Chapter 29: The fan and the swirl

7th of November

Kazuko was a little early, but she liked to be on the field before her students arrived (having some time to read her 'romance' novels). However, when she was about to walk onto the training field team 9 used, for a joined training session, she noticed him. She froze on the spot as she saw Naruto standing a little further away.

She knew she wouldn't be able to win him over, but that didn't mean her feeling for him could just vanish. She still very much liked him, but she was honestly trying to fall for someone else.

Though, Naruto wasn't making things easy for her as he stood there only in his boxers, water dripping off his chest. He was standing in a small puddle of water, recently created by some jutsu.

Then she noticed he hadn't seen her yet. He was looking away from her, over his right shoulder. The arm that was growing on the left side was about to reach his elbow in a little while. It was bandaged up, so the end wasn't visible.

"Why did you do that?" Naruto asked and Kazuko stiffened. "I was almost dry!"

Kazuko looked over to the place Naruto was looking, and saw a tall man coming from the foliage. He was quite pale for someone who lived in Konoha with plenty of sun, and his hair was black with a blue shine over it. He wasn't bad looking at all, but he just wasn't really Kazuko's type.

He stopped and looked over to Naruto, a smirk on his face. "You look way better when you're wet," he said.

Kazuko quickly glanced around. He wasn't noticing her either. It probably was because some trees and bushes blocked her mostly out of view. Plus they seemed quite focussed on each other.

Kazuko smirked. There was a third reason they did not notice her. In her years of being a ninja, she was famous for the excellent use of that one jutsu. She was brilliant at erasing any signs of herself, even in moments like these in daily life. Stealth was her field of expertise. She wasn't known as the 'invisible woman' for nothing.

"Mo~, Sasuke. What if my team, or team 4 shows up early?"

"We'll see what happens then."

Naruto pouted, and Sasuke came closer to him.

Sasuke? Of course, how stupid could she have been; that was Uchiha Sasuke. As if the fans on his jacket didn't say enough. Kazuko could slap herself in the face, but she wasn't about to let the two know about her presence yet.

She had never liked the Uchiha, acting all arrogant; and that look on his face. She had been to one of his hearings, the one that had been publicly. That was when she'd decided that he was no good at all. After all he'd done, Konoha was just letting him back in. And how? A half year of prison detention and demotion to only doing D-rank missions for about a year after that. That was nothing compared to what he'd done. He deserved so much more punishment.

And then Naruto, the man of her dreams, tells her he is with not only a man, but of all the men in the world together with him. She had tried to make Naruto see he was with the wrong person, but she had failed. She wouldn't try it again though, but still… this feeling deep inside of her made her want to jump and kick that black haired man in his handsome and arrogant face.

Then she saw the way he was acting around and looking at Naruto. He wasn't arrogant at all; he was smiling ever so slightly, but smiling nonetheless. And his eyes looked so tenderly to his blond boyfriend. He wasn't looking like the man she had seen at the hearing at all. Was this what he was like? What he was really like? Or was he only like this around Naruto?

He was now so close to Naruto that their bodies were only 30 centimetres apart. Naruto's wet hair was hanging in his face. He peered through it while water was dripping onto the ground from his hair and his chin. His wet ears stuck out between the flattened spikes.

"You act like you don't care if anybody sees us, but you never do anything in public," Naruto muttered. That wasn't quite true.

"And you do?" Naruto pouted. "You, just like me, don't like public attention in that way," Sasuke responded.

Naruto couldn't deny that. "But still, you don't even want to touch me." Naruto knew he was overreacting, because it wasn't like Sasuke didn't touch him at all when they left the house.

Sasuke knew what Naruto was trying to do, so he didn't take the bait. "You want me to?" He reached up to Naruto's face, but didn't touch it yet. His fingers hovered just a few millimetres from Naruto's wet skin. He was teasing Naruto.

Naruto looked at the hand, and knew that Sasuke wanted him to lean into it. So he didn't. Just like Sasuke, he could play this game too. He looked up into Sasuke's dark eyes.

"You think you dare to do it?"

Sasuke smirked and lowered his hand to Naruto's chest. "You don't think I do?" He waited for Naruto to react in the slightest way. Naruto blinked, and Sasuke placed his hand on Naruto's chest.

Kazuko watched with fascination how the two talked, and slowly got closer to each other. Sasuke first touched Naruto's chest. His hand started moving over the tan skin of the blond, going lower and lower. When it came to the waistband of his boxers Naruto stopped him by kissing him on the mouth. (Naruto had officially lost their 'contest').

Kazuko slowly lowered herself into the foliage without realizing it. A blush crept up her face. She had never been into yaoi, and hadn't liked the Uchiha at all, but the combination of the two (with the main ingredient being Naruto)... it was strangely exciting to her.

Naruto wrapped his tail around the both of them, and Sasuke moved his hands up and down over Naruto's sides and back (apparently not caring if the cast around his right arm got wet). Naruto's hand was gliding through Sasuke's hair. His ⅓ arm slowly moved up a little, like it was trying to embrace Sasuke's waist.

They kept kissing for quite a while, but eventually Sasuke pulled back and straightened himself up. Naruto, just like Kazuko, thought Sasuke had finished and wanted to move away. So Naruto was about to take a step backward when Sasuke grasped his tail, and pulled him back.

Naruto yipped before giving a moan when Sasuke started licking and kissing his neck and shoulder.

Kazuko noticed she was drooling by now. Quickly she wiped it away, and lowered even more into the bushes. She wondered if she could keep herself covered very well for much longer; she felt like squealing or something.

"Aaaah, my eyes!"

Kazuko jolted at the sudden scream, and so did Naruto and Sasuke, having been absorbed into the moment a little bit too much. Naruto actually almost slipped on the wet grass, but Sasuke quickly grasped his arm to steady him.

"Sensei?" Ryomaru was covering his eyes, blushing.

Eri was standing next to him, staring at her sensei and Sasuke. She walked up to them. "What do you think you're doing on a training field?" she asked frowning; her hands resting on her hips.

Naruto blinked a few times at the reaction of his student. "Eh…"

"Not 'eh'!" she told him. "Speak up!"

Naruto straightened up at Eri's almost commanding voice. "Hai." Sasuke's eyebrows almost rose up as he glanced over to Naruto.

"When you want to touch each other, do that somewhere else," Eri said sternly.

Sasuke stared at Eri, and so did Kazuko. She was lecturing them? Ryomaru peeked through his fingers to see what Eri was doing.

She pulled up her hand and waved her finger at the two adults. "We're not even 14 yet. You can't just go feel each other up all of a sudden? Look what you did to Ryomaru!" She pointed to the green haired boy, who quickly tried to shrink as much as he could, turning bright red. "What if Kenji had been here? What if someone else saw you?"

Naruto's eyes became wider the more words came out of Eri's mouth. Sasuke was really raising a single eyebrow by now.

"And can't you dress up properly? You're standing in company of a lady! I should tell Sakura-sensei, but I don't like to tattletale." She looked up to Naruto. "What are you waiting for? Go dress up!" She shook her head.

"Gak," Naruto made some noise between surprise and fear. He quickly stepped away from Sasuke in search of his clothes, finding his black pants with two orange stripes on the sides first.

Sasuke just kept staring at Eri, and she looked up to him, hands back in her sides, a frown still on her face. However, this was Sasuke, so by the time Naruto got back -his pants back on and his shirt in his hand- Eri wasn't able to look Sasuke in the eyes anymore, staring at some place to her right and her hands hanging beside her.

Naruto looked at the two for a moment. "You're um, early? What were you planning to do?"

Now that Naruto was back, Eri's frown was too. "We? What we're you doing? It didn't look like-"

"Training," Sasuke said monotonously.

Eri carefully looked up to him, unable to say that exact word she had been about to say just now. Slowly she closed her mouth. Then she directed herself back to Naruto. "Well, it certainly didn't look like it!" She crossed her arms. "This better not happen again," she said with a final tone in her voice, turning around.

Ryomaru had dropped his hands a little, and was looking in awe how Eri verbally 'attacked' Naruto and Sasuke. He still didn't dare coming closer though.

Kazuko had no idea what to do. The scene in front of her had been so good, but there was nothing interesting about the situation any longer; the moment had gone. Should she carefully fall back and pretend to arrive to the scene just now? She decided to do that. Carefully she sneaked away from the bushes.

Naruto glanced at Sasuke and saw him look back at him. Naruto shrugged. Sasuke's reaction: shuffling closer to Naruto.

"Stop it!" Eri yelled, turning around and pointing to Sasuke. Miraculously Sasuke did stop (though it was more out of surprise of Eri's reaction than that he was scared of her threat). Eri walked over to them, and squeezed in-between the two. When she was in position, she started pushing the two apart, away from her. "Didn't you just hear me?"

Naruto started laughing at her action. "You think you can stop Sasuke?"

Eri stared at him, and then slowly turned her head to look over to Sasuke, who had his arms crossed, looking down at her with his narrow eyes. Eri almost took a step backward, but she wasn't afraid of Sasuke. "I will!" she said convincingly.

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked, grinning. Eri looked back to him and then to Sasuke again. In the meantime Naruto pulled his shirt on.

"He's not as tough as he looks," Eri said hesitantly.

Naruto laughed. "That's true." Sasuke immediately gave him one of his 'looks'; narrow eyes, lips pressed together. "Haha, Sasuke, I know you too well." Naruto tried to get closer to Sasuke again, but Eri pushed him back.

"Stay, sensei."

Naruto grasped Eri's arm and pulled her away, so he could step up to Sasuke. Eri, however, wasn't done yet. She immediately gripped his shirt, and placed one of her legs in front of his. Naruto tried to push her away, but Eri put her hands around him, holding him back with all her weight.

The struggle continued while Sasuke just stood watching the two. Ryomaru had deemed it safe enough to get closer, wondering what the two were doing.

Kazuko had been trying to sneak off, but couldn't help and stare at what was happening in front of her.

The pushing and pulling continued, with Naruto ever so slowly coming closer to Sasuke.

"What are you doing?" Kenji came walking onto the field, crossing his arms when he saw his sensei and Eri fight.

"Getting, sensei-" Eri panted, pushing her hand against Naruto's chest, the other one held by Naruto, and her leg tangled around his to stop him from moving, "away from-" Naruto smirked and let her arm go. Eri balanced on her one stably positioned foot. "-Sasuke-sama." Eri almost fell over, but was just in time to catch Naruto's tail and pull herself back up.

"Iaa." Naruto sounded surprised, and frowned when Eri pulled herself up, putting all her weight in it. "E-Eri-chan!" he tried to pry her fingers off his bushy tail, because she was still painfully pulling at it.

Kenji stood staring, unable to say anything. They were acting like kids. Not that he had never seen them act like this before. They were just like this.

He almost shook his head, and walked on; stopping beside Ryomaru. Discreetly he tried to get closer to Sasuke.

Finally he was in talking range, and looked up to the tall raven. "Don't worry, they always act like this," he said, trying to sound casual, looking over to Naruto and Eri.

"I had a feeling," Sasuke answered.

Kenji was so happy that Sasuke had answered him, and with four words nonetheless!

He tried to keep his cool however. "So…" he quickly glanced up and then back to the struggle. "You're going to stay training with us today?" He tried to look like he didn't care, not knowing he was failing at that.

Sasuke looked down to Kenji and considered him for a moment, seeing the excitement on his face. He still wasn't used to these kids praising him.

He sighed. "I was thinking of doing so." He didn't say why; he didn't want Naruto and Kazuko being together all day. He needed to make sure she knew Naruto was his.

"That's great!" Kenji burst out before stiffening up at his own action. "I mean… cool." Sasuke decided to ignore Kenji for the moment.

Ryomaru got closer to Kenji. "W-what are you doing?"

"Nothing."

"Why isn't K-Kohaku here yet?" Ryomaru asked instead.

"How should I know?" Kenji turned to Ryomaru. "You know I don't care what he does."

"B-but you live together. You at least see him in the mornings and evenings, do you?"

"Unfortunately." Kenji crossed his arms. "Do you know everything your sisters do?"

Ryomaru fiddled a bit. "No."

Kenji had made his point, and so had Naruto. Eri was lying on the ground. Naruto quickly jumped over her to get to Sasuke. His arm glided around Sasuke's waist. "Missed me?"

"Hn." Sasuke put his own arm around Naruto.

Ryomaru gulped and became red again. His hands went back to cover his eyes. Kenji just watched at what happened and didn't do anything. In fact, he didn't know how to respond. Ever since they had found out Naruto and Sasuke were together he had been having difficulty to come up with a way to act around the two when they were together.

Eri heaved her head from the ground to look up with a frown, but before she could say anything team 4 came walking onto the field.

They slowed down at the sight of Sasuke and Naruto.

"Where's…" Michi narrowed her eyes at the two adults. "Where's Kazuko-sensei?"

"Right over there." Sasuke pointed into the bushes.

Kazuko froze in place. How did he know? For how long had he known? Quickly she pulled herself together, and slowly stood up with a small green book in her hands. "Ah, ohayo." She waved.

Ryomaru eyed the book in her hand and pulled up his nose. Naruto and Sasuke noticed the book too.

"Is that-" Naruto narrowed his eyes at the familiar sight.

"Icha Icha Paradise," Michi sighed, shaking her head.

Kazuko smiled. "I'll just put it away then." She came walking closer to the rest.

"So…" Kohaku turned around, looking up to Sasuke.

"Who's he?" Naoko asked, eying the stranger suspiciously.

"Please tell me you're joking," Michi said monotonously. "You do know, right?"

"Why would I ask then?"

"You don't know-" Michi stopped, unable to believe Naoko did not recognize the famous Uchiha.

"What?" Naoko asked innocently.

"You don't know Sasuke-sama?" Eri asked, straightening herself up, and eying the two embracing men.

Naoko shook her head. "I should?"

Michi hit her head. "You know~, Uchiha Sasuke?"

Naoko just blinked. "I guess I don't." She grinned.

"How can you say that with such a face-" Michi started telling Naoko how stupid she was.

"So, Sasuke-san," Kazuko said, trying to be polite. Sasuke turned his head to her. "Nice to meet you." She, however, didn't make an effort of shaking hands. Not that Sasuke would have anyway.

They stared at each other for quite some time. Naruto got nervous and tried to make Sasuke stop.

"Sasuke." He gently pushed Sasuke in the side. Sasuke didn't look away. "Sasuke," he said a little louder.

"What is he doing here?" Kohaku whispered in the direction of Eri as they watched the adults.

"Probably training with us." She glanced up to Sasuke, knowing why he was acting like this. He probably didn't like the woman that liked Naruto, especially not her being here in his presence.

"Oooh!" Naoko suddenly said, and the tension between Sasuke and Kazuko lifted. "Him."

Michi hit her head. "You are such a-"

"Anyway~," Naruto quickly said, stepping forward. "Sasuke's here to train with us." He smiled. "If you don't mind."

Immediately the students started telling they didn't mind at all, and Kazuko was forced to smile too. "That's so…" She was searching for a good word; not too rude…

"Great!"

"Thank you, Uchiha-san."

"Awesome!"

Sasuke looked around uncomfortably. Naruto nudged him, getting closer so he could whisper in his ear. "It was your own suggestion to come, smile a bit." Sasuke ignored Naruto's advice.

"Shut it," he calmly told the students instead, and immediately silence fell. "Go run around ten laps."

"Hai, Sasuke-sama!" And off was team 9. Team 4 quickly followed.

"And you keep telling me you don't want a team." Naruto shook his head.

"I don't."

"What do you want them to do?" Kazuko asked, looking suspiciously to Sasuke.

Sasuke pretended he didn't know she was talking to him. That, or he just plain ignored her. Naruto had the feeling it was the latter.

"Um, we we're planning to improve their quick thinking in rough situations, ne Kazuko-senpai?" Naruto smiled, trying to get the awkwardness out of the air. He would soon notice that it would be a waste… for the entire day.

-x-

Tsunade opened the door, and almost closed it again as a loud 'Happy birthday!' sounded. Tsunade cleaned her ear and sighed. "Naruto, it's not my birthday."

"Damn."

Naruto would visit Tsunade every once in a while like this; whishing her a happy birthday as soon as she opened the door. It was because she refused to tell him when the exact date was, and so he had begun the guessing.

"There are just too many days in a year," he told her before pushing himself through the small opening, inviting himself in.

Tsunade sighed again and closed the door. She followed him to her living room where a cup of tea and chocolate waited for her. She had planned a lazy evening, reading some romance novel or something. Naruto seemed not to notice the obvious signs, or chose to ignore them as he sat down on her couch.

"What is it gaki?"

"Nothing, why? You want me gone?" He smiled, showing his fox-like grin, and Tsunade began thinking he was doing this on purpose.

"You two aren't fighting again?"

"No." Naruto crossed his one arm over his chest. "We don't fight that often."

Tsunade gave him a questionable look and crossed her own arms. "So there was no reason at all you were sticking in my office all day last week?"

Naruto fiddled with his black shirt for a moment. "Not really." He looked out of the window, trying to look innocent.

"It was about that bat, wasn't it?"

Naruto looked up to her. "How do you know?" Then he clapped his hand over his mouth. "Damn, you evil baa-chan."

Tsunade's eyes narrowed. "Where's that bat now?"

"Kou-chan is with Akira. He's glad to have a pet," Naruto smiled.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you want to put a chakra eating bat on a small child's shoulder?"

"Oh, he still likes eating my chakra very much." Naruto swiped something invisible of his orange pants and stood up. "He won't hurt Akira-kun."

Tsunade sighed. "Sit down." She pointed to the low table, and Naruto sat down on the floor. "But not for long," she warned. Naruto's answer was a grin.

"I knew you wouldn't mind," Naruto smiled, and looked curiously at what Tsunade was doing.

She pulled out a deck of cards. "Let's have some fun while you're here," she grinned.

"If you're certain."

Tsunade handed him some cards, and Naruto used his tail to get them in his hand.

"You came here with another reason?" Tsunade picked a card from the deck on the table.

"Not really." He already knew he couldn't get a card out of his hand with his tail, so he held the cards closer to Tsunade. "The first one." Tsunade looked up at him, and moved her hand to the first card. "The other first one."

"Then it's the last one." Tsunade got the card and laid it on the table.

They played for a while, Tsunade waiting for Naruto to finally tell her what bothered him.

"You know…" Naruto finally said, looking up from his cards.

"What?" Tsunade played a card before she lowered the other cards in her hand.

"Kazuko-senpai." Naruto looked at Tsunade. "You know-"

"The sensei of that team you're training with."

Naruto nodded. "She, er, she… well, Sasuke and-"

"They don't like each other? I noticed."

Naruto looked up. "You have?"

"When they got back from your last joint mission; I noticed. Wasn't hard to miss." Tsunade smirked. "So... you want to enlighten me as to why they don't like each other?"

"Well, it's quite funny-" Naruto stopped himself. "No. It's more-" he said thinking.

"Naruto."

Naruto grinned. "She kind of, sort of might… really… um, like me."

"Really?" Tsunade leaned forward and smiled. "Uchiha is jealous?"

"Mu." Naruto didn't need to answer that. Tsunade started laughing. "Things were really awkward today."

Tsunade tilted her head. "Why?"

"Well, Sasuke insisted on coming with me to training today. Team 4 was there too."

Tsunade laughed again. "Oh, you should have told me, I would have come by to watch, haha!"

"Mo, Tsunade~," Naruto whined.

After a while Tsunade was able to stop laughing. "Sorry."

Naruto puffed his cheeks. "Mu."

"It's your turn."

Naruto laid down his cards to pick a new card from the deck. "Kazuko of course doesn't know Sasuke is Taka."

Tsunade looked up. She had always thought it weird for Naruto to call Kazuko, Kazuko-senpai. She decided not to ask why he didn't do it right now.

"Of course." She looked at her cards. She was afraid she would lose this round; one of many, probably.

Naruto clumsily laid down one of his last two cards, and laid his last card upside down on the table. "I told her I'm with Sasuke, and I actually thought she was backing off, but…" Naruto sighed and grasped his tail. "I think Sasuke being there didn't exactly make things better."

"Sasuke is probably too stubborn to see that he's only making things worse." Tsunade doubted what action to take. Naruto was down to one card; how should she get back to him? Would he have a red card or a black one? Her hand hovered above two cards in her own hand.

"Well, at least my team doesn't mind him being around, neither did team 4, I guess." Naruto sat there with his tail in his hand. Absentmindedly he had started brushing its white tip over the table, as if he was dusting.

Tsunade decided to go for red. She laid down the card on the table and looked up to Naruto. "Kids these days."

"Sasuke was very…" Naruto thought for a moment. "Very…"

Tsunade was now distracted by his tail as he moved it over the table.

"Well… he never touches me that much." Naruto turned a bit red. "Not when others are around." He looked away.

Tsunade looked at him and grinned. "I didn't think you would mind that."

Naruto looked back to Tsunade. She mentioned it was his turn. Naruto looked down to the card Tsunade had played and reached for the deck.

Tsunade's eyes grew a little bit. She had made the right choice. She grinned.

"Well, not really, no." Naruto stopped moving his hand. Tsunade froze… No… "It's just, I didn't think Sasuke would go this far to show Kazuko…" Naruto grinned and scratched his chin. "Hehe, you know."

"Yes, yes." Tsunade looked back to the upside down card on the table. "I think he actually likes showing you're his." She motioned again that Naruto had to make his move.

"I'm his?" Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Why not-" Tsunade moved her hand more violently, and Naruto turned back to the game. He reached for his own card, took a look at it, and threw it on top of Tsunade's last played card. Tsunade sighed and threw her leftover cards on the table.

"Anyway," Tsunade collected all the cards and made a stack again. "You both like acting like this."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "We both do?"

"Yes, you can't deny it. You like the attention, Sasuke likes it too, plus he's able to show he was the one that won you over."

Naruto pouted. "What makes you think he won me over?"

"He didn't then?"

Naruto grumbled. "He did," he muttered, and turned away.

Tsunade smirked. "You see." At least she could still win from Naruto at one game, every time.


Naruto giggled again as he could still hear the sound coming from downstairs. He couldn't help it, it was just so funny. He started laughing, and was barely able to keep himself up, leaning on the small cabinet in the small hall.

"It's not," a hiccup sounded, "funny!" came an angry voice.

"Hahaha!" Naruto fell to his knees as more hiccups sounded, coming from Sasuke.

"Naru-hick-to!"

"I-I'm so- hahahahaa," Naruto wiped some tears away, and fell on his back on the ground. "-sorry."

Sasuke grumbled, interrupted by two hiccups. He had been having the hiccups for over two hours now! This was no longer funny. How Naruto could still laugh was beyond him. He had started laughing after the fourth or fifth hiccup and ever since. Not even sending the blond upstairs helped him cool down. Yes, Sasuke was getting frustrated about this, and not even Naruto could stop him from getting grumpy about it, especially not like this.

"Hahahahaaa."

Sasuke's eye twitched. Akira was almost frighteningly staring at him from behind the chair, peering over the armrest. He hadn't dared to say anything about it -not even comforting or uplifting- after Sasuke's outburst to Naruto, which had ended in sending Naruto upstairs. Even Kou had ceased his glaring at Sasuke, and had moved to Akira's back.

"He's not hel-hick-ping at all."

"Kaa-chan said," Akira said softly, and Sasuke looked down interestingly, "that scaring helps."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

"Will it help... if I run away again?" Sasuke grumbled again, and Akira ducked behind the chair. "I won't, I won't!" he said almost in a panic.

"Ahahahahaa."

Sasuke turned away from his chibi son and walked over to the sliding doors, slid them open, went outside, jumped off the porch, and went to the back of the garden.

Carefully Akira came back from behind the chair and looked around, seeing if it was safe to walk around again. He could still hear Naruto laughing upstairs, rolling over the floor.

"Is tou-chan alright?" he asked while walking to the stairs, looking up.

Naruto stuck his head around the corner and looked down, trying not to laugh anymore (which wasn't really working). "He's- he's alright."

"Should we scare him?"

Naruto thought this over for a moment, trying to think up a plan, but he could still hear Sasuke hiccupping, even when he was in the back of the garden. Naruto snorted with laughter.

Akira tilted his head, not sure what to do about the situation. Naruto was bending over, his tail curled between his legs and his arm resting on his knee. He was really having a good time with this, though Akira didn't see what was so funny.

Suddenly the front door opened, making Akira turn around. Iruka looked around the door to find Naruto and Akira.

"Hello. I thought I heard Naruto laugh."

Naruto tried to say something, but couldn't and turned away, holding himself up on the wall.

"Iruka-san." Akira stepped closer to the chuunin. "Tou-chan is having the hiccups, and Naruto thinks it's funny."

"Does he?" Iruka looked up, to see Naruto having trouble to walk down the stairs to the kitchen. He shook his head. "Where's your otou-san now?"

Akira pointed to the back of the house. "In the garden."

"Ah."

"I don't understand what is so funny, Akira told Iruka sadly."

"Don't worry Akira-kun, I don't know either. That's just something we will never understand about Naruto."

"Hm."


"Hmm," Naruto hummed. He was leaning against Sasuke as they sat across the couch. Sasuke's in bandage covered arm was resting on Naruto's stomach. The cast had been removed recently.

Naruto had been humming for quite a while now, and Sasuke was just listening, sitting very still, his chin resting on Naruto's shoulder. His left hand rested on Naruto's chest, feeling his steady heartbeat.

Akira had been playing all over the house. Right now his toys were taking spectacular dives off the staircase. Every now and then a thud could be heard as one of his toys fell to the ground.

"You know," Naruto suddenly said. Sasuke turned his eyes to Naruto. "I feel like eating ramen." Naruto grinned. Sasuke sighed, but then a smile appeared.

Naruto didn't notice and stood up. He thought it strange that Sasuke followed him, but ignored it. When he was in the kitchen, opening all cupboards in his quest for ramen, he began to realize why Sasuke was leaning against the doorpost, with a smirk on his face.

Finally Naruto gave up. "Where did you put it?" He had a feeling he knew where it was, and more importantly, why.

Sasuke's grin became wider. "In there." He pointed to the highest cupboard. Naruto stared at him with a slight frown.

"You do that on purpose." Naruto pursed his lips, when he saw the way Sasuke's eyes sparkled evilly. He was enjoying this.

"You think so?"

Naruto turned around and went to the cupboard Sasuke had pointed at. Sasuke hadn't put the ramen there because he didn't really like the smell in the house. No, he loved his blond too much to do that. The reason why it was there was...

Naruto reached up to get his ramen and his shirt went up, exposing his stomach. Sasuke in the meantime had crept up behind Naruto and placed both hands around Naruto's waist.

Naruto's finger just touched the ramen cup, when he felt the touch of the cool hands on his skin, and he pulled his arm back again.

"Hihi, that tickles."

Sasuke slowly moved his hands up Naruto's sides, and Naruto started giggling. "Sa- hihi- Sasuke, stop."

"You don't want me to help you get it?"

"I know y-you put it up -hihihi- up there on p-purpose."

"It's the only place left to put it." Sasuke whispered into Naruto's normal ear. In the meantime his hands had reached Naruto's armpits and went back down. "Go on, try to get it."

"Hnn," Naruto whined but stretched out nonetheless, only to shrink back when Sasuke's fingers tickled his sides. "Mo, stop tickling then."

"I'm not tickling. This is tickl-"

"No, I get it, I get it." Naruto pushed one of Sasuke's hands away from his side and stretched out again, standing on his toes, reaching for the ramen he craved.

Sasuke stretched his own arm towards the ramen from behind Naruto, easily reaching it. He didn't need to press himself against Naruto the way he did, and his other arm certainly didn't need to lower down into Naruto's pants. Naruto pulled his arm back as he was surprised at this last action from Sasuke, and accidentally hit his elbow into Sasuke's face.

"Ah."

"Oops. Sorry, are you okay?" Naruto turned around, and started grinning when Sasuke held his hand over his forehead, glaring at Naruto. Naruto actually saw some small tears forming in the corner of his eyes.

"Ahw, I'm so sorry," Naruto laughed and hugged Sasuke. "It's your own fault, you know."

Sasuke grumbled.

"Ah, Sasuke. You will still get my ramen though, won't you?" Naruto pouted and let his lower lip quiver.

"Why should I?"

Naruto laid his one hand on Sasuke's shoulder and pulled him down. At the same time he went to stand on his toes to kiss Sasuke's forehead. "You will?" he asked again.

Sasuke grumbled softly. He pressed Naruto against the kitchen counter on purpose before he reached for the ramen.

"Ulgh." Naruto was almost squashed.

"Here." Sasuke didn't move away from Naruto after he had lowered his arm with the cup in his hand. Instead he only moved forward.

"How am I supposed to take my ramen, when you keep it away from me?" Sasuke was holding the ramen behind Naruto, placing it on the counter.

"I never said I would give it to you. I said I would get it."

Naruto pouted. "You're so mean."

"I can be a lot meaner." Sasuke's smirk was back.

"You can't do anything right now, Akira-kun is in the next room."

As on cue a thud sounded from the fall that one of Akira's wooden animal toys made.

"I'm not doing anything that he hasn't seen before."

"You just want to kiss?" Naruto asked disbelievingly.

"And touch."

"And-" Naruto closed his mouth, staring at Sasuke, though it was hard as he was only a couple of centimetres away from his face. Sasuke smirked. "You will ruin the boy at the tender age of 5."

"Says who? He doesn't even understand it yet."

"What would you think if you had found your parents like that in the kitchen as a 5-year-old?"

"No idea, never have."

"Imagine."

Sasuke was silent for a moment. "I really can't." He smiled. His hand moved over Naruto's stomach, lowering to his pants.

Naruto wiggled. "I'll help you. You come into the kitchen and see your mother hanging backwards over the kitchen counter while your da- Why are you smiling?"

Sasuke thought it funny how Naruto had set up the roles in comparison to their own situation. Sasuke shrugged.

"You're weird."

"Really?" Sasuke stuck out his tongue, trying to reach for Naruto's nose. Naruto couldn't back off anymore, his head hitting the cupboard. In the meantime Sasuke's hand was trying to get access into Naruto's orange pants.

"You can't, Akira-kun-" Sasuke licked Naruto's nose. "I just wanted ramen, I'm hungry~," Naruto tried another approach. He just couldn't push Sasuke away, because in his heart, he really didn't mind what his raven was doing to him.

"Really? Me too."

"You are?" Naruto asked astonished. "Then why-" Sasuke kissed Naruto, who had not caught the real meaning behind Sasuke's words until now.

Naruto felt Sasuke's tongue against his lips, as he pressed them firmly against each other, stubbornly. He really was hungry.

As Sasuke and Naruto were 'fighting' and struggling in the kitchen, Akira was sitting upstairs on the landing of the stair, looking down to his wooden lion on the floor downstairs. "Kou-chan, please get it?" Kou moved his little shiny black eyes to Akira's teal ones and blinked.

"If you do, you can have a bit of my chakra. I won't tell anyone, especially not tou-chan." Kou eyed him for a bit longer. Naruto's chakra was the best he'd ever had, but that didn't mean he didn't like getting some other chakra if he got the chance.

He made a soft sound and let go off Akira, making some sort of free fall down the staircase. He spread his wings and dived down to get the small toy. In a swift motion he caught it, and flapped his wings a bit harder at the extra weight he now had to carry. He was carrying something as big as he was after all. It took him a bit longer than he would have liked, but finally the bat reached Akira. He let the toy fall in his hands. Quickly he dropped himself on Akira's shoulder, panting slightly.

It seemed almost like he was smacking his lips, and Akira smiled enthusiastically. "Go on, just don't make them notice."

The bat put his small fingers more tightly into Akira's shirt before sucking some of his chakra. It tasted quite all right for a small boy. The deep purple chakra had just the tiniest hint off evil in it, similar to that of the lavender coloured chakra of the mean Sasuke. The Uchiha didn't know, but during a night Kou had tasted some of his chakra, planning on draining him so much he would wake up exhausted (which he had really done).

Naruto's chakra was the best he had ever had, because of the evil inside. It was so strong that it was thrilling every time he fed on it. The bat hadn't expected for Sasuke's chakra to taste almost as good too. It didn't quite reach up to Naruto's (no one's he'd ever tasted had), but it had the potential all right.

Akira's had just a teeny tiny bit of that same feeling. For a small boy that was more than he could ever expect, but unlike Sasuke, Akira didn't really had the potential to make it stronger, sadly.

Kou stopped eating and looked up into the teal eyes of the smiling boy. A finger came up to scratch his chin. Kou closed his eyes.

"Good boy."

At first Kou hadn't really liked Akira, with his almost same look as Sasuke. He had glared at the boy as he had done to Sasuke, but soon he had come to notice that the small boy really liked animals, and was really nice to him. Akira wanted to pet him so often that he himself had to crawl away at times, having had enough.

This, however, didn't mean that he didn't mind sleeping with Akira instead of Naruto when they had said so almost three weeks ago. He blamed Sasuke for it all, and made sure he knew with every glare he directed to the Uchiha from Akira's or Naruto's shoulder.

And now he actually became to like Akira. In bed he was much less restless and energetic than Naruto, making it much easier to stick on all night. So he had come to terms with it, plus Naruto's chakra was all the more tastier when he didn't have access to it all day.

Akira liked to have talks with him (one sided ones), which made Kou feel more important and -he had trouble admitting it- less lonely. The boy was childish, but still. He really was concerned about him, and liked for him to have a good time. He was nice. Yes, nice was a good word, Kou could handle saying that about the boy.

"I didn't feel anything," Akira said. Kou wasn't surprised; children didn't have a good idea of what chakra was, not enough to feel it.

As Akira was busy with Kou, he didn't notice at all the sounds that were coming from the kitchen.

"Sasuke, stop it," Naruto whispered urgently for the sixth time -but unable to keep the soft giggle from his voice-, and again Sasuke ignored it as he pushed Naruto further onto the kitchen table. Naruto knocked over the fruit bowl, making the apples roll onto the ground.

The button at the back of his pants had already been loosened, and he desperately tried to keep his pants up while Sasuke tried to pull them down.

"What if someone comes in and sees us?" Naruto tried again, smiling.

"You will hear it before they are even in the street," Sasuke grinned, seeing Naruto was just playing along.

"I'm not really focussing on what is happening around us, right now."

"Then they will think twice before entering our house like that ever again. It's rude to just enter someone else's house."

"It's called trust, not rudeness," Naruto interjected.

Sasuke's right hand kept pulling at Naruto's pants while the other moved over the inside of his thighs, slowly crawling up.

"S-Sasuke," Naruto moaned softly. Sasuke really liked teasing Naruto, but Naruto wasn't sure that it was still teasing, or that he was having a sincere struggle to get what he wanted. Naruto was starting to think it was the latter. "You don't need to pull-" he stopped and Sasuke looked up, seeing Naruto move his ears around.

"Who is it?" he grumbled, not happy with the interruption.

Naruto pushed him aside and ran away. "No one!" he laughed.

Sasuke frowned, grinding his teeth. "You forgot your ramen!"

Sasuke glanced over his shoulder to the counter; only to find it empty.

"Have not!" came the far away answer with an obvious sounding grin.

He would get Naruto, no matter how.

-oXo-