Quarantine...in love?

Chapter 4

She was woken up by the insisting and sudden loud ringtone of her cellphone that she was trying to ignore at all costs. The pillow clutched on the top of her head wasn't helping her effort of ignoring her annoying device, as wasn't Kurama that was sitting on her back and was probably staring at her. The damn cat could be a real bother at times like these.

She pulled the pillow away and finally reached for the phone, rolling her eyes as she read the name that kept flashing with insistence, only her parents could be so dramatically insistent so early in the morning. Finally, the sound stopped and Naruko groaned as she threw her back against the mattress again. Maybe they wouldn't call back and she could try and go back to sleep. Kurama, that had fallen off her back earlier when she had got her phone, apparently decided to get even and sat on her face, probably trying to suffocate her because of the earlier offense. It wouldn't be the first time, Naruko had learned early on that her cat was a grudge-holding bastard. The phone rang again, and this time she answered of she knew her parents wouldn't stop calling.

"Naruko? are you okay? your dad and I got worried when you didn't pick up the phone"

The girl sighed, of course they were. When weren't they worried? They had been worried since they adopted her. They were worried about her getting sick, worried about her being bullied because of the weird marks on her face, worried about her finding a boyfriend, worried about her leaving home...she could probably go on forever. They had been overprotective and overbearing all her life. She loved them dearly, but she partially blamed them for the failure of all her relationships. They managed to scare off all her boyfriends, even the more promising ones, like Gaara. He was the type the was hardly fazed by anything, but just a few minutes with Kakashi had scared the hell out of the guy.

"You realize it's 8 in the morning and that I was probably just sleeping?"

There was a minute of silence and a muffled yell coming from the background. Probably Iruka was listening in on the conversation.

"Uh...I didn't realize it was that early" Kakashi's voice was merry as usual, how did he manage to sound so jolly so early in the morning was beneath her.

"I bet you didn't" she muttered, when did her dad ever pay attention to something as pointless as time? She heard some other muffled sounds in the background and rolled her eyes as she heard her dads bicker about something.

"I am going to ask her now, Iruka, have patience" she heard her father say, and she groaned again.

"So, we learned an interesting thing from Sakura's mother actually" he was calm as he spoke but she could hear the underlying concern behind the apparent calm tone.

Naruko raised an eyebrow, slightly alarmed at that.

"Like...what? what did you hear from Sakura's mom?" she sat on the bed now sensing trouble and Kurama gave her a sort of satisfied expression from his spot on his floor. She swore that bastard cat really hated her.

"That you girls moved to the Uchiha mansion and will be self-isolating there with Sasuke and Itachi"

Well shit. Naruko thought as she figured out how to exactly escape her parent's wrath. She knew they didn't have a problem with the Uchiha, they were actually really good friends with Fugaku and Mikoto, but there was a warning sign of danger in her father's tone that alarmed her.

"But...but you like Sasuke and Itachi" she mumbled, trying to sound convincing.

"That we do" Kakashi agreed, but Iruka was clearly not on the same page as she heard him groaning in the background. They must be on speakerphone.

"So wait a minute, you guys didn't call because you're worried about my health, but because I'm sharing a house with Sasuke and Itachi? That's unexpected" maybe trying to change the subject and make them feel like they had neglected her, maybe she would be spared.

"Mah... Naru, you know we are worried, about you-" he was interrupted, only to be replaced by a fired-up Iruka who had been listening to the conversation.

"Stop being such a pushover Kakashi, and you young girl, don't think you can make us feel bad!"

Naruko froze at that, aware that she was going to get a fine ass-whooping from her dad, he was too accustomed with her tactics. Iruka had always been the one in charge of disciplining for Kakashi was too lazy for it, and he was pretty good at it. The girl felt bad for his students, she was sure he didn't make it easy for them.

"Why didn't you tell us that you were going to move at the Uchiha's house?"

She gulped, not sure on how to explain the situation, and sound believable.

"I didn't really have a choice dad! Sakura informed me of what was going on and the next second we were packing and moved in here, thinking about it now, you should really blame her!"

"Still, you should have at least told us!"

"Uh, just when I thought it was because of your crush on Itachi" Kakashi interjected, causing Naruko to blush like a damn tomato.

"Dad!" "Kakashi!" she and Iruka exclaimed at the same time, followed by the sound of someone being hit. She almost felt bad for her idiotic father, but he did deserve it.

"What? did I have to pretend we didn't know?"

"Of course you idiot! Now she will never tell us anything!"

"Oh come on now Iruka, our girl is big enough to handle this on her own, why don't you let me show you better and more pleasurable ways to spend this isolation time together uh?" The girl rolled her eyes, Kakashi was still her usual pervy self. She was actually glad she wasn't forced to spend quarantine with them or who knows how much of that she woud be forced to see. Those two could never take their hands of each other, no matter how much Iruka acted like it bothered him, he was just as bad as Kakashi.

"I'm still here dad!" she decided to remind them just in case they forgot.

"Oh, right! well, sweetie, it was nice talking to you, why don't you say hi to the others for us uh?"

"Kakashi! stop it! don't touch- oh!"

Naruko took that as her cue to hang up, before she heard things that might scar her for life. At least the discussion of her living arrangements had been delayed, to think that she had to thank her father's perviness once more, but in cases like these it was truly a blessing.

Kurama jumped on her bed again, sitting in front of her meowing at her, reminding her that she needed to feed him. She knew he would just sit there and stare at her and meow until she got her lazy ass up, so it was useless to lay back in bed and to get another hour of sleep. She yawned as she got up looking for something decent but comfortable to wear.

"All right Kurama you win, let's go and have breakfast"

888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

It was so silent around the house, she was worried that no one else was awake. Kurama was strolling happily behind her anxious to get the food he deserved. She still wasn't very accustomed with the house so she made her way down the dark hallway trying to measure her steps as not to wake anyone and avoiding turning the lights on, afraid she might touch the wrong switch. She was surprised when she noticed the light was on in the kitchen, halting her steps, the cat hitting her leg with his head as she stopped so suddenly.

Kurama glared at her, meowing loudly, making Naruko jump. She was trying to calm herself, what if it was Itachi in the kitchen? her heart was beating erratically, but Kurama didn't seem to care, as he made his way in the room with confidence. She felt a twinge of envy as she looked at the way he elegantly strutted towards his destination, but she feared he might disturb whoever was in the room, unless it was Sasuke.

"Kurama wait! where are you going?" she ran after him, almost tripping over him as he had apparently decided to lay down and rest right in the middle of the doorway. The only reason she didn't fall on her face was that someone caught her holding her still by her arms.

"Watch where you're going dobe"

Naruko opened her eyes and groaned as she met Sasuke's black eyes staring down at her with irritation and a not so amused expression on his face. It made her blood boil and she immediately pulled herself away from his grip.

"It's not my fault if you're in the way teme!"

Sasuke grunted and pointed at the cat, that in return stared at him as if he was crazy.

"It's the stupid cat's fault! I swear he was trying to make me trip! he's evil" he paused as he noticed Naruko's unimpressed expression and rolled his eyes.

"You probably taught him to do it, you're still trying to get back at me because I threw out your instant ramen!"

"You're really crazy teme! and it was still good!"

Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose trying to calm himself.

"It was expired you damn square head! you and your assassin cat are going to be the death of me!"

Naruko puffed her cheeks, it was impossible to reason with the damn idiot and way too early.

"The cat is not trying to kill you!"

"Itachi you saw it, you have to believe me!"

Naruko's eyes widened, Itachi? Itachi was there? she turned towards the table and realized that the older Uchiha sibling was sitting there with his laptop in front of him and his black hair pulled up in a messy bun on top of his head, looking at both of them as if they were insane. They probably were at that point.

"Maybe you should go back to sleep Sasuke" he said leaning his head on his hand with a cute little smile on his face that made Naruko's heart swoon.

"Of course you would say that. You're just as evil as that cat" the younger boy said, looking at the cat with disdain. The cat in response sat down and comfortably started to lick his fur, making Itachi laugh and Naruko roll her eyes at her dramatic friend. Seriously this situation between Sasuke and Kurama was ridiculous. Kurama hated people, she didn't understand why Sasuke took it so personally.

"The cat is not evil, maybe if you were nicer to him he wouldn't attempt to assassinate you" Itachi said calmly as he typed something on his laptop. He was probably working, and they were disturbing him by acting stupid.

"Me? Nicer? that thing hates me! look at him glaring at me" he pointed at the Kurama again that raised his head to stare at the finger that was pointed at him.

"Seriously teme, you're starting to worry me"
Sasuke looked back between her and his brother with an indignant expression and with an angry "ugh" stomped out the room, muttering nonsense. He was probably going to go and complain to Sakura about all of them. Naruko didn't know how she had the patience to deal with him.

"Sorry about him, I'm afraid mother dropped him when he was a baby"

Itachi stood from his seat, walking towards the pantry pulling out a can of cat food.

"I suspected it. You didn't have to get up to feed Kurama, I'm sure you're plenty busy with work"

She told him as she took the can from his hands, avoiding his gaze crouching down to pour on the bowl as the cat excitedly meowled purring happily.

"So now you like me uh?" she asked the cat as it started to gulp down the food as if it had been starved. Itachi was watching them with a soft expression, and she looked up at him, meeting his dark eyes.

"It's not a big deal. I only have some e-mails to send out today and some paperwork to finish."

"I shouldn't bother you then...I should probably go and check my classes...you know they've been moved online and-" she was interrupted by her stomach grumbling and Itachi chuckled at that, making her blush

"You should at least have breakfast. I made some green tea and there's rice on the stove."

Naruko blushed, he was being so kind and she really didn't want to be a bother. Little did she know that Itachi had intentionally been waiting for her to have breakfast together.

"I really don't want to disturb while you're working"

He turned around, handing her a warm cup of tea.

"You're not. I still have to have breakfast as well, I could use some company"

She smiled at him, of course she would love to spend as much time with him as possible.

"All right then, since you insist" she joked accepting the cup. She wouldn't miss the chance to spend some time alone with him, it was rare for them to be on their own. Usually, Sasuke or Sakura would be there with them and she would never really get the chance to talk to him. Not without Sasuke or Sakura butting in and interrupting every two seconds.

Itachi just smiled and handed her the bowl full of rice.

"So, how is school going? Sasuke was telling me all your classes have been moved online"

Naruko sighed, leaning her head on her hand and pouted. She wasn't very happy with that, some of her classes were hard enough as they were, and now that they were online she was worried she was going to have more trouble. She had never been a perfect student, like Sasuke or Sakura, but she had managed to get good enough grades up to that point.

"It was going well before all of this...I don't know now, with all of them being online. I was never into technology really, so I'm not very good with computers and all that stuff" she explained leaning her head on the table feeling a little depressed. She only had one year left of college she didn't want to screw things up now that she was so close to graduating.

Itachi smiled sympathetically, very aware of Naruko's dislike of technology. And then, just like that an idea came to his mind. It would be perfect, Naruko wouldn't fail her classes because of her lack of technological knowledge and he would get to spend more time with her. Shisui would be very proud of him if he could see him now.

"If you ever need help, I would be happy to assist you." He offered casually, trying to make it sound as a simple innocent proposal and not like if he had been planning some smooth way to spend time with her.

Naruko raised her head and looked at him with wide blue eyes.

"You would?" she asked, sounding a little too enthusiastic, but who really cared at that point? she had a perfect excuse to spend time alone with Itachi.

"Of course" he confirmed, taking a sip from his cup, trying to hide the satisfaction he felt from her reaction.

"Well then...I gladly accept!"

Author's note:

Hi everyone! I'm sorry for being so late, unfortunately it was my finals week so I couldn't concentrate on writing. Hopefully now that I'm done, I should be able to dedicate more time to my stories, so I should be able to update more often!

Thank you for all the nice reviews and for adding this story to favorite/follow! I greatly appreciate it!

Stay safe everyone!

Darkshadows92