I don't own Naruto.
Roommates
Frozen
Naruto waved after Zabuza, and then hurried home. It was dark and the snow and the street lights were the only things lighting up his way. There weren't too many people outside, which was understandable. He had been doing his last Christmas shopping with Zabuza and it was really late.
It was two days to Christmas, and Naruto had also bought presents to his parents and brother this year. Zabuza was going to Kyoto over Christmas, to celebrate with his family that had moved with the Namikazes. So Naruto had let the tall brunette take his presents with him.
He was smiling and humming to a silly Christmas song when he reached his apartment building. He frowned when he saw the drunken man laying in a pile of snow. The bottle he had been drinking from had slid out from the dirty hand and stopped on the ground.
Dark golden liquid was slowly streaming out from the bottle, and the etiquette was almost gone.
Naruto walked up to the man, who lay in the pile next to the door he was about to enter. "Sir?" He gripped the drunken man's thin and old jacket, shaking him a little. "Sir, you can't lay here. It's too cold."
He smiled when he thought the man was about to wake up, but he had only slid down the pile a little. Naruto frowned, trying to shake the man awake again.
He stepped in the now golden, melted snow next to the bottle, making it splash up against his pant leg. He ignored the wetness that followed, and tried to shake the man again. He got no response.
Then he realized the man wasn't breathing. He checked for a pulse, searching and searching.
He let out a slightly high-pitched scream. The man was dead! The man had frozen to death outside Naruto's home. He screamed when he noticed the thin layers of ice around the man's mouth that seemed to be stuck on the skin, the ice having a golden colour, like the liquid in and around the bottle.
He screamed because the man was dead. He screamed because the man must have died hungry. He screamed because the man had died lonely. Because no one would miss him. He screamed because he, Naruto, had done nothing to save the man.
A man and a woman ran up to him, having walked nearby.
"Are you okay, son?" The man asked, and looked to his wife for support.
Naruto just stared at the drunken man, or what had once been a drunken man. His drunken man was dead. The man who had slurred goodnights to him when he came home from TAD, the man who had asked for a kiss in different ways (some more violent than others), the man who had smiled a drunken smile to him whenever he noticed him.
He was dead. And Naruto hadn't seen it coming.
"Where do you live, darling?" The woman asked, putting a hand on his lower back. He panted from having screamed, and tears were silently running down his cheeks. He looked at the door next to the pile, and the older couple seemed to understand. She started leading him toward the door, before turning to her husband. "Honey, call the police or something."
She led him inside, and when the warm air hit him, he realized where he was.
"Thank you," he murmured.
"You think you'll manage yourself?" He nodded. She smiled, dark hair around her oval face. "Good. Get some sleep." She gave him the bags he had dropped in his shock of seeing the dead man.
"Thank you," he repeated. She smiled once again, walking out to her husband again.
Naruto made his way up to their apartment on shaky legs, his hands having an irongrip on the bags. He absent-mindedly kicked on the door a couple of times, instead of knocking. The door was opened by Sasuke, who took the bags without a sound and just walked with them inside.
When he came back in the hall after leaving the bags in their bedroom, he noticed that the blonde was crying.
"Naruto?"
All he got in reply was a hug, Naruto wrapping his arms around Sasuke's neck.
"What's wrong, baby?"
"He's dead!" Naruto sniffed, his grip on the back of Sasuke's shirt tightening.
"Who's dead?" Sasuke sounded alarmed, flashes of people he knew, laying dead, passing his eyes. His brother in a car crash, Naruto's criminal brother with a bullet through his head, Shikamaru being raped and murdered in an alley on his way home from his parents. "Naruto, who is dead?"
"I don't even know his name!" Naruto pressed, if possible, tighter to Sasuke. The Uchiha sighed in relief - it wasn't his family, Naruto's family or Shikamaru. "He's always there and now he froze to death!"
Sasuke sighed again, though this time not in relief. The drunk man. Naruto had found the drunk man. Sasuke had seen the man outside two hours ago, alive and drinking from a bottle with golden alcohol. It didn't come as a surprise, at least not to Sasuke.
"There's nothing you could have done about it, baby. Don't be sad." Sasuke stroked Naruto's back, hearing steps as Gaara walked toward them.
"Who's dead?" He asked bluntly, not caring if he was rude or not.
Sasuke gave Gaara a look that told him to wait. The red-head shrugged, deciding that it couldn't be very important. Maybe it was a dog, or maybe it was that annoying little kitten that Gaara had wanted to throw out through the window since it bit his toe when he was resting.
"Honey, don't cry. You didn't even know him. People die. Just be happy that it wasn't someone you loved."
Naruto pushed away. Sasuke scowled at the loss of warmth. When he saw Naruto's face, he knew he had screwed up. He was really horrible at this comforting thing. He should have left it to Gaara when he had the chance.
"So just because I didn't love him it's okay that he froze to death? That he died at all because no one actually loved him?! He could have lived a perfectly fine life if someone just had helped him! Why didn't I help him?!"
Naruto looked ready to start cry again, but his cheeks were turning a rosy colour, and Sasuke wanted to bend the blonde over and fuck him. He was so beautiful like that.
But Gaara re-entered, an annoyed look at his face as he gripped Naruto's shoulders with his hands. "Stop that, Naruto. You couldn't have known. It's not your fault he died. And it's not your fault that Shukaku was kidnapped, okay? You have to stop throwing these fits because of something that happened when you were seventeen."
"But he died! He's dead! I found him in the snow, he didn't move!"
Gaara shook him a little, his face softening a little bit. "You found him? Stupid Naruto." The red-head hugged Naruto, who started crying again. "I'm sorry for saying such things. I didn't know you found him. It must have come as a shock."
Sasuke stared. How were people able to do that? How could they help people with simple words? Why couldn't he do that? He wished he knew how to comfort Naruto - but apparently Sasuke wasn't meant to comfort people. He was really bad at it.
Would he ever be able to comfort Naruto?
UAUAUA
Shikamaru came home safely from his parents the previous night, and Sasuke had to admit he was glad the brunette was unharmed. The aweful picture of Shikamaru being murdered and raped in an alley was still playing in his head until he saw the lazy ass by himself.
But he couldn't help but get annoyed when Shikamaru sat down infront of him the next morning with his breakfast, grabbing the news paper on the table.
Kiba was eating his sandwich slowly as he read the comics in the other part of the news paper. Sasuke had been planning on reading the part Shikamaru had grabbed. He scowled, put the spoon down and supported his head in his palm.
"Where's Naruto?" Shikamaru asked, having realized no one was there to make a conversation, since Kiba was busy reading and spitting out milk as he laughed to himself at the comics.
"Why do you care?" Sasuke muttered.
"Geez, you're starting to get paranoid," Kiba said, his voice thick from being about to swallow a piece of his sandwich.
"With Gaara," Sasuke grumbled. "And I'm not paranoid. Even if I was, I would have a damn good reason."
"Which is?"
"Everybody is freakin' after Naruto. That creepy designer, this 'childhood friend' Zabu-something. And on top of that, his fucking father shows up and tries to push me away!" Sasuke let out a low growl before standing up, leaving the kitchen and walking to his bedroom.
Kiba shook his head. "I wonder if all Uchihas are like that, or if it's just him."
UAUAUA
Naruto was fine when the afternoon closed up. Kiba and Gaara were putting together the plastic Christmas tree, which was hard because it was already dark outside and the dim light from the TV and the lamp in the window didn't help. And Shikamaru didn't want to lit anymore lights.
Sasuke was sitting in an armchair, playing with Tonbo, glancing at Naruto now and then. The blonde seemed to be unable to focus on something else than Kiba and Gaara for the moment, even though the TV was on.
"That's wrong part, bastard." Kiba said, trying to reach the plastic Gaara was holding.
"No." Gaara smirked.
"Yes, it is. See!"
"You're doing it wrong, moron. Give me that part."
Sasuke shook his head, taking Tonbo in his arms and putting him in Naruto's lap as he stood. He gripped the part Gaara was holding, and then started putting the tree together himself. He rolled his eyes as Kiba growled and Gaara huffed almost inaudiable.
Shikamaru glanced at Naruto, then at Sasuke. He smiled. He wondered if he should say something to the blonde.
Deciding that no, he shouldn't ruin the moment, he kept his mouth shut. The silly Christmas song that was played on TV wasn't so silly anymore, as Shikamaru watched his roommates.
Naruto was smiling, having coped with the fact that "his drunk man" had passed away. Kiba was growling, throwing glares at the vaguely smirking Gaara. Sasuke was soon done putting together the fake tree, and then turned around. His dark eyes met Shikamaru's, and he actually smiled (very, very vaguely).
The brunette smiled back, hoping that it would stay like this forever. He looked back at Naruto, who was patting Tonbo with his unbandaged hand. He glanced at Sasuke, who was now scowling and walking out of the room.
UAUAUA
When Zabuza arrived in Kyoto, he had made some serious thinking. He still found Naruto one of the most interesting things on Earth, but it wouldn't be enough. He knew, better than most, that you couldn't build a relationship on sex.
Yes, Zabuza still thought he had a chance on Naruto, even after spending so much time with the blonde. Stupid of him, but he hadn't seen Naruto and Sasuke together. He had yet to understand that Naruto and Sasuke were more or less meant for each other.
And even if Zabuza had given up, it didn't mean that a certain blonde man had. Minato still wanted the Uchiha brat away. He wasn't good enough for his son.
Now that Minato had his little Naru-chan back, he wasn't about to let him go to someone as perverted and stoic as Uchiha Sasuke. Naruto deserved better, and even if Zabuza wasn't willing to help him. There were always others. Kushina had told him to cut it off, but he wasn't sure he would be able to do so.
Naruto was his little baby boy, not Sasuke's little fuck buddy.
And Minato knew that Kyuubi would help him to push the Uchiha away. After all, Kyuubi had long ago forgiven his parents and he still loved his little brother.
Zabuza knew Minato's plans, and couldn't help but think something along the lines of 'over-protective fathers'. Yet he could understand. Minato hadn't had any of his sons close to him in a very long time, and it wasn't surprising that he wanted Naruto to himself now that he was forgiven.
Zabuza knew that Kushina wasn't as obssessed with it as her husband, but that she also wanted Naruto with her. She wasn't stupid, though, she could see her son's happiness with Sasuke. And she would try to welcome him into their family, and stop Minato's and Kyuubi's stupid ideas of pushing the Uchiha away.
After all, she thought Sasuke was a handsome young man that was lovely for her youngest son. They made a great couple and Sasuke would help Naruto on the right way.
To Be Continued
Next Chapter: The First Christmas
Their first Christmas together as roommates had been really nice. They had all been satisfied with their presents, they had gotten a little bit tipsy and Akamaru had still been a puppy that Naruto and Kiba had been forced to take out on small walks the entire evening.