. "Tch, no. I just uh… you know how I wanted to talk about how I want to tell my brother about us and stuff?"

"Yes…"

"Well I know you said that I don't have to tell him right away but…"

"You want to."

"Yeah… are you okay with that?"

"Personally for me, I wanted to wait until it's more serious between us until we each told our parents about our relationship. But if you feel like this is something that needs to be addressed right away, then I can respect that too."

Oh, Naruto hadn't thought of that. He tapped his foot and hummed, thinking of what to say next. "I guess uh… your reason makes sense too. Like, it makes a lot of sense. We can wait if you want to too Sasuke…"

"I hear that tone if your voice Naruto. If you want to tell your parents and your brother, I'll go along with it. I want to do this at your pace."

"Um… okay. I want to uh… tell my parents first and then I'll tell my brother soon also. And then I guess… I'll introduce you to them after that."

"Sounds good."

Naruto laid against his headboard and thought of what to talk about. "Are you excited to be graduating this year?"

They had talked for a good hour before Sasuke had to hang up to go do errands for his family. The conversation was pleasant and they talked normally, not gushing to each other like some new couples did when they begin the first phase of dating. Naruto stared at the time recorded for how long they had spoken to each other; one hour and four minutes.

He switched to the contacts in his phone and looked at his brother's name. His finger hovered over the button to message him and he wondered what he would say. But he needed to plan to meet up with Kyuubi soon if he was going to talk about this and he didn't want to push it off any longer than he wanted to. Kyuubi was busy now but he was sure that his brother would read his message eventually and get back to him.

So he sent a text asking to call him whenever he had the chance and then set his phone aside.

Naruto wanted to tell his parents right away… he was thinking that he might as well tell them while he was thinking about it and had more courage at the moment than later when he would have less courage to tell them. Taking a few deep breaths, excuses kept on popping into his mind to not tell his parents within the day's range.

They were having such a good time that he shouldn't just interrupt them, maybe they were having a fight, or maybe they had left the house to go on a date and left him a note telling him not to wait up for them.

No Naruto… tell them!

So Naruto sprang up from his bed and ran down the stairs to the bedroom, his parents actually just playing a card game with each other instead of watching the television together. They both looked up when they saw their youngest standing before them, his face red and clearly wanting to say something to the both of them.

Minato set down his hand faced down on the table and looked at his youngest. "Yes Naruto? What is it? Did you want to join our game?" he asked.

Kushina also set down her cards and pushed her hair behind her shoulder. "You can play the winner if you want Naruto. I'm pretty sure that I'm kicking your dad's butt!"

But Naruto shook his head and clenched his fist. "I'm dating someone now!" he shouted.

The parents remained still in their spots, staring at their youngest child.

It was awkward but Naruto decided to just roll with it. "I uh… started dating my senpai recently. He really likes me and I'm sort of into him back. And I wanted—well he wanted—to wait until we got more serious to tell you guys about us but I just can't live with how long that could take! So I wanted to tell you guys and introduce him to you when the time is right and if you don't approve then… then I don't know what to do but it's not fair that you don't approve before you even met him! And-"

"Naruto! Naruto! Calm down!" Kushina said as she stood from her spot and put her hands on his shoulders to stop him. Then she led him to the table and sat him down with them. "Here, have a seat and we'll talk about this."

Naruto's face was still red as he sat down, now embarrassed about his outburst and was sure that he should have used more tact to tell his parents. But there was no going back now and he had to face whatever his parents were going to say.

Minato pushed away the cards in order to make some room for him to put his arms on the surface of the table. "So… you are dating your senpai?" he said slowly.

Naruto nodded his head.

"And he wanted to wait until you two got serious to announce your relationship to us. But you wanted to tell us right away instead?"

Naruto nodded again.

The parents exchanged a look and both nodded their heads.

Kushina put her hands over her son's and a gentle smile came onto her face. "He's not going to distract you from your schoolwork right?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"Dating someone is fine Naruto." Minato added in. "But if this boy cuts in on your grades because he's a distraction, then we would have to put you two on a break in order for you to catch up with your grades. Remember back in middle school when you were too involved in your club and your grades were suffering?"

Naruto nodded his head. "Don't worry, I don't think he'll be a problem when it comes to my grades. We've been hanging out for a while and so far nothing about my studies has changed."

Once again, the parents exchanged a look with one another before nodding their heads. "Well, we can discuss this more some other time. Your relationship is still new, right Naruto?" Minato asked as he put the cards back in their previous position to keep on playing the game. He received a nod as an answer and he picked up his hand. "Then we'll wait for a while before we talk about this seriously again. Have you told Kyuubi? You know he doesn't like to be left out of these things."

"I haven't told him yet. I was hoping that maybe I could go hang out with him at his campus again, you know, have it be just the two of us when I tell him. Is that okay?" Naruto asked, relieved that his parents didn't have a freak out or anything about his announcement.

Kushina hummed and drew a card from the deck. "I think that'd be nice if you did that. Whenever he's ready to bring you to his dorm when he has a free weekend, you two can talk to each other. Now come and sit, and watch your mom kick your dad's butt!"

But Minato shook his head, a sly smile on his face as he put his hand down. "I don't think so dear. I win this round."

In their area, the neighbors were used to hearing Kushina scream out of frustration whenever she lost a game.


The rooftop was no longer a quiet place for the three of them to hang out together, not since the news of Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke's relationship had gone around. Sai wouldn't mind all the whispers, but the two others would definitely not have been comfortable around the other students with their stares or their whispers.

So they sat behind the gym building, a bench provided for students to sit right underneath a tree to provide shade.

Sai handed Naruto a juice box, Naruto taking it with thanks as usual, and Sasuke just quietly eating his own lunch.

"So your parents actually took it pretty well." Sai said as he twisted open the cap for his water bottle. "They didn't give you the sex talk?"

Naruto and Sasuke glared at him for a brief moment and then ignoring the last part of what Sai had said. "Yes, they were just fine with it." Naruto answered. "They were just concerned that if Sasuke distracts me from my studies, then that's when it would be a problem."

Sai snickered. "You hear that Sasuke-kun? If you distract Naruto with your overwhelming sex appeal, they'll have to break you apart."

Sasuke finished chewing the lunch that was in his mouth and once again ignoring Sai, he asked, "Do they want to meet me?"

"They do, but they'll meet you when I give the okay. I still haven't told my brother yet. I hope he takes it well." Naruto said. He had later received a text message back from Kyuubi, telling him that they could hang out in three weeks. He realized that he was starting to sound kind of nervous so Naruto decided to try to turn around the mood and appear a little more nonchalant. "Don't worry Sasuke! My family will you like, at least my parents will… But I'm sure that overtime you and my brother could get along!"

"Protective of you, isn't he?" Sasuke asked, looking at the time on his phone.

"Of course! But don't worry, he's really great! Kyuubi is a lot of fun to hang out with, he's really smart and funny, and he's always got these funny stories to tell and-"

"Brother complex." Sai cut in.

Sai was knocked off the bench they were sitting on but he reclaimed his spot as if nothing had happened. But he did not further comment on the subject of the 'brother complex' out loud.

To be honest, Sasuke was feeling pretty nervous when it came to Kyuubi. He was sure that he would do fine with Naruto's parents, but Naruto's older brother might not be as easy. Already he knew that the blonde's older brother wasn't exactly crazy about him and Naruto clearly was close with his older sibling and cared more about Sasuke liking his brother instead of just the parents.

But Sasuke really liked Naruto, enough to say that he could go beyond 'like' and 'really like' to border on lo…

The point was that Sasuke could see himself having a long term future with Naruto, despite having known each other over a year and them being only in high school. Call it teenage infatuation if you want to, Sasuke felt something deep for this boy. So he grasped Naruto's hand in his and brought it to his lips, kissing his knuckles gently. "I'll be on my best behavior when I meet them. And I'm sure your brother will come around to me eventually if he doesn't like me right away."

"Well in the time it takes for my brother warm up to you, I'll be sure to like you twice as much to make up for it." Naruto said with a smile, a blush on his cheeks. Apparently the relationship thing was actually fairly natural for him.

Sasuke just couldn't help himself.

He leaned forward and kissed his boyfriend, smiling into the kiss.

They broke apart from the kiss though when they heard a camera click.

"Damn it Sai!" Naruto yelled. He tried snatching the phone away from his friend but fell onto the ground when Sai had quickly dodged him. "Delete that picture!"

"No!"

Sasuke just simply picked up his own drink and drank from it, amused by Naruto and Sai's antics. Still, he couldn't help but feel worry about how things would go in the future between him and Naruto's brother. But for Naruto's sake, he would be on his best behavior when the time came.

ヽ(・ω・)丿

"Man Naru, I am so psyched for you to come and visit me again! You know all my friends really liked you right?" Kyuubi whooped into the phone, some rustling of paper heard in the background. "Shit, I gotta get my stuff organized…"

Naruto smiled into the phone and laughed a little. "Hey remember, keep it together that way you don't mix up papers for your finals."

"Yeah, yeah… So what are you up to Naruto? What's been going on?"

"Uh well…" Naruto looked to his side, Sasuke waiting patiently for him. They made plans to go for a run together over the weekend. They were supposed to meet up at the front of the school and start from there. Naruto happened to get there early and he decided to call his brother to pass the time until Sasuke had arrived. "Just about to go for a run. You know how I like running Kyuu."

"Mm, that's good little brother. Well, I'll hang up so that you can go running. And then a week from now, it'll be the two of us!"

Naruto smiled into the phone and said goodbye before hanging up. He put his phone in his pocket and smiled at his boyfriend. "Ready? If you can't keep up, then don't worry! There's nothing wrong with staring at my back as long as I motivate you to keep on going!"

He had meant it to sound cocky and confident but…

"You dobe. I'd gladly look at your back any time during any day of the week. And I think watching you from behind would definitely motivate me to keep up as long as I could keep on watching you."

Naruto caught the little innuendo and frowned.

"Y-You! I didn't mean it like that! Don't be a pervert! I meant that you won't be able to keep because you're always in the water! Dry land is your enemy!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and bent down to tighten the laces of his shoes. "I do have a better cardiovascular chance in the water, you're right about that. But that doesn't mean that I can't keep up with you on dry land."

He didn't want to add in that he actually had improved in running ever since he had started swimming. Whenever Sasuke ran these days, it would be a while before he actually felt tired and start losing his breath and it was all thanks to swimming that improved him. But it would be interesting to see who could outlast one another…

Naruto was starting to feel a little bit competitive. Running was his thing and swimming was Sasuke's thing, he would refuse to lose to something that he was good at! "Alright then! First to reach the corner where the pottery store wins!"


A/N: So I'm not sure if I'm ready to take this story off its hiatus status. Yes I did just post a chapter, but I might not be ready to update regularly again just yet… But I can assure you that the break I put myself on from writing PK did do me some good and I have more energy to do the story now. But once again, I am a busy girl and just like before the hiatus it's gonna be me and my busy schedule that will prevent me from working on the story as often as I want to. Same announcement as before, still working on rewriting chapters of PS to remain in the same continuity of the story and help it flow better.

Chapters 14 & 15 of That Poor Sucker rewritten