A/N: Sorry I took so long. Now I'm just being lazy: my procrastinating ways are reemerging (usually they only apply to the school year). Anyway, I hope you like it. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. There is some adult language.

Chap.7

"Ahh..oowww, God, I feel like shit." Shaking away the wooziness, Naruto sat up in his bed.

"What happened," Absentmindedly running his hand over his neck, he hit a VERY sore spot, "OWW! Oh, ya…Sasuke."

Images of the brunet holding him, and having his lips pressed to his neck filled his mind causing the blonde to blush madly. Looking over at the clock, he saw that the time was 5:30pm. Normally, Naruto would be heading off to work in an hour and a half.

'M...Maybe I'll go to work today.' The thought of all his friends and seeing them all again made the blonde realize how much he actually missed going to work.

Finally deciding to return to SSA, Naruto took a shower and grabbed his bag. Leaving his apartment for the first time in a couple weeks felt good, the evening air and excitement rose the blonde's spirits. Unbeknownst to Naruto, a dark figure followed him the moment he left the apartment.

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The office was abuzz with the news that Naruto had finally returned. People crowded around him welcoming him back, though thankfully no one mentioned anything about Sasuke. A certain pink-haired co-worker had scared the shit out of everyone at the office with threats if anyone so much as hinted anything about Sasuke to Naruto. On his way to Tsunade's office, Naruto saw Sasuke's name carved into memorial wall, flowers littered the entire black monument. Sadness filled the blonde when he remembered that no one else knew that Sasuke was actually 'alive' and that they would continue their mourning, especially Sakura.

Once seated in a plush chair, Naruto looked at his boss, Tsunade. He could tell that she had been very upset by Sasuke's 'passing'.

"Naruto, I'm so happy that you decided to come back. This place just isn't the same without you."

"Careful Tsunade, all that worrying is causing wrinkles." The blonde boy smiled teasingly at the older woman.

"The first day back and you're already smarting off, little brat." A confident smile appearing on the voluptuous blonde woman's face. "Well, enough about that. I'm sure you've already guessed as to what needs addressing." Naruto merely nodded. "Um…well, with your..ah..current lack of a partner, I'll be assigning you a new one."

Naruto knew that this was coming but he hadn't actually thought too much about it.

'A new partner? Who could possibly replace Sasuke?'

"Here is the briefing file on your new partner. His name is Sai. I know it will take awhile for you to fully grasp the idea of not working with…ah..Sasuke…but please, try to be as open as possible." Both blondes stared at each other, settling into a comfortable silence.

'Sai, huh? Never heard of him. How bad could he be?'

Glancing down at the manila folder in his lap, Naruto pulled out a packet of papers, a photo falling to the floor. The blonde reached for the picture only to be quite shocked at the face the looked up at him. A boy, around twenty years old, stared out emotionlessly. Sai, Naruto assumed that this was a picture of him, had short black hair and deep black eyes. He resembled Sasuke in so many ways, though the blonde knew that Sai could never hold a candle to Sasuke, that Naruto found it quite ironic that this guy would be his new partner.

Tsunade stared on at the blonde, wondering whether he would approve of Sai. She could see him flinch slightly when he first saw the photo. Moving on to the documents in the packet, the blonde hunter's eyes scanned them with slight interest. Stopping abruptly, Naruto's head jerked up quickly.

"What do you mean he's 'socially challenged'? It says here that he's had over seven partners in the past and that all of them found him to be 'rude', 'inconsiderate', and 'lacking in team work'!" Tsunade blanched.

"Well, you see, He wouldn't have what you'd call a 'normal' childhood. Since he was seven years old, he's been trained in various hunter skills, and thus had little interaction with kids his own age. But don't let that alarm you," The older woman then waved her hands at the boy, shooing him out the door, "Oh, and here is your mission, it's an easy one, have fun, don't get into any fights with Sai, and I don't want to hear any of your whining. Bye." With a last quick push out the door, Tsunade closed the door on a severely pissed Naruto.

"You old witch! I hope you die VERY UGLY and OLD LOOKING!" The blonde crossed his arms in a pout, not noticing that all eyes in the office were on him.

"Wow, you handled that very gracefully. I certainly hope you're not the 'Naruto' I'm supposed to be partnered with, that would certainly ruin my entire day. God, you're such a child." Naruto looked up at the figure before him; a very impatient Sai.

"Hey, who the hell do you think you are calling me a child!" The blonde was now pissed. Sai obviously was exactly how the brief described him, much to Naruto's displeasure.

"You, of course. I don't see anyone else pouting like a kid in the hall. Or should I say that you're an idiot?" Sai said all this without the slightest interest. It was as if everything around him, including the blonde before him, wasn't worth his time of effort to acknowledge.

'No one can make fun of me except for Sasuke!'

"Listen asshole! I'm not the one who asked for your help! Now, if you want to go and pull that Sequoya out of your ass, then we'll talk, but until then, I suggest you shut your mouth!" A tinge of red had appeared on Naruto's face due to the force he took to yell at the pompous jerk in front of him. Unfortunately, Sai wasn't affected by Naruto's rant, but merely turned around and walked away. This made the blonde even angrier. A hand on his shoulder quickly calmed him down.

"Naruto, don't waste your time on him. Just ignore him and try to complete your mission." A pink haired girl stated soothingly. Upon hearing this, the retreating Sai turned around.

"Oh, and Naruto, try not to go crying back to that ugly pink-haired hag every time your feelings are hurt. It's not very manly." With that, the brunet left.

"Who the HELL does that little BASTARD think he is getting off calling ME ugly? I'm going to rip his fuckin head off!" It took Kiba, Shikamaru, and Choji to hold down the flaming Sakura from beating the shit out of Sai.

"This is going to be a very troublesome partnership." An extremely exasperated Naruto made his way to the locker room.

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Two figures jumped form roof to roof in pursuit of a quickly retreating newbie vampire. After coming over a particularly tall building, the two hunters lost site of their prey.

"Shit, where did he go?" The blonde hunter placed his hands on his hips, letting out a sigh.

"Well, we might have had him already if it wasn't for your incompetence." The other hunter, a brunet, accused.

"Wait, my fault! I could have already caught the bastard if I didn't have YOU for a partner. ANYBODY else would have made a better partner, and a more courteous one. I would even take Choji over you, and everybody knows how clumsy he is!" Naruto's face burned with anger.

It had taken Naruto an hour to find his 'partner' and another half hour to get Sai to listen to the mission brief. What made it worse was that every ten minutes, the brunet had to point out how vastly inferior Naruto was. It took all of the blonde's self-control not to pummel Sai whenever he was in arms' reach.

Their mission was to take out a recently born vampire. Several bodies had been found drained rather sloppily, thus it could be deduced that it was a newbie since an older vamp was a much more refined killer. Also, the fang marks matched in each case, so it was indeed the same night crawler.

Movement from the brunet brought Naruto back to reality.

"You know, Naruto, even though I find your hyper demeanor rather annoying, and your completely barbaric flair appalling," Sai moved closer to the blonde, thus causing the blonde to back up just as slowly.

'Why does this keep happening to me?'

"I just can't get past how.."

'God! He better not say what I think he's saying. If that freak comes any closer to me…'

"…how cute you are." With one final step, the brunet stood directly in front of the blonde.

Naruto was panicking on the inside. Who knew what kind of stuff Sai was capable of? Kidnapping? Rape?...Murder?

Sai leaned in, fully aware of how frightened the other hunter was. Naruto froze when Sai ran a wet tongue over his cheek, causing it to prickle at the unwanted contact.

"Well, better get back to work." The brunet stepped back and jumped to the next build as if he hadn't just licked his blonde partner.

"…h….he…YOU ARE SUCH A FREAK!" Naruto's words echoed through the empty alleys below him. Unheard to the blonde, a soft, deep chuckle rose upon hearing Naruto's words from said alley.

A/N: How was it? Please review!