All ownership as stated on other chapters. This chapter is a bit longer than the others, though it wasn't my intention. I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 5: Unexpected

A small group of girls walked through the gates of the school. As they did, they giggled and pointed at the raven-haired figure, slouching against one of the gates. Sasuke sighed and turned up the volume of his iPod. It was like school all over again. School hadn't really been that bad, but the fact that it brought up memories of Sakura and Karen, make it really hurt to remember.

Sasuke had just come straight from checking out the cafe that the Uzumaki's had dined at the day before on their way to the airport. He had found out some very interesting things.

Another bell rang from within the school, making Sasuke look up. A blonde Naruto was running down the stairs in front of the school, a bag swinging hazardly from one shoulder.

"Sorry," Naruto gasped as he reached Sasuke. "Teacher wanted to keep me in for detention."

"Oh? Why aren't you in detention then?"

"Eh!?" Naruto looked away guiltily. "I climbed out of the window at the back when the teacher wasn't looking." He looked back to see what reaction this had on the raven. There was none. In fact, Sasuke was looking over Naruto's shoulder. Wondering why, Naruto looked back too and saw a middle aged man jogging toward them. It was his teacher. Sasuke tapped Naruto on the shoulder.

"I think it's time we went now." Naruto couldn't agree more. The two of them took off as the teacher neared them. As they neared the car, Sasuke quickly withdrew his keys, flipping for a time to come to the right one. He inserted the key into the door and ripped it open when it unlocked. Naruto did the same to the passenger side. Sasuke was about to reverse the car out of the parallel park when the teacher caught up with them. He was faster than he looked.

"What the hell do you think you're doing to Naruto?!" the teacher bellowed at Sasuke.

"Uh, what?"

"You're not kidnapping him are you?"

"Do I look like I am?" The teacher's level of anger increased considerably. Sasuke sighed. "I'm his legal guardian, alright?" This surprised the teacher.

"But you must be underage!" This comment irritated the raven far more that he had anticipated. He was forever pulling out his ID card to satisfy people that he was indeed old enough, and qualified, to drive a car. Or to drink alcohol for that matter. Not that he did that, although he had drunk the night before, mostly to knock himself out so that he didn't have to keep on rolling Karin's death over and over in his mind, but also as a dare from Naruto. Now Sasuke had a small hangover and was now in a horrible mood.

Sasuke scowled and reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew his wallet. He slid out his ID and waved it in front of the teacher's face.

"Happy yet?" The teacher, trying to retain some dignity, nodded slightly and briskly walked away. After the teacher had sufficiently gotten out of the way, Sasuke slammed on the accelerator and turned hard on the wheel, cursing the teacher as he did. "Who the hell was he?" Sasuke asked Naruto a little while later when they were cruising down the highway, toward the raven's flat.

"Oh? Mr Umino? He's just my history teacher," Naruto replied as he reached into his schoolbag and withdrew a bag of chips. "Want one? It's seaweed flavoured."

"Sure." There was a moment of silence. Naruto selected a few chips that fit together from the bag and turned to Sasuke.

"Open up."

"Hu-" as soon as Sasuke had opened his mouth to ask for clarification, Naruto had jammed the chips his mouth. "Wahh!" A few small bits fell from Sasuke's mouth. Deciding to preserve as much as he could, Sasuke instead closed his mouth and chewed. They tasted good. "Thanks," he said once he had managed to swallow.

"No problem," Naruto replied, accompanied with a massive grin. Sasuke sighed, making the blonde chuckle.

"So what's this 'Mr. Umino' teach you today?" Naruto waited to swallow his mouthful of chips before replying.

"We're doing a unit on the Middle Ages and Renaissance," Naruto said then glanced at Sasuke. "Today we learned about how people would assassinate for their own good using ... arsenic." Naruto looked out the window.

"It was one of those rare poisons, back then, that could go undetected. It was truly the poison of kings," said Sasuke, not really noticing what he was saying. He was just regurgitating the textbook answer he had learned at school. He didn't really want to let his mind sink back into the case just yet. It still stung badly, much worse than it had last night when the liquor had numbed his senses.

"Geez, Sasuke," said Naruto, finally breaking the silence. "How far away do you live anyway? We're been in car nearly fifteen minutes," he added jokingly. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, don't diss it. It's cheap." This statement made Naruto laugh and Sasuke felt his heart lighten too. There was something about the blonde that made you want to just smile. He was like a miniature sun.

"So how was work today?" Naruto asked, a smile still playing around his mouth. "Man! It seems so long since I asked anyone that! I feel so old!" This time, Sasuke actually did laugh, though he did sense a feeling of sadness behind Naruto's joking words. He must be really missing his family, Sasuke thought.

"It was just he same usual stuff," replied Sasuke. "Write this report. Sign that form. That kind of thing."

"Sounds better than school."

"Hah. Maybe." There was a silence, though this one wasn't awkward, or rather as awkward, as the last.

"Hinata didn't come to school today," Naruto said, looking straight at Sasuke, the other, however, was concentrating on the road, trying to pass as many cars as he could without going over the limit or doing anything extremely illegal that would warrant a ticket. He was a police officer after all.

"I think she's still staying at the hospital," Sasuke finally replied after coming to a stop at a red light.

"I thought she wasn't hurt."

"She isn't," the raven said as the traffic got moving again, "it's just her cousin thinks she should stay there longer. He's what you'd call overprotective to the extreme."

"That's not always a bad thing though."

"No, not always," Sasuke agreed. He was now turning into the street where the building that held his apartment stood, between a bakery and a small supermarket. It really was a good location, albeit, a bit far from anything else. Sasuke turned into an empty park on the side of the road and turned off the engine.

"Finally," Naruto breathed and Sasuke rolled his eyes. The blonde was really very impatient. Not completely unlike himself. The two got out of the car, Naruto dodging a stray bicicle as he crossed in front of the car to make it to the sidewalk. By the time he caught up with the raven, he had just finished keying in the code to the building and was now holding the door open. "Sorry, sorry," Naruto said hurriedly.

After they had confirmed with the guard downstairs that they had every right to be there, they stepped into the waiting lift which took them up to the twenty-sixth floor. They stepped out and Sasuke deftly used his key to unlock the door, kicking the door open.

Sasuke walked in first and proceeded to pull his key out of the lock and close the door, throwing a few inner locks for good measure. The other, strode in, tired from the day, and collapsed on the couch, making it sink a good few inches.

"Oi, careful with that couch. I don't wanna buy myself a reason to buy an actual bed," Sasuke chided as he walked to the kitchen and turned on the kettle. Naruto pouted and jumped off the abused, old couch.

"I'm gonna have a shower," Naruto said. Sasuke nodded as he came out of the kitchen, sitting down in front of his laptop that also sat on the ground, turning it on with a jab at the power button. The door to the bathroom latched shut and he looked back down at the screen of the computer, clicking on Word to open a new document. Sasuke sighed and started to write out the report that should have been handed in the day before. A few minutes passed before the door to the bathroom opened again revealing a half drowned Naruto. He had changed his clothes, but already the water had soaked through most of his shirt and his hair was a yellow, wet mess.

"Geez, Naruto!" exclaimed Sasuke, jumping up and grabbing a towel. "Have you ever heard of drying off before putting your clothes on?"

It took a few mintues sitting of in front of the fan and vigorous rubbing before Naruto started to return to normal.

"I feel drowned."

"You look drowned," scolded the raven as he searched the towel for a dry spot to rub Naruto's hair with. "You're seriously hopless." This made Naruto laugh.

"And you're not?" Sasuke said nothing to this, which only made Naruto laugh more. But before he was able to say anything further, the door bell rang. Instantly, Naruto jumped off the stool he was sitting on and skipped to the door, starting to unlock the door. The door bell rang again and Naruto increased his fumbling.

"Coming, coming," Naruto called as the the bell rang yet a third time. Finding the proceedings far more interesting than waiting for Naruto to return to the stool, Sasuke abandoned the towel and instead chose to walk to the kitchen and pour himself a glass of orange juice. There was no way he was going to drink anymore alcohol for a while after the hangover he had had that morning. Finally Naruto got the last undone and twisted the door handle.

In the doorway stood a masked man dressed fulling in black. An ornamental samurai sword at his hip, his right hand hovering over the handle.

"You!" the man hissed and drew the sword, trying to slash Naruto as he did. Acting apon instinct, Naruto ducked backward and avoided the blow. His foot caught on a stray power lead and he fell with full force on his back. The man raised the sword again.

"Naruto!"

Sasuke ran to the intercept the sword as it swung down. The sword dug deep into flesh, drawing tendrils of blood that dripped to the ground. Naruto gasped and the sword withdrew from Sasuke's outstretched hand which had protected the blonde from harm. Blood oozed out of the cut that ran from Sasuke's forefinger all the way down to near the middle of his forearm.

Sasuke swore lightly as he saw the extent of the wound. He then brutally kicked the masked man in the stomach, sending him flying into the wall opposite the door on the other side of the corridor. The man slumped down the wall, clutching his stomach, blood running out the side of his mouth. He groaned as he got up and ran down the corridor, Sasuke and Naruto giving chase.

"Wait!"

But by the time they rounded the corner at the end of the passage, they found it empty. Sasuke swore colourfully, though still holding his injured hand.

After making sure that the man wasn't hiding in some obscure place so as to return and complete the job, the two made their way back to Sasuke's flat. Now Naruto was using a metal latch to fasten the bands of bandage to themselves so that it wouldn't unravel off of Sasuke's hand and arm. Naruto gingerly turned Sasuke's hand over so that he could check the quality of the binding there, making Sasuke twitch slightly.

"Sorry," apologized Naruto. Sasuke shook his head but said nothing. The binding passed inspection and Sasuke clenched his hand to check it and found it was in fine order, despite the wound it had sustained. He smirked.

"Well, that just about proves my theory right," he said getting up, still flexing his arm. Naruto's eyebrows knitted together.

"What theory?" Sasuke shook his head.

"I can't be one hundred percent sure right now, but I'm pretty sure I know who's behind all this. But I need to get some hard evidence."

"What? How?" At these questions Sasuke used his good hand and tossled Naruto's hair.

"Well firstly, we're going to have to go to the hospital."

How was it? The last part was a bit rushed, but I think it came out alright. My friend kept on buggin me. I hope that was enjoy able and not too hard to understand. CHEERS!