"Why did I agree to this," Sasuke groaned once again. There were a lot of things that needed to happen in order to have a party worthy of his house. Decorations needed to be hung. Food needed to be served. Guests needed to be invited. And all of it was tasked on Sasuke himself since the servants only knew how to do the physical aspects. Not only that, but he had also been stupid enough to agree to one in a weeks time. He would have to scramble to be able to get ready for everything.
"Because you're a glutton for punishment," Naruto smirked as he leaned against the wall next to his master waiting to receive yet another errand to run on in order to get all this done.
"And you seem to be no different," Sasuke responded easily, "with the way you behave."
"You're mistaken my dear master," Naruto laughed. "I'm merely taking advantage of your overly kind heart. Get away with what I can while I can still get away with it."
"Is that really something you should admit to your master?" Sasuke raised a brow.
"Honesty is the best policy," Naruto shrugged.
Sasuke had to force down a chuckle when he heard that comment. "Since when are you honest?"
"Since ever," Naruto replied. "I am the most honest man that you'll ever meet."
This time Sasuke actually did chuckle. He honestly had no clue why that was so funny to him. He actually couldn't think of anytime that Naruto was really dishonest with him, but he was also very much aware that there were many things that Naruto was hiding from him as well. He would get it out of the man eventually. He just had to be a bit more delicate than he had been the day before. Naruto didn't seem to respond well to being commanded to doing anything even though it was his job to do exactly that so Sasuke was going to have to find another way to get what he wanted. He wouldn't be discouraged.
Getting the ball together took forever. It took a lot longer than Naruto was really expecting. Not that his other households didn't throw balls, but Naruto never really had any interest in actually paying attention to the goings on of the household. The only thing that he recognized was that, generally, a ball leads to him having to do more work around the house for the preparations. In this case, though, Naruto barely had to do anything around the house. Instead, he sat in Sasuke's room and ran whatever errands Sasuke needed running whether it was telling the other servants what to do or grabbing some important piece of the party. It was different from what he was used to and he kind of liked it. By the time the ball was actually scheduled to begin, both Naruto and Sasuke were exhausted.
"How does this look?" Sasuke asked Naruto once he was dressed.
"Sakura will absolutely cling to you," Naruto smirked.
"That's not funny," Sasuke frowned, but Naruto laughed nonetheless. "Is that what you're going to be wearing?"
"This is my uniform," Naruto stated with a raised brow.
"Right," Sasuke nodded. He knew that. It was just that he was kind of hoping to see what Naruto would look like in an outfit that was a bit wealthier. He couldn't shake the feeling that Naruto would actually be able to pull it off really well.
"Are you ready to go see the fruits of your labor?" Naruto asked as he moved to the door ready to open it for the other.
"Do I have to?" Sasuke sighed under his breath as he left the room. He was so quiet that he didn't think that he would be heard, but the giggle that Naruto let out the moment he said it told him that he was wrong.
By the time Sasuke made it into the ballroom, it was already filled with all his guests. He didn't make it very far into the room before they were surrounding him and talking about how much fun they were having. A couple of them even mentioned that he should have more parties and Sasuke had to fight to stop himself from cringing every time they did so. Instead, he looked over at Naruto and he made a move to shoo the others off. Most of them went willingly as Naruto pointed out the table filled with food or the particular dance and how much fun it would be to join in, but there were a few who only scowled at him.
"I will only dance if Sasuke asks me to," Sakura said.
"Why would I want to stuff my face?" Ino hissed. "Honestly you don't have any idea how to talk to a woman."
"I do know how to talk to a woman," Naruto mumbled under his breath, "but since you're not really one I am having some troubles figuring out how to talk to you."
"How dare you!" Ino and Sakura growled.
Naruto just shrugged and excused himself to go talk to Iruka. Sasuke wanted to growl at him for abandoning him with these annoying fan girls who wanted nothing more than his money, but he really couldn't blame the man when the girls so obviously hated him. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Besides, Iruka made his way over to Sasuke the moment that Naruto left his side and he knew that the other's only reason for leaving was to find another excuse for him to get away from the girls.
"Excuse me sir," Iruka said as he walked up to him. He quickly leaned over so that he was whispering into Sasuke's ear and the girls couldn't hear him. "Naruto said that you needed an excuse to get away."
Sasuke nodded and turned to the girls. "If you'll excuse me ladies," he said politely. "I really must be going."
"Aw," Sakura and Ino whined, "but why?"
"I have some business to attend to," Sasuke said as an excuse before slipping away into the crowd where his annoying fan girls couldn't follow him.
Naruto smirked as he watched his master slip into the crowd and he was about to follow him, but then something else caught his eye and made him freeze. He couldn't go anywhere near Sasuke when there was a danger towards himself without putting Sasuke in danger. He could take care of this anyway.
Suddenly, there was a knife at Naruto's back and a voice whispering behind him. "What are you doing here?" it asked.
"I could ask you the same thing," Naruto replied. "I thought you were dead."
"It's not so easy to kill a jinchuriki," the other replied.
Naruto nodded. "Then you should know that the knife you're holding at my back would do you no good."
"I could have just thrust it into you before you even noticed me," the other growled.
"You would have had to do it from across the room then," Naruto shrugged. "I noticed you before you even tried to creep up behind me. I just don't want to make a scene at my master's party."
"What are you doing here?" the voice asked again.
"I'm helping my master throw a party," Naruto shrugged again.
"What are you really doing here?" the voice continued.
Naruto decided that he'd had enough of this. As much as he was absolutely certain that the knife at his back would not have enough time to kill him before he reacted, he really didn't enjoy having such a threat against him. Especially not at his master's home. So he turned around in one swift movement and grabbed the blade in his hand. He knew he wouldn't be able to get it out of the other's grip without showing a struggle, but he could at least make it so that the other couldn't actually hit him with it even if it damaged his hand. Unfortunately, he forgot this jinchuriki's often overwhelming desire for blood. The other immediately stared at the blood like it was the most mesmerizing thing in the world.
"What are you doing here Gaara?" Naruto asked. The red head before him only spared him a glance before he looked back down at the blood. "If you aren't dead, that means that you have at least escaped the business so why are you here? Don't tell me you came back to it." There was a chance, though. The Jinchuriki's were never treated very well, but it got to the point that some of them actually craved what they got. Gaara was one of the ones who didn't like the treatment, but enjoyed the slaughter so much that he didn't really care.
"Gaara?" another voice cut in. "Are you okay?"
Naruto looked up at the two who had walked up to interfere with their talk and was shocked at their appearance. It wasn't that their actual appearance looked that shocking, they looked like any other rich kids, but it was their physical features that had him surprised. They looked like Gaara. That means that they had to be either parents or "Siblings?"
"What's going on?" the male asked.
"It's nothing," Gaara shook his head as he pried his eyes away from the blood. "Go away."
"Gaara," the female sighed. "We're here to help."
"I said go away," Gaara hissed.
"What's going on Gaara?" Naruto asked. "Why do they look like you?"
"You were right," Gaara said. "I left because they told me to kill them."
"And you found out that you were related to them," Naruto asked and Gaara nodded. "I'm happy for you."
"We could find your family too," Gaara suggested. "You don't need to live like this anymore."
"Wait," the girl hissed. "Is this another assassin?"
"That's none of your business," Gaara hissed, but the older male was already advancing to try to take down Naruto.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Naruto's eyes narrowed at the hand that was coming up to touch him.
"I'm not going to let you take Gaara back there," the male hissed, but before he could lay a finger on Naruto, Gaara was in his way growling like an animal.
"As far as I'm concerned," Naruto said, "Ichibi is dead. He won't be coming back."
"You shouldn't go back either," Gaara mumbled.
"I don't have a choice," Naruto shrugged. "They would never let me go even if I were to die."
"What are you doing here then?" Gaara asked.
"I was sent after my master," Naruto answered, "but I don't think that I'll take him down. Even through my investigating I haven't found a reason for him to die. I'm only staying here because it's a break from them. Besides, I can protect Sasuke until I figure out what's going on."
"I will help you," Gaara said.
"Why?" Naruto asked as he cocked his head to the side.
"Because," was Gaara's only response before he walked back into the crowd.
"Who are you?" the girl asked. "I've never seen Gaara treat anyone like that. He acted like you were so easy to talk to."
"He and I are like brothers," Naruto responded. "We grew up together. I was sent to investigate his death. I was the one who falsified his record and let him escape."
"Thank you," the girl said and then she and her brother followed after the youngest of their family.
"What was that about?" Sasuke growled as he walked up to Naruto. He had seen the scene from the other side of the room, but hadn't tried to interrupt because he thought that Naruto was just try to help out some of his guests. Then he saw Gaara move and he saw the knife and the blood pouring from Naruto's hand.
"An old friend," Naruto shrugged.
"An old friend who cuts up your hand," Sasuke raised a brow.
For a moment Naruto wasn't sure what Sasuke was talking about, but then the pain in his hand that he had been suppressing when he was talking to Gaara returned and he remembered grabbing the knife and cutting his hand open. He really needed to stop doing that or his hands would be unreparable. Luckily, this time the other had had no intention of actually hurting him so the wound wasn't actually deep enough to cause serious harm. There was a lot of blood.
"I just dropped some dishes and had to clean them up," Naruto grinned.
"Liar," Sasuke hissed. "I saw the knife."
"Then you were seeing things," Naruto said nonchalantly, but Sasuke could hear the hint of desperation in his voice. He didn't want the other man to get into trouble and that irked Sasuke more than it really should have.
"Fine," he hissed. "Go get that cleaned up before you bleed all over the place."
"You got it," Naruto grinned before rushing out of the ballroom to look at his hand.