A/N: Okay...so people we're getting into some heavy plot developments so watch out for that! :o And please love me, my updates have been very fast lately. Show me my work and timing is appriciated by you people! lol!
Disclaimer: Seriously? Must we go through this? Fine...I do not own Naruto, but if I did this would not be on fanfic, it would be on paper and in a manga...
The Story So Far: After a warning from Tsunade Iruka, Sakura and Kakashi all had to become body guards for the diplomats in Konoha, leaving Sasuke and Naruto alone in the big apartment meant to rehabilitate the fractured Uchiha.
Warnings: Erm...mentions of Het (KibaxHinata and NejixHinata) and pretty good on the shonen-Ai (...SasukexNaruto...duh...) kinda mild swearing (you know how I am -waves hand-)
Chapter 14
Naruto sat right next to Sasuke at the simple table that the team always ate their meals at. But it didn't feel like it normally did. There was a sense of loss like none of them were ever going to come back. Yes, he knew it was absurd but for now he felt it was okay to think so melodramatically. The chopsticks, heavy with noodles, came up to his mouth but then he put them back in the bowl. It just didn't feel right.
Sasuke turned to look at Naruto, this was an interesting development. While it was normal for Sasuke to take a while before he started eating Sasuke figured that Naruto would be inhaling the ramen since Sasuke had offered that they have ramen for breakfast. Naruto perked up when he felt Sasuke watching him. Their eyes met and Sasuke picked up his and Naruto's bowls and began to walk. Naruto stared at him for a second but knew he had no choice but to follow him.
"Hey where are you taking my breakfast?" Naruto asked with a lack of that normal volume he carried everywhere.
The boy in question turned around and just looked at Naruto and then turned back to his path. He walked through the door to the kitchen and sat down on the floor and placed the bowls in front of his crossed legs. Naruto eyed him up curiously but sat on the floor next to him. Sasuke nudged the bowl to him and then picked up his own and sucked the first noodle up.
"Sasuke?" Naruto inquired as he moved his bowl between his spread legs.
"Yeah?" Sasuke sort of replied after wiping some splattered broth off of his face with the back of his hand.
"Why are we sitting in the kitchen?" Naruto questioned with a strange tone.
Sasuke put his bowl in his lap, and looked at Naruto as if he was about two inches tall, "Weren't you uncomfortable out there?"
Naruto felt the sort of spell that Sasuke's eyes cast on him, "Er, Um, Yeah but that doesn't mean that…" it clicked in his head, "Oh…"
Sasuke nodded with that better-than-you look on his face. Naruto had that big stupid grin on his face much like he'd gotten away with stealing something important to you. Sasuke tried hard to ignore that look and continued to swallow down the fattening substance. He gulped down nearly three chopsticks worth of noodles before he turned to Naruto.
"What in the hell are you smiling so big for?!" Sasuke yelled with his eyebrows furrowed in frustration.
"Hehe," Naruto laughed in response. "You care about the way I feel."
"Do not you idiot," Sasuke replied as he tried to go back to eating his 'food'.
"Do too," Naruto said in a bubbly and childish voice.
"Shut up, Naruto," Sasuke had a threat laced somewhere in there but Naruto usually ignored that too.
"Hehe, I feel special," Naruto began as he started to crawl over to Sasuke. "Sasuke cares about how I feel."
Sasuke turned his face to address Naruto's fantasy but was met with Naruto's face right in his and he felt his breath sticking to his mouth. Naruto took the bowl in Sasuke's hands and placed it off to the side without looking away from those deep black eyes. Sasuke swallowed the lump in his throat with a lot of difficulty as Naruto kept advancing with the intent to lay him out flat on the kitchen floor. Naruto's hands were now on either side of Sasuke's sides and he was slowly making his way onto Sasuke's lap. He pushed forward a little bit and Sasuke was on his elbows for support.
Delighted pink lips moved to kiss paler questioning lips. Sasuke allowed Naruto to corner him into being submissive, he laid down and Naruto climbed on top of him. Naruto rested his weight on his hands, which were planted to the ground, and placed a leg on each side of Sasuke's hips. Sasuke threaded his fingers through Naruto's hair to bring him even closer to him if that was at all possible. Naruto nibbled on Sasuke's lower lip and Sasuke eagerly accepted Naruto who obliged with all happiness in the world.
Naruto broke the kiss and rested his forehead on Sasuke's as he brought both of his hands to cup the sides of Sasuke's face. Then Naruto smiled softly with no teeth, no sarcasm, no barriers, and Sasuke felt like his heart had stilled in that moment. Sasuke's hands slid down the flaxen tresses to land on Naruto's hands. Sasuke lifted his head off the ground and barely touched Naruto's lips with his own in the gentlest kiss he could manage. They broke apart again and Naruto smiled again.
"We, um, better finish eating," Sasuke suggested when he felt like those boundless blue eyes were going to pull him in and selfishly never let him go.
"Hehe, I suppose you're right," Naruto laughed lightly and his eyes wondered to the corner, where their meals would be but he made no move to get off of Sasuke.
Sasuke sat up a little bit and kissed Naruto, another one of those promises/kisses that assured them of something that only they knew. Naruto kissed the tip of his nose and started to crawl off of him. Once the blond was totally off of him he picked up his ramen and slurped up sinful amounts of it, and even made more for himself while Sasuke still nursed his first bowl.
Naruto leaned lazily against the counter as Sasuke surveyed the contents of the freezer. He rolled his neck, getting more and more bored as the silent seconds drained on. Sasuke was always so quiet when he was doing things like this, why couldn't he talk more. Understand that Naruto loved the mystique that Sasuke had and he drooled over the silent random kisses but come on! He could only take so much silence that didn't end in an impromptu make out session.
"Ugh," he grunted. "Are you done yet?"
Sasuke didn't bother looking away from the freezer, "Shut up or I'll never be done."
A certain pair of eyes rolled to the ceiling in silent sarcasm. Naruto uncrossed and crossed his legs in impatience. He huffed out a hot breath as Sasuke's fingers deftly touched the various boxes of food for a split second each. Naruto made sure his scowl was over the top so that Sasuke would understand the pain of waiting. Sasuke turned around to tell Naruto that he was ready but his eyebrows just rose questioningly.
"Don't make that face," he warned Naruto with a swift press to his lips. Before Naruto could call him a bastard and tell him that he could make whatever face he wanted to, that Sasuke wasn't the dictator of his face Sasuke finished his sentence. "It'll freeze that way."
Naruto wanted to melt from Sasuke's childish remark but kept his face slightly angry with a bit of the sunshine beaming through. Sasuke grabbed Naruto's shirt and led him to the door so that they could go to the store already. They put their cloaks and shoes on in relative silence and headed down the stairwell and into the cold day. Naruto smiled like a fool behind the obscuring flap of his cloak and Sasuke just shook his head every time he caught the sight of that smile. Loud crunches of snow could be heard as Naruto purposely stomped on all of the undisturbed patches of heaven.
Sasuke tugged at Naruto's cloak to pull him from his child's play for a moment. He smiled down at him and kissed him for a second before they continued their trek to the bank. Earlier Naruto had taken a moment to inform Sasuke that they were nearly out of food. Then he asked Sasuke if Kakashi left them money and Sasuke scoffed at him but said nothing about money. Naruto had stared at him but said nothing when he had walked into the kitchen.
The walk to the bank had been filled with Naruto nudging Sasuke and Sasuke ignoring these. For he knew that if he acknowledged these nudges Naruto would kiss him, and in public that was indecent. No, he would not kiss him in a crowded place. Out of the question. Forget about it.
They reached the bank in what seemed like no time and stood in line behind many other shinobis who had to deposit money from their mission or civilians who had to withdraw money for one thing or another. Sasuke took a small slip of paper from one of the round tables that dotted the area where those waiting had to stay. He filled it out fast and folded it. Naruto noticed that Sasuke seemed a little paranoid as he did this. Sasuke tucked his hands and the paper into his cloak.
"Why are you acting so secretive Sasuke?" Naruto asked from the resting position he'd taken up on the round table they were closest to.
"What are you talking about?" Sasuke turned to Naruto, not with loving eyes but also not with harsh eyes he turned on him many many years ago. It was a sort of in between. He was guarded but not cruel.
"You," Naruto simply said. "You're acting like you're about to rob this place."
Sasuke chuckled softly, "Not exactly."
"Eh?"
Then the line started to move. Soon Sasuke and Naruto were standing in the front behind a little strip of red tape. Naruto wondered for only a moment why they bothered with little lines of red to keep people in order. Before he cold ask Sasuke the Uchiha was beckoned forward by a red headed teller. She waved to them and then motioned for Sasuke's slip of paper.
"Good afternoon sir," she greeted while scanning the small rectangle of white.
Her nametag read 'Hanajima' and she smiled brightly at the two young men in front of her. She pulled out a small ripped piece of paper and a red pen. Slowly she pushed it closer to Sasuke.
"Please write down your PIN and the amount you wish to withdraw," Hanajima requested of him.
Naruto saw that Sasuke was smirking at her with one of those amused smirks. He looked like he was delighted to see her hide her fluster poorly. Naruto looked back at Hanajima and saw her hands had a slight shake. Why was she so nervous? It couldn't be because of who Sasuke was, she was a civilian, and what could she know about him?
"Thank you sir," she bowed her head slightly and stepped away for a moment.
The teller returned with a good amount of money in her hands. She had a light flush on her face as she sat in her chair. Hanajima counted the money, fifty, Sixty, Seventy, One-hundred, Two-hundred. Two hundred and fifty dollars all doled out to Uchiha, Sasuke.
"Thank you," Sasuke thanked behind his smirk.
Hanajima bowed, "It was my pleasure Uchiha-san!"
Sasuke folded the bills and put them in his front pocket for safe keeping. He walked out of the bank followed by a dumbfounded Naruto. Sasuke stood for a moment in the road to get his bearings.
"Hey," he pulled at the front of Naruto's cloak. "Where's the supermarket?"
"What the hell was that?" Naruto didn't even bother with Sasuke's question.
"What the hell was what?" Sasuke returned knowing that he wouldn't get an answer out of Naruto until he got a satisfying answer.
"The teller, and the the money and then the" Naruto took a break from flailing his limps haphazardly. "All of it!"
Sasuke rolled his eyes at Naruto, "What do you think she was acting that way?"
"I dunno!" Naruto shouted. "That's why I'm asking you!"
Dark strands shook as Sasuke's head showed his amusement at Naruto's slow moment, "Think about it Naruto. The Uchiha Clan was one of the richest clans in Konoha before they were all murdered," the last word left a horrible after taste on his tongue but he pushed forward. "Where do you think all of their massive savings would go if all but one was killed?"
Sasuke watched as the wheels turned in Naruto's head. He could practically hear the gears and catches clinking together as the boy thought. Then, the light flickered on.
"Whoa…" Naruto murmured as the number became too large for his skull to hold. "Seriously?!" he asked in a hushed tone.
Sasuke nodded and then let out his breath, "Now which way to the supermarket?"
Their arms held a modest amount of food in them, Sasuke had insisted on only getting a small amount since they didn't know when the others would be getting back. He wasn't too sure that Iruka and Sakura would appreciate frozen food in their freezer instead of their fresh foods for cooking amazing meals. So they had enough food to get through the week without any issues.
"You know, we could have gotten more ramen," Naruto pouted as they traversed through a less crowded area of the town.
Sasuke opened his mouth to say that they had enough back at the house but a blur that hugged Naruto tightly upon arrival. Naruto yelped when he was grabbed but he remained stationed in the snow next to Sasuke.
"AH!" Naruto exclaimed in surprise. "I'm being attacked!"
"Chill out Naruto!" the attacker tried to calm him down. He moved to face Naruto so that he could show Naruto who he was. "It's just me!"
Naruto stared at him for a second mulling the information around in his mind, "Oh! Kiba!!" then he hugged him back.
Sasuke rolled his eyes and muttered something about idiots. Kiba was laughing and saying random greetings while paying no attention to Sasuke. When their brotherly hug was done they stood a few feet apart and began to talk.
"Hey Naruto," Kiba started with a little embarrassment. "Can I talk to you," he glared at Sasuke. "In private."
Naruto nodded and Kiba tried to pull him over to the side. His efforts would have been just fine but Sasuke just sighed and followed them over to their little area of the street. Kiba was about to whisper something in Naruto's ear but he saw Sasuke and looked him incredulously.
"Um, do you mind giving us some room Uchiha?" Kiba asked with a voice that scraped at Sasuke's nerves and patience.
Sasuke held up his left hand and let the silver band glitter in the sun. Kiba just stared at it and then looked curiously between Sasuke and Naruto.
"Erm, it's great that you guys got married," He really didn't get what was going on. "But it doesn't mean you're joined at the hip."
Naruto laughed a little and tried to explain to Kiba about the rings, "No no, it's not that Kiba." He let a little more amusement slip through his lips. "Tsunade gave us these rings so that Sasuke didn't leave the village."
Kiba scratched at his head, "Okay…still missing something…like why Uchiha apparently can't be more than five feet away from you. Is he really that possessive?"
Naruto laughed even harder, "It's more like three feet."
"Come again?" the dog nin asked with a raised eyebrow.
There was a moment more of laughter and then Naruto composed himself slightly, "The rings aren't supposed to be more than three feet apart otherwise they go off, and then Sasuke goes to jail."
Kiba's mouth formed an 'o', "Got it."
Naruto nodded and Sasuke looked less than happy about this whole happening. Kiba pulled Naruto closer to him to get more privacy from Sasuke.
"Okay so Hinata is getting married to Neji in April," He started. "And you know that I can't live without her."
Again Naruto nodded and Sasuke looked away to pretend that this whole situation wasn't happening.
"I was wondering what you think I should-"
There was this black blur of a person that was coming closer to the three of them and Sasuke saw them coming closer. At first he thought nothing of it. Then there was a glint off of a shiny weapon that caught his eye. The blur got closer and Sasuke tackled Naruto and Kiba into the snow. Naruto and Kiba got their mouths full of cold snow and spit it out when Sasuke's hand's slackened some.
"The hell is your issue Uchiha?!" Kiba shouted as he stood to dust the snow off of him.
"What was that for Sasuke?" Naruto yelled the same time Kiba did.
Sasuke put his hand up to the two of them and saw the tail end of a transportation jutsu's puff of smoke. They stopped shouting for a second but started back up when the two of them realized that Sasuke wasn't their master. Sasuke finally got them to calm down when he shouted that they were nearly attacked. Needless to say that sobered them up real quickly. Sasuke took Naruto's hand and picked their groceries up from the snow and started to walk home.
Hopefully whoever that was wouldn't one: know where they lived and two: keep coming after them. Sasuke doubted that they were after Kiba, sure he was part of a very important clan but at the moment Sasuke was a bit more wanted between borders. When they got inside Sasuke locked all of the doors and windows and scouted the entire place for any genjutsus, traps, funny chakra signatures, anything that would hint at foul play. Then he pressed against Naruto and kissed him deep enough to make their heads spin with intensity.
Naruto knew that something was up. He may have been oblivious ninety-nine percent of the time and he may have missed some pretty in your face things but he wasn't by any means stupid. The way Sasuke kept checking the windows when he heard even the slightest bump at night, the way he'd keep his eyes moving when he didn't see anything outside and most of all the way he would kiss Naruto as if the world was ending tipped him off that there was something wrong. He scowled at Sasuke's sleeping form. Why did the bastard have to be so damn secretive?
He poked Sasuke's cheek and coal colored eyes flew open and immediately scanned the room for any signs of danger. Naruto blew air out in a frustrated manner.
"My God Sasuke," Naruto huffed in anger. "Why are you so wound up?!"
Sasuke drew his head back after he face Naruto, "In case you missed it, we nearly got attacked today."
"So what?" Naruto threw his hands up in the air. "We're ninjas, that's a normal thing!"
"Don't you get it Naruto?!" Sasuke asked not believing what he heard. "We nearly got attacked in our own village!"
Naruto was about to come back with something but the thought hit him. Sasuke let out a stiff breath and looked off to the side. Naruto stared down at the blanket with a forlorn expression.
"Look Naruto," Sasuke began as he rested his hands on Naruto's strong biceps. "If I'm being a little paranoid it's because I'm worried about what will happen to you."
There was going to be a sweet exchange of words, where Naruto said he was sorry but he then realized what Sasuke had said. A devilish grin split Naruto's face as he craned his neck to get a better view of Sasuke's expression. Sasuke looked down at him curiously.
"Hehe," the blond began. "Sasuke, you care about me don't you?"
Sasuke looked curiously at him, "Very much."
Naruto wasn't expecting that (he was expecting something more like what happened that morning, utter denial) and he also wasn't expecting when Sasuke buried his hands in Naruto's hair as he attempted to show Naruto just how much he cared for him. Naruto moaned when Sasuke moved to hover his body over Naruto's while snaking one hand to unbutton Naruto's orange night shirt. Sasuke pushed the fabric away and kissed Naruto's cheeks, jaw and neck. He came back up to Naruto's face and stared into his eyes for one long breathtaking second. Then those bright blue eyes smiled at him.
"Hehe," Naruto started up again. "You love me Sasuke."
Sasuke then hit his head on the headboard multiple times and Naruto kissed away the pain while laughing at how shy Sasuke-friggin-Uchiha could be. Who would've known? Naruto shrugged and continued to kiss Sasuke's face
End of Questions of Concern
A/N: The ending still has me awww-ing so I hope that you guys really like this chapter. It is a very important chapter because it is the beginning of the acts that will spiral into why I began to write this fic in the first place! Tell me what you think, before you say anything about Sasuke being OOC remember that he's made a TON of progress why living with his team! Oh and Hanajima, the bank teller, is my older sister.
Preview of Next Chapter: "Sasuke!" Naruto called to his companion, despite their proximities. "We got another letter from Sakura!" Sasuke's ear drums begged for mercy, "Yeah, I know...and so does THE LIGHTNING COUNTRY!" Naruto pouted at him but his anger lasted for a second before he was tearing through the paper to get to the words inside...