Whewt! Another chapter up...this is the first story I've been actually on-time with in a long time... although the fact that I have the first nine chapters in storage prolly helps...

Anyways, read on.

--

Naruto, for some reason, seemed to love books.

The plant had learned it was ok to move when the botanist was in the room, and to Sasuke's neverending fascination and amusement, it spent most of the time exploring anything and everything. Especially the books on the bookshelves. When Sasuke first saw one of the tendrils crawl over and grab a book, he immediately stopped what he was doing and observed the thing. It had opened it up to a random page, and seemed to enjoy running its vines across. And so the raven was dissapointed, convinced that the thing was just exploring, not actually trying to read.

Sasuke sometimes found the thing annoying, like at this very moment as he was writing some last minute things down before his shift ended. A thin, small tendril snuck up on him and had swiped his pen right out of his hand. He blinked, staring over at the plant, then down at the papers. "Naruto..." He sighed. "How am I supposed to work now?"

The pen was held up in defiance and mockery.

A few moments passed. Then, growling, he stood up and walked over to the plant, frowning as the vine extended itself so that it was too high in the air to reach. This plant...it was playing games with him. If he wasn't so busy at the moment he would have found it intruiging. But it wasn't intruiging when there was still paperwork to fill out and a plant was holding your pen, looking cheeky.

"Naruto, enough of your silly-..." One of the vines had suddenly reached up, inches from Sasuke's head. "...games."

The vine suddenly ran across the raven's face, gently but thoroughly, feeling out every curve and feature. Over his glasses, his eyes, nose, even lips. It almost tried to sneak its way in, but those lips clamped down and didn't move. Fed up, it then explored a bit down the nape of his neck, over his ears, and finally curling around his hair, feeling the texture. How unusual...he studied plants, but it seemed his latest one was studying him for a change. Satisfied, the plant pulled away, and lowered the other vine, holding out the pen in final compliance.

A bit dumbfounded, he took the pen, watching his plant's head loon to the side, as if bored already. Naruto searched some more, letting its 'fingers' dance across random things on the table.

Sensing something, Sasuke quickly went to his desk and returned with a notebook he used during observations. Opening it up to a blank page, he set it down in front of the plant, glad to see it was interested by the way it tilted its head down at the page. Sasuke slowly drew a circle as a demonstration, and then held the pen up, waiting to see what would happen. A thin vine came and gingerly wrapped around the writing utensil, holding it again. It sat there, as if unsure what to do, while Sasuke wondered if it would actually copy what he did. Could the plant even see...?

The pen reached down, and rested itself on the paper. Slowly, surely and a bit messy, the pen moved its way across, leaving a choppy line behind it. It continued until it had made a lopsided, lumpy, but definitely full circle. Naruto pulled back, studying what it had done for a moment, and then turned its looming fox head towards Sasuke, holding out the pen again.

Letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding, the raven stared at the paper in mild fascination. The plant understood and cooperated with his request. This was..amazing. Shaking his head, he opened his mouth to praise the miraculous creature-

But suddenly, Naruto froze completely, as if sensing something. Dropping the pen, it started to curl up, just like it usually did before, hiding itself from the world, and leaving the human officially confused. What was going on?

That's when he heard someone open his door.

"Sasuke-kuuuun!" a girl with bubblegum colored hair cried as she walked in, throwing her hips around a bit too much for anyone's tastes, and smiled none too innocently at the tall man. "Dr. Nawasaki said you'd be needing these lab results urgently." She held them over, batting her eyelashes.

"Oh, thank you.." he was always nervous when she was around. There was no hiding the fact that she wanted in his pants, and he didn't like women. But her determination wore him down. Taking the papers, he coughed and glanced away. "Is there anything else?"

Suddenly, her attention, for once, wasn't on him. "Wow, that's a weird looking one," she said, walking past the doctor and staring with fascination at Naruto, who didn't move a single inch. She poked it a few times, frowning "Where did you get it, Sasuke-kun? It's kinda ugly.."

A pale hand caught her wrist, the owner frowning a bit. "I think that's enough, Ms. Haruno. I think it's time for you to get back to work."

Pouting, she humphed and turned away, replying with an eager, "See you later, Sasuke-kun!!"

Well he was certainly glad to get rid of her, the Uchiha thought. Sighing, he watched as the plant slowly unwound itself, looking around frantically. "Sorry about that...she's not very bright."

And with that everything went back to normal. The plant sat comfortably as the Uchiha finished up his work. Afterwords, the raven locked up and left to go get some rest.

But the plant explored, even during the night.

Though it was dark in the room, the plant still managed to locate the books, and fiddle with his owner's files and papers. And when Naruto grew bored of these things, he'd find something else.

And when his head rotated and spied a large black box sitting comfortably in the corner of the room, the plant couldn't help but explore that as well.

--

"Everybody! Everbody, Mr. Snuffles, Big Bird...come see what Elmo did!"

Sasuke, was at the least, a bit confused as he entered his lab the next morning. He certainly wasn't expecting the mess of papers strewn about his desk, or the random books that decorated the floor. But what surprised him the most was that his little curious plant had located and figured out how to use his TV.

In short...Naruto was watching Sesame Street.

But apparently that wasn't the only gift waiting for the confused scientist.

The plant had immediately swiveled his head towards the sound of the man entering the room. Sasuke walked over to the plant and stared pitifully at the floor, or the sea of mess that he knew he would have to clean up all by himself. He opened his mouth to speak, but something cut him off.

"Sasuke-kuuuun!!"

Sasuke's eye twitched, and he briefly wondered what the hell the pink haired devil wanted this early in the morning. He spun around to the door.

And no one was there. He blinked, wondering what the hell was going on. Sakura had just called him, right?

"Sasuke-kuuuuuun!!"

No wait. That wasn't Sakura's voice. The voice he head was a boy's voice, a bit husky and energetic, but hoarse. He glanced around the room, not seeing anyone, before staring dumbly at the plant.

Naruto tilted his head, grinning with its mouth. "Sasuke-kun!"

"Na...Naru..??"

The plant turned its head away, staring back at the TV, absorbed in the sudden singing taking place. Sasuke was still in shock. He watched, eyes wide, as his plant actually started to sway and...sing along with Elmo.

"La laa la laa, la laa la laa, Naruuu's Sooong..."

Sasuke twitched. This was a bit too much for him. Hell, he hadn't even had his morning coffee yet. Walking over, he suddenly pushed the power button, ending the sing-a-long. "Good lord.."

"Sasuke-kun!!" The plant actually whined. It's tentacles were trying to sneak around the man who now stood guard in front of his precious entertainment.

"Naruto...can you understand me?"

The plant stopped, tilting its head. "...Sasuke-kun."

The Uchiha bit the inside of his cheek. It was possible that he knew the meaning of the words, but didn't know the words themselves. So, he tried something else.

"If you can understand what I'm saying, say yes. Yes."

One of Naruto's vines twitched, curling around in a loop. "...Y...es. Yes."

"You can understand me, Naruto?"

"...Yes."

Just to be sure..."What is your name?"

"N...Naru...to."

The Uchiha stared with disbelief at the feat happening here, backing away a bit and letting out a deep breath. This plant...not only was it intelligent, but to the point of actual language! He needed to share this discovery with his colleagues and...

And...but wait. What would happen to Naruto? He wondered vaguely, glancing at the plant. If he let loose the secret, he had no doubt that higher ups would take it for themselves to study. Maybe even ship it over the the government for testing..

No. Naruto was his plant, and so the secret was his also.

Sighing and running a hand through his hair, he spoke again. "Naruto, was is my name?"

"Sasuke-kun!!" Well, at least he could say that simple enough.

"Tch...no, it's not 'Sasuke-kun' you dobe. It's just Sasuke, ok? Sasuke...Sasuke only."

"Do..be?"

"...It means you aren't very smart."

The plant seemed to bristle at this. "Sasuke dobe!"

Sasuke laughed, not chuckled lightly, but actually full-blown laughed at the plants irritation. Naruto just tilted his large head again, and sat there quietly as the young man calmed down and shake his head at him. "I am just teasing you, idiot."

"Dobe!" Naruto turned around again, turning back on the TV. The raven sighed and shook his head, frowning a bit. "Here I am trying to have a conversation with a plant...I think I really do need some friends."

And the Uchiha went to work, thinking the plant was oblivious to everything but the Cookie Monster. But, unbeknownst to him, the plant was watching the show, but had uttered quietly to himself, "Friends...?"

--TBC--

R/R!!