Notes: I've just realized… that besides the second short story in this collection, Naruto has always been the one "welcoming" Sasuke home from missions and surreal dreams and the like. It's never the other way around, and I assume that's just due to his character, so I guess I've portrayed them rather nicely? However, I think Sasuke showing weakness from time to time is actually rather sweet, so I'm going to try and have him "welcoming" Naruto for a little while. Sorry if that makes him seem out of character; it's just an experiment really, and if you guys don't like it, please say so, and I'll stop trying to approach their relationship from that angle. Also, chapter ten was rather vague in its reference to "welcoming home" (mentioned briefly by Iruka), so, I'm sorry I didn't quite make the point with that story. Some of them may not even have to do with that theme--these are all just random plots that come out of my head. Sorry again.

And this is the longest A/N I've ever written.

Anyway! I'm happy you're enjoying these, and your reviews make me happy, so we're good! I'll keep writing as long as someone keeps reading, deal? Thank you for your interest and your comments! And a special thanks to one particular reader, KC Evans: Your reviews are very encouraging and inspire me to continue this. I'm so glad I make these characters both likeable and believable for you. Thank you so much for your input and kind words.

The Rokudaime Hokage was very, very tired. It had been a long day at the office again, as usual, and by the time he had managed to escape the confining walls of the official building, the street lamps had been lit and most of the shops were closed for the night. Ichiraku Ramen was no exception.

"Aw, man!" Uzumaki Naruto huffed and pushed his straw hat back off the top of his head, scratching his mop of tangled blond spikes. "And I was looking forward to a hot meal…" The truth was, he hadn't eaten breakfast at all (he had been running late), skipped lunch entirely (he had entirely too much paperwork to get done), and had planned to be out in time for dinner, but that plan had fallen through thanks to the emergency meeting his Anbu Squad had called nearly three hours ago. Sighing, Naruto pulled the hat back up to cover his disappointed eyes and trudged toward his apartment. His plan at this point was to sit in the bath for a good long soak and then crawl into bed and sleep early so this 'coming in late' thing didn't happen again. They frowned upon that in the office, even if you were the leader of the whole entire village. Especially if you're the leader of the whole entire village. It made you look bad, he supposed as he dug for his keys in the pocket of his long white robes. He had an image to uphold, or was it a reputation he needed to protect? Or even, an example he had to set for the younger generation? He sighed: he didn't even know anymore. And he couldn't find his keys.

"Perfect," he grumbled as he climbed the stairs that led to the apartment. He had to break the door in now, which meant a snapped lock, which meant calling someone in to repair it, which meant people spreading rumors about his "temper" and how that was bad for a hokage to have. Even though he was already officially in the position of Rokudaime Hokage, they still looked down on him, waiting for him to screw up somewhere so they could toss him out. So hard to achieve, so easy to lose. He looked up at his door.

The porch light was on.

Blinking, Naruto tried to recall if he had left it on from the night before and couldn't. The lights were on inside too, shining through the small side window and the cracks between the top, bottom, and sides of the doorframe. Tentatively, he reached for the doorknob, and found himself doubly confused as it opened easily. Had someone stolen his keys and entered his apartment? Naruto slipped a long-bladed kunai from the weapon holster on his thigh and entered the foyer, shutting the door quietly behind him. He scanned his eyes around the apartment, taking inventory of his possessions and searching for tell-tale chakras in the vicinity. Everything seemed to be in its proper place. As for chakras, there was someone in his kitchen. In the kitchen? A hungry burglar? Naruto didn't even have the energy to contemplate this. He was tired, hungry, and wanted to kick the hell out of whoever was in his house right now so he could take his bath and sleep. He gingerly poked his head through the kitchen entryway and stared.

The figure wearing the dark green jounin vest with the red spiral embroidered on the center of its back stood over the stove, pulling a frying pan off one of the burners. The smell of well-cooked meat attacked Naruto's nostrils and he positively drooled. His stomach responded with a very loud, whining growl, and the figure turned, one hand on the pan handle, and the other holding a cooking fork.

"Ah, you're finally back," Uchiha Sasuke lifted an eyebrow at the hokage. "Welcome home."

He turned back to the stove, moving the pan to one side and setting it on top of a plate to cool, where there were a few other used bowls and plates sat slightly stacked. Then he crossed to the refrigerator, yanked it open, and rummaged inside for something; found it, closed the door, shuffled over to the sink, reached up to the cabinets, pulled out two glasses, and turned back to Naruto, who hadn't moved at all and was watching the black-haired man's movements in frozen disbelief.

"Naruto?" he put the glasses and the wine bottle (the thing he had grabbed from the refrigerator) on the dining table and came over to the blond in the doorway. "Are you feeling alright?"

Naruto wanted to say that he wasn't alright, he was dead. This had to be the afterlife, where things you thought about all the time but never happened actually did happen. He opened his mouth, desperately wanting to tell Sasuke just that, and to demand an explanation (how he had died would have been good for starters), but what finally came out was totally different.

"How'd you get in?" he asked the other man.

Sasuke held up Naruto's house keys. "You dropped them on your front porch. I came by in the afternoon and your neighbor gave them to me. I let myself in. Sorry if I shouldn't have," he added as an afterthought. Naruto tried to get this straight in his head--he wasn't dead after all, and that was good, but, that meant that Sasuke was just…not acting like Sasuke.

"And…you've been here all day?" Again, not what he wanted to say.

"Pretty much," the other shinobi nodded and reached up with his free hand, pushing the straw hat with the hokage insignia off his head. "Have you eaten today? You got in really late, I noticed." Baffled, all Naruto could do was shake his head, and Sasuke made a face. "That's not good. Here, go change while I get dinner on the table." He nudged Naruto out of his own kitchen. "Go on."

Naruto went without a word, undoing the clasp on his white robes while pondering what the hell had just happened. Sasuke house-sat for me all day long, cooked dinner, and is being…nice. Is there something going on that I'm not aware of? He threw his robes in a pile on the chair by the bedroom door and yanked his own dark green vest up over his head, breathing deeply for the first time all day. Whatever was going on, Sasuke was definitely acting odd. It wasn't the fact that he'd never do anything like this that was bothering Naruto, it was the fact that Sasuke was doing this for him and that in itself was strange enough. Kicking off his shoes, Naruto decided this was as comfortable as he was going to get until he got to the bottom of this, and went back out into the main hall, moving faster when the smell of Sasuke's dinner hit his nostrils again. The aforementioned man was sitting at the dining table, two plates piled with food set down, one in front of him and the other before a vacant spot right next to him. Naruto took this seat as Sasuke reached over and uncorked the wine bottle that Naruto suddenly realized had never been in his refrigerator before tonight, and poured it into the two waiting glasses, then capped it again. He slid one of the glasses over to Naruto and picked his up, sipping at the dark liquid with a thoughtful look on his face. The blond didn't touch his, he just waited.

Sasuke licked his lips and put the cup down, leaning back in his chair and looking over at the other man. "Well?" he motioned toward the food.

"Sasuke…" Naruto said doubtfully, "I…what…" He sighed. "Okay, I give up. What's going on here?"

"What's going on where?" the dark-haired ninja gave his friend an innocent-looking pout, which just sent Naruto into another helpless flail for sense.

"You watched my house all day--"

"Someone could have taken advantage of the situation and cleaned you out."

"Right, but, you cooked me dinner--"

"I figured you'd be hungry after staying at the office so long, and besides, I got hungry waiting for you to get home."

"Sasuke…" Naruto put a hand to his head and looked at the other man with tired blue eyes. "What's up?"

The Uchiha lost the playful grin that had been gracing his lips and Naruto felt a brief pang of loss for the good mood the other man had been in. He picked up his fork and slowly fiddled with the food on the plate before he answered the question: "I wanted to spend some time with you today."

"That's it?" Naruto almost laughed. "I thought you were going to, like, confess your love for me or something…"

"And if I was?" those piercing black eyes found his and that almost-laughter was choked off at the source.

"I…" Naruto felt himself start to blush. Sasuke shook his head and motioned for Naruto to start eating as he did just that. Naruto did, feeling like absolute crap, but the moment Sasuke's dinner was in his mouth, he forgot everything. "Oh!" he gulped down the forkful of food he'd put in his mouth. "Oh wow! Sasuke, this is really good!"

"Is it?" he asked noncommittally, but Naruto didn't hear the soft smile that curved the corners of his mouth upward slightly. He was too busy trying to eat the entire plate all at once. They didn't talk after that, even when Naruto ate everything and started to get up to put his plate in the sink. Sasuke laid a hand on his shoulder, got up, and refilled the blonde's plate with seconds. Naruto beamed up at him and ate happily.

Finally, when the food was all gone and the air of uneasiness had faded as they delved into the wine Sasuke had brought for "no reason", the two friends moved out of the kitchen and sat facing each other on the long couch in the living room.

"So, Sasuke," Naruto tossed back the last gulp of his wine and Sasuke wordlessly refilled the glass, "about that 'love confession' thing…"

"Relax, dobe," he sipped his own drink. "That isn't why I'm here."

"Oh." Naruto couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed. Wait, what? "Then, why did you want to be together today specifically, out of all other days? Did something important happen?"

"You could say that," Sasuke leaned back against the arm of the couch and ran a hand back through his hair. "I just, kind of wanted to welcome you home today more than any other day, really."

"Maybe this is a love confession after all," Naruto grinned and was rewarded with a slight tinge of red that flared momentarily on Sasuke's cheeks.

"It's…" he took a deep breath, suddenly avoiding Naruto's eyes. "You welcomed me back that one time, so, I thought… I don't know," he concluded with a grimace and swallowed the rest of his wine in one gulp. As he refilled his cup, Naruto watched him. Welcomed him back 'that one time'? What does he mean?

"What one--" And suddenly it hit him, wiping away any hint of a drunken state he could have possibly reached by drinking half a bottle of wine in one sitting. "Sasuke."

"It's dumb, huh?" the raven-haired jounin laughed bitterly and stared down at his glass. "I knew you'd forgotten--"

"I didn't forget," Naruto answered instantly, forcing Sasuke to look up at him with the tone he had used.

"So then, you know why I…"

"Yeah. I get it now."

Their eyes fell to their own drinks. There was a silence. Then:

"So, yeah. I just wanted to welcome you home."

Naruto put his glass down on the coffee table beside them. He reached over, placing one hand on the head of the couch and the other on the seat by Sasuke's leg, effectively trapping him there. Sasuke blinked, startled. Naruto looked into his eyes sternly, letting the tension in the air thicken with each passing moment of silence. Sasuke opened his mouth, perhaps to tell Naruto to get off, perhaps to ask him what the hell he was thinking, or maybe if he was drunk. Whatever it was going to be, he never said it: Naruto kissed him. Before he could react though, the blond was drawing back, the grin on his scarred face so wide it made his eyes slit closed.

"You're such an idiot, it's cute," he laughed. "But you don't need to thank me for doing what I wanted to do anyway. I told you, Sasuke, I'd always welcome you home, no matter what." The grin slipped a bit, letting his blue eyes open to gaze upon this person, the most important person in his life: "Thank you. Thank you for being here to welcome me home too."