Just a quick note, as some of you may find this confusing, but this story is located somewhere shortly after Naruto's training with the elements, though neither Kakuzu not Hidan were killed/buried.

Also, for the ones who think that the Itachi/Naruto best friends relationship is going too fast, I'm hoping to explain the reason on a nearby future. It actually has a reason and it' actually hinted at in the chapter.

The one who guesses can have me doing a one-shot for him/her. Only the first one to guess, though!

RECAP:

It was then that Naruto – completely oblivious to the fact that Deidara didn't even seem to be breathing, at the moment – was faced with a completely new problem.

The dragon was huge. Where exactly was he going to put it?

Chapter III (The Golden Trio)

Deidara slammed the door shut and slid to the ground, breathing heavily. What exactly was wrong with him? He had not been running like crazy, nor had he been exercising intensely, yet his heart insisted on pounding loudly in his chest and his breath came out ragged.

The bomber closed his eyes and took one calming deep breath, forcing all of his muscles to relax and his breath to even out. He finally opened his eyes, staring at the empty room.

Naruto had just left, with a happy – and smaller, since Deidara had taught him how to use chakra to change the dragon's size – clay dragon in tow, hollering about how he was glad Deidara had helped him pick a name for the dragon. He seemed to have completely forgotten that he was going to name the dragon 'Sake'.

The bomber sighed. He had merely suggested Roar as a joke, for the dragon seemed to enjoy roaring loudly in his ears, but Naruto had seen a great opportunity to once again make a fool out of himself and named the oblivious thing 'Roar'.

He had then proceeded to punch Deidara playfully in the arm, joking about something the blonde hadn't paid attention to and then the world had come to an end. For Deidara, at least. And the very reason for that was that as the blonde let his hand slide down from Deidara's side, it accidently brushed against Deidara's tight.

Naruto had left not even a full minute later, saying he was tired and thanking the blonde for letting him watch him work.

And that was the cause of Deidara's current breathless state. Yes, something as insignificant as a slight touch from the newest member of the Akatsuki.

Regardless, Deidara struggled to his feet and stumbled to the bed, letting himself fall backwards into the soft dark red sheets. The artist frowned deeply, profoundly annoyed by his own display of weakness. He was an S-Class criminal, trained in the art of murder – specifically by explosion – and a weapon of terror ready to be unleashed upon anyone who dared to cross his path.

He was not some love struck teenager whose crush had just invited him to the school dance.

He. Was. Not.

Never! He felt like sticking his tongue out for no one to see, like a seven-year-old child sulking in his room. Instead, he raised one had to the sky and allowed the tongue on that hand to do what he wanted to do. Yes, he was that childish.

Lastly, he resorted himself to change into his loose pajama pants, tossing the fishnet shirt he had on aside and standing with his upper body bare. It was far too hot for him to wear it, anyway. With one last sigh, he undid his ponytail and took of his forehead protector, tossing it to the ground carelessly, letting his blonde hair – a bit paler than Naruto's – fall freely.

"Good night" He said to no one, once again falling to the bed and snuggling up against the covers. He was asleep in less than nothing.

"Are you hungry?"

One low growl, almost like a purr was heard from directly behind him.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'. Hmm... What do clay dragons eat?" The blonde young man stopped in the way to his room, deep in thought.

Another purr was heard as the horse-sized dragon stood beside his master, lifting his head to touch Naruto's cheek with its snout.

"Err... Do you eat... clay?" The Jinchuuriki asked, cocking his head to the side as he scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

Roar snorted in a very un-dragon-like way and resorted to stare at his master with mirth-filled violet eyes.

"You're not being very helpful, you know?" Again, a soft purr was produced by the clay dragon "Come on! Give me a clue!"

"So, you're still up, uh? And talking to yourself too!" The quiet and deep voice of Itachi resonated through the hallway, coming directly from behind him and scaring him shitless.

The blonde jumped ten feet in the air before whirling around to scowl at a smirking Itachi.

"I'm not talking to myself, Wrinkles!" Cue Itachi's growl "And Deidara kept me up all of this time. Well... his art did, anyways" As if to illustrate the blonde's words, Roar fixed his gaze on Itachi and growled loudly enough to provoke slight vibrations through the hideout.

The Uchiha raise an eyebrow at the odd-looking piece of clay standing next to Naruto.

"Is that supposed to be... a horse?" He ventured, squinting in order to see a bit more in the darkness. The fact that his vision was faltering most certainly did not help the matter either.

"Hey! Roar takes offense to that!" Naruto cried out, catching himself at the last second and lowering his voice to the point of a whisper. He stared the Uchiha down furiously "Roar is a dragon!"

"Aren't dragons supposed to be huge?"

"Aren't twenty-four-year-olds supposed to have no wrinkles?" Naruto shot back, slipping easily into their almost constant banter. After several years of playing Cat and Mouse and a whole day of actually getting to know – more like evaluate silently – each other, the beginnings of a friendship had begun to sink in.

"Can it, Ninetails"

"Whatever, Wrinkles" Both men stared each other down, scowling profoundly. After a while, Itachi sighed and retreated to his usual self, arranging his expression to match that of a statue.

"What kind of name is Roar anyway?" Naruto's scowl deepened.

"A cool name. Deidara suggested it"

"I should have known the kid was involved"

"Well, no freaking duh! Who else stays up at ungodly hours of the night to make a dragon out of clay that can actually move?" The blonde teased, leaning against the wall as his knees began to weaken from exhaustion. Itachi, being the skilled shinobi he was, noticed the detail.

"You should get some sleep."

"Roar hasn't eaten yet" The boy protested, eyeing Itachi wearily as the Uchiha walked towards him.

"Roar is made of clay. He doesn't have to eat. If he's getting weak, at some point, just feed it your chakra" The Uchiha explained plainly, holding Naruto by the elbow as the boy faltered in his step.

"Oh. I hadn't thought of that. Thanks, Wr-" He caught himself on time, wanting to really thank the older man and not make fun of him "Itachi" He said instead.

"You're welcome"

Retreating into his silent mode, Itachi pushed Naruto forward slightly, nudging the boy in the direction of his room. Too tired to argue, the boy slumped forward, tripping over his feet a few times before falling into a comfortable pace.

The trip to Naruto's room was quiet. When you had Itachi as a companion, you didn't exactly have the opportunity to talk about your life, as his silent mood was depressing, and Naruto was rather tired.

"We're here" The Uchiha stated, pointing to Naruto's room's door.

"Thanks for the... ride..." The boy blushed and let out a disgruntled groan at how kinky the words sounded to his perverted – or healthy, as Jiraiya would say – eighteen-year-old ears "Good night"

If Itachi found something wrong with how Naruto phrased his 'thank you', he didn't mention it, resorting to nodding and stepping back.

"It wasn't a problem. Good night, Ninetails"

"Can it, Wrinkles" Naruto stuck his tongue out at Itachi and disappeared into his room before the enraged Uchiha had a chance of severely damaging him.

The next day, the sun rose to find a rather pissed off blonde Jinchuuriki standing next to an equally disgruntled blue shark-man-thing carrying a rather enormous sword and a perfect-as-ever Uchiha that looked like he was some sort of decoration and not a real human being.

In front of the three men, stood a colossal building.

For being underground, Naruto had never thought that the Akatsuki Hideout was that big. Granted, the place they were in was not exactly underground, being more like half underground and half out in the middle of a forest, but it was still a part of the Hideout and it was still huge.

It was the place where he was going to be tested in order to earn his place among the Akatsuki and it was also the place where they – meaning Kisame and Itachi – had dragged him to at six in the freaking morning!

The other Akatsuki were already up and sitting in one of the two large bench like sections of the training grounds. Hidan was in one of the front rows, grinning sadistically as he twirled his scythe in one hand. Next to him, trying to convince the other Akatsuki to place bets on the combat results was Kakuzu, looking as boring as he usually did.

Both Pain and Konan were sitting somewhere in the middle rows, next to each other, their faces betraying no emotions as they stared the competitors down. Zetsu was one row behind the Leader, talking quietly to himself, for all Naruto could hear with his Fox Hearing.

Tobi was naturally on the front row, waving what seemed like a handmade little flag with Naruto's name written in it, madly while cheering the boy up. Deidara was next to him, seemingly asleep.

With a sigh, the three men stepped out of the shadows and into the uncovered part of the training grounds. Naruto eyed the audience with a critical eye, evaluating their interference in the battle, but shrugged and passed them off as minor distraction and gave a big 'thumbs up' at Tobi, who cheered louder.

Finally, Leader stood.

"Tobi, that's enough for now, thank you" He ordered coolly, effectively shutting the teenager up "As I said yesterday, you will now be tested. You will fight against Itachi on a one-on-one battle and the results shall decide your fate. Be aware that the punishment for failure is death through extraction"

Naruto nodded.

"I understand, Leader" He sagely replied with a bow. Pain nodded.

"Very well, you may begin" He stated, sitting back down. Kisame turned towards Naruto and slapped him on the shoulder.

"Good luck, mate." He barked with a shark-like grin as he jumped up to the benches.

Then, out of nowhere, a loud roar interrupted everyone's thoughts. As an eagle ready to strike its prey, Roar descended from the skies, wings tight against his lizard-like body, as he wheezed past a group of birds who flew off hurriedly.

Pain's stare shifted from Naruto to the dragon, contemplatively.

Just as the dragon was about to hit the ground and be reduced to nothing more than a steaming pile of clay, it spread its wings and landed heavily in front of Naruto.

Pain's eyes turned perplexed, just as a soft white tongue darted out of the dragon's mouth and touched Naruto's cheek. His stare turned to Deidara, who was now fully awake, leaning forward as he surveyed the scene before him.

In an open act of affection, the dragon opened its wings and closed them around the Jinchuuriki, holding him for a moment before letting go. Naruto laughed, a bit embarrassed as he petted the dragon's head lightly.

"Go and wait next to Deidara" He commanded, chuckling nervously "And whatever happens, don't interfere" Roar nodded grimly as it stepped back in order to get room to take flight again.

The clay beast leapt into the sky and landed next to the clay master, putting his head on the ground with the expression of a lost puppy. Right then, Naruto was determined not to lose, for the dragon's sake – as weird as that sounded.

Deidara reached out and patted the dragon's head once, after which the clay monster promptly snuggled close to its creator, with its best imitation of puppy dog eyes.

Itachi cleared his throat.

"Ok, let us begin"

Naruto didn't wait for him to attack, jumping back a few feet before taking out a kunai and staring at Itachi.

"Yes. Let us begin"

Without a second warning, Itachi dashed forward, hands blurring into a series of hand seals unrecognizable to the human eye. Naruto tensed, ready to dodge any attack the Uchiha might throw at him, while jumping back several feet.

Just as Naruto had somewhat predicted, a giant fireball – intense enough to melt diamonds – shot from Itachi's lips, aiming for him at an unbelievable speed.

Naruto rolled out of its way just in time to block an attack from Itachi with his kunai. The weapon was thrown out of his fingers and slid to a stop a few feet away from him, out of immediate reach. The blonde Jinchuuriki barely had the time to take a deep breath as he was already somersaulting out of the way of five shuriken thrown at him, and bending backwards to avoid another five.

'Damnit! At this rate, I will be dead within ten minutes. If not, then exhausted at least' The boy thought, using the back of his hand to clean the sweat out of his neck.

'No, you won't' Rumbled a voice from deep within himself, rasping as if it had a dry throat. Naruto froze and was almost hit by a punch from Itachi. He promptly jumped back to avoid any immediate damage as he scowled.

'What do you want?' He asked, ducking to avoid a punch from Itachi as he jumped back yet again to escape the blur of punches and kicks that Itachi seemed to love to deliver.

'Freedom, but I have a suspicion that you won't give me that. At least, though, allow me to defeat the Uchiha'

'Why don't you leave me alone? This is my fight'

'Ah, but it is not. You see, when you talk about you, you're referring to me as well, for I am inseparable of you for obvious reasons. And look out for that punch' Naruto ducked to avoid the punch and then blocked the kick aimed at his head.

'I don't need your help. I'm doing fine'

'No, you're getting exhausted with no fight at all. No more running, it is time for action' Naruto avoided a well-aimed kick at his crotch and growled in frustration.

'He's moving too fast. I can't keep up with his speed'

'Your human eyes are too weak to follow his movements. Allow me to lend you my power for a bit' The demon wasted no time in listening to Naruto complaining and shot out a wave of chakra that traveled from Naruto's chakra pool all the way up to his eyes.

Naruto screamed in agony at the unexpected surge of pain that rushed through his eyes, washing them of their pure blue color and turning them into a demonic red with pupils like slits.

On the benches, Pain's gaze snapped back to Naruto as he tensed and leaned forward to better decipher what exactly was happening down at the training grounds. He vaguely noticed Deidara leaning forward as well, almost falling off of his bench. The boy jumped away from Itachi and screamed again, but the sound was more controlled, as if he was expecting the pain.

Now, if there was one thing Pain knew of was, well, pain and that scream... he shook his head. That scream was pure agony. Now, he had never been one for physical pain so he couldn't possibly understand what had set the boy off. He hadn't even been hit by Itachi yet. The boy dodged or blocked all of the Uchiha's attacks, so it couldn't be something caused by Itachi.

Even the Uchiha had stopped, uncertain as to why exactly was Naruto screaming and was poised in a weird way – half running to help Naruto and half defending from a possible attack. All of the other Akatsuki leaned forward with a glint of interest in their eyes.

Naruto's body started to convulse as he jumped back again, away from Itachi's reaching hand, and started to morph.

His skin was coated by a seemingly ethereal mass of red liquid and his neatly trimmed nails were sharpening by the second, turning more and more into claws. His teeth grew larger and sharper, specially his front teeth, which turned into true fangs, sharper than a wolf's.

The red liquid stretched and turned into a wiggling tail behind Naruto, as well as two long fox ears on top of his head.

The screaming stopped altogether and Naruto stood, head hung low with his messy hair falling to his face and hiding it from view. A tired chuckle resounded, driving chills down the Akatsuki members' spine.

Itachi stopped his mad run for the boy and jumped back, holding his kunai ready to defend himself.

"Eh... What do you know? I was able to do it" The boy in front of him chuckled, his face still shadowed by his hair.

Now the observers in the benches would – and did – think he was talking about the transformation itself. While that was partially truth, he was actually referring to how he had managed to control the fox's chakra before it consumed him and sent him into a four-tails transformation.

"Now, Itachi... Don't hold back" He lifted his head slowly, allowing his golden bangs to fall into their place, revealing a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth and thickened whiskers. The mouth stretched into a grin "Our fight..."

He lifted his head suddenly, eyes opening to reveal the blood-colored irises. Itachi narrowed his eyes and tightened his stance as Tobi gasped dramatically and Hidan whistled appreciatively.

Pain remained silent; taking in all of the information he was being given.

"Begins now!" Naruto yelled, charging at Itachi with renewed strength. The Uchiha allowed himself a strict smirk as he readied his weapon to receive the blow.

As Naruto was about to strike Itachi with his claws – getting his hand chopped off in the process – he blurred out of existence, leaving a very confused Itachi in his wake. The Uchiha narrowed his eyes and focused whatever chakra he could expend in his eyes, activating the Sharingan.

Just as he was about to look for Naruto's chakra, he heard a gush of air wheeze past his ears and turned around, with his kunai ready. He was not fast enough, though, as Naruto suddenly disappeared again and reappeared to his side, delivering a powerful blow of his claws to his ribs that sent Itachi flying through the training grounds.

The Akatsuki – minus the Leader and Konan, obviously – were now fully into the battle and roared in appreciation of the blonde's attack. Roar threw his head back and let out a growl as a form of cheering.

Naruto allowed himself to smirk as he steadied himself by digging his claws into the ground beneath him and waited for Itachi to regain his balance. True enough, the dark-haired man rolled on the floor as soon as he hit it and jumped back to his feet, now smirking openly.

Without wasting any more time, the Uchiha's hands blurred into a frenzy of movement before settling into a tiger seal. Itachi arched his back and inhaled deeply, before expelling all the air he had in his lungs and directing it at Naruto.

The air promptly turned into a massive fireball that lunged at Naruto. The boy's eyes widened slightly in a fairly small display of fear but he readied himself, planting his feet on the ground and not moving an inch. His fingers flexed nervously. Itachi's eyes widened slightly at seeing the boy staying firm and not moving from the collision route.

His muscles tensed as he prepared to extinguish the fireball, should the need arise. The objective was testing the boy, not killing him and unleashing the Nine-tailed Fox.

However, Naruto had plans to stop the fireball or, at least, escape from it without being burned to a crisp. He accessed his chakra and sent some – normal chakra, not demonic one – into the air around him, concentrating it around his right hand area. The air compressed and bent to his will, taking shape and starting to produce an annoying loud whistling noise that had Hidan swearing loudly.

Itachi's eyes widened significantly as a sword started to take shape in the boy's hand, glowing slightly due to Naruto's inexperience with air molding. It was a fairly built sword, with a large blade that was even larger near the cross-guard.

Smiling to himself at succeeding to form a realistic sword, Naruto tightened his grip on the sword and got ready. The fireball was close. Two seconds more and it would be upon him. One second.

Naruto lifted the sword above his head and let out a feral yell as he made it descend. Itachi's eyes widened dramatically as the air blade cut through his fireball, forcing it to divide and passing around the boy while leaving him unharmed.

Naruto smiled for a second before he lifted his hand and opened it, allowing the air blade to dissolve. His smiled turned feral once more as he crossed his fingers.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" He cried, creating six clones of himself, all posed just as he was and all with the same determined glint in their eyes.

Two of the clones stepped forward, gathering their chakra – or should he say, his – on their hands. Realizing what they were doing, Itachi gritted his teeth before running to them to attack.

Two of the remaining four clones stepped forward and, at a command from Naruto, invoked air swords, lunging at the Uchiha. Itachi kicked one of the clones and then turned to the other, expecting the one he had kicked to disappear. Naruto, however, had other ideas. He pushed more chakra into the clone and made him descend his blade against Itachi's shoulder.

The dark-haired Sharingan wielder, turned around in time to dodge the attack and counter with a kick to the crotch. After that particular blow, the clone fell to the ground moaning and disappeared in a puff of smoke. The real Naruto groaned in pain as he felt the clone's feelings and memories flood back into him.

Itachi quickly disarmed the other clone and annihilated it with a well-aimed punch at his neck. He whirled around as the Sharingan detected enormous amounts of chakra coming his way and jumped out of the way of a Rasengan aimed at his chest. The real Naruto crashed into the ground, sliding a few feet before he stopped, groaning in pain.

"I have the Sharingan. It detects chakra before I can feel it coming and it never fails" Itachi informed him, straightening his back and smirking in Naruto's direction. Naruto smirked back.

"You're so full of yourself, Wrinkles" He shot back, smiling at the enraged expression on Itachi's face.

Suddenly, there was an eerie silence, vaguely filled by whistling sound.

Itachi missed a heartbeat. Two clones launched themselves at him, one holding something in his hand. Itachi turned around, but not fast enough. A massive shuriken made of pure wind chakra slammed into his left arm.

"Wind Style: RASENSHURIKEN!" The Naruto clones shouted at the same time, pressing the disc of air chakra further into Itachi's arm.

The Uchiha let out a strangled cry as he fell to the ground, some unexpected tears gathering at the corners of his eyes. And then, the chakra shuriken dissolved and the clones puffed into inexistence.

Naruto jumped to his feet and dashed to the place where Itachi was still laying on the ground, clutching his arm in pain. He jumped the last feet, landing with one foot on Itachi's throat as a kunai caressed his chest.

He was about to boast about how he had won when he realized the damage he had done to Itachi's arm. The blonde boy's eyes widened and the One-Tail receded as he fell to his knees next to Itachi.

He turned his head and fixed his stare in the audience who was dead silent, watching him intently.

"Help" He rasped out, still in utter shock "He's hurt" He added, a bit louder. That got an instant reaction out of the audience.

Pain jumped out of his seat and swiftly jumped to where Naruto was kneeled next to Itachi, who was still writhing – but trying very hard not to – in agony as his arm was still being completely destroyed in the inside, followed quickly by Konan. Deidara's eyes widened and he stopped petting Roar. Hidan stared wide-eyes with his jaw hanging open as Kakuzu just stared impassively.

Tobi let out a squeal of anguish and leaned forward, almost falling down on his face – or mask, depending on how you saw it. Kisame's eyes widened impossibly as he gripped the hilt of Samehada until his knuckles turned white.

Overall, the members who were well acknowledged with Itachi's invincibility, were shocked beyond words that the ever-untouched Uchiha was sprawled on the ground clutching his arm as a worried demon vessel – the same one he had been sent to capture, no less – hovered over him, ignoring the inhuman effort that Konan was obviously making to pry him away from Itachi so that Pain could tend to his wounds.

All of the Akatsuki watched in mild awe at the sight of Konan practically dragging the remorseful boy away from the defeated Uchiha. Hidan recovered from his shocked state long enough to smirk and extend a hand to Kakuzu.

"You owe me money" He exclaimed triumphantly. Kakuzu growled but reluctantly reached for his pocket and pulled out a bag of money. He looked at it longingly before it was ripped from his hands by Hidan. The Jashin worshipper's smirk widened.

"It's a pleasure to bet against you"

"Bastard"

Naruto was pacing wildly in front of the door that concealed the room in which Itachi was being healed by Pain. Konan was staring at him impassively as he ran a shaky hand through his unruly hair.

"Talk to me" She finally said, hazel eyes pinning him in place as her inner self was hopping around, overjoyed that he had finally stopped pacing. Naruto threw her a miserable look.

"I didn't mean to hurt him" He finally choked out, closing his eyes. Konan almost winced at the remorseful tone in his voice. Instead, she remained calm and answered impassively.

"I know. I am sure that Pain will not be too severe in his punishment if there is any punishment at all" At seeing Naruto's confused look, Konan elaborated.

"Technically, you were being tested and therefore weren't an official member of Akatsuki yet. This could be seen as an attempt to assassinate our members from the inside" She held up a hand when Naruto opened his mouth to protest.

"However, even the blindest of us all can see that you didn't actually mean to hurt him. What brings me to my next question: why don't you want to hurt him?"

Naruto stopped moving all together, freezing in mid-gesture as he stared wide-eyed at the blue-haired girl in front of him. Konan began to wonder if he was actually breathing. A few minutes of silence dragged on between the two, interrupted only by the occasional grunts of pain coming from the room, which would cause Naruto to look at the door nervously.

After what seemed like an eternity, Naruto finally found his voice to answer.

"I don't know. It's really weird. I feel like I've known him for a long time and it's really easy to talk to him. I feel like we're becoming friends. Weird, uh?" He finished with a nervous chuckle and a fox-like smirk.

Konan allowed herself to display a small gentle smile at the young man's honest and innocent words. That boy had yet to see the world as it really was – dark and full of hatred and pain. For the boy, everything was orange... The boy himself was orange in every sense of the word. He was bright and optimistic. Konan didn't know what to do in the face of such innocence.

"It's not weird. Some people are born with bonds stronger than words can express and when they meet, it just kind of falls into place. Like soul mates." Naruto jumped back, startled.

"Isn't 'soul mate' a term used to describe romantic relationships? 'I'll never leave you, you're my everything!' and whatnot?" Naruto spat, edging away from Konoha, lest her be some sort of homosexual couples fangirl.

Konan's smirk broke into a full blown smile at the blonde's naivety.

"It doesn't always have to involve two romantically attracted people. Sometimes they are best friends. Others, just two people in need of support. It doesn't erase the fact that they were made for each other, though." Naruto nodded, deep in thought.

"You know, I was wondering..." He never got to finish that sentence, though, for the door was pushed open and the man with spiky orange hair and multiple piercings adorning his face stepped out, closing the door softly.

"He is asking for you" He said emotionlessly. Naruto swallowed nervously before nodding and pushing the door open. He threw one last worried glance at Konan before slipping into the room and closing the door.

The room was submersed in darkness, making it almost impossible for the blonde-haired Jinchuuriki to see anything. He closed his eyes and decided to rely in his sense of smell and hearing. Carefully, feeling things like a blind man, he made his way towards the bed in which Itachi was lying. That part of the room was actually a bit more illuminated and the blonde could see the faint outlines of Itachi's limp form, with his arm bandaged.

Shaking, he sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Hey, Wrinkles" He chuckled nervously, feeling a bead of sweat run through his brow. Itachi turned his head slowly to look at the almost shaking boy.

"Hey" He croaked out, coughing to clear his throat. Naruto relaxed a little at the not-at-all-accusing voice and his body almost shook from relief.

"So, hmm..." He was cut off by a scoff from the man in the bed.

"I can't believe you actually won! I'm going to get back at you!" Itachi coughed out, cracking a small smile at the blonde Jinchuuriki. His smile, however, faded when the blonde man paled alarmingly and started getting a little bit greener.

"About that... I didn't actually mean to hurt you, you know?" Naruto said, so low that Itachi had to strain to hear.

"Uh... That wasn't a problem. I was going easy on you. Your attack did catch me off guard, though" Itachi replied, hoping to comfort the boy. Why the boy was so distressed was a complete mystery to him, though.

Naruto didn't feel reassured, but Itachi's words didn't sound accusing in the least, so he dropped the subject, shaking his head lightly to clear his thoughts.

"So... what did the big, bad leader say?"

"Nothing. Just to rest for a couple of days. And that you'll be my personal maid" Naruto's jaw dropped before he shouted in outrage.

"He said nothing of the sort!"

Itachi chuckled tiredly.

"Ok, so he didn't. So what?" Naruto scowled and folded his arms, putting a little.

"You're mean. I was actually going to believe you!"

"Well, you can be my maid if you want to. I'm pretty sure we can find you a pretty maid costume and all..." The Uchiha trailed off, choosing to laugh/cough his ass off at the look of pure outrage in Naruto's eyes.

The Uzumaki narrowed his eyes.

"And to think I was actually dead worried about you!" He huffed, turning his head to the side childishly. Itachi, however, got deadly quiet. Naruto's curious look turned upon him and he took a more serious expression.

"What?"

"You were dead worried about me? Why?" Itachi finally croaked out.

"I don't know. Konan said some things, though, but I don't think-" He was cut off by Konan opening the door.

"You must leave, Naruto. It is late already and we're planning something for tomorrow. Our leader's orders are to get as much rest as possible" The blue-haired woman didn't seem in the mood to negotiate and just stared impassively at Naruto until the Kyuubi vessel grudgingly got up and marched out of the room.

The door closed and Itachi was, once more, alone in the dark.

Ok, so I'm not really satisfied with the chapter. Might come back and change it, later (if I fell like it). So, we didn't have much NaruDei in this chapter but something big is coming up.

Read and Review.