Chapter XX

June came, and Sasuke found himself, to his surprise, without a single case of manslaughter or forced detention into a mental facility. In fact, if he let himself believe it, his coworkers had begun to grow on him. They weren't the sure-footed, focused coworkers that he had planned to be working with: Shikamaru, while a certified genius, spent the majority of his day staring out of his window; Ino spent more time filing her nails and yakking with her friends on the phone than Sasuke would have allowed; and Kiba had become almost useless, what with his constant flirtations with Hinata. He was pretty sure that they were dating now, although Sasuke's surefire intuition kind of dried up when it came to relationships. However, much like how a tree will grow around an obstruction, Sasuke was able to take these impediments in stride, and even found himself chuckling with one of Temari's cracks or smiling at Naruto's silly pranks.

However, a request/demand that he come with the female workers of the office on a weekend shopping trip did not fall on welcome ears. Getting along with them was one thing, but spending his free time with them was another. Not that he had many other outlets for social connection, but such a situation had a rather large chance of exposing his disguise. Besides this, women had an annoying tendency of getting distracted by racks of jewelry and piles of scarves, discarding their original purpose for whimsical window-shopping.

All of these internal complains did no good; Saturday morning found him rudely awakened by a pounding at his door. Sleepily walking out to his kitchen, he could hear Temari's gruff yell through the door that he had better be out in the hallway in the next ten minutes or else risk the utter demise of his door. Exiting his apartment some time later, he saw Ino and Hinata already waiting, coffee cups in hand. He sighed. He felt like he would need more than coffee to get through this outing.

The good thing about shopping with women was that they knew where to look for clothes, a talent that Sasuke lacked. He did in fact need new outfits, and a new pair of shoes, preferably without a heel. If he was lucky, he would be able to rid himself of those horrible devices for good.

In the meantime, he was given the pleasure of listening to the women's critiques in his choice of clothing. "Really, Suki, do you even want to look attractive? That outfit would do less for you than a burlap sack."

"Well maybe some of us don't want to look like we're begging to be noticed by the opposite sex," he growled back. Temari chuckled. Ino looked pissed.

"H-Here, Suki. Maybe this will look good on you." Hinata held up a blue blouse and a pair of dress pants.

"That would look nice. Really, Suki, you should work on showing off your good features. Bring out your eyes- they're unique. And accentuate your long legs. Not much in the chest department-" she touched the sides of Sasuke's fake bra, eliciting a surprised blush from him, "but you can work around that. They make shirts for all sizes, you know. You don't have to wear a bedsheet."

He nodded, too embarrassed and peeved to do anything else.

He was able to go another half hour or so before disaster struck. Together, they had picked out a fair amount of outfits for him, and he was even able to snag a pair of comfortable-looking shoes with only the mildest sniffs from Ino. However, he was just entering his dressing room stall (dismissing the instinctual discomfort of entering on the woman's side) and closing the door when misfortune appeared in the form of a foot blocking the door's path. Temari weaseled her way into the room, carrying her own stack of clothes to try on.

"'Scuse me, Suki, I just have a couple of shirts to try on. You don't mind if we share a room, do you?"

Sasuke was at a loss as to what to do. Could he ask her to leave, tell her that he was extremely uncomfortable in this kind of situation? He doubted that that would have any kind of effect on her. Should he demand that she leave? Somehow, he found that calling mall security on your coworker wouldn't really help the work atmosphere.

There were a few moments of awkward silence. Then, Temari chuckled softly. "Oh, the look on your face. Don't worry, I won't try tochange with you. I know that you're a guy."

Panic overtook Sasuke. She knew? For how long? Had she told anyone? He glanced at the door, trying to remember the best way out of the shopping mall. He didn't know the train schedule off-hand. He would have to disappear from the city, find somewhere else to stay….

"Hey look, relax. I'm not going to do anything with that information, it's safe with me. I was just curious is all." She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. "So I did some snooping. You're one of the Uchiha siblings, right? The ones with the red eyes, the kids who are involved with that who mess with their brother? You're Sasuke."

After a moment's pause, Sasuke straightened up to his full height, shaking off his woman's persona and shifting his weight to a man's stance. "That's correct. So you know about my situation."

"Oh yes, quite interesting. I'm confused as to why you chose to hide as a girl, though. Wouldn't you simply be identified as your twin sister instead?"

He shifted uncomfortably. His guise didn't make too much sense to him either. "Hiding as a girl was what I deemed as easiest," he replied, getting a raised eyebrow from Temari.

"Well, whatever. Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything with the info. Shikamaru and I were just curious."

"Wait, Shikamaru knows too? Does the whole office know?"

"No, no, it's just Shik and I. You really think that our lovable dumb blond of a boss would catch on to something like that? No, and I won't tell them either. But I would watch out, your guise is slipping." She chuckled. "Pretty soon our coworkers will start wondering why the new girl has such a deep voice, and how big of a tomboy she really is."

Sasuke twisted his mouth in distaste. It was true, he was probably falling into a more comfortable attitude around everyone now that they weren't making his life a living hell. It was inevitable, really, to slip at some point, especially when there were so many intelligent people who worked around him all of the time. Still, he would put more of an effort into the masquerade; he could never show his true self, not unless he wanted to give away his identity. He felt a pang of regret at this inability to connect with anyone, which he then dismissed as a stomach cramp.

"I'll help you as much as I can." He was brought out of his thoughts by Temari's voice. He looked over to see her features for once shifted into an earnest expression. "Shikamaru will too. We don't want you to have to leave. It must have been difficult to uproot yourself like that."

Sasuke wondered if maybe, just maybe, this discovery of his identity wasn't such a bad thing. Perhaps he could use another friend who knew who he truly was.

"That's it. I'm officially calling you out on pretending to be looking out for my wellbeing."

"Why on earth do you say that?" Guy didn't even glance towards Sasuke, arranging a rack of clothes against the wall while balancing a photo album in the crook of his arm. They were in Guy's salon, an interesting mix of hair/beauty boutique and photo studio. At one end, tall mirrors placemarked the stalls, hair curlers, straighteners, gels, and accessories dotting the slotted surfaces. At the other end, backgrounds, lights, and reflectors were set up awaiting the next photo session when the shop opened, props set up neatly by the walls. It was quite an operation here, and Sasuke would visit it sometimes simply to people-watch the strange crew that came into Guy's place. However, he was currently quite peeved at what the green-clad man had just requested, and he found none of the charm about the place that he usually did.

"The whole point of my disguise is for secrecy. So why are you asking me to model in some of your photographs? As both a female and a male?"

Guy turned around now, slightly pouting. "It is hurtful that you would ever question my intent, Sasuke. I am always looking out for what is best for you. I simply feel that such astounding, aristocratic features should never go to waste. They'll only be sections of you, anyways. No one will recognize you."

"Yeah, but why both of me?"

Guy smiled widely. "It may not seem like this to you, but at some point in the future, your situation will be cleared up, and you will be able to return to your life. I will never see you again as you are in front of me, but photos will last. I simply want to remember both sides of you, as you are."

Sasuke felt something tight well up in his throat. He ignored it. "I'm right here, you crazy old man. Stop being melodramatic." He did, however, let Guy take the photographs.

Like most nights, 5 o'çlock found Sasuke still bent over his desk, bored out of his mind yet somehow always seeming crunched for time, making sure that everything was ready for the next morning. Although not all secretarial jobs, he assumed, were this strenuous, there was plenty to accomplish in a day's time when your boss was the head of a major banking company as well as being a huge slack-off.

Uchiha Corps had dealt with power, and Sasuke was allowed to sit in on many key meetings to prepare him for his future role in the company; controlling funds of an international bank, while being something that he had a basic and big-picture idea of, was not a topic that he had perfected in his years of education. Therefore it was with some interest that Sasuke sat in on meetings, taking notes but also learning the intricacies of keeping such a large bank running. Somehow the dobe was able to keep up with all of this, and Sasuke inwardly chuckled whenever he saw a particular expression cross Naruto's face, the one that meant that, while he was calm on the outside, he was inwardly desperately trying to keep in an incredible yawn. If he didn't know first-hand that Naruto was, through some fluke, a genius at what he did, he would have assumed that these meetings would have consisted of a bunch of pranks and snores.

When he next looked up, he was surprised to see that it was nearing 8. He turned in his seat to see that Naruto was also still in the office, but he could see some signs of movement behind the glass door. After a few moments, the door opened, and Naruto exited, yawning. He stopped when he saw Sasuke.

"Staying late again, Suki?" Naruto frowned. Sasuke was always bemused to see how much the blond seemed to care about his workers.

"Just some things I have to finish up. I'll be leaving soon."

"You have to get some rest, Suki. It's not good for your complexion." He sucked in his cheeks. "Hey! I bet you haven't eaten dinner yet, and I'm starving. You wanna come?"

Sasuke looked down at his desk. There were still multiple files open and waiting to be organized. He needed to have some information for Kiba in the morning that he hadn't even begun to look up yet. "Sure, why not."

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched. He hadn't expected much from this dinner outing, seeing as it was Naruto. However, he hadn't quite guessed the level to which his boss would slum it down on an evening with one of his employees.

He was standing with the blond in front of a ramen stand. Sasuke had never seen such a stand before, but from the complicated journey they took to get this far into the city, he wasn't too surprised. Naruto was grinning ear to ear, breathing deeply to ingest the aroma.

"Ah, this place is amazing. Have you been here before, Suki?"

"No." Sasuke glared at the loud banner overhead. He wasn't exactly expecting a nice restaurant, or anything. Just something… a little nicer.

As they entered the stall, Sasuke tried to mull out why he was getting a little upset. It was Naruto after all, right? And what was he thinking, that he would go out of his way, to take him to a nice meal, like it was some kind of date or something? Naruto was his boss, for chrissakes. It was good that he wasn't treating this as something special. Especially since that could prove to endanger his disguise. Wait, but he was dressed as a woman, whom Naruto was not into….

Sasuke had been inwardly mulling this over, and he had distractedly told the man behind the counter that he would have the same thing Naruto was having. It was with shock, then, that he saw the man bring out six bowls of steaming ramen, placing three of them in front of Sasuke.

"Wow, Suki, I didn't know that you liked ramen so much! It's great to see a girl with an appetite like mine!" Naruto then proceeded to slurp down the ramen at an incredible speed, making Sasuke wonder if he had third-degree burns all down his throat.

"Um." Sasuke wasn't usually lost for words, but this took the cake. "I was actually distracted when we ordered, so. I don't think I'll be eating all of this."

"Hm?" Naruto raised his head, noodle strands dangling from his mouth. "Why were you distracted?"

"I… I thought I knew our server." Now that he looked at the man, he did feel like he had met the man at some point and time.

"Oh, you probably do! That's Teuchi, he works as a janitor parttime in the office!"

Sasuke quirked his eyebrow. He remembered the man now- he was the one who let Sasuke in that time that he was "early" to his job. "Did you know him before he was a janitor?"

"Oh, of course. I hired him so that I would have easy access to the ramen. He's part time, so every time he comes in during the day he makes me ramen for lunch." Naruto's grin widened, and Sasuke would have made some disgruntled remark about the noodles sticking out of his mouth if it wasn't for the fact that his smile was so infectious.

"Ramen every day isn't healthy, you know. No wonder you're so fat." He smiled into his ramen as Naruto let out a gasp of pain.

"Suki, I'm hurt! How could you ever insult me like that? After all that I've done for you." He pouted.

"Yeah, working for you has been one big pleasure ride." Sasuke was surprised to find that he was enjoying himself. It turned out that angry banter was an activity he quite enjoyed.

"I bet it has. I bet you go home every day wishing that you could see more of my glorious face. That's why you work so late, isn't it?" Naruto stuck out his tongue. Sasuke hadn't been aware that Naruto had even consciously known of him staying late. He let a small smile creep onto his face.

"Of course. That's the only logical reason- it couldn't be that I have more work to be done in the day than I'm able to do in the time allotted."

"Nope." Naruto slurped up a final noodle before reaching over for Suki's remaining bowls. "Hey! I forgot to mention. We'll be having a ramen day at work. Free ramen, on me. It's more of a publicity thing for Teuchi anyways."

"And you think people will be interested in eating ramen? Even if it's free?"

"Of course- combining free food with delicious noodles? They won't be able to resist." His smile was like the sun. Sasuke was trapped for a moment, believing him. He blinked. The world was mildly going in and out of focus, and he felt sweaty.

Naruto, luckily, didn't notice. Sasuke wondered for a moment if it was because of the food, but then he looked into Naruto's face once more. He blushed and quickly looked away, frowning at an odd sensation in his chest. The blond was happily slurping up the last of his noodles, and Sasuke felt sick- he never did like being caught up with emotions.

Hello! I apologize, as always, for the delay. I really don't have any excuse, and I can't make any promises. However, I hope to finish this story up in the near future, preferably over this summer. Hopefully listing this as a concrete goal will give me motivation. Also, an extra-long chapter for you all (sorry that it keeps jumping around).

I have the next chapter written out, so expect to see some more of Sasuke and Co. in a few days!