Author's Note: I won't hinder your reading. I'll put the Author's Note at the end for this chapter.

Warning: YAOI (Rating will go up and content will be more explicit in later chapters), some swearing.

Disclaimer: I do not own 'Naruto' or any of the characters from the anime/manga.

Bold and Italics flashbacks

The Art of Fabrication (cont.)

By: Nine1991

Chapter 3: A Little Appreciation

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Tsunade drawled, surveying the pair before her with amused eyes. And it truly was a sight indeed. For there before her stood Naruto, garish orange jumpsuit no longer garish due to the fact that it was now practically brown, hair matted and messier than usual, its normal golden sheen reduced to a dull shade of mustard, and tanned skin covered in a thick coat of what she could only assume was ash. The Uchiha wasn't in much better shape either, and the Hokage fought to suppress a satisfied smirk at seeing the Jounin try to maintain an air of arrogance whilst looking like a run-of-the-mill homeless boy that had just been plucked off the streets.

"Well…baa-chan," and Naruto had to duck to avoid the paperweight thrown at his head, "Remember that offer you made last month? The one that I turned down?" Tsunade's lips pursed and she raised a golden brow, as if to ask 'What of it?'

Naruto smiled a blinding smile that proved quite a contrast to his grubby appearance. "Well," he started, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "Is the offer still valid?"

Tsunade looked amused. "Of course, brat. You know, if you had agreed in the first place, I probably wouldn't have assigned you a bodyguard."

Naruto's face lit up. "You mean, if I move in, you'd call off the bastard?"

"Too late, brat. The Uchiha stays."

Naruto's face fell.

"Shizune!" Tsunade bellowed, and it was only a few seconds before the Hokage's assistant answered the call and entered the room, replying with a respectful, albeit slightly exasperated "Yes, Hokage-sama?". Sasuke's brows furrowed slightly at the little pink pig trailing beside the dark-haired woman. Was this place always such a zoo?

"Shizune, I want you to prepare one of the guestrooms for the brat. He'll be staying here for a while." Shizune nodded as Tsunade continued, "Oh, and put a bed in the living room as well. His bodyguard will be sleeping there."

Naruto spluttered, "What!? Why!?"

Tsunade gave the blond teen an annoyed look. "Well, he has to sleep somewhere, brat. And besides, the closer he is to where you live, the more efficient he will be in protecting you."

Naruto huffed. "I don't need any goddamn protection! I can take care of myse-"

"We are not having this discussion again, Naruto. Now, get out!"

With a childish pout on his face, the blond teen stomped out of the room, Shizune in tow. As Sasuke made to follow his charge, he was halted by the Hokage's sharp voice.

"Not yet, Uchiha. I want to know what happened."

Sasuke's jaw clenched and he sighed. Yes, it was such a very, very long day.

-LineBreak-

It was a whole hour before the Uchiha was allowed to leave the Hokage's office, and the moment he stepped through the large oak doors, the first thing he had wanted to do was set his own traps to kill the usuratonkachi himself. He had spent an hour – a whole frickin' hour – telling and retelling the Hokage what had happened, repeating himself over again and again whilst trying to maintain his monotone regardless of the increasing agitation building up within him. A one hour discussion with the Hokage might not have been so frustrating had it been any other ninja, but it so happened that that ninja was Sasuke, and Sasuke, who had never held any love for talking in the first place, hated having to repeat himself even more. It also didn't help that the so-called 'discussion' had turned out to be more of an interrogation than anything, not to mention the increasing feeling of apprehension at seeing the growing murderous glint in the Hokage's hazel eyes when she found out how close Naruto was to being burnt to a crisp. It really made him wonder though, just how close the moron and the Hokage really were.

He had been approached by Shizune the moment he left the office, and she had politely asked if he wanted to be escorted to his room, to which he declined. She had given him the appropriate directions before entering the doors he had just previously exited from, and he almost shuddered, not at all envying her for having to deal with the Hokage while she was in the mood he had left her in.

Sasuke strolled through the corridors quietly, observing and noting the various rooms he walked past. A light timber door with a dark frame…a large door in dark wood, intricately carved…a pretty door with a peculiar shape…a plain door that he could only assume lead to the bathrooms…

And it wasn't until he reached a door that was open ajar did he pull back from his observations, realizing that he had reached his room. He stepped inside, eyes immediately scanning what was to be his new living quarters for the next few months at least. It was nice enough, he grudgingly admitted, glancing over the small, equipped kitchen, the comfortable living room complete with couch and coffee table, and the door to what he could only assume was the bedroom. It resembled a small, but decent apartment, and though he wasn't one hundred percent happy at having to sleep in the living room – and at this point, he eyed the mattress placed neatly in the corner – at least he knew he wouldn't be killing the moron over space.

Sasuke rested his backpack by the makeshift bed, before making his way to the bedroom. He stopped at the door (which was, again, ajar) and leaned against the frame, arms crossed as he surveyed the sight before him.

Naruto was splayed out on the bed, hands tucked behind his head and feet dangling lazily off the side in a way that hinted that he had collapsed on the mattress the moment he had entered the room, and hadn't moved since. He had discarded his jacket, which Sasuke presumed was the lump of orange fabric crumpled in the corner of the room, leaving a black undershirt that showed off lightly muscled arms and a sliver of a toned stomach, all dusted a golden hue. Sasuke had to admit, he was mildly surprised. At seeing the quantity of ramen earlier and the rate at which the blond had scoffed it all down, this was not what he had expected.

"You should at least wash your face you know, if you're not going to get changed. You look like shit." Naruto stated bluntly, as he opened his eyes and turned to look at Sasuke. There was a brief moment where deep blue eyes caught dark obsidian ones, before the edges of the blonde's lips quirked and pulled back into a wide grin.

Sasuke snorted. "Hn. Like you look any better, usuratonkachi. You haven't changed either."

Naruto scowled. "And what the hell am I supposed to change into, huh, bastard? The bed covers?"

Sasuke opened his mouth to retort, but stopped when the next sentence spoken wasn't by his own voice.

"Naruto! There you are!"

And Sasuke blinked as a figure rushed straight past him and over to the blond, who scrambled up from the bed abruptly at seeing who it was that had addressed him. "Iruka-sensei!"

The man, once reaching his target, placed both hands on the blonde's shoulders, grip tight. "The Hokage's just informed me! Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?" And without waiting for an answer, proceeded to lift each of the blonde's arms, twisting his body this way and that as if searching for any wounds that may be hidden.

Naruto grimaced at being fussed over so openly, glancing at Sasuke over the man's shoulder and glaring at the bemused smirk on the Uchiha's face. Naruto pushed the man – this Iruka-sensei – back gently. "Iruka-sensei, I'm fine. Really. There's not even a scratch on me."

Iruka frowned, his lips pursed. "Still, you should take better care of yourself, Naruto. You might not be so lucky next time. Even though I hope there won't be a next time." He sighed deeply, before finally noticing Sasuke, who had chosen to stand quietly to the side. The man smiled kindly, the large scar across his nose straightening from its comical frown-like curve. "Ah! You must be Uchiha Sasuke. I can't thank you enough for saving Naruto."

Behind Iruka, Naruto pouted, muttering an "I didn't need saving anyway…" under his breath. Sasuke tilted his head politely, acknowledging the man's gratitude, but otherwise didn't reply. He reverted his gaze to the side, his face as expressionless as stone. Seeing the Uchiha act so cold to his teacher, Naruto growled, "You know, the least you could do is say something, you rude bastard."

Iruka laughed, waving a hand dismissively. "Ah. It's okay. I should be going anyway." His expression turned serious again as he gripped Naruto's shoulder firmly. "Take care of yourself, Naruto," he said sternly, before breaking into a gentle smile, "Maybe I can buy you ramen sometime, huh?"

"Yatta!" Naruto cheered, jumping up and down, and Sasuke's lips almost quirked at how childish the blond was acting. Iruka shook his head at the blonde's antics, chuckling as he left the room.

Sasuke smirked.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're smirking at, bastard?!"

-LineBreak-

They were looking at him. He could feel their gazes burning into his skin as if, if they stared hard enough, his clothes would disintegrate, piece by piece. And then there were the whispers! They huddled up in groups, gossiping in hushed voices that sounded like annoying buzzing to his ears, but every now and then their comments would up a notch in volume, like they wanted him to hear their mindless adoring praises, probably in hopes of him turning around and reciprocating their admiration of him. Needless to say, not once did he turn around to acknowledge their existence, there was no reciprocation of any kind, and neither did his clothes disintegrate piece by piece. 'Those goddamn females!' Sasuke fumed silently. He wished that the idiot would just duck into some shop, so he could be in a more secrete environment.

"What are you searching for, usuratonkachi? Your brain?" He fought a grimace as another girl walked past him, winking coyly as she tried to brush shoulders when they crossed. He veered away slightly, making sure no part of her body came into contact with him.

"No, we're going to the Ichiraku's. And stop calling me that, bastard!"

They continued walking for a few minutes, before the blond came to a complete stop – in the middle of the street no less. His face was blank as he looked left, and then right, as if contemplating something. Sasuke was getting increasingly annoyed by the second. They were holding up traffic, and he couldn't maneuver himself to avoid collisions, most of which, peculiarly, were from the female variety. "Are you lost or something, moron?" Sasuke grunted.

Naruto shot him a nasty glare. "No," he snapped, "But we're going to be making a detour first." And with that, the blond turned right and took off, bounding from balcony to balcony and roof to roof.

"Baka," Sasuke growled, very much annoyed as he pursued his charge for the second time that day.

They traveled at a steady pace, leaping, darting and bounding away from the busy market square, and just when Sasuke figured the blond was leading him on another wild goose chase, the streets became increasingly familiar and Sasuke realized where they where and where they were going before they even arrived.

The apartment was ruined beyond possible repair, its walls charred to the point where none of its previous colouring was discernible beneath the shades of black and grey. A crooked sliver of wood hanging askew off the frame was all that remained of the door, and there was a messy hole in the wall that made the entrance to the apartment look more like a circle than a rectangle. Peering inside, he could see that the interior of the apartment was just as completely demolished as its exterior, and he guessed that the people who had set the trap planned, not only to kill the blond, but to entirely obliterate the whole of his residence as well.

Naruto walked ahead of Sasuke and stepped tentatively into the room, and even though it was probably useless trying to prevent further breakage since everything was in pieces on the floor, the blond still took ginger steps, a louder crunch sounding every now and then when he would accidentally land on a larger piece of debris. Sasuke followed, and, after the first few steps of careful foot placement, asked himself why he was dancing around on his toes like an idiot and reverted back to his long, steady strides. Naruto's back seemed to stiffen at the sudden crunches elicited by Sasuke's every step – the sound echoing thunderously throughout the silent room – but returned to its relaxed position a split second later so that Sasuke wasn't sure if his eyes were deceiving him or not.

Naruto slowed down beside a clump of charred fluff and springs, the remains of what must have been a couch a day before. His hands ghosted over the wrecked frame as he walked past, and Sasuke could almost feel the forlorn look that must be on the blonde's face, though he couldn't see it. Naruto remained silent as he stopped walking, back still turned to Sasuke. "Well, I'm glad I wasn't in the explosion," he remarked lightly, "I would hate to know how I'd turn out if I was." There was a moment of silence as no one spoke, and blue eyes continued to survey the remnants of what used to be his home. Naruto cleared his throat loudly. "I think I'll go see if anything's worth salvaging in my room." And he walked into the next room and out of view.

Sasuke crossed his arms, unaware of what to do with himself. He would have leaned against the wall if he wasn't so sure that it would probably give way the moment he put the slightest amount of weight on it. Obsidian eyes scanned the devastated living room, noting the darker patches of colour on the walls that indicated the areas of concentrated heat. They were thorough, he had to admit, whoever had planned the trap. From the patterns on the walls, he guessed that the exploding tags were placed rhythmically throughout the whole apartment. He marveled at the arrangement. The first explosion near the doorway would have set off the tags in the living room, and the resulting explosion from those tags would trigger the tags in the kitchen, and so on and so forth so that the result was a chain reaction and the complete obliteration of Uzumaki Naruto's residence.

The positioning was too complicated, too advanced to be planned by an insignificant local villager. It had to be someone with knowledge on explosives, and an even deeper knowledge in the art of ambush. It had to be a ninja, and it was now that Sasuke fully understood why the Hokage had chosen to assign a transferred shinobi to guard Uzumaki Naruto. Just what exactly had the blond done to deserve such hostility from his fellow shinobi?

Speaking of blond, the idiot was taking way too long scavenging for belongings. There were no sounds coming from the room Naruto had entered, and Sasuke felt just about fed up waiting. His jaw clenched, the thoughts in his mind bouncing back and forth like a ball on a ping-pong table – should he just bear it and wait, or should he remind the idiot that he did not fancy sleeping in a burnt down apartment? Seemingly coming to a conclusion, Sasuke marched to the room the blond had disappeared through, letting out a cough that sounded more like a grunt when his eyes landed on orange and gold.

Naruto was crouched down on the floor, his back to Sasuke, and he seemed to be observing something. He looked around when he heard Sasuke, his expression confused as if asking 'What the hell are you coughing for?' At seeing Sasuke's irritated look, his mouth opened into an 'o' shape and he abruptly stood up, shoving the object in his hands – Sasuke glimpsed enough to conclude that it was some kind of wooden box with hints of gold – into a rucksack that Sasuke was sure the blond hadn't brought with him on the way there. He grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "Heh heh. Sorry, teme. Guess I lost track of the time."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "It figures," he muttered.

"So…" Naruto started, "Now that I'm done, how about we race to Ichiraku's. You remember the way don't you, teme?" He winked, before jumping out the window and speeding off.

Sasuke cursed, gathered the last vestiges of his patience, and followed suit.

Later on, when Naruto would meet up with Sasuke at Ichiraku's ramen and throw a fit at how 'the teme must have cheated because it certainly wasn't possible that he was beaten fair and square', Sasuke would notice that the rucksack was missing, as well as the object inside it.

-LineBreak-

"Damn it. I still say you cheated."

"Hn."

"There's just no way you could've beat me."

"Hn."

"I mean, you must've run your ass off."

"…"

"…You know, I think you made a lot of new friends today. You and Neji seemed to get on really well. That's a real feat."

Sasuke gave Naruto a pointed look. "We said three words. Two of which were 'hello' and 'goodbye'."

"And your point is?"

"Hn."

"Exactly!"

"…"

"Ino seemed to like you though." A frown. "Actually, so did Sakura. You better stay away from her, bastard! I'm gonna marry her when I become Hokage!"

"You can have her. Though she'll probably be old and wrinkly by the time you're Hokage."

"Shut up!"

Naruto unlocked the door and stepped into his new apartment, Sasuke close behind. It was dark, and it was late, and what had just recently been a busy, bustling village had calmed down to a serene, peaceful silence.

Sasuke walked straight to his bed by the corner, grabbed his pack and took out a pair of neatly folded pajamas. As he took off his vest, followed by his shirt, and proceeded to get changed, a loud clearing of the throat made him pause in his current activity and look up.

Naruto was by the bedroom door, staring at the floor with his stance tense and generally looking like he would rather be anywhere but standing at the door with Sasuke looking at him. He fidgeted, bringing a hand up to rub the back of his neck in a habit that Sasuke had long ago realized meant that the blond was either embarrassed, nervous or just simply uneasy. "Hey. About…about this morning…you know, the explosion."

Sasuke stared.

Naruto's eyes were flicking all over the place, anywhere it seems, except at Sasuke. "Yeah. Well, I'm happy I'm not dead. You know…if you weren't there and all…"

Sasuke frowned. What the hell was this about?

And, with a great sigh of something that sounded suspiciously like resignation, azure eyes finally connected with obsidian ones. Naruto's hand fell down from its position behind his neck to hang limply at his side. "Thanks." And he bit his lip, as if unsure of what to do next now that he had spit out what he wanted to say.

There was a moment of awkward silence as the two boys just simply stared at each other, neither saying a word. Naruto was the first to break away from the eye-lock, looking to the side and whispering, "Yeah. Well, g'night." The door closed with a gentle click.

Sasuke blinked, silently wondering why he had the sudden urge to smile.

-LineBreak-

That night, in the hours of darkness as the whole of Konoha slept on in peaceful slumber, a silent shadow could be seen leaving Uzumaki Naruto's new residence. He supposed, as he quietly crept through the halls of the Hokage Tower, that he should start at the large, dark wooden door with the intricate carvings.

-TBC-

-LineBreak-

Well, what can I say? I am so very very very sorry that I took so long to update. I had some piled up holiday homework that I had to complete, plus with school starting again and all. And Harry Potter came out so I took a few days off to read that. Thank you to all the people who haven't booted me off their story alert list yet. And thank you to all the people who submitted reviews. Actually, the reviews are what pushed me to finish my homework quickly and get back to writing, so thank you for kicking my ass back into work.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. And now that I've got everything organized, I promise that I'll update sooner.

Please continue to review! I like to know what you guys think. And if there are any mistakes or questions, feel free to inform/ask me.

Thanks for your support!

- Nine1991 -