Naruto woke with the sun the next morning. It was earlier than he was strictly supposed to wake up, but he wanted to take another look around before he had to fall back into his job. He needed to gather as much information as he could so that he could pass his judgment. And he needed to do it without the man he was trying to judge by his side. Although, helping him with his paperwork had helped him find out a bit more information about the man, but it was all good. All of his business practices were reputable and there were no signs of him embezzling or scheming to get money from his clients. The only bad thing that had happened was being attacked by the other servants in the hallway, which could have been ordered by Sasuke, but he highly doubted that was the case.
Naruto sighed as he moved into the garden. It was unlikely that he was going to find anything out there, but it was the only place in the house that he hadn't already checked. The garden was beautiful. Everything inside was meticulously cared for. Nothing was allowed to remain wilted or damaged. For a moment, Naruto thought that he might be able to spend his whole life in this garden. It reminded him of his own home. Well, at least, it reminded him of what he could remember of his own home. He couldn't remember much, but the garden was one thing that he could remember.
Suddenly Naruto came across something that caught his eye. There was a broken branch close to the outer gate. It wouldn't have really mattered except for the fact that it was the only one. There was absolutely no other damage. Some one was in the garden and Naruto was going to have to find them before they got to Sasuke.
It didn't take long, though. The intruder didn't want to leave any witnesses of his actions so he thought it was a good idea to attack Naruto while he was examining the branch closely. A dagger came dangerously close to stabbing into his back, but Naruto had sensed the man coming and had ducked away just in time.
"So you're new," Naruto examined as he saw the man. No seasoned assassin would go after some random servant unless they planned on framing said servant and even then they would only go after them afterwards.
"What of it?" the man growled. He had a wicked smile on his face and Naruto couldn't help but to flinch at it. He always hated the ones that enjoyed the killing.
"I just think that you need a lot more experience before you can take on this case," Naruto shrugged nonchalantly.
"Oh?" the intruder raised his eyebrow. "What makes you say that?"
"Simple," Naruto smiled nonthreateningly. "I'm here."
"Ha!" the man laughed. "And you think that you're going to stop me?"
"I know I am," Naruto returned, "but I will give you the choice to give up this foolishness and return to whence you came so that I don't have to kill you."
"Good luck with that servant-boy," the man smirked. He didn't allow any more words to be spoken between them as he lunged forward in an attempt to stab his dagger into Naruto's chest once more.
Naruto just moved slightly to the side and the man stumbled past him. "You should have just given up. You are not nearly strong enough to take me on."
"I've already killed over ten men," the man growled as he turned and tried to attack once more.
This time Naruto just reached out and snatched the attack right out of the air by grabbing the man's hand. "That's very good for someone at your level," Naruto nodded, "but I've already killed over 100 men." The man's eyes widened and he struggled to get away, but it was already too late for him. Naruto took the dagger and thrust it into the man's heart. "That's just great," he pouted when all was said and done, "now I have blood all over my uniform. I'm going to have to change before I go to see Uchiha-sama."
"Naruto?" Sasuke asked from behind him. Well that's just great. There's no hiding it now.
"Yes Uchiha-sama?" Naruto turned to face him.
"What happened?" Sasuke's eyes widened.
"He attacked me," Naruto answered. "I was just defending myself."
"You killed him," Sasuke gasped.
"And he would have killed you," Naruto replied.
"Yea, but," Sasuke said, "how did you kill him?"
"I've lived in many households Uchiha-sama," Naruto answered easily. "In any number of them I could have been attacked. I learned to defend myself a long time ago. You might want to get this cleaned up before it ruins your garden. It is a beautiful garden." With that Naruto left to change into a different uniform, but Sasuke couldn't move. Naruto just seemed to be so nonchalant about the whole thing. How many men had he had to face off in his previous homes? How many men had he already had to kill?
Sasuke wouldn't admit that he was worried for Naruto. He wouldn't admit that he thought that Naruto shouldn't have to deal with all that. He wouldn't admit any of that, but what he would admit was that he was worried that he wasn't worried for his own safety. If Naruto was truly that good, then he could kill Sasuke at any moment and none of his other men could get in the way. That should worry Sasuke, but it really didn't.
"Uchiha-sama?" Naruto, now completely free of blood, asked from the doorway. He hadn't realized that he had been standing there for so long.
"Right," Sasuke shook himself. "I'll get someone to take care of this right away." He turned and headed inside, not able to stand the look of the corpse staring at him anymore.
"Are you all right sir?" Iruka asked as he entered Sasuke's room nearly an hour later.
"I'm fine," Sasuke answered.
"It's just that," Iruka paused to try to find his words, "when you asked me to get someone to clean the garden, I didn't think we were going to be cleaning up a dead body."
"He attacked Naruto," Sasuke shrugged. "He was only defending himself from an assassin that was sent here to kill me."
"Naruto did that?" Iruka's eyes widened.
"I was just defending myself," Naruto pouted and Iruka jumped because he hadn't realized that the boy was even in the room.
"Yes," Iruka agreed once he pulled himself together, "but you did an excellent job with dispatching of him. Neither of you seem to have any injury except for the one that killed him."
"I learned to defend myself a long time ago," Naruto crossed his arms defensibly. Both the other occupants missed the fact that Naruto made sure to hide his hands so that neither could see that he had absolutely no defensive wounds. He'd be able to explain it away if it came up, but it was always just easier to hide things like that.
"Of course," Iruka frowned as he wondered when exactly Naruto had been forced to learn something like that. He seemed too young to be able to say that without it referring to the fact that he had to learn it while he was a child. "Anyway," Iruka chose to change the subject. "You do need to start getting ready if you are going to make it to Sakura's party in time."
"Oh yes," Sasuke sighed. "I had almost forgotten about that."
"Don't worry Iruka-san," Naruto smiled. "I'll make sure he's ready for his trip."
Iruka nodded and left the room to get everything else ready with the worrying thoughts about Naruto still stuck in his head.
"Why do you have to get ready so early Uchiha-sama?" Naruto asked once Iruka had left.
"Sakura lives far away," Sasuke answered with another sigh. "It's going to take us a while to get there. "