It was hours later when Naruto finally finished the stack that Sasuke had given him to work on. He turned to give it to his boss, only to find the man asleep at his desk. He hadn't needed Sasuke's help the whole time that he was working, so Sasuke must have completely forgotten that he was even still in the same room.
Naruto placed the completed documents onto the desk where it wouldn't be knocked over and proceeded to shake his master awake. "Uchiha-sama," he called out calmly, "you really shouldn't sleep at your desk like this. It's not good for you. You could catch a cold or something."
Sasuke woke up about halfway through Naruto's short speech, but he had always been slow to wake up so he didn't open his eyes until Naruto was finished. Naruto seemed to think that he didn't hear anything, so he mentioned nothing about it either.
"Did you need help with something?" Sasuke asked. He refused to rub the sleep from his eyes because he never should have fallen asleep when there was so much work to be done, so he was still a little groggy, but he could manage.
"No," Naruto shook his head. "I've just finished everything. You really should go to be though."
"You finished everything?" Sasuke said with a suspicious look at the pile of documents that had suddenly appeared on his desk. He reached forward to grab the top sheet so that he could examine it and make sure that there were no mistakes, but a calloused hand wrapped around his wrist and pulled it away from the sheets.
"You can examine them tomorrow," Naruto said calmly. "For now, you really should sleep. It is almost the middle of the night."
"Why are you still here?" Sasuke asked when he realized that it was this late.
"I was completing a task given to me by my master," Naruto answered even as he pulled Sasuke up and away from his desk.
"You didn't have to do that," Sasuke rubbed his eyes.
"You should probably go to bed," Naruto smiled.
"Fine," Sasuke sighed. "It's not like I'm going to be able to get anything else done when I'm half asleep anyway."
"Besides," Naruto continued. "There's a ball that you have to go to tomorrow."
"What?" Sasuke asked.
"Sakura's ball," Naruto reminded him.
"She never actually set a date for that," Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
"The invitation came while I was exploring the house. I was close to the door so I figured I'd answer it."
"That's not your job."
"Neither is helping my master do his paperwork," Naruto said, "but my job is to do anything to help my master so I will do my job every way that I can."
"Why didn't you tell me that I had a ball tomorrow before now?"
"I figured that one of your other servants would do it. I did hand the message off to Iruka for him to decide when would be the best chance to tell you. I figured they told you at dinner."
"Well they didn't," Sasuke's tired mind allowed him to state the obvious and Naruto smiled at the childishness of the act.
"I'll be sure to tell you myself next time," Naruto said. He helped Sasuke into the bed, pulled the cover over him, and then slipped out so that Sasuke could go to sleep.
Naruto walked down the hallways to his own room. He passed by several servants on his way there and most of them glared at him. Apparently he was already making enemies with them before he had even met them. Not that he really cared. He probably wouldn't stay in this house long enough for friends to matter anyway. He just had to lay low and be ready to move to the next house when the time came for him to do so.
The only problem now was that Sasuke wasn't living up to any of the expectations that he had for the man. He had been told that Sasuke was a corrupt businessman who did whatever it took to get what he wanted. He hadn't really seen Sasuke at work, other than when he was working on those documents, but the way Sasuke acted didn't scream that he was a corrupt person at all. In fact, it said that he was actually a very kind person. Naruto wasn't used to this. He knew bad men when he saw them and he had never spent any time in the home of good men. He could be wrong about Sasuke being good, but he didn't feel like he was wrong.
"Hey slut," a servant growled as he and a few others surrounded him. He hadn't noticed them coming, but he wasn't afraid of them. He could take them on at any time even though they all looked quite strong.
Naruto didn't answer. Instead he just looked around at the people who were surrounding him.
"I'm talking to you, you stupid whore," the man in front of him growled.
Naruto turned to the person behind him and said. "You should probably answer him."
"He's talking to you," the man behind him growled.
"Well no," Naruto responded. "He can't be talking to me because I am neither stupid nor am I a whore so he can't be talking to me. He's looking this way and the only other person who stands this way is you so you must be who he's talking about."
"Are you an idiot?" the man in front of him hissed.
"Shh," Naruto said. "You'll hurt his feelings."
"I'm not talking to him," the man growled.
"Oh," Naruto answered nonchalantly. "Then who are you talking to? Because you can't be talking to me."
"Look here you smart ass," the man in front of him growled as he grabbed Naruto's collar and forced him up against the wall.
"That's better," Naruto smiled confidently despite the fact that he was clearly pinned against the wall be a very strong looking servant. He'd been in worse. "Now you could be talking to me, but I'm sorry to say that still isn't my name. It's too bad that you're so stupid that you couldn't even figure out my name." Of course he neglected to take into account the fact that he had just moved there and most of the servants probably had no clue what his name was, but that was a minor detail that he was choosing to overlook at the moment.
"Look here you stinking bitch," the servant growled. "I don't care who you slept with to get the position that you're in right now. You don't deserve it."
"I didn't sleep with anyone," Naruto answered. "That makes sense. You must have the wrong person. Since everything that you've said to me has been completely off the mark, you must be looking for someone else. Now, if you'll just let me go, I'd very much like to go to my room and I'm sure that you'd very much like to go find whoever you're looking for at the moment."
The servant through Naruto on the ground angrily glaring at Naruto.
"Thank you," Naruto smirked as he stood and straightened his collar before turning back towards his room. He didn't get far before he could feel something coming for him. He ducked, quickly reached up, grabbed the arm connected to the punch that was clearly aimed for the back of his head, and flipped the big man over him so that he landed on the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of him. Naruto smirked and once again stood to head back to his room when the others servants again surrounded him. "Three on one?" he said as he looked at the three of them. "That's hardly fair."
"You bitch," the leader stood still gasping for air. There was a sound of keys jingling in the distance and Naruto knew that Iruka was heading their way. "We'll get you later," the other servants hissed before they bolted in the opposite direction.
"Naruto?" Iruka asked as he rounded the corner. "You really shouldn't be wandering around the house this late."
"Is there a rule against it?" Naruto asked innocently. He really was curious.
"There isn't," Iruka shook his head, but still looked at Naruto suspiciously. There wasn't a rule against it, but usually when servants who were not night workers were found wandering about the house they were either steeling or getting ready to commit some sort of crim. "Some of the servants have to do their jobs late at night so there is no rule that says they have to be in bed by a specific time, but those of us with day jobs rise early so we tend to be in bed by now."
"Oh," Naruto said with a placating smile. "I was just helping the master with some paperwork and I didn't realize it was so late. I was actually just heading to my room when I heard you coming. I thought I would stop and wish you a goodnight."
"Very well," Iruka nodded as all his suspicions were immediately whipped away. "Just try not to stay up so late in the future. It's bad for your health."
"Perhaps you should take your own advice," Naruto smiled. "You look very tired yourself."
"I was just heading to bed," Iruka nodded.
"Well then neither of us should keep the other up any longer," Naruto said. "Good night Iruka-sensei."
"Good night," Iruka nodded and the both of them turned to their own rooms to get some sleep.