Argh. O.o Those chapters were really pretty much boring, weren't they? Anyway, it will get a little bit more fun to read from now on :) This is kind of and explanation: Naruto, Sakura and everyone are pretty much assuming Sasuke to stay (and not leave again) and that's why he isn't guarded and stuff. Let's just say Konoha has faith in him. (While he himself hasn't even made up his mind.) Well, then I'll be off. Ja ne! (and please review o.o)
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
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They started heading to Ichiraku's, when a seemingly shy voice called Naruto's name. When they whirled around and recognised a dark-haired girl they couldn't help but smile.
"Hey, Hinata!"
"Hello Naruto-kun, Sasuke-san," she said, and focused her pearl white eyes on the ground.
Her companion slapped Naruto on the back.
"Hey, long time no see, man," He said, before looking coldly at Sasuke.
"Hello, Sasuke."
"Hi."
"It's good to see you back, Sasuke-san," Hinata said, smiling at him. When Kiba gave Sasuke a dirty look, she elbowed him in the ribs.
"Hehe, you're right, Hinata. It's good to see you back," he lied through his teeth. Sasuke had already registered the barely concealed coldness and nodded curtly in response.
Hinata averted her eyes again, and just when she was about to say something, Naruto exclaimed:
"Um, Hinata, Kiba? We were just going to Ichiraku's, care to join us? Because.. Well, like, I'm really hungry," he grinned apologetically.
Kiba grunted. He had no intentions to spend dinner with the homicidal boy, and he knew Hinata would be chatting with Naruto. Pff. While he himself was the one who had asked the shy girl on a walk.
"Nah, I'm not hungry. You guys go," he mentioned to Sasuke and Naruto.
"Um, Kiba-kun?" Hinata asked shyly. She could easily see Kiba was hoping for her to come with him, but she hadn't talked to Naruto for ages.
"W-would you mind if I went with Naruto and Sasuke?"
The dog boy grunted, turned around and whistled. The big, white dog Kiba and Hinata had been walking with just minutes ago immediately followed his leader over the bridge.
Hinata blushed because of the fact she'd just made one of her best friends angry, but the pink quickly vanished when Naruto smiled at her and they started walking towards Ichiraku's.
They seated themselves on the stools, and ordered. Hinata and Naruto were happily chattering about.. Well, everything, while Sasuke kept himself a bit aloof and quietly ate his ramen.
He was thinking about Orochimaru, and about how he had said they expected him back within a week. It meant he had only three days left to decide whether he would leave again or not. Sitting here with his best friend made him feel at home again, but he didn't know if he was willing to give up his dream for this. His heart said yes, but in him mind he knew Orochimaru wouldn't let him off that easily.
He was roughly poked from his thoughts when Naruto prodded him none too gently in the ribs. He shook his head as if to shake away his previous thoughts and Naruto asked:
"Did you hear that, Sasuke?"
"..What?"
"A Matsuri! In Konoha!" Naruto replied and nodded to Hinata to continue, while he slurped his ramen.
"Um.." she nodded happily, although she blushed because she wasn't entirely comfortable under the stoic boy's expectant gaze.
"Yes. It's being held within two weeks to celebrate the rice harvest this year."
Sasuke was surprised, to say the least. By his knowing, a festival like this had never occurred before in Konoha. Sure, he knew what it was, but..
Naruto looked sour at the thought he would have to wear traditional clothing.
"Aww man, that stuff itches like hell.."
Hinata softly laughed at the blond's expression, but Sasuke smirked.
"Dobe, that's not the fabric, that's just you, having fleas."
Naruto pouted, and lamely retorted:
"Shut up, bastard," before turning back to Hinata, who was looking around her in search of a clock.
"It's ten past seven," Sasuke informed her.
"I'm sorry guys," she said, lifting herself from one of the stools. "I have to go, I still have quite a lot to do tonight."
She waved at them, before saying "Bye, Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun!" and turning around.
"Bye, Hinata!" both boys sad in unison, before turning back to the counter.
"She's nice, ne?" Naruto asked, and Sasuke nodded in agreement.
"Oh, Sasuke, I almost forgot to ask. Where are you going to sleep tonight?"
Sasuke had to admit it was a good question. He hadn't thought about it, actually, but he surely didn't intend to spend another night in the hospital.
"I don't know. I think my old apartment has been sold, or something.."
Naruto looked at the counter, and said: "No, it hasn't. Sakura and I took turns in paying the rent every month so it wouldn't get rented by somebody else."
Sasuke was stunned by this, and raised a slender eyebrow. This proved that his former teammates had really been believing in his coming back.
"Thanks," he said, and lightly smiled. He shoved his empty bowl in the shopkeeper's direction along with some money.
"Let's go. I still have quite a lot to do, too.."
They walked to Sasuke's apartment, which wasn't too far away from Naruto's. When Sasuke opened the door and attempted to flick the light on, he looked surprised. He turned his head to look questioningly to he blond, but he shrugged.
"Yeah, the gas and stuff has been shut off, because we couldn't afford it, and it wasn't necessary anyway,"
Sasuke nodded in understanding and quickly made his way through the dark by touch. He hastily searched the drawers for candles. When he'd lit 2 of them, he gave one to Naruto and saw that everything was the same as it had used to be.
He smiled faintly when he saw a picture standing on his desk. He had laid it down when he had left, but it seemed someone had turned it up again.. The picture from three years ago, when they had just met Kakashi.
Suddenly he felt someone behind him and spun around, only to narrow his eyes in annoyed sarcasm a second later. Naruto was now standing in front of him, candle under his chin, giving his face an eerie glow while making a weird face.
"Scared in the dark, aren't we, Sasuke-chan?" he teased.
"You're 16 years old, Naruto. Start acting like it." Sasuke said and brushed past him.
"We shouldn't forget to mention to the Hokage she can shut on the gas and light again," he said into the dark, although he had a faint suspicion Tsunade knew she had to, but thought it could wait a little longer.
"You can go if you want, Naruto. It's getting dark already.."
"No way, bastard. I'm not going to leave you alone until you've told me everything," Naruto exclaimed, forgetting that Sasuke was maybe only temporarily back.
"And I'm going to help you make this place habitable again," he stated, and lifted his thumb.
"I'll be back in a moment. You go.. make your bed or something."
The dark-haired boy heard the door slam shut and looked at his bed. The white sheets lay neatly folded on his bed, ready to be made.
After a few minutes Naruto came barging in with.. stuff.
"Here's your breakfast, bastard," Naruto grinned, and when he saw the other's questioning expression, he said:
"Remember? The shops are closed tomorrow. Sunday, you know? And I don't suppose you have any food left in here.." he finished, and to prove his point, he opened a few very empty cupboards.
Sasuke nodded as Naruto put his breakfast on the table, and was about to make his bed when Naruto plopped down on it.
"Man, am I tired," he yawned, laying down on the mattress.
"Dobe, get up or you'll fall asleep," Sasuke said while he turned around again to place his things in a cupboard.
As he spun around again to kick the blond off his bed, his eyes widened, and then narrowed in are-you-kidding-me-sarcasm. A sweatdrop appeared on his face when he approached the bed and poked the softly snoring form on it.
"You must be kidding me.." He sighed, pulled out a second blanket and covered the sleeping form with it, before taking his own, then lying down on the couch after undressing.
He cast one last look at the blond before peacefully falling asleep within minutes.
-----
'Good morning, bastard! Thanks for letting me sleep over. Kakashi wants us to meet at 12, usual place.
See you there. Scratch. You'd better be on time
Naruto.'
The tiny, hand-written note whirled off the table as the dark-haired, currently half-asleep boy sat down at the small table to eat his breakfast. He'd noticed already that the blond had left before him, because the bed was empty and the comforter was neatly laid back on the bed.
He curiously read the little paper and could only wonder why Kakashi would want to speak to them. He ate his breakfast and shot a glance at the clock. One hour left to shower, get dressed and get to the bridge. While he placed the bowl in the sink he crumbled the paper and threw it away, before walking off to shower.
-----
So, he arrived 10 minutes early at the bridge, which had also been their daily meeting place 3 years ago. Sasuke assumed Kakashi meant the bridge, since the note had read 'usual place'.
After 20 minutes of waiting annoyedly, Naruto appeared.
"Right on time, dobe," Sasuke said sarcastically. "I was about to leave."
"Which means I was too early," Naruto grinned.
"No, you're late. Weren't you the one who told me to be on time?"
"Meh, I'm late on purpose."
"Sure. Idiot."
"It's true! I mean, I left my apartment late because I knew Kakashi would be late so it wasn't worth going early, since Kakashi-pervert is always late!"
Sasuke had to admit the blond made sense for once. He himself hadn't thought about it, and had just assumed their teacher would be on time -- stupid, now that the thought about it. The day Kakashi would be on time would be the day hell froze over, or, the day Hinata would tell Naruto that she liked him, the day Neji would admit someone else was right, the day Shino's bugs would devour him from within, the day Kabuto would stop kissing Orochimaru's feet, the day Itachi stopped being drop dead sexy, the day Ino stopped being annoying or the day Kiba's breath would stop smelling like dog-food, the day Orochimaru would quit being a paedophile, the day Shikamaru would work his ass off or even the day Sasuke would kiss Sakura. In other words, never. (A/N: am I overreacting here o.o'?)
Suddenly, Kakashi appeared out of nowhere, fake-hurt expression plastered on his only half-visible face.
"Naruto! How could you? Calling an innocent, unsuspecting man a pervert! That's not very nice of you."
The blue-eyed boy's eyes narrowed to tiny slits in his Naruto-like manner, as he said:
"It's true."
"Ah." The silver-haired jounin nodded happily.
Sasuke heaved a sigh. Still the 2 idiots they had been before he had left.
"Well, what I wanted to say, Sasuke.. It's good to see you back," Kakashi nodded seriously. "Naruto, could you please leave us alone for a minute? Thank you," he said when the blonde left.
"Sasuke, I need to talk to you," Kakashi said.
"You're not thinking about going back, are you?" he asked, waiting for a reply he wasn't going to get.
"Because if you are, you can decide on your own whether or not you want to leave, but remember this: I will kill you if you ever betray the Leaf again, teammate or not."
Kakashi cast him one last glance before he mentioned Naruto over.
"It may seem a little bit early - but the chuunin exams are coming. You may remember your exams where Orochimaru interrupted? Well, you and the others didn't get the chance to finish it, so the others took the following Chuunin - and Jounin - exams. But, since you weren't there and Naruto didn't want to take it, this seems like a good enough opportunity. I figured you could take the upcoming exam too, but there aren't any people of your level and year, so I thought you two would want to do it this way."
"All right.." Sasuke started. He was rather glad they could do it this way. Even though he didn't know what 'this' was.. He figured it would be some alternative method to become chuunin.
"And.. you're probably wondering why we don't just give you the title of chuunin. I'm sure many people would speak in favour of your skills when needed, and I, too, know you're capable enough to become chuunin or even jounin - But Tsunade-sama insisted on the formal way. Well, the formal way at first, but I persuaded her. Anyway, you're probably wondering what you'll have to do, but I'm not going to tell you because there won't be any training needed. You'll see when the time comes."
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They walked back to the more crowded parts of Konoha, where the shops and supermarkets were. Sasuke personally preferred the outskirts and shortcuts, but Naruto had dragged him along, to 'socialise'. He wondered why he was letting himself be dragged by Naruto, but somehow he couldn't bring up the will power to refuse. And besides, it couldn't be too bad.. now could it? He had to get his groceries anyway.
"Oi, Naruto, Sasuke! There you are!" a voice called, the laziness of it already indicating whose it was.
"I've been searching for you for ages," Shikamaru said, nodding to Sasuke.
"Welcome back. When did you return?" he asked.
"A few days ago," the dark-haired boy replied. He was surprised Shikamaru hadn't heard it from Hyuuga yet.
When they walked further into the centre, they suddenly heard a voice calling for Naruto - or so it seemed.
"Oi, blondie! Yes, over here!"
Temporarily, Sasuke didn't recognise the voice, but then he saw the shop they were in front of - the Yamanaka flower shop.
A blonde girl of his age was waving enthusiastically at them from behind the counter - Ino. She left the shop and joined the three friends.
"Sasuke! You're back," she called out surprisedly, quickly pulling him into a hug, then glomping the other dark-haired boy.
Sasuke had the faint urge to snap 'No shit,' at her, but Naruto beat him to it.
"What, you're not going to fawn all over him?" Naruto asked incredulously.
"Nah, I only did that to annoy forehead-girl," she smiled. "And besides, I have Shikamaru now, don't I?"
She wrapped her arms around said boy, who muttered something incoherent that faintly sounded like 'troublesome.'
Naruto's chin collided hard with the ground, when his mouth fell open.
"..You- you two are dating! I mean, even I didn't know that!"
"The proof of your social skills, dobe," Sasuke mockingly said, smirk gracing his handsome features when Naruto pouted.
"But, the reason why I was looking for you guys," Shikamaru started, releasing himself of the blonde's grip, and said blonde went back into the shop after waving goodbye.
"Tsunade wanted to speak to you," he nodded to Sasuke.
"They're really sending me everywhere," he continued. "As if I'm some damn dog or something, to fetch everything and everyone-"
"Yea, whatever Shikamaru," Naruto interrupted, and dragged the stoic Uchiha with him after saying a quick goodbye.