Chapter Six

Naruto stared morosely at his bowl of cereal. It had been two weeks since they had returned from Rome, and he hadn't even once talked to Sasuke about what had happened. It seemed the bastard wanted nothing to do with him now that he had gotten what he had wanted. After he had woken up after that fateful night, Sasuke had been treating him indifferently. Not wanting to cause a scene, Sasuke followed his lead. Avoiding him as much as he could, not once ever receiving any kind of punishment in return. It was as if the indecent proposition had never occured. But that's what Naruto wanted, right?

Sighing at the jumble mess his life had become, he decided on calling Iruka, who with the care of the procedure, was recuperating at a fast pace.

"Operator, Konoha Hospital, please."

"This is Konoha Hospital, how may I help you?" Came the sickly sweet voice of the receptionist.

"Yes, can I have Iruka Umino's room please."

"One moment."

"Hello...stop it Kakashi, I'm on the phone. This is Iruka." He could hear movement in the background.

Hmm...It seemed to Naruto that Iruka had finally gotten himself a man. He would have to congratulate Kakashi on the catch he caught. He would never go wrong with Iruka.

"Hey Iruka, It's me Naruto, I was checking in to see how you were doing, but, I can tell you're doing fine, probably due to the help of Kakashi eh..?

"WHAT?? I don't know what you're talking about..." Came the flustered reply.

"Oh, I'm sure. Hehe...I think I'll call back at a better time." And with that Naruto proceeded to hang up. He could hear Iruka spluttering to try and stop him, but it was futile. He figured he'd give them a couple of hours before he called again.

Having got his duty call over with for the moment, he sat and thought about what to do. It was his day off, and at that time, couldn't think of anything to do. So he decided he had put it off long enough. It was time to clean his apartment.

Three hours, four cans of spray cleaner, two buckets of hot soapy water, and a duster later, he declared all clean, and sat on his couch, enjoying a nice little break, when a knock sounded at his door.

Who the hell could that be? He thought puzzled. He didn't give his address out to hardly anybody, and he sure the hell didn't talk to his neighbors, except for maybe Tsunade, who was the crazy cat lady, and Jiraya, who was a pervet, and Shikamaru, a lazy genius. But those were the only people he associated himself with.

KNOCK, KNOCK!!

.

"I'm coming, I'm coming. Don't get your knickers in a twist. Oh hi Shikamaru, what bring you here?"

"This." Came the reply and a magazine, which was thrown at Naruto's face. On the cover was a picture of Sasuke and Naruto, Naruto smiling, and Sasuke smiling indulgently. The headline read as followed,"ICE PRINCE FOUND HIMSELF A FOXY LITTLE PLAYMATE"

Quickly turning to the page featuring their story, he gasped in horror.

I was suprised to see the famous cold hearted Uchiha, quietly enjoying a lunch date, with a hot little baggage of a blonde. He was smiling and laughing and generally carrying on in such a fashion with a familiarity, that it gave one pause to wonder, Is this the reason Sasuke Uchiha never takes up offers from those local pretty girls, or any woman for that matter? My resources say yes.

The name of his little foxy lover? None other than Naruto Uzimaki, his PA and his secretary. Coincidence, we like to think so. You could almost see the two men making eye love at the table, it was quite steamy. The usually stoic persona of the Uchiha was shattered when a man decided to hit on the little blonde bombshell. He became possessive and jealous. If I were Naruto Uzimaki, I should count myself lucky.

It continued to spill forth things that were almost half truths and then somethings that were just blatant lies. Naruto was disgusted, who was the author, scanning till he reached the bottom of the page, he read Ino Yamanake.

"That...that..." Naruto spluttered out.

"Bitch?" Shikamaru supplied.

"Yeah, how could she right all those lies?" The blonde ran his hand through his hair in agitation."I'm pretty sure the bastard's going to blame this on me. Great, I'm going to lose my job. Just great."

"Why? It's not like you guys are anyway lovers, so it'll just blow over. I wouldn't worry to much about it." Replied the lazy genius, noticing the way Naruto colored at the word lovers."Oh my god, you are lovers!" He accused.

"No...we only...slept together...once. But it was after the date at the restaurant." Naruto filled Shikamaru in.

"Hmm...well I doubt anybody would know about it then. They'll just chuck it up to useless gossip. I've got to be going, Temari will have a fit if I'm late to our dinner date. Thought I would warn you about this before you made it to work." Naruto walked the lazy genius to the door.

"Thanks Shikamaru, I really appreciate it."

"Meh...it's just to troublesome. Drama."

Alone again, Naruto lamented about going to work on Monday. He did not want to walk into that problem at all. Not expecting anymore visitors that night, he got prepared for bed, slipping into pajamas that were too big, and sitting on the couch watching an old movie, jumping when he heard another set of knocks on his door.

"I'm fine Shikamaru, you don't have to come and check..." Began the blonde as he openedthe door.

"Dobe, who's Shikamaru?" The raven let himself in, scooting past the blonde.c

"My neighbor, hey what the hell are you doing here?" Naruto shouted at Sasuke,"And who the hell said you could come in. March your happy little ass back out the doorway and down the hall and out the building, because I don't want to see you till Monday. And I sure as hell don't want to see this visit in the magazine." The blonde lectured and directed.

"I'm not going anywhere, until we talk about this...new problem." Sasuke calmly explained.

"Look, it'll all blow over, once everyone realizes that it's just a lie." Naruto told Sasuke,"So you see, there is absolutely nothing to talk about."

"But we both know it's true...don't we?" Sasuke smirked.

"Yeah, well, it was only once, and I doubt anyone would know that. So leave."

"Oh no...you're not getting off that easy. You still have to be my lover or did you forget that little fact, we agreed you'd be my lover until I tire of you, and quite frankly I'm not tired." Sasuke told Naruto a deadpan expression on his face.

Naruto became mad at this. "You can't just decide you still want me, when you wouldn't talk to me for two weeks! It doesn't work that way. Quit playing with my emotions you fucking bastard! I'm not going to go through this everytime we...make...I mean have sex. I am not some slave toy or pet to be picked up and dropped whenever you feel like it. You can't make people feel bad like that it's wrong." Naruto hadn't realized he was crying until Sasuke reached a hand up and wiped a tear away from his cheek.

"Naruto, the only reason I haven't talked to you, is well because the next morning, you woke up and looked at me like I was the worst scum imaginable, and then you wouldn't even look at me. Contrary to belief, I am not a cold hearted person. I have feelings too, and what I felt at that moment was guilt. Guilt at forcing you into a positon, that you couldn't refuse. But I just wanted to be surrounded by your warmth, even if I had to bribe it out of you. All I wanted was your companionship. Someone I could relate to and enjoy." The raven wrapped his arms around Naruto comforting and in turn receivng comfort. "I thought if I could make you want me, then I could ultimately make you love me. That's all I want, is your love."

Naruto looked up at Sasuke azure eyes swimming in tears, at Sasuke's declaration. He hadn't realized Sasuke loved him. Even if he didn't say the words outright, Naruto could tell. He opened and closed his mouth, trying to say the words that swirled through his brain, but he couldn't, so he settled for the next best thing, he kissed him. Softly and gently, pouring the emotions and feelings of the two weeks into the kiss. Making it beautiful and divine.

After standing there for the next few minutes, they broke apart.

"So what are we going to do about this?" Naruto pointed at the magazine that lay innocently on the table.

"Ahh...that...well...I have another propositon for you." The raven smirked.

"Uhhh...okay..." Naruto was a bit wary of what Sasuke was going to suggest.

"Yes, we should get married."