Disclaimer: I don't own.

A/N: So how does everyone like it so far. A big thanks to everyone that's reviewed. It's actually a great motivator. Also for all the perverts out there reading this story. Yes, I know your there. Just wanted to acknowledge your presence and leaving you a note telling you that most likely what you're searching for will come up in soon.

Chapter 6

"What do you mean the sale didn't go through?" Naruto exclaimed.

"A bunch of legal issues came up. Our sale hadn't gone through yet so it's the seller's choice to back out. We aren't sure if she chose to not sell anymore or if it's a legal thing stopping the sale. But as of right now, it really doesn't look like it will be ours." Ino sighed.

Nozomi wouldn't do something like that. What kind of legal thing could stop a sale from going through? Nozomi was the sole owner and that was her right to sell. Plus she was delighted it was turning into a flower shop.

Naruto ran a hand through his hair. He'd almost finished the house with Sasuke's help.

Sasuke.

Did he mess up the sale? Naruto flipped through his memory. Sasuke couldn't have. Naruto had been with him almost the whole time. He hadn't had time to run off to a lawyer. Maybe he did something before. Naruto shook his head. That couldn't work. Sasuke still thought the family had lived here when he showed up. The only person he'd met that knew anything about the house was Midori.

Naruto fisted his hair.

"Alright, so now what?"

"Well, the current owner will be paying my father back for everything he's spent on renovating the place. She apologized. She even requested that you specifically keep working on it and to do what you wanted with the house.

Ino gave a sad smile and Naruto returned it.

There had to be some sort of explanation and he would figure it out.

He gave Ino her credit card back before giving her a hug and seeing her out the door. He walked back up stairs. He watched Sasuke still messing with the light fixture.

"Stupid wires…"

Then the house went black and there was the sound of something shattering.

"Sasuke."

He received silence.

"Teme, are you alive still."

"Yes."

"Fantatic. I'll grab the flashlight."

Naruto turned and felt around through his belongings and found a flashlight. He shined it into the bathroom seeing the broken glass on the floor and Sasuke in the exact same position as before only not moving. Naruto kicked the glass off to the side before looking at the wiring. Naruto wasn't sure what Sasuke had just done, but whatever it was caused the house to darken. They went down to the kitchen and waited a moment.

"Do we have candles?" Sasuke suddenly spoke up.

"I think there is some in that cabinet over there." Naruto said pointing in the general direction.

After a few moments Sasuke came back with a few candles and candle holders. He pulled out a lighter from his pocket and lit them.

"Naruto is everything alright?"

"Just peachy."

"something tells me your lying."

Naruto held his head in his hand and looked over at the dark haired man. Sasuke was honestly concerned. He could see it in those dark eyes.

"My friend came by and told me the sale fell through."

Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Some kind of legal thing came up and now she won't own the place."

Sasuke's face smoothed out into one of understanding.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's fine. Looks like we will still be renovating the house though. We get free reign on what to do." Naruto said tiredly.

"So… I'm off the hook for breaking the ugly fixture upstairs?" Sasuke inquired.

Naruto snorted. It was ugly. "Yes teme, your off the hook. How did you short out the house anyway?"

"I honestly don't know. I wasn't even touching anything at that given moment." Sasuke said with his eyebrows together.

"Alright well, I'll be heading off to bed. " Naruto said with a yawn. "Will you be joining me…" He batted his eyes playfully.

Sasuke still hadn't forgotten the last time they shared a bed. He shook his head.

Naruto made a confused face before shrugging. He walked up the stairs waving him off.

Sasuke watched Naruto disappear up the stairs. He placed his elbows on the table and put his fingers together before he placed his chin on them. He stared ahead at the candle burning in front of him.

He closed his eyes and prayed this news meant things would finally look up for him.

The next morning Naruto came down stairs to see the raven haired man asleep where he'd left him. He walked over the him and watch him sleep for a moment.

Naruto smiled down at him. Naruto could admit he was starting to like Sasuke. He had attractive qualities. Naruto got annoyed by him but didn't dislike anything about the tall man. Naruto, tilted his head and saw that Sasuke was actually asleep on a piece of paper. He took a quick glance at it and saw it was a sketch for a slightly covered deck.

Naruto raised his eyebrows. Teme could draw. Sasuke slept so peacefully. Naruto reached his hand to the soft hair, before he reached it he hesitated for a moment, before running his fingers through the hair. It was as smooth as possible and it slide right through his fingers.

Naruto stroked it a few times before pale eyelids fluttered open. Sasuke smiled lightly.

"Don't stop. Mmmm. Feels good." Sasuke exhaled before getting comfortable again. Naruto laughed at his antics before running his hand through it one more time.

"Time to wake up darling." Naruto said in a sing-song voice that was overly high pitched.

Sasuke sat up and stretched giving a yawn.

"Hmmm"

"Would you like some coffee?" Naruto asked seriously looking at him.

"Yes, Coffee would be great honey." Sasuke teased back.

Sasuke rose and walked over to the bathroom yawning.

Naruto started on the coffee, he glanced back over his shoulder to the bathroom door and drew his lips between his teeth. He looked back over to the coffee. Naruto actually liked doing mundane things, especially for other people. He was always being told how giving and caring he was. Naruto knew he'd make an awesome husband and dad down the line.

He drew his bottom lip back into teeth. He was 25. Maybe he should start dating someone.

Naruto gave a long drawn out sigh.

"If you sigh like the world is going to end again I'll have to show you you're very much alive and well and no apocalypse is coming yet." Sasuke said sleepily.

Naruto shook his head, "How do you like your coffee?"

"Black."

"Like your soul." Naruto teased.

"I'd say black like my eyes or hair, but soul works too."

Naruto poured two cups of coffee before grabbing the crème out of the fridge that had successfully bought and installed before the sale faultered. He poured some in and walked over to the pantry and grabbed the sugar. He put a couple of spoonfuls in before returning the now out of place items in the designated locations.

"If you ever need to know for future reference, I like my crème and sugar with a touch of coffee."

Sasuke smiled.

"What day of the week is it?"

"Sunday I believe."

"Does this place get the paper?"

"I think so."

Sasuke walked down the stairs and returned after a couple of moments.

He held the paper in his hand and was flipping through it. He took the comic section out and tossed it to the side of the table.

Naruto picked up the discarded comic section and began to read through the comics.

Sasuke tilted his portion of the paper down and shook his head at the silently laughing blonde.

"You would."

"You're a predictable bastard yourself. Go back to reading the business section."

After both men had drank their coffee and flipped through the papers, Naruto leaned over and picked up the sketch Sasuke had drawn last night. He could know get a better view of it.

"This is actually really good Teme."

Sasuke shrugged while looking down at the table.

"Did you go to design school?"

"I did. Almost finished."

"What happened?"

Sasuke didn't really want to talk about why he left a school that was giving him his dream job. Where did his wonderful comfortable silence go?

Naruto watched as Sasuke began to fidget slightly. Apparently he'd picked an uncomfortable topic. Naruto wanted to be there for for his friends. He considered Sasuke a friend now. Plus, living with someone does stuff to you.

Sasuke opened up his eyes and looked straight back at Naruto. He really didn't want to talk about his personal life. Naruto was too easy to grow attached too and comfortable around.

Naruto gave Sasuke a look that he hoped conveyed trust and support.

"Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yes Sasuke. I would like too know."

Sasuke almost groaned aloud. He liked Naruto, but right now he had to either step on a limb and be safe or fall. He would prefer the former to the latter.

"Alright."

Naruto sat crosslegged in the chair and waited for Sasuke to start talking. Maybe Naruto would figure out why Sasuke was the way he is.

"It started out long before I got into Architect and Design school. It started when I was a child. I was only 5 years old and was already being pressured into being perfect. I couldn't go outside and play sports. I wasn't allowed to play board games. I just studied. Constantly."

6 Years Old

"Hi Sasuke-kun, I was wondering if you'd like to go to my birthday party." The little girl extended a small invitation with stickers on it to him.

"I'm sorry but I cannot go."

"Oh, Okay." The little girl walked away disheartened.

Sasuke didn't want to say no. He wanted to go to a birthday party like all the other kids. But, he already knew the answer her father would give.

"You shouldn't waste time with such frivolous things. You should spend it studying."

Sasuke never got to go to a party. He didn't even have one of his own. He eventually distanced himself from everyone to avoid having to repeatedly reject their offers for sleepovers, parties or playing.

12 years old

"Aniki?"

"Yes otouto?"

"I think something is wrong with me."

Itachi rushed over and placed his wrist to Sasuke's forehead feeling for a temperature.

"How do you mean? Does your head hurt?"

"No. I don't feel sick. I just think that something's wrong."

Itachi furrowed his eyebrows at his younger brother.

"Tell me." Itachi said softly.

"I don't like girls. Not like how other boys do."

Itachi's eyes widened a fraction before he pulled Sasuke to his chest. Sasuke started to sob.

"Is something wrong with me?" Sasuke looked up with tearful eyes.

"No otouto. Nothing is wrong. Not everyone likes girls. Some people like boys and that's ok."

Sasuke pondered what his aniki had said.

"It's ok for a boy to like another boy."

Itachi nodded. He placed both hands on Sasuke's shoulders and gave him a serious look.

"But Sasuke, not everyone sees that as ok. You can't let Father find out. He wouldn't like it."

Sasuke understood and spent the next couple of hours talking to his brother about his newly confirmed sexuality and the dangers that could come with it.

He would have to hide it from his own Father.

14 years old

"Sasuke, this is Karin, she is the daughter of one of my associates. Would you please entertain her for a while?"

Sasuke gave a slight bow. He approached the red headed girl with poise just as he had been taught to do.

He knew what this was all about. His father was trying to start a possible merger by marriage. The younger you begin to let relationships form the more likely it will be consensual. Luckily for Sasuke, the law wouldn't actually force him into marrying her. It was considered unjust and in Sasuke's eyes, cruel and unusual punishment which was a direct violation of his human rights. That was easily enough solved in court.

Sasuke led the red headed girl into a room with a kotatsu* and some pillows. Sasuke went into the kitchen before putting the tea kettle on and waiting for the water to heat up. He poured water into each cup before placing an afternoon tea in each cup. One mild and the other strong.

Sasuke walked back into the room and offered either to the red-haired girl and she accepted the more mild one.

Sasuke could feel her staring at him, but chose not to react. Best not to give her false hope.

"So, Sasuke-kun, what do you like to do for fun?"

"I spend most of my free time studying."

"So you don't go out, and do stuff?"

"No, not particularily." Sasuke took a sip from his tea and placed it back down.

Karin, had started to move closer towards him. Sasuke moved himself over attempting to give her the idea he didn't care for her advances.

She crawled over to him anyway. She licked her lips and brought her lips up to Sasukes ear.

"We could have some fun."

"Aren't you a little young for that?" Sasuke quipped.

"Well, we're going to get married anyway. Might as well enjoy what will be yours as long as possible."

Karin's hand found its way to Sasuke's leg and moved up his thigh.

Sasuke was not planning on marrying any woman and least of all one that would offer herself up so easily.

Sasuke pushed her off and stood abruptively.

"I will not be sexually harassed by some insane girl with make-believe notions that I man would marry a whore." Sasuke was fuming.

He stormed out of the room leaving Karin on the floor, and his opinion that's where she belonged.

Sasuke sat in his room working on math problems for the next hour trying to calm himself and clear his head.

"Sasuke."

Sasuke turned back and saw his father. His father was beyond mad.

"What did you say to our guest."

"I simply informed her that her notion to marry me was ridiculous and I'd never give up my self-respect and marry some girl who presents herself as some whore."

His father walked over and slapped Sasuke across the face.

"You WILL apologise."

Sasuke had finally had enough. He rose with sheer anger in his eyes.

"I will not. She's a delusional child and you are as well. I will not marry that girl or any other you try and choose for me because it's in your best interest! Infact. I won't be marrying a girl at all. I will marry man." Sasuke yelled back with defiance in his eyes.

His father removed his belt and beat Sasuke with it.

Sasuke ran away that night. He was found by the police a day later and photographed.

After a court case, Sasuke was given back to his father under harsher scrutiny by law enforcement.

The next few years Sasuke had wound up with the wrong kind of 'friends' and he got arrested for little things every now and then. He had completely trashed him own reputation and didn't even care. Sasuke had started sleeping with random guys before the got clingy or annoying.

When he was 16, he'd gotten a summer job helping restore some houses. He found something calming about it, but what he really enjoyed doing was starting from scratch.

He found his calling and pursued it. He graduated high school and worked hard to get where he was going. He pulled himself up out of the gutter and was making something of himself.

Before life came up and kicked him to the curb. One semester shy of graduating, his father accused him of vandalizing his property. The charge lost him his scholarship and he was kicked out of his school and halted his dream job.

Sasuke began to break and drift through life. He distanced himself from his immediate family and anyone else.

One night while he was sitting in his motel, he was watching late night t.v. and a documentary came on about his great great uncle. Sasuke had almost turned it off when a thought occurred to him. Maybe, just maybe, he could achieve a fresh start in Konoha. If he could track down the family, convince them that he was related to them, maybe they would welcome him and take him in.

He could get anywhere in the small town he'd been growing up in. Everyone had labeled him as a no-good trouble maker.

His father had intentionally ruined him all because he wasn't the ideal perfect god sent son. Sasuke would show him up. He would finish school, get a job, and stand on his own two feet securely as a gay man. And there wasn't a damn thing he would be able to do about it.

Sasuke had hitchhiked all the way to Konoha with the very little information he actually had, which was a public record of the address, and got there in the late evening. Rain was pouring down on him drenching him instantly. He could see lightning and hear thunder rolling. He could barely make out the street signs. A flash of lightning lit up a sign that the residence should be located on. Sasuke turned right and walked down the street. Hanging signs blew violently against the wind and Sasuke could hear hail beginning to hit the tops of the roofs. He walked to the end of the street. Thankfully the documentary had shown the house and Sasuke could rely on a photographic reference instead of checking each house.

Sasuke hopped up the steps and knocked on the door. He waited a few moments before knocked again. Sasuke turned and faced the end of the street. He was at a literal dead end. Then he saw a figure turn the corner running down the street. He had made it about 2/3's down the street before lightning hit the sign close to him sending him to the ground. Sasuke dropped his backpack to make sure the whoever it was hadn't died.

Then the person got up and continued straight for the house. Sasuke noticed the supposed man's composure wasn't so great and he came down the stairs just as he reached the bottom of the stairs before the man slipped yet again and sent him straight into Sasuke's arms.

Sasukes breath caught at the sight of a beautiful young man with piercing blue eyes.

"Are you alright?" He shouted before the blonde haired man went limp. Sasuke heard something hit the ground. He saw it was a pair of keys. He picked the man up bridal style andcarried him up the steps. He tried the keys on the lock and silently thanked whoever was responsible for that stroke of luck and pushed the door open. After Sasuke got a better look at him he stripped him of the extra layers of clothing and dropped them on the floor he set the man down on a nearby couch and went back into the rain to grab his backpack and shut the door.

He gave the man a quick look over and scouted the house for a room. It was rather bare, but he figured the man must be a minimalist. He found a bedroom set up at the drop floor and went back down, and carried the man back up.

He lit a fire and stoof in the room for a few hours listening to the leavy breathing of the other occupant and waited for him to either stop breathing or wake up.

"That's it. That's how I ended up here." The dark haired man finished.

Naruto saw it now. Sasuke had become a bastard as a self-defense mechanism. His brother couldn't be there and he fell without someone to catch him. As the saying goes, when an angel loses their wings they just pick up a broomstick. People change when they get hurt and family can do the most damage. Naruto got up from where he'd been listen quietly and walked over wrapping him arms around the strong man. Sasuke truly was a pillar of strength and Naruto admired him.

Naruto made a silent promise to cheer the bastard up. While cradling the Sasuke's head a smile rose on his face. He had the perfect plan.

A/N: What's Naruto going to do to cheer and emotional stunted man who hides behind a smirk? It's shorter, but I don't know if I'll be able to post something up tomorrow. I actually hate waiting myself. I work full-time, have a 5 year old who tries to read over my shoulder and a husband who thinks the laptop is only his. Which, to be fair, kind of is. :D Luckily, my 5 year old doesn't skip words and gets stuck on 'Sasuke'. He recognizes Naruto though. He's a fan. Although, he's team NaruSaku. He will learn one day.

Yes, my 5 year old thinks Sakura and Naruto should be together. You have no idea how painful that is to hear. (It's because she's the only females name he can say.)