I apologize for this chapter's for this chapter's lateness, a lot of stuff happened these past few months and I haven't been able to write very much. I also wanted to apologize for spelling errors on the previous chapters, I didn't even realize there were so many. I know I know it must have been pretty annoying for some people. So I'll try to harder when it comes to editing my writing. I did go over my chapters before this one and fixed some of the errors.

I also appreciate everyone who stuck around to read this story, I know I must be a hard person to deal with. (as a writer anyway.)

Disclaimer: You know I don't own Naruto...

Warnings: Language, SasuNaru, a long chapter...etc

In this chapter Sasuke is sixteen and Naruto is fifteen. I also added a knew character into the mix, Konohamaru, and made him a young kid, because he's cuter that way.

This chapter starts off kind off slow so bear with it...

~Chapter 6~

Kiss on the temple- I'm sorry

Naruto sat in the cold metal chair of the waiting room, he looked up at the clock nervously and slumped. Feeling a little foolish he sighed, straightening up again. What fifteen-year old in their right mind was scared of going to the dentist's office?

Oh well. Maybe he'd have calmed down by the time it came for him to be called up….

A young looking woman appeared in the doorway and the blonde realized he was the only one left in the small lounge. The dark haired woman smiled and glanced down at her clipboard. "Uzumaki Naruto?"

Naruto stood up slowly, feeling a prickle off fear down his spine. So much for that theory…

The woman waved him over encouragingly after noticing his concern. "Don't worry, you'll be fine I promise," she assured him with another smile. He faltered for a moment before walking over to her warily, he still wasn't to sure he wanted to do this. Nonetheless the blonde found himself following the woman down a long corridor lined with open doorways.

Every time they past a door Naruto would shudder a little. Finally he spoke up "So you guys aren't going to uh...rip my teeth out or anything right?"

The woman grinned. "Most likely not, there's really no need to be scared."

Naruto looked away, peering through the doorway of yet another empty room. "I'm…I'm not scared at all, Believe it!" he said a little more confidently then he felt.

The woman merely nodded and led him into a room with a large blue chair and a metal cart. She indicated for him to sit down in the chair. Naruto wrinkled his nose, the room reeked with the smell of medicine and on top of that the chair was stiff and uncomfortable.

As soon as he sat down she strapped a plastic bib-like sheet over him. Then she reached over to the metal cart and picked up a dangerous looking metal tool. Naruto leaned back a fraction of an inch as the tool came closer to his face.

"Relax sweetie, it won't hurt if you stay still." Naruto tensed and prepared for a painful experience just in case the woman happened to be wrong. "Good, now say aah." Cautiously the blonde opened his mouth a little. "That's right, now keep it like that for a moment." The woman began to scrape the tool over each of Naruto's teeth and he dug his nails into the palm of his skin to keep from grimacing.

After what seemed like hours to Naruto she finally finished, but then she pulled out another tool that looked like a skinny metal watering hose. "Now were going to rinse all that stuff out with the straw."

The blonde didn't have time to comprehend what she'd said before a torrent of water sprayed him in the mouth. He tried to take a breath of air but that was impossible with all the water going into his mouth.

Just when he knew he was about to drown she made him close his mouth and the little hose sucked the water back up. Finished the woman flipped the switch and set the tool down. Then she began the whole process over.

As she pulled out the "straw" again he opened his mouth to stop her. "Wait-"

The woman interrupted. "See, I told you there was nothing to be frightened about. Don't you feel silly worrying over nothing?"

Actually Naruto didn't feel silly he felt scared to death and just a little annoyed. But the woman just smiled even more brightly, not even noticing how freaked out Naruto looked, then she hit the switch.

Naruto wondered if this was what it felt like to die but eventually his mind went blank and he vaguely registered that the spray of water had come to a halt. "Alright, the doctor should be here to examine your teeth in a moment." The woman walked out the room leaving Naruto slightly confused, hadn't she just done that?

The blonde sat in the chair watching the clock tick by slowly. It wasn't long before a gray haired man in long white coat waltzed in. "Hello Naruto, it seems it's been awhile since we last saw you here, how have you been?" The old man said in a friendly manner.

Naruto choked out a feeble hello. He wondered if this dentist remembered that how he had bit down on his hand the last time he'd been here.

The assistant lady walked in as the dentist took a seat beside Naruto. "Well why don't we get this over with then hmm?" Inside his head the blonde nodded violently, that'd be nice. The dentist picked up a few tools that thankfully didn't look to sharp and the blonde did his best to sit patiently as the dentist inspected his teeth.

Every so often the man would mutter something aloud and the assistant woman would write it down on her clipboard. Naruto couldn't really understand what he was saying though since he kept using long medical words.

The dentist sat his tools down and stood up, mumbling something as he walked out of the room. He came back a few seconds later holding a chart in his hand. He studied it closely before speaking. "Well Naruto you do have a cavity but it's just one." Naruto wondered if he was supposed to feel relieved.

The dentist glanced down at his wrist watch. "And since you're out last patient I suppose it wouldn't hurt to do the operation today so we can nip it in the bud, agreed?"

Naruto could feel chills going down his spine. "Operation? Were they really going to yank his teeth out?" He shuddered. He'd had no intention of staying any longer than it was needed for his check-up. Maybe if he made a run for it now he would be able to get away.

The dentist chuckled as if he could read Naruto's thoughts. The man knew from personal experience that the blonde wasn't fond of things like this. "Not to worry my boy, it shouldn't take too long, it's just a small procedure after all."

Naruto was quiet, he'd noticed the man hadn't said anything about the pain it might cause him. But the dentist took Naruto's silence for agreement and clapped his hands together. "Okay let's get started then." He walked over to the cabinets and grabbed a cotton swab, then he sat back down near Naruto.

Just like before he made Naruto open his mouth wide as he dabbed at the back of the blonde's mouth with the piece of cotton, coating it with some kind of paste. "Alright now you're going to feel a slight pinch."

Naruto's hand jerked as he felt something sharp pierce his gums. "Wha-"

"And then one more slight pinch."

In the corner of Naruto's mind he could feel the female assistant holding him down gently but it wasn't enough to distract him from the second sharp jab he felt. The dentist pulled back and for the first time Naruto noticed the small syringe the man held in his hand.

When had that gotten there? Why-? Naruto's eyes widened. Was that what had caused the slight pinch? Had the dentist actually stabbed him! The blonde started to panic. Why had he let his mom force him into going through with his appointment anyway?

"….when it does I'll come back." Naruto looked up realizing the dentist had been talking to him. "It'll most likely feel very weird, the whole right side of your mouth will be numb." With that the dentist left followed closely by his female assistant.

So Naruto sat and waited, glancing every so often at the light blue wall that had been decorated with tiny seashells. Before long he noticed a strange feeling in his mouth.

He jabbed experimentally at his face with his finger. It felt weird just like the doctor had said it would, he couldn't feel the right side of his tongue anymore. As a result he had to keep trying to lay his tongue down flat and move it away from his teeth. His lip didn't feel right either, it felt like just a limp piece of flesh now, someone else's flesh at that.

The dentist poked his head through the door and grinned when he saw Naruto. "Well I guess that answers my question." He chuckled returning to his chair and readjusting his pair of latex gloves. His assistant appeared behind him and handed him something. The man nodded in thanks and lowered Naruto's chair back.

"I'm going to put this metal ring around your tooth so open wide." The blonde could feel the ring tightening around his tooth. "And now I'll wrap this around the ring." The dentist began stretching a square blue sheet. Naruto felt a snap as the rubber sheet adjusted around the ring. "….and then we'll frame it." The dentist muttered half to himself. The blonde stayed still as the man stretched and pulled at the rubber sheet.

The dentist leaned back. "Would you like something to cover your eyes?" Naruto turned his head confused. "The drill sprays a little water and it can get in the patient's eyes." The dentist explained.

Naruto's heart stopped. Drill...? He shook his head slowly, how could he possibly be worried about a little water if there was going to be drill in his mouth. "Alright then," The dentist began to set the drill up, humming good-naturedly along to the music playing from the intercom. He clicked it on and a whirring sound filled the room.

The blonde saw his life flash before his eyes, he'd never be able to eat ramen again. The drill came closer and Naruto's first instinct was to run but instead he squeezed his eyes shut he had to hurry up and get this over with before he chickened out. Maybe he should have told them about his Odontophobia.

The tip of the drill grazed his tooth, it was an uncomfortable feeling, it felt more uncomfortable then the straw tool had. He could feel the vibrations in his mouth, and when the drill went deeper into the sensitive part of his mouth he had to grip on to the fabric of his pants so he didn't flinch.

He counted to fifteen slowly, and by the time he'd reached fourteen the doctor pulled the drill out of his mouth. "The other drill makes a lot less noise, so it shouldn't be too irritating."

The color drained from Naruto's face. Another drill? He didn't know if he could do this. Of course he wasn't really given time to decide as the dentist clicked on a second drill and brought it to the blonde's mouth.

This time Naruto didn't close his eyes, instead he stared at the overhead lamp, he didn't even bother to count this time either. He tried to think of something to distract him from the drill.

Ramen, that's what he needed, that would make him feel a million times better. A nice warm bo- a sharp pain snapped him out of the pleasant little daydream he'd been having. The drill had driven in to far and now his whole jaw was starting to ache.

"Looks like we're finished with the drilling." The dentist announced with a smile. Naruto nearly leapt for joy, he could finally get out of here. "But we still need to put the filling in your tooth." Naruto sunk into the chair. Just great.

The man said something to his assistant and she nodded. "If you want I can mix it for you since I know it's pretty hard." They both laughed. Naruto rolled his eyes. Not only did he have to endure having his tooth getting drilled but now he had put up with dumb doctor jokes too.

The dentist said it would take awhile to mix the solution needed for the filling, so while they waited the dentist decided to play twenty questions with him, much to Naruto's utter annoyance.

"How old are you? You must be about highschool age by now?" Naruto nodded. The man scratched his beard. "That's right, school starts in a few weeks, are you excited?" Naruto shrugged. It wasn't like he hated school, he just wasn't looking forward to all the tests and homework and things like that. He was looking forward to being able to play sports on a real team again though.

The dentist wasn't put off by Naruto's evasiveness. "How about your personal life then, you must have someone special that you like, am I right?" The question caught Naruto off guard. He knew if he'd been asked that question a few months ago he would have mentioned Sakura immediately, but he actually hadn't thought about Sakura much lately, maybe it was just because he hadn't seen her in awhile.

"Um, I'm not really sure…." Maybe the effects of the drill were messing with his brain or something. The assistant looked up from where she was mixing. "I'm surprised, with your good looks I'm sure all the girls are chasing after you." Naruto blushed. Well in a way they did, just not to fawn over, more like to beat him up.

"They would if it wasn't for that stupid teme." The woman raised an eyebrow but Naruto didn't notice, he was busy mentally ranting on about how Sasuke had ruined his life. She looked at the dentist questioningly.

The older man smiled slightly. "Uchiha Sasuke, the infamous "teme", he's the so called bane existence of Naruto's life, I'm surprised he hadn't mentioned him to you already."

Naruto nodded vigorously. "Yeah! That stupid jerk thinks he's so cool with all the girls drooling over him and everything. He's always calling me names and teasing me and crap. He treats me like a child all the time and he's always hounding me when I don't do my homework, it's worse than with my mom. Then there's that weird obsession he has with tomatoes….and the worse part is our moms are best friends so I see him almost all the time!" Naruto vented, not caring if they were listening or not.

The woman laughed "Sounds like you two are pretty close friends," she commented, still mixing.

Naruto's mouth fell open. Had this lady heard anything he'd just said. "It's the opposite, we're not friends at all!" The blonde argued emphatically. How could she even come to a conclusion like that anyway?

"Well you seem to know him pretty well…" she smiled, "..and despite the fact that you say you dislike him I'm guessing he's someone you could count on when it really mattered, isn't that right?" she didn't really give Naruto much time to respond. "That's someone that could be considered a friend if you asked me, and I'm sure that if you tried to get along you'd find that you don't dislike him as much as you thought you did."

Naruto looked up at the wall, eyebrows knitted together. "Definitely not, no way am I going to try being friends with that jerk."

The woman just smiled again. "Well, it looks like the mixing is finished." The dentist commented cheerily, changing the subject back to the task at hand. The blonde glanced over at him, he had forgotten about the man's presence in the room entirely.

The assistant walked over and handed the small plastic cup to the dentist. Naruto looked the other way, he was still a bit irritated by what she had said.

"Alright Naruto, open wide," he opened his mouth slowly, narrowing his eyes at the female assistant. He could feel them pressing something into his tooth. Thankfully it didn't hurt too much. "Can you do me a favor and bite down on this please." The dentist asked holding another tool near Naruto's mouth.

Naruto did as he was told, then he glanced up at the man inquiringly. "I'm just checking to make sure that the filling was placed in correctly." The dentist leaned back, pulling off his latex gloves. "Now how bad was that?"

Naruto was silent. Really bad, his jaw ached despite the numbing medication, actually the numb part of his mouth was starting to annoy him.

"I wouldn't usually have made you go through with an operation right after a check up on a normal basis, but the cavity was extremely close to the nerve of your tooth so I wanted to get to it before it died." Naruto's stomach dropped at the mention of dying, then he realized the dentist had meant the tooth and not him.

"The numbing should last about two to three more hours…" The blonde groaned. "…but you'll be able to eat, that shouldn't irritate your filling, you just have to be careful not to bite your tongue." The dentist smiled like he'd made a joke.

The blonde sat up in his chair. Well at least there was a bright side to all of this.

"Well that should be about it.." The man glanced at his watch. "Goodness, is it closing time already?" He stood up and strolled out the room. Naruto followed him, trying to keep up as they walked down the same long hallway the blonde had come in through. "Hmm..isn't that unexpected." The doctor commented and Naruto followed his gaze to the window to see what the man was talking about

It was raining. With frustration the blonde realized he hadn't brought an umbrella.

Already behind the front desk the dentist began flicking through the filing cabinets. The blonde sat down in the waiting room.

Bored he poked his cheek, even now that the operation was over his mouth felt weird. He could barely move it, let alone talk, and he kept on biting his tongue. The blonde felt around the inside of his mouth with his tongue, he wondered if his tooth was even there anymore. Maybe the dentist had secretly stolen it during the operation.

Putting thoughts of his tooth aside he tried to figure out who he could possibly call to pick him up, because he definitely wasn't walking home in this storm.

But it looked like he might not have much of a choice, his mom wouldn't be off work for another hour, same went for his dad. Kiba was out of town, Shikamaru was….well Shikamaru was lazy, and Iruka-sensei lived all the way across town.

Now that he thought about it the Dental office was pretty far from everyone's houses, the only person he knew that lived nearby was….Naruto's face fell. Sasuke…. Of all people why did it have to be him.

Grumpily the blonde pulled out his phone and punched in Sasuke's number. It picked up on the fourth ring.

"What the hell do you want dobe?"

"Come get me." It was silent for a moment. He wondered if the teme had even heard him. This was so irritating, every time he spoke his voice sounded muffled. "I said come PICK me up!" his voice came out clearer this time, so he knew Sasuke had heard him.

"No." Naruto shouldn't have been surprised but still he felt slightly irritated.

"Come on teme! It's raining and I forgot my stupid umbrella." Another pause.

"That's your problem idiot. Go bother someone else." Was the indifferent response.

Naruto glared, then he realized Sasuke couldn't see him. "Everyone else is busy, and you owe me." He could almost see Sasuke's raised eyebrow.

"How's that?"

The blonde gritted his teeth, then regretted it as it sent a wave of pain through his jaw. "You just do, okay! Stop being so damn stubborn teme, now can you hurry and pick me up…..please." he added the last part for good measure.

He heard Sasuke sigh into the phone. "Fine, where are you?"

Naruto nearly dropped the phone, he hadn't expected Sasuke to have given in so easily. "The dental office, you know, the one by the park." Naruto glanced out the window. "Hurry teme the rain's starting to pick up."

There was an irritated sigh on the other line. "Whatever, dobe." The phone clicked and Naruto realized Sasuke had hung up. The blonde snapped his phone shut and slipped it back into his pocket.

Naruto looked around, it was quiet and the dentist was nowhere to be seen. It was a little unnerving actually, the empty room was giving him the creeps. He supposed it couldn't hurt to wait by the door, as long as no rain touched him he'd be fine.

So he stood by the door, glancing out the window every so often. He had just noticed how red the curtains were, they reminded him of the stupid tomatoes the teme would eat all the time. Now that he thought about it the curtains in his house were red as well, he could only guess why his mother had chosen that color. The familiar colored curtains probably should have made him feel more at ease but they didn't, just being in this place for so long was enough to drive him crazy, it smelled like medicine and band-aids. Ugh.

The blonde peeked out the glass door, maybe if he stood just under the building's balcony he could stay dry. He'd risk a drop of rain if it meant getting out of here.

He stepped out into the cool air and pulled his jacket tighter around him, he wished he'd thought to wear a jacket with a hood, or better yet brought an umbrella.

Naruto figured Sasuke would be here any minute since it was only about a two minute walk between here and the teme's house. He craned his neck to look down the street and spotted a tall figure in the distance. Even from far away Naruto could tell by the raven's posture that he was pissed.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Sasuke was irritated, why was it that the dobe was always bugging him endlessly and asking for ridiculous favors. He couldn't believe he'd actually agreed to pick the idiot up.

He spotted Naruto a few yards away, his blonde hair stood out against the gray clouds and fog. As he got closer he noticed the dobe was standing under a small overhanging, carefully avoiding getting wet. Sasuke smirked, he knew exactly why that was.

Without thinking Naruto stepped out from under his safe haven. "Finally! You took forever teme!" the blonde exclaimed. That was a huge exaggeration, they both knew it had been less than five minutes. Sasuke didn't even bother to reply, he was too busy wondering how it was possible that the dobe hadn't realized he was getting soaked, not that he planned on telling him.

Naruto waited for the raven to something, he could see the unmistakable smirk that Sasuke wore so often.

Sasuke watched Naruto, waiting for the realization to sink in, knowing the dobe it would take awhile. He mentally traced a raindrop as it traveled down the blonde's temple, to his cheek, and further down to his neck. Sasuke brought his eyes back to the dobe's face. For the first time he studied the blonde's sapphire blue eyes.

Had they always been so bright? They seemed to shine more intensely than usual, though it could have been a trick brought on by the rain.

But even the blonde hair, that curled slightly from the rain, seemed to be brighter as well. In fact everything about the blonde seemed brighter and despite it being so cold out he could feel warmth radiating from the blonde, he wondered why that was. Sasuke couldn't understand why suddenly everything about the blonde was so mesmerizing, including the faint whisker-like scars that made Naruto look like a helpless kitten stranded in the rain.

Minus the helpless part of course.

"Uh..teme what are you staring at?" Naruto had noticed Sasuke's expression change from irritation into something almost thoughtful. He wondered if he had something on his face.

Instead of getting an answer the blonde felt something cold slide down his face, he brought a hand to his forehead. It took a few moments to register but he finally got it. "Agh! I'm wet!" He glared at Sasuke. "What the Heck teme? You see me getting soaked and you just stand there with an umbrella in you hand!"

Sasuke,who had tuned out, was only just realizing what the dobe was yelling about. He smirked. So the idiot had finally noticed.

"There you go again with that stupid smirk, asshole!"

The raven almost rolled his eyes, he grabbed the blonde by the sleeve and pulled him closer, just enough so that they were both under the umbrella. He looked down at the blonde.

Naruto looked away "I'm still wet." He muttered.

"That's because you're such an oblivious idiot." Sasuke shot back easily.

Naruto didn't have a chance to respond because right then the dentist's brown haired assistant walked out of the building. She held a dark purple umbrella above her head and looked about as happy to see the rain as Naruto had.

The woman turned her head and spotted them. She walked over smiling, "I thought you'd have been long gone by now Naruto-kun." Then she spotted Sasuke and after a few seconds recognition filled her eyes. "So you must be the Uchiha Sasuke I've heard so much about." She said in a cheery voice.

"He doesn't seem nearly as bad as you made him out to be Naruto-kun." she said, talking to the blonde again.

Sasuke didn't say anything in reply, he just glanced at Naruto, but the blonde was looking away most likely still fuming.

The woman smiled at their lack of response and peeked up at the sky from under her umbrella. "Goodness can you believe this rain, it's a good thing I always keep an umbrella around with me."

That comment seemed to get Naruto's attention because he glanced up at the sky as well.

"Well I had better be on my way, I'd offer you a ride but I see that you've already got that handled." Her gaze flicked between Naruto and Sasuke and she grinned slyly. "Oh that's right!" she exclaimed suddenly, searching through her purse for something. Moments later she pulled out a handful of candy.

"You can have these if you want," She told Naruto "my niece gave me a whole bunch, but frankly I can't handle that many sweets at once." The woman confessed, dropping the pile into Naruto's hands. Sasuke knew the blonde would be more than happy to finish the candy off all by himself, not that the raven minded since he didn't really care much for sweet things.

The woman turned as if to leave, "I'll be off then" she tossed a smile over her shoulder "I hope I'll get to see you again Naruto-kun." She winked and walked off.

The blonde flushed slightly wondering what exactly that had been all about. Sasuke just stared at the woman's back as she disappeared down the sidewalk, he couldn't really understand why but she had gotten on his nerves.

The Uchiha looked up at the sky in time to see a flash of lightning, he knew for sure that the dobe hadn't seen since the blonde was staying quiet.

Sasuke felt a pull on his jacket and looked down to see the blonde holding on to a lollipop with one hand and stuffing the rest of the candy into Sasuke's pocket with the other. The raven raised an eyebrow. "What the hell are you doing?" he asked bluntly and Naruto looked up, caught in the act.

"I didn't have a choice teme! My pockets aren't big enough and it's not like you're going to steal any." His outburst might have actually sounded logical if the blonde hadn't had such a dumb look on his face. Sometimes Sasuke found it hard to believe the idiot was only a year younger than him.

"Whatever dobe, lets just go." Sasuke started walking and Naruto followed after him making sure not to get anymore wet than he already was. The Uchiha noticed how Naruto kept glancing back as if he thought someone was following them.

"Baka quit it, there's no one there."

Naruto knew the teme was right, but he couldn't help feeling a little nervous. Trying to put his mind on something else he busied himself with unwrapping the lollipop. He stuffed the plastic wrapper into the teme's pocket nonchalantly and popped the lollipop into his mouth. It was cherry flavored, and hopefully it would get rid of the weird medicine-like cinnamon taste in his mouth.

A loud crack of thunder sounded above the blonde and the lollipop nearly fell out of the his open mouth.

Sasuke didn't even flinch, he also didn't comment when the blonde moved closer to him than was necessary, he just kept walking.

Naruto was silent as they walked down the concrete sidewalk towards Sasuke's house. Another clap of thunder sounded and he jumped. He didn't think he'd ever heard anything so loud. At that moment he just happened to glance to his left and noticed the small smirk on the teme's face.

They stopped as Sasuke pulled out his house key and unlocked the door.

"I knew it! You're mocking me aren't you?" Naruto accused irritably as they stepped inside the house.

Sasuke shot him a look but ignored him and disappeared down the hallway.

Naruto plopped down on to the kitchen counter not caring if he got it wet or not, he couldn't believe the teme was just going to act like he wasn't even here. Angrily he bit down on the tip of the cherry lollipop. Too late he realized that had been a bad idea and he clutched his aching jaw.

Out of nowhere a large towel hit him in the face. "Oww! Wha-?"

Sasuke leaned his back against the counter opposite of the blonde. "Just hurry up and dry yourself off."

The blonde unzipped his jacket and tried to peel it off. "It's super rude to treat an injured person like this ya know!" Sasuke gave him a look. "And how exactly are you an injured person baka?"

Naruto leaned forward opening his mouth wide and pointing at the newly filled cavity. "See." he said with a straight face. "It was horrible teme. The guy stabbed me with a needle and then he put a giant drill in my mouth!…and my tooth still hurts really bad too…"

Sasuke gave him a look that Naruto noted lacked any concern whatsoever. "That wouldn't even be an issue if you didn't eat as so much junk all the time."

The blonde's eyebrows furrowed. "Jerk, I eat a healthy diet of ramen everyday." The Uchiha gritted his teeth. "That's the problem." It was silent for a moment as Naruto wiped at his hair with the towel, spraying droplets of water everywhere.

"This is all your fault teme." The blonde declared suddenly. Sasuke took a deep breath and prepared himself for whatever the blonde had to say. "You knew I didn't want to get wet because of my Ombrophobia and you purposely watched me get soaked. Not to mention my being scared of the rain is your fault in the first place."

Sasuke gave an exasperated sigh. "If I remember correctly it was Itachi not me that told you that dumb ghost story and it was you not me that let yourself get drenched in rain." Sasuke clarified, he'd known this would come up ever since Itachi had told Naruto that ridiculously fictional story about the child that had been murdered in the rain.

"But you let him teme." The dobe whined.

Well he hadn't exactly tried to stop Itachi. But what he supposed to have done? Sasuke sighed, personally he thought it was completely stupid, a silly campfire story he and Itachi had heard when they were younger. But Naruto of course had taken it seriously, even going so far as to stay inside when there was even the slightest chance of rain.

"….and now on top off everything I have Ombrophobia! Do you know how serious this is teme?" With the lollipop in his mouth muffling his voice, and the pouting expression on his face the blonde looked like a little kid.

The corner of Sasuke's mouth twitched, he couldn't believe the idiot was actually serious. Recently Naruto had found a book that catalogued all the list of phobias imaginable and had managed to self diagnose himself with twenty-seven different fears in the past two weeks. A few days ago it had been "Hypengyophobia" the fear of responsibility, but Sasuke guessed that had been because Kushina had asked him to clean his room. A couple days before that he had claimed to have a fear of big words just so he could say "" all day….well he had tried to anyway.

"What if I had been killed teme!"

The raven was starting to get irritated now. "Dobe there's no such thing as ghosts, the story was just made up."

Naruto gripped the front of Sasuke's jacket and Sasuke tensed, ready for a right. He was close enough to the blonde to smell the faint scent of rain and cherry candy. The raven was surprised when blue eyes met his, looking almost downcast. "I was really scared teme, believe it." Naruto mumbled softly.

Sasuke's eyebrows rose. It hadn't really occurred to him how terrified the blonde must have been, he knew Naruto had hated going to the dentist ever since they'd been children. The raven haired teen sighed once more, he gave up, none of the things the blonde had accused him for had actually been his fault, he knew that but still…there was really no point in continuing such a senseless argument anyway.

"Baka" he muttered under his breath.

Naruto looked up, the fire returning to his blue eyes. "What exactly is that supposed to mean huh? I-"

Sasuke leaned closer and his lips brushed against the top of the blonde's head, right next to his eyebrow. It was barely even a kiss, the raven only grazed Naruto's skin, but the action sent a tingling down the blonde's spine. Then so quiet Naruto wasn't sure he heard correctly the raven whispered an apology into his ear and pulled away.

The blonde was stunned into silence, the lollipop slid sideways as his mouth parted open in surprise.

Truthfully Sasuke didn't even know what had caused him to do something like that, but seeing that stunned look on Naruto's face gave him a sort of satisfied feeling, not to mention the relief he felt now that the blonde had finally shut up. He glanced out the window, the sun was beginning to peek out from behind the grayed clouds. "It stopped raining." He commented offhandedly.

Naruto blinked in confusion, he was still trying to process what had just happened, so Sasuke grabbed on to the blonde's arm and easily yanked him off the countertop."Wha-?" The blonde had no choice but to let himself be dragged down the hallway. When they reached the front door Naruto finally spoke up. "Wait a minute-" he didn't have time to finish his sentence as he was practically thrown through the open door.

From where he was on the front step Naruto turned to glare at Sasuke.

"The sun is out, so you shouldn't have a problem walking home." The Uchiha said unfazed by the blonde's glare.

"Asshole, you're just going to throw me out of the house like that?" Sasuke smirked when Naruto said that. "Exactly."

Then the raven remembered something. "Don't forget your candy dobe." He tossed his jacket at the blonde. "And make sure not to get lost on your way home, I wouldn't want to have to rescue you again." and with that the door was slammed shut.

Naruto glowered at the door. What a complete jerk! He gingerly touched the spot right above his eyebrow and flushed slightly, and what had thatbeen about. With a jolt he realized something, Sasuke had actually said he was sorry, he'd apologized.

He pulled his hand away, the teme had probably just been teasing him again anyway. The blonde stared up at the sky, he'd might as well just forget about it, it was starting to get darker out and he needed to get home.

Naruto started down the street wondering what exactly Sasuke had been thinking. Even though he'd told himself to forget ithe kept replaying the scene over and over in his head, he just couldn't understand the teme sometimes.

The blonde shivered. How had he not realized how cold it was until now? He wrapped his jacket around himself, it was a little big on him but it felt way warmer than he'd expected it to. Naruto wondered momentarily if the teme would notice if he didn't give the jacket back.

At the edge of the sidewalk the blonde stopped, it was hard to believe he was more than halfway home already. He looked up the road, usually there weren't that many cars that drove along this street, but just to be safe he looked both ways before crossing.

His stomach growled the moment his foot touched the sidewalk. Now that he thought about it, it had been almost four hours since he'd last eaten, and the lollipop didn't count. Naruto dug into the jacket's pocket and pulled out a piece of candy. It wouldn't fill him up but the taste would taste would put his mind off the hunger for a little while.

Naruto could spot his light green house a few yards away and his mood lightened slightly. But for some reason his mind drew back to what had happened at Sasuke's house. He quickened his pace until he reached the front door.

The blonde unlocked the door quickly and stepped inside. He noticed his mother's shoes by the door and felt his spirits rise a bit. He shuffled further into the house passing through the living room. "I'm back," he called out, he turned and spotted his mother in the kitchen standing by the phone.

"Hey mom, it's too bad I didn't know you were going to be home early, if I did I wouldn't have had to call that stupid jerk Sasuke, you won't bel-" Naruto stopped mid-sentence. Why was his mom so quiet? Usually she was louder than he was. As he came closer he noticed how hard she was gripping the phone and how deathly pale she looked.

"Mom? What's wrong?" The blonde asked nervously, he'd never seen her like this. Kushina's grip on the phone loosened and it landed on the floor with a thud, a second later she fell to her knees.

Now Naruto knew something was up, he knelt beside his mom, "What is it?" he demanded.

Slowly Kushina opened her mouth to speak but no sound came out, she tried again. "Saru..tobi…" she whispered.

Naruto's eyes furrowed. What? "You mean the gramps, what happened to him?" His mother was quiet and the blonde felt a sense of dread.

"He's…." a single tear rolled down Kushina's cheek. "He's dead Naruto."

Her words echoed in the blonde's head. "Wha..." his mom pulled him into a hug. Naruto didn't understand, what was she talking about? The old man was fine, he'd seen him just a week ago. This was all just stupid a joke…right?

His mom's arms tightened around him.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

The funeral took place two days later, the amount of people that attended was nearly unbelievable. Sasuke and his family stood apart from everyone else watching quietly.

It was foggy out, the sun completely hidden by a gray blanket of clouds, a few stray droplets of rain fell from the sky.

The whole town was there, a few yards away the raven could spot Sakura and Ino with the heads bent together, crying silently. In the front of the crowd Sarutobi's wife, Biwako, and Asuma his remaining son stood. Beside them Konohamaru wailed, he had only just turned six but he was old enough to understand that his grandfather was gone, for good.

On Konohamaru's other side Naruto stood with his parents. The blonde was looking down at the coffin with a distant look in his eyes, there was no trace of his usual smile. Sasuke couldn't help but think that Naruto looked out of place wearing such a dark color, in such a gloomy atmosphere. The blonde didn't belong at a funeral, he belonged somewhere sunny, like a beach.

As everyone came forward to pay their last respects he lost sight of Naruto. Sasuke turned his head to stare at the lake, he hated funerals. The air smelled like sorrow….and death, it was sickening to an almost unbearable extent.

The raven felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked up to see that it belonged to his mother. Mikoto's gaze was directed straight ahead watching the procession with unwavering focus. He knew his mother was as strong a woman as she was gentle, he'd only ever seen her cry once.

But he could tell she was sad, not just for her best friend who was hurting, but because she was mourning Sarutobi's death as well. He had been a well respected member of the community, many people would miss him.

Fugaku hadn't said much, which wasn't surprising, but then Sasuke watched as his father walked forward slowly to join the clusters of people surrounding the grave. He and Minato exchanged a nod.

Itachi stood farther behind Sasuke and Mikoto, his back against a tree. The raven noticed his brother lift his head up to look at the sky.

At that same moment it started raining harder.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Naruto barely even noticed the rain, he just stood there motionless as the cold droplets rolled down his cheeks. It was as if the sky was crying for him because he couldn't. He still couldn't believe the old man was really lying in that dark brown coffin, the same coffin being lowered into the ground.

It didn't seem possible, it was just last week that gramps had been shouting at him as he ran down the hallway.

Naruto glanced down, next to him Konohamaru was shaking, tears pouring down his little face. The boy gripped Naruto's sleeve tightly. As the blonde watched the small boy's shoulders heave up and down all his doubt and denial broke and shattered like thin glass and was replaced instead with a cold empty feeling.

He looked on as flower after flower was dropped down into the dark black endless pit of Sarutobi's grave, fluttering down one by one gracefully. Some of the petals broke away and were scattered by the wind.

Even as the crowd dispersed Naruto remained in place, not budging an inch. It wasn't until his mother came and wrapped an arm around him that he realized they were among the only ones still there. His mom mumbled something into the top of his head, it sounded like "It's going to be alright."

The blonde knew she was in a lot of pain, from the way her voice cracked. It was as if she was trying to convince herself more than him, Kushina had always said Sarutobi had been like a second father to her. Naruto nodded but his mother's words had barely registered.

His mother pulled away slowly and wiped at her eyes, she gave Naruto's arm one last gentle squeeze and walked away.

Naruto's gaze directed towards the lake, it was dark greenish blue color, it had been clear once of course, years ago. He'd played by its shore as a child, it was the place where he'd first learned to swim.

Without him realizing it his feet had carried him to the sandy grounds of that shore, only a few inches away from the murky, rippling water. The blonde stared down into it trying to see to the bottom. Naruto's throat constricted. He wasn't sure if he was breathing or not, but the suffocating feeling was undeniable, it was as if he couldn't inhale.

Or maybe it was just that he wasn't allowing himself to.

For some reason the more he stared into the dark muddled waters of the lake the more inviting it looked. Naruto stepped forward just enough so that the water swept over his feet, it was cold as ice but he hardly felt it. He stepped farther in until the water completely covered both of his feet, until they looked like they'd been swallowed up.

Before he could move any farther something gripped on to his arm tightly causing him to snap out of his daze and look back.

"Teme." The blonde said slowly as if surprised to see Sasuke standing there, in front of him.

Sasuke noticed how different the blonde's eyes were, desolate, they carried none of their usual brightness. "Dobe." The word hung in the air, it had been meant as a question but Naruto didn't offer an answer. They held each other's gaze for a moment before the blonde glanced upwards.

"Rain huh..." he commented, as if it had just started and hadn't been pouring down for ten minutes already.

Sasuke half expected the blonde to mention something about Ombrophobia but he didn't and instead just walked off to the field where his mother and father were standing, waiting for him. The raven watched him disappear then he looked up at the sky like the blonde had.

He really hated funerals.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

It wasn't until a couple days later that the Uchiha saw Naruto again. His mother had dragged him with her to the blonde's house, he wasn't entirely sure what was going on since his mother hadn't stopped to tell him.

He had considered asking Itachi but when he'd approached him his older brother had given him this sort of all knowing smirk, so he figured it was safer not to. Instead he'd just climbed in the car after his mom, no questions asked. That was of course until they pulled up to Naruto's house.

"What the hell are we doing here?"

Mikoto yanked her son's ear sharply and Sasuke suppressed a hiss. "Language." She scolded him, even though her tone sounded more amused than stern.

When they walked up to the front door they were met by Kushina, the black dress she wore made her hair seem even red. She smiled at them looking better than she had when Sasuke had last seen her. The smile was genuine, it almost reminded him of her son's. Then he erased that thought from his mind quickly, since whenever his thoughts focused around Naruto the idiot tended to show up.

"Come in." Kushina motioned for them to step inside the house with a welcoming gesture.

They stood in the hallway, Kushina and Mikoto had already begun talking quietly together, what they were talking about Sasuke didn't know, or care. He decided to ignore them and instead busied himself with staring at nothing in particular.

Out of the corner of his eye he caught a flash of scarlet. The raven turned and saw Konohamaru standing at the other side of the hallway, his bright red scarf stood out against a pale yellow t-shirt.

Sasuke couldn't understand why the kid would wear a scarf inside the house.

Konohamaru stared at Sasuke curiously for a moment before disappearing back to where he'd come from. "Hey boss, that teme guy is here!" They heard the boy's small voice chirp as he rounded the corner.

Kushina sighed exasperatedly. "I swear that boy picks up way to much language from Naru." Mikoto sort of smiled and Sasuke didn't say anything, he was watching as a tousled blonde head peeked out from the living room entrance way.

A spiky brown head showed up as well, not so furtively as was probably intended. After "stealthily" surveying the front hall and identifying its occupants Naruto and Konohamaru stepped out from behind the wall and walked over to them.

"Teme." Naruto's voice sounded confused and distant the way it had the day of the funeral, as if he was recovering from amnesia or meeting someone for the first time in years.

"What's he doing here?" Konohamaru asked staring pointedly at Sasuke. He wasn't really asking anyone in particular but Kushina answered. "Sasuke's going to be staying with you two for a few days, us adults are going out of town to handle some matters, but don't worry Maru your in good hands, I'm sure you'll have lots of fun with Naru and Sasuke here to play with you." She pinched Konohamaru's nose playfully and he seemed to accept this answer with no argument as he ran off to go do something in the other room.

Sasuke flinched as if he'd been hit. This was the first he'd heard of this, he glanced at his mother who expertly avoiding meeting his eyes. For some reason he felt like he'd been tricked. He turned to see Naruto's reaction to this.

The blonde's eyes were furrowed. "Why does he have to be here though?" Naruto asked his mother.

Kushina looked at Naruto for a quiet second before saying. "I know you two boys don't get along well but it's only for three days and with everything that's happened I think it's best that Konohamaru is around as many people as possible…." She seemed like she wanted to say more but she let the unspoken words fade away into silence.

Sasuke waited for the loud outburst from the blonde that was surely coming.

"Fine." The blonde agreed, saying nothing more.

It was silent, no one knew what to say. Naruto never agreed to things like this so easily, he was prone to pitch fits and get angry. Sasuke was beginning to understand why Kushina and Mikoto had wanted someone else to stay with Naruto and Konohamaru, it wasn't just for Konohamaru's sake.

A car horn beeped outside and Kushina turned. "That must be Minato." She exchanged a look with Mikoto. "I guess we should be going." Mikoto nodded.

The darker haired woman turned to her son. "I packed all you clothes and things, you should have everything you need." She indicated towards a suitcase that stood a few feet away from her feet.

Where the hell had that come from?

"If you need anything else you can call your brother and he'll bring it over for you, but I want you to stay here and with Naruto and Konohamaru. Is that clear? No escaping either."

She knew her son so well…..

Kushina opened her mouth to add something on. "And there's food in the fridge, Naruto and Konohamaru have ramen but you can have whatever you'd like." She told Sasuke as she leaned forward to give Naruto a kiss on the cheek. "Bye Naru," she stared for a moment into her son's eyes and an unspoken message seemed to pass between them before she smiled softly and left out the door followed by Mikoto.

Neither Naruto nor Sasuke moved as they listened to the sound of car doors slamming shut and the rumbling of the vehicles as they drove off.

After what seemed like five minutes Naruto finally broke out of his trance and walked over to Sasuke steadily, purposefully, until he was standing right in front of him. The raven looked down into the blonde's sapphire eyes and wondered what exactly it was that Naruto had to say for him to be making such a serious face.

"You…" Naruto started off saying and Sasuke prepared himself. "..Are sleeping on the couch." and with that the blonde walked away.

The Uchiha stared after him, it had only been a flicker of a second, a moment, but he had caught a glimpse of the regular Naruto just then. The cheery "always ready for a fight" Naruto but it had disappeared quickly. He sighed, he had might as well prepare himself for one long weekend.

He followed Naruto into the living room where the blonde had settled down next to Konohamaru. Sasuke stopped in his tracks…or at least he guessed it was Konohamaru since he could only see the top of the young brunette's head. It took Sasuke's mind a minute to wrap around why that was and when he did he was still confused.

Balloons. They were everywhere, he stared at the colorful round objects, most of them were floating in the air brushing against the ceiling of the room, while a few of them lay scattered around on the floor. They filled the entire living room, from the couch to the entrance way, there must have been at least eighty of them in total.

Konohamaru must have seen the confused expression on Sasuke's face because he set aside the balloon he had just finished tying and trotted over to where the raven was standing. He tugged on to the sleeve of Sasuke's black shirt, "You have to help too" he informed the raven dragging him to the center of the room.

As soon as Sasuke sat down Naruto placed a light green balloon in his hand and stared at him expectantly. The blonde's right hand was tangled in the string he was using to tie a balloon up with.

Sasuke sighed, it looked like he had no other choice than to help them with whatever it was they were doing. In fact it wasn't until he'd finished tying his seventh balloon and his fingers were starting to ache did he glance up at Konohamaru and the blonde and asked why in the hell they were blowing up balloons in the first place.

Konohamaru fumbled with the balloon pump while trying to tie a string on to another balloon simultaneously. "Because Grandpa really liked it whenever I gave him balloons." The boy answered softly. "He was the one that taught me how to blow them up in the first place, he said that if you gave someone a balloon it would make them smile and forget all there sadness."

Konohamaru stared down at the balloon in his hands. "But Grandpa's never going to see another balloon again now that they went and buried him in the ground….." the small boy grew quiet and leaned his head into Naruto's shoulder as he tied up another balloon.

Sasuke watched as the blonde put down the balloon he'd been holding and turned to face Konohamaru. "That's not true." He said breaking the silence. Konohamaru looked up. "He's going to see them, because he's still out there watching from somewhere, trust me on that…okay?"

The little boy looked up into the solemn azure eyes of the blonde and nodded. "Okay!" Konohamaru got to his feet and again started to pump up the balloons one after another with renewed energy.

A few minutes later Konohamaru let out a loud excited outburst that caused both Sasuke and Naruto to look up. "That's it!" The boy was shouting giddily hopping up and down in delight. "We did it boss! One hundred balloons exactly!" He and Naruto exchanged a high five.

"Alright then, let's go." Naruto said, standing up and grabbing handfuls of balloon strings. He made sure Sasuke and Konohamaru did the same before leading them through the front hallway and out the door.

As they walked out of the house and on to the front porch Sasuke finally realized what the blonde had in mind. Konohamaru must have too because his brown eyes widened and his little face lit up with excitement. They both watched as Naruto let go of the balloons in his hand one by one.

Konohamaru started to do the same and watched with a look of awe as his balloons flew away. The six year old turned around to look at Sasuke. "You too," he said indicating towards the balloons in Sasuke's hands.

The raven was surprised by how at peace he felt watching the brightly colored balloons float off into the sky. He looked over to see that Naruto had only one balloon left, the last balloon. The blonde lifted his arm up as if he was about to let it go but was stopped by Konohamaru. "Wait a minute." The small boy cried out suddenly, "Don't forget." He handed Naruto something that looked like a piece of paper, but as Sasuke took a closer look he realized it was a picture.

From where he was next to Naruto the raven could see that it was a picture of Sarutobi. The old man stood in front of a small blue house with a small smile on his face, from the way his eyes looked to the side slightly it was obvious he could tell that a mischievous little blonde was making faces behind him.

Naruto stared at the photo for a long moment. "That's right," he mumbled quietly to himself.

A small hole had been made at the top of the picture enabling Naruto to carefully tie the photo up to the balloon string.

The blonde ran a thumb across the surface of the photo gingerly before letting it go. The red balloon flew into the air carrying the picture with it and Konohamaru ran to the front of the yard to try to get a better view of it as it rose farther up into the clouds.

"He…" Naruto began almost to quiet for the raven to hear. The blonde's eyes were focused on the red balloon as it grew smaller and smaller. "He told me that he was going to be there to see me graduate highschool. He used to say I was the laziest brat he'd ever seen in his life so seeing me walk across the stage and accept my diploma would be the most relieving moment of his life."

Naruto stopped for a moment to let out a sad sort of laugh. "He even threatened to make me repeat all the thirteen years that I'd been in school if I didn't graduate and when I finally did he'd drag me across the stage himself."

The blonde's eyes never left the balloon but something in his expression seemed to change. "Did you know that Granny Biwako, gramps' old lady, she didn't even cry once at the funeral….because she said she knew he was in a better place."

Naruto's fist clenched together as if he was trying hard not to let any emotion spill out of him. "How the hell does that work huh?" he asked bitterly, but Sasuke could tell the question wasn't directed towards him, it wasn't directed towards anyone. Sapphire eyes met his, filled with so much pain it was overwhelming. He waited for the blonde to continue but Naruto remained silent.

"That was AMAZING boss!" Konohamaru's excited little voice broke them the painful silence as he ran toward them. "There were so many of them, like really colorful birds. Do you really think Grandpa saw them?"

The blonde's expression changed then, into a wide grin, and he ruffled Konohamaru's hair with a hand. "Believe it! I gave you my word didn't I?" Konohamaru nodded happily but Sasuke could see through Naruto's mask. He knew for certain that the smile wasn't real, it was forced, not even half as cheerful as the real thing.

This realization made Sasuke wonder exactly how many times the blonde had to just stand there smiling, pretending like he wasn't hurting. How many times had the blonde done that very thing in front of him? It made his insides twist, he felt nauseous. "Stop it."

Naruto and Konohamaru stopped what they were doing and looked over at him strangely. "Stop what teme…?" the blonde asked, his earnest face gazing up at Sasuke questioningly, faked smile still halfway in place.

Sasuke resisted the urge to yell at the blonde but he knew it wouldn't do any good. Why had he even opened his mouth in the first place? He was being ridiculous. "Forget it it's nothing, let's just go eat." The raven replied shortly, stepping through the front door and back into the house. He didn't have to turn around to see that the two of them were following behind him.

Konohamaru raced ahead to the kitchen "Dinnertime! Dinnertime!" He called out in joyful sing song voice. "Come on boss!" he yelled out urging Naruto to hurry up.

"Give me a minute I coming geez." The blonde replied in mock annoyance. Sasuke followed a bit slower behind as he admired the many photographs adorning the hallway walls.

There was a picture of Naruto's parents as teens, probably a little older than he and Naruto were now, in the photo Kushina's long red hair was swept over Minato's shoulder as she looked up at him. On closer inspection it seemed like she was glaring at her blonde boyfriend but Minato just smiled down at her unfazed, a mischievous light in his eyes. Beside this was a photo of their wedding, and photos of Naruto as a baby.

As Sasuke walked farther down the hall he saw pictures of Kushina and Mikoto, and a picture of a young Naruto holding what looked like a baby Konohamaru in his arms.

There was another photo above that of Naruto, Shikamaru, Kiba, and Chouji at a carnival, Kiba was doing bunny ears behind Naruto's head and it looked the blonde had just dumped ice cream over the brunette's shirt. Shikamaru looked on with a lazy smirk while Chouji had his hand stuffed in a large bag of chips.

But one picture in particular caught Sasuke's eye, it was of him and Naruto as kids. A younger version of Sasuke was sitting down on a couch apparently trying to read but was being interrupted by a small blonde, whose tanned arms were wrapped around the raven's neck as he smiled joyfully at the camera ignoring the fact that he was probably strangling the older boy.

Sasuke wondered when that had been, he didn't remember ever taking a picture like that. He reached out a hand to run it along the smooth wooden frame of the photo. He didn't think he'd ever seen the blonde look that happy…

"Hey teme are you coming?" Naruto called out from the kitchen shaking Sasuke from his thoughts. He continued on his way to the kitchen to find Naruto holding two sets of chopsticks in his hand and standing in front of the microwave tapping his foot up and down impatiently.

Next to him Konohamaru was trying to reach a loaf of bread that was propped up on the counter, with a little hop the boy managed to grab on to it and pull it down towards him. "Hey boss can I have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?" The six year old asked already grabbing the jelly out the fridge.

Naruto nodded just as the microwave timer went off. "You want me to make it for you?" the blonde asked pulling the instant ramen bowl out of the microwave and putting another one in. Konohamaru shook his head. "I can do it, I make the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich ever!"

Sasuke stared at the small boy and his eye twitched slightly. Ramen and Peanut butter and jelly. Konohamaru really did take after Naruto…..what the hell was wrong with the two of them?

The raven walked over to the refrigerator and easily found the dinner Kushina had made for him, he was relieved to see that it was normal food. He also spied the plastic bag of tomatoes at the bottom shelf.

Maybe he would be able to survive through the weekend after all. He turned around to see Konohamaru giggling to himself on the floor of the kitchen, his hand was all the way in the jar of peanut butter and his face was coated in jelly…..then again maybe not.

The blonde turned around at that moment as well. "Geez Konohamaru." He exhaled and set down the bowl off ramen. "Come on let's get you cleaned up." Naruto took Konohamaru by the hand and led him out of the kitchen. "Oh, the microwave's free." He told Sasuke over his shoulder before disappearing into another room.

When they got back Sasuke had already warmed up his plate and was sitting at the dining room table eating. Naruto and Konohamaru brought there bowls up to the table and joined him.

Konohamaru picked up his chopsticks and slurped noisily on his noodles, accidentally splashing himself with soup. Naruto handed him a napkin as if he'd already predicted that would happen. Konohamaru took and wiped at his cheek vigorously. "Thanks boss." He said with a cheerful chirp.

Something about the way Konohamaru said it made Naruto's insides coil, he remembered that time last year when Konohamaru had first started calling him that.

Naruto stood in front of a tree. "You see…and that's how you escape from an angry crowd of girls without getting killed. I call it my 'Super Secret Survival technique number 4."

A small brown haired boy watched Naruto with widened eyes full of awe and admiration. "You're a genius Naruto, and you can run really fast too. Can you teach me that technique?"

The blonde nodded "Of course, but it'll take years of practice to get it down right."

Konohamaru jumped up in excitement. "Great! From now on you're my boss and I'm your disciple, so teach away boss!" Naruto blinked in surprise at the younger boy's words. "Huh…?"

A shadow appeared behind the smaller boy. "That's enough Konohamaru, Naruto's head doesn't need to get any bigger than it already i-"

"Well actually I kind of like the sound of that…heheh…boss huh?" he interrupted Sarutobi with a cheeky grin.

Sarutobi sighed "Naruto I would appreciate it if you wouldn't get my grandson in too much trouble."

Naruto sat his chopsticks down, a distant look still clouding his eyes. "You know, you don't have to call me that all the time, it fine if you just call me Naruto."

Konohamaru looked up from his plate. His big brown eyes searched the blonde's face before nodding. "Whatever you say boss- um I mean Naruto." Sasuke meanwhile stared at the blonde, trying to figure out what was going on inside his head, it was strange, usually Naruto was so easy to read.

So I heard you consider yourself to be the bos- Naruto's rival huh." Konohamaru accused randomly, pointing his chopsticks at Sasuke. The raven stopped mid-chew. Where the hell had that come from? He'd never even said anything like that, the one to go and declare that rival shit had been Naruto from the beginning, though he wasn't sure Naruto actually understood what a rival was….

"Well you'd better watch out because Naruto's my rival."

"Hn," Sasuke was hardly afraid of a scrawny, gap-toothed, loud mouthed brat, especially not one that acted like a miniature Naruto.

"Huh! You think you're so big and tough don't you?" Konohamaru leapt up in his chair and knocking the little bit of ramen he had left in his bowl over. "Well you won't be so confident once I attack you at full strength."

Sasuke deadpanned. But somehow Konohamaru must have thought he been making an expression of pure terror because he said. "Oh so you're afraid huh? I don't blame you, but it's too late. I challenge you to a fight to the death!"

Sasuke was in shock by such an amazing display of stupidity. How could his expression even be mistaken for fear? He had used to think Naruto was the dumbest person that had ever existed but now he was willing to reconsider. The raven resisted the urge to snicker as he took in the Konohamaru's ridiculous posture. The child had his chubby finger pointed in Sasuke's face and the look on his face was smug as if he thought his half assed threats would make Sasuke piss his pants. The raven's face twitched, the boy looked like a wannabe power ranger.

"I can tell you're quivering in fear already." …actually Sasuke was trying not to laugh. "But don't think I'm going to go easy on you just be-"

Naruto lifted Konohamaru off the table. "It's time for you to take a bath." The blonde said as if having to pry the kid off the dinner table was an everyday thing, which it most likely was.

The six year old tried to wriggle away. "Put me down! I'm not finished with him."

Naruto looked about to roll his eyes. "Actually yes you are."

But Konohamaru's wriggling increased. "I said put me…down! I'm going to pulverize that jerk!" This time the blonde did roll his eyes. As they turned the corner Sasuke heard loud scuffling noises and then a door slammed.

"…and don't forget to use soap this time." Sasuke heard Konohamaru grumble a reply and then Naruto came back into the room.

As the blonde cleared the table his eyes met Sasuke's and for the second time that day the raven caught a glimpse of the regular Naruto. "I wasn't that bad as a kid….was I?" the blonde asked seemingly hopeful.

Sasuke smirked. "Baka you still are a kid, and yeah you were….worse actually." Sasuke added remembering the time in third grade when Naruto had accused him of being a vampire because he ate so many tomatoes.

The raven wasn't sure how the connection between tomatoes and blood made any logical sense but it had definitely irritated the hell out of him when the blonde started throwing garlic at him every available second. After awhile Sasuke had confronted him and explained that he was just born pale, but that had made the situation worse …..Sasuke still had memories of waking up tied to a tree with the sun burning down on him and a cross tied around his neck. Eventually Kushina had put a stop to it when she'd found a wooden stake in her son's room.

Now that Sasuke thought about it…..why hadn't the blonde been institutionalized yet?

Naruto sighed in apparent distress but then he grew quiet again and the clouded look returned to his eyes. Sasuke studied the blonde carefully trying to determine the reason for his sudden change in attitude. "Dobe…"

The blonde looked up. "Whoops my bad I'd better hurry up and wash these dishes." He feigned a sheepish grin and walked into the kitchen before Sasuke had time to say anything else. The raven was beginning to feel an unusual nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach. Since when did Naruto do chores?

"OUCH!" There was a loud splash in the bathroom. "UH ... NARUTO… I KIND OF MADE A MESS." Konohamaru called out.

Naruto let out a loud sigh from where he was in the kitchen before trudging past Sasuke, down the hall, and back in to the bathroom. Minutes later he appeared with a guilty looking Konohamaru. The child was wearing pajamas that were dotted with small multi colored balloons and his red scarf was trailing on the ground behind him.

Did he ever take that thing off?

As soon as Konohamaru saw Sasuke he straightened up, rising to his full height…which wasn't all that tall. "Ha! So you're still here huh? I'm surprised you haven't run for your life already." The boy's eyes narrowed. "Well you'd better be prepared to die!" He trudged over and for a second a Sasuke contemplated kicking him in the face until he realized that would probably have been considered as child abuse. But before he could do anything the little brunette tripped and promptly slammed his face on the floor. Hard.

Konohamaru scrambled to his feet quickly, clutching his nose. "No fair that's playing dirty, tripping me when I'm not looking. You're a sly one alright."

Sasuke's eyebrow rose, he was confused Konohamaru had been over five feet away from him. Maybe the boy was just trying to protect his bruised ego or something. "Don't play dumb. You're lucky you know, I'm going to let you live for now." As if nothing had happened Konohamaru trotted over to the TV and turned it on.

The raven sat down on the coach as Konohamaru flicked through the channels, each one more boring than the next. Sasuke knew with the six year old in charge of the TV he'd be force to watch some childish cartoon of some sort.

He was right, Konohamaru finally found the channel he'd been looking for and turned around ready to settle on the couch, when he realized it was being occupied he let out a low growl. He marched over to Sasuke "You know what? I really don't like you and you're really strange too, your hair is shaped like a duckbutt."

Sasuke had heard that one before, from Naruto, so it didn't really irritate him as much as it should have, but this kid was a real pest. "and you sleep with a scarf on." He retorted coolly.

Konohamaru stared at him for a moment before shrugging reluctantly. "Touché." He said before plopping on to the couch beside the raven and concentrating on the TV screen.

Where in the world had a six year old learned a word like that? He glanced over at Naruto who shrugged. "That one wasn't from me."

They were subjected to watching whatever Konohamaru decided on. Sasuke knew Naruto probably didn't mind as much, for a fifteen year old the blonde was fairly childish, usually Naruto would be enjoying the cartoons as much as Konohamaru but today he was quieter then normal only faking a smile when the small brunette turned to look at him excitedly. But after an hour of watching the cartoons Sasuke felt like he was slowly dying, in fact he was pretty sure he had aged a few decades in the past twelve minutes.

He heard a small yawn and as he looked over he noticed Konohamaru was rubbing at his eyes and blinking sleepily at the TV screen. Naruto noticed too because he reached cross the couch to grab the remote controller and clicked the TV off. "Time for bed Konohamaru."

Konohamaru didn't even protest this time, he just latched on to the blonde's shirt and let himself be led out of the living room. The raven was surprised when the little boy turned around "Goodnight Sasuke." He said before both he and Naruto turned the corner.

Naruto led Konohamaru to the guest room, which was the room he usually stayed in whenever he spent the night over. Konohamaru's walk was beginning to grow a little unsteady, the blonde had to swerve to the right to avoid letting the boy get slam his head in to the wall.

The brunette's eyes widened "Sorry Naruto… I guess I'm just really tired." He yawned. Thankfully they had already reached the bed so Konohamaru climbed in closing his eyes contently. "Goodnight Naruto." The boy called out as Naruto walked away.

The blonde turned back to look at Konohamaru, he couldn't help the sadness that welled up inside of him, Konohamaru was like a little brother to him and he'd always considered Sarutobi to be his own grandfather. Why did something like this have to happen?

What bothered him the most was that he hadn't seen it coming. He didn't even know how gramps had died, no one had told him….

"Goodnight" the blonde said flicking the light off. Naruto left the door open and continued down the hallway towards his own room. He lay down on his soft bed and nestled into his bed sheets trying to shut out the emotions running through his head. He'd been trying for days to block it all out, even pretending to smile so his mother didn't worry about him as much, he already knew how much she was hurting and he didn't want to be the one to add on to her pain.

"Naruto" a small silhouette stood out in the hallway. Naruto sat up in the bed, "What's wrong?" he asked wondering why Konohamaru had crawled out of bed. Was the little boy hungry again?

"Can I sleep in here with you?" Konohamaru asked quietly and drew closer to the bed, his scarf made a little noise as it trailed on the floor. He had a stuffed animal hugged to his chest and even in the dark Naruto could see the pitiful expression on the boy's face, as if he'd just had a nightmare.

Naruto should have known. "Sure" he replied, scooting farther to the left side of the bed to give Konohamaru more space. The small boy climbed into the bed soundlessly. "Thanks Naruto." Konohamaru mumbled nuzzling into the blonde's side.

Naruto almost smiled when Konohamaru began to snore lightly, he was actually glad that the boy had come. It was nice to have company, it made it easier to sleep. The blonde closed his eyes and let sleep overtake him. Maybe things would be better in the morning.

An hour after Naruto and Konohamaru had dozed off another figure appeared in the doorway. Sasuke folded his arms and leaned against the doorframe. He knew it wasn't necessary to check up on the two, but he hadn't actually sought out to do it, he'd just glanced in on his way back from the bathroom and ended up staying longer then was intended.

He watched their expressions as they slept, Konohamaru was snuggled against Naruto with a contented look on his face, and there was a small puddle of drool on the pillow underneath him.

But Naruto was frowning in his sleep, his eyelids flickering as if he was having a bad dream. Sasuke ran a hand through his hair and sighed as he walked over to the bed and pulled the blanket up so it was actually covering them. Then he cast one more look over his shoulder before walking out, shutting the door behind him.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Konohamaru blinked, and then he opened his eyes. He turned over in the bed so he was facing the other side and looked over at Naruto's alarm clock. It was 6:45 am. He'd never woken up this early before, Konohamaru climbed out of bed, careful not to wake Naruto up. He walked over to the window, it wasn't really bright outside but it wasn't really dark either, in fact the sky was kind of pinkish.

He skipped out of the room, and felt his stomach growl, he really wanted breakfast but he didn't want to wake Naruto up, the blonde hadn't been the same lately ever since grandpa….He shook his head he definitely wasn't going to let himself get upset. He had to stay strong, like Naruto.

Konohamaru poked his head into the dining room. From here he could see that Sasuke too was asleep, curled up on the couch.

Excited to be the only one up the young boy dashed into the kitchen. He had never really made himself breakfast before but it couldn't be too hard, all you needed to do was pour some milk and cereal into a bowl right?

Konohamaru dragged one of the stools across the kitchen and climbed on to it so he could reach the cabinet. He opened it and grabbed a small blue bowl, his favorite one. He hopped down from the stool and grabbed the carton of milk from the fridge and then dragged the stool back across to the other side of the kitchen so he could reach the cabinets with the cereal boxes.

The small boy's eyes widened when he opened the cabinet. There must have been like seven different types of cereal in there. He couldn't decide which one he wanted. He grabbed the box of some random cereal but then looked back up regretfully at the fruit loops. A light bulb flashed over his head. Maybe he could just try every thing!

But one thing was for sure he'd need more bowls, so he quickly grabbed three more bowls and headed back over to the cereal. A flash of doubt made him wonder him if he could really finish all that cereal by himself, but the doubt diminished when he spotted his favorite kind of cereal, cheerios.

He busily began pouring the cereal into different bowls, mixing some of the cereal together so he'd have enough room to fit it all into four bowls. It took about six minutes to pour it all according to the kitchen clock which he kept glancing up at, mostly because he liked its funny triangle shape. Then he began pouring the milk into each bowl.

But while he was pouring milk into the fourth bowl he accidentally leaned over to far and got his foot tangled in his scarf and slipped off the stool knocking the whole row of bowls down with him. He landed on the floor with a loud thud that seemed to shake the whole house.

Konohamaru whimpered a little, his butt hurt and his favorite pajama pants were dripping wet and covered in milk. He looked down at the crushed cereal underneath his hand. "Darn it! My cheerios…"

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

From where he was in his room Naruto's eyes flew open. He had heard the loud crash, he wasn't sure what it was but he knew it couldn't be good. He stumbled out of bed still barely awake and walked dazedly into the hallway.

As the blonde made his way into the dining room he ran smack into a wall and grabbed his head, he was fully awake now. Naruto looked up, on closer examination it wasn't actually at wall at all it was just Sasuke. Who was looking very irritable. "Dobe what was that noise?"

Naruto glared at Sasuke's accusing tone. "It wasn't me, I just woke up." Now that Naruto thought about it, where had Konohamaru disappeared to? He and Sasuke headed towards the kitchen and he was pretty sure they let out simultaneous sighs of exasperation as they took in the scene in front of them.

Konohamaru was sitting on the floor of the kitchen surrounded by a puddle of milk and what looked like tons of different types of cereal. The six year old was staring remorsefully at the crushed cereal on the floor. He looked up at the sound of their footsteps and smiled up at them ruefully. "Oh uh, hey guys when did you get up?"

Sasuke growled a little in irritation. "Just now."

Konohamaru scratched at the back of his head. "What a coincidence, um if you're hungry there might be some cereal left." When both Sasuke and Naruto glanced at the cereal covered floor in doubt Konohamaru felt a little embarrassed. "In the boxes I mean."

Naruto sighed. "I think we might want to clean the kitchen first Konohamaru." The blonde walked back to the hallway closet and grabbed a few towels then he returned to the kitchen and headed over to Konohamaru, avoiding bits of fruit loops and splashed milk. "Was the floor really that hungry?" He teased the younger boy, already dabbing at his face with one of the towels.

Konohamaru turned pink. "It was an accident" he mumbled. "There were just so many types of cereal." The boy said trying to explain the mess but making himself sound like a crazy person instead.

Sasuke took one of the towels from Naruto's hands and began to use it to soak up the large expanse of milk that had been spilled. The blonde blinked up at him surprised when he saw that he was helping. Before Naruto could say anything the raven shot him a look. "The sooner we get this done the faster I can go back to sleep."

But in the end Sasuke didn't go back to sleep, none of them did. Because after Konohamaru had cleaned and changed into a new pair of pajamas he insisted that they all eat breakfast together. Naruto agreed but told Konohamaru that he could only choose one kind of cereal this time.

Hence was the reason why everyone but Konohamaru was exhausted, not to mention how badly Naruto had slept all night.

Oblivious to everyone else's fatigue Konohamaru swore to himself that they would play every single board game that existed inside Naruto's house. ….which they did all morning long.

At about twelve o'clock in the afternoon Konohamaru stared to grow fidgety, they had just finished playing the last board game and he couldn't think of anything to do. What he really wanted to do was pull a few pranks with Naruto but there weren't any victims around to pull them on and that Sasuke guy was intimidating enough for Konohamaru not to want to mess with him. Although he would never admit that aloud.

So Konohamaru had to make do with trying out his best jokes, which were hilarious to him but to Sasuke not so much…..

From where he was on the floor of the living room Sasuke was beginning to grow irritated. It wasn't that he didn't think Konohamaru's jokes were amusing, which he didn't, what irritated him was that ever since they'd woken up he'd watched Naruto's faked smiles and phony laughter as the blonde pretended to enjoy himself. It was testing his tolerance level in a way that not even he could understand.

"Hey, why don't we build a pillow fort Konohamaru?" The blonde suggested out of the blue. Konohamaru jumped up, becoming even more animated than ever. "That's a great idea!" He yelled with enthusiasm before running off to the bedrooms to get the pillows and sheets they'd need.

Naruto smiled after him, a replicated version of the smile that came so naturally to his face on a normal basis and at that moment something inside Sasuke snapped.

The blonde got up to go follow his younger counterpart but was yanked back down by hand on his wrist. "Ouch geez, what'd you do that for teme." Naruto asked rubbing at the back of his head.

"Stop it." The raven said in a low voice. Naruto blinked up at him in confusion. "Smiling like that. Stop it."

"I don't know what you're talking about teme. Smiling like what?" The blonde asked naively, as if he didn't know what Sasuke was talking about, but from the way he avoided looking the raven in the eyes it was obvious he did. Sasuke hand tightened around his wrist and he winced trying extra hard to look anywhere but those onyx eyes. "I really have no idea..."

"Don't smile like that if you don't mean it. Don't pretend to be having a good time if you're not." The raven's words had a dangerous edge to them. What had made Sasuke so angry? He shivered slightly, he could feel Sasuke's gaze burning into him.

The blonde was finding it harder and harder to avoid those eyes. "I'm fine, now get off me." He lied, waiting for Sasuke to hurry and let go of him. But he couldn't deny the truth in what the raven had said, but it wasn't like he could do anything about it.

Instead of letting go Sasuke's grip only grew tighter. "Stop lying to me."

Finally Naruto's eyes snapped up to meet Sasuke's. "How exactly am I supp-" he faltered when he took in the look in the raven's eyes. There wasn't just anger there…

"HEY NARUTO ARE YOU COMING?" Konohamaru shouted, his loud voice bouncing off the walls of the house.

Sasuke pulled away from the blonde and Naruto's ability to breath seemed to return. The raven's face changed back to that same blank disinterested look he usually wore before it was possible for Naruto to decipher the emotion he had seen in those coal black eyes.

Naruto stared at Sasuke for a second before climbing to his feet. At that moment Konohamaru walked into the room with a giant bundle of sheets and pillows piled into his arms. His face was completely blocked by the pillows. "I can't believe I had to do all that stuff by myself." He muttered as Naruto walked over and took the top half of his load.

For the next thirty minutes Sasuke watched as Naruto and Konohamaru busied themselves with spreading the sheets out on the floor and arranging the pillows in a certain ways. He was pretty sure the pillow that was thrown viciously his way meant they were a little annoyed by his lack of participation.

But in the end they put him to work tying the ends of the sheets to chairs.

The pillow fort was huge. It took up nearly half the living room. Sasuke was relieved when it was finally finished because it meant he'd be able to get back to sleep. When he felt a small hand on his shoulder he realized that wasn't the case.

Konohamaru must have been reading his mind because the little boy narrowed his eyes at him and forcefully pulled him inside the newly made fort with more strength than a six year old should rightly have.

Sasuke had to avoid tumbling on top of the Naruto who was already inside the fort at the time. He looked over at Naruto but the blonde still wasn't meeting his eyes.

The raven sighed, waiting for Konohamaru to show up and cause chaos, the air was beginning to feel stuffy. He turned around and spotted Konohamaru with his back turned to them, them small brunette was crouching over something. Beside him Naruto shuffled over a little closer to see what the boy was doing.

"Uh Konohamaru…?"

At the sound of Naruto's voice Konohamaru turned around and they could see he had something gripped tightly in his small fists and was trying to yank it out from a crevice under the couch. His little face was turning red from the effort. "The pillow's stuck ..Grrr...I can't..get it out."

How in the hell had he gotten a pillow stuck under the coach anyway.

"Do you want me to help you?" Naruto asked hesitantly, moving forward a little more. Konohamaru shook his head. "I can….handle..it." Naruto knew Konohamaru was as stubborn as he was, when the six year old set his mind on something he didn't let anyone get in his way of doing it. But…

"Be careful." The blonde said noticing the significantly large tear in the pillow Konohamaru was pulling so brutally at. "I….almost..got it!" The small boy gave one more violent tug and flew backwards into the fort bringing the pillow with him. At the same time a loud ripping noise was heard throughout the room and the flurry of white that blinded them momentarily made it clear what had happened.

Feathers, tons of them, flew in different directions scattering across the floor of the fort and layering it with a brilliant white. They all stopped for a minute in momentary shock. Konohamaru was the first one to regain motion, he spread his arms out wide trying to catch some of the fluffy white objects, the emptied pillow lay forgotten beside him.

A feather landed on his nose and he blinked at it in surprise, trying to get it off by wiggling his nose, he ended up looking like a cross eyed bunny rabbit.

Naruto turned to look at Sasuke and the corner of his mouth went up automatically. The raven was covered in feathers, most of them were in his hair and he reminded the blonde even more of a bird than usual. Konohamaru looked too and pointed at Sasuke with a barely suppressed snort of laughter.

Sasuke didn't look at all amused.

Naruto felt the urge to laugh as well, it was a nice feeling but as soon as it came it disappeared and was replaced by that same hollow feeling he'd felt at gramps' funeral. A noise escaped his lips, a small laugh, it felt foreign. He stared down at a feather that had landed in the palm of his hand. Another sound escaped him, but this time is was full of pain.

The raw emotion in the blonde's voice made Konohamaru stop laughing and turn to Naruto in concern, Sasuke too turned his way.

This time Naruto wasn't able to push down his emotions he'd been keeping locked up for days. He let out a cry of pure anguish, the ache in his chest was excruciatingly agonizing. He could barely breathe.

"Damn it!" He slammed his fist into the ground, his blonde hair falling in front of his eyes and blocking his face from view. "He's really dead…I can't..." A tear trickled down his cheek. "Damn it!" he repeated quieter.

Blindly the blonde grabbed on to the closest thing to him trying to steady himself as a wave of dizziness hit him, tears began to roll down his face in an onflowing stream. He felt Konohamaru's small comforting hand on his back but for some reason that only made his tears fall faster.

Sasuke looked down at the blonde clutching his shirt. Naruto's shoulders were trembling and it was obvious that teen was trying to hide his tears. The blonde must have just realized who it was that he was gripping on to so tightly because he looked up and Sasuke was finally able to get a full view of the teen's face.

Shiny tears streamed down Naruto's face and misery filled blue eyes met his own. He had never seen the blonde looking so vulnerable, it made him think that any moment Naruto would break in two like a piece of glass.

Even in his current state the blonde blinked at Sasuke in an almost apologetic way. "Sorry about this teme." The blonde mumbled through salty tears but instead of moving away he burrowed closer to the raven, needing to hear the sound of another living heartbeat. "Just a little longer…"

Sasuke stared down at the top of the blonde's head. It wasn't until then that he realized how much pain the blonde had been holding back for the past few days.

The raven himself had experienced a lot of death in his family and it had affected him, but not in exactly the same way, Uchihas weren't ones to prolong sadness they went through the emotion and were done with it.

They weren't uncaring people by nature but expressing emotions didn't come naturally to them. Naruto was almost the polar opposite, Sasuke knew the blonde treasured everyone he knew and he always took things to heart. That was probably why it was so difficult for him to deal with something like this.

Sasuke's hand threaded through Naruto's soft blonde hair and he lifted his head so their eyes met once again. "Baka." He muttered, wiping away the blonde's glistening tears with a finger. "Don't apologize for such things." He pressed his lips against the blonde's temple, similarly to the way he had the last time they'd been in such close proximity. Though this time he didn't even other to try to understand what made him to it.

As he felt the blonde tremble against him he felt the unexplainable need to ask the blonde for forgiveness, even though in truth he hadn't done anything wrong, neither had he been the one to make him cry. He just didn't like seeing tears in Naruto's eyes.

"Sasuke…" Seeing such gentleness coming from the usually insensitive raven dumbfounded the blonde for a moment. The cold salty tears fell down his face slowly as he stared up at Sasuke.

The raven meanwhile was concentrating on the way Naruto had said his name, actually it was the fact that Naruto had said his name, usually when the blonde did, it was followed by a flurry of cuss words. But this time it was as if the blonde was trying to figure him out, trying to penetrate into his soul to see Sasuke's deepest thoughts.

Konohamaru leaned forward and placed a kiss on the blonde's cheek. "It's gonna be okay boss because were right here with ya." He declared earnestly giving Naruto an affectionate pat on the head. Naruto's mouth formed into a small smile at how sweet the gesture was.

The six year old yawned, curling into the two older teens as he lay down. Before he closed his eyes he gazed intently up at the blonde. "Cheer up okay Naruto," he ordered. Then he slipped off into an easy slumber.

Soon after, Sasuke noted the blonde had stopped trembling and that his breathing had become consistently steady and he realized that Naruto had fallen asleep.

But the blonde was snuggled against him in such a way that it was impossible to move him. Warmth radiated from the blonde's body making him relax slightly. His eyelids began to grow heavy, and he sighed. Stupid dobe…

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

It was dark, or at least darker than it had been when he had fallen asleep. Sasuke could tell that even as he opened his eyes in the empty fort.

He turned over to the vacated spot where the blonde had been, it was cold, and he felt a sense of dread when he realized Konohamaru had disappeared as well. If they ended up in the hospital, which they most likely would if left alone for too long, he would be in a lot of trouble.

So he climbed out of the handmade tent trying to figure out where he would look for the two of them first, as he listened closer he heard a noise coming from the kitchen.

He walked through the dimly lit house flicking on light switches as he passed by them. When he reached the dining room light though and was able to see into the kitchen he felt the certain urge to turn it back off. He could only take so much disaster at once. So the smell of burning food and the sight of a certain blonde doing a mix between the disco and the… rumba? That was too much.

One thing was for sure though. Naruto did not have the moves like jagger, whoever the hell that was…

"The….fuck?"

The blonde turned around, one hand resting his hip while the other was thrown out in to the air in a ridiculous imitation of some famous pop singer. "Oh hey teme, you're up." Naruto greeted, seemingly not at all embarrassed that Sasuke had witnessed him doing the most dumbass dancing on the planet of the earth.

Meanwhile the food was still burning.

Sasuke had the urge to either throw up all over the tiled floor or double over in laughter, which was something he never did. Instead he composed his facial expression and asked the blonde very calmly. "What the hell are you doing?"

Naruto looked at him as if he was going crazy. "Dancing." He answered as if it was obvious.

"Hn." Maybe he was supposed to have asked the blonde what he had been trying to do instead. "Where's the kid?" he asked, changing to a safer subject.

"You mean Konohamaru? He's out in the backyard. I figured it would be nice for him to get some fresh air…and I also kinda needed a break." Cleaning up all those messes had worn the heck out of Naruto.

Sasuke smirked, Naruto was one to talk. Then the raven turned his attention to the two burning pots on the stove. "What is this?" he questioned, although he dreaded the answer.

Naruto must have thought he meant the music, because he grinned like an idiot, and leaned closer to press a button on the blaring radio. "It's a mix tape Kiba leant to me, this is the first time I've listened it. American singers are pretty good huh?" Sasuke sighed, he wasn't going to answer that.

"No dobe I mean what is this?" he pointed this time to one of the pots.

The blonde's expression became almost sheepish. "Oh…that…Well you see I wanted to make dinner, but halfway through I forgot what it was I wanted to make and then the water burnt so….."

The raven haired teen shot Naruto a skeptical look. Water didn't burn, it evaporated, but it didn't burn. So what the hell was Naruto talking about? He leaned over to peer into the pot with doubt.

Holy shit.

Sure enough, floating inside the boiling water were bits of burnt black pieces, and the water had turned a grayish color. Once again Naruto had managed to do the impossible. He glanced at the blonde who turned away trying to play the innocent act. Without hesitation the Uchiha lifted the pot and chucked it into the sink. He checked the other pot and was relieved to see that it was empty.

He thought for a moment before opening a drawer and pulling out a long pan. "I need a cup of water and two eggs."

Naruto's eyebrows furrowed, surprised by the somewhat strange request. He watched as Sasuke rolled up his sleeves and began digging in the cabinet full of spices with a look of careful consideration and it wasn't until then that fully understood what was going on. "You can cook teme?" he asked dumbly.

It wasn't that he was surprised, more like mystified. He'd never thought of Sasuke as someone that would need to know how to cook, let alone actually do it.

Sasuke sort of sighed when he turned back to look at the blonde. Well if he didn't know how to cook they were definitely screwed because he was not going to eat one of Konohamaru's "peanut butter and jelly sandwiches." He grabbed the basil from where it was behind the ground cinnamon and smirked.

"Of course I do baka, now hurry up and get the eggs."

Naruto stuck his small pink tongue out at Sasuke. "Just cuz you can cook doesn't mean you can order me around." The blonde grumbled but he grabbed two eggs from the fridge and poured water into the measuring cup nonetheless.

The raven took the items without so much as a thank you and then asked the blonde to get him half a cup of milk and some salt.

Again Naruto grumbled slightly but ended up retrieving the ingredients anyway.

It was a like steady rhythm, the only time either of them spoke was when Sasuke opened his mouth to ask for another ingredient and Naruto who would mutter under his breath and go to get it reluctantly. After awhile all the ingredients had been gathered and the two fell into a surprisingly comfortable silence.

As Sasuke concentrated on trying to cook three things at once he could feel a pair of sapphire eyes watching him. He turned his eyes to meet them,

Naruto wasn't even looking at what he was doing he was just..staring.

There was a distant look in the blonde's eyes but it wasn't the same grief filled one as before, it was more...ditzy, a look Sasuke was used to seeing often. The raven smirked and shoved a bowl into the Naruto's hands thrusting him back into reality.

"Mix." He ordered, enjoying the sight of seeing the blonde's face change from dazed to surprised and then pissed off in the span of a second, as if he was insulted to be ordered around like a servant, which was consequently, exactly what he said. Choosing to ignore his outbreak of complaints Sasuke went back to stirring the soup.

They heard a door slam and footsteps and then Konohamaru appeared covered in dirt, his hair was a nest of leaves and small twigs, making it look like a tree was growing out of his head. "You'll never believe what I found outside!" The six year old exclaimed.

Sasuke glanced over at him incredulously, he was pretty sure he could believe it, he'd spent nearly twenty nine hours with the brat after all.

"It was the biggest worm you'd ever seen!" The little boy spread his hands out wide, in what was most likely an exaggerated display of how big the worm had actually been. "Hey are you guys cooking? Can I help?" he asked, completely forgetting about his life changing worm experience.

Naruto answered before Sasuke could. "You'll have to clean up first so you don't get mud all over the food." The raven was a little taken aback. Since when had Naruto become all responsible? He listened to their conversation as they headed to the bathroom.

"Was it really that big?"

He could almost imagine Konohamaru's little head nodding furiously. "It was huge, I would have showed you but it got carried away by this huge bird."

Sasuke's heard Naruto's dejected sigh. "Are you serious? I can't believe I missed it… maybe we should go chase after that bird." Nope he was still the same old idiotic dobe as usual, if anything he was even more childish.

A few minutes later he heard running water then a loud yell of shock followed by a silence and finally. "Damn it Konohamaru!" Soon after, Naruto and Konohamaru reappeared in the kitchen doorway, both of them sporting a new change of clothes.

Konohamaru's face became disappointed when he saw Sasuke pulling a pan out of the oven. "Aw man! You're done already." But his expression was quickly replaced by a sly grin. "Well I can always taste test the food to make sure it's safe for everyone els-" The small brunette boy was yanked backwards by his collar.

"You can wait until dinner." Naruto said abruptly, crushing the younger's dreams in an instant.

Even so Sasuke didn't miss the hungry look Naruto sent the food after he'd pushed Konohamaru into the dining room. "You can help set the table though." Naruto told the smaller boy who sighed dismally and came back into the kitchen to get plates. When he went back into the dining room though, Naruto must have said something to cheer him up because Konohamaru laughed merrily and ran back into the kitchen with much more enthusiasm.

The blonde helped pile the food on to the table, he had to admit everything looked mouth-wateringly tasty. There was white rice, meat, a soup that reminded Naruto a little of ramen without the noodles, and then a dish that looked similar to okonomiyaki except it was baked, there were a few other dishes too but they looked so complicated it was hard for the blonde to describe them.

They all sat down and Naruto and Konohamaru both began stuffing their faces immediately. Their eyes sparkled as they looked up at Sasuke "DELICIOUS!" Both of them shouted with as much enthusiasm as they could muster. Naruto couldn't believe how good it was, he could go so far as to admit that it came close to being as delicious as ramen.

"This is really yummy teme." The blonde said grinning widely as he gulped down the rest of his rice. He'd definitely have get Sasuke to cook for him a lot more often.

"Don't get used to it dobe." Sasuke replied as if he'd overheard Naruto's thoughts. "You're going to have to learn how to cook for yourself."

Naruto grinned cheekily. "I guess you're going to have to teach me how then." This caused the raven to sigh as he collected the empty plates off the table, knowing Naruto the blonde would somehow manage to coerce him into cooking lessons somehow.

He began to load the dishwasher with the help of Konohamaru, who had also finished eating early, Naruto came in soon after with a satisfied look on his face. "I'm stuffed." He announced placing his dishes in the washer as well.

Sasuke opened the refrigerator door and pulled out a tomato. He had seriously doubted that but he kept his mouth shut. The raven felt a tug on his sleeve and looked down to see Konohamaru staring up at him. "I want one too" he declared, pointing at the fruit in Sasuke's hand to make sure he got his point across. Once again the raven opened the fridge door and grabbed out another tomato, handing it to the little brunette.

Without hesitation Konohamaru bit into the bright red tomato messily and its juices squirted on to his chin and his clothes. Wiping at his face the boy looked up at Sasuke again with a look of concentration as if he was trying to figure out how the raven could eat a tomato without staining the front of his shirt.

He tried again, this time more carefully and only got a little on the side of his face.

"Hey Naruto, how come you're not eating a tomato?" Konohamaru asked Naruto who was in the living room, surfing through different TV channels and trying to find something to watch.

Without looking up from the TV Naruto made a face. "Lycopersicoaphobia" the blonde answered simply.

Sasuke remembered that one, only because Naruto had made a big deal of pointing it out to him a couple weeks ago when the blonde had first discovered the book of phobias.

"Ly..Lyc...what?" Konohamaru asked, trying to pronounce what the blonde had just said.

Naruto grinned. "A fear of tomatoes" he clarified. "I have trouble eating something that isn't classified as a fruit or a vegetable (a subject the blonde loved to bring up) It's a mutated fo- Oh look Anpanman is on!" The blonde broadcasted excitedly turning his attention back to the TV.

Konohamaru jumped up for his seat and gulped down the rest of his tomato before running over to join the blonde by the TV.

Sasuke followed more slowly and sat on the couch, he didn't understand their obvious obsession with this show. To him, watching a crime fighting food item save the day wasn't exactly the most interesting thing. He didn't express his opinion though because it wouldn't have made a difference and it would have ended up with him being attacked by to air headed idiots.

Instead he just sat back and suffered.

"Anpanman is so cool! I wish I had powers like that." Naruto exclaimed as the TV screen flickered to another scene.

Konohamaru nodded. "Uh huh, and I wish I had an uncle like uncle jam." The boy sighed. "Well at least I have uncle Asuma, but he's not nearly as cool." The two of them broke out into hysterics.

The raven sighed, realizing this would take awhile. So he waited and waited and waited for what seemed like days, until finally It was eleven thirty and none of the shows Naruto and Konohamaru considered to be good were on anymore.

He watched them trudge to bed and clicked the TV to another channel. Truthfully he didn't have anything he preferred to watch, but he felt like falling asleep to background noise that wasn't the theme music for a preschool cartoon.

He left it on what seemed like a semi-tolerable thriller about a group of teens that went on a trip to the country and started disappearing one by one. Sasuke closed his eyes, maybe now he could get some sleep.

()()()()()()()()()()()

In his bedroom Naruto shivered. Konohamaru kept stealing his covers and it was starting to annoy him a little. Just how much of the blanket did the six year old need? When he tried to pull the sheets closer Konohamaru squirmed and bundled up tighter.

Konohamaru blinked and grabbed on the front of Naruto's shirt. "Mn..Can't sleep." He told the blonde as his brown eyes opened completely.

Naruto sat up "Me neither," he answered truthfully, maybe it was the temperature of the room or the fact that a certain someone kept stealing his covers but he just couldn't seem to be able to go to sleep.

"Can we watch more cartoons?" Konohamaru asked, rubbing at his left eye. The blonde smiled, he'd been thinking the same thing. He slung his feet over the side of the bed and climbed off. It wasn't until he'd reached the doorway that he realized Konohamaru wasn't following.

"Can you carry me? My legs kinda hurt." The boy mumbled when Naruto turned back to look at him. Naruto sighed, walked over to the bed and hoisted Konohamaru up. Fortunately the kid wasn't as heavy as he'd thought.

When they walked into the living room Sasuke appeared to be sleeping but he must have heard Naruto's footsteps because his eyes flew open and he glared at them irritably. "What?" he asked in that usual icy tone he had when people interrupted his sleep.

At that moment Naruto began to wonder exactly why it was that he had decided to come into the living room, instead of just using his parent's TV. Especially since his parent's room was actually closer to his bedroom.

"I've..developed Isolophobia." He said because it was the first thing to pop into his head, even though it was a rather weak excuse.

Sasuke's face remained blank.

"It means an um fear of being alone…or something." Naruto explained, trying to keep a straight face.

The raven's eyebrow rose just slightly, he didn't comment on the fact that the blonde already had Konohamaru clinging to his hip so he couldn't have been that lonely. Before the raven even realized what was going on the two had piled on top of the couch, bordering either side of him. He was pretty sure this meant his nap would have to be rescheduled.

Konohamaru picked up the remote from where it had been lying neglected on the other side of the couch, Sasuke didn't even try to stop him when he changed the channel. While the youngest of the three took control over the TV Naruto spread the blanket out so it covered everyone.

As the blonde reached across the raven to make sure Konohamaru was completely covered Sasuke smelled something familiar and sweet drifting off him. It had a peaceful aroma to it, soothing almost. The scent was almost the complete opposite from the blonde's wild personality.

Naruto must have seen Sasuke's puzzled expression and how close he was to practically sitting in the raven's lap because he backed away rapidly, his face a little red. "Baby powder." He explained. That was why the scent had seemed so familiar to the raven. "A certain person "accidentally" spilled it everywhere when we were cleaning up the bathroom." The blonde sort of glared at Konohamaru.

The boy caught the look and stuck his tongue out at Naruto. "It's not my fault, I didn't know you weren't supposed to pull the cap off when you poured it."

"That's the fourth time it's happened, how is it possible that you still don't know?" Naruto shot back.

Sasuke smirked. "Dobe, weren't you the one that somehow mistook peroxide for mouthwash and had to be rushed to the hospital a couple years back, not to mention the fact that the bottle was labeled." He added in.

Naruto was about to retort that he had been tired and a little dazed that afternoon when something caught his eye and he snapped his head to look at the TV. "Wait a minute. Go back to the channel before this one." He demanded hastily and Sasuke wondered what the blonde had seen.

When Konohamaru did both he and Naruto froze and they leaned forward. "No way." The blonde breathed out in disbelief. While Konohamaru just stared at the TV screen. The silence didn't last for long "Tom and Jerry Marathon!" They shouted in unison and Sasuke could almost feel the blood as it trickled out of his ears.

He was most likely going to end up brain dead at this pace.

Sasuke stared at the screen where an impossibly stupid cat was chasing an unrealistically clever mouse, over and over and over, hour after hour. This wasn't just killing his brain cells it was causing him to lose his sanity one minute at a time. Just when he thought he had reached his breaking point he heard a light snore beside him. He glanced up at the clock, it was 1:46 in the morning.

The raven felt something tickle against his skin as he leaned frontwards slightly and pressed a button on the remote, shutting the TV off. He looked down to try to figure out what it was and his noise brushed against blonde hair.

Sasuke was stuck, literally, he hadn't realized it until now. Konohamaru was snuggled into one side of his body, snoring and probably even drooling all over his arm, and Naruto was fast asleep on his shoulder, smiling like an idiot for who knows what reason. The raven took a deep breath and wondered if maybe, somehow, the two of them had planned this.

Either way it was still going to be difficult for him to get to sleep.

But as he tilted his head to the side a breathed in the baby powdery scent exuding from the blonde he found it wasn't as difficult as he'd thought. The raven smirked when Naruto mumbled something about a teddy bear and huddled closer.

The dobe could be such a child.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

When Sasuke woke up the first thing he noticed was the warmth on the side of his cheek, the second thing he noticed was the weight on his chest that was keeping him from breathing.

The warmth increased, roaming closer to his ear this time. It felt kind of nice, as if he was outside in the warm breeze. He almost forgot where he was for a moment.

"Sasuke." A whisper followed the breeze almost sending a shiver down the raven's spine. "Oi. Sasuke." The whisper grew slightly louder and he could finally make sense of who the voice belonged to.

"Saaa-suu-kee." The blonde became more impatient, stretching the raven's voice into three syllables. He snapped his attention to Konohamaru who was sitting on Sasuke's stomach. "Konohamaru get down you're going to kill him, wait until after he's made breakfast." Naruto chided, only half serious.

"But he won't GET UP!" The small brunette whined.

The blonde smiled devilishly then he leaned down and blew into Sasuke's ear. It got the intended result because the raven's eyes snapped opened and he growled in an intimidating way and focused his gaze right on Naruto. "Dobe."

While Sasuke was concentrating on the blonde Konohamaru slid off the raven and tried to sneak out of the room without being seen.

"What the hell do you two want?" Sasuke asked, his wintry stare now flicking back and forth between the both of them now. Konohamaru stopped in his tracks but refused to meet the raven's coal black eyes. Naruto however was unfazed, he was used to Sasuke's ill-tempered attitude by now since it was usually directed at him.

"Good morning teme." He chirped cheerfully. Sasuke didn't share Naruto's same happy mood because he yanked the blonde's ear, hard. Naruto yelped while Sasuke just smirked and yanked harder.

"I said What. Do. You. Want." The raven enunciated slowly just in case the blonde had trouble understanding.

"Ouch, alright." The blonde said pulling away and rubbing his ear gently, to ease his pain. "We wanted to know if you could make us breakfast, but then there was an accident in the kitchen." He glared at Konohamaru. "So we're out of eggs and milk and salt and um…toilet paper…so.."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. Toilet paper? But hadn't they had five rolls? After careful consideration he decided not to ask. He could see where Naruto was going with this though. "You want me to walk with you to the store?" he asked, getting straight to the point.

Naruto nodded rapidly and his face brightened. He felt relieved that Sasuke understood the urgency of the situation.

Sasuke flipped to his side so his back was facing the blonde as he lay on the couch. "No." He refused bluntly and seemingly went back to sleep. He would let the blonde suffer for waking him up for such a ridiculous thing.

"You know teme, we're out of tomatoes too." The blonde commented slyly. It wasn't exactly the whole truth but it still got Sasuke to reopen his eyes and rise up off the couch. Even though the raven suspected Naruto was lying he wasn't going sit there waiting for the blonde to do something drastic to wake him up that would end up irritating him even more.

The raven walked past Konohamaru headed for the kitchen. Naruto followed after him nervously. The blonde watched as Sasuke opened the refrigerator and pulled out a small red item that looked to be a tomato.

Naruto let out a panicky laugh and took a step back. "Isn't that funny I could have sworn they were all gone." The blonde smiled feebly. He felt a little frightened as the raven came closer to him.

"I'm going to kill you dobe, slowly and painfully." Sasuke told him quietly before walking out of the room. As he left the blonde shivered. How was it possible for Sasuke to say something that menacing so calmly?

"Hurry up and get dressed" The raven called back into the kitchen.

The blonde couldn't help the wide smile that spread across his face as he rushed to his room to get ready, from the hall he could already see Konohamaru in his room pulling on a clean shirt. Maybe Sasuke had decided to be nice today, it would certainly be a nice change of pace. As soon as the thought crossed his mind however he remembered how the teme had threatened him.

After getting dressed Naruto searched his room for a jacket. It might be cold outside and he didn't want to be in possible danger of freezing to death. He'd have to make sure to remind Konohamaru to bring one too, he smiled to himself as he imagined the little brunette as a human icicle.

If his room was a little cleaner it would have been easier to actually find his jacket, but since it wasn't he had to remove piles of clothes and search under the bed. Naruto sat down on top of his desk and sighed in defeat, he looked up and spotted something poking out from the pile of folded clothes on his dresser.

The blonde walked over and pulled it out, careful not to let the other clothes topple over. It was the jacket Sasuke had leant to him days ago, his mom must have found it on the floor and washed it.

He stared at the black material, it was funny to think that it had only been last week that Sasuke had leant it to him, after all that had happened his dental appointment seemed years away. He almost wished he could go back to the time where his biggest problem was getting a cavity filled, now that gramps had died something like a cavity seemed insignificant.

The blonde waited for that depressed feeling to wash over him, but he was surprised when it didn't. Now that he thought about, he hadn't felt like that since the day before yesterday, he wondered why that was.

"Don't apologize for such things."

Naruto's face turned a deep red color. How had he forgotten about that? He had cried in front of Sasuke, worse yet he had cried on Sasuke. The blonderemembered how the raven had comforted him, it had felt…nice. Naruto's face was a permanent red now as he bit his lip. He grazed the skin of his temple with his fingers, why was it that thinking back on it gave him such a dizzying feeling?

"Dobe, what are you doing?" Naruto whipped around to see the raven standing in the doorway giving him a strange look.

The blonde tried to hide his blush with a forced laugh. "Me? Oh um..nothing, just spacing out you know, Haha."

Obviously Sasuke must not have believed him because he gave Naruto a doubtful look before turning back to leave out the room. "Whatever let's just go. You are ready aren't you?"

Naruto nodded pulling on the jacket and following Sasuke down the hall. When they got to the front door Konohamaru was already there putting on his shoes. He glanced up when he saw them coming. "What took you guys so long?" he asked, trying to work out the knot in his shoelace and failing miserably. The blonde crouched down to help him.

"Dobe are you wearing my jacket?"

Without turning around Naruto nodded. "Yup." He waited for Sasuke to say something more but the raven remained quiet. Even so he could feel the raven's dark eyes watching him and it sent a tingle down the blonde's spine. Why was it that he reacted to everything Sasuke did? He mentally slapped himself, he couldn't let the teme get to him.

Standing back up Naruto turned around and locked eyes with the Uchiha. "You ready?" he asked.

Sasuke threw him a look. Did the blonde really have the nerve to ask if he was ready? Naruto smiled at Sasuke's obvious irritation and swung open the front door. "Let's go then."

Fortunately the blonde lived fairly close to a shopping outlet so they wouldn't have to walk too far. Not that Naruto would have minded much, it was nice outside. There was a gentle breeze, that made the leaves on the trees overhead rustle and the sun was beaming down on them from behind cottony clouds, all in all it was a perfect day to go for a walk.

A car whizzed by and Naruto automatically took Konohamaru's hand. Even though they were on the sidewalk he didn't want to risk the chance of Konohamaru wandering into the street, which would surely happen if he took his eyes off the six year old for even a second. Thankfully they managed to get to the end of the street without incident.

Like the blonde thought it wasn't long before they were inside the supermarket.

He looked around, it was bigger than he remembered, and, due to the fact that it was still pretty early in the morning, wasn't very crowded. They practically had the whole store to themselves.

Before anyone could stop him Konohamaru skipped off to a section of the store and disappeared. The blonde followed after him, knowing exactly where he was headed.

Naruto felt a cold chill as he walked and looked over to see the fresh produce, the first thing he noticed were the rows of bright oranges. He had the urge to reach out and touch one, they were so….orange. Right next to the oranges though, was a cart full of onions. The blonde wrinkled his nose.

"Eck! How dare they put those disgusting alien vegetables next to perfectly good fruit?" Naruto had serious issues with onions that went as far back as kindergarten.

While the blonde shuddered and walked away Sasuke lingered behind staring at the round white vegetables thoughtfully. The raven's mother had always said never to touch anything in a store unless you planned on buying it. She'd been talking to Itachi but he was sure the rule applied to him as well.

Reaching out a hand to peel back the skin off the onion, he broke off a small piece of the vegetable. He'd just have to add onions to the shopping list then, he thought as he picked up the rest of the onion and placed it in a plastic produce bag. With one more glance down at the small white sliver in his hand he followed after the blonde.

He found Naruto and Konohamaru in the candy aisle ogling the different items on the shelves.

The blond swung his head to look back at Sasuke. "Strawberry or Chocolate?" he asked. Sasuke wondered for a moment if he'd lost his mind. "Well actually they have banana nut and orange cream too." He added, further confusing the raven.

Finally realizing Sasuke was completely clueless to what he what he was talking about he pointed at the shelf lined with boxes of Pocky. "What kind do you want?"

The raven didn't know why Naruto was bothering to ask since he knew he wouldn't want any. "I don't." he stated clearly.

Naruto who was holding a shopping basket plucked another of the boxes into it. "Chocolate it is then." He chirped, ignoring Sasuke's blatant refusal and handing the basket to Konohamaru, who skipped down the aisle merrily.

When the blonde noticed Sasuke's glare he glared back childishly and crossed his arms over his chest. "Geez teme it's your fault for being such a party pooper."

"Which is preferable to being a dumbass like you I guess." The raven replied. Naruto's mouth opened to protest and Sasuke smirked, using the opportunity to stick the small onion piece in the widened gap.

The blonde blinked in surprise as he bit down, his eyes began to water and he turned a sickly green color. Naruto coughed, trying to hack up whatever it was the raven had tried to poison him with. He watched as Sasuke pulled out the bag containing the onion from behind his back and the corner of the raven's mouth rose in a teasing way.

Naruto's eyes widened in alarm, "Onion…" he choked out feebly, and at the same time he realized he'd accidentally swallowed the loathsome excuse for a vegetable. The back of his throat stung a little at the repulsive taste.

Taking a deep breath Naruto lunged at Sasuke, who dodged easily. "You bastard! I'm going to take that onion and shove it so far up your ass that shi-" The blonde's threat was cut short as the raven's hand clamped down on his mouth.

"Don't cause a scene dobe." The amusement was evident in Sasuke's voice. Naruto looked around and spotted a line of people standing at the checkout counter, they were all sending him strange looks. The tips of Naruto's ears turned pink and he pulled away from Sasuke's grasp, glaring at the raven. Sasuke smirked. "Let's just go get what we came for." He said, heading off to the dairy section as if nothing had happened.

Frowning angrily the blonde walked over to the next aisle, where the toilet paper was, making sure he kept an eye on Konohamaru. He studied the different brands disinterestedly, trying to remember what kind his mother usually bought.

"Cookie cookie cookie." Naruto turned at the strange voice.

"Cookie cookie cookie." A bald man appeared from behind a shelf, walking swiftly to the baked goods section. "Cookie cookie cookie." The man continued to mutter to himself creepily.

Naruto felt a chill down his spine. He felt like he'd been mentally violated. The blonde gulped, hurriedly grabbing a random toilet paper pack and returning to where Konohamaru was.

He wondered if it was possible to file a lawsuit against disturbing shoppers.

Trying to get away from the "cookie"guy as fast as he could he grabbed Konohamaru's hand and was about to drag the surprised boy away when Sasuke appeared beside them. "Dobe?" The raven raised a brow, noting the freaked expression on the blonde's face.

"Um…checkout…let's..go." Sasuke and Konohamaru exchanged a look but followed the blonde to the checkout counter nevertheless.

A minute later Naruto went pale when he turned around and saw that the bald headed was right behind them in line, with a cartload of cookies. The man grinned at him in a friendly manner. The blonde just grinned uneasily and turned back, concentrating hard on the cash register. With his mind he willed the cashier to hurry up. After all their items had been checked Naruto paid quickly and dragged the two others with him.

On the way home Konohamaru gave Naruto a curious look. "What was that all about Boss?" Occasionally the brunette would slip and accidentally forget to call him Naruto but truthfully the blonde didn't mind anymore.

Naruto who had recovered from his encounter with the strange cookie guy looked down at Konohamaru. "Huh? Oh, don't worry about it it's nothing." As he talked he could still taste a little of the unsavory onion Sasuke had attacked him with earlier.

At that moment he thought of something at that moment and he grinned wickedly at the raven who was walking in front of him. He bent down so he could whisper something in Konohamaru's ear. "Hey, did you bring your water gun with you?"

The small boy cocked his head. Why would Naruto want to know that? But then he noticed the blonde's devious look and how he kept glancing over at Sasuke and his little mind put two and two together. "Of course I did." He answered, quietly so Sasuke wouldn't hear.

"Good." The blonde smiled wider. Sasuke was going to get it now.

The Uchiha turned back to look at them and they straightened up. "Yes teme?" Naruto asked tentatively, hoping Sasuke hadn't heard their conversation.

"Do you plan on opening the door or are we just going to wait out here?" The raven asked impatiently standing by the front door. Naruto blinked, he hadn't even realized they had reached his house. He walked ahead of the group to unlock the door, relieved that he had remembered to bring his key along with him.

The stepped inside and without any prompting Sasuke headed into the kitchen to start making breakfast, not a lot of time had passed since they'd left but he knew everyone was as hungry as he was. As he unloaded the food on to the counter he noticed a pack of chocolate Pocky at the bottom of the bag.

He hadn't planned on eating them but anything that would fill his stomach at the moment would have to do.

Sasuke pulled a frying pan out of the cabinet and placed it on the stove, simultaneously opening the small snack box. He popped one of the Pocky into his mouth, biscuit side first.

The raven was surprised when Naruto came into the room a few seconds later and began cracking eggs into a bowl voluntarily, by then Sasuke was already onto his third Pocky and the blonde looked over as he stirred the eggs.

He smiled cheesily when he noticed that Sasuke was actually eating the Pocky despite how he'd refused it so briskly. Then his eyebrows furrowed and he set down the bowl. Naruto stepped in between the raven and the heated stove, so that he was standing right in front of Sasuke. "Hey teme, how come you're eating it backwards?" he asked.

Not giving Sasuke a chance to answer the blonde frowned. "If you don't eat the chocolate part it's just a waste of good food." With that Naruto rose up on to his tiptoes and bit the end off of Sasuke's Pocky stick.

He blushed immediately afterwards, realizing that what he'd just done would probably have been considered extremely bold, even for him. He backed away only to bump into the stove, a pain shot through his arm and he realized he'd been burned. He leapt away from the stove only to brush against Sasuke.

"Oops…ah..I guess I should go pour some water on this…it kinda hurts..Hehehe." He laughed awkwardly, dashing out off the kitchen.

The raven chewed absentmindedly on his already half eaten Pocky. After a few seconds he smirked and poured the eggs into the pan. It was kind of nice to have the dobe back to his old self again.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

A couple hours after breakfast, Sasuke was sitting down on the couch when he was attacked by a certain blonde and brunette. They jumped up and down on the couch pleading with him to come outside and play. He relented after awhile and they ran outside with Sasuke following behind slowly.

When he finally did come out into the front yard there was no one there. He frowned irritably. Hadn't they been the ones begging him to come outside? From behind him came a laugh like a crazed monkey and all of a sudden his back was drenched in water.

He spun around only to see the barrel of a gun pointed directly in his face. "Take this sucker." He heard Konohamaru shout gleefully, before the trigger was pulled, and a spray of water hit him in the face.

Sasuke glared at his attackers, who were doubled over in laughter. Naruto held a bucket in his hands while Konohamaru was holding a green, plastic water gun. His glare turned into a smirk and he picked up the watering hose that lay by his feet and very slowly he turned the faucet handle. They saw what he was doing and ran away with shrieks of laughter.

The blonde turned and threw the rest of the bucket's contents at Sasuke. The raven stepped to the side and the water missed him, hitting the grass with a quiet splash. Naruto dropped the bucket and continued to run trying to evade the gust of water that shot out of the hose. He let out a loud yell when the cold water hit him.

Meanwhile Konohamaru had snuck up behind Sasuke and surprised him by shooting water at the back of the raven's head. In the second that Sasuke turned around to look at the small brunette Naruto yanked the hose out of his hand with a victorious laugh. It didn't last for long though because Konohamaru slammed into the blonde's back, causing him to stumble into Sasuke.

The two of them toppled to the ground. Konohamaru took advantage of the moment to fill the bucket with water. He smiled sweetly and dumped the bucket of water over the two teens.

"Konohamaru! Whose side are you on exactly?" Naruto complained from where he sat above the raven, but he broke into laughter a second later. Sasuke smirked staring up at the blonde.

A light flashed and then they heard a familiar click. They turned to see Itachi leaning against his car with a camera in his hands. He put it down and smirked at them. "Another one for the family photo album."

Naruto looked down at Sasuke and flushed, he hadn't realized how compromising their position was. He climbed off the raven hastily and glared at Itachi. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He had never even heard Itachi sneak up on them.

Itachi smirk didn't leave his face as he walked past Naruto into the house. The blonde wanted to know exactly what Itachi had meant.

Another car pulled up and Kushina and Mikoto climbed out. Kushina took one look at the scene, all three of them dripping wet and grinned. "I see you kids have been having fun."

Konohamaru nodded and Naruto's face lit up at the sight of his mother and he waved. "Hey mom." He waved at Mikoto as well, who smiled. Standing up Sasuke ran a hand through his damp hair. Then the blonde remembered his earlier mission and he dashed into the house in search of Itachi.

Kushina watched her son as he ran off. She walked over to stand beside Sasuke. "Thank you." She said out of nowhere, meeting his charcoal colored eyes with her own.

Sasuke stared back at her. What was she thanking him for all of a sudden?

The red haired woman continued. "I know you two don't get along all the time, but I can tell that Naruto puts a lot of trust in you and I'm sure he considers you a friend, although I know he'd never admit it." She smiled at this. "Naruto isn't one to show his sadness to others, he's always been like that, as if he doesn't want to burden anyone with his troubles." Her smile turned sad and distant.

"But it seems that he's cheered up quite a bit since I've last seen him." As if on cue they heard a loud shout from inside the house. "I thought maybe you might have something to do with it Sasuke." She finished.

The raven continued to stare back at her silently. He wasn't sure what to say.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Naruto glared up into Itachi's dark black orbs that were so similar to Sasuke's. "What do you mean you have pictures?" the blonde demanded. Although he knew what the older Uchiha meant. He just didn't how it was possible.

Itachi handed Naruto the camera and the blonde clicked through it, peering at the small screen. When had Itachi taken these?Some of this stuff was from yesterday and the day before? What the hell… He blushed as he came across a certain picture of him and Sasuke that looked a little to intimate for his liking.

"Your mother was kind enough to lend me a copy of the house key." Itachi said and placed a small metallic object in the blonde's hand, he smirked at Naruto's red face. "So you appreciate my photography skills I see."

The blonde lifted his head up to glare at Itachi once again. "What the fuck, No way! Delete this crap!" he watched as Itachi sighed in mock regret.

"Even if I did, there are so many copies."

Naruto blushed even more. "Then just burn them Itachi! Stop toying around!" the blonde fumed. At that moment Sasuke came up behind him. "What did you do this time?" He growled at his older brother in annoyance.

"Hello otouto, it seems like your little Kitsune is upset by the photos he found on my camera." He smirked as Sasuke glared at him.

The raven turned to Naruto and sighed in exasperation. "Let me see." He commanded reaching out for the camera. But Naruto pulled away, face red. "No way teme….it's…there's no need for you to look." He assured the raven backing away. Sasuke shot him a dubious look and returned his gaze to his brother.

"Although I must admit it was little surprising when I came in to check on you three and found you all curled up together like a happy little family. It was very heartwarming." Sasuke's glare turned on full blast. "And it seems you're going to have to work on your cooking skills Naruto-kun or else you'll end up becoming a terrible housewife for my dear brother." Naruto nearly melted as the heat rushed t his cheeks.

Itachi turned back to his younger brother. "Unless you're willing to consider the option of sharing the house chores, otouto?" Sasuke's eyes where those of a killer.

Meanwhile Naruto ignored both of them as he stared down at the pictures Itachi had taken. Had he really been that close to Sasuke…..?

"What pictures? I wanna see." Konohamaru appeared out of nowhere snatching the camera out of Naruto's hands. His little eyebrows furrowed. "Wow you guys are sleeping pretty close and ho-" Naruto brought a fist down on the little boy's head.

"Ouch! What'd ya hit me for Naruto~"

So how was it?

That was definitely my longest chapter so far and I kinda liked writing it. It cheered me up. I'd really appreciate some feedback, I enjoy hearing what you guys think and well, thank you for reading.

P.S. Itachi's such an asshole. I just love him ^^