Chapter 2

I must remind all ye who read mah stories that all the characters I write about are the sole properties of their creators and owners and not me (unless they are OC) sadly T-T, please and thank you for not killing/suing me :3

X

"Naruto Uzumaki!"

Piles and piles of thick blandly colored books were stacked over every inch of Naruto's small one bed and bath apartment and he'd read through most of them cover to cover! Despite popular belief that the knucklehead ninja was just that. He like to read, good thing too because one had to read and memorize quite a bit if one wishes to become Hokage. Tsunade-baa-sama had been training him non-stop for the past three years to be as great a leader as his father before him and it seemed that Naruto, due to his tremendous strength, may turn out to be even better!

Silently the blonde turned the page of his latest text book "the financial history of the hidden leaf." Who the hell would write such a novel? It was so dry! Of course Naruto was no wiz with money so he would have to hire someone to deal with this for him anyway. Just as he became enthralled with the endless numerals and complex equations for this and that his boring bland book bliss was interrupted by a shockingly loud knock on his door.

Future Rokudaime Naruto Uzumaki got up and groggily made his way to the door. Peeping though the see-hole he found out that all that was there was solid pink.

'It's Sakura-chan!' Naruto cheered.

Alright, so maybe the blonde didn't have a crush on the Haruno girl anymore but he could still feign it couldn't he? Especially when it was to keep his peers from finding out that he didn't like women at all.

Naruto flung open the door and extended a warm greeting to his pink haired friend only to find that something was horribly wrong.

Sakura was crying; full on into her hands bawling. The blonde, obvious to what had truly brought her to his door, assumed that her boyfriend Neji had dumped her and invited her inside. Naruto coaxed her with cherries, chocolate, cake, hell he even tried ramen! But nothing would get the girl to stop crying or even to stop and tell him what was going on.

"C'mon Sakura-chan!" he whined, "won't you at least come inside? The neighbors are starting to get pissed!" they'd all come out into the hall to see what all the commotion was about. But the girl still refused to budge.

"Nooooo!" she wailed, " we 'hic' have to 'sniff' go now! 'hic' 'hic' 'sniffle' Sasuke!"

Naruto stared for a moment, wide eyed at the cherry blossom. Had she said Sasuke? While crying? Oh, that could mean an unending number of things! Sasuke was back, or attacking, or still missing, or dead; he didn't want to think about that last one . . . Naruto didn't care though; he wanted to know what Sakura meant about Sasuke!

Without warning or a moment to spare Naruto had hoisted the girl into his arms and took off down the hall, not even bothering to close and lock his door. There was only one person who would know what was going on. Tsunade-baa-sama and he was determined to get to her as fast as was humanly possible, even faster still since Kyuubi had lent its power.

Ah yes, Kyuubi. Naruto had just recently learned to manifest its power into his own. Months of training with uncle bee paid off when Naruto was finally able to defeat his duple-ganger at the waterfall of truth. Now he could freely use the beast's power mixed with his own (in proportion of course) even being able to hold a conversation with the fox.

'Where are you going in such a hurry Kit? You're usin' up all my chakra.' Kyuubi had the awful habit of calling the Jinchuriki 'Kit' on a regular basis. This was a name Naruto despised.

'Shut up and give me more speed ya damn fox!'

'Only if you tell me~' Kyuubi teased. Naruto growled at it in mild annoyance.

'Sasuke might be back now hurry up!'

Fortunately Kyuubi did what it was told and picked up the pace a bit for its host who did not stop until he reached the door to the Hokage's office. He set Sakura on her feet and she whipped her eyes and thanked him before turning and leaving. Yea, Naruto knew something was wrong. In normal circumstances she would have beat him up for touching her and now she was thanking him?

The blonde wasted no time in throwing the doors open unannounced.

"Baa-sama?" he called, "is everything alright?"

"Oh, there you are Naruto, just the idiot I wanted to see. Come in." she was sitting at her desk calmly with a slight smile on her face. Naruto took a step forward.

"Baa-sama, I'm here because Sakura came to my apartment and she was crying so I asked her what was wrong and she said something about Sasuke –"

"Yes, I know what she told you," Tsunade interrupted, "I was the one who sent her."

A grin grew on Naruto's face until it was ear to ear, "then you have information about Sasuke?"

"We are no longer going to search for Sasuke Uchiha."

Naruto's face dropped, no more searching for Sasuke? What were they going to do now, kill him? Hunt him down and kill him? Blow him up and kill him?

"W-why not?"

"Because, dobe. I'm not missing."

The only other chair in the room spun to face the blonde. In said chair sat a neat and trim Sasuke who still held that undeniable glare. Both boys for a moment sat there, staring at each other wondering what the other would do next. Naruto was sure Sasuke was going to continue to insult him and tell him he was worthless like old times but he was pleasantly surprised.

Sasuke got up from his seat and cautiously approached his old friend; his expression stayed the same as he held out a hand to the blond. The raven grabbed Naruto's hand from his side and shook it, even going so far as to bow a little to the man.

"I'm here to stay."

Naruto didn't know what to think, here he was, the man he'd been looking the world over for since he was thirteen years old was standing here in front of him speaking as though nothing bad had ever happened! Did he really think that Naruto was going to forgive and forget that easily? O hell no!

Swatting Sasuke's hand aside it was Naruto's turn to deliver the glare and it was far more intense than the Uchiha's.

"What makes you think I want to forgive you so easily?" but he was getting a bit ahead of himself.

"The boy didn't ask for forgiveness, not yet anyway." Tsunade said, both men had actually forgotten that she was there. "The only reason I'm letting him stay in my office is because I wanted him to be here when I told you that he's going to live in your house."

Suddenly Naruto paused, had she said that she was forcing that backstabbing bastard to live with him? After all, it's not like Sasuke tried to kill him, beat up his friends, ignored him at every turn, and broke his heart. Oh wait, that's exactly what he did!

"No! Why the hell would you tell him that without even asking me about it? I'm not living anywhere with that asshole! For all I know he's going to murder me in my sleep or something!"

"I'm still here you know." Sasuke droned, crossing his arms in disgust. Naruto suddenly turned on him, he was pissed.

"If I cared that you were still here I wouldn't call you an asshole you mutha-fuckin' prick ASSHOLE!" if Tsunade had not been there in the room with them naruto most certainly would have beat the crap out of the Uchiha and if Tsunade had been a bit weaker he would have done it with her in the room.

"Hold on now, Naruto, calm down!" when neither of the arguing men herd the old woman she slammed her fist into the desk, shattering it into a million tiny splinters.

"Shut the hell up!"

Both boys stared fearfully at their superior hoping she wouldn't do to them what she'd done to her desk.

Tsunade glared at her student.

"Naruto, I told Sasuke he could stay with you because no one else will take him. If he were to be housed with any other Shinobi they would probably kill him whether it was against direct orders or not." Lady Hokage paused, letting her words sink in. "you don't have to look at him, you don't have to talk to him, you don't even have to feed him! I just want you to let him sleep in your home until he is stable enough to have his own." By this time the blonde had come to his senses. Finally able to see what Tsunade was getting at he gulped and nodded, there was no saying he wasn't nervous.

Tsunade continued, "the only thing I want you to do out of the ordinary is make sure he isn't using chakra and escort him to and from work every day."

"That wasn't part of the deal," Sasuke interrupted, "you didn't say anything about a job." He'd done his best to ignore Naruto's insulting outburst but this was bullshit.

Smiling evilly Tsunade grinned at Sasuke, "oh? Didn't I mention that?"

"No."

"Well, since you asked I signed you up as a teacher's aid at the ninja academy. You will be grading papers, getting snack for your kids and playing battle dummy during recess."

"Sonofa bit-"

"You have your orders; now get out of my office." Tsunade moved them away and before he could say anything else Sasuke was dragged out the door by his 'roomy'. He flipped off the Hokage before he was out the door.

X

"Don't go in my room, touch my medicine cabinet, eat my food, sit on my couch or bring people over without asking and don't even think about touching my bookshelf!" Naruto screamed at his 'guest' the man had already decided he wasn't going to take any of Sasuke's bullshit. For years Sasuke had been in charge so to say and now, since it was Naruto's turn he was going to take full advantage of his newfound authority.

Sasuke walked right past him and flopped down on the couch.

"What did I just say?"

Glancing up at the blonde from the corner of his eye, Sasuke snorted a laugh before returning his gaze to the wall.

"We both know you don't mean that Naruto."

The blonde was shocked, 'Did he just call me Naruto?'

He moved to sit next to Sasuke, looking the raven in the eye.

"You're serious about doing this aren't you?"

The Uchiha merely sat proudly with his arms crossed not saying a word. Sasuke was too proud. He didn't ask for a place to live, he could just go back to his home and he didn't ask for a job, he could just become a bounty-hunter or something, they'd given him all that and therefore they showed that they still cared. As far as he was concerned he still held the power. . . . Assumed.

Naruto frowned, same old Sasuke. Still not a one for conversation, it's not like he expected anything different, once a prick always a prick.

"C'mon Teme, if you don't want me to kick you out you're going to talk to me –"

"Look, I'm sorry alright?" Sasuke growled through gritted teeth.

What? Had Naruto herd right? Sasuke just got finished saying that he was sorry for the first time in his life and to him! He may really mean it, after five whole years of running from himself and hurting his friends he was finally sorry for his actions. But Sasuke actually said sorry!

"W-what?"

Taking this as disbelief that he could do it, Sasuke huffed and stood abruptly from the couch and made for the door.

"W-wait! Where are you going?" Naruto yelled after him, the blond meant to follow but the door was roughly slammed in his face.

"Out!"

To be left standing all alone in his living room was not what Naruto had expected and he would have gone with the man had he not been so paralyzed by a multitude of things. First off was Sasuke's behavior. When they were kids the raven wouldn't think twice about beating the shit out of Naruto to prove his point but now . . . he was apologizing. (Perhaps he was just afraid of lady Tsunade, Naruto couldn't blame him there). And second was Sasuke's dedication. Sure he had been dedicated to achieving the death of his brother, which Naruto assumed had been accomplished since he was home now, but that was an evil ambition which was what Sasuke was good at. The raven was doing his best so far from what Naruto had seen to fit back in, at least around him. And the final thing that caught Naruto off guard about Sasuke was his looks! Of course he still had that same duck-butt-hair that made Naruto want to go 'WTF? ' but he also had a whole new outfit, one that Naruto hoped he wouldn't get rid of anytime soon. It was the same white shirt blue sweats that he had been wearing the last time Naruto saw him, now Sasuke didn't wear an undershirt beneath his white one, giving Naruto a nice view of the man's porcelain hairless chest. How tight the purple rope around Sasuke's waist was accentuated just how lean he really was and it was just . . . all around sexy.

As Naruto listened to the angry footsteps of Sasuke disappear down the hall he felt his face grow hotter in realization that he truly was an idiot. Sighing, the blonde slowly made his way back to his desk where he resumed his previously stated task of reading 'the financial history . . .'

'Page 327, many authors stress that 'all that glitters is not gold'-'

'Yea,' Naruto thought, 'and I suck at handling all of it!'

Author's note: please don't be mad at me for making Naruto a bit of a bitchy bitch, it just seemed like a good idea at the time! And to my buddy Mystic . . . ITACHI UCHIHA IS THE GREATEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD! :3