A/N: Okay here it is FINALLY!! This one just would not come out right! . So during the time between chapter 11 and 12 I managed to get two oneshots out of my brain, go check em out if you're interested! -shameless publication!- lol. I hope you guys liks this chapter as much as the last one. By the way everyone, what a wild Yaoi and Yuri party we had huh? lol! Tell me the things I gotta tweak, things I should do to make this fic better etc. any sort of feedback is crack and will help move this story along. I have a feeling the next chapter will effect the rest of the story...but I'll know when it's done.

Disclaimer: OMG I don't own Naruto but did anyone else read that last chapter?! OMG!! Me and my lil sis were FLIPPING out!

The Story so Far: There were near kisses that worried Iruka, there were conversations that amused Ino and Sakura and then there was a kiss to start the day right.

Warnings: Shonen-Ai (...duh...SasukexNaruto...no not YAOI) Shojo-Ai (Slight InoxSakura and TsunadexShizune) Swearing (but oh geez, you get it!)

Chapter 12

Sasuke wasn't surprised by the kiss. It was more like he was waiting for it. He just didn't know when it would happen and now Naruto was hovering over him, his legs shaking with his weight, and kissing him on the mouth without any second thoughts. Sasuke blinked the confusion out of his eyes and mind and eased into the kiss. The Uchiha pushed his body up a little to alleviate that shake in Naruto's legs.

One hand moved to take a spot in Naruto's hair as he pushed a little more to get Naruto to lie down comfortably. Naruto's hand gripped onto the back of the couch to help lower himself a little bit easier and less clumsily. Sasuke broke the kiss once Naruto was on his back on that narrow couch. He looked over Naruto's face for a second, all flushed from the kiss (was it getting hot?), and looking helplessly impatient. Sasuke leaned down and kisses him. Again and again Sasuke kissed Naruto, keeping his hand in that tangled mess of sunshine and the other on the arm of the couch keeping him balanced and off of Naruto's chest.

Naruto tugged at Sasuke's shirt, unsure of what exactly his hands were supposed to be doing. He felt Sasuke's teeth bite lightly at his bottom lip, oh god that felt nice. His mouth opened slowly to allow Sasuke's tongue to glide in smoothly. Naruto moaned low in his throat when Sasuke moved his tongue against his in a relaxed, almost lazy, way. Naruto circled Sasuke's neck with his arms and pulled at him hard to make him pretty much collapse on him. There, that was better.

The distance between their chests before seemed vast and nearly painful. Naruto's heart gave a sharp thud when he felt Sasuke's body fit perfectly against his. Sasuke tried to resituate himself by placing both of his legs on either side of Naruto's slim hips. Sasuke kissed Naruto's bottom lip and then bit it lightly and slid his teeth off of his lip. Naruto grabbed the back of Sasuke's head and pulled him into a fiercely passionate kiss with none of the tenderness previously experienced.

Sasuke trailed his lips down Naruto's jaw line once the insanely mind blowing kiss was over. Letting wet kisses dot Naruto's strong face and neck Sasuke kissed at the junction between that muscular shoulder and Naruto's neck. Naruto closed his eyes to enjoy the way Sasuke's soft kisses felt against his increasingly heated skin. Before he knew what to say Sasuke bit down softly at the little area and Naruto gasped, it felt good. He could feel Sasuke's heartbeat through his shirt and suddenly felt like clothing was far too much of a barrier between the two of them.

Call it hormones, call it love, call it what you will, but Naruto slowly allowed his hands the privilege to climb down and under the hem of Sasuke's black shirt and even though Naruto thought that Sasuke would smack away his hands due to his prudish attitude, Sasuke let him continue. He wanted this just as badly after all. Sasuke bit down a little harder and sucked at the spot, knowing a mark would be left where his lips and teeth worked. While Naruto was obviously possessive Sasuke only had an undertone that emerged when he needed to stake his claim so to speak. So, the harder he bit the redder the skin became and the better his mark on Naruto was.

In all his distractions caused by his streak of possessive marking Sasuke had forgotten about Naruto's hands which were traveling up and down his torso, not touching any area in particular but wanting to touch every piece of him all at once. Suddenly Sasuke saw the inside of his shirt as Naruto hastily whispered, 'arms up.' Sasuke couldn't even remember complying but he apparently had because Naruto moved his shirt up and over his head in one motion. Then Naruto grabbed the back of Sasuke's neck and forced another fevered kiss on his lips. Sasuke pushed his hands passed the fabric of Naruto's loud orange shirt and raked his nails along his rib cage, loving the hiss that Naruto put into the kiss as he did this.

Naruto traced the well defined muscles of Sasuke's chest, his nails dragging along the pale flesh as Sasuke continued to work on his neck. He gasped in as Sasuke's broken nails scratched at his abdominals. Naruto moved his neck to disconnect Sasuke's teeth from his flesh. For a moment Sasuke wondered what happened but then Naruto's lips were kissing his chest fast and heatedly. Sasuke groaned in anticipation. Anticipation of what, he didn't know. Naruto's tongue blessed muscles with all the grace he never possessed in battle.

"I hope you two don't do this in public…" Kakashi advised with that lazy drawl that said he wished he hadn't walked in on this.

During the kisses, the nips, the bites, neither of them heard Kakashi come in. Even though Kakashi prided himself of being stealthy and silent when he was at home everyone noticed that he didn't bother to hide his presence or the sound of his footfall. Sasuke's head slumped and hit the arm rest with a soft thud. Naruto licked his lips with an angered smile and crawled slowly back up to where he was before. Now there were many different emotions running through the room as this moment.

Kakashi wanted to let out a juvenile groan for walking in on such an intimate moment, between his students. Just that made him extremely uncomfortable. He didn't care what they did as long as he didn't have to see it.

Sasuke let a flood of hot air rush passed his lips. They'd been caught doing something again. But this time it was something that wasn't as innocent as the other times. Sasuke decided that getting caught was no fun simply because it interrupted what appeared to be a very promising time with Naruto.

Naruto moved his head from side to side and looked at the floor. He seemed a little bit pissed off but not significantly though. It wasn't that some one saw him and Sasuke it was that he didn't get to finish. Naruto wiggled his arm out from Sasuke and reached over the couch to grab the dark fabric from the ground. He offered it to Sasuke with a sly grin on his face.

Sasuke moved to snatch it from him but Naruto slid out from under him and jumped off of the couch. Naruto waved it in front of his face and when Sasuke tried to grab it again Naruto pulled it out of his reach. Sasuke slowly crawled up from the couch, shirtless and a little mad. Sasuke Got up off of the couch and held up three fingers like a mother who was about to punish her child. Naruto started to run and Sasuke chased after him. A loud playful yell came from Naruto as Sasuke pushed him against the wall closest to their bedroom.

Kakashi tilted his head a little, it wasn't their obvious display of affection that him puzzled it was the fact that neither of them had an issue with the rope. Normally they would stumble or tug at the rope, but today it was as if they had no ropes or jutsus binding them to one another. It seemed so natural that their distance was a mere three feet. He smiled slightly and went into his room to take a nap.

It was about an hour after Iruka and Sakura came home that Kakashi decided to announce that Tsunade-sama wanted to have a meeting with all of them tomorrow. Yes, she would excuse Iruka for an hour from his classes. She's the Hokage for goodness sake. No, it wouldn't take that long. She is a busy woman too. Yes, you needed to go. Why else would she call a meeting?

Kakashi rubbed at his forehead, he only knew the answers to these questions because he had asked them to the Godaime originally when she told him.

So there they stood on a semi-cloudy Friday afternoon in the coldness of Tsunade's office. Naruto noticed that her office was much more organized than the last few times they'd stood in these same places. He looked next to him, Sasuke's eyes were locked on a point beyond the Hokage's head so as not to appear disrespectful by staring in her eyes (thus initiating a challenge) or by not looking at her at all (showing he had no interest in what she had to say). Sakura stood formally, he hand locked together behind her back and she ankles touching and he jade eyes not faltering once. Iruka was a bit more relaxed but still respectful none the less. Kakashi's knees weren't locked, his feet formed and 'L' and his hands were in his pockets.

"Oh would you guys just please sit down," Tsunade ordered as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Your formalities are making my head spin."

"Actually your hang over is making your head spin," Naruto corrected as he took a seat nearly on top of Sasuke. Sasuke pinched him before he could fully sit on his lap.

"Shut up brat," The eloquent Hokage growled with a glare to one of her favorite ninjas. "And sit in your own seat," she ordered him when she saw Uchiha pinch his thigh to make him move.

Naruto muttered and sat with his arms crossed, not fully aware that he had folded them according to the rope. Sasuke reached out and pushed Naruto's hands away from his chest, it was immature, and Naruto complied (how weird). Tsunade watched in awe, they really had gotten closer, just as Kakashi's reports had said. She shook her head and turned to address the group as a whole.

"So I called you guys here to talk about the progress that Uchiha, Sasuke's been making under the same roof as Team Seven, and Iruka," Tsunade began as she laced her fingers together and leaned forward.

"Mmhm," Kakashi agreed primarily for the sake of noise in the room.

"In the reports it says that the original members of the cell are functioning like a normal team should, though not up to the same standards they would be at, they are still working like a team," she continued ignoring the fact that Sasuke had winced a little when she said 'they would be at'.

Naruto pinched Sasuke's arm as payment for pinching him earlier. Sasuke squirmed a little and reached over with his tethered hand and pulled at Naruto's jacket to reveal a few still glaring red hickies on his neck.

"And if-" Tsunade began before she saw the rope (and hickies). "Are you two into some weird games?" she asked a little surprised at the hemp around their wrists.

Sasuke and Naruto looked at her like she was on drugs. What in the hell was she talking about? They looked around them on the floor, and then at the rest of the housemates. No one else seemed to have a clue about what she was talking about.

"The rope geniuses, the rope," she informed them in an exasperated tone. It was only ten in the morning and she was already worn out from this situation.

Naruto looked at his and Sasuke's wrists. He was sort of shocked to see that they were still tied together. He had totally forgotten about the rope, especially when Sasuke pushed him against the wall and began to kiss him even harder than he had out in the living room. Sasuke stared at the rope for a moment and then looked up at Naruto. Oh great…he thought as he recognized that face as his 'gone to lala land'. He pinched Naruto on his neck and pulled his hand away fast.

"What was that for?!" Naruto asked as he snapped out of his trance-like state. Sasuke had pinched one of the more vicious hickies that decorated his neck.

"Shut up Naruto," Tsunade barked. "Now some one please tell me what's going on with the rope."

"Oh the rope," Sakura piped up. "It's a training technique."

Tsunade's eyes showed alarm, "Bondage?"

"No! No!" Sakura defended as she threw her hands in front of her frantically. "It was to make them more used to the amount of space they had to work with."

"Good, good," Tsunade replied feeling a little bit safer about letting Naruto and Sasuke have such close proximities. She thought for a second. That really was a simple yet brilliant way to make them understand their limited distance. "That was a really good idea Sakura, I'm glad at least one of you learned something from your Sannin trainer."

Naruto folded his arms again and Sasuke just turned his head to the side indignantly. Tsunade leaned back in her chair and smiled. Oh how she loved to be prideful over Sakura and how she loved to jab at the other two Sannin indirectly.

"Moving on…" Kakashi finally spoke after another round of Sasuke pushing Naruto's arms off of his chest.

"Oh yes," Tsunade sat up and fingered a piece of paper for a second. "Well, if the reports Kakashi's been keeping on the houses progress is as good as he's written then I don't see any reason why Team Seven can't go on in village missions," she told them in the voice that commanded and led an entire village.

Naruto's face lit up, "Really?!" he asked excitedly with his hands on the arm rests of the chair.

"Yeah," Tsunade replied. "But I don't think you'll be getting hired by the Feudal Lord's wife any time soon." She hissed at the tail end of her own comment.

"Why?" Sakura asked curiously. It wasn't that she was hurt by not being hired by her to bring back that poor cat. But the Feudal Lord's wife paid well.

"She has informed us that she 'would not have a traitorous leech of a human touching her sweet cat…'" Tsunade replied with a laugh.

Kakashi shrugged, "Oh well, there are others who will hire him I'm sure. It's hard to pass up help from an Uchiha."

Tsunade nodded, tilting her head from side to side as she did, "You're right and because of all the Chunin missions we've been swamped with the villagers sort of have to take what they can get."

"What do you mean all the Chunin missions we've been getting? I haven't been called out for a mission yet," Iruka asked leaning forward a little bit.

"You and Sakura have been on leave for missions," Tsunade said as she flicked the corner of a paper that protruded slightly from the edge of her desk. "But you guys are coming off of leave within the next few days, we're having a shortage and we need you guys active again."

Iruka and Sakura nodded in understanding. It had been nice to spend some time away from the field but now it was time to go back to work.

"Okay I'll have a few missions lined up for you guys tomorrow," Tsunade said waving them off. "You can go about your business now."

The team stood up and made their exit. Tsunade just shook her head at the memory of Sasuke and Naruto bickering and poking at each other. Kakashi was right, they were getting much closer. She leaned back in her chair and dozed off for a moment before Shizune came in the room and handed her a packet of papers and a small box of chocolate mints. Tsunade smiled at Shizune took the papers from her and kissed her softly on the side of her face.

The missions that Tsunade had for Team Seven weren't glamorous but what could you expect when you have Sasuke on your team? People are going to be a little reluctant to hire him. Their missions were to shovel some one's walk way, clean out another person's gutters, and to sweep some villager's chimney. Naruto knew that since him and Sasuke were genin this was the best they could do, but COME ON! They had Kakashi-Fucking-Hatake on their team and a damn good medical nin named Sakura with them. That should at least qualify them for like in village assassinations or something.

"Take what you can get you ungrateful brat!" Tsunade commanded. "You're lucky I got you these missions. A lot of the villagers don't want Sasuke within a million mile radius of their homes!"

"Well they need to get used to it! Sasuke's here to stay!" Naruto yelled back.

"Go get to work before I disable your chakra systems," Tsunade threatened as she slowly sat back down in her chair.

Naruto grunted but turned around and took Sasuke's hand in his and walked out of the Hokage Tower with the rest of the team. Sasuke wiggled his hand out of Naruto's and they walked to their first mission as the reunified Team Seven.

The first mission was okay up until they were about half way done and the owner of the walk way come out with hot tea to warm them up and 'accidentally' dropped Sasuke's. After a few chuckles Naruto reached over to Sasuke and pulled at his cloak. 'Here we can share' he said through his foggy breath. Sasuke rolled his eyes but drank some of the liquid and they got back to work.

When they went to the next person's house Sasuke knew that they owner of these filthy gutters purposely gave him and Naruto the grimiest part of job. Who would give a traitor and demon vessel easy work? Sasuke wasn't particularly happy when he was walking across the roof to reach another patch of dirt-water-grass-whatever in the gutter and he hit a section of invisible ice and slipped and landed with his nose and forehead in the disgusting stuff. Naruto allowed himself to laugh at Sasuke for a significantly larger chunk of time this time around. But after this subsided and after Sasuke used his cloak to wipe his face off Naruto pulled at his cloak and tried to kiss him. Sasuke kept trying to keep his lips from Naruto even if that isn't what he wanted.

The final mission of the day was one that wasn't so bad for Sasuke and Naruto. The owner of the chimney obviously didn't care that either of them were who they were. He let them be inside and sweep from there and Sakura and Kakashi were up on the roof sweeping the spots that Naruto and Sasuke couldn't reach. It was like in no time the chimney was clean and the man was inviting the four of them to have dinner with him and his three daughters. The man who hired them told them that he used to be a ninja but was now out of his prime since the girls' mother left and a mission in the Grass Country had ruined his back nearly to paralysis. He went on to say that only two of his girls were ninjas (both chunin at the moment) the other was going to be married and her civilian husband and her were going to be opening a calligraphy shop soon. He seemed happy despite the obvious absence of a mother (there were dishes in the sink from what looked like days, the dining room was in slight disarray but nice none the less).

When they started walking back home Naruto thought about how awful it would be to have Sasuke leave him if they had their entire life built up and had everything going for them. The man hadn't given them a lot of information about why his wife left just that she had, but he seemed happy with a slight pain in his eyes. He loved his children, he took care of them and they were all pleased with where life had led them even if it was a challenge. Naruto looked at Sasuke wondered if they would have to face challenges like that family had. Sasuke turned to him and whispered 'what' but Naruto just shook his head and smile.

It wasn't until they got home that Sasuke questioned Naruto about the look he gave him. He described it as 'the beaten up puppy' look. Naruto asked if he meant the 'kicked puppy' look and Sasuke told him that Naruto looked more like a puppy who had the shit beat out of him. To this, Naruto shrugged. Sasuke rolled his eyes and grabbed Naruto roughly by the collar and kissed him. Naruto thought to himself that he could definitely get used to Sasuke kissing away his insecurities and concerns.

The next morning Sasuke rubbed the sleep away from his eyes and wondered why his chest was so heavy. When he looked down he saw Naruto's arm messily strewn across his chest feeling as though the toned limb was made more of lead than muscle and tendons.

"Mh, wake up idiot…" Sasuke moaned with fatigue.

"Naw don't wanna," Naruto informed Sasuke as he scooted closer to him and wrapped his arms around his unclothed torso instead of letting them just lay there.

A long exhale, "Lovely."

Naruto rubbed his face against Sasuke's chest, "Isn't it?" He then licked the bare muscle.

Sasuke went rigid, "Why must you do that?" He clenched and unclenched his hands.

"Gah, just chill out Sasuke. We're erm…together…? So it's okay," Naruto justified uncertainly. Naruto's lips kissed at the warm patches of skin in front of him, enjoying the way Sasuke relaxed into the soft kisses.

Sasuke messed up the soft strands of blonde and rubbed at Naruto's scalp. Naruto sat up to get face to face with Sasuke. He frowned and then smiled and then pressed his lips against Sasuke's to say good morning the proper way. Sasuke kissed him back and wondered why it took so long for them to act on their strange bond. It could have been years ago that they woke up like this or greeted each other lovingly.

But, that just wasn't them. For as long as they both shall live there will be something to argue about and that something is what they will argue about. Right now, it was just too early to argue since neither had the brain power to argue at the moment. Naruto brushed at the strands of hair on Sasuke's cheek with the back of his hand and Sasuke decided that he liked that very much. Naruto broke the kiss with a childish pop of his lips leaving Sasuke's and topped it off with a cute smile.

Sasuke let a small smile cross his lips and then he put his hand on Naruto's face and pushed him away. No reason to get all poetic and pathetic over a good morning kiss so pushing Naruto away via his face seemed to be the appropriate thing to do.

End of Just that

A/N: Okay to explain the rope thing: Since they've gotten so -cough-close-cough- the way the move around the ropes and make the ropes work for them is unconscious. They just do it without knowing that they do. I hope that my little half assed explaination helps a little bit. Again please tell me what you think!