A/N:
I'm so glad you all like my story!
I've gotten really hooked on writing it, so you can count on many more chapters. Hahaha.
No, I haven't forgotten about CAWM or LKNB...I'm just giving them a break for a while. I've gotten really into my obsession with Naruto, and really wanna try and stick with it.
(Translation: I become obsessed with an anime, and shortly after I lose interest in it. I DON'T WANT THAT TO HAPPEN.)
So yeh. Keep the reviews coming!
♥Raven
Chapter Three: Just Like Family
Sasuke spent most of his time at his own bedside, staring down at a reluctant Naruto. The blonde boy was milking the injuries for all they were worth, and to any other person it would've been rather annoying. Sasuke knew better than to believe a single fist fight would render Naruto lame for the day, but he didn't argue. Just laughed at all the excuses the boy came up with to not leave the comfort of the Uchiha's bed. Sasuke was beginning to see just how good Naruto was at making up excuses, and figured that they just sounded terrible to get a laugh out of whoever he was using them on.
The genin picked at a flaw in the fabric of his sling. "You should probably get some sleep. It's late."
The blonde frowned. "Oh? And what are you going to do? Sit there and stare at me?"
"I might." Sasuke said, half sarcastically, half serious. Of course, he wouldn't let Naruto know that.
"Here I am, taking over your bed, and you're the one with the serious injury." The boy started to shift, trying to get out of the bed, but was stopped by a pale hand pulling him back into it.
"This bed fits two." Naruto's head flung around, his blue eyes mere inches away from the hollow black eyes of his teammate.
"You're going to sleep here?" Naruto asked, wanting to avoid anything that might give Sasuke the wrong idea. "We're going to sleep...in the same bed?"
"Yeah. What's the big deal?" The blonde turned bright red. "What? Don't you trust me? It's not like I'm going to rape you in your sleep."
"Bastard! I wasn't thinking like that!"
"Don't lie to me." Naruto went silent.
"I was just thinking of the rumors...what if someone found out?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes.
"The only way anyone would find out would be if they looked into my bedroom window." He raised his eyebrows. "And even so, the house we're in is in the center of the Uchiha homes. The only way anyone would make it to my window would be if they entered onto my property and searched us out."
Naruto knew it was a stupid question, but "What if Itachi saw us?"
Sasuke glared. "That bastard doesn't live here."
Naruto turned brighter red. "Yeah, but what if he has some way of watching you? Or what if he uses his power as a Uchiha to return–"
"He's not a Uchiha anymore, Naruto." Sasuke's voice was stone cold, and Naruto knew immediately that he'd taken it too far. "Just go to sleep already." Sasuke pulled the covers up over his shoulder and, like at Naruto's house, turned his back on his teammate. The blonde genin frowned sadly, feeling terrible for so much as mentioning Itachi. Despite this, however, he closed his eyes to sleep, not wanting to make the situation worse.
---
Naruto opened his eyes to an empty bed. Now, normally this wouldn't be too surprining, the boy living on his own for his entire life. And at first, it wasn't. Until he realized that the black sheets and deep red walls weren't his own. He shot straight up, the pains in his stomach gone and replaced with a large round blotch of purple. Sasuke's shirt was gone from the dresser, as were the shorts he'd discarded the previous night. But, Naruto did notice that the boxer's Sasuke had gone to bed in were now hanging over the edge of his laundry basket and his underwear drawer hung half open.
Once he regained control of his senses, Naruto could smell a rather delectable scent coming in through the cracked open door. He pushed himself up, moving slowly across the room with his nose high in the air. He kept his footsteps silent, though, not wanting Sasuke to know he was awake just yet. But, of course, something had to go wrong, and his toe caught a fold in the rug at the bottom of the stairs. He fumbled around for a bit before regaining his balance. Oddly, the clinking and sizzling sounds continued from the kitchen, and it seemed that Sasuke hadn't even noticed.
Naruto didn't know why he was so scared to have Sasuke see him. It wasn't that he wanted to surprise the Uchiha, it was more a fear of Sasuke rejecting him and sending him right home. The blonde shook his head madly. Why should he care? It's not like it mattered whether or not he stayed with Sasuke right? Despite this he continued to move stealthily, however, moving to the opening to the kitchen. What he wasn't expecting was to see Sasuke drop from the ceiling in front of the door, the clinking noises still echoing from the kitchen. "How long had you planned on stalking around?"
Naruto swallowed hard, turning bright pink. "How long have you been up there?"
"Ever since I heard you take in your breath at the top of the stairs." It was true. Naruto had taken in a breath to keep himself from breathing too loudly. Apparently he'd been too loud as it was, cluing Sasuke in. "You should be more careful about that."
"Then who is...?" Naruto looked in to the kitchen to see a training dummy standing in front of the stove. "Substitution. So like you."
"Like you have room to talk with your clones." Naruto grinned. "C'mon. Breakfast is almost ready." The blonde got excited. He could smell the familiar scent of bacon and eggs coming from the kitchen. He'd never eaten anything but ramen for breakfast, so this was a first. Yes, he'd eaten all those things at restaurants during the lunch and dinner hours when he'd gone with his genin team, but he'd never had it home cooked. Let alone for breakfast itself.
"So you're saying I get to stay for breakfast?"
"Did I stutter?" Sasuke asked, scooping a couple eggs out onto a plate. "What? You don't want breakfast or something?"
"No! It's not that! It's just...I thought...after what I said last night..." Naruto looked at his feet.
"Oh big deal. So you were worried about Itachi breaking in. What's it matter?" Sasuke set one plate on the table and returned to the kitchen to dish out another. "It's not like I haven't come to terms with the fact that he's a freaky guy."
Naruto smiled and took a seat in front of one of the plates. Starving, he began shoveling food into his mouth, not even noticing that the chopsticks he was using were hardly touching the food, and that he was rather vacuuming it all in.
"Whoa! Calm down! You act like you haven't eaten in years!" Sasuke said, taking two bites to every ten of Naruto's.
"I can't help it! Those thugs punched most of the food out of me, along with about half of my blood." Sasuke frowned.
"Why didn't you tell me! I would've gotten you something to eat last night!" Sasuke had to fight slapping the other boy upside the head.
"I was fine! I didn't need anything!" Sasuke raised his eyebrows, looking at the completely cleared plate. If he hadn't just seen his teammate clear it, Sasuke might've thought the plate was perfectly clean. "Ok, so I was hungry. But that doesn't prove anything! I didn't want to bother you!" There was a silence.
"Next time something like this happens, don't feel obliged to cater to my feelings, dobe." Sasuke said, trying to calm the argument. He stood, scooping up the plates and taking them into the kitchen. From the beginning of the argument to the end he'd managed to finish a good portion of his meal, and had by now given up on finishing it.
"Why shouldn't I?" Naruto finally asked, calmed and quiet. "I mean, for one thing it's your home, and for another you're even more injured than I am. I should be catering to your needs."
"You shouldn't because you're myguest, and at the timeyou needed the most attention."
"Idiot. It was just a fist fight. You can hardly lift your arm above your waist." Sasuke glared at this reference to his arm, but said nothing. He didn't want Naruto to know just what had been happening with his arm over the past few hours...
---
"And you're completely sure you can't reseal it?" Kakashi glared at the chuunin following him. Even though he only had one eye to glare with, it was still very intimidating.
"I've told you once, I've told you about twenty million times. I don't know how just yet, Iruka. So stop asking." Iruka looked at his feet, embarrassed that he'd gotten on the jounin's nerves so easily. He hardly even realized how much of a pest he'd been. He knew he was bothering Kakashi in the middle of a shift, but he was worried.
"But there has to–"
"Be a way. Kakashi, please, won't you just try? I have tried Iruka, and I haven't found a way yet. You just haven't been trying hard enough! What about a plain old medication? This is a curse, Iruka. Medications don't work on curses. So you have no idea how to reseal it? I've told you once–"
"I get it." Iruka said, caught between taking offense and laughing at the joke. "I'm just worried about Sasuke, alright?"
"Maybe you should start worrying about Naruto, too." Kakashi shot back, turning on his heal to stare at the chuunin.
"You think I don't? He's like family to me! All I do is worry about him!" Iruka stared into the silent face of the silver-haired jounin. Something was wrong, and it only took one eye to tell him this. "What happened? Where is Naruto!"
"He's fine now. Sasuke and Neji carried him back to the Uchiha homes and I'm sure Sasuke has been taking care of him."
"What the hell happened, Kakashi!"
"Naruto was attacked by a group of thugs yesterday. They beat him up pretty bad." Iruka's face dropped. "He's fine now, I'm sure. It's nothing he can't take."
"You knew about this and did nothing to stop it?" Iruka asked, fear replacing itself with anger.
"I found out a few hours after it happened. Neji had Ten-Ten and Lee help bring in the three men who did this and we...questioned them...until they told us just what happened." Kakashi flinched at the look he received. Yeah, sure...they questioned the men...good story.
"So you haven't checked up on him at all? Just left him in the hands of another genin?"
"Iruka, it's Sasuke. He lives in abandoned homes that each have their own arsenal of first aid kits. Put that with his obvious genius and you've got a degree-less doctor." Iruka was still not pleased. "Besides, I don't think we want to interrupt them." It took a minute for this to register with Iruka.
"What are you saying! You don't think they're–" The look in Kakashi's eye said it all. "Seriously?"
"Just give it time." The two stared at each other for a moment, shortly followed by Iruka turning bright red and turning away. Kakashi smiled under his mask, turning and heading down the street once again. Iruka followed shortly, causing Kakashi's smile to grow a little wider. "We'll go check in on them later. Just let them adjust to each other for a bit." Iruka nodded, following the taller jounin.
---
All day the only thing on Iruka's mind was Naruto and Sasuke. It was obvious now that there wasn't anything going on between them...was there? He racked his brain for any signs that could clue him in on the situation. Much to his dismay, there were too many to count. He was very relieved when Kakashi offered to take him over to the Uchiha residences for their promised 'check-up'. It hadn't taken them long to figure out just which part of the homes belonged mainly to Sasuke. The one directly in the center was the largest, and would be the immediate pick for anyone forced to live on their own.
They stood at the door for a while, wondering if they should risk knocking. Even Kakashi had his worries. Eventually they worked up the courage to beat on the door, if just lightly, and wait to see what happened. If nothing else, they could make a break for it if anything mentally scarring came into view. Much to their surprise, Sasuke pushed open the door and greeted them...blankly. Like always.
"Hey. What are you two doing here?" He asked, leaning against the door. Naruto came up behind him, shirtless. This made Iruka twitch lightly, but when he saw the large amount of bandages he took to the excuse that Sasuke was only helping him fix up his wounds. Had he half a mind he'd have known that Naruto went to bed and woke up shirtless. Sasuke had just put the bandages on about ten minutes before, and Iruka liked that excuse better.
"Just checking up on you. How's your arm?" Kakashi asked calmly. Iruka pushed forward.
"Naruto, are you alright?" He ignored the fact that Kakashi had just asked a question, and that Sasuke was about to answer. He was too worried for his 'little brother' to care. Sasuke nodded to Kakashi that he was fine, stepping back to let Iruka through. The jounin stopped him, though. He wrapped his arm over the chuunin's shoulder and across his chest, pulling him back and away from the genin.
"He's fine, Iruka. Calm down." Iruka turned bright pink, as did both boys. "You're fine, yes?" He asked Naruto, nodding 'YES' over Iruka's head. The boy was confused, but nodded as well, and Kakashi felt Iruka loosen lightly.
"That's good. I'm glad." He felt the jounin let go, and almost felt bad as he did so, but returned his focus to his former student. He smiled, letting out a light sigh. "How about we all go get ramen?"
It didn't take long for the answer. "Ok!" Naruto exclaimed, running off and up the stairs to get dressed. Sasuke, still rather confused, turned to follow the blonde with his eyes, then returned to Kakashi and shrugged, motioning for them to enter and leading the way into the front room.
A/N:
I can't stand ending stories. I suck at it. But I'm tired, don't feel too hot, and really need to get myself in order. I'm so damn unorganized right now, I'm finding assignments from my junior year in the bottom of my back pack.
Nyerr.
Now, to respond.
to Sasuke2006: I'm glad you like it. I've had this idea for a while, and just loved to write it out. Naruto and Sasuke fighting over who gets protective supremacy. Hehe. Like I've said though, there really is no set Seme or Uke, so it should be fun to carry this out.
to blue-genjutsu: Hehe. That's kinda what I was going for. They're basically fighting it out for Seme and Uke position without really realizing it.
to Red Asatari: No, they can't...assholes...ha. I'll update as much as I can.
to flame gazer: Heh. I'm not surprised that you just found it. It's rather new and...not that good...so I'm pretty sure no one's recommended it. T-T I'm rather busy...and constantly tired...–sway sway– so I'll update as much as I can. Promise!
to sAyUrI-aNbU: I'm glad you like it. I'll update as much as I can.
