Naruto 1. Sasuke's Weird Day: Neji

The door of Sasuke's apartment slammed shut with a loud crack. The sound surprised the dark haired ninja, but didn't phase his pace as he sought his room. He told himself that he was tired from training, and as a result of that, not keeping his strength in check. The old woman living in the apartment under him probably heard him, and Sasuke was sure that if anyone else had been living in his apartment, they would have been graced with the sound of a frying pan smacking against the woman's ceiling and harsh instructions to shut the HELL up.

Instead, Sasuke closed his bedroom door undisturbed, only half surprised to hear the harsh sound of a door slamming for the second time that afternoon. He robotically switched on the lights and then fell onto his bed ungracefully with a heavy sigh, knowing that no one would see him if he acted out of character- unless his fangirls were relatives of the Hyuuga clan. He'd chosen the only room in the apartment that lacked windows for his bedroom for just that reason.

He couldn't explain why he was angry. Yes, he was normally melancholy for no apparent reason (that being something he was not only aware of, but prided himself on), but normally when he was left alone and replayed the day's events in his mind, he could pick out details that would help him justify his annoyance with the rest of the world. _Girl wouldn't leave me alone... Itachi murdered the clan... Naruto wouldn't shut up..._

At the last reason Sasuke felt a clench in his chest, though he knew that really there was nothing in his chest that would clench and that the sensation was only a figment of his imagination. Emotion in an Uchiha? _Riiiight..._

Draping an arm over his eyes, Sasuke's hearing picked up only to take in the soundlessness of his empty apartment. He'd been in the same apartment since he was eight years old. When he first moved in, concerned "friends of the family" had repeatedly complained that he should have moved into another family's house, or as he grew older, taken a roommate. The latter complaint had stopped coming after Sasuke was placed on the same team as the only other family-less ninja in Konoha of his age group. He secretly suspected that his self-proclaimed guardians worried that he would put two and two together and ask Naruto to move in with him.

The idea in itself proved just how close Sasuke was to his "concerned friends."

The clench in Sasuke's chest happened again.

Rolling onto his side, Sasuke kept his arm pressed firmly over his eyelids and tried to force himself into falling asleep early. A task that would have been easier if Naruto's mind hadn't been wandering during training, rendering him all but useless as a sparring partner. Twice, Sasuke had considered trading the blonde for a pine tree. At least if he hit the tree hard enough there was a chance that it would drop pinecones over him in defense. He told himself that he had too much energy left over to sleep, contradictin his earlier excuse of being too tired to keep his strength in check. He couldn't get the dobe riled up enough to spar on their own time either, or even enter a bickering match.

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Stupid dobe...

But he couldn't really blame the dobe, could he? After all...he was a nuisance in his happy-go-lucky state of mind too. Loud, insulting, obnoxious, hopeful, encouraging...

The imaginative part of Sasuke's mind really must have been hit at some point during the day, because it was trying to convince him that that clenching sensation was back again.

Okay. Since the dobe seemed to be triggering his brain's nonfunctioning, he'd let him off the hook. No blaming Naruto. Got it. Luckily, Sasuke had one other person that he could easily point his finger at (mentally).

Hyuuga Neji.

When Sasuke had gone to the bridge where his team met, the Hyuuga had been sitting there, cross-legged on the planks with his back rigid against the railing. Sasuke's approach had been met with a brief shifting of pale eyes, just enough attention to register who he was, and then Sasuke was promptly forgotten. Sasuke hadn't said anything. Any conversation that could have happened between Konoha's two most stoic ninja would have consisted of far too many 'hns' for an average person to understand. Sasuke had remained standing, leaning back with his elbows resting on the railing beside Neji and waited for the arrival of the other members of his team.

Sakura had arrived second, after fifteen minutes of silence between the former Number One Rookies. The pink haired girl strolled languidly toward the bridge, having given up trying to find a point in rushing to their meeting place if their instructor wasn't even going to show up himself until hours after the designated time. When she reached the boys she let out a good natured "Ohayo, Sasuke-kun!" then paused as her eyes noticed a smooth crown of black hair near Sasuke's hip and followed it down to the form of the Hyuuga. She had glanced up to try giving Sasuke a confused looked, but to no avail. Sasuke had already turned his head to one side, anticipating Naruto's head to appear in the distance next. He heard Sakura's voice when she offered Neji a greeting, slightly less friendly than the one given the Uchiha.

She was rewarded with a disinterested 'Hn.'

A moment of silence went by, made less comfortable by the appearance of the pink haired girl. The two silent ninja alone were alright, they could easily forget one another. But when a normal, talkative girl was added into the mix, the lack of sound became tense. All three present on the bridge knew that Sakura, though very gifted in her teenager-girl-chatterbox powers, was nowhere near energetic enough in her conversations to draw in the two dark-haired boys. They needed someone jumpier than her, someone with a horribly loud voice and unshatterable enthusiasm in whatever topic they chose to rattle on about. Like Lee...or Naruto.

"Ne, Neji," Sakura made an effort at talking anyway, knowing that it would fail. She wasn't stupid, just hopeful. "Shouldn't you be with your team?"

"Hn."

That's when Sasuke's day was ruined. The moment Neji's disinterested answer faded and his eyes fell onto a golden haired, grinning form running down the street toward them. The blonde was still sleep-messed, his hair looking unbrushed, and one arm hurriedly trying to push it's way into an orange jacket that he refused to admit was getting too small for him. He was just zipping up the front when he began to slow down in front of his destination. Sasuke might have turned around and walked straight back home, any chance of improving his abilities through competing with his rival that day were shot down...

"Hinata likes you."

...with one blunt statement made by Hyuuga Neji.

Naruto hadn't even had a chance to shout his usual cheerful greeting to Sakura or yell something along the lines of "What the hell are you doing here!" Relationships between the white-eyed ninja and the loudmouthed one had cut off almost completely after bringing Sasuke back to Konoha.

The boy hadn't faltered right away, Sasuke remembered. He was simply silent as he continued walking to stand at the railing next to Sakura. Then he made the realization the colorless glaze was not trained on Sasuke, but him. On Naruto. Then the smile shrank a bit, as two things became clear. One, that Neji was finished speaking. And the other that no, he was not going to blink.

Naruto made his brilliant reply. "Eh?"

A small sound escaped Sakura. Looking at her, Sasuke found the girl wearing a knowing smile that she was barely trying to suppress. Her head was facing forward, keeping the pretense of not watching her teammate's reaction, but her green eyes were straining far to the sides of their sockets in his direction.

Sasuke, for his part, did a much better job of not _looking _like he was eavesdropping. The Uchiha was used to hearing the statement the Hyuuga had uttered, and so when hearing it directed towards another, he didn't so much as flinch. What had been hard was not coldly say, "I'm not interested," having also grown used to hearing said statement directed at himself. Looking at the boy who had been on the receiving end of the confession, probably for the first time in his life, Sasuke noted that the blonde's reaction was completely different from his own.

Naruto just stared.

There was an _almost _sound next to Sasuke that was _almost _a sigh, and then Neji stood up. Sasuke's eyes swept over the space that he had been sitting in, and noted that there was no signs of smeared morning drew on the planks, nor was there any dampness on the ninja's clothing. He wondered for a moment just how long ago the Hyuuga had sat down.

Naruto looked a little scared as the Hyuuga approached him, the kind of scared that a dear shows when it notices a hunter watching it through tall grass with a gun ready to fire. When Neji stopped in front of him, he spoke more slowly so that the blond wouldn't mistake his words. "Hinata likes you."

"Uh...that's nice. I like her too."

Sakura's pressed-together lips broke apart for a moment and a bubbly giggle reached three sets of ears before she clamped her mouth shut again. Naruto looked at her in confusion for a moment.

If Neji was surprised by the blonde's incredible misunderstanding of the word 'like,' Sasuke couldn't tell. The Hyuuga's back was facing him, but he assumed that the other nin wouldn't be surprised. After all, the dobe got his name from being Dead Last in everything.

"That's not what I meant," the emotionless voice said quietly, making it clear that he was only intending for the blonde to listen. _Too bad. _"Hinata has liked you since before you left the academy. It's been obvious. She's too shy to tell you, and you're too much of an idiot to figure it out for yourself." Naruto's mouth opened, but before any words could come out, Neji added, "Baka."

If Neji was trying to keep the blonde ninja from rejecting or accepting Hinata through the Branch House messenger, he had chosen the right technique to distract him. Naruto reacted on reflex. "I'm not a baka, you asshole!"

Sasuke willed his body to start slightly, jumping on the excuse of hearing the dobe's nickname for him as an excuse to angle his head for a better view of the two standing at the edge of the bridge.

Unfortunately, the white eyed ninja chose this time to take his leave. "I've told you, now I'm done being involved. Acting on this is entirely up to you." He stepped to the side to avoid colliding with Naruto, then strode past him and jumped up into his trees, going to meet with his team, Sasuke guessed.

"HEY!" came from the blonde. "WHAT DO YOU MEANYOU'RE DONE BEING INVOLVED?"

Naruto turned back to the bridge with an adorably confused pout on his face, though Sasuke doubted that Naruto realized he was pouting. He went to the railing and began to lean on it like his teammates, but then let his body sink down lower until he was sitting on the drew-dusted planks. Sakura had the grace to allow the blonde a moment of silent contemplation before squatting down next to him, the knowing smile that she had tried so hard before to hide now evident on her face.

"Ohayo, Naruto!" she said in an unusually cheerful voice. Under normal circumstances the blonde was the one to address her, and the responses to those greetings were usually along the lines of 'Hmm' as the pink-haired girl hung onto Sasuke's arm. On a normal day, Sakura's cheerfully voiced good morning should have made Naruto beam.

Naruto blinked when he heard the girl's voice, seeming to just remember that he was not alone on the bridge. Because of the angle of the blonde's head, when his eyes focus they fell first on to Sasuke, then shifted over to Sakura. Sasuke watched as the blond put on his smile for their female teammate and said "Ohayo, Sakura-chan!" as loudly as ever (making Sakura flinch).

Sakura's answering smile was sweet. Sasuke would have expected the dobe to flinch from its stark difference to the looks of annoyance and polite reserve the she usually bestowed on him. The pink haired girl leaned in towards Naruto, she had been worried that perhaps Naruto would still be upset from Neji's announcement -though honestly, she couldn't understand why. If someone had asked her what she thought Uzumaki Naruto's reaction would be to hearing that someone had an interest in him, she would have bet money that the idiot blonde would leap for joy. Voice dropping down to the soft tone that all women possess for the sake of gossiping, Sakura said, "That's incredible, what Neji said, isn't it?"

Sakura didn't see that behind her a dark pair of eyes narrowed.

Naruto put on his usual goofy grin and vigorously nodded. "Heh heh hee, never would have thought he'd pull a prank like that, ne?"

"What do you mean, Naruto? Prank...oh." The pink haired girl's smile changed to one that all self-respecting women having mastered the gossiping voice would know. The grin of a matchmaker. "Naruto-kun! Why would Neji pull a prank on you?"

"Uh...well..."

"Nah, Naruto!" behind Sakura, Sasuke flinched at hearing the excited voice that the girl normally used when addressing him used on the blonde. "I think Hinata actually like you! She's always so nice to you-"

"She's nice to everyone!"

"Did she offer to let anyone else copy her paper during the Churrin Exams?"

Naruto, in his strangely frantic quest to prove that Sakura was wrong and that Neji was just trying to make a fool of him, failed to ask how Sakura could have possibly known that Hinata had offered to help through the written part of the exams.

"Do you not like Hinata?" Sakura sweetly asked after a pause. She had at least had the grace to give the blonde haired dobe another chance to think before continuing on with her meddling, right where Neji had left off.

"Uh...heheh, well..." a tanned hand came up to scratch at where the hitai-ate was tie at the back of his head. A pink-haired head leaned in intimidating close so not to miss her teammate's answer, even if it came out in a mumble. And in the pale head of the dark haired boy, eyes darted in their direction.

"I guess she's...kinda..."

Inner Sakura was on the edge of a victory dance. Naruto Dating Hinata meant that there was no Naruto Asking Sakura Out, which meant No Naruto Getting In The Way Of Sakura Dating Sasuke. _SCORE!_

poof!

"Yo!"

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DAMNIT! Inner Sakura shrieked when the adorably naive boy she had been pressure-questioning, shot up to shout "YOU'RE LATE!" Inwardly she wanted to bite the bridge railing in two at her teacher's sudden appearance. _Of all days to be early, _she thought. However, she couldn't let Naruto's love life interfere with her normal behavior-Sasuke-kun might get suspicious! So, after the pathetic excuse was offered the usual two voices rang out the routine "LIAR!"

From then on the day seemed to have returned to normal. There were only minor missions lined up for their team. Brush the horses at this man's ranch, prune this woman's garden, find this lady's damn, blasted cat...

By lunch time Sasuke had hardly broken a sweat while his two teammates were all but panting. Sakura because of the intense heat of the late spring day, and Naruto because of his constant, half hearted attempts to "beat" Sasuke in their missions.

Normal as could be expected.

When they were dismissed Sakura came to Sasuke with her usual question, would he like to have lunch with her? And was answered coolly with the usual no. Absently as he walked away, his ears listened for Naruto to jump in with "I'LL HAVE LUNCH WITH YOU, SAKURA-CHAN!" and the pink haired girl's rejection...

...but it didn't come.

The lack of the shout, the shriek, and the whine, made the Uchiha stop in mid stride in the hallway of the Hokage building where their mission reports were turned in. Casually, he turned around to see if perhaps his dreams had finally come true and a cold, bottomless pit had opened up and swallowed his team without warning. Instead of seeing (what he told himself was) such a pleasing sight, the Uchiha's black gaze revealed that the dobe had hung back in the doorway, one hand grasping onto Sakura's elbow. Even more unnaturally, he saw that not only was Sakura not protesting to the contact, but actually had her head leaning towards the blonde's as it had been earlier that day. For once, Naruto was speaking without yelling, and Sakura's face was caught in a thoughtful expression rather than a scowl.

There was only one explanation for this. Hunter nins. Clearly, at some point during the day, Orochimaru had switched his two teammates with scouts using a henge to disguise themselves and lower him into a trap with their out of character acts. Perhaps Neji had been kidnapped too...

Sasuke shook his head to clear away that train of thought. It was ridiculous, Orochimaru would have developed a plan that involved more bloodshed and far more complications than that. Taking a few steps closer to his team, Sasuke tried to think of another reason for Sakura and Naruto to be standing so close together. having been standing with his face to Sakura's back that morning, the Uchiha had missed the pink haired girl's doomsday matchmaker expression, and thus would not have recognized it when it flashed onto the girl's face for the second time that day.

There was no way that Sakura had accepted the dobe's offer. Maybe there was something he had forgotten about their last mission? No, wait, he's an Uchiha, and for him to have forgotten would mean that Hell had finally frozen over, and that just wouldn't work with the scortchingly hot day...

"...I'm not sure, I really don't talk to any of them that often." Sasuke could hear Sakura say softly as he neared. "I'm sorry, Naruto."

"Aw, come on Sakura! You gotta know where they eat!" the blonde ninja next to her pleaded, a little less quietly than his teammate.

"I don't know..." Sakura said. A frown mixed in with her before mention expression. "I guess...Ino-pig once told me that she hears dogs barking in the ally behind her family's shop in the afternoons..."

"What does that have to do with Hinata's team!" The blond whined loudly, breaking farther into his normal tones.

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Oh...Hinata.

Sasuke decided this was the place in the conversation to make his presence known with his favorite word... "Dobe."

Sakura looked up and instantly her face twisted into an overly-sweet smile. Naruto spun around ungracefully and shouted out, "WHAT DO YOU KNOW, YOU BASTARD!"

Sasuke stuffed his hands into his pockets, making a point of not responding to the name while he spoke, "Hinata and Kiba are on the same team. Kiba always has his dog with him. Since most restaurants don't allow pets, their team wouldn't eat lunch inside, instead they would find someplace like the ally outside Ino's shop."

"Eh? Were you listening to us, asshole?"

Naruto's head suddenly fell forward as Sakura's fist flew into the back of it. "Naruto! Don't insult Sasuke-kun! He just told you were to find Hinata!"

At the sound of the Hyuuga girl's name, Naruto straightened. Sasuke would have bet his mansion on the blonde whining about being hit for no reason at all, but it would seem that today wasn't fitting in with their team's usual mannerisms. Naruto dusted himself off a bit, though he had managed to save his balance before Sakura's blow made him hit the ground, and took off for the roof tops through an open hallway window.

Sasuke frowned a little. Naruto wasn't supposed to actually listen to Sakura...

The blonde boy waved over his shoulder as he leapt out of sight, likely for the pink haired girl, Sasuke had thought.

Sakura ignored the gesture and shot Sasuke a loving look that often signaled that she was going to ask him out again, and Sasuke, with an inward sigh of relief, thought that the day had finally reached it's end of weirdness.

Then, just so Kami could tease him a bit...

"Thanks, Sasuke!" Naruto's voice was distant, but the loudmouth ninja managed to be heard perfectly.

Okay...maybe the day WASN'T done with being weird just yet. Sasuke's attention immediately turned to his female teammate. She was still giving him that look, the one he should have been used to by now after having received it everyday since the moment he hit puberty. He thought fleetingly of the window, but then noted that to get to it he would have to run past the girl in front of him and thought better of it. Sakura was just within an arm's reach of him when Sasuke spun around and dashed for the stairs. It would just be a perfect ending for the weird day that Neji had started that morning, if he did something stupid. Like accepting Sakura's offer.

Ignoring the sound of Sakura calling his name and asking what was wrong, Sasuke quickly decided that he needed to get home. Fast. Before he could be attacked by whatever had driven Neji to the bridge and Naruto to (gulp) politeness.

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A/N:

Hello! Because of multiple suggestions, I finally reposted this chapter after going over it. I think I caught all the spelling mistakes, but then again… Hey, look! I fixed that horrible "Uchiaha" mistake! And Naruto's last name! And even the hitia-ate one that no one complained about in the reviews! I'll try to look over all the other chapter and repost them as soon as possible, and for the people who reviewed only this chapter…you'll be happy to know that I found a beta by chapter five.

Anyway, for anyone who reads this chapter after I reposted: Hello! I hope you liked this, and will consider reviewing. Criticism, praise, and suggestions are all appreciated. And of course, corrections. The story's quality kind of changes as I go on with chapters.


	2. Sasuke's Weird Day: Flower Shop

The Yamanaka flower shop was family owned and family run. This was often thought of as a good thing when heard, after all, not all families could spend so much quality time together "bonding" and such. It was absolutely charming...unless told from the point of view of a part of said family, a member that just happened to be a teenager. As it was, Yamanaka Ino was diligently walking down the street toward her family's shop, cursing her father for not giving into her shameless pleading and hiring extra help. His reasoning was that "Everyone contributes." Which she heard as "Shut up and do some free labor." What bothered her the most about her situation was that while Ino was wasting away behind a cash register continuously explaining what every little daisy in her shop meant, she _could_ be out happily eating lunch with Uchiha Sasuke while Forehead-Girl turned a lovely shade of green...

...or more likely, huddle outside a restaurant window _with _Forehead-Girl while watching Sasuke eat...

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Speaking of lunch...

Ino stopped for a short moment as she spotted a girl with blue-black hair dart out of an okonomiyaki stand's entryway, three white to-go bags hugged against her chest to keep them warm.

An almost growl crawled up Ino's throat as she watched the girl hurry off in the direction of her shop, and then go beyond it to turn into the empty space separating the one building from the next to it. Hinata hadn't even noticed the shop's owner casting her a belligerent look through the glass door as she passed. When the unhappy stare turned in her direction, Ino resumed her less than enthusiastic pace. The Yamanaka family had been aware of the Geninn team that frequented the area around their shop. When they first started arriving in the ally, the Hyuuga girl had insisted on entering at least on of the residing shops per day and buying some little object -a flower, a book, a candy bar- to justify their presence. However, after the first month of this, the bills had doubtlessly begun to pile up, and the little purchases abruptly stopped. And with the team's presence no longer producing a profit, the shop owners quickly became irritated. But labeling the team as loiterers, or coming out and telling them to leave, was naturally never thought of. Seeing how all three were from fairly respected clans, and one the future head of a _the_ most respected clan, no one particularly wanted to see the team angered.

But that didn't make their daily appearance any more pleasant. As Ino slipped into the flower shop to relieve her mother, the all-too-familiar sound of a dog yipping reached her ears, fallowed by the sound of a girl yelling nervously "Just let him have it, Shino-kun!" Somehow, her mother ignored it with a patience that Ino had failed to inherit. Her pale blue eye twitched.

It wasn't so much the fact that the Geninn team was there eating lunch everyday that made the atmosphere uncomfortable. In fact, Ino's father had actually admitted to feeling more comfortable leaving the shop in her care with the other three rookies nearby. But the complications of _who_ the three ninjas were made their presence a naissance.

A bell hooked about the shop's door jingled as Ino's mother went out to buy their lunches. The sound carried and because a choirs of barking started up a second after, was likely picked up but the two canines nearby. Ino let her head fall forward and pressed her hands over her poor, less than amused ears.

The team also left trash behind to be cleaned up in the evenings by the Yamanakas -namely, Ino. Ino was fairly certain that the garbage wasn't being left by the white-eyed girl, Hinata was just too...Hinata. Meaning that she had one or both of the male team members to blame for her lost evenings, of which she could think of many different ways to have spent. Many involving a set of binoculars and sitting outside Uchiha Sasuke's apartment window.

The team had wisely chosen to make the Hyuuga girl their front man in the area, sending her out to purchase their meals and allowing her to stutter responses to the villagers the few time they were addressed. And as much as Ino hated to admit it, the strategy worked. Who could tell such a timid, sweet girl to shut the _HELL_ up and go away?

The bell above the door jingled again, indicating that someone new had entered the shop. Ino nodded her head in its general direction, but was too busy brooding with her head in her hands to take noticed of any detail about the customer.

"Shino, get those ants outta the food!" came through the wall. Ino's head came up with the tips of Ino's fair eyebrows dipped towards her nose in a glare that might have convinced onlookers that the girl had just developed the Byakugan.

If Shino was a problem in the area, Ino hadn't heard of it. He was for the most part, just guilty by association. If he would only _leave his bugs behind_ once in awhile, he might have been welcomed into the restaurants open in the area.

"KIBA-KUN! DON'T MOVE!"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'DON'T MOVE!' THERE'S A BLOODY BLOOD-SUCKER ON ME-"

"It's just a tick, Kiba."

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"GET IT OFF ME!"

"P-Please calm down, Kiba-kun, I'm sure Shino can help!"

"DAA! IT'S GONNA SUCK ME DRY!"

Then there was Kiba...

"_OWCH!"_

Ino growled as the sound of rabid barking fired into her should-have-been-peaceful shop like bullets. She would have so liked to march outside and help the tick finish the job. Maybe-

"Ino?"

A voice, not belonging to the three outside, cut through Ino's fantasy of a certain dog lover, blood, and ticks, LOTS of ticks, and brought her back to reality. She blinked her eyes to clear them of the horrifyingly delightful images and the glaze that had come over them while she'd been musing. When finished, her attention focused on a tan, scarred face and a pair of bright blue eyes. "Naruto?"

"Hi, Ino!"

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As a former Number One Rookie, it is all but a given that Uchiha Sasuke did not, nor ever will, run from anything. Any one of his fangirl's grandmothers could easily tell a questioner that. However, those people did not see a very disoriented Sasuke jump from the side walk outside the Hokage's office, onto the rooftops and run off for his apartment as if all the slaughtered members of his old clan were out for his blood, just because a certain pink haired girl had tried to talk to him on the street.

Sasuke was deadset on getting home. Not that he was scared and/or running from anything, he simply chose to believe that certain members of the village had caught a virus that drove them to do odd things and had no interest in catching it himself. Thus, Sasuke was planning on going home when the "virus" chose to attack him.

...Just as he happened to pass by the Yamanaka Flower shop.

Another thing that even distant relative of Sasuke-fangirls could easily tell anyone who asked, is that the boy is in possession of godly grace and quick thinking, and that even in a state of alarm, he could never miss a short jump from one building to another...

...Luckily, none of these people were present on this day...

Sasuke fell into the ally beside his teammate's best friend's shop with an incredibly quiet crash. "Thud" might have been the better word for it. As he watched the rooftop that had somehow managed to avoid his feet rise over his head, he dimly noted that gravity really, really was not a ninja's friend.

As if the gods above were bored and decided to entertain themselves by making Sasuke's uncharacteristic mistake known, and also make his humiliation worse in the process, Sasuke landed flat on his back on top of something square shaped and made from unsanded wood. Since the square was only so large, his legs continued falling after his upper body had landed, causing them to smack loudly against the side of what he guess to be a box. That alone wasn't so bad at least, the young ninja thought, but as he pushed himself up into a sitting position he noticed that the surface he had landed on was at least twice his height off the ground. And that it was swaying.

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Shit.

He forced himself to remain still atop of the stack of crates that the raven-haired boy had just happen to land on. He raised his head to scan for any possible means of escape, and spotted three head dangerously close below him. Opening his mouth to voice a warning proved to be useless, because almost as quickly as he had registered the people crouched below him, gravity came into effect. His crate was pulled forward off the stack and toward the ground. And also toward the three people.

One shaggy brown haired head shot up, having heard the noise made when he had first landed, Sasuke assumed, and upon noticing that something large and heavy was coming at them at a frightening speed, shrieked and jumped back. A normally navy blue-haired head, made black from the lack of light in the ally, looked up and like her friend, instantly jumped back screaming, "Shino!"

But it was too late. The last of the three Geninn was just in the act of turning his head around when the crate, and Sasuke, crashed down on top of him. Or the crate landed on top of him. Sasuke had gripped onto what he discovered to be the lid of the crate, thus loosening it, and was thrown farther so that he landed directly on something that fell back with a loud "OOF!"

"What the HELL, Uchiha!" Was screamed by the last standing member of the Geninn team. And then, just because the gods of mayhem were not yet finished, a hissing _"Pshhh..."_ sound went off behind Sasuke's back. He couldn't see what it was, but the smell that reached him, and the label on a stray red canister that rolled into the space a few feet from where he sat, made the cause of the sound perfectly clear.

...The crate had held the flower shop's bug spray supply.

...And in the crash, some cans had gone off.

...And the crate had just happened to land on Shino.

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Oh, damnit...

At the sound, or perhaps the smell, a loud yipping came from Akamaru and a gasp from Kiba. Both boy and dog dove into the spilled contents of the crate and out of Sasuke's line of vision, in search for their buried teammate. Sasuke assumed that he had been forgotten. He was about to get up, when he discovered that no, the gods STILL were not done with him. He heard a door slam a short distance away.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OUT HERE!"

Sasuke's eyes focused on his very murderous looking, blonde haired fangirl, a pair of fangs that could rival any the Inuzuka clan or Naruto could produce shining threateningly in her silhouetted form. Sasuke gulped inwardly. Never get a fangirl mad. Even if you are the object of her affection.

Then a second form came running to the mouth of the ally, this on shorter and clad in ridiculous, bright orange. The silhouette ran right passed Ino, shouting, "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING TO HINATA, TEME!"

Briefly Sasuke wondered why so many people were addressing the most beloved resident of Konoha with the H-word before he realized what his position looked like. He shifted in his seat a little, and then frowned. Apparently the object that he had accidentally landed on was a person. If the dobe's statement meant anything, not only was this a person, but it was also Hinata. And because when he fell, he had been holding the crate lid in front of him, it had naturally landed under him. The effect of both left him straddling the female nin's midsection, and to the eyes of anyone who just happened to walk by, smothering the girl with a plank of wood that he was currently pressing down onto with all his weight.

Completely by accident, of course.

Naruto jumped at Sasuke, hitting him straight on because the other boy was still wondering at how he had gotten into his current position, and causing the both of them to fall back onto the pavement. The blonde only needed the crate lid and it would have been exactly the same position that Sasuke had been holding with Hinata. Though from the look on his teammates face, Sasuke supposed that he should have probably been very glad that there were no smothering tool at the other boy's disposal.

"A-Are you alright, Sasuke-kun?" a timid voice said. Both Sasuke and Naruto turned their heads- Sasuke by forcing his body to the side a bit, and Naruto by twisting his head over his shoulder- to look at the newly freed Hinata. The girl's face was imprinted with the grain-patter of the wood that she had just escaped, and her fingers looked as if they could start pressing together out of embarrassment at any time, but the eyes that were trained on the raven-haired nin were filled with nothing but concern.

Unsure if he could be properly seen, Sasuke nodded. The situation seemed surreal to him still. He hadn't even tried to throw the other boy off yet.

"SA…SASUKE-KUN!" a very different toned female voice sounded, fallowed by the pounding of feet on pavement. In seconds Naruto was tackled and Sasuke was supporting a new weight on his lower body. "Are you okay, Sasuke-kun? Do you need me to get a medic-nin? Or a first aid-kit? Or give mouth to mouth?"

Sasuke noted that the fangs _were_ still visible in Ino's mouth when she wasn't growling. Interesting...

"Shino's okay too, by the way," a fourth voice huffed. If Sasuke's head wasn't already against the pavement, he might have tried to roll it so that he could see Kiba northward of him. That would have been better than seeing the blonde on top of him transform back into the fanged demon-girl of doom at the reminder of the dog-boy's presence.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO SASUKE-KUN!"

There's that word again.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 'WHAT DID _I _DO!' HE JUMPED ON _US!"_

"LAIR!"

"I AM NOT! ASK HINATA! SHE SAW HIM TOO!"

"SASUKE WOULD NEVER THINK ABOUT SPYING ON A BAND OF LOSERS LIKE YOU!"

"WANNA BET!"  
Sasuke listened for what he guess to be about two minutes before his mind started working again- he must have hit his head when he fell. He remembered that there was a devoted fangirl perched on his waist and quickly set about her removal. Using a primary replacement technique, Sasuke left Ino sitting on an overturned trashcan, and started out onto the street to look for Naruto, who had conveniently disappeared just as the yelling started. He told himself that seeking the blonde idiot out was only because he was sure that he would find Hinata with him, and that Hinata being one of the few females in the village that could resist the urge to jump him, chain him, and drag him home to live in her closet for weeks on end (not that that had ever happened, of course), he did not want to risk offending her by not apologizing.

He found them sitting on one of the benches set out for civilians in a nearby park (ninjas would prefer to sit in the trees, or so Sasuke thought was common knowledge). He hopped up onto a tree just far enough so that he wouldn't invade the girl's privacy while she flirted -_talked _to his teammate, but would still be able to see them easily. Just so that he would be able to catch her quickly after they broke apart and then get home as soon as possible. And if his attention was focused mainly on the brighter colored of the two, it was only because he wanted to make sure that the dobe treated the girl as respectfully as an heir to a great clan should be. No other reason.

From where he was sitting, Sasuke could see that Naruto's face was very close to the girl's and that his hands, forefinger and thumb pinched together, kept touching and leaving her face repeatedly. Leaning forward and squinting his eyes he saw, with a little bit difficulty, that his teammate was also squinting, looking closely at Hinata. But it was so hard to see clearly… Maybe he should move closer...Then Sasuke mentally hit himself for being an idiot before activating his Sharringon. With the enhanced vision, Sasuke could see what Naruto was doing. His fingers where picking at the girl's face because he was helping her remove splinters from the crate. Why this made Sasuke let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding, he couldn't say.

The blonde's task would have been easier if Hinata's face hadn't become boiled-ham red from the closeness of the other ninja, the red making it difficult to tell when Naruto was applying too much pressure to her face. Sasuke could see that the blonde was talking, hurriedly from the movements of his lips. He seemed to be trying to see just how many sentences he could say in one breath. By the time he finally inhaled again, Hinata looked like every drop of blood in her body was concentrated in her face.

Odd.

Naruto leaned away from her a little, and Sasuke noted that his expression became nervous. He started speaking again.

Hinata cut him off, uncharacteristically loud. Sasuke heard a faint, "That's not it!" And silently swore that he would take lip-reading classes at a later date. Hinata started focusing her attention on her fingers, pressing them together nervously. She was speaking as fast as the dobe had, and Sasuke saw that Naruto had to lean in again in order to hear everything. When the girl's mouth stopped moving, she looked up at the blonde through her bangs.

Naruto had started smiling.

Hinata smiled back.

Sasuke noted before a "REALLY!" loud enough for him to hear perfectly from his tree branch, that the girl had a very pretty smile.

And Naruto had an absolutely stunning one.

His breathing hitched.

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Hinata likes you...

The girl's hair bobbed around her head as she nodded in response to Naruto's shout, her smile flourishing on her face.

Sasuke felt his whole body go lax against the tree trunk, suddenly grateful that it was there. His eyes stung from too much time spent without blinking, but Sasuke found that he couldn't control them at the moment.

__

...likes you...

Hinata seemed to become aware of the closeness of their faces at once. She started to turn away embarrassedly, but found Naruto's hands on either side of her face. Nowhere else to go, her eyes locked on Naruto's.

Naruto grinned foxily as he leaned in gently, half-lidded eyes on the alert for any signs of distress as his mouth came closer to the girl's, then...

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Sasuke rolled over on his bed again. His alarm clock read 5:45. He had managed to lay restlessly for a total of fifteen minutes. He peered about the frighteningly neat room with blurry eyes. Blurry, he told himself, from the pressure of his arm trying to bloke out the light. To fix this problem, Sasuke got up from bed and walked over to the switch by the door. He looked around on the floor one last time to make sure there was nothing to trip him on his way back to bed, knowing that he was stalling, and then turned the lights off. Darkness filled his windowless room. Only the steady red glow of his alarm clocks numbers pierced it.

He went back to bed to continue his pretence of sleep.

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A/N:

Fallowing up with what I promised, this chapter was re-edited too! And I'm happy to say that there were only half the mistakes of the first present! Woot! Go me!

I hope this chapter was enjoyed as much as the first one, and that anyone who has any suggestions or corrections for me wont hesitate to let me know in a review.


	3. Sasuke's Plan: Follow Hinata

Naruto's popularity level in Konoha had risen since he had grown up from the hated, loudmouthed orphan (if one used the term "grown up" loosely). So it shouldn't have been much of a surprise when so many people found out about the blonde's new found relationship with Hinata. It had become official after Sakura had pounced on her teammate and demanded details on his trip to the ally behind the Yamanaka flower shop.

"It's not fair! Ino-pig was too busy yelling at Kiba to notice anything!"

And if the sudden burst of attention bothered Naruto, he certainly didn't show it.

"Well, first Sasuke-bastard tried to kill her team, than we..."

The fact that said attention was coming from more than just Sakura, also didn't seem to effect him. Wasn't it a given that girls would begin gossiping about the first couple to emerge out of their age group? Even if more than half of said girls had hoped to be one half of the first couple, it still offered hope for other couples now that a hole had been broken in the ice.

It also wasn't very surprising, judging from Naruto's close relationship with his old sensei, that almost all of the ninja instructors seemed to find out at once and began sending the blonde dobe smiles and knowing glances whenever his team passed by. It was understandable if Iruka bragged about Naruto's first girlfriend like any other proud father. Perfectly understandable.

And finally, if the HOKAGE decided that it was cute that her unofficial successor/pest had found some unfortunate soul who actually thought his over the top attitude was charming, well, that was okay too. Even if she decided to abuse her power by putting snide comments and jokes into Konoha's newspaper for the simple pleasure of hearing the blonde yell "BAA-CHAN!" when he came stomping into her office later. And as a result of her immature little game, that EVERYONE knew about the dobe's relationship, that was PERFECTLY FINE!

Sasuke was sitting up in the tree that Kakashi normally used when he appeared, while he mentally listed the little reminders of that day he went to the park. He was still in a way meeting at the bridge, only with a greater distance separating himself from his two teammates than before. He had decided to make the move the morning after Sakura had "pounced" on Naruto. It wasn't that the new friendship that seemed to spring up between Naruto and Sakura annoyed Sasuke, it was simply that he was used to bickering with the blonde in the mornings or having total silence. He might have been able to adjust to it though, if the whole of Konoha _could just find another effing topic to talk about!_

As if cued by some demented demon inside Sasuke's head, the sound of approaching voices reached him.

"SOOOO! Naruto, when are you seeing her again?" The loud tone of team seven's only female member carried her question over to bridge even before her head and that of her companion appear side-by-side from around the corner.

"Who are you talking about, Sakura-chan?" Naruto said, smiling with forged ignorance.

"You know who! When's the next time you and Hinata are getting together?"

From his vantage point in the tree, Sasuke was sure that no one below could see the glare that came onto his face. _Here we go again..._

"I don't know, tomorrow maybe..."

Sakura sent the blonde a mock glare. "Don't tease, just answer!"

Naruto pouted cutely. "Aw, Sakura, you're no fun."

"Naruto!"

Sasuke kept his attention trained on the blonde. Purely because he knew that the answer could end up effecting his day as well as the dobe's.

"We have a lunch date again!"

A lunch date meant that Naruto would be in a hurry to leave later, and that meant that his mind would be half on the time during their spars. Again. Sasuke's glare became venomous. Couldn't Hinata just take a sick day once in awhile? No wait, Sasuke decided that wouldn't do him any good either. Then Naruto was likely to spend the day yelling insults at Neji until he let him into the girl's room.

"Yo!"

Did he forget to list the fact that Kakashi had somehow developed a sixth sense for days that Naruto had lunch dates, when he was thinking about the effects of the case NaruHin fever his village seemed to be suffering from? And that the gennin instructor had taken to showing up _almost_ _on time _so that his student wouldn't be late for the afore mentioned dates?  
Would it be too out of character if Sasuke burned Tsunade's stupid newspaper company to the ground?

Their sensei apparently didn't see Sasuke's glare either as he went right into his morning announcements without even looking down to his pupil. "No missions today, so we're just training. Naruto, Sasuke you two spar." Kakashi paused in his instructions to take out his favorite book and find the correct page that he had last left off on. "Sakura fights the winner."

Sasuke hopped down from his place on the tree branch. Before starting off to the training grounds, he looked over his shoulder to where Naruto was just breaking away from their pink-haired teammate to catch up with him. _Stupid dobe..._

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Naruto's breath left in in one loud gasp as he hit the ground for the third time that day. Quickly, he jumped back onto his feet so that his sensei wouldn't announce that he had lost the match, turning his attention to locating Sasuke.

Naruto lunged to one side to avoid two shurikens that came flying at him. He sent one of his own into the bush that they had come from on the off chance that Sasuke would still be there, though it was unlikely. He had really gone too long without doing any serious training. Naruto couldn't remember the last time he and Sasuke had fought each other. The other boy likely would have already won by now if Kakashi hadn't threatened to keep the blonde after training if he couldn't last at least fifteen minutes against the Uchiha prodigy.

A fist came at the back of Naruto's head. He spun around and grabbed the arm at the wrist before it could be retracted, throwing the owner so that he would land in front of him. It didn't accure to him that Sasuke would never move so slowly during an attack until the clone illussion slammed into tree at the end of the clearing and disappeared in a puff of lavender smoke, and he was tackled from behind by another body. A chuckle reached his ear, andNaruto glared at the tree that he'd seen the fake Sasuke crash into. He hated it when Sasuke used clones! Not only was that HIS move, but unlike the bastard, he lacked a special genetic ability that allowed him to identify a copy from the original.

Naruto squirmed in the paler boy's hold, trying to find a way to break free. Damnit, did Sasuke have to go and develop a tight grip too! He could almost picture the smirk that he would see on the Uchiha's face if he turned his head. The arm around his waist tightened dangeriously.

Then suddenly the body was lifted off him.

"It's almost twelve," the happy voice of his sensei sounded, not far from where Naruto was still sprawled on the ground. He rolled over to see Kakashi restraining a very annoyed looking Sasuke with a hand gripping a generous amount of the boy's high collar. The teacher seemed oblivious to his star pupil's displeasure. "Dismissed!"

All thoughts of the match were quickly erased from the blonde's mind. If a small part of him didn't think that the gesture would cause Kakashi to release his hold on Sasuke, he would have jumped onto his instructor with a cry of, "ARIGATO, SENSEI!" Instead he had to content himself with smiling brightly and going to retrieve the weapons he used during training from the random places they had been thrown. That done, Naruto was ready to leave. When he turned around, he noticed that the rest of his team were nowhere to be seen in the clearing. That would have been nothing new for Kakashi and Sasuke, but where could Sakura gone? The blonde pondered this as he began his walk back into the village.

...Only to be stopped when he walked unthinkingly into something wearing a dark blue fabric of some kind. Since his head had been down slightly while he thought, his forehead protector was what hit the object in front of him. When no sound of annoyance or pain came at being hit with the metal object, Naruto assumed he hadn't been noticed and moved to go around.

A hand shot out a grabbed onto the front of his jacket after the first step, pulling him back so that he was almost smothered against what he realized was somebody's chest. "We weren't finished, dobe."

"Eh?" the blonde's head came up to met with a pair of glaring dark eyes. "Don't call me that, teme." Naruto noticed that when he looked up at the taller boy's face, his chin brushed against the before mentioned fabric. Pushing at the other boy's hand Naruto started to back away again. The small, observant part of his mind was surprised that the raven haired boy had initiated the contact. Even he knew that Sasuke hated being touched. "Besides, you heard Kakashi-sensei, we're dismissed!'

"I don't care." Sasuke made no move to get out of his teammate's way. Instead he shifted his weight to one hip as if extremely bored.

"I'm busy! If you still want to train, then spar with Sakura! She's gonna ask you to lunch anyway. Why she would want to date a bastard like you, though..." Naruto trailed off. He started to step around the Uchiha, unconsciously doing "the mature thing" and walking away from a possible argument. Iruka would have been proud of him, until... "SASUKE, LET ME GO!"

...Another Sasuke grabbed him from behind.

"I want to finish our match, dobe."

"Well, _I _don't! Now let me go! You're gonna make me late!" Naruto tried to reach his weapons pouch so that he could vanish the clone quickly, only to have another set of hands wrap around his wrist. "How many of these things did you make!"

"Hn. Not important." Sasuke said, clones dragging a very unhappy Naruto back to the center of the clearing.

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"Sasuke! I can kick your ass later, just let me go meet Hinata!" Sasuke heard his captive yell at his back again. He ignored it. He'd already allowed the blonde to neglect their rivalry enough in the past few weeks. The Hyuuga girl could wait. "...Please?"

Sasuke spun around and glared at the struggling blonde when he heard the last word. Naruto NEVER used please while speaking to anyone, especially him! That was another part of their rivalry, One Shall Use No Manners While Addressing The Other. How dare he break another rule now, just so he could go see _her_!

When they reached their destination, Sasuke's clones looked at him for further instructions on what to do with their huffing, though now still, charge. Sasuke must have fumed over the "magic word" a moment too long, because Naruto's left hand, the one not being held hostage by the second clone, ripped into his weapons pouch and grabbed a kunai before either of the clone's could notice. Because the dobe was right handed, a fact both Sasuke's assistants were aware of, neither of the clones were harmed by the poorly aimed attack. Just startled into letting go. Naruto jumped back, shouting the name of his favorite jutsu, so that a pack of six Naruto's landed together on the ground.

Five of the clones pounced on the clone Sasukes, while what Sasuke took to be the original came running towards him. He felt a smirk come to his lips.

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About time, Dobe...

Sasuke dropped into a defensive stance before the blonde reached him. Not seeing another blonde slip away from the group attacking his two clone's and inch into the forest around them. When the blonde he was fighting went up in smoke at the first prick of a kunai on his arm, Sasuke's anger came back full force. His eyes changed color as his sharringon activated, which he probably should have done the minute he brought the dobe's favorite move into their match. Instead, he'd gotten away from him! SASUKE!

Sasuke felt a growl rumble through his throat. That settled it.

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Hinata had to go.

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Sasuke fallowed Naruto's chakra trail after he reached the village. He'd reached his decision on the matter of the dobe's love life, and that was he couldn't have one. Sasuke had goals that required him to get stronger, and if his sparring partner was too busy fawning over the first girl to bat her eyelashes in his direction, how the hell was he supposed to do that? No, there was simply no way Naruto could divide his attention and still give Sasuke the challenge he needed to become stronger.

Unfortunately, Sasuke doubted that his teammate had the mental capacity to understand the logic behind this when he told the dobe that it was over between him and Hinata, so he decided that he just wouldn't tell him. That brought him to his first problem in developing his plan of attack. How does one chase off a somebody like Hinata? The girl LIVED with Hyuuga Neji! It went without saying that his normal tactics for handling females wouldn't work. The future clan head had likely built up an immunity to cold stares and death threats by now. So that brought Sasuke back to fallowing Naruto's chakra. If he couldn't use his old methods, he would just have to learn some new ones. By spying on the girl until she revealed a weakness that he could use against her.

Not stalking, mind you. Uchihas _never_ stalk.

It was a widely known fact that Konoha's loudest ninja talked about only four things without the aid of specific prompting. Those four things were perverts, defeating Sasuke, becoming Hokage, and ramen. Especially ramen. Sasuke was surprised when the blonde's trail lead right past Ichiruka and down the street toward that same park that he had gone to after leaving the mess at Ino's a few weeks ago.

Sasuke had to stop for a moment. That funny little bug in his head was telling him that that clench was back in his chest. He shook himself.

He knew from his past experience that he wasn't going to be satisfied with not hearing his teammate's conversation, especially not with the mission he had given himself. Masking his own chakra, Sasuke hopped up into the trees to find the village's favorite couple. He'd need to find them without being seen, and though the dobe was an idiot that wouldn't detect him, he held Hinata in a higher esteem. One must never under estimate the enemy.

The need for parks in his village had always escaped Sasuke. Why would somebody want a large section of town devoted to shrubs and flowers and monthly trimmed trees when there was a perfectly good forest in any direction around the village? It didn't accure to him that civilians might not be comfortable with the idea of running into a bear while taking their dog for its nightly walk.

When Sasuke came to the end of the chakra trail he looked around but couldn't see his teammate or Hinata anywhere. The chakra was still around him, and from what he could tell, the source was close, but...Sasuke began to wonder if he had somehow given himself away to the Hyuuga girl, when two different chakra registered in his mind. Naturally, he was in a park and any number of shinobi could be walking around, but these two were very close...and familiar.

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? I DIDN'T KNOW YOUR BUG WAS RIGHT THERE!"

Apparently, when Naruto said he was meeting Hinata, he meant that he was meeting Hinata _and _her team. Sasuke moved a little deeper into the park. He saw Kiba a Shino standing unusually close to one another, one glaring through pitch black sunglasses and the other's face red enough to hide the colorful streaks on his cheeks.

"WELL, YOU SHOULD THINK ABOUT SAYING SOMETHING BEFORE -I DO _NOT _HATE BUGS!"

Sasuke gave his surroundings another look. The signatures of the two ninja he was looking for were very close, and with the presence of the other two ninja, the risk of being spotted was greater.

"Shino's been a-a little d-disoriented since the 'incident.'"

...It has already been mentioned that he was an _Ex _Number One Rookie, right?

Sasuke looked down. It would seem that while he had been look at the area a_round _him, he had failed to consider that the two he was looking for might have been sitting _under _him.

"You mean they don't fight like this all the time?" came from the crown of golden hair- which was all that Sasuke could see of his teammate.

"Well -a, no."

A disappointed sigh came from the blonde.

And then, as if the Kiba felt obligated to contradict the dark haired girl, "I DO _NOT _HAVE SIX NIPPLES!"

"Their so cute like this though!" Naruto said brightly. Hinata's head turned in his directed, and from the brief glimpse he'd gotten of her expression, the girl was thinking something like "What did you say?" Naruto didn't see this. "They fight just like a couple!"

It was a very good thing that the two under him were not known for their detection abilities, otherwise they might have heard the straggled syllable that escaped Sasuke when he started to say "WHAT!"

Kiba might have heard. The dog-nin started to turn his head in the direction of Sasuke's tree. But he was saved by Shino saying something in his apparently so-quiet-only-a-dog-can-hear way, because Kiba immediately turned around and shouted, "LEAVE MY MOTHER OUT OF THIS!...WELL, DUH! A FEMALE DOG, WHAT ELSE!" An eyebrow rose as the dog-nin took a moment to ponder something. When Kiba apparently solved whatever puzzle he was thinking of, he screamed, "THAT WAS _LOW, _SHINO!" Promptly, he followed the statement by throwing himself at the addressed bug-lover. Shino avoided this by simply side stepping.

"See?" Naruto, bringing Sasuke back to the conversation that he could at least fallow clearly since both participants spoke at the same volume. "They're so into each other when they're arguing that you can just SEE them kissing and making up at any minute!"

"I don't know, Naruto-kun. They really don't argue like this very often."

"But that just makes everything more intense when they do!" Naruto's voice was surprisingly happy while defending the idea of a lover's spat.

Hinata made a sighing sound before cuddling into her boyfriend's shoulder. The remains of their lunch lay forgotten on the grass in front of them. "But wouldn't it be better to never fight with the person you love, Naruto?" she said sweetly, more confident with the way she spoke now that she and Naruto had been talking on a daily bases for so long.

"Eh?" Naruto's arm went around the girl's shoulder without his noticing. "But if you're not fighting to hurt them, wouldn't it be okay?"

Lost in the comfort of finally having the right to enjoy Naruto's warmth, Hinata absently nodded her head. "Uh-huh..."

"Besides, what's the point of being with someone different from you if you never clash? It would be awkward!" Naruto said, not noticing that the person he was "arguing" with was no longer listening. Naruto's rant on the pros of healthy arguing went on. Sasuke kept himself alter for the first fifteen minutes, switching his attention between the fight between Kiba and Shino, which eventually led into a regular brawl after the quieter of the two said something in his soundless way that apparently crossed some very important line that Sasuke wasn't aware of, and the one sided conversation below. By the time the group spilt up, Sasuke had learned only one thing: Naruto was either a complete idiot, or a complete hypocrite.

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After Naruto had left to met with his old academy teacher at his favorite restaurant (despite having just had lunch), Sasuke continued to fallow the Hyuuga girl. He was still wary of her two teammates, but since neither appeared to have noticed his presence, he didn't take any extra precautions. The group walked each other home, first going to Shino's house, where the other two were met with glares from the woman who answered the door (possibly from knowing how traumatized her son had been after the slaughter of all the bugs that had been on his person during the "incident"). Then to Kiba's, where the brunette was heard complaining about stupid beetle lovers sending stupid flees over to his house. Then Hinata was left alone.

Sasuke had a strong urge to slip out of his hiding place and outright attack the lone figure for hogging all of HIS dobe's attention for the past few weeks. The blaring simplicity of this plan (which could rival the one he'd used when he decided to throw himself at his brother after seeing him for the first time since the murder of his clan), made Sasuke surprised when he found himself actually considering it. But then that thought had to be dismissed as he saw Hinata pass through the after-school area for academy students. Because of Sasuke's own early exposure to the brutal side of ninjitsu, he refused the idea of attacking the Hyuuga in front of a herd of nine years old. Unfortunately, attacking after the girl left was vetoed out when he realized that the reason the girl had taken that route home was to pick her sister out of the play area.

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Hyuuga nine year old...murdered older sister...Hyuuga pint-sized avenger. Bad idea.

Sasuke started to fallow the girls again, though now he more or less knew that his mission had been a failure. Soon the girls would reach the Hyuuga estate, and then where would he be? Outside with no answer to his problem, and no chances of stealing Naruto's attention back.

"SASUKE-KUN!"

And then right on cue, one of Sasuke's fangirls called out to him. Perfect! Today was really going great for him... He let himself slow down a little when the cry reached him again, this time bringing with it the absent realization that he recognized that voice as the one belonging to his female teammate. But just to be sure, he turned his head slightly to see if he could catch a reflection in the window of one of the buildings he was passing. His skills really hadn't been what he thought they were for the past twenty-four hours. He blamed it on sleep loss and whatever unknown disease was causing random contractions in his chest.

"Sasuke-kun!" his name came a third time. Sasuke saw Sakura jogging to catch up with him with the cheery, hopeful smile that he knew she saved just for him, on her face. He braced himself for her to latch on to his arm when she came to a stop.

"I was busy at lunch today, so I didn't get to talk to you!" She said happily to his back. Sasuke didn't move to turn around. He wasn't in the mood to be polite right now. Maybe the part of him that wanted to jump Hinata was still hoping to hurt someone, even if it was only emotionally.

But Sasuke forgot that he was always cold to his female teammate, and that she would take his bad mood as a regular one. As she came around to stand in front of him, she didn't even flinch at the cold stare he fixed on her. Instead she went right on talking as her hand moved back to the little pouch she normally carried her weapons in. "I wanted our team to get together today, but I completely forgot when I promised I'd help Ino clean up that mess behind her shop, and then Naruto was seeing Hinata..." Sasuke raised an eyebrow, his way of saying "What are you babbling about?" when Sakura whipped something flat out of her pouch and shoved it into his chest with surprising speed. He wondered if she had carried the piece of paper where a normal ninja would have store a kunai on purpose, so that his hand would impulsively spring to snatch the "weapon" out of her hand.

Sakura was still smiling. "Happy anniversary!"

Sasuke blinked. He looked at the object in his hand and noticed that it wasn't a box of baked cookies or any other form of a meaningless fangirl gift, but a colorful envelope, the kind usually used to house a card.

Oblivious to his confusion, Sakura went on talking. "Can you believe it's only been three years since Iruka divided our class into teams? It seems like longer, doesn't it?"

Sasuke didn't say anything return. After all, he remembered the day his team was created. It was when he decided that Naruto stood out amongst the rest of the village. He didn't dislike him like he did other people. He flat-out HATED him. All because a careless classroom shove...

"We didn't really do anything the last few years, but we're all closer now, right?" Sakura went on, talking fast. Her smile was becoming a bit more nervous now, unable to read the Uchiha's cold expression. "Naruto, uh, played that trick on me, remember that? I'll never understand how he was able to catch you off guard like that."

And that had been when he decided that he couldn't just hate Naruto, he was going to have to pay attention to him. Comparing that to the present situation, Sasuke decided that he hated Lovesick Naruto more than any other.

"Heh, I was so angry at him after that..." Sakura said, filling the silence. Sasuke didn't look angry at her presence anymore...more like he wasn't aware of it. She forced her smile to stay cheery as she waited for a response. Normally she would have been told to go away by now, so that was something...wasn't it? She made herself laugh a little. "I thought I'd always hate him for that one."

Sasuke's head went to one side, only a small way so that Sakura wouldn't notice in her scramble for words to say. Naruto's prank when their team first came together hadn't work out for him...but then, Sasuke didn't have the same intentions in mind as the dobe had. And it wasn't a _bad _plan to start with, he reasoned with himself. And if he just developed it a little more...

Sasuke smiled, or more likely, smirked. And if he completed this plan, he would always have the comfort of knowing that he had succeeded with the same method his rival had screwed up.

"Sasuke-kun..." the Uchiha's thoughts were cut off when a warm body suddenly latched onto his. In his thoughtful state, his defenses had been put down, leaving his body open to his female teammate's uses. And granted, he should have known better. Years of fangirl devotion should have taught him that trusting anything with breasts was a bad idea, but the pink haired girl didn't seem like she was going into a glomp-the-sex-god mode when she was reminicing...

He also should have been used to the surprisingly strong grip of a female admirer by now, courtesy of the same fangirls. But, he reasoned, he was used to the attack on his arm, not a full frontal assault that pressed the girl's form against his own from shoulder to knee.

"And then when I saw you afterwards...I'm really sorry about what I said about Naruto, and his...family," Sakura said softly. She had seen the smirk and taken it as a sign of affection, thus justifying the hug in her mind. "And then just saying it all in front of you! You made me think about it later, and...do...do you still hate me, Sasuke-kun?"

Sakura, Sasuke suddenly noticed, was still in conversation with him, and thought that he was still listening. Well, at least that meant that his teammate hadn't crossed over to the rabid dark side of fangirldom. But still, he was forcing himself not to throw the strange body off. It was reasonable for someone who had spent over half their life alone to resent sudden and uncalled for (from his point of view) full-body contact, right?

But the mind of a genius never stops working. And even with the discomfort, increased when the girl stopped talking and continued to cling onto him while she waited for his answer, his brain was still thinking about Naruto's plan. And what accured to him was that Naruto never received much contact either. Developing complete.

Sasuke put his hands on either of his teammate's shoulders and pushed her off of him as gently as he could. She did show up just in time to provide him with a plan, one that he would still have time to carry out tonight if he hurried. He kept his face emotionless when he looked at the girl. "I don't hate you anymore, Sakura," he said in his normal, bored tone. She wouldn't be able to rub anything extra into his words that way.

She gave him a relieved smile at that. "Would you like to get dinner in that case?"

"No." Sasuke started to turn, but seeing that the girl's face became ashen again, he said over his shoulder, "I already have a date." Rather than waiting for Sakura's reaction, Sasuke took off. It was getting dark, and if he was going to have Konoha's favorite couple broken up by training tomorrow, he would have to hurry.

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A/N:

Hi! I just finished re-reading this chapter. It had a lot of missing words in it, so I'm actually glad that I decided to repost the first few chapters. I only have one more before I reach the point where uneraseablesin became my beta, and then I'm done with reposting.

And Also, just because of the warning, I'm going to leave my old author's note for this chapter up:

Hello! I'm sorry that it took me so long to get this chapter up. Originally I was going to start the MPREG part of the story to get things moving, but then I thought that some of the people reading this might not like the idea of reading a het lemon (you know, since Naruto and Sasuke both kinda...don't have a womb...or ovaries...). So, I took Sasuke's 'plan' and decided to put it in its own chapter and threw Shino and Kiba into this one to make up for the lost pages. If you don't want to read the lemon, I suggest waiting for chapter five. See? no reason to flame me!

Also, about Sasuke's last name...I got another correction for how to spell it, so I went and checked it out. The manga, the anime, and most of the google searches used the "Uchiha" spelling, so that's what I'm going to use. If anyone would like to help me out with spelling and such...and anything on the Hyuuga family would be greatly appreciated!

Okay, so I guess that's all I got to say in this author's note, except THANK YOU REVIEWERS! I've received eight reviews! That's the most I've ever gotten a story. And thank you people that read this story but don't review, too! Thanks to FF's funny little status system, I know exactly how many people read chapter two and I have an increditable urge to go out and do good deeds because of it.


	4. Mission Failure

Outside Naruto's apartment, Sasuke stopped to study himself in a store window. A pair of white eyes looked back at him. After his conversation with Sakura, Sasuke had stopped to do a last minute run over of his plan in his head, comparing it to the event that had inspired it. He had stopped halfway to his destination to perform a quick bunshin, making a single clone to stand guard outside the Hyuuga estate with strict orders to come warn him if anything should happen unexpectedly. That was one improvement he could hold over the dobe. He doubted he would need it though. How long could it take to make the blonde never want to hear the name Hyuuga again?

Sasuke was a little disappointed that by now there were few people out on the streets. He would have liked to have had someone to test his acting on. Instead, he could only content himself with looking at the glass and practicing the expressions that he would need. His head turned in the yellow-orange light of the streetlamp so that he could check for any errors in his disguise. Hinata's complexion was very similar to his own and had been easy to match, but her eyes were another story. Looking at the part of the Hyuuga's face that would announce her identity to any ninja in Konoha, Sasuke suppressed the urge to shudder. He couldn't see the faint gray outline of the iris in this light, making him look as if his eyes had rolled back in his head like a dead man's.

The clothing that Hinata wore was simple and loose. Blue pants, white jacket, the exact opposite if his own daily attire. But the pants were made from a silky material that rippled when he walked and caressed his legs so that he wanted to turn around and growl at somebody to stop touching him. And naturally, as a ninja he had to criticize wearing such loose garments. What would she do if she got caught on a stray nail during one of her missions? At least the jacket was sensible. It was padded for warmth and snuggly covered her figure from the bottom of her neck to her hips. Possibly good for hiding weapons.

Satisfied that he had captured the Hyuuga girl to the best of his abilities (of which no one needs to be reminded of), Sasuke stepped back from the window, craning his head upward to look for his target's window. He was just in the act of lifting his foot when a hard tug almost caused him to trip over. Sasuke looked down in annoyance and noticed one other thing about Hinata's taste in clothing: she wore modern tennis shoes instead of traditional sandals. Now _that _was just stupid! Everyone knew that those kinds of shoes made squeaking sounds on floors! How would she sneak up on her enemies? Sasuke glared at the footwear in a very un-Hinata like manner as he knelt down to tie the loose shoe lace. Then paused when, with a loop in each hand, something _squishy _pressed against his knee.

Frowning, Sasuke stood back up and walked over to the shop window. Women had breasts, he knew that, but the thing that he felt couldn't have been...it was too… He looked at the chest reflected for him, the padding he noted before was so thick that it was hard to determine the girl's shape. His hand came up and felt experimentally up and down the front of the jacket. Curiously taking the zipper's handle between two fingers, the raven-haired ninja pulled down...

...And nearly punched himself in the chin with the force he used to jerk it back up.

Eyes wide, Sasuke silently vowed to, under no circumstances, lower the zipper again. There was no way in hell he could scare a teenage boy away from a girl if he got a good look at _those._

Deciding that he didn't want to know anything else about his enemy's body, Sasuke stepped away from the shop window, again looking for the dobe's apartment as he walked over to the building's entrance.

Across the lobby, a wide mirror was mounted to the wall. Sasuke got one last look at himself and noted his expression. No one would believe Hinata walking around wearing the same emotionless mask that he so loved, which was staying in place despite the jutsu. His brow furrowed somewhat because of the concentration that he had to used when Sasuke forced his lips into the nervous little half smile he normally saw whenever the girl looked his way. He made his eyebrows go into the position worn by people always on the edge of worrying over tiny details, like whether to use hearts on her i's or regular dots. And finally, he took his hands out of his pockets so he could hold them under his chin, the fingers mingling together in a fidgeting mass. This was more like the Hinata he knew.

Satisfied when he looked into the mirror again, Sasuke turned to start up the stairs. Then stopped with a frown on his face. Hinata's hands would only bob up to hit her face if she took the stairs, and from what he'd seen of her stamina, he could assume that she avoided extra exercise.

Sasuke took the elevator to be safe.

One might have said that stopping to think about such details was unnecessary. Sasuke however, who might have been trying to make up for his earlier slip ups, knew differently. This was to be addressed as a mission, and he'd be damned if he was going to make even the slightest error when he had the benefit of knowing his targets since preschool.

The door opened two floors below Sasuke's destination, letting an elderly woman step into the elevator with him. Raising his head in a shy manner, he whipped in back down after making eye contact and let his smile grow just a little. "G-good e-evening."

"Good evening, dear." The old woman smiled at him, showing a mouth of yellow teeth. "Where would you be going to this late at night?"

Sasuke normally would have let that question go unanswered, believing firmly that nosy civilians should learn to keep to themselves. However, he wasn't Sasuke right now... "I'm visiting m-my fr-friend, Naruto-kun."

"Oh. I see." The old hag spoke politely, but Sasuke noticed that there was a new frost lining her words. She took a step to the side, silently putting up a wall between them. It could have been caused by either the idea of a young woman visiting a "kun" in the evening, or the name that was connected to the "kun." Sasuke was too busy inwardly smirking at his Hinata-like performance to care.

The door opened on the floor Sasuke wanted, and he stepped out with a sweet little smile on his mouth for the woman to see, then hurried down the hall. The nervous good-girl who would never think of...

69. Apartment number _69_A. Sasuke turned his head and counted the door's on his left and right. Comparing the numbers with what he had counted on the ground, Sasuke concluded that there was no mistake. The dobe actually lived in apartment 69A...

If he was Sasuke, he'd have snickered. As Hinata he blushed and looked away from the numbers as he reached out to ring the door bell. He'd have to make a point of coming back as himself and getting Naruto riled up over this.

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Naruto had been calmly laying on his couch while waiting for his favorite noodle dish to cook. It wasn't really late for him yet, but he knew that if he was to get up and go to Ichiruka's he would be sent home with affectionate orders to get a good night's sleep for training tomorrow. Sometimes, having people care about him could be a _tinsy _bit annoying. When he became Hokage, he would make it a law that ramen bars serve whoever walks by their front doors! Whether they have money or not! It would be right after he outlawed Uchiha-woreship.

The smell of unseasoned noodles beginning to soften drew Naruto out of his thoughts. Wanting to get closer to the delightful aroma, Naruto started to get up when he was interrupted by his doorbell ringing. He glanced at the clock on the wall, then back at the door. The last time he had gotten a visitor this late it had been Iruka coming to lecture him the importance of going to sleep early on nights that he knew he was going to have training the next morning, especially if he was going to start a fight with stronger teammates that he _knew _was going to leave him dirty and bloody by the time he went to visit his favorite teacher at work. Several parents had pulled their children out of the ninja academy the last time he walked in during parent-teacher conference week.

When the bell sounded again, Naruto tried to think of anything that he had done wrong...well, that Iruka would have heard about. He went over to the door, completely ignoring the peephole meant for inspecting his guests to determine them from homicidal villagers come to beat him to a pulp, or evil older brothers of friends' come to steal him away for the use of his organization. Which was why he was completely surprised when he saw his girlfriend of two months standing on the other side.

"Hinata!"

"H-Hello, Naruto-kun." The girl had her hands in front of her face when he first opened the door, now she lowered them so that they fidgeted around her stomach. "C-Can I come in?"

Still uncertain as to why she was there, Naruto put on his famous smile and moved aside to make room for her. "Of course!"

"Thank you, Naruto-kun."

The girl walked in and seemed to look around the apartment nervously while Naruto closed the door. She turned her attention back to him and stared intently at his hands while he inserted the lock as if judging it's ability to hold the door closed. Naruto was about to ask why she was staring, when he remembered something Iruka once tried to teacher him about guests, especially when said guests were important people, like girlfriends. He tried to make himself remember exactly what it was he was supposed to offer…

"Uh...Want me to take your jacket?"

"No!" Hinata's hands snapped to either of her arms, gripping the fabric tightly. Naruto blinked. It was pretty warm inside his apartment, and his landlord didn't provide air conditioning...

When she noticed Naruto's confused look, Hinata turned her attention to the floor and said sheepishly, "I-I mean, I'm find thank you. I-I wanted to talk to you about something."

Naruto cocked his head to one side. He'd thought that he and Hinata had gotten passed her stuttering problem. Something must have been making her nervous. "Okay. What do you want to talk about, Hinata?"

The girl raised her eyes from the floor, slowly bringing them up Naruto's body so that he felt uncomfortable for some strange reason. She took a step towards him. Then another. From the way her eyes fastened on him, he wasn't sure whether he was expected to run.

"I...It's not really so much talking, as..." The girl stopped when she stood in front of him, Naruto with his back against the door. She raised her head to stared directly into his eyes with her own pearly white ones. "You remember what you said before about Kiba and Shino?" She said in a husky voice that only added to the blonde's confusion. "I think I want to make up with you."

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Naruto stared at Sasuke in confusion. He took this as a good sign and wound his arms around the blonde's neck.

"But Hinata, we haven't been fighting."

It took all of Sasuke's control not to glare. To shut the dobe up, as well as keep himself from slipping up in his plan by saying something along the lines of "Dobe," Sasuke stood on tip-toe to nuzzle into the tan neck, exposed with the absence of the annoying orange jacket. From above him, he heard a sudden gasp. "H-Hinata! What are-"

"Naruto-kun..." Sasuke smirked, turning his head so that he could occupy his mouth before it was noticed. Bringing to mind one very aggressive fangirl that had somehow managed to corner him during one of their previous missions, Sasuke parted his lips and bit down gently on the dobe's skin. He felt Naruto shiver in discomfort. Or what he took for discomfort. When two hands came up onto his shoulders and started to push him away, Sasuke let himself make that wild, hungry look he hated so much himself.

Naruto's face was red as he looked at the girl in front of him. "Uh, Hinata...are you feeling alright?"

"Yes, Naruto-kun." Sasuke's gaze rested on the other shinobi's mouth, which was left carelessly parted. He let one hand leave Naruto's shoulder only to trail it slowly up his stomach. He was wearing his weekend clothes, the oversized white shorts and the black t-shirt with the red swirl mark. One finger traced that mark before slipping behind the blonde's back and pulling him away from the door. As a result, their bodies touched full length. Sasuke felt the shiver run through him that always came with large amounts of physical contact, but forced it aside by focusing on the fact that the pink-tinted tan lips were now only inches from his own.

The blonde looked...surprised, or dazed. He might have said something that would have made his mental status clearer if Sasuke hadn't sent the remaining hand on the blonde's shoulder up into his hair and pulled his head down to catch his mouth with his own.

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Any minute now, Sasuke thought to himself as he hungry drew his dobe's lower lip between his teeth. Any minute, he was going to be throw aside, and Naruto was going to tell Hinata that she was a perverted slut. On this train of thought, it was a complete and utter surprise when a sets of hands suddenly dove into his hair. Sasuke's closed eyes shot open, his mouth going slack for a moment too long as something that didn't belong there slid inside.

Sasuke's hands stay firmly on the dobe's head and back, but his mouth...Naruto tasted every part of it while his mind went blank. This wasn't a part of the plan. Naruto was supposed to react how he would to a fangirl, not slid his hand down his back and pull him closer, and DEFINATELY not break the contact between their mouths so that he could trail kisses down his neck. Sasuke's body decided to fallow suit with his mouth, and if not for Naruto's support, would have crumbled to the floor. He couldn't even think to resist when Naruto picked up "Hinata" and carried her over to the couch and set her down. In fact, his traitorous arms, which didn't seem to know when they were experiencing Mission-Failure, wrapped around his teammate's neck. His mind was shut down.

Naruto settled on the couch next to Hinata, pulling her into his lap when she refused to let go of him. He didn't seem to notice her wide eyes and faint panicked expression until he leaned close to kiss her again. Their noses were about to touch when he stopped. "Hinata?"

"H-Hai?" The white eyes seemed to focus on him, noticing their closeness and pulling back slightly.

"Are you okay?" Naruto said. Even as the short sentence came out, his hold began to loosen on the girl. He hadn't really waited for her to speak after that first kiss, maybe he'd misunderstood what she wanted...

"Hai."

Naruto licked his lips to moisten them, then wished he didn't when Hinata's eyes shifted to stare directly at his mouth with a wondering expression on her face. "If you don't want to do this...it's okay."

That was his chance, Sasuke thought. He could just pull out right now and leave the dobe with an awkward situation with his girlfriend. That might have been enough of a strain for most couples, but Sasuke knew better. Naruto would come right out and talk about it. He might, Sasuke thought with a bit of his earlier anger coming back, even apologize to her.

His eyes were still on the other boy's mouth, and if Sasuke traced his lips with his tongue he could still taste the blonde. It wasn't the first time Naruto and Sasuke had made contact with those particular parts of their bodies, but the last time had been an accident...and no where close to the same amount of enthusiasm had been involved. Sasuke swallowed. Hard. He licked his lips as Naruto had done, which brought with it the distinct taste of pork ramen and...something else.

Naruto's hold was now hardly even present. His arms were resting mostly on the couch cushions, his hands lightly on Hinata's hips. She hadn't answered him, and he took that as a silent "Stop now." He knew she'd been disoriented. He tightened his grip again to lift her off of him, when the hands on his should fisted in his shirt. With one strong tug, Hinata slammed herself back onto him, eyes glaring for even trying to remove her.

Two blue eyes looked at Sasuke questioningly when he firmly nestled back into the blonde's lap. Naruto groan in response to the contact, his head going back a little to expose that tanned throat again. Somewhere in the back of Sasuke's mind, there was a voice that was screaming at him, demanding to know just what exactly he thought he was doing. But it was far less interesting than the taste of his teammate's skin when his lips once again found that place on his neck that begged to have him bury his face there.

Naruto's arms tightened around Sasuke's waist again. There was something poking into his seat that hadn't been quite so...prominent...before, and the sensible side of Sasuke again screamed at him to stop what he was doing. It wasn't going to help him...He'd regret it...It'd be awkward seeing Naruto again...It-

A rough hand pulled back on Sasuke's head, meshing much softer lips onto his own before he could voice a protest. This time his lips parted willingly when Naruto traced them with his tongue. That taste that he couldn't name earlier was obvious now. It was Naruto's taste. And he was beginning to find that he liked it very much.

His hands crawled into Naruto's hair, messier without the hitai-ate that he always wore at practice. The strands were softer than he'd thought they'd be, the sensation magnified after he closed his eyes.

Naruto trailed his hand up and down Sasuke's back, once slipping under the thick jacket, making the raven-hair boy-turned-girl arch forward and press his front against the other boy's chest. Neither one of them pulled back when the hand slipped back out again. Only when the hand came between them did Sasuke allow the kiss to be broken. And then, it was only for a moment when Naruto grabbed onto the white jacket's zipper and pulled. Then the Uchiha roughly grabbed his teammate's head and pulled their bodies together again, the infernal jacket falling forgotten to the floor.

A frustrated sound was heard from "Hinata" when she tried to bring the blonde into another kiss only to have Naruto switch the angle of his head so that his mouth met with the girl's jaw. He licked at the skin there, dragging down her neck. While his mouth was busy working its way over the newly exposed skin, his hands on the girl's hips began pushing them forward and back in grinding motions over the part of him that was rapidly coming alive and demanding attention. Hinata only needed minimum guiding before she took over the movements herself.

Sasuke moved his hips rhythmically in the way he was silently instructed, feeling the blonde's erection brush repeatedly over an area he hadn't thought to inspect before. Warmth was coiling in his stomach, forming a tingling sensation that he was positive he never felt before. Naruto bit down on a spot just above where the thin tank top and "Hinata" started loudly. He was gentle, but Sasuke found his head rolling back, a gasp coming out of his mouth. The weight of his head caused his back to curve, offering his breasts for further exploration to the blonde that was holding him steady. Naruto's mouth was eager to comply as it went about covering every inch of exposed skin with touches and kisses, as one hand went about pushing up the tank top to expose more.

"Naruto..." Sasuke's hands felt idle in the blonde hair moving over his body. They slipped down to his shoulders, then to his chest, trailing lower. When they reached the now very obvious bludge that their contact was fueling (Sasuke thought with a smirk that his partner couldn't see), the finger tips brushed gently over the area, and Naruto let out a moan that vibrated against his skin. Boldly, they pressed down harder on the area, hand sliding down a little to cup the erection. He could feel it pulsing through the thin layer of fabric. Savoring the sound of a breath being drawn in suddenly, Sasuke let his curiosity get the better of him. He experimented with the different touches he could think to put on that area without seeming to know more than any girl would about the organ. He rubbed at the area, moved his fingers in little swirling patterns across the bludge, squeezing and stroking up and down through the fabric, until the hands on his hips clamped down hard, and Sasuke was suddenly staring at the ceiling as his back made contact with the couch cushions. Naruto settled over him with his arms supported on either side of his shoulders. The look that came from the blue eyed ninja was hungry as his hips pushed their way between Sasuke's legs to grind against him again.

Sasuke felt a moan come up his throat.

The black tank top was pulled up from Sasuke's body, impatience and need making both ninjas careless. Sasuke thought he heard the sound of fabric ripping as he sat up and went back down in a one fluid movement, leaving the couch just long enough for the barring shirt to be lifted. Naruto fell back on him again. Their mouths met for a moment in a deep kiss before Sasuke decided to even their score and yanked at the blonde's own clothing. Naruto was compliant until the oversized old t-shirt hit the ground. Then he defiantly turned his attention back to the raven-haired ninja's breasts instead of his mouth, his chest making skin to skin contact with Sasuke's stomach.

Naruto's mouth closed around one unsuspecting nipple through the material of his bra. The hand already feeling around his partner's back for the clasp. Sasuke might have offered to help him through the haze that was storming his mind, but he didn't know how the blasted thing worked either.

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You should end this right now, that voice in his head came back to life when he felt the garment around his chest slacken and the dobe's lips around his nipple turned up into a triumphant smile. _Get up and walk away now._

Naruto sat up on his knees, the offending piece of cloth dangling from his hand. He stared down at Sasuke with hungry eyes, raking up every shadow the light threw around Hinata's curves. When Naruto lowered himself back down, a warm hand gently slid over one of the swells, eyes half lidded and mouth seeking out it's mate. Sasuke opened for him eagerly, enjoying his taste and the feel of another's warmth on his body.

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Walk away, walk away, walk away! Sasuke's shrinking voice of reason shrieked at him in a final plea.

But what would Naruto do, Sasuke wondered as he shivered deliciously under the blonde's touch, if he knew that it was Sasuke's thighs he was caressing as he slid the silky trousers off? Or that Sasuke was the one he crawled back up to and kissed so gently, completely opposite from what they had gone through a few moments ago.

Naruto smiled at him mischievously as he slid back down Sasuke's body, trailing breezy kisses as he went. Sasuke was unsure what the blonde was planning to do when his face stopped over the area he had just uncovered, looking up quickly to see his reaction as he bent down. Sasuke was just about to ask what he thought that he was doing when Naruto grasped his hips again and lifted them up so that he could hook a leg over each shoulder. Sasuke's expression must have given his confusion away, because Naruto shot him a smug grin before he buried his face in the area that Sasuke knew so little about.

He was being penetrated. Sasuke could feel something moving around inside him, licking, caressing, teasing. His hips were moving on their own to help give the blonde better access for his invasion as his hands returned to their earlier positions in his hair, trying to push Naruto deeper. "Naruto!" The darting tongue swirled around something inside him, making it come to an ache greater than what he'd felt before. He wanted to rock his hips against the dobe's mouth, draw him in deeper and see if that would sate the tingling feeling that wouldn't go away.

And then the mouth was gone. Sasuke had been holding him there, and then somehow Naruto had gotten away from him. He could have cried. His eyes, which he hadn't remembered closing, snapped open at the sound of a zipper lowering. Turning his head to the side, a very real and Hinata-worthy blush came into the Uchiha heir's face. "Naruto..." he said breathless all of the sudden, unable to take his eyes off of an organ that was less of a mystery to him, yet held his entire attention.

Naruto climbed back onto the couch, clothes now forgotten. He took the girl's hips in his hands again, eyes meeting and locking with Hinata's. "If you aren't sure-"

"YES!" Sasuke cried impatiently, not caring if his answer would go with the dobe's question grammatically. The warmth of Naruto's hands on him, and the anticipation of more contact was making him lose control. But then again, hadn't he lost it already? He kept his eyes on Naruto, hands griping the couch on either side of him as he parted his legs. Naruto tried to be gentle, he could tell by the care he took when his head first brushed against Sasuke's entrance, how slowly he pushed forward. All the same, Sasuke's hands tighten on the cushions hard enough to rip the fabric when Naruto met with a resistance and pressed through it. Why was there pain! Weren't girls' bodies meant for this sort of thing? Naruto was watching his face, and Sasuke felt a hand gently brushing along the side of his face. Eyes locking with a pair of bright blue ones, Sasuke pulled Naruto's head down to him, wanting to erase the pain with his taste. He thought he felt Naruto shudder.

It was a strange feeling Sasuke decided. He could feel Naruto throbbing inside of him while he gave him a minute to adjust to the new sensation. The pain faded away quickly, leaving him filled with...Naruto. When the blonde's head dropped next to Sasuke's ear, he started to say a name and Sasuke pushed against him. Hard.

"Hin..."

Not that name. He didn't want to hear that name. Naruto gasped as the action pressed him in deeper for a moment before drawing back. His hips swung back into him again, fast, making him cry out at the unfamiliar sensation. Sasuke's fingers dug into the blonde's back, pale enough so that Sasuke could pretend the henge wasn't there. Naruto thrust into him, both of them making sounds that would have been strange under any other situation but at the moment seemed natural.

Naruto's head turned and rediscovered Sasuke's neck. Licking, touching, kissing. Sasuke's legs wanted to wrap around the tan waist but stayed put until two hands slipped under him, angling him so that the dobe could go in farther. He felt muscles that he never had before clench around Naruto as his body went into shuddering spasms. The sound of Naruto's name being called out reached him, though he didn't remember opening his mouth for it. He felt a sudden new warm pour into him and noticed that Naruto had started shaking too. The arms around him tightened, and then disappeared before the body above him could collapse on top of his smaller form.

In his daze, Sasuke couldn't figure out where Naruto had gone, even with the sound of something heavy hitting the hardwood floor next to the couch. No cursing fallowed it. Only the sound of two people panting as they stared up at the ceiling. One of Sasuke's hands fell idly over the side of the couch as his mind began to slowly come down from whatever corner it had been hiding in. When warm fingers closed around it, he half jumped.

"Hinata?"

The breathless voice was another startle. "H-Hai?"

A light laugh. "I didn't think I would be doing that tonight."

"Hai." Sasuke thought, _You have no idea, Dobe._

Silence returned only to be broken by the sound of something sizzling loudly. Sasuke frowned up at the ceiling wondering if his ears had suddenly developed some sort of hearing problem, when Naruto shot up from his place on the floor and took at a run for the kitchenette. The sound of cursing fallowed when he propped himself up and stared after the blonde. He forced himself up into a full sitting position, leaning his tired body against the couch's arm rest.

"You owe me ramen!" Came back to him. Naruto was heaving a pot trailing white steam as he spoke.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow when he saw the pot turned over and a mass of over cooked, scalding noodles dumped into the dobe's sink. "Don't you ever get tired of eating, dobe?" Sasuke said, shaking his head a little so that a tendril of hair that had fallen into his face went back. It wasn't until he looked back at the kitchenette and saw that Naruto had froze and was currently staring at him that he noticed his slip. That stupid, baka-worthy slip... "Naru-"

Laughing. Sasuke was trying to think of a way to cover himself back up, when Naruto started _laughing. _Maybe the idea of discovering that instead of having sex with your girlfriend it really with your rival in disguise was just too much for him... "Has anyone ever told you that you like Sasuke with your hair messed up like that?"

Sasuke wondered if his teammate could hear the relieved breath rush out of him. He could have kissed him for his incredible ability to miss what any other ninja in Konoha would have seen.

"Kami, for a minute there I thought Sasuke just changed genders!"

...INCREDIBLE ability to miss the obvious. Perhaps the dobe was actually a smart ninja, and just had a mental disability that kept him from realizing it.

All the same, when Naruto came back into the living room and sat down beside him, Sasuke felt the beginnings of a smile come onto his face when Naruto looked at him with those appraising blue eyes. Still unsure of himself, Naruto reached for Sasuke again. That voice in the Uchiha heir's head started to preach to him again, but...the damage was already done right? Mentally, Sasuke cursed himself even as he moved closer to his blonde teammate.

One more taste couldn't hurt...

Sasuke's head tilted to one side as he sought out Naruto's mouth again. It might have been by some sixth sense that he hadn't been aware of that guided him, that Sasuke would just happen to angle his head to the side that gave him a view of the apartment's window. And then just a coincidence that he left his eyes lazily open to watch the blonde's expression while he tasted him, because right at the moment his eyes drifted over the window...and locked with the coal black ones of his own image.

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A/N:

Guess who? I re-edited this while babysitting, so I might have missed a few things here and there. Gimmie some slack, it's hard to keep your mind focused on weeding out mistakes in a lemon when there is a pack of ten year olds hovering over your shoulder and a two year old in your lap. But that's just what I think.

Looking at this, I think I'm glad that I put this in its own chapter, it turned out longer than I expected. But then again, this was my first attempt at a lemon (DON'T HURT ME!) so I had no idea how much space one would take.

Anyway, now that Sassy's gotten to the point where he's either "Dude, you like guys!" or "Dude, you're MESSED UP!" I can start making this story a yoai! Which Naruto POV! I'm sorry that I've only given little snippets of other character points of view, but I can't help it! When I thought of this story, I was really only thinking about how Sasuke would act, so I guess that means that this story is centered around him. But don't worry, I intend to drive him up the Hokage monument before the end of this story :evil laugh:


	5. Guess Who?

Naruto was never the brightest crayon in the box of art supplies that was Konoha. If he absolutely NEEDED to be nailed down to an exact color, the blonde would probably choose his trademark color- bright screaming orange. However, this would only be how he saw himself. In reality he would probably be closer to a brown. Perhaps a light brown, if he were judged by his performance at certain points during missions, but a brown crayon nonetheless. Unsurprisingly, his sensei would be a light gray, almost white. And Sakura's brightest girl tendencies would likely earn her the lovely shade of pink that new mothers often use to decorate their baby's room after, hopefully, being informed that their new buddle was going to be female. Ironically, despite whatever protests the boy might put up, Sasuke would likely be voted a bright, cheery yellow.

Coming back to the point, Naruto wasn't the most perceptive of people. But even he was able to tell that something was not right when the girl in his arms stopped responding. Drawing back, he spoke the Hyuuga heir's name softly. When this got no response, Naruto tried to look into her eyes, but found them angled in another direction, over his shoulder. It was only when he turned his own head around to try and see just what it was that held her attention that Hinata seemed to remember he was even there. He felt a warm hand close over his elbow firmly, even as his lower jaw dropped open.

"SASUKE!"

"Naruto!" Hinata's grip on his arm doubled, so that if his eyes weren't currently fixed on his rival in unmasked shock, he would have screamed at the sudden pain. Sasuke was just sitting there, perched calmly on the branch outside his window as he had done dozens of times before when Kakashi had sent him to wake the blonde up on days that he overslept. From the expression on the black-haired boy's face, one would think that it was completely normal for him to be where he was. Why WOULDN'T he be peeping in on his best friend and his naked girlfriend?

On that train of thought, Naruto came to the startling discovery that Hinata was EXACTLY what Sasuke's eyes were glued on. Even when he had shouted out the other ninja's name, the coal eyes didn't shift. Naruto felt Hinata's other hand come up to his shoulder to hold him in a grip just as steely as the first's. If she had caught his reflection in the window, she might have seen the fiercely protective look that came over his face.

"What the hell are you doing here!" Naruto screamed, or meant too. The fierce need to protect his mate probably appealed to something in the Kyuubi, or so Naruto told himself, and that was the reason he gave himself when his voice came out as a growl.

Sasuke blinked once, graciously sparing the blonde a glance before his attention refocused on Hinata; he seemed to be trying to convey something. Anger? Disgust? Threat? Naruto couldn't read the urgent emotion flickering in his teammate's normally blank face. He started to get up to approach him with the intention of demanding an explanation, but before he could rise three inches he was forced to notice the surprisingly strong white hands digging into the right side of his upper body.

Jerking her lover back down onto the couch, the future Hyuuga leader's expression was fierce when Naruto looked at her. She was staring right back at the Uchiha, so... seriously. Then, as Naruto studied his lover's face, he saw the eyes suddenly grow wide and felt her hands on him become lax. Though he heard the betraying little 'poof,' the demon-holder still swung his head around to face the window again, and was rewarded with the sight of fading lavender smoke. In the tree, exactly where his teammate had crouched, a kunai had its tip buried in the bark.

He really hoped that whoever suggested testing academy student's abilities through the bunshin part of the Academy exam was rotting in their grave...

Naruto got up to look around outside his window. Hinata didn't say anything as he muttered, more to himself than anyone else, "That pervert! How long did he plan on staying there before..."

"I need to go." When the blonde turned around, Hinata was already on the floor, looking for discarded clothing. The navy blue trousers were already pulled up to her hips though from the loose fit, Naruto guessed that they hadn't been buttoned. He watched, fixated, as the girl pressed her upper body against the ground so that she could look under the couch in search of the black tank top and bra. Her breasts flattened against the cold wood floor, making the girl shiver even as she tried to concentrate on her search. When she stood up with an exasperated sigh, Naruto forced his attention off the part of her body that bounced with her, peeked from the cool contact.

"You don't have to leave just because of him," he said, meaning to reassure. For a second it seemed that Hinata glared when her eyes focused on him. He blinked to clear his eyes, but when he opened them again the girl's sweet expression seemed to have returned.

The white hands sprang together over the girl's stomach, clinging to each other like barroom brawlers. "I-I d-don't want my family to find out th-that I snuck out." Even as she spoke, Hinata's eyes swept along the floor. Naruto wondered why she didn't just activate her Byakugan if she was in such a hurry to find her clothes.

"But if they haven't noticed you're gone by now..." Naruto trailed off when a sound from outside made the Hinata jump to her feet. It was literally a one-minute-she-was-on-her-knees-the-next-on-her-feet, jump. This time Naruto could not resist the reflex that was born into him by training with not one, but two legendary perverts, as his attention shot to appreciating the movement's effect on certain parts of the girl's body.

Hinata snatched up her jacket, apparently giving up the other two pieces of clothing as lost. One arm was thrust into its sleeve so quickly that Naruto imagined hearing the fabric rip. "You okay?" he said, not at all forging the concern after her head turned again and he glimpsed her expression.

"H-Hai," she said. "I should probably...just...get home..." When Hinata had started speaking her eyes were on the window behind Naruto, but as they began to focus more on the blonde she noticed that while she had been hurrying to get dress, he had simply stood watching her. Hinata's face turned red. This might have been done partially to the fact that without clothes, the result of Naruto watching a half naked girl scurry about his living room was not at all hidden.

A silence followed. Hinata's eyes kept raking up and down the blonde's body thoughtfully. The blonde shifted his weight uncomfortably when he realized that Hinata must have also inherited the ability to go for long stretches of time without blinking. Maybe it was a part of their bloodline limit.

"Uh...Do you want me to walk you home?" Naruto offered, his hand went behind his head to scratch at some imaginary bug.

"NO!" the Hyuuga heirs eyes snapped away from the blonde. Her temporarily immobilized hands began to once again work the jacket onto her body, noticeably making an effort to do so more calmly than before. "If anyone saw us out this late, they might think that we were doing..."

Two blue eyes flicked away from the pale skinned girl as she trailed off. If bitterness came into his voice, he insisted that it was only because of the name he was using while he filled in the end of her sentence. "What Sasuke saw us doing?"

Hinata's right hand was on the door knob, the left pulling up the zipper of her white coat, effectively hiding the last of her body from him. "Naruto... uh, goodnight." The sound of the door closing announced the Hyuuga's exit. Naruto walked forward just enough so that when he fell forward in frustration, he landed on the couch. Rolling over, he glared at the ceiling. _Stupid Sasuke, ruining everything..._

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The moment the door of apartment 69A closed, Sasuke took off running. All pretenses the Uchiha heir had of putting up a good Hinata performance where gone as he let his jutsu go. A simple puff of smoke blossomed around the slender girl's body for a moment, and then was left behind as a frantic young man rushed out of it.

Sasuke nearly crashed into the door leading into the stairwell. His feet couldn't move fast enough to satisfy his nerves. Daring gravity to bring him tumbling down, he took the steps two at a time, jumping at three when he came close to the large concrete slabs used to keep the stairs continuing in a square-shaped spiral.

He remembered the orders that he had given his clone before coming to Naruto's apartment. _Only come if the plan is discovered._ Someone had vanished Sasuke's clone while it tried to warn him outside Naruto's apartment. Whoever it was must have been close to the Hyuuga estate, and either clever enough to recognize a clone, or angry enough to kill. Sasuke cursed as he jumped down the remaining three steps to reach the ground level. The fact that his body was already starting to feel a faint soreness despite returning to its proper gender was not going to help him if he was planning to run.

The yellow light was still on when he reached the ground floor. There was no one to be seen through the glass windows in the lobby as Sasuke slowed to a walk on his way to the door. As a genin that should have been promoted years ago, he knew that showing panic on a mission was giving yourself over to death. Even if it was a horribly failed mission, it was important not to show signs of fear to an enemy ninja. Sasuke kept this going through his mind while his inner voice screamed at him to start running again, pointing out that if he had followed its original orders he would have no problem listening to it now. He saw his reflection for the third time that night, first time as a male, as he passed by the same little shop he had stood outside earlier that evening. The bored mask had slipped back into place without his noticing; if he weren't in such a hurry, he might have smirked at himself for the accomplishment.

Turning his head, Sasuke looked up at Naruto's apartment window. The light was still on in the living room, where Sasuke was no longer sure if he would ever be able to visit again as himself. He didn't know if he could sit on that same couch and not remember the way it had grown warm and sweat-sticky under his back, or if he could resist smirking if his eyes fell on places where his hands had pulled and stretched the already worn fabric during the moment Naruto had first entered him.

Or rather, entered Hinata. With a shudder that wasn't really caused by the cold and absence of the over stuffed white jacket, Sasuke thought to himself, _I know she's a virgin now._

That was a bit of information that he really never would have thought about under any other circumstances.

Even with his mind wandering, Sasuke had been aware that there was a ninja nearby that could spot him at any moment, so when two hands grabbed him by the collar it wasn't too great of a surprise. His mask managed to stay in place. Even if he hadn't planned on being so easily yanked into an ally and pushed up against the damp brick wall, while a pair of icy white eyes bore into him.

"Uchiha." Somehow, Neji managed to make his greeting sound like an accusation.

Sasuke made a point of keeping anger from his voice when he responded. "Hyuuga." The two most silent ninjas of Konoha stared at one another. It was the second time that they had been totally alone with each other and, like the first time, neither wanted to make conversation. But unlike that day on the bridge, when Neji had set everything in motion that led up to this moment, both ninja knew that escaping the situation without speaking was not a possibility. Still, that didn't mean that either wanted to be the first one to break the silence.

Neji's hands moved just a little, one at a time, as he got a better hold on the Uchiha heir's shirt. The staring contest that came up between them wasn't broken. Or at least, Neji thought that there was a staring contest. In reality, part of the Uchiha heir's ability to keep his face expressionless was to focus his thoughts inward, and right a that moment, Sasuke focused on the thought that he really, REALLY wanted a shower after tonight's... mission. Neji was the one who spoke first, dragging Sasuke away from his thoughts. "What were you doing in Naruto's apartment?"

The coal black eyes stayed trained on the white, though if the disgusted look that came to Neji's normally passive face meant anything, Sasuke guessed that he wasn't able to control his blush. Still, he kept his voice cold. "None of your business."

White eyes narrowed as Sasuke was reminded of his thoughts on comparing the Hyuuga eyes to a dead man's. "Then why were you pretending to be Hinata?"

The Uchiha's body stiffened in the long haired ninja's hold. In the back of his mind, he heard the echo of his teammate's earlier shout. _Pervert!_

The accuracy of Sasuke's imagination was so real, that his body actually started to quiver. He was at a loss when Neji's head turned back toward the mouth of the ally where orange tinted light spilled so earnestly in to try to flood out the shadows. He was forced to follow the other ninja's lead when a painfully easy-to-identify voice shouted, "THERE YOU ARE, YOU BASTARD!"

The quivering became outright shaking. If Sasuke hadn't had such a well developed self-control, his legs might have started twitching as his unknowing lover came closer. Neji looked at him with an eyebrow raised. Footsteps rapidly approaching could be heard by both dark haired ninja.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING BACK THERE!" Naruto's shout echoed off the walls of the ally, enhancing the sound of the blonde's voice. Clearly, Naruto had no consideration for his neighbors. Sasuke wondered briefly if this would be put into Tsunade's new little Naruto-column in tomorrows newspaper, as three different curtain sets shifted in the building behind Naruto's head. Sasuke's mouth went dry -actually, his entire throat shriveled up as he watched his glaring teammate come to a stop next to him, blue eyes burning brightly in the darkened mouth of the ally. He was so close… Wishing that he could lean farther away, Sasuke wondered if the Kyuubi could smell Naruto's scent on him.

Naruto didn't notice Sasuke's obvious discomfort as he stabbed a finger at the angel-faced ninja, nearly hitting the other boy's nose in the process. "If you tell ANYONE what you saw back there I don't care if your whole freaking fanclub comes after me, I WILL KILL YOU!"

"Na... Naruto," Sasuke wasn't sure whether he was more surprised by the weak voice that came out of his mouth, or the fact that his tightly locked throat allowed sound to come out at all. Naruto's angry gaze was still on him, threatening to change into a sweltering, slit red glare. Sasuke was almost glad when the third occupant of the ally spoke before he could.

"What did he see?"

Despite the presence of Konoha's loudest ninja, another silence fell while Naruto for the first time noticed the long haired Hyuuga who was so considerately holding his rival captive for him. The blonde head turned as if his eyes could not travel on their own, between the two pale faces, then to where Neji firmly held onto Sasuke, then back to Neji again. Sasuke could almost see his teammate recalling the hurried excuse about Hinata worrying that her family would miss her.

Sheepishly, the blonde ninja said, "He, uh...just scared me while I was asleep..."

Even while Naruto spoke, Neji's eyes were traveling over his hastily thrown on clothes and bare feet. Sasuke was also sure the white eyes caught the swollen lips, the bite mark he had put on the tanned neck. Then he looked over at Sasuke for a minute too. What he saw in the shadowed, filtered light couldn't have been much better. When he finally did speak the voice was hard and cold and his eyes remained focused on Sasuke's. "He came here with me. I needed help with something."

Naruto would have been an idiot to have not thought about the hostile hold that Neji was still inflicting on his said "helper." The hands were tightening, even under the blue gaze, to a point where the normally wide collar was coming close to threatening its owner's air supply. Tensely, he asked, "What did you need?"

The white eyes didn't even blink. "I found someone on the Hyuuga property that ran here."

Naruto, still a dobe no matter what the time, didn't seem to recognize the Get-Out-Of-Here voice when he heard it. "Er...Doesn't Sasuke live-"

"He was in the area." ...Well, Sasuke couldn't blame the blonde for trying to help….

"Er... do you still need help finding him?" Naruto looked reluctant to let Sasuke go. He might have been worried that Hinata hadn't made it home yet.

"No," Neji said. "I already caught him."

The blonde's eyes darted to Neji's hold on his teammate once more. "Uh... okay."

Neji, impatient, made it clear that Naruto was no longer wanted in the conversation as he turned his head away from his captive. "Goodnight, Naruto."

"... Goodnight, Neji." Sasuke watched as his rival took one, reluctant step away from him. Then another. At the mouth of the ally, the blonde turned around and walked off in the direction of his apartment building. Though even with Naruto's foot prints fading out of ear shot, Sasuke could still feel his chakra signature clearly, and knew that Neji must have also. The dobe must have used kage bunshin, but it was so like him to forget something as basic as hiding his chakra.

The knowledge of the Uchiha's teammate nearby and ready to jump back into the ally at any moment only faze the white eyed boy for a second. Ruthlessly, the hands holding onto his collar jerked the opening wide so that when Neji leaned close, he could easily bury his nose there. Sasuke heart quickened as he heard Neji breathe in the musk trapped between his shirt and body. At first he wasn't sure what the Hyuuga was doing until the perfectly cared for head shot back, the eyes wide. Again, like a dead man's. The hands immediately tightened; closing off the opening again as if the smell of sex would leak out to attack him if left alone. By the half light from the street, Sasuke saw the shadows on Neji's jaw move as he spoke each word, "Don't ruined Hinata's relationship, Uchiha. If you tell Naruto what you did tonight…" If there was more to Neji's sentence, Sasuke didn't hear it. He hadn't fought the Hyuuga once since he had been caught, and as a result of that Neji had let his guard down. The other boy's expression couldn't be clearly seen when Sasuke's knee came up sharply to hit him directly in… the stomach (he wouldn't sink so low as to attack other places). He twisted while hands were loosened in surprise, darting away and jumping up onto the roofs. The dull soreness grew to regular pain, but he refused to stop. He knew that Neji's Byakugan was likely activated and watching him, and that if Naruto was watching too, he wouldn't believe that he was really Sasuke. But he couldn't care about that now. All that his mind had the strength to process was that he had let himself lose control, he needed a shower, he was sore in awkward places, and _damnit!_ Someone knew about everything!

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A/N:

Hey everyone, look! Neji's back!

So, now Sasuke's carrying. garnishes a copy of _What to Expect When You're Expecting _I come from an unbelievably large family, and I plan to exaggerate everything I hear about pregnancies for poor, beat-your-friend-to-a-pulp-and-run-off-with-a-snake-man Sasuke. Suggests are also highly welcomed.

I'd like to thank my new beta for checking everything for me! THANKS, UNERASEBLE SIN!


	6. Hands off!

Sitting with his legs bent and braced against one welded steel armrest and his back against another, Naruto decided that hospitals deliberately made their waiting rooms uncomfortable. The very colors of the room were unwelcoming! What sick person in their right mind would want to sit in a room with bleak white walls and harsh gray carpets, like the one that team seven was currently sitting in? Or the male members of team seven, at least. The effect was made worse by the periodical flickering of a florescent light bulb overhead that would soon need changing.

Naruto let out a loud moan. "Sen-SEI! When are we going to get on with our mission?"

Kakashi, leaning lazily next to the only door leading in or out of their splendid little room, kept his eyes set unblinkingly on the page of his book as he replied, "A ninja must have patience, Naruto. Tsunade is probably still outlining the test for her pupils."

Naruto glared at his teacher, even as his mouth ruined the effect by pushing the lower lip out in a childish pout. The old hag was probably the one who chose _this _particular waiting room for them. It was separated from the usual noisy area that most ninja and civilians alike would visit, a part of the old hospital that was being remodeled. She might have done it just to annoy him! The only sound in their room was the steady ticking of a clock somewhere in the room- Naruto hadn't bothered to locate it yet- and the occasional scrap of paper against paper when Kakashi turned the pages of his book. Both noises were magnified by the silence.

Naruto let out a frustrated sigh, throwing his head back dramatically. He absolutely HATED this- Naruto stopped and frowned as his head came into contact with something solid instead of falling back into empty air. And it stayed there while he stared at the ceiling, trying to figure out what the strange item was. Even he knew it couldn't be the other armrest, he could feel that pressing into the small of his back, much too far down to reach his head. Plus, Naruto noticed, the item was _warm._ And it had soft black hairs to brush against his cheek while it turned. And coal dark eyes to stare at him with.

Realization hitting him rather late, Naruto threw his upper body towards his knees, turning his head to shout over his shoulder at the no longer mysterious thing, "DAH! SASUKE!"

When the addressed boy turned around, Naruto was regarded through tired eyes that were underlined with dark circles. The Uchiha boy had really looked like he spent the night on the bridge when his teammates had arrived that morning. Naruto was almost sure he felt sorry for screeching at him, he wasn't really mad. It was a given that Sasuke had taken a seat somewhere on the row of seats behind his head. He just hadn't realized he had been so close. Naruto didn't get a reply from his teammate as the dull eyes focused on him for a long moment. Then the other boy turned back around so that he was facing the direction he was before, head dropping forward slightly as if he were trying to sleep.

Naruto let out a loud "HUMPH!" as he turned his body so that he was sitting normally in the damned uncomfortable chair. He made sure to lean as far away from his teammate as possible, not caring that it was probably just giving his sensei something to grin at. He stuck his tongue out at the other boy's back, knowing that this also would be seen by the silver-haired sensei and not the Uchiha.

The arrogant bastard had been acting strange since they met that morning! Sitting all by himself and scaring Sakura with his pasty complexion and tired voice. He wouldn't even answer her when she asked if he was feeling alright! Even now he seemed entirely unaware of the fact that he looked like he hadn't slept once all night (which really made him wonder just what Neji and he _did_ last night).

Angling his head away from his PMS-ing teammate, Naruto forced himself to think about something else. He would be seeing Hinata again today, and that was a good thing. They hadn't had a chance to really talk about what happened last night before Sasuke showed up. She might have still been unsure about it, or maybe she didn't like it now that she had time to think, or maybe-

"Dobe," Sasuke said without turning his head, or even lifting it from his almost asleep pose.

Naruto looked unhappily over at the other boy's back. "Yeah, bastard?"

A pause. "When Tsunade comes, I'll go with Sakura." The statement was spoken quietly, forcing the blonde to come nearer in order to hear the stoic boy properly.

"Eh? What's wrong with Hinata?" Naruto shot back; it was after all, his girlfriend that the Uchiha heir was passing up. He knew that the test was coming from one of his earlier lunch dates with the white-eyed girl, meaning that he had a perfect heads-up about Tsunade planning to bring one of the Genin teams in to act as test subjects while the girls practiced the basics of the yearly physicals that Jounin had to endure. If Sasuke thought that he could just slight Hinata-

"Nothing's wrong with her." Sasuke said, sounding bored as he looked at the lint on the hem of his shorts. He was sitting in a manner very similar to what Naruto had been doing before putting his head on the other boy's shoulder. Accidentally, of course. "I'd just rather have Sakura examine me."

Naruto couldn't resist taunting him; it was so boring being locked up in an empty room with the only door guarded by a Jounin who would probably knock him unconscious if he got up. "Oh, you want to have one of your fangirls to fawn over you and tell you how fit you are?"

Sasuke's back tensed, whether from what Naruto had said or from the fact that the blonde had drawn himself closer so that his words could be felt on the other's neck. When Sasuke responded, Naruto could clearly hear the restraint in his voice. "Look, _dobe_, I don't want your girlfriend touching me, okay?"

Naruto stayed in his position behind the other boy's head. Being Naruto, he chose to ignore the warning in Sasuke's voice. Instead of backing down, he said, "You didn't just SNEER when you said that, Sasuke?"

Sasuke didn't say anything.

"What, has she offended the great Uchiha somehow?" Then he stopped for a minute. Naruto thought over the past few days, and then the raven-haired boy's actions on that first day he and Hinata go together... "You know..." he said thoughtfully, "you never told me why you attacked her team. It's almost like...you don't like her." If the back of the raven-haired ninja's neck suddenly stiffening meant anything, Naruto had just hit something. "That's it! You don't like Hinata!"

Still, Sasuke sat and ignored his teammate. From a side profile, one could see that his eyebrows were pointed toward his nose in a glare.

Naruto, from his position, could not see this. He rambled on with his questions, thinking that this at least, gave him something to do other than stare at the wall. "Why do you hate her, Sasuke? Why don't you just say it if you do? It's better than pretending to like her like a stupid snob! Sasuke? Are you listening to me? SASUKE!"

The last word in the blonde's rant was said when the addressed boy spun around, a red-eyed glare fixed onto his face as he leaned in over the armrest. "You want me to say it!" he gritted out in a low voice. Naruto's face was just inches from his own. "Fine. Naruto, I fucking HATE your girlfriend! Happy?"

Sasuke's breath was fanning Naruto's cheek, and he knew that his eyes must have pulled their lids inside his skull by now. Still, Sasuke was coming closer. The scarlet orbs were boring into his own, and he noted absently that they didn't look angry anymore. The Uchiha boy was now looking at him much more...intimately. A small sound escaped him when Naruto felt the paler boy's nose just brush his cheek. He could have kicked himself! After all that effort he put into not shaking, or leaning back away from his teammate, Naruto had to go and blow his cover by mewing like some wounded kitten.

Sasuke seemed to take this as a show of hurt, or shock, or something. He sank back down into his seat, still watching Naruto's face. His mouth opened, but before the words could come the door opened and Sakura and Hinata came into the room with Tsunade leading them. Sakura's eyes shot directly to Sasuke, already imagining her raven-haired crush in the little room that she would be using to test her skills as a nurse for hours on end... Hinata was standing a little behind the other two females, face flushed from the instructions of what she had to do.

Before the Hokage turned to either of the two boys, she looked over to Kakashi, who was all but forgotten in his place by the door. Naruto fought the urge to yell when he noticed that their teacher's one eye was trained on them, and likely had been for awhile. Kakashi's mask moved as his voice came through it, slightly muffled and indifferent to whatever he had seen. "Sakura goes with Naruto. Sasuke's with Hinata."

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The sessions went by quickly. Neither of the two male ninjas protested at the ice in their sensei's words for their own reasons. Sasuke was sure that for Naruto it had been to smite him. For Sasuke...it had been because the moment his teacher had stopped speaking, two innocent white eyes locked onto his face with a nervous, but friendly smile. He hadn't been able to meet the girl's eyes once through the entire session. He listened to Hinata stutter and knew that she blushed when she took samples from his body and asked him to remove certain articles of clothing so that she could check his muscles and bones and whatever bruises he had from his last spar. Then she had to stop to ask if he had a fever when his face flushed at the question, "Any stiffness or sore places?" Naruto was right; she really was a sweet girl. She was especially respectful of his privacy, turning her back on him while he undressed until he said that it was alright for her to look, which he knew was more than he could have expected of some females.

When he met up with Naruto again afterward, they spent a moment in silence until their teacher told them that they had one more mission that would probably keep them until late. And of course, since Sakura's test had only just begun with the data she had collected on her blonde haired teammate, she was to be excused for the rest of the day.

Their mission was an easy one: help out at a charity dinner across town because the usual staff was going on strike. It was actually the kind of assignment that Naruto would whine about. Perhaps Kakashi had been surprised when the announcement was accepted quietly by both boys. That could have been why he chose to teleport ahead rather than escort his students from one part of town to the other. Sasuke himself would have likely been the last person to arrive at the restaurant if Naruto had just decided to take the roof tops like a normal ninja. He'd been surprised when he sensed the blonde trailing after him as he slowly started walking down the street in the restaurants direction.

He decided that it was a good sign.

Turning around to see how far behind his teammate was from him, Sasuke supposed that he was thankful for the distance between them. Last night...Sasuke shivered...last night was still replaying in his mind. Over and over, that moment when he should have gone...Naruto had given him several chances to walk away without revealing himself, and even if he hadn't, a good ninja should have been able to deceive his enemy.

...But most ninjas weren't teenagers dealing with hormones. And most ninja's didn't have bouncy, happy targets with golden hair, and delicious tasting skin...

Naruto caught up to Sasuke easily, him not being hindered by the fact that certain parts of his body that would have no business being pained by movement mysteriously were. The blonde refused to look in Sasuke's direction, pointedly keeping his attention focused in the opposite direction as he walked beside him. Sasuke considered letting him walk into a streetlamp.

Maybe he had gone a little over board in the waiting room. It wasn't that he was annoyed when Naruto started prompting him for an argument. Hadn't he been hoping for just that only a few days ago? He just got...angrier than usual. He didn't really know why he said what he did...it wasn't _really_ true. Sasuke had no reasons to hate Hinata. She was just too little a part of his life to be noticed.

Sasuke half-wondered what the results of his physical would be. He felt that that clench in his chest would definitely have to show up in at least ONE of the tests the Hyuuga girl had taken.

He really was going to have a hard time apologizing to the dobe though. At least Naruto hadn't had a chance to blab to Hinata about his little explosion yet. Or worse, to her cousin.

As if the same gods that had taken control of Sasuke's fate that day at the flower shop had decided to renew their interest in his life, when the two ninja rookies arrived at the restaurant they were informed that, naturally, other genin teams had been sent to help with the same mission. The teachers of said teams were lazily lounging around one large circular table near the front door. As Sasuke and Naruto passed by on their way to the kitchen, their eyes swept over the familiar instructors. There was Kakashi, leaning back in his chair with his book held in front of his face. Kurenai, politely smiling as the third teacher talked. The third teacher...Sasuke was sure his blood dropped in temperature at the sight of green-clad arms frantically gesturing in key with an energetic voice that could only belong to Gai. In other words, Neji's instructor.

Sasuke heard someone close by utter "Eep!" Naruto stared at him while Sasuke looked around to see who could have possibly made such a childish, fear-reavling noise. But before Sasuke could even come to terms with his currently fleeting composure, a rough hand closed on his elbow, mercilessly jerking him back into motion. Naruto's voice sounded, "Jeeze, teme, can't you stay awake for five minutes?"

Inside the kitchen it was humid. The sound of foods sizzling, pots clanging, and occasional yelling from one cook to another overwhelmed the senses of anyone stupid enough to enter. And yet, one sound was still heard by the fox demon-holder upon entering...

"I TOLD YOU, BUGS CAN'T COME IN HERE!"

"Kiba!" the orange-clad ninja standing at Sasuke's elbow bolted forward so suddenly he almost thought that he would be knocked over. Unfortunately, the brilliant blonde must have forgotten that he was still holding onto his teammate's hand, thus pulling him into the kitchen with him when he set off in search of the dog-lover. He went straight through the crowd to a second set of doors across the tile-floored cook area where the voice had come from. How Naruto was able to hear the other ninja could likely be credited to the fact that the dog-boy must be mad as hell about something.

The swinging doors were easily pushed aside as Naruto pulled Sasuke through with him into a narrow hallway. The first thing that came to mind upon exiting the doors was that the roar from the kitchen dimmed enough for normal voices to be used. The second was the amount of space in the area, which he was forced to acknowledge when his blonde dobe abruptly stopped moving to avoid crashing into Kiba. Unfortunately, the blonde had forgotten to leave enough room for Sasuke, resulting with his body crashing into Naruto's, causing a domino reaction that sent the idiot crashing into the side of his friend anyway. The Inuzuka had been standing in front of the doors, apparently blocking them from the object of his fury, one bug-loving Shino. Upon being hit by the blonde member of team seven, Kiba was pushed forward, his face making connact with the other's forehead. Shino was pinned against the wall by the brunette's body.

Sasuke and Naruto were the first to draw back, leaving the other two boys to fumble around one another until they could stand up right on their own. Sasuke was keenly aware that the resukts of the last time Shino and Kiba had seen him was still a cause of discomfort between the two. Luckily for him, Kiba's attention fastened on the more brightly colored intruder. God bless orange.

"Hey, Naruto!" Kiba was saying even before he regained his balance. "You guys have the same mission?"

"Yeah..." Naruto had to stand on tip-toe to peer over the brunette's shoulder. "Hey, is Hinata here?"

Kiba and Shino exchanged a look- that knowing look that drove Sasuke mad whenever the blonde was connected to it. Before either of them could talk though, Sasuke spoke up with, "Dobe, she's still taking the test with Sakura."

Perhaps making his presence known had not been the best idea since the moment the two members of ninja team eight landed on the Uchiha, their glares returned. After all, he was the one who had caused the "incident." Other than the clenching of his fist, Naruto didn't even respond. Sasuke had forgotten that Naruto was still angry at him because of his earlier outburst, meaning that he now stood in a very narrow space with three ninjas who were anything but shy about their dislike for him. Well, wasn't that wonderful. All that was needed now to make this moment PERFECT would be to add one more person-

As if on cue, the doors opened again when a pale hand pushed at the opposite side. Then an equally sun-deprived long haired head poked into the narrow passage way to sweep over its occupants with a pale set of eyes. Both Kiba and Shino were spared having to endure more than two seconds under the gaze, while Naruto's face was studied avidly from eye to scars. Sasuke wasn't surpised when the Hyuuga did the same to him, though he lacked the same markings. Perhaps he was trying to decided if it was really Sasuke and not some clone there to distract everyone while the original went running around ruining his cousin's reputation.

But that was just silly, wasn't it?

"Someone needs to set the tables," Neji said in a monotone voice. When he let the door swing shut behind him, the white-eyed boy seemed to be completely unaffected by the lack of space when he stepped into the already crowded hallway. Sasuke thought that it might have because of two reasons. One was the look on his face that clearly said Move-Now-Because-Whatever-Touches-Me-Gets-Removed so that even Naruto was able to read it. The other was that Neji's glare was fixed solely on the Uchiha, enough so that the others present knew not to say anything to either of them. Well…maybe Naruto didn't notice the latter.

Sasuke found himself staring at the back of Neji's head when he allowed himself to be shuffled down the hallway with Kiba, Shino, and Naruto. He hadn't wanted to see Neji so soon after last night. Although, avoiding him throughout the entire mission would have been as pointless as trying to avoid Naruto, but still, if he were left alone...

The tables were set out under a high domed ceiling in the same room where the teachers were still seated. Neji didn't need to ask where the table clothes were kept, possibly from the use of his Byakugan, but since the white eyed boy was in the lead no one could tell. Neji opened a small cabinet nearly hidden in the intricate design carved on the walls, where the table clothes were kept. While he handed the linens to Shino and Kiba, Sasuke stepped forward and felt further along the wall until he found another compartment containing the glasses and silverware.

Other than Kiba's occasional muttering, there was no sound while the tables were set. Each table required two linens, one white and the other a deep scarlet. Shino went to one table first, and then Kiba quickly came after him. But because of their hostile mood towards each other, and maybe with a suggestion or two from the room's only blond occupant, Shino began trying to go faster and faster to watch his teammate struggle to keep up. As a result there were more than enough tables for each to have only one ninja working on it. Neji to set out the silverware, Sasuke to place glasses, and Naruto to put down plates. This fact alone was more than enough reason to make Sasuke suspicious when he turned around to fetch more glasses from the cabinet and found Neji working at the same table as Naruto.

The two were working on opposite sides, slowly coming closer to each other. Neji, arranged the eating utensils, took a step to the next seat and did it again. The same went for the blonde. Step by step, they were getting closer and closer...

Sasuke half ran to get more glasses, knowing that no one was watching him move. He hadn't needed to worry though. Neither of the two had started talking by the time he came back and went to the table behind, despite the fact that the table already had a perfectly good set of wine and water glasses. When one of his targets finally spoke, Sasuke was pretending to whip a spot off a short water glass, frowning more out of frustration than effort.

"Purple roses."

Neji's voice was so low while he said the two word sentence. He might have known that Sasuke was behind him and tried to keep him from listening in. But, there was also a strong chance that the dobe hadn't heard clearly either. Or thought that he was mumbling something to himself, the poor Hyuuga wasn't exactly known for having healthy mental habits. Then Naruto spoke back.

"What about them?"

"They're Hinata's favorites." Neji kept his head facing downward, his attention seemingly focused on the silverware arrangement to anyone who would look his way. "She usually leaves the hospital around six-thirty. If you go now you can catch her outside the Yamanaka's shop."

Sasuke froze. He was leaning over to look as if he were placing a glass on the table, the said glass still held in his hand. How did Neji know Hinata's schedule?

"But I've got to stay here!" a whiny voice said, too loudly because all three of the Jounin sitting at the table by the entrance turned to stare. Naruto didn't seem to notice, he just held a plate in his hands with a disappointed look on his face.

Neji, at least, had the sense to wait until the teachers returned to whatever it was that they had been doing, before he leaned over and irritably hissed, "Go into the kitchen and make a clone, then leave through the back door."

Sasuke glared at the flower arrangement. Vaguely, he was aware of the grip his hand had taken on the glass. Perhaps one of the jourin had noticed him standing virtually motionless at an already stocked table, and wondered just what was so terrible about _one single glass_.

"That could work..." Naruto siad behind him. Sasuke wanted to turn around and slap him for no sensible reason at all. Why wasn't he wondering about Neji?

"No one will notice you're gone. Just go now."

"You won't tell anyone?" Naruto said softly. Sasuke couldn't see if Neji nodded or not. The white-eyed boy might not have even had a chance to between the question and the shouted "SASUKE!"

Suddenly Sasuke lost view of the flowers and the half set table, and found himself staring at wide blue eyes. There were two rough hands holding onto him by the wrist, pushing up the white detachable sleeve. Instinctively, Sasuke tried to jerk away from the contact. It was the first time they'd touched since...he wasn't going to think about that on a mission! Unfortunately, the dobe was holding onto him with an iron grip, growling at him about broken glass and stupid bastards and telling him to stop trying to get away. Whatever it was that held Naruto's attention, Sasuke couldn't see it. There was a blonde head of hair blocking his view.

"Stupid, stupid teme! Sakura's gonna kill me when she-"

"Naruto," Neji's voice cut through the blonde's rambling with the same tone it had used the night before to shoo him away from the ally. Both Sasuke and Naruto felt compelled to look at him. "Why don't you take Sasuke into the kitchen before he bleeds to death on the carpet?" Neji's eyes focused distastefully where Naruto was holding him, and Sasuke again tried to look at whatever it was that Naruto was fussing about. When he turned his head though, he was confronted by a bright smile suddenly on his teammates face.

"What are you-" Sasuke started but was forced to stop when Naruto spun around, still holding his hand, and started dragging him toward the kitchen. Again. Twisting around, he saw Neji leaning over the table where Sasuke had been working, picking up tiny shards of...glass? "Naruto?" Sasuke made sure that he grabbed onto the blonde shoulder with his free hand when they entered the dark little hallway. This way he could push the dobe away from him while he pulled his captive hand free. The blonde's head turned to look over his shoulder at the sound of his name, and then became stern when Sasuke tried to carry out his plan. It worked...but also brought the sudden realization that Sasuke's hand HURT.

Looking at it, Sasuke's eye bulged when they fell on a dripping, bloody palm still wrapped around the remains of what was once a perfectly cut crystal glass. What the hell?

Still surprised, Sasuke didn't protest when Naruto again took his wrist and tugged him along after him. They went back into the kitchen, where they were ignored by the regular staff. It took him several moments to realize that rather than looking for the sink to clean the hand up in, Naruto was looking for the back door that the Hyuuga boy had mentioned. His feet promptly stopped moving.

Naruto tried to continue dragging him, but had to stop when Sasuke again made to pull back his hand. Stubbornly refusing to let go, Naruto was instead pulled closer to the other boy until they were standing nearly chest-to-chest. Naruto glared up at the stoic face. "Sasu-KE! I'm in a hurry!"

Sasuke decided to ignore the whine. "I don't think you should go."

"Well, I DO!"

"We're on a mission."

Naruto switched tactics. Instead of glaring, he put on a pout. "But if no one tells Kakashi…" The blonde abandoned his sentence when his teammate crossed his arms over his chest, in the process tucking his hand under them. He was reminded for a minute of their spar the day before. "C'mon! I'll be right back!" Naruto had to inch a little closer when one of the cooks had to pass them with a pot filled with some steaming liquid. The Uchiha could have at least waited until they were out of the middle of the kitchen before deciding to be his normal pain-in-the-ass self.

Sasuke tensed a little when the blonde's form brushed against his own. Shit, when did he get so close? Forcing his attention away from the blue eyes staring up at him, Sasuke tried to remember exactly what had set him off balance earlier. "I...don't think you should listen to Neji."

"Why not?" Naruto said, glaring up at him still. Sasuke tried to think of a suitable reason, but most of the ones that came to mind weren't convincing without including...he wasn't allowed to think about that now. Even if the blonde was pressed really close to him in a crowded room...

Sasuke heard a dramatic sigh from below him and felt the tight grip on his now throbbing hand disappear. His teammate stepped away from him, hands performing the seals to make his clone, just like Neji said.

He's going to go see her again. As Naruto turned to go, Sasuke reach for his collar, only to be rudely reminded that his hand was cut and bleeding. The clone grabbed a hold of it and dragged him to the sink before he could follow his dobe to the back door. Watching the copy carefully pick the pieces of glass out of his sliced hand, Sasuke's mind fumed. It just occurred to him that Naruto might have thought that he'd broken the glass on purpose to give an excuse to go into the kitchen. Neji had certainly not hesitated to make it seem like he had. Stupid dobe! Why didn't he question Neji! He had NO RIGHT to just walk away and leave him-

Kami, now he sounded like a pregnant wife! (A/N:snicker:)

His annoyance did not leave him when the dinner started and still there was no sign of Naruto returning. Whenever he passed the clone, he would whisper under his breath and activate his Sharingan just for the purpose of checking. Once he thought that Kakashi had seen him, but when the instructor showed no signs of acknowledging the clone, Sasuke assumed that he had been mistaken. Kiba probably wouldn't have noticed the blonde's disappearance, even if he weren't distracted throughout the evening. A copy as well done as Naruto's would have had the same smell as the original, wouldn't it? Shino was sharp enough to figure it out, Sasuke thought, if he weren't too busy trying to find ways to make his teammate trip while carrying large trays of food. Neji, of course, didn't care, and the other members of his team didn't seem to notice either. Tenten and Lee spent the night helping out the kitchen staff and probably hadn't even seen the blonde once since they came in. Sasuke was forced to admit that his teammate was playing hooky, and he was likely going to get away with it.

When the dobe finally DID come back, the dinner guests had already left, leaving nothing but the clean up for the Genin teams. Sasuke was out picking up the dishes from one of the round tables when he heard the doors open. Naruto came in casually, for the world as if he HADN'T run off at the beginning of the mission, and worse yet, with his pretty little girlfriend hanging off his arm.

Sasuke decided to put the plates down for a moment before he broke something again. The dobe could have at least tried to switch places with his clone without getting caught. But then again, this was Naruto he was talking about. The part of his mind that was sensible was so small it was likely drowned out by the part that decided to just run along with whatever Neji suggested.

Picking up his plates again, Sasuke hurried into the kitchen to drop them off with Lee and Tenten, who were still yet to have left the kitchen. They could wash the plates for him. Even if being anywhere near a white-eyed individual made him sick, Sasuke still didn't want to risk the dobe yapping about...things that Hinata should not know about.

kkkkkkkkkkkkk

A/N: sigh This chapter was definitely the hardest one for me to write. Even I think it came out…boring. I'm sorry if I put any of you to sleep or made you pull your hair out and say "Why am I reading this story?"

Speaking of which…Who's ready to shoot me? This is a yoai story and there hasn't even been a boy-boy kiss yet! (Well, not one that both participants knew was boy-boy). I promise that I'll try and get on in the next chapter, or if not then, chapter eight. Please don't hurt me if you review :hides from the computer screen:

There will also b e month's time skip in chapter eight, just because...you know, Sasuke's probably not gonna notice that he's pregnant in the first few weeks. The most I put into this chapter was a hint of mood swings and clinginess. Not sure of those really show though. ;


	7. Breaking the Ice

Though both Sakura and Hinata had been given a warning a month in advance about Tsunade's test, neither had been told the exact date. Hinata, being the onstantly worried child of an overbaring, expectant father, had the feeling that it was coming in the back of her mind for quiet sometime, which had led her to spend hours in the hospital after training or pouring over whatever medical scrolls she could get her hands on. With Tsunade-sama's permission, of course. Even with her new relationship with Naruto, she had managed to keep a steady flow of time going into her studies, so Hinata had thought that she would be alright.

Then she discovered who her test subject was going to be. Uchiha Sasuke, target of every girl's cookie-baking, obsessive-stalking attention. _Well_, _ALMOST every girl's_. To her the raven haired boy was something much worse: Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto's best friend. She'd never really spoken with the Uchiha boy, even before the incident with his family had made him unapproachable. And if she weren't such a sweet girl, she might have been persuaded into saying that frankly, the Uchiha heir _WAS A FUCKING MENTAL CASE WAITING TO HAPPEN!_ But of course, Hyuuga Hinata would never be so bold... And, as Naruto's girlfriend, it was her responsibility to ensure that nothing changed in his personal life because of her. Finding common ground with all of Naruto's friends was something that had to be done. Even if that included the Ice King.

She'd tried to talk to him a few times during their session, but the raven-haired boy wouldn't even look at her directly. How was she supposed to work with that? Oh, she wished that she possessed the wonderful people skills that the other girl's of her generation had at their disposal. Sakura or Ino would have at least been able to keep the silences away, and Tenten...well, she might have been able to get him to talk about weapons...maybe?

... It was much easier befriending Iruka and Sakura. Even the one time she'd spoken to Kakashi-sensei had been at least remotely comfortable, though Naruto warned her not to get too close when he was reading from his favorite book, which the Jounin cleverly managed to hide the title of with his hands.

She'd been brooding over the challenge of befriending Uchiha Sasuke when Naruto jumped out at her with a small bouquet of lavender colored roses. She had been surprised, but more than happy to latch onto a different subject for her musing. She didn't even know that he knew purple roses were her favorites! When she mentioned this to him, he only scratched at the back of his head, which she already recognized as his very own adorable way of saying "It's a stupid story, don't ask." So she didn't. Instead she let him walk her around the village, take her out to dinner, and then drag her to the restaurant he was supposed to be working at when he suddenly remembered that he was still on duty.

Not that she minded.

But the moment they walked in, the object of her demise was already turned around and glaring at them. Why Naruto ever wanted to befriend Sasuke in the first place was simply beyond her. Still, she put on the best smile she could manage under the circumstances and followed Naruto to the nearest table. Knowing her beloved's knack for clumsiness, she began to stack up the glass plates for him and suggested that he carry the silverware. Inwardly she thought that this was good because it was virtually impossible for her boyfriend to damage the solid metal utensils.

She was watching him fumbling with his task while trying to find a way to carry all the different kinds of forks and knives that fancy restaurants set out instead of simple chop sticks when she felt eyes on her. Really, really close to her. Well, maybe she couldn't feel how close the eyes were, but she knew that the owner was standing behind her by the shadow that fell across the table. Before she had even finished turning around she knew who it was by the blue shirt that nearly brushed against her nose, and then the cold voice saying, "Civilians aren't allowed to help with missions."

"Uh-Um..." Hinata's reply came out quickly. Her head kept bobbing up and down as she tried to look at the face of Konoha's most sought after ninja, but couldn't seem to raise it to look over his chin. It must have looked like she was nodding stupidly.

Naruto came to her rescue though. Hinata's face turned red when she heard his voice. "There's no rule against Hinata helping, teme."

"Yes there is. She's off duty and qualifies as a civilian during our mission. She can't help." A little voice in the back of Hinata's voice noted that the Uchiha heir really did sound like a five year old saying that. She might have giggled if she were anyone else. Instead she noted that Naruto had moved to stand beside her and was glaring at his friend as heatedly as she'd seen Kiba and Shino do over the past few weeks. Remembering their fights, Hinata sucked in her lower lip and let her teeth sink into it. She was supposed to be making friends with Sasuke, not causing fights!

Wanting to stop the argument quickly, she started to speak. "Na-Naruto? I-it's okay. I'm tired anyway. I'll j-just go-" She started to say that she could just go home. She could have started studying for the next part of her test anyway. She was going to have to start examining the samples she'd taken from Sasuke and record them for Tsunade. She lifted her head for a second to look at her test subject, and was surprised by the expression on his face. Did he look pleased?

Naruto must have saw it too, and decided not to back down. "No." She knew that Naruto hated losing an argument from the few times he'd started little spats for the heck of it. He turned to her, completely forgetting the other ninja's presence, and said, "Can't you wait for me here? I'll move fast so it won't take long. Pleeease?"

He was so cute when he was trying to get something! Hinata knew that Sasuke was looking at her, but...how could she say no to Naruto when he was pouting like a puppy looking for a new home? She nodded her head, blushing at the bright smile the action brought to her blonde's face.

Naruto took her hand and lead her back over to one of the tables close to the door. He was babbling happily over his shoulder to her, "If you're tired then I could put some of the chairs together for you. They look really cushy, and I don't think we'll have to put them away until last..."

Hinata looked around the large room while Naruto went back to gather up the chairs for her. She had thought that her sensei was present when she came in, but it seemed that the three Jounin were gone now. _Where could they have...?_

Hinata cut off her thought with a yawn. Maybe the excuse hadn't been entirely untrue. She was tired from studying...

"Hina, are you okay?" Naruto asked as he made his way back to her carrying three stacked up chairs.

"Yes," she said, her face going a little red. It was rude to yawn after she and Naruto had spent so much time together, wasn't it? "I'm sorry. I was just up late last night studying."

"Right…" Naruto sent her a cheeky smile, "studying…"

Hinata returned the smile, though she didn't understand why her boyfriend's voice sounded so strangely happy. He put the chairs down as close together as possible, forming a narrow, little bed. She sat down on it with another yawn fighting to get up her throat, but was told not to lay down just yet while the blonde unzipped his jacket and folded it up into a pillow for her. His smile was so proud of himself for remembering to be considerate; Naruto could really be so sweet sometimes…!

Hinata watched fondly as Naruto turned to go back to his mission, but then froze when she noted the figure standing farther back in the room. Sasuke was watching her from the hallway leading into the kitchen, where he must have gone to drop off the plate he had taken from her. She forced her smile to stay in place. He would notice if she suddenly flinched, wouldn't he?

How was she ever going to make a friend out of someone so...so...

As if to show her that she really was going to have to learn to live with the Uchiha, Naruto called out to him. What he said didn't really make much sense to her. It sounded like something about helping him before he cut himself and started bleeding all over the carpet again.

Hinata had her head back down on the jacket, but it was harder to get comfortable now. She kept wondering if Sasuke was glaring at her while her eyes were closed, or if he was glaring at her beloved Naruto. She almost started playing with her hands just to calm herself. When the idea came to her, or what brought it on, Hinata couldn't say. One moment she was franticly blinking eyes that wanted to close but couldn't seem to stay that way, and the next she was debating the morality of a certain idea. Maybe she had subconsciously started thinking about her sensei again, wishing that someone else was present to make sure that the Uchiha wouldn't start a fight with Naruto while they were working. And Kurenai always told her that she should get used to using her bloodline ability so that she'd feel more comfortable with it...

Hinata snuggled deeper into her boyfriend's jacket, letting the material muffle her voice while she whispered _"Byakugan!"_ Her hand went up to the side of her head, positioning her hair to hide the veins that came along with the bloodline ablity. It would seem deceitful if Naruto thought she was spying on him, wouldn't it? But the risk was worth it. With the special ability activated, Hinata could close her eyes and still be able to see what that horrid Uchiha boy was doing with HER Naruto. (A/n: Sound familiar, anyone?)

While she watched the two boys of team seven work, Hinata began to wish that she'd learn how to read lips. She saw Sasuke's mouth move when Naruto's stack of water glasses grew higher than his head, and though she was able to guess that it was meant to jab at the blonde's pride by Naruto's yelled response, she still would have liked to hear it.

"SHUT UP, TEME!" Hinata was able to hear Naruto's response to the second time Sasuke's mouth moved. Sasuke had his back facing Naruto, his front toward Hinata, which was the only reason she was able to tell that he was pleased by the blonde's attention. She could clearly see him smirking.

Naruto picked up his tower of glasses with an indigent huff and stomped off to the kitchen with the stack leaning dangerously to one side. After that, Hinata was painfully aware that she and Sasuke were the only ones left in the room. Wherever the Genin instructors had gone, she was beginning to think that they weren't coming back. Her body tensed every time the Uchiha prodigy turned in her direction. When he finally turned to go into the kitchen, she breathed a sigh of relief.

A minute went by without anyone coming back into the room. And then another.

She was just starting to doze off again when she heard the sound of the kitchen doors opening. Her Byakugan still in effect, she looked to the door and saw the graceful form of her cousin walking to the nearest table and gathering the silverware into an empty glass. He went through the task much more quickly than Naruto, having the sense not to try and hold everything in one hand. When his glass filled up he picked up another one and went on with his work. When he came to the table in front of where Hinata lay, he stopped for a tiny fraction of a second. At first she thought that he had just noticed that she was really awake and was only humoring her, but then her mind supplied the more likely excuse that he probably had not known that she was in the room before then. Or maybe both were true.

When the last little _cling!_ said that Neji had gathered up all the leftover silverware, Hinata expected her cousin to turn back into the hallway he had come from. Instead, she watched him approach where her chairs were line up without a word. The instinctive urge to frown or back away nagged at her mind while she tried to keep up the pretense of being asleep. Neji knelt down in front of her chair. He leaned in close to her face, looking over her features, she guessed, by the way the pale irises moved slowly over her. Hinata thought that this was probably the closest to each other they had been since they were children, over looking the time during the Chuunin exams, of course.

Naruto had told her about Neji appearing at his team's meeting place and telling him to talk to her. She herself had never brought it up with her cousin or tried to ask him how he had known. Was she really so pathetically obvious that someone who had tried to kill her would make the first move on her behalf? That was a depressing thought.

However, thoughts of every kind were soon driven from her mind...when her stoic cousin leaned in even closer and brushed his lips ever so gently against her own. Hinata's face must have turned red, _she knew it must have!_ The only reason Neji could have missed it was because he was still close enough for his shadow to cover it! And he was still there, his mouth gently touching hers, his eyes half closed. She was frozen.

"Nnnn...Nnnn...!" She tried to speak, but her voice wouldn't work for her and her lips were muffled against a second pair.

Neji sprang back with a scowl on her face. "Naruto," he finished for her, and the venom dripping from his voice shocked her. What...? _Why?_ Neji got back to his feet, the glass of silverware clutched tightly in his hand. Still believing she was asleep, Neji turned around and went into the kitchen. Hinata couldn't even tell her eyes to open again, or her Byakugan to deactivate. She just lay there, watching the space in the narrow hallway where her cousin had disappeared and feeling her fingers twitch, one by one, with the urge to attack one another.

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Sasuke worked slower after Naruto came back into the restaurant. If anyone else had been present to witness the blonde's effect on him, he might have been embarrassed. As it was, he couldn't take his attention off him. It was no surprise that as soon as Naruto had disappeared into the kitchen, Sasuke's speed picked up again. What surprised him was being grabbed by the shoulder and pulled flat against the hallway wall when he tried to enter the kitchen. Somewhere in the back of his mind Sasuke wondered just how many times he had been pulled, grabbed, and yanked in the last twenty-four hours.

"Shhh!" Naruto shushed him before he had a chance to protest. Thankful that it wasn't a certain white-eyed boy holding him, Sasuke didn't try to pull away. They were in the original hallway, which was thankfully not as narrow as the one that they had first seen Kiba and Shino in hours earlier. It was nicer than the other one as well, probably so that when health inspectors arrived there would be at least one fancy entryway into the kitchen. The door was painted a bright cherry red, and in its center was a circular glass window, which Naruto motioned for him to look through. The grip around his chest and stomach relaxed as the blonde stared at his teammate, waiting for him to look. Sasuke let him wait through two minutes of solid, cold staring before he complied, noting that Naruto's arms, though lax, were still present on his body. Naruto didn't seem to notice. Stepping over the window, Sasuke peered through the glass...and stared.

Next to his head Naruto, who apparently decided to look with him, whispered, "I've been waiting for this fight for weeks!"

Through the window, Inuzuka Kiba could be seen standing next to a sink half filled with foamy water, glaring what Sasuke had come to call his You're-Being-A-Pain-In-The-Ass-Shino glare. Angling his head to the side and by default into Naruto, Sasuke saw Shino standing across the kitchen, the muscles around his glasses indicating that the bug-lover was also in the act of glaring.

Sasuke wasn't staring because of whatever reason the blonde had pinned him against the door for (and he most certainly was not staying in that position for any other reason than the fact that he knew Neji was most likely in the dining room, and that leaving to go use the other hallway would mean running into him). As Sasuke observed the two angry teammates, he was wondering where Tenten and Lee had gone to. That was the second case of disappearing ninja in one night...

"I told you before, Shino," Kiba's voice cut through the tense silence that had accumulated inside the kitchen, "GET THEM OUT OF HERE!"

His teammate seemed unfazed. Shino crossed his arms over his chest in a You-Couldn't-Move-Me-If-You-Tried pose. A sentence must have gone with that pose, though Sasuke didn't have super canine senses to hear it, because the next words out of Kiba's mouth sounded strained. "Look, it's the restaurant policy: No bugs, okay? -NO! Akamaru's different! - I'm not telling you HOW!" Kiba slammed a pot from the sink down onto an island counter between his partner and himself when he finished his sentence.

Shino flinched.

Seeing this, Kiba, as well as Sasuke and Naruto, looked over the counter top carefully. A grin broke out on the dog-lover's face when all three pairs of eyes landed on a small, blue-gray roly-poly curled into a ball just inches from where Kiba's pot landed. Raising the pot once more, he altered the position of it just slightly. "Last chance Shino, move them. NOW."

Shino didn't move.

"Fine then!" Eyes fixed on his teammate, Kiba let the pot fall from his hands. Of course, slamming it would have been more effective, but Kiba obviously didn't actually care what happened to the bug. He got what he wanted when Shino sprang forward to protect the tiny insect, slapping the pot away with his hand as his body knocked into the table.

Whether from coincidence or the bug-lover's aim, the pot hit the wall with a loud clang, followed by loud yipping that made Kiba's eye widen as it fell to the floor.

Sasuke saw a small flash of white fur dart across the room as the dog's owner shouted, "LEAVE AKAMARU ALONE!" Sasuke and Naruto both jump to the side when the small animal ran right through the doors and out into the hallway. As the door swung open, they heard, "HURTING A DOG IS DIFFERENT FROM KILLING A BUG!"

The attention of the two ninjas, who had turned to watch the dog's progress down the hall, returned to the door window full force when the sound of a pot crashing into something other than a counter top reached them. Naruto instantly pushed at his raven haired teammate to get a better view into the room. While trying to get around the dobe's blonde head, Sasuke's frown went from annoyed to curious as a series of animalistic growls came through the door along with the sound of smashing pans and shattering glass. He'd completely forgotten about the stack of dishes he had been carrying.

When Sasuke finally managed to yank on the back of the other boy's collar hard enough to force him away from the window, he received a deadly glare. He'd pulled Naruto out of his view just in time to see one figure spring up from the floor and pin another brutally to the wall. There were broken plates and half eaten meals smeared over the island counter, walls, and sprinkled on the tile floor. Bugs had appeared from some mysterious hiding place to gorge on the mess. And then there were the two ninjas responsible, standing together in the doorframe of the second entrance. Kiba was panting, dark eyes blazing as they stared up at Shino's pale face. He had smears covering the usual red marks on his face that could have been anything from gravy to chocolate. And another one that he sincerely hoped was ketchup. Shino, standing in front of the dog boy, held both of Kiba's hands above his head in one of his own, the other flat against Kiba's chest and pressing him into the wall. And as Sasuke looked him over, he wondered how the paler of the two had avoided getting so much as a speck of food on his clothes.

Both ninja were panting, red tinting even the paler of the two's faces from exhaustion. Or, at least Sasuke thought it was exhaustion. His assessment changed when he noticed the steadily changing glares. Shino seemed to notice their position first, his head turning to look up at where he held the other's hands captive, then returning to where it hovered inches away from Kiba's. For the dog-lover it took longer. He was too busy huffing at his teammate to notice anything until a foreign nose brushed its tip against his. Then his anger gave way in his expression to surprise, then... Sasuke wasn't sure what that next look was. The brunette angled his head slightly, so that as Shino came closer the place where their faces would have made contact changed from noses to lips.

"I knew it!" Naruto hissed happily in to Sasuke's ear. He took a moment to wonder why Naruto was so happy that two _boys_ were about to...

Since childhood, Sasuke had had a certain plan to fallow. He wasn't sure exactly how he managed to stray from it. The instructions were simple: Become dark avenger, Become best ninja Konoha's ever seen, Kill Itachi, Live Happily ever after while impregnating multiple fan girls to restart his clan. NOWHERE in that plan is their Experiment with homosexuality...

Shino seemed to be taking the kiss slowly. He had more patience than Kiba. Sasuke watched as the dog-lover's hands ripped out of their hold and buried themselves into his teammate's hair, pulling his head closer so that their lips locked. Then the pale hand that had been on the Inuzuka's chest slid upward to wrap itself around the boy's neck.

Sasuke thought he heard a little sound of happiness behind him right before the moment was ruined by the two doors behind team eight's members swinging open. Shino was able to push himself aside to avoid colliding with the intruder that came in without seeing them. Kiba, eyes narrowed at the sudden lose of contact, was not so fortunate. Hyuuga Neji walked directly into the dog-lover, pushing him out of his way as he headed towards the kitchen's island. He paused when he reached it, hearing something crack under his foot. Glancing around himself with barely concealed rage, Neji seemed to have either not noticed what the other two ninja had been doing, or did not care.

Sasuke wondered what was so wrong. The mess wasn't THAT bad. He had to cut his thoughts short, however, Naruto was suddenly trying to push past him and get into the kitchen. Sasuke took advantage of the fact that Naruto had insisted on standing so close together by turning around and catching the dobe in his arms, covering his mouth with the crook of one. He thought the growl that went into his arm sounded similar to "NEJI!"

He couldn't see if Neji looked at the door, but he did hear a clipped toned voice saying "You do know that we are all going to have to stay until this is cleaned?"

The boys addressed didn't say anything back... unless maybe Shino did in his quiet little way. Sasuke couldn't pay attention. He kept himself pressed firmly against his furious teammate, and wondered briefly what the heck happened to the blonde being that angry at him.

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A/N:

Hello again! See? I gave you guys a boy-boy kiss…it just wasn't from the main pairing…

Now, be honest: did anyone see the thing with Neji and Hinata coming? I wanted to make Neji push Sasuke in chaoter two so that Naruto would come running out of the shop, but I thought that it would be too obvious about his motivation or too confusing, so I just let Sassy slip. But they're one of my favorite het couples:squeals:

So anyway, I'm sorry that it took so long to get this chapter up. I had it ready the day after I posted chapter six, but then my beta was busy, and then I was busy…it's up now though. YAY! I hope I didn't go down hill in this chapter. I had fun writing about Sasuke getting all jealous while Hinata's thinking sugary I'm-In-LUUUUV! thoughts.

Next chapter: Sasuke finds out about his :cough: situation.


	8. Morning People Should Die

From a child's point of view, things often appear larger than they actually are. In most cases, when a child returns to their childhood home they find that the tree house they were so afraid of falling from was really only a few feet high. Or that their neighbor's bull dog was nothing more than a dusty old mutt that would rather lick itself in unmentionable areas than rip an innocent child's arm off.

At eight years old, this was not known to Sasuke as he looked up at the buildings of Konoha while he hurried along the busy streets, trying vainly to keep up with his brother's inconsiderate pace. Of course, Sasuke was unaware that his brother's pace was inconsiderate of his smaller legs. His brain happily chose to ignore that bit of information, just as it chose to ignore how the hand he held onto so happily, hung limp and uncaring in his tiny fingers. Instead, he distracted himself by babbling on contentedly to his brother about how much he wanted to be like him when he grew up, and how he'd bet that the older Uchiha could beat up anyone in the whole wide world. He also chose to ignore how his speech fell on deaf ears.

He hopped along the sidewalk next to his aniki, singing quietly to himself about how his mother would experience a horrible accident and somehow damage her back if he were to land on a crack in the concrete. He was happy today. Not only had his mother agreed to let him go into town with his aniki, but Itachi had also agreed to take him! Again, his childish mind chose to forget that the glorious answer he had received to his begging was a disinterested "Do as you want," as his brother made his way into the bathroom that morning.

Carefully scanning the ground for any breaks in the pavement, Sasuke continued to jump, pulling down on his brother's arm every time he landed. He was so dedicated to protecting his mother from danger that he didn't notice when his brother had stopped moving until he jumped forward and landed right in front of a stranger's knee. Gripping his aniki's hand a little tighter, Sasuke hurriedly scrambled back to hide behind the thirteen year old's leg. He'd never seen his brother's friends before.

Looking around, he saw where they had stopped; in front of a civilian cafe, in the middle of the sidewalk, with people walking all around them. The man that Sasuke had almost crashed into didn't even look down when the little boy nestled into his brother's side and wrapped his arms pitifully around the older boy's waist. In fact, the man didn't seem to be aware of anything at all as he stood in the middle of the sidewalk, looking bored even for a shinobi.

Sasuke decided that he didn't like this man much.

The other man meeting with his aniki was much nicer. Like the first man, he had focused his attention on his brother once the original Uchiha prodigy had come into view, but upon seeing how Sasuke retreated against him, turned a smile in the little boy's direction. This man seemed tall as a mountain to the small eight year old, and had a high ponytail that swished a little when his head moved. The man's skin was tanned, but as Sasuke smiled back up at him, he thought that the darker coloring didn't do very much to hide a scar that went neatly across his nose. Despite being groomed from the cradle on how to properly act in a stranger's presence, Sasuke's mother would have been horrified to know that her youngest son couldn't stop staring at the smiling man's scar for the life of him. Luckily, the tanned man didn't seem to mind much.

The man started to ask Sasuke something in the overly sweet tone of voice that most adults developed for the purpose of talking to smaller, less intelligent beings, but didn't receive an answer. Sasuke's short attention span quickly picked up the sound of an angry villager yelling, "YOU IDOIT! DO YOU WANT TO GET RUN OVER!"

Small head turning away from the scarred man, Sasuke's face lit up at the sight of someone his own age nearby. Yanking on his older brother's hand again, the youngest Uchiha cried happily, "Aniki, look! There's a boy lying in the street!"

Itachi's head moved without cutting off what he was saying to the first of his two "friends." Of course his eyes landed on the brightly colored form of the village's most hated annoyance, lying dumbly in the center of the street with an angry villager sitting in a horse drawn cart glowering over him and looking ready to kill. Why the village hated the blonde haired boy was not known to him yet, he supposed that it had something to do with the boy's mannerisms from what he had heard about the loud, immature prankster. However, Itachi also thought that this description could fit his brother to a lesser extent. Especially now, when he was trying to have a conversation.

Turing his attention to his younger brother, the older Uchiha didn't so much as blink as he matter-of-factly took a kunai from his weapons pouch and held it level with Sasuke's small head. He said, "Why don't you go see if you can decapitate him?"

Instantly his brother's face brightened, as he replied with, "I won't let you down, aniki!" Itachi inwardly flinched at his brother's enthusiasm as the boy snatched the weapon out of his hands and ran out into the busy street. Watching, Itachi could only mutter to himself that his little brother didn't even know how to hold a kunai properly.

When he turned back to the momentarily halted conversation, he found that during the brief exchange with his little brother, one of his companions had let his eyes double in size. After a short moment of staring, Iruka's mouth finally opened and let out, "You just gave an eight year old a kunai."

Itachi didn't flinch. "Yes, I did."

The recently appointed academy student-teacher looked franticly between the older Uchiha and the direction that Sasuke had run off in. "Y-You just gave an eight year old a sharpened kunai and told him to attack another child!"

Again, Itachi didn't so much as blink. He did, however, turn his attention to the third member of the small group, having decided that Iruka was temporarily caught up in babbling on about some strange nonsense.

Iruka turned to their third companion as well. "Did you just see what he did!" he asked, voice going a little louder in his scramble to find words to make the Jounin understand. "HE JUST GAVE AN EIGHT YEAR OLD A KUNAI AND TOLD HIM TO CUT SOMEONE'S HEAD OFF!"

Silence fallowed the statement.

When the addressed Jounin finally did speak, he cocked his head to one side, so that his one visible eye could stare directly at the younger ANBU captain. "He's right, Itachi." Kakashi said in a stern voice that made a smile of relief come onto Iruka's lips. "A shuriken is much better suited for decapitation."

"He needs the challenge," Itachi replied smoothly.

Kakashi snapped back with, "He's only eight."

Iruka's hands shot to his ears, not believing what he was hearing. "DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND!" he shouted, calling the attention of passing villagers. "HE JUST GAVE AN EIGHT YEAR OLD A **KUNAI!**"

Itachi, having been raised by a high power shinobi clan, merely looked at the brown haired man in confusion. Didn't all children use the blunt end of a kunai as a teething ring?

Kakashi, also the child of wack-job ninja parents, said simply, "I've never heard of decapitation by kunai."

Iruka's jaw dropped down once again, but instead of letting out sound, the poor, normal-minded ninja fainted before any words could come out. His two companions (Kakashi, mostly) had the courtesy to move him away from the feet of busy civilians who might not have noticed a shocked, unconscious Chuunin under their feet, then continued with their discussion on the methods one could use to remove their enemy's head.

A few feet away, forgotten by the two conscious members of the group, Sasuke looked around himself franticly. He had plunged into the street blindly after talking to his brother, and now found that in the traffic he had lost sight of his target. The mysterious boy, apparently having decided to take the angry villager's advice, had gotten up from his spot in the road. Now standing in the same place, the youngest Uchiha noted absently that he received a very different set of greetings than the blonde boy.

"Sasuke! How are you? How's that brother of yours..."

"Beautiful day to be out, isn't it?"

"I could just stand here and look at you all day long!"

The last comment, along with his promise to complete his mission, convinced Sasuke that he had to find his target again quickly. He couldn't imagine how disappointed his aniki would be if he returned without finishing his mission… and the man that had yelled out about watching him all day was leaning out of his carriage and smiling at him in a manner that made Sasuke's stomach twist.

Turning in a direction that led away from the man, Sasuke set off to find the blonde boy from the street. Unfortunately, he discovered that while he had entered the street, the horses and carriages had been moving in a direction that kept them from seeing his kunai. Now exiting the street, the traffic was moving opposite, anything with eyes had a perfect, dead-on view of a gleaming, well polished weapon clutched in an eight year olds hand.

He didn't know why so many people stared. Even the one man from the carriage gasped loudly when Sasuke began carelessly swinging his arm in a child-like way as he weeded his way to the sidewalk. A woman who passed by him too closely shrieked, but when he turned around to see what had happen he only found her busily dabbing at a ketchup stain on her sleeve. Some people were just slobs.

When he got out of the street, Sasuke could faintly see the top of his brother's friend's silver haired head across the street. Unable to see that the head was facing the opposite direction and fearing that his aniki might have been watching him, Sasuke hurried to dive into the nearest remotely crowded place, which just happened to be the same civilian park that, years later, a blue-black haired girl and a blonde boy would take refuge in after a surprise attack in an ally next to the Yamanaka flower shop.

Once inside, the child's bright smile returned in full when he saw a familiar figure stretched out on the grass. Fate was on his side! Running over to the other boy excitedly, Sasuke plopped himself down so that he had a knee on either side of his target's head. Just in case the other boy chose to make a run for it. Raising the hand that still clutched his brother's kunai, Sasuke held it above the blonde's head for a moment. Then, rethinking his positioning, he leaned forward so that it was somewhere above the boy's chest. He started to bring his arm back to make the attack, but frowned and again switched the weapon's position, leaning back so that it was directly over the tanned forehead.

He put his other hand around the blunt side of the kunai to help keep it steady, raised it a little higher... and stopped again. But this time it wasn't because of his confusion on were to make the attack. Instead it was because when he looked back down at the other boy, he noticed that the eyelids had opened to reveal two pretty blue eyes.

Sasuke's target looked at him curiously, then looked at the kunai, then back at him. For a moment Sasuke was scared that the other boy was about to get up and leave when he saw the hands bracing against the ground. To prevent that, he reached forward and put a pale white hand on the other's shoulder to push him back down. He raised his other hand to his mouth, dropping the kunai in the process when he stuck up one little finger and pressed it to his lips, albeit cutely. "It's okay, I'm here to decapi-sit-ate you!"

On a bench a short distance away, an elderly woman was feeding the pigeons when she turned and looked at the two boys with an odd expression on her face that went unnoticed.

The blonde blinked a few times, looked again between Sasuke and the kunai, and then smiled brightly. "OKAY!"

The old lady raised an eyebrow, but after recognizing who the little blonde boy was, turned back to feeding her pigeons with a muttered, "Good riddance."

Sasuke picked his weapon back up again and positioned it over the tanned forehead. He raised the kunai, but stopped yet again to brush the blonde's hair out of the way. It was pretty hair, he decided. He didn't want it to get hurt. Unfortunately, the second he repositioned his weapon, the uncooperative hair went back into place so that he had to stop to push it aside again. During both interruptions, the blonde's large, innocent eyes watched him intently.

When Sasuke stopped and put the kunai down for the third time, the blonde finally said in an irritated voice, "Do you even know what you're doing?"

Sasuke felt himself glare at the loudness of the other's voice. Didn't he know he was dealing with an Uchiha? "Of course I do!" Their eye locked in a battle of glares. Sasuke broke it first, by saying, "... You just gotta be asleep before I can do it."

Sasuke's statement was met by a confused blink and a long, "Ooooh…" Closing his eyes, the blonde said more quietly, "Okay, I'm asleep now."

Sasuke inwardly regretted the loss of the other boy's eyes, but didn't hesitate to snap back, "You can't talk when you're asleep."

He didn't receive an answer.

Experimentally, Sasuke poked his target in the cheek with one small white finger. He noticed six strange looking scars, but couldn't ask because that might have woken his target up again. Instead he raised the weapon, trying to decide just which part of the body he was supposed to attack, when...

"Sasuke?" the blonde asked from behind closed eyes. Thankful for the chance to stall for more time to think (though he would never admit it, not even if his aniki asked with pretty please with sugar on top!), Sasuke said, "Yeah?"

"What does 'decapita-tate' mean?" Sasuke started to smirk at the smaller boy, regretting again that the eyes weren't open for him to see it. He opened his mouth to respond, but found that once he did his mind drew a blank. The hand holding the kunai turned upward so that he could scratch lightly at his forehead with the sharp tip, thin red scraps coming from the innocent action. When the silence finally started to stretch for too long, Sasuke had only one thing to say. "...I dunno."

He wasn't sure what he expected as a response to his confession. Something loud at least, like a laugh or a shout, or insult (though he didn't stop to think of why he would expect anything from a boy he just saw on the street at random). Instead, the tanned face of Konoha's future loudest ninja stayed relaxed and blank, as if in sleep. And for some reason, that made the dark haired eight year old angrier than taunting would have (he was a genius, after all! His blunders were not to be taken as everyday occurrences!). With the kunai in hand, the youngest Uchiha reached out and jabbed the blonde, albeit painfully, on the shoulder. "Hey," scoffed out angrily, "wake up!"

The blonde stayed still, though Sasuke knew that the kunai should have at the very least made the other boy wince. He leaned farther over the boy, bracing his hands on either side of his midsection so he could frown directly into the peaceful face. When a minute passed and still there was no sign of life from the blonde, he lowered himself down closer to his face to check for breathing the way his aniki said he had to do at the end of every assignation.

He was completely surprised when the blonde's eyes snapped open suddenly, and narrowed. Sasuke threw himself back into his former sitting position, ready to snap at the other boy for ignoring him, when he looked up and was pinned with a cold glare…

A cold, white eyed glare.

The Uchiha child scrambled farther back. He felt his body clench when the other child began to stand up and change shape. His body grew years during the brief movement, becoming larger and stronger. Sasuke looked to his side quickly and discovered that his kunai was missing, though he didn't remember dropping it.

As the man started toward him, Sasuke watched in horror as his features continued to change. The short, bouncy blonde locks became thicker and fell smoothly around his face as they stained black from the root to tip, as if someone had poured ink over the blonde's head. The tan-bronze color of the other boy's skin changed too, fading paler and paler... until he was staring at an obvious member of the Hyuuga clan.

And then, Sasuke noted, he found out what happened to his kunai. Hyuuga Naruto had it clenched tightly in his hand when he stopped walking directly in front of the still eight year old Uchiha. The glare hadn't left his face. If anything it became more hateful as the man aimed the weapon with a calculated stare, brought his arm back for the throw.

Sasuke discovered that he couldn't even scream as he watched the shining metal tip move through the air. He could feel it building in his throat, but his mouth just wouldn't open. Like it was sewn shut. Or glued. He just sat still as the weapon came closer, and closer...

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In the total darkness of a windowless room, a pair of black eyes suddenly shot open. Under the sheets, Sasuke's body was still tense, fighting the urge to throw itself to the side just in case the kunai somehow managed to follow him into the waking world. And because of the darkness of his room, he couldn't even stare at the ceiling as he listened to his breathing calm back down. Not that it mattered really; his mind was still occupied with the image of angry white eyes in a normally happy-go-lucky face.

Sitting up, Sasuke let his legs slide out from under the blanket. Waking up in the middle of the night was no longer a new experience to him. From his earlier experiences with the aftermath of unnerving dreams, Sasuke already knew that he wasn't going to get back to sleep again without a little help. Over the last month he had taken to keeping a little bottle of sleeping pills on his nightstand for getting his consciousness sedated after having dreams that he'd... rather not think about.

Sasuke picked up the bottle and exited his room robotically, heading for the kitchen. He already knew the instructions on the bottle clearly said not to take them on an empty stomach, and unlike the dobe, he wasn't stupid enough to ignore warning labels when drugging himself. Normally, the idea of taking any kind of medication that was not absolutely necessary made him uncomfortable, ever since what had happened when he took Orochimaru's chakra pills and almost killed his teammate when he woke up. But that was another incident that he really didn't like to think about.

Opening his pantry door, Sasuke paused for a moment to wonder just what the hell had happened to his sense of taste as he looked over shelf upon shelf stocked with different brands and flavors of the same food. A food that just happened to be a certain blonde's favorite. Sasuke supposed that, if nothing else, he could always lure Naruto into his apartment with the promise of all the ramen noodles he could eat, and then lock him up until his relationship with Hyuuga Hinata died out of lack of contact. That was plan Z.

Sasuke selected an instant cup of pork ramen off a shelf, and then turned to start boiling the water to mix it with.

He hadn't given up on his decision about the Hyuuga girl. He was not about to lose his dobe to anyone, much less a meek, pampered, pathetic excuse for a kunoichi that would likely let the blonde become soft and utterly useless as a rival by the time they broke up (the idea of the Hyuuga hussy marrying Naruto was not even going to be given the honor of being considered a possibility). He had only gotten sidetracked in his first attempt at breaking the two up, and the only reason why he hadn't made a second one yet was because he had been shocked. And then when he had calmed down,_ right when he was about to make another move_, he started experiencing a few distractions. The dreams were the worst, in Sasuke's opinion. When they had begun was a mystery, because he had often relived memories while he slept in the place of dreams, but usually they were about battles and his clan. Then out of the blue it had switched to the dobe... and his first girl kiss. He'd probably relived it so many times by now that he could describe it more accurately than either of the participants (A/N: And in his opinion, he was _by far_ the better first kiss). Then the dreams had moved a little farther into his memories, going into... he still wasn't going to think about that night.

Then his subconscious got a little more creative, and then the nightmares...Under different circumstances, Sasuke might have been grateful that his rival's mind was too distracted to notice Sasuke's rapidly faltering performance at training. Or the fact that he couldn't really make eye contact...

Might, being a word he stressed in that thought. He fiercely blamed the entire situation on the Hyuuga girl. No, scratch that. He blamed the entire fucking Hyuuga family. If Neji could have just kept his damned mouth shut, Naruto would never have even noticed that the Hyuuga heir practically got a nose bled every time he spoke to her. Or if the branch house member could have been a little more accurate in his attempt to murder the girl...Or if Hiashi could have kept his hands to himself one night a decade and a half ago, Hinata would be nothing more than a forgotten red stain on an old bed sheet, and Sasuke would still have a rival!

When Sasuke ripped the top off the instant ramen cup, he was only mildly surprised when his hand threw the innocent cap across the room. The bubbling water seemed to hiss at him as he poured it into the cup, small droplets bouncing up and trying to burn his hands.

Kakashi hadn't confronted him yet, but Sasuke was sure that between the lack of sleep and the trouble concentrating in his blonde teammate's presence, the situation was beginning to take a toll on his performance. Not that he was alone, but Naruto screwing up wasn't unusual. He was an Uchiha, damnit! He wanted to get Naruto's attention back on him before they became weak and ended up spending yet another year as Genin.

As Sasuke tore open the little bag of seasonings and mixed it into the dobe's favorite food, he looked over his last thought again. Mentally, he crossed it out and wrote _Who are you kidding?_ in bright red marker.

He ate the noodles slowly, automatically remembering that it was the same flavor Naruto had had before he came to his apartment that night with the destined to fail plan. Only it lacked the extra, intoxicating flavor that it had when he tasted it from his teammate's mouth.

The fact that he had been stupid enough to convince himself that he could drive Konoha's most attention-starved ninja away by lathering him with it was enough to convince him of his own stupidity. How long had he been fooling himself? He didn't want Naruto's love life to be shot. He didn't even hate Hinata.

He just wanted the dobe for himself…

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Hinata took a deep breath before raising her hand and sending it toward the door in front of her. Her white knuckles were almost within an inch of the door's surface, when she abruptly jerked them back, nestling the hand in the fabric of her shirt as if they had been burned. Inwardly, she let out a groan of frustration. She wanted to stamp her foot at herself. She had been standing in the same spot all morning, trying to coax her hand into knocking on the door of her mentor's hospital office.

She knew that she wasn't supposed to ask her tutor for help during her exams, but tonight she had really found something that she just couldn't figure out.

"Hinata?"

The white eyed girl addressed jumped at the sound of her name, just barely managing to keep herself from letting out a startled "Ahhh!"

Beside her, she heard a surprised gasp, and then a hand closed firmly over her shoulder. "Hinata? Miss? Forgive me, I didn't mean to frighten you, I only wanted to ask if you wanted to see the Hokage."

Hinata was silent for a moment while her lungs took in a soothing breath and when she was finally able to turn her head to face the Hokage's sweet mannered assistant, she felt her face heat up in embarrassment. She must have been so focused on her progressed toward knocking on the door that she didn't notice the dark haired woman's approach.

Shizune smiled comfortingly at her, and said in a mildly amused voice, "You've been standing here at least twenty minutes."

Again, Hinata felt her face heat up. She wasn't sure if she wanted to correct the woman and tell her that she had come running to the Hokage's private office hours ago. She knew that she had to have made yet another disappointing mistake and her teacher would have to guide her out of it. Returning her attention to Shizune, Hinata nodded her head and watched enviously as the woman opened the door with a confidence that made her inwardly sigh. Shizune didn't even need to knock!

Light came into the room only after Shizune moved aside the heavy drapes covering the windows. Tsunade often tried to pretend it was night when ever she managed to get away from her duties, she explained, it made going to sleep easier.

Still, the kind woman's explanation didn't sooth Hinata's embarrassment at seeing her teacher slumped forward onto her desk, with her head pillowed on her arms. Shizune, on seeing the same sight, just made a soft sounding sigh and motioned for Hinata to wait a moment. Hinata raised her eyebrows in curiosity as the medical assistant approached the desk, hands folded neatly in front of her.

"Tsunade-sama?" Shizune shook the Hokage's shoulders lightly, but was only rewarded with a light groan as the blonde haired woman shifted into a more comfortable position.

Hinata's flush didn't go away.

"She was up late," Shizune tried to offer as an excuse, even while she was busy attacking her employer with both hands. "Civilians," she said with a quick smile, "seem to love injuring themselves after ten PM." The woman let a small frown of irritation flicker across her face as she was forced to give up shaking the Hokage when the blonde haired woman absented flicked a hand at her as if she were a fly. The assistant had to muffle a yelp as her employer's more than average strength pushed her back against the wall. She returned in a second, the expression Hinata had seen coming and leaving her face as she went in for a second attempt. Lifting up a generous sized lock of brandy colored hair, she continued to speak to Hinata over her shoulder. "There was this one girl that came in around eleven last night," she tugged viciously on the hair, falling back when several of the silky strands snapped. The rest of her hold slipped from her hand.

The Hokage was undisturbed.

"Somehow, she managed to stab herself in the ear," the assistant said calmly, though she was looking at the long, glossy strands in her hand with dread. A woman that used a jutsu to hide her real age had to be given to vanity, right? Hastily, Shizune stuffed the hairs into the puppy-dog pouch worn on the front of her shirt, and carefully arranged her boss's hair until she found the other woman's ear. She went on speaking, "With a _necklace clasp_." The dark haired woman took a firm hold of Tsunade's ear. "Her mother was furious when she brought her in, and the girl was only six, so you can imagine how hard it was to calm her down." (1)

Hinata nodded politely to the older woman's story, though her attention was more focused on her attempts to wake the Hokage. She was about to offer her help when Shizune braced her free hand on the blonde's head to keep it in place when she ruthlessly pulled the ear in the opposite direction.

"And believe me when I say it _bled!_ I don't think some ninjas can do so much damage with only-"

The Hokage's head shot upward, slamming into the back of her overstuffed leather chair with a force that surprised Hinata. It didn't break the headrest! One of the woman's hands flew to the side of her head where Shizune had let go of her ear. Then the most respected ninja in Konoha let out a loud, wordless shriek of irritation and pain as she promptly fired a blazing glare at whatever was dead ahead of her.

...Which happened to be Hinata.

The white eyed girl cringed under the amber gaze, the memory of what she had come to ask the mad woman returning to her all too suddenly. She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the shout that she saw bubbling in her teacher's eyes. When it wasn't aimed at her, she tried to coax her jaw into unclenching, just a little. It didn't work.

"Shizune!"

"Good morning, Tsunade-sama," the assistant chirped. She put her hands innocently behind her back and smiled warmly at her employer. "You have a visitor."

Tsunade glowered at her innocent looking assistant, but relented to turning her head in the direction that Shizune nodded to. When she saw the smaller dark haired girl standing in front of her desk a second time (or first, since she hadn't really taken notice when she was glaring), she felt a growl start up in her throat. To her credit though, she did try to make it a soft growl. "Yes, Hinata?" she said in a voice that barely covered her lack of enthusiasm at her student's presence.

As a pupil, the Hyuuga girl had been quiet, watchful, and intelligent. And as Naruto's girlfriend, she had been absolutely adorable with her shy manner. But then she had to start her exam... And Tsunade abruptly decided that, girlfriend or not, she was a fucking pain in the neck that could rival the loudmouth blonde. This was discovered when the girl began showing up in her office every single day with a mundane question that they both knew she already knew the answer to.

Tsunade would readily admit that the future Hyuuga clan head was brilliant. If the girl actually had self-esteem, Tsunade might have thought she would even make her father proud.

"G-Good morning, Hokage-sama," the girl stuttered with her eyes cast to the floor. Hinata fought the urge to play with her hands. She had to be serious about this with Tsunade-sama!

"What is it today, Hinata?" the Hokage asked.

Hinata was too relieved that she had been given a way to get right to the problem to notice the annoyed tone in the blonde woman's voice. She took a moment after taking a breath and opening her mouth to speak. Then shut it. How does one answer such an informal question given by the highest officed ninja in their village?

Tsunade was impatient. The blonde woman breathed another sigh, and again voiced her question, "What do you need help with today?"

This time Hinata wasn't able to get around the annoyance. "H-Hai," Hinata said, then mentally slapped herself. That didn't go with the Hokage's question! "I-I, um, I was working on m-my t-test, the one with Uchiha Sasuke's s-samples, and th-they came out funny."

Hinata didn't look at her teacher directly, but she did manage to hear Tsunade through the mental cursing she was doing in her own head. Could she have managed to sound anymore like a child? "Funny?"

"H-Hai." Hinata's face changed from white to red, skipping over the middle pink. "I-It was the urine test, a-and I looked at the t-text book, and th-the results..."

"Did you check the color?" Tsunade said, trying to make the session easier, as well as faster, for her timid pupil. The girl nodded, her face staying the same shade of red. "The odor?"

Another nod. "I-I...They came out...I mean, they shouldn't have..."

Tsunade's assistant had long since escaped to her own private corner of the office, leaving her employer to sit and try to understand the girl's words through her stutters and her own frustration. Why couldn't the girl just say what was wrong with the sample? It was now obvious to Tsunade why Naruto and Hinata made such a good couple. If they got married, the girl wouldn't have to say a single word for the rest of her life.

"I went to the maternity wing and got an expectancy test, j-just to be sure..."

Tsunade's attention snapped back into place at that sentence. "You used a pregnancy test on Uchiha Sasuke's urine?"

Hinata nodded sheepishly. She tried to explain, "I-I wanted to make s-sure about what th-the text said-"

The blonde woman behind the desk threw her head into her hand, waving aside Hinata's words with the other. "Fine, fine, Hinata. What did it say?"

This was where Hinata faltered. She bit her lip, feeling her forehead crinkle as she imagined what her teacher was going to say at her response. "I-I th-think I lost m-my s-samples, Tsunade-sama!"

Tsunade put the hand covering her eyes back onto the desk and raised her head to stare at the girl in what she knew must have been an exasperated way. If her father hadn't been the head of a very powerful clan, she might have screamed at the girl. Instead, she took a calming breath and said, "You and Sakura were given a private room to perform your exams in. Every morning that room is unlocked when you arrive, and locked again the second you leave. No one, I repeat, _no one_ has touched your samples other than you, Hinata." She waited a moment with the girl's fingers furiously trying to strangle one another as the Hyuuga heir's red face stayed angled at the floor. When she gave up hope of a willing response, she said in a slightly harsher tone, "What was the test's result?"

"It… it agrees with the text, Hokage-sama." The girl didn't raise her head, and seemed to take a second to realize that she had not told her mentor what had been wrong with the text's assessment of the urine in the first place. She mentally thought _You baka!_ Hands suddenly clamping down on each other in a death-white grip, the girl said in a fast voice, "It turned blue." (2)

(1) --; that happened to me once, only I was fourteen and spent half an hour walking around not knowing my ear was bleeding. I'm just telling ya'll so you know it's not as random as it sounds...

(2) Everyone knows that's the normal positive answer for a pregnancy test, right? I looked around in the store and they had all these weird kinds that had lines, and x's and o's, so I thought I should make sure everyone knew...

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Naruto gazed up at the buildings of Konoha with a pleasant smile on his face. He was currently walking in a part of town that he didn't visit very often own his own. Since it wasn't an area that he frequented, he didn't play as many of his pranks there and therefore wasn't as easily recognized, and received fewer glares on the street. Of course, there was still the odd person who recognized him right away and would lean to one side to whisper to their friends, but for the most part Naruto was left alone. And because of that, he decided that he liked this part of the village. There was still a problem with the place lacking a decent priced ramen stand, but that was something that he could fix after he became Hokage. Or, if he were really serious about liking this part of the village, ramble on and on about to Tsunade until she relented and had a new stand opened.

Naruto's foxy grin grew in size when he saw a woman smile as he walked by. So what if she might have actually been smiling at someone behind him or across the street? She had a little boy with her who, Naruto was sure, definitely smiled at him. Yep, this was definitely a good part of the village. Naruto could just block out the reason that he was there, and everything would be perfect...

"Dunce!" Naruto stopped in mid-stride and quickly turned around, eyes darting from person to person, and the word "Teme!" ready on his lips for when his eyes fell on an arrogant, black haired Genin. But, of course, Sasuke was nowhere to be found.

"Mama, Mama! Tai won't stop teasing me!"

"It's not my fault you're such a dunce, dunce!"

Naruto let himself relax a little when he saw the two children crowded around their mother at a nearby bench. He started to walk away, but the sound of the larger child's teasing carried over to him.

"Dunce! DUnce! DUNce! DUNCe! DUNCE!" ...So much for ignoring why he was walking down a street in the richer part of Konoha.

As the boy's chant, which persistently followed him after the children's mother stood up and started walking down the street behind him, steadily worked the blonde into a glare, Naruto began to curse the boy whose fault it was that he was there. It was hardly a secret in Konoha that one of the most common sources of his outbursts was seeing attention and care lavished on the Uchiha that would not be offered to anyone else under the same conditions. Like himself for instance. He was sure that when he slept in, his pink haired teammate did not jump up nervously and call out his name at every little sound made near their meeting place. Or demand that their sensei send someone to check on him to see if he was okay. He was also certain that the silver haired Jounin didn't spend five minutes carefully thinking over the request before finally agreeing (though he couldn't be sure because, naturally, when he was late he was not at the bridge to see any displays of concern). And finally, he was absolutely positive that his pink haired teammate never suddenly developed fangs and a banshee's scream when their teacher appointed his rival to be the one to go get him out of bed.

Naruto couldn't understand how Kakashi was able to withstand the kunoichi's threats, or the thought of being alone with her until he got back with the favored Uchiha in toe. He personally was ready to join in with his teammate and demand that the pink haired girl be sent instead, if only to relax in the knowledge that Inner Sakura would be once again confined to being only _Inner_ Sakura. Unfortunately, at the last minute a messenger arrived from the hospital asking for Sakura and Sasuke to report to the Hokage as soon as possible, together or not.

So Naruto was stuck with the task of scraping his rival out of bed and dragging him down to the hospital. He used the word "scraping" because this hadn't been the first time his rival had been uncharacteristically late, and as Naruto had learned, the Uchiha was an incredibly deep sleeper. The last time he had been late, Naruto had considered going outside and breaking into the blasted apartment and screaming right into his rival's ear.

Unfortunately for him, Sasuke had suddenly woken up and caught him outside his bathroom window. Considering that Sasuke had been in the act of getting ready to take a shower, that incident had been particularly hard to explain after the half naked Uchiha hand reached out his window to grab the blonde before he could fall three stories and splatter on the sidewalk. Sasuke said his landlord wouldn't appreciate that.

Coming to a stop outside the building that Naruto knew Sasuke lived in, he took a minute to renew his glare and angle it at the electronic box outside the entrance doors. He knew the code, having learned it after the bathroom incident when Sasuke for some reason decided to be nice and save him the trouble of climbing up his apartment building whenever the door buzzer failed to wake him up; the glare was more for the fact that the box represented just how much nicer the bastard's building was than his own. He punched in the code and quickly went into the lemon scented, air conditioned lobby, glare staying on his face.

Stupid, rich bastard...

Given Sasuke's dislike for all things non-ninja, Naruto couldn't understand why the Uchiha heir would move into a building with a civilian security system. It wasn't like it could really help him if another ninja seriously wanted to attack him at home. However, the blonde already knew what the answer to asking would be: nothing.

Inside the bastard's elevator, Naruto grumbled to himself again. His apartment building didn't have music. _Annoying_ elevator music, Naruto insisted to himself, but nonetheless, it was another jab at the fact that living alone could be so much nicer if one had a shit load of money left over from their family. When he became Hokage, he was going to find someone to invent portable elevators so that everyone could have their own, and... NO! His foot was NOT just tapping to the rhythm!

When the doors opened on the third floor, Naruto sprang out of the elevator. At first it had just been out of frustration at the catchy -no, annoying music, but after entering the hall, the blonde decided to keep it up. He wanted to get this done with quickly, anyway. While turning a corner, Naruto came to the sudden discovery that the music was not just in the elevator. There were speakers hidden along the hall so visitors could hear it as they walked around in the building. Damnit! Someone was taunting him!

He looked up, trying to find out just were exactly the speakers were hidden, not paying attention to where he was going as he turned the last corner, when...

WHAM!

...Konoha's number one loudmouth crashed right into his teammate's door. Loudly.

He looked around himself quickly, hoping that no one had heard. Pulling away from the door, Naruto waiting for it to be opened, thinking that it would just be his luck that his rival was right on the other side and somehow magically saw him run straight into his front door. But of course, that would have been the old, smart Sasuke. The new sleep-in-until-Kami-knows-when Sasuke apparently didn't know that he was supposed to find someway to be present at every one of his blunders.

After waiting a minute just to be sure, Naruto knocked on the door again. Not as loudly without the weight of his full body slamming into the wood, but he made up for it by shouting his teammate's name. One thing he'd learned was he couldn't be too thorough in trying to wake the Uchiha heir up.

However, it was a common known fact in Konoha that its favorite little loudmouthed demon holder was far from blessed when it came to his temper. Thus, it was completely understandable to anyone who had the privilege of working with the blonde at any point during his or her life, that when the Uchiha's door continued to go unanswered after knocking several times, the blonde opted for something that came a little easier to him. Spaztastic violence.

Drawing his fist back, Naruto began to mercilessly pound on the door, grinning inwardly when he thought that he might end up leaving dents in Mr. Rich-Asshole's pretty red door. Three minutes into this (he had more patience when he was expending energy), Naruto thought he heard someone's footsteps in the corridor behind him. Immediately he turned around, so not to look like his was trying to break into Konoha's most beloved rookie's home, just in time to see an old lady casting him a confused stare as she walked down the hall with a paper bag filled to the brim with large boxes of pigeon fed.

The corridor was completely silent until the woman, staring unashamedly at the blonde haired shinobi, unlocked the door across from Sasuke's and went inside.

Turning back to the offending door, Naruto started to fire another punch at it, when a pale hand snaked out and firmly caught his fist before it could land on the mockingly cheerful red surface.

"What are you doing, dobe?"

Naruto paused. Mostly because it took him a minute to follow the arm connected with the pale hand and find the gap between the door and its frame, where it came from. Looking through the gap, Naruto could see one black eye staring lazily out at him with a thin metal chain, the kind that civilians used to lock their doors, taunt and level with an elegant nose.

"Morning, asshole," Naruto ground out as he tried to jerk his fist back from the Uchiha. Unfortunately, the paler boy didn't seem to notice. A silence stretched between them, in which Naruto was painfully aware of the fact that his teammate was watching every move he made while he could only see a sliver of the dark haired boy's face. And being Konoha's number one loudmouth, he of course knew that he was expected to break the silence first. "Where were you today? Sakura tried to tear her own lungs out when Kakashi got to the bridge before you. And-"

"I was at home, baka." Sasuke cut in without showing any acknowledgement to the blonde's other sentence, the tone of his voice saying Isn't-It-Obvious? "I'm sick."

Uchiha Sasuke was never one to admit weakness easily. The only time that either of his teammates could really claim to have seen him drop his macho attitude was once during their Chuunin exams, during their first fight against Orochimaru. Since then, anyone with normal intelligence would have noticed the Uchiha's redoubled efforts to hide weakness. Admitting to anything that would damage his man-of-steel persona was a rare sign that the boy wanted to end the conversation and be left alone until the problem was fixed.

Unfortunately, it was debatable whether Uzumaki Naruto could be listed under "normal intelligence." Crossing his arms, the blonde demanded, "Well, what'd you got?"

The one visible eye narrowed. "Nothing. I'm just not feeling well."

"What do you mean you just don't feel good? You've been sick twice this week!" Naruto began tapping his foot while waiting for the boy behind the door to snap back at him. This was after all, as good as a sparring match between them. If Gai and Kakashi could count rock-paper-scissor matches in their fifty-victories, forty-nine-loses, then Naruto and Sasuke could certainly count arguments. However, when Naruto's rival didn't say anything in response, he turned his head to the side, slightly disappointed at the easy victory. "You should at least check with a doctor."

There was a sneer from the other side of the door. "Your _girlfriend _already examined me." Another invitation to start an argument, only this time the subject was a little more personal on the blonde's part. He'd gone over it in his head more than once, and still Naruto could not figure out why his teammate hated Hinata as much as he clearly did. At one point he had thought about the possibility of it being mutual, but he honestly had a hard time seeing his white-eyed girlfriend hating anyone, even a selfish, show-offy bastard like Sasuke...

Realizing that he had zoned out of the present, Naruto snapped back to attention. "Bastard. Just get out here so we can leave already."

No answer.

"I'll even kick your ass later if you want, just open the door."

The dark haired boy, who had apparently decided that he wanted to fulfill a secret life long dream of becoming a statue, just continued to stare blankly at the blonde. Naruto glared in return, trying to think of just what he was supposed to do with an unresponsive Uchiha. There was always the bathroom window...

On the other side of the door, the pale skinned boy drew his head away from the door with a smirk on his lips. Naruto, too occupied with glaring and trying to put together a plan of action, didn't notice. Sasuke, of course, had already predicted what his target was going to come up with, and carefully eased the door back into its frame so that he could unhook the chain without the dobe noticing.

When he saw the blonde pulling back his fist like he had earlier, he inwardly nodded his approval as his hand gripped the doorknob tightly in anticipation.

Naruto let his fist swing forward, expecting to feel the impact of cool paint on wood against his fist. Not having the Hyuuga eyes to assist him, he hadn't seen the smirk or the preparations that his rival made on his side of the door. He honestly hadn't even noticed that the gap they had been talking through had closed. He did manage to think a quick _"What the!"_ when he saw the door swing open suddenly, and felt a hand close around his wrist. Before he could even draw breath to shout at his teammate that it was about time, he was jerked forward, his balance breaking and sending him to sprawl out on Uchiha Sasuke's living room floor, while behind him he heard the distinct sound of a door being thrown shut. He rolled over, just in time to see Sasuke hook the civilian chain back in place.

"Asshole," the blonde growled while forcing himself into a sitting position. He rubbed lavishly at his chin, mumbling about how he was going to make Sasuke pay if he broke anything and about the ramen he was going to expect afterward if he did.

"Couldn't let you stand out there and annoy my neighbors, dobe." The Uchiha smirked as he watched the blonde grumble while getting to his feet. Naruto tried to glare at him, but the effect was far less threatening on the rumpled blonde than it would have been on the raven haired boy receiving it. Sasuke personally thought the way Naruto's bottom lip pouted out ever-so-slightly when he tried to look menacing actually made him look more like an adorable kid getting ready for his first playground fight.

Of course, he wasn't about to say that.

Turning around, Sasuke left the blonde standing in the middle of his living room, while he went into the hallway without a word. Naruto didn't waste a moment in yelling, "Where do you think you're going, teme!"

Naruto could almost hear the arrogant smirk on his rival's face when he said, "Back to bed, dobe. I'm tired."

Naruto started towards the hallway, intending to catch up with his teammate. "You can't go to sleep!" He started to say, but drifted off somewhere around the word "to."

The first door in Sasuke's hallway went right into his kitchen. Naruto paused in mid stride, forehead already crinkling when he smelled something that was very, very familiar. Turning his head, the blonde froze. Sasuke being the perfectionist that he was on missions, Naruto had always figured him for a neat freak too, but that theory was shot down, castrated, chopped into little bit-sized pieces and then burned for good measure when Naruto stared in wide eyed astonishment at the Uchiha's kitchen.

There were pots left out on the counter, some even still resting on the cold stove because of lack of room anywhere else. A quick look at the sink revealed that it was filled to the point of overflowing with carelessly stacked half empty bowls. And, as Naruto took a step into the room for a closer look, he noted that the crusty residue that the broth of cheaper (and tastier) brands of instant ramen left when it dried was present on the glossy bowls. Sasuke wasn't even bothering to rinse out his dishes! What had happened to the Uchiha's eating utensils was a mystery until the blonde began to turn around to exit the room and spotted the trash can -not a tiny little waste basket but an actual CAN- standing in the corner, and saw that the wooden disposable kind of chop sticks were poking up out of the plastic bag.

Guess living in a fancy apartment doesn't include having a maid. Naruto knew that no one in their right mind would call his kitchen spotless, but THIS... Sasuke should consider inviting his fangirls over for dinner. If standing in this room didn't scare them off, nothing would.

A soft click from down the hall broke Naruto out of his temporary trance. Just in time too, he loved ramen, and seeing it come to this state was just... sickening. Turning back to go down the hallway, Naruto followed the barely audible sound of bed springs creaking as if someone were rolling over, until he came to a plain white door at the end of the hall. He took the doorknob in his hand, twisted, pushed, and looked in on... nothing. Inside the room it was completely and totally dark, despite the perfectly sunny mid-morning light outside.

He tried to adjust to the lack of light by squinting, though, he didn't know if that would help if there was no light in the room for his eyes to adjust to, when his rival's voice cut through the darkness for him. "Light switch is on the wall, dobe."

"Shut up, teme..." even with the instructions, Naruto still took a moment of blind fumbling before he was able to locate the light switch. The first thing that the blonde's eyes landed on once the room became more than just a black space, was a neatly stacked pyramid next to the Uchiha heir's bed. A pyramid made entirely out of instant ramen cups. After the kitchen, the ramen shouldn't have been such a surprise, and after all, he had some in his own room too. But he never let the empty cups stick around long enough to build a monument that high!

After getting over the shock of yet another sign that his teammate was secretly a fellow ramen-freak, Naruto spent a moment debating whether or not the raven haired boy was one to set traps in his room, remembered the useless civilian chain-lock on his door, and went in.

Sasuke was lying on his side, face to the wall. Naruto could hear his steady breathing as he approached, and worried that maybe his teammate really had been tired and fell asleep. How long does it take someone to do that anyway?

Another thing that anyone would know about Naruto was that he was loud. That was even one of his nicknames: loudmouth. And when one is put into a room with their sleep deprived rival, knowing that they must get them out of bed one way or another, it doesn't take a cloud-gazing lazy-assed genius to figure out what he's going to do. Coming to a stop beside the bed, Naruto reached out carefully with one hand to pull back Sasuke's blanket so he could yell into the paler boy's ear. But Sasuke, being a former number one rookie and a longtime teammate of the blonde's, knew better than to make certain mistakes, like say, falling asleep in the same room as Konoha's number one loudmouth. Thus, for the third time that morning, a pale hand sprang forward at the last second and firmly grabbed hold of Naruto.

Unsuspecting and less than well balanced to begin with, Naruto fell easily forward until he had to chose between sprawling across his teammate and his bed, or crashing head first into the wall. Then Sasuke wasn't lying down anymore. Naruto scrambled to get off his teammate, or at least get into a sitting position that didn't put all of his weight on Sasuke, but was easily stopped by the dark haired boy. Sasuke hadn't been caught by surprise, and he had the advantage of having better leverage when he caught both of Naruto's hands in a steel-like grip.

Well, at least Naruto could be glad that Sasuke's fangirls weren't here to see this. He still clearly remembered being chased half way across the village for a mere accidental kiss, and really did not want to know what would happen if Sakura or Ino walked in and saw him laying in Uchiha Sasuke's lap with his hands pinned to his side's and the object of their cookie-baking-stalking affection's head hovering directly above his own.

Naruto stopped squirming when Sasuke's head took a sudden, downward dip. What was he…! The blonde's eyes grew wide when one long, black bang brushed against his forehead and he all but shouted, "S-SASUKE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"

The Uchiha's head paused for a moment in its decent before murmuring smoothly, "You said you'd kick my ass later."

Naruto blinked, scowled and promptly called the Uchiha by his favorite nicknames in alphabetical order. Twisting around on Sasuke's lap, Naruto found that the hold on his arms was suddenly less resistant and broke free. The blonde thought that Sasuke must have noticed something incredibly interesting on the ceiling, because just as he started moving around on the other boy's lap (trying to get off, mind you), Sasuke's head went back a little, and a small, "Ahh..." came from him.

Odd. Naruto looked at the ceiling himself to see what had been so fascinating, but didn't see anything. In the moment that his head was angled upward, Naruto felt another body tackle his from the side, causing them both to fall back onto the mattress. Luckily, Sasuke had a big bed.

Struggling against the hold on his right arm and left shoulder, Naruto raised his knee and shoved it hard into Sasuke's lower stomach. He grinned when he heard the pained groan and slinked out of his friend's hold. It took Sasuke more time than what would have been normal for him to recover, one pale hand staying pressed over the boy's stomach just long enough to remind Naruto about his friend's health. Of course, this was after Naruto reversed their positions so that he was the one on top. He was about to suggest that they stop, when the black eyes snapped back to attention, and Naruto felt two hands tighten around his elbows before he was pushed to the side.

So, naturally, he continued to wrestle with his rival.

Sasuke wasn't as hard to get away from as he usually was. Whenever the dark haired boy got him into a decent hold, Naruto would twist around to try and pry the pale hands apart, only to find that they had loosened at some point, and hear Sasuke make a strange, stretched out, moany version of his usual "Hn." He guessed he was hurting his stomach or something. The third time that Naruto heard that pained sound, his sense of guilt finally took hold and told him to swallow his pride and tell Sasuke that they were done for today.

Luckily for the stubborn part of his consciousness, Sasuke chose that moment to rolled to the side, snatch up one of the bed's ridiculously oversized decorative pillows (what kind of teenage boy has those, anyway?), and pounce onto his blonde opponent. Any attempt at forfeiting (for the Uchiha's sake, mind you!) was easily swallowed up by the fluffy thick pillow.

Naruto spent five seconds cursing himself for being such an easy target, before he felt a warm weight settle over his middle and began to squirm angrily. Sasuke-teme was straddling him! He could just picture the smug look on the dark haired boy's face. Naruto couldn't let that go on. Since the pillow was large enough to trap Naruto's arms as well as his head, and the Uchiha's weight was settled firmly on top of his thighs that left him with only one option: try to dismount the Uchiha.

On the other side of the offending pillow, the smirk that Naruto had envisioned was present on his rival's face. However, the smirk quickly vanished when the blonde began bucking his hips, unintentionally, against the raven haired boy's. Sasuke's hands clenched in the pillow case, pressing down harder on it to smother the blonde's ears so that he wouldn't hear the strangled moan that came when Naruto managed to mess up the movement and for a second made it feel like grinding.

To stop the damned, idiotic, adorable dobe's menstruations, Sasuke had to let go of the pillow and shift his weight so he could grab onto Naruto's hips and force them to stay still. Once Naruto felt the pressure lift, the pillow was quickly thrown aside.

Blonde hair bouncing around his head and he sat up, Naruto shouted, "Sasuke-teme! I could have suffocated! Why'd you stay like that for so long you jerk!" Naruto wasn't even finished speaking when he sprang at Sasuke again. No way was he going to let that bastard think he won!

Of course, since the offending boy didn't have the added burden of finishing a sentence to distract him, again had the advantage, and easily pinned the blonde to the bed. In the back of his mind, a little voice snickered, _"Just typical, I get tackled in bed four or five times in one day, and every one of them's by Sasuke!"_ Naruto let out a small whimper of pain as his rival's knees dug harshly into his thighs. Sasuke's head was just above him with that arrogant smirk twisting his mouth into a mocking sm...

Naruto's eyebrows angled upward in a mixture of surprise and worry when he saw his rival's expression rapidly change from its usual I'm-better-and-you-know-it look. First his dark eyes unfocused as his attention zeroed inward, then his mouth opened a little to take in several deep, slow breathes, as if he were testing the air for taste. Then, eyes growing wide in a sudden realization, the pain in Naruto's knees disappeared as Sasuke threw himself off the bed and took off running.

Naruto managed to get himself into a sitting position with his legs hanging over the bed's edge, just in time to see the bedroom door bounce against the wall from the force used when the Uchiha pushed it out of his way. Down the hall, Sasuke's uncharacteristically loud footsteps could be heard, then the sound of another door crashing with a wall. Frowning, Naruto pushed off the bed to go and peek out into the hallway. He was able to find his teammate (after that annoying little guilty feeling came up again) by following the sounds of half smothered groans and whimpers, down the gray hall and almost back to the disgusting kitchen. The bathroom door was still open.

Poking his head into the room, Naruto saw Sasuke leaning with his hands braced on the wall, directly above the toilet, with his head hanging down between them. The toilet seat was up, and as Naruto took his first step into the tiled room, he could hear the raven haired boy's rapid breathing. Or maybe it could have been called panting. "Sasuke?" he said quietly, hand tracing along the sink, a little reluctant to go forward if Sasuke was...

Dark eyes met blue as Sasuke turned his head to stare at the blonde that was looking at him with large, anxious eyes. Naruto started to say something along the lines of, "Are you okay?" but gave it up when his teammate crumpled with a loud gurgle coming from his stomach, and showed him that even the almighty Uchiha had to bow down to the porcelain gods.

Naruto's eyes grew wide.

Uchiha Sasuke was throwing up in front of him.

The first thing that registered with the blonde, even without the help of the demon fox's enhanced senses was the smell. Naruto fought the urge to take a step back; if it were anyone else he might have just slinked out the door and waited until the pitiful whimpers and splashes died down.

But it was Uchiha Sasuke. _Throwing up!_

Taking a deep breath, and wrinkling his nose when he remembered the smell, the blonde haired shinobi knelt down next to the Uchiha's heaving form. There wasn't really much he could do other than watch the colors and shapes pour out of his friend's mouth in rapid spurts and commit them to memory for the next time his sensei was deciding who to send out to scrape his star pupil out of bed.

Tentatively, he reached out and positioned his hands on either side of Sasuke's sweat-beaded forehead, so not to miss a single strand, and gently pulled the hair away from his face. It wasn't really much help, but Naruto had a feeling that rubbing the boy's back was too familiar for their friendship, and he couldn't very well throw up for him, so that was all he could think to do...

And damnit, it was Uchiha Sasuke throwing up RIGHT INFRONT OF HIM.

When Sasuke's back finally stopped heaving, and he was left merely breathing heavily, Naruto reached to the side and snatched a tissue off the counter. He held it out to the exhausted boy so that Sasuke would be able to wipe his mouth before turning to stare at him, as they both knew he would. Feeling uncomfortable in the silence that fallowed, Naruto dropped his rival's hair to scratch at the back of his head, despite the fact that Sasuke was still facing the wall, and said, "Jeese, Sasuke-teme...you should have gone to a doctor weeks ago."

"Hn," Sasuke said. One pale hand reached forward to mercifully flush the toilet and send the half digested contents of the raven haired boy's stomach away. Naruto could have hugged him. Almost.

"So, bastard..." the blonde went on, "what else is wrong with you? You might as well tell me, or I'll come back later and let Sakura play doctor with you." The threat was just added as a joke for his own benefit. He really wasn't expecting an answer.

"Hn... I can't concentrate on anything, and the only thing I've been able to keep down in weeks is ramen..." Sasuke paused. "Shit... I'm turning into you."

If Sasuke were to turn his head, he would have seen his blonde teammate with a very surprised expression on his face. Did Sasuke just...? "SASUKE! You made a joke!" Sasuke flinched at the suddenly loud, excited tone. "You _must_ be sick! You should have seen baa... chan..." Naruto's words slowed down and dropped in volume as the memory of why was sent to Sasuke's apartment in the first place came back to him. _DAMNIT!_ _I FORGOT!_

Still facing the wall, Sasuke raised an eyebrow when his chatterbox teammate fell silent. Turning his head, he caught a flash of an orange clad knee, before he was suddenly bodily lifted into the air. The words, "We gotta go NOW!" were spoken loudly next to his ear. Naruto apparently thought that his sense of hearing was still hunched over the toilet bowl, while his body was being carried bridal style out of his bathroom and down the hallway.

"Dobe, what-"

"What time is it? Baa-chan's gonna kill me if we're late! Where's your damn clock!"

Sasuke flinched again at the loud yelling, and unthinkingly pointed to a place above his front door. Naruto read the numbers off the clock, let out another loud, vocal form of communication that his passenger couldn't understand, and promptly tried to run out the door, only to find that it was still chained shut and that opening it was going to be very difficult while holding Sasuke.

"Er...Sasuke, could you...?"

Sasuke figured, from what the blonde's babbling could tell him, that there actually was a reason for the dobe's appearance outside his door, other than an annoyed sensei and rabid, concerned fangirl. Squirming EVER so slightly in Naruto's hold, he undid the locks and opened the door, saying in a deadpan voice, "I can walk dobe."

"No, you can't, bastard! We're in a hurry, and we can't waste time waiting for you to puke your guts out every five minutes!"

The old lady that lived across the hall from Sasuke just so happened to chose that moment to open her door. Naruto was well aware of her staring as he rushed right past her and down the hall. It was kind of... strange to see a boy carrying another boy like that, but throwing Sasuke over his shoulder was probably just going to upset his stomach, and he'd be damned before anyone saw him running around in public with the Uchiha heir riding piggy-back.

Turning into the elevator (Sasuke having snapped that his didn't trust the klutz to carry him down the stairs, whether he was in a hurry or not), Naruto kept his attention mostly on trying to think of a good excuse for being late. _'I got distracted wrestling with Sasuke in bed'?_ That might have worked for ero-sensei... _'Kakashi's rubbing off on me'?_ That might work better...

He noticed when he felt Sasuke's struggles finally stop when he gave up trying to get away from him. When the elevator doors opened they went out onto the street, and completely ignoring the fact that if walking would be enough to upset the Uchiha heir's stomach, than being lunged around while the blonde jumped from building to building most certainly would, Naruto sent chakra into his feet and went up to travel more quickly over the rooftops.

Sasuke nestled his head into the junction between Naruto's neck and shoulder, winding his pale arms around him to keep from falling during the jumps. Naruto didn't think anything about it, other than the possibility of making a comment later about how girly Sasu-chan was being. For the moment however, he just tightened his hold on his teammate and continued to jump steadily towards the hospital, completely missing the ghost of a smile on Sasuke's lips.

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A/N:

Hey everyone, look! Yoai hints! What are those doing in this story?

In Responce to Ly Mizukage:

>. Sorry I didn't get your kiss in this chapter. It's coming though. Soon. Very soon.

Sorry Sassy didn't find out about his plan's little backfire, but I honestly lost track of how long I was making the chapter (I write on WordPad, and that doesn't tell you how many pages you write). When I first started this story, I though that I would be done in maybe twelve chapters, but this is the second time I've had to chop a chapter in half! Damn my wordy nature!

I would like to thank my beta right now, the email she sent me when she finished lookin over this chapter really cheered me up when I was having a bad day. If I knew where she lived, I'd go out and give her a big hug, instead I'm going to settle for telling everyone who reads this author's note to go read her stories. She's written a very good ShikaKiba drabble that she let me read, and a NaruIno if you liek het stories.


	9. Little Slow Today, eh, Sasuke?

One of the things that Sasuke had learned during his short time under Orochimaru's instruction was that he had it pretty damn good with Kakashi. Not only were his teammates a lot easier on the eyes (the prettiest member of Orochimaru's party DIED...and the next runner up had TWO HEADS), but the silver-haired sensei also didn't admit an aurora that made one wonder not IF he was going to molest you, but WHEN. Upon coming back to Konoha and witnessing the astounding ease in which he was forgiven for his betrayal, Sasuke discovered something: he was proud to be one of the Copy-Nin's students. Even if he did have a large perverted streak, he at least kept it limited to reading a racy graphic novel in front of minors. Sasuke would never repeat what Orochimaru's limit was. Even he wasn't that heartless.

But regardless of his newfound appreciation for his Genin instructor, there were still some traits that Sasuke did not wish to adapt. For one, Sasuke firmly believed that when one's superior told them to meet them at a certain place at a certain time, then THEY SHOULD DAMN WELL DO IT. One could argue that Uchiha Sasuke was aware that while many members of Konoha's council had forgiven him, the Hokage still remembered nursing the injured members of the Rookie Nine back to health after the group had returned. But if anyone asked Sasuke, and if he by some rare pass of mood answered, he would say that he merely liked to keep some boundaries separating himself from Kakashi in his mannerisms. And really, was it that painful to show up on time?

Thus were Sasuke's beliefs. Yet despite those thoughts, as Sasuke nestled deeper into his teammate's neck, he found himself silently hoping that the ride wouldn't end any time soon. Another little rule that Sasuke would never have broken under any circumstances was indulging in anything that could damage his strong image. And being carried across Konoha in a bridal hold by his rival was definitely not something that would make him look tough if an enemy ninja suddenly decided to attack them. The part of Sasuke that wasn't busy committing the feeling of being held to memory huffed about him being lucky they were traveling by rooftops, and not walking around on the streets where anyone could see them. Since the moment he and Naruto had met with one awkward shove and an even more awkward landing, the blonde had shown an enormous talent for breaking Sasuke's rules. He had sworn never to have a remotely intimate relationship with anyone after his family's death. Naruto had become his best friend before the Uchiha heir had even noticed. His No-Showing-Emotion-in-Public-or-Otherwise rule? Naruto made him break it on a daily basis. Never-Acknowledge-Anyone-Under-Any-Circumstances rule? Gone. Do-Anything-for-Power-No-Matter-What? Well, he tried to keep that one going, but…_No way in hell, teme!_

Naruto's arms tightened around Sasuke again when they made a jump from one building to the next. He briefly wondered if Naruto had noticed that Sasuke wasn't loosening his hold when they landed on the next roof, or that he was pressing himself a little closer than what was absolutely necessary to keep from falling.

Probably not...

Still, Sasuke could pretend.

He could smell Naruto's scent, despite the air rushing past them as they moved forward. Looking up at Naruto, Sasuke had to admit that the other boy had amazing stamina. The alleged klutz didn't even seem phased by carrying his teammate's weight in addition to his own while traveling at what anyone who had seen Naruto balance capabilities would have called an alarmingly fast pace. One hand playing with the false fur lining the collar of Naruto's jacket, the part of Sasuke's mind that was still in denial blamed his poor judgment on the fact that he was still drowsy from taking an eight hour sleeping pill only six hours ago, while his eyes started to close. Under his normal state of mind, that stubborn part of his brain which refused to acknowledge what the rest of him had reluctantly accepted would never be stupid enough to relax in the dobe's arms.

Sasuke's eyes began to blink in long, slow downward sweeps that became increasingly difficult for him to re-open. Naruto, maybe trying to prove that he could remember something other then what flavor of ramen he had for breakfast, was taking them through a part of the village where the buildings were built close together and almost of the same height, so that the jumps wouldn't upset his stomach. There was still the sudden jolting sensation that came whenever they landed on a new surface, and the unnerving weightlessness when they were between buildings (he never noticed those when he was traveling on his own feet), but it was getting less surprising. Ignorable even.

Sasuke finally let his eyes stay closed after one of the drawn out blinks. Renewing his hold on his rival, the Uchiha heir was surprised that he wasn't damaging the dobe's breathing yet. Between his forehead and arm, Naruto was almost in a headlock. He could always say later that he was planning to strangle him if the klutz managed to drop him, but for now...

_He's so warm..._

Sasuke was melting into his teammate's hold, knowing that it wasn't noticed... Especially when he was suddenly dumped onto an unsympathizing, cold stone bench outside the hospital entrance. Dark eyes snapped open in a glare; their owner picked himself up and prepared to murder the blond-haired idiot who had snapped him out of his peaceful daze. Unfortunately, when Sasuke looked around, he didn't see the blond anywhere near the bench. Instead, he heard the dobe's voice when he yelled, "OH, SHIT!" and then right afterward, "Don't curse in front of my son!"

Less then a second later the first voice's owner cried out in surprise rather than pain, and then Sasuke saw the bright orange form of his rival walking away form the sidewalk while rubbing his head; behind him, a woman tugging along a five year old as she walked away at a stiff, huffing pace. Sasuke was sure that he heard the little boy say, "Mommy, what's a sh..."

Naruto was rubbing his head as he walked back towards the hospital, muttering to himself about rude old ladies attacking him when he just wanted to know what time it was, when he looked up from the ground and noticed the raven-haired boy still standing next to the bench. Before Sasuke could make a comment about the incident with the woman on the street, the blond ran up to him while screeching at him in a way that would have put any fangirl to shame, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU STILL DOING OUT HERE! YOU'RE LATE!"

Sasuke silently thought that maybe the woman was right to hit the dobe. Honestly, who curses when small children are walking right by on their way to their first doctor's check up? However, while Sasuke was making the observation, Naruto grabbed onto his arm and hurriedly started dragging him towards the hospital building behind them. Again, he blamed the sleeping pill for keeping him from noticing that he was being grabbed while thinking.

Three steps inside the hospital, Sasuke decided that he had been indulging his newfound fondness for physical contact with the blonde a little too much for one morning, and jerked his hand free from the other ninja. Naruto started muttering loudly about arrogant, stuck-up bastards that couldn't find their own way around a hospital. Sasuke's hand shoved itself into his pocket to keep warm after losing the benefit of the other boy's. When had his dislike of physical contact changed? ...Never mind. He didn't want to know.

As the two male members of team seven walked down the hallway, stray nurses or hospital guests called out greetings to the Uchiha heir, which were ignored and, in turn, started another muttered rant from the blond-haired dobe. So Sasuke chose to ignore the blond as well while they walked; it wasn't his fault that the general population couldn't seem to figure out that he fucking didn't want anything to do with them. Actually, no one could figure it out...

"SASUKE-KUN!"

...Especially not his pink-haired teammate.

Both boys shouldn't have been surprised at the loud, overly sweet shout after hearing it nearly every day over the last three years. Yet even Naruto, who one would have expected to have a high tolerance for loud voices given his shameless tendency to scream every five minutes since the day he popped out of his mother's womb, had to flinch at the sound of a rabid fangirl's mating call.

Turning their heads in unison, Sasuke and Naruto stared at their pink-haired teammate, who was standing in front of a chair that she had previously been sitting in before spotting them. She was waving her arm in the air to catch their attention, as if the mating call hadn't been enough…

Sasuke paused, mentally went back over the label for Sakura's method of greeting, and, cringing, silently promised never to use that phrase again.

Attention moving away from the pink-haired girl still waving enthusiastically in his direction, Sasuke saw his sensei standing a few feet from Sakura, with his back pressed again the wall and his infamous orange book open in front of him. As the two boys came closer, their teacher raised his hand while saying a quick, "Yo!" without taking his eyes off the book's pages. It was a little odd seeing Kakashi without having to brace himself against the sound of the other members of his team shouting, but when he was about five feet away from where the two were waiting he was given an equally sufficient reason to flinch. Sakura lowered her hand and, for a moment, Sasuke thought that he was actually going to have a meeting with his team without a reason to glare at anyone… but then the kunoichi started coming towards him. Quickly. Her arms went out on either side of her a little as she got closer in a gesture that brought Sasuke's old phobia of touching back from the grave instantly.

She was going to hug him again...

Impulsively, Sasuke looked around himself in hopes of finding some way to escape his female teammate's clutches. True, it would have been normal for him to have just stepped aside, but the hallway they were standing in was incredibly narrow, and...

Slender arms clamped down around him. Sasuke frowned at himself for spending too much time thinking instead of acting. He heard Sakura murmuring uncomfortably close to his ear, "How are you feeling?"

He didn't answer her. He looked around, though it had not helped him in anyway to avoid Sakura's embrace, and found that the dobe was no longer standing next to him. Naruto was in the process of throwing open the Hokage's doors, next to where Kakashi was standing. When exactly had they gone to see the...?

"BAA-CHAN! I'm here!"

"Do you even know the definition of the word 'knocking,' brat?" the Hokage's voice snapped back at the blond, though Sasuke couldn't see her from where he was standing.

Naruto, grinning, started to open his mouth.

"Don't answer that, brat. Just send him in and sit down."

Naruto started to turn away from the door to follow instructions, though made sure to stick his tongue out childishly at the Hokage before doings so, but only managed one step before...

"And DON'T LEAVE yet. I want to talk to you afterward."

_"Yes,_ baa-chan." When Naruto turned to look at Sasuke, he half expected to see the blond roll his eyes like an eight-year-old child. But he was disappointed. Naruto only gestured to the door and then promptly turned around to take a seat next to where Sakura had been standing before rushing at Sasuke.

A moment passed where Sasuke stared blankly at his pink-haired teammate, waiting for her to remember that she was still holding onto him and let go without having to exchange words. From past experiences with being held in a fangirl's arms, he already knew that using words would encourage Sakura to stall. Regardless, Konoha's brightest student needed to hear him clear his throat, glare, and take a step forward before she finally got the message to let go.

If she wasn't playing dumb, then even if she was his teammate, that was just sad.

"Don't look so pissed off, Sasuke," he heard Naruto saying after him. "It's not like she's going to give you a death sentience."

Inside the Hokage's office, Sasuke was about to close the door before going any further (just incase this was something personal that his rival should not overhear), but the Hokage's voice sounded, "That's okay, Sasuke. Hinata can close the door."

Sasuke stopped. Turning around, he first saw Tsunade sitting behind her desk while sipping from a steaming mug of some sort of, possibly alcoholic (well, likely alcoholic) liquid. Then across from her, standing with her hands together in one twitching mass, was the dobe's precious girlfriend. Sasuke felt himself glaring.

"Thank you Hinata, you've been very helpful with this...situation. You are excused." the Hokage was addressing the white-eyed girl while waving her hand as if to clear the air of her presence, like a bad smell. Or maybe that was just Sasuke's interpretation. "Uchiha, you better make yourself comfortable."

As Sasuke came toward the desk and Hinata went toward the door, they met each other half way. For a second, Hinata looked up at him and upon seeing him staring back at her, her face promptly changed colors. She murmured a quiet apology, stepping to the side and keeping her eyes on the floor to let Sasuke pass.

Sitting down, the Uchiha heir didn't see Hinata's eyes flick back over to his figure, or more specifically, to his stomach. Her face was still red. She hurried out through the door when she thought that Sasuke might have felt her eyes on him. It seemed like Tsunade was waiting for her to leave before she started speaking, anyway. But as she was closing the door, Hinata couldn't help trying to sneak another look at the Uchiha heir. She couldn't help it. The idea of him being...well…

Hinata shook herself to clear the thought out of her mind. _It... It... There's nothing wrong with that!_ She told herself fervently, turning to go sit down next to Naruto. But still, the thought of _Uchiha Sasuke_, and someone...anyone getting together and doing…

"Are you alright, Hina?" Naruto's voice cut through her conflicting thoughts. She was _definitely_ not against that sort of thing! She... She was just surprised, that's all! REALLY! Smiling at Naruto, she nodded her head.

"You look a little dizzy," Naruto said. The blond was sitting slumped far down in the hospital chair, his legs stretching out into the walking space. She was going to have to warn him when someone walked by, or he'd end up tripping the nurses...

As if sensing her thoughts, Naruto shifted around on his seat. He brought his legs up, turned to the side, and then tucked them under himself while leaning back against the armrest. He crossed his arms over his chest and glared down at the chair in frustration when he remembered that the armrests were barely padded at all, and started moving around again. Hinata couldn't help giggling at him.

"SO..." Naruto said, after he finally found a position that was remotely comfortable, "What's wrong with Sasuke-teme?"

Sakura and Hinata looked at each other over Naruto's head. The boy was trying to use the armrest as a pillow while the rest of his body curled to make itself smaller. All the same, his knees were jutting into Sakura's space. Her stutter came back with its full force as Hinata tried to answer him, "O-our ex-exam just g-got extended."

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Sasuke took the seat directly across from the Hokage's desk, as he was instructed. While waiting for the blond woman to speak, he looked over the contents on the desk for a clue as to what he had been called in for. There was a folder laying in the center of the desk with something stamped on the side in dark red ink. Frowning a little, Sasuke leaned forward to get a better look at the word...

_Uchiha._

The frown deepened.

Tsunade looked up from where she had been shuffling through the contents of her right hand drawer. Seeing that Sasuke was studying the folder, she straightened up in her chair and cleared her throat before asking the Uchiha heir in an authoritative voice, "Uchiha, do you know what that is?"

Sasuke gave her a blank look. Tsunade sighed, she was expecting that response. Sliding the file over to her side of the desk, she opened the folder to thumb through its contents for a specific document. While she did so, she explained to Sasuke, "This is a detailed record of your family's history since the time they settled in Konoha." Sasuke blinked at her with the same slight frown on his face as before, so she continued, "All of the clans possessing a bloodline ability have a file. I trust you know that in many parts of the world whole families are executed for possessing traits like the Sharingan." When she paused, she waited for Sasuke to indicate whether he had already known about the prejudice or not. (A/N: Think back to Haku, everyone!)

He nodded.

"The Fire Country was one of the first parts of the world to see the bloodline abilities as an advantage, and offer the clans possessing them shelter in Konoha. However, the First asked the clans to agree to certain terms in return." Tsunade found the paper she wanted and took it out. She glanced up at Sasuke's impassive face while she leaned across the desk to set the paper down in front of him. "As you can see," she said, gesturing for the Uchiha heir to look over the paper while she spoke, "All of the Uchiha clan heads since then have renewed the contract and accepted the terms."

Sasuke looked over the signatures written on the page, as he was expected to. He even saw his father's at the bottom, and the empty space under it where he would one day sign after his clan was revived. He tried to keep from showing confusion when he looked back up at his Hokage, not knowing why he was being shown the document. Even without his clan, Sasuke still couldn't claim to be anything more than the Uchiha _heir_ until he was eighteen.

Maybe the council wanted to renew the terms ahead of time in case he planned to go running off with the next evil shinobi to bite his neck and offer to play school with him.

Tsunade cleared her throat again when she thought that the Sharingan user had finished looking over the document. "One of the terms of the agreement clearly states that the Hokage is to be informed if any... accuracies... happen that could affect the clan's future. Given your brother's past actions, this rule applies to you especially." Returning the document to the folder, Tsunade set the file to one side in case she was going to have to take something else out of it before the meeting was over. "In light of this," she said, attention focusing on the Uchiha, "is there anything you would like to tell me?"

Sasuke blinked. Was there supposed to be some kind of a hint in that last sentence? He sat silently for a moment, thinking about how strange it was that the one woman could go so long without blinking, though it did give him a chance to gawk at the dark shades of the bags under her eyes. Not that Uchihas' gawk, mind you...

"No."

Tsunade, who had started to lean ever so slightly forward, threw herself back into her seat. One of her hands came up and pressed into her temple for a moment, before she said in the same tone as before, "Uchiha, don't make this difficult."

Sasuke lifted an eyebrow in confusion.

"Despite what you may have come to believe growing up in this village, the majority of ninja villages are still convinced that people wielding bloodline abilities bring war. And if you fail to comply with the terms of the agreement, the council might decide to veto it." Her voice dropped an octave so that it was a little softer when she added, "The results of that probably wouldn't be good for you, or your _future clan._"

Whether it was appropriate to glare at one's superior or not, Sasuke knew he was doing it. If he didn't know better, he would say that the Hokage was threatening him about something. That being as unusual as it was, Sasuke probably wouldn't have been getting as easily irritated _if he knew what it was that the woman was talking about._

After enduring the raven-haired boy's glare for too long, Tsunade started speaking again. "The council has been very clear about wanting to see the Uchiha clan restored, even if it is under unusual conditions. No one expects you to make sure your heir is legally born, though I'd say it would be preferred, I do have to ask you to tell me everything." Tsunade looked back at the blank stare, and chose to add on, "Normally, it wouldn't matter who your spouse was, but since you are the last of the Uchiha clan, I need to know who's genes are mixing in with the Sharingan."

Silence met the last statement. Sasuke sat staring, glare having temporarily been overridden by other emotions. Such as surprise, confusion...and what ever one was causing the incredible urge to take after his blond-haired teammate and yell "WHAT THE FUCK!" However, when Sasuke finally did speak it was a much more sensible, "I don't know what you are talking about." An understandable answer... though Sasuke noted the fact that his voice sounded like he was about to kill something and added, "Hokage-sama."

Silently cursing fate for making Hinata discover the stoic boy's secret at such an early hour in the morning, and whatever had driven a six-year-old girl to stab herself with a piece of jewelry in a very hard to treat place, Tsunade forced herself to sit up straighter. Her voice came out harsh when she said, "Males, even at your age, very rarely find themselves in your condition unexpectedly. And given your social tendencies, it is even more unlikely that _you_ would find yourself in this condition without specific planning."

Before Tsunade had even finished her last sentence, Sasuke was asking, "What condition?"

The Hokage raised a yellow colored eyebrow. "The one that you are currently in, Sasuke."

The black-haired Genin stared.

"And will be in for the next eight months or so."

Still there was no recognition or understanding in the normally quick-thinking shinobi's face. Tsunade leaned a little closer to the boy, as if to see if the knowledge were written on his pale forehead (apparently, in all the time it took them to get here, neither could remember to bring Sasuke's hitai-ate). Changing tactics, she said quietly, "The one you were _expecting."_

Sasuke willed his face to return to its normal state. Of course, he heard the hint on the last word, and being the brilliant ninja he was, thought over what the blond woman had said since he came in. Inwardly he sent a silent congratulations to his blond-haired teammate. He always knew that someday, one of the people Naruto targeted for his obnoxious outlets would go insane. And in her break with sanity, the Hokage had apparently forgotten the differences between the male and female anatomy. Sasuke could only be thankful that he hadn't been the one to crack first. Not everyone is born with the Uchiha sense of patience, after all...

Still, sitting in a room with a crazy person was not a pastime that Sasuke enjoyed doing (not since his aniki went and threw a hissy fit that resulted in a very traumatized childhood, and the time Orochimaru asked him to play "hide the snake" during training). He was just about to get up, when the Hokage leaned even farther across the desk, saying, "You really have no idea what I'm talking about?"

Tsunade received no reaction other than a blink, as Sasuke wondered how one told their superior that they had been cruelly driven out of their mind and should check into a hotel with nice padded walls. The intent way she was staring at him suggested that she do this soon.

Sitting back down in her chair, Tsunade opened her right hand drawer and shifted through its contents, as she had done when Sasuke had first sat down. The boy watched her hand, frowning as it pulled out two new objects and set them on the desk between them. She gave Sasuke a moment to study the items, looking again for any sign of recognition or understanding on his face.

Nothing.

Clearing her throat, she tried to make her voice come out less frustrated than it had before, and picked up the first of the two items, which was another stamped file folder. "This," she said while turning the folder so that Sasuke could see the name written on the side, "is Hinata's exam. Right now, the exam is only half finished, but already the scoring is very high. Despite being just a little unsure of herself," Sasuke raised an eyebrow. He thought that he had seen a vein pop up in the Hokage's forehead for a second... "She is a very capable student. She's hardly ever wrong in her work, in fact..."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"I'm getting there, Uchiha." Tsunade set down the file again and folded her hands in front of herself. "As you know, for the past month, Hinata has been working with samples taken from your body as a part of her exam. Last night she made a discovery during the urine examination." As she spoke, she watched the Uchiha heir's unchanging frown. Then Tsunade picked up the second item, a long plastic object that she doubted many males had ever actually looked at. She asked, "Do you know what this is?"

Sasuke shook his head.

She said, "It's a pregnancy test that Hinata tested your samples with last night."

A black eyebrow rose. The Uchiha heir looked as if he might have wanted to say something, but Tsunade, after many encounter's with the only resident of Konoha that seemed to be born without the ability to keep his lips together, was well trained in the art of cramming words together and shooting them out before other people could speak. "After I was told about this, I went over her notes myself to make sure that there was no mistake. Sure enough, there wasn't one. This test is totally accurate." It was with no small amount of relief that Tsunade watched the dark eyes across from her grow larger, even if it was only by the smallest fraction. "Congratulations, Sasuke, you're going to be someone's mommy."

Tsunade couldn't help smiling; the way the muscles in the boy's face went lax almost made him look like a little boy when he first sees his mother wielding a paddle.

...There was no sound or movement to indicate a response. Even the steady stream of sounds from civilians on the street outside seemed to stop. Birds out in the trees stopped. The sound of someone periodically scraping their chair legs against the tile floor in the hospital hallway and cursing it fluently, stopped.

After a moment, Tsunade motioned for them to get back to business. "Anyway, I'm still going to have to ask you to tell me the father's name, and if you will at least think about having the baby born legally."

Sasuke was still staring at the white plastic contraption that Tsunade had set back down on the desk. Or more specifically, he was looking at the part of it that was currently colored blue. Deadpanning, he said, "There must have been something wrong with the test."

"No, Sasuke," Tsunade suppressed a sigh. It really was hoping for too much for the antisocial boy to accept the news with grace, she thought, conveniently forgetting how she had nearly screeched at the shy Hyuuga girl when she had been told the news earlier that morning. "We tested your urine several times and all the results came out exactly the same." Sasuke opened his mouth with another argument, but the Hokage predicted it and cut him off before the words could come out. "And we also tested it on Naruto's samples to make sure that it wasn't just confusion at a male specimen, and the results were negative."

Sasuke was given a moment to digest.

"Now, if you wouldn't mind, the name of your spouse, please."

Sasuke still stared at her, and for a moment Tsunade wondered if she was going to have to call someone in with smelling salts (or maybe just Naruto, to yell at him), when the boy started shaking his head.

"Sasuke, just answer the question."

"I'm not a girl."

"That doesn't matter, Sasuke." Tsunade felt her sympathy growing a little brittle. Low amounts of sleep can do that to a person. "There are ways that male shinobi can conceive. Which reminds me, we'll have to get you in touch with the J.I.S.S.P.A-"

"What?"

Tsunade shot the Uchiha heir a look at the uncharacteristic interruption, but answered his question, "The Jutsu Induced Same Sex Pregnancy Association." Sasuke stared at her, both eyebrows now raised so that his pale forehead was visibly wrinkled. It made him looked like a child again. Fighting off the urge to smile at him, she said, "Did you think you were the only one to ever abuse a jutsu?"

Sasuke didn't say anything back, not that she expected him to, given his infamous lack of a sense of humor.

"Since male pregnancies aren't usually covered in medical training, most of our hospital staff will not know how to treat you. The J.I.S.S.P.A will be able to teach you how to take care of yourself so you won't be too surprised when the time comes." Tsunade paused for a moment. "...Which reminds me of another thing... I took the liberty of assigning Sakura to join Hinata in studying you. Since homosexuality is becoming more acceptable among shinobi, I think that it would probably be best if future medic-nins learn how it works, don't you agree?"

Sasuke got a sinking feeling as he muttered more to himself than the Hokage, "Sakura's going to..."

"Sakura and Hinata," the blond-haired women corrected him, picking up and commanding the sentence despite not being meant to hear it, "are going to be studying you for the next eight months to a year. Try to cooperate with them like a good boy, will you?"

The woman's smile was hearable in the last part of her sentence. Not that Sasuke was really listening to the woman as intently as before. He was currently wondering if maybe he had fallen asleep again, and if the Hokage was going to suddenly develop a pair of angry Hyuuga eyes. They were already halfway to the part of the dream where he woke up; he had already lost the ability to move properly...

"One more thing, Sasuke," Tsunade was saying. "Homosexual pregnancies are legal in Konoha, but because a portion of the population is still a little squeamish about the idea, I'm going to have to ask you to keep this to yourself as much as you can. I know that this must be a little difficult for someone who is as... looked upon as you, but if you wouldn't mind keeping it down to telling only the people that absolutely need to know, it would be better for everyone."

Sasuke was wondering if maybe the Hokage needed to close her eyes before they could change color, or if maybe his self-conscious was trying to get him to lower his guard by dragging the dream out. There was no way that this could be real. Honestly, Sasuke had never even had se...

Oh.

...crap…

Not noticing the Uchiha's lack of coherent thought, Tsunade went on, "Naruto will need to be informed."

"WHAT!" Body suddenly forgetting that it was supposed to have lost the ability to move, Sasuke shot up into a standing position, hand holding his weight as he leaned over the Hokage's desk.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Yes, I'm expecting that response out of him, too."

Sasuke stared at her again, though after the first five seconds his eyes returned to their normal size. Right... She had forgotten about the sense of humor disability. "Your team will want an explanation for the sudden draw back to D level missions. Don't even try to argue about that, I can't allow you to go on anything more dangerous in your condition. And I think that we both know that Naruto, especially, will want a reason why." Sasuke didn't relax at the explanation, and Tsunade raised a curious eyebrow. Using her more understanding voice again, she tried to offer him a little comfort. "I've already spoken to Kakashi and Sakura while we were waiting for you. Neither of them seemed to have a problem with the news." Of course, that was after they had gotten over the shock, and demanded to see all five of the Uchiha's pregnancy tests. "They" being mainly Sakura.

Sasuke didn't seem to calm down though, and Tsunade became a little worried at the obvious anxiety the stoic boy was showing. She had never thought that Naruto gave off the impression of being homophobic before, but for some reason Sasuke's skin was paling to the translucent gray-white belonging to a melting ice cub at the mention of his name.

She said the boy's name out loud to try and shake Sasuke from his daze, but eventually had to get up and guide him back into his chair. Casting a weary glance to the clock on her wall, Tsunade sighed and went to her office door. She opened it just enough to ask Shizune to cancel her appointments until noon, then went back towards Sasuke. She hadn't gotten a single answer out of the boy in almost and hour, and had a feeling that getting him to speak at all was going to take awhile now.

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The Hokage's door was closed for two hours before it was finally thrown open, banging loudly against the wall from the force. Immediately, Sakura was on her feet, looking at Sasuke and saying his name to get his attention. But the dark haired boy didn't even look at her, despite the fact that he walked within inches of her as he turned to go down the hall. He didn't even stop to glare at Naruto when the blond started to shout at him for being so mean to his teammate.

His fists were both driven deep into the pockets of his shorts, clenched hard enough for the muscles on his arms to visibly tense. He wasn't stomping exactly, but there was a certain harshness to his movements that suggested that anyone who was unfortunate enough to find themselves in front of him would find a kunai in their throat and their vision filled with a pair of glaring red eyes before hearing him tell them to move.

After he reached the end of the hall, Sasuke turned and disappeared in the direction of the stairs without as much as a word... Sakura stared after him, one finger strangling more than playing with a loose string at the slit of her dress. It took her a minute to realize that she was holding her breath, and then another to remember why. There was supposed to have been an idiot stubborn enough to have tackled the Uchiha heir from behind by now. Someone stupid, loud and blond was supposed to have started a brawl in the hallway the moment Sasuke failed to say "dobe." That was a scene the rest of their team had come to expect. So why hadn't...?

She turned away from the hallway, finally taking her eyes off of where Sasuke had last been standing, and saw that Naruto was sitting sideways in his seat with his legs folded under him. He was glaring down the hallway after their raven-haired teammate, teeth digging into his lower lip. Naruto really did look like he wanted to yell... Sakura wondered why he was restraining himself, until she noticed that there were two small hands fisted in his jacket, one his collar and the other in his sleeve.

Sakura couldn't be sure if Naruto had noticed that the Hyuuga girl had one very strong dislike in her personality that he clashed with. Sakura herself hadn't noticed until she actually sat down and thought about how long she actually expected her teammate's relationship to last. Hyuuga Hinata _hated_ fighting. Even when they were at the Academy, she had seemed to shy away from Iruka when asked to perform attack maneuvers, then she had opted to become a medic-nin at the first chance she had... And sweet Yondaime, was it really that hard to believe? Her family had resorted to using seals to keep a semblance of peace going! It was one of the only things that Sakura had been able to think of as a future reason for the two to break up, though as she walked towards the couple, she thought to herself that it was a miracle that Naruto hadn't burst out yelling yet.

Maybe Hinata could change that part of him...

Sakura stopped in front of the couple. She could tell that she was going to have to remind Naruto that the Hokage had asked to see him earlier so he could find out about the situation with Sasuke. Maybe afterward, she could go after their depressed teammate herself. If she were suddenly in his position, she knew that she would go running off to find Ino to talk about it. So maybe Sasuke...

"Naruto?" she said when she was standing in front of the blond.

The blue eyed boy's reaction, despite seeing years of ones exactly like it, surprised her. At the sound of his name, Naruto jumped up, physically airborne for at least three seconds before he hit the ground and took off running without so much as looking back. The alleged klutz didn't even seem phased with the fact that he almost crashed into his female teammate, or that she was yelling after him on reflex that that was no way to act around a lady. Or that he was now stripped of his jacket.

Turning around to face Hinata, still sitting in her chair and staring wide eyed at her boyfriend as he turned the corner after Sasuke. She was still holding onto his jacket. It must have been unzipped at some point over the last two hours; there was no way that Naruto would have remembered to do something that simple during his maneuver. Hinata and Sakura stared at one another after the sound of Naruto's pounding footsteps disappeared.

...Well…change comes slowly, right?

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A/N:

Hi everyone! Did you guys know that HET fan girls read this story? After seven chapters of hearing feedback only supporting NaruSasu, I had given up hope of this story attracting NaruHin fans, and then all the sudden WOOSH! Sasuke and Naruto cuddle, and al the sudden I get reviews from people rooting for Hinata!

:clears throat: The last chapter received seven reviews. That is the most reviews given to a chapter, save for chapter seven (KibaShino kiss and NejiHina kiss, apparently people liked one or the other ), and chapter one (people kept telling me to fix my spelling -.-;) To celebrate, guess what I'm doing? REPLYING!

minn yun: First, it's always nice to see another die-hard NejiHina fan. I'm glad that you like my story so much. Second:claps hands over ears: SPOLIERS! I've missed an episode or two in the series because of incorrect labeling on downloading sites. Otherwise, I probably would have had Naruto make some sort of comment about it in chapter four, if only to have Sasuke go "Wha?" Though, now I'm going to have to try and track down that fairy princess episode. :giggles: Did Hinata see Naruto before he ran off?

RuByMoOn17 I did!

Unerasable Sin: Yo! I usually email you with a response to your reviews anyway, but I'll respond here too, just because, okay? It was my pleasure reading your work, and I'm so happy that you decided to post your drabbles even without the SasuNaru done yet. Though the Sasuke story you sent me recently should be posted separately, if you ask me. It was beautifully written…though it made me kinda want to cry :sniff:

hopeless-flame: Heh, when I first saw your name I thought you were going to flame me (that's never happened yet, so I'm getting a little antsy every time I get mail from You like my Neji so far? SQUEE! I'll try and make him show up again as soon as possible.

starfire0639:That was my first shot at something openly boyboy-ish, even if it was only one sided. I'm glad that you found it cute, I was worried that it would seem all wrong coming from Sasuke. This chapter wasn't as cute, but I hope that the meeting with Tsunade was at least entertaining.

bobangk :read praise and blushes: …I think I can make this response short by saying: I think I love you, please don't stop reviewing me. I was overjoyed to see you mention Iruka's part in the dream, as I already told you.

Cyndi1: You're avid support of the NaruSasu pairing makes me proud! Though, I can't let Hinata go out of the picture yet. I like to torture Sassy-chan a little too much for that. :evil laughter:

Thank you to everyone who reviewed. I'd hug you all, but I kind of don't know where you live, and people tend to look at me strangely when they see me embracing my computer screen.


	10. Steps to Destress

Naruto was only faintly aware of the fact that he had just left his girlfriend sitting on one of those hellishly uncomfortable chairs without so much as a word of explanation, as he ran down the hall after his dark-haired rival. Later he was probably going to be kicking himself for ignoring her like Sasuke did Sakura or Ino, or just about anything else that didn't look mildly like it could give him a black eye. The only time he really got to spend with Hinata until her exam was over was during her lunch hour, and with the "extension" she had mentioned, he was probably going to have even less time to be alone with her. But, well, he told himself that old habits die hard…don't they? And like Sasuke, Naruto still had one nonnegotiable trait hanging on from their academy days, and it just so happened that that trait was triggered by the lingering Uchiha's veracious habit: he couldn't stand being ignored.

Naruto turned the corner and began devoting his thoughts to what he was going to do to the adored Sharingan wielder after he found him. His eyes darted around him as he entered a busier part of the hallway, looking for a blue shirt with the exaggerated red and white crest sewn onto the back. Naruto secretly always thought that it was pretty hypocritical for Sasuke to call him an idiot for wear orange on missions, when he went around wearing the exact colors used in a target sign on his back. Really, why would a clan want to taunt their enemies with such a large red and white embroidery? Especially if their personalities screamed "KILL ME, I'M A PSYCHOTIC ASSHOLE!"

But back to the point, who did Sasuke think he was anyway? Sure, Sasuke acting like an arrogant prick with an icicle shoved so far up his rear that people wanted to stare at his hips while he walked and wonder why they didn't see a waddle was perfectly normal. But damnit, he was supposed to be over shunning his teammates!

Naruto's mental ranting went on as he left the office part of the building and entered into the part of it that was actually used as a hospital. He was forced to slow down in his pursuit by the more noticeable increase in people. Though, this was more because of the part of his brain that told him crashing into someone would delay him from catching up with his _complete jerk _of a teammate, rather than the thought of being considerate to other people. He was Uzumaki Naruto after all, the sheer volume of his voice was a tribute how much consideration he had for others when his temper was provoked.

Naruto turned his head around to see if he had somehow passed his teammate without noticing. He was surprised that he hadn't caught up with the Uchiha heir yet; Sasuke didn't look like he had been walking _that_ fast earlier.

Actually, the reason that Naruto hadn't spotted his rival yet was because the second Sasuke had turned the corner away from the Hokage's office, he had broken into a mad dash down the hall. ...Or, perhaps "dash" wasn't the right word to use. Perhaps the better description would have been "jogged" or "walked like a madman were standing behind him and preparing to shove an icicle up his rear so that people would forever wonder why their was no waddle to his movements." If one wasn't too busy muttering about what they were going to do once they caught up with stuck-up annoying bastards, they might have been able to see the faint indent of the Uchiha heir's feet in the tile. Or the way that some of the people he just barely managed to avoid crashing into were still staring after the dark haired boy in confusion. But of course, while Uchiha Sasuke was fending off an uncharacteristic melt down, Uzumaki Naruto was still being Uzumaki Naruto.

Which included being completely unobservant.

Though, Sasuke himself only noticed his speed by the way his bangs fluttered ceaselessly around his ears and forehead as his eyes raked along the walls for the door that would lead into the stairwell. An Uchiha having a mental break down in public was unheard of, and he'd be damned if people started hearing about it because of him.

When he finally found the door he was looking for, the raven haired boy brutally shoved it aside, not bothering to find an excuse for the action as he let it slam shut behind him. He was too busy denying that his movements were trying to betray his mental status with every twitch of his fingers. And that they were rapidly succeeding at the task.

The last two hours had been one long session of having the full results of his failed plan shoved down his throat. That damn, bloody plan...What the hell had made him think that Konoha's most attention-starved ninja would react at all negatively to fangirlish advances? WHAT THE HELL HAD HE BEEN _THINKING!_

Tsunade hadn't given him much time to think about the answer to his error in judgment, or at the very least, walk over to the full-room window behind her desk, calmly unlatch the glass panes, and gracefully make his decent to meet the concrete sidewalk outside.

__

"Don't look so shocked, Uchiha," Tsunade said five minutes after returning to her seat. "Even if this wasn't planned, someone of your composure shouldn't be so surprised about hearing this."

Sasuke's hand moved faster on the railing, reaching out ahead of his body and almost jerking it forward after every other step or so. The stairwell was completely empty, which he was thankful for when his hand half threw him over the last three stairs. He landed in a crouching position, one arm stretched upward so he could still hold onto the edge of the railing.

The thought of putting his hands back into his pockets and thus keeping them from continuing with their independent actions never crossed his mind.

__

"Think back over the last month. Even this early in the pregnancy, you should have experienced **some **symptoms. Bloating, morning sickness, unusual food cravings…Anything along those lines can be classified as early signs."

Sasuke sat up straighter at the mention of the last symptom. He thought back to his pantry, to the condition of his kitchen...

__

Tsunade went on talking as if she didn't notice the way his fingers were suddenly digging small ruts into the chair's armrests. "Anyway, this could be a good thing for you. The council will likely settle down after you have the baby. The idea of you running off to the Sound will be less likely now, even to the most paranoid members. Plus, restarting your clan was one of your goals, wasn't it?"

Positioned as he was, Sasuke stared at the stone floor, his bangs framing the sides of his face, cutting off his side views. His breath came out in hard puffs from his trip down the stairs, making some of the loose pebbles move on the concrete floor, just a hand's width away from his mouth and nose.

At the top of the stair section he had just descended, the door opened with a loud huff that went unnoticed by the disheveled Uchiha. Naruto let the door swing shut behind him with an unabashed slam that rivaled the one caused only a few moments earlier, before he spotted his teammate in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the stairs. His first instinct was to charge down to the other boy and scream obscenities at the top of his lungs. However, one small, often smothered part of his brain that Iruka had actually managed to teach some sense to, stopped him. Or perhaps he remembered the results of using that method earlier in the Uchiha heir's bedroom. Either way, Naruto stopped in mid step to look more closely at the other boy's position. It wasn't _that _strange, he argued to himself, even if he did look a little tense. Sasuke could have been crouching down to tie his shoes, or pick something up off the ground. Except that Naruto knew Sasuke didn't own a pair of shoes with laces. Or if he did, he hadn't worn them once since team seven had been formed. And there was no way that picking up a penny could take longer than two minutes (the time that it took for Konoha's least coordinated ninja, who no one needs to be told the identity of).

Naruto let himself take a step farther away from the door, senses reaching out for any sign of danger. After all, the only times that Naruto had seen his rival act strangely was when an enemy nin was nearby.

...And immediately, he noticed what his teammates would have undoubtedly snarled at him if this had been a mission: there was chakra in the air around him. Not in the normal way that let one know there was another shinobi nearby; that would have been normal for a hospital full of medic-nins. What he felt was pulsing, very possibly _lethal _chakra floating unchecked from a source that was very close by.

With a signature that he recognized instantly.

Naruto's eyes snapped back to the crouching form of his teammate, hastily looking over the other boy's arms and neck for unnatural black spots that indicated the cursed seal acting up.

Below him, Sasuke was still unaware of the blonde's presence. Sasuke slowly pulled himself back onto his feet. Naruto sprang back against the wall, sinking down so that he would be hidden in the shadows. As a former prankster, Naruto knew when he was in danger of being discovered, and when being discovered was likely to result in a brutal beating. Though, since Iruka was most often the person who found him the "beating" was actually a loud, ear-damaging shout of his name followed by a good hearty lecture. Sasuke, however, was not one to give lectures.

Naruto shifted his legs around as quietly as he was capable of doing, trying to hide the color of his pants from view. He told himself that it would be best if he stayed put for the moment. It wasn't because he was nervously remembering what he had been told about Sasuke's assault on that guy Zaku during their first crack at the Chunin exams. He told himself that he was very capable of summoning up just as much chakra without flinching. And he most certainly was not put off by the way Sasuke's arm was shaking between his shoulder and the hand that was still ruthlessly trying to strangle the stair's railing.

After a moment, Sasuke started to turn toward the next stair section that would take him to the ground floor. Naruto caught a glimpse of the other boy's face in its usual unreadable mask. Despite the fact that there was still a tension hovering dangerously in the air, Naruto forced himself to relax. Sasuke just must have _thought _that there was something wrong. Stupid Sasuke, going off and hallucinating like that. Everything was fine.

But then Sasuke had to ruin the blonde's attempt at relaxing by freezing before he could take his first step on the stairs. Naruto, luckily, hadn't begun getting out of his hiding place just yet; otherwise Sasuke would have doubtlessly spotted him.

__

Tsuande pause a moment and finally recognized the signs of anxiety that were still being displayed by the raven haired Genin. "You **had** been planning to restart your clan at some point, weren't you, Uchiha?"

__

An uneasy moment paused without an answer coming from the sixteen year old boy seated across the desk. Tsuande, half wondering whether she preferred Naruto's open interruptions to Sasuke's drawn out silences, cleared her throat uncomfortably. "In the event that you are unwilling to raise the child yourself, I'm afraid that the only thing I can offer you is to find a good pair of foster parents to do it for you."

__

Sasuke's head came up slowly, almost in tune with the white hand that released its hold on the armrest in favor of curling around his stomach. Whether he was aware of the latter action though, Tsunade couldn't say. He was glaring at her slightly, mouth poised in the way that it did when someone was about to speak. But before he got a chance to voice the possibility she could see flickering in his expression, she spoke again. "And I should probably warn you, I've already sent word to several abortion clinics specifically telling them not to treat you, or anyone who matches your description without consorting with me first. I intend to see this pregnancy through its proper course."

Sasuke's free hand clenched into a fist while the other tightened further around the railing. Like the hallway tiles, afterward people would surely see the unmistakable indent of long, merciless fingers.

From where Naruto was standing, he could clearly see the other boy's body shaking. Sasuke had his head angled downward, inky black bangs effectively shielding whatever view that the differences in their positions might have allowed him of the paler boy's face. There was no way for him to tell whether the Sharingan had activated out of pure tension, or if there where any spots to indicate the possibility of an even paler male who was in serious need of some therapy regarding a very unhealthy snake obsession might be nearby. There was always the chance…

Naruto started to lean ever-so-slightly forward, trying to get a better look at his teammate, but threw himself back against the wall when the Uchiha heir suddenly spun around. The motion was quick enough to make the bangs on either side of the paler boy's face fly up like dark, miniature wings, not that Naruto could see from where he had huddled into the shadows, _not_ afraid that he had been seen.

Sasuke only paused for a short moment before he started moving again. He half lunged toward the stone wall, not even glancing to the stairs as his bangs went up again.

__

"Isn't this my choice, Hokage-sama?"

__

"Haven't you been listening, Uchiha?" Tsunade greeted the first words that had left the boy's mouth since closing the door, with a frown of irritation. "The agreement clearly states that in the case of a clan's near extinction, the current Hokage may take control of the situation. And that is precisely what I shall do if you refuse to cooperate."

Sasuke watched mutely as his vision blurred. He wanted to tell himself that it was because of the air rushing past his face and into his eyes as he flung himself forward, but he wasn't in the right state of mind to do so. His feet stopped moving two steps before crashing into the wall, but his upper body kept going. His left arm was barely able to brace itself against the concrete in time to keep him from gracelessly splattering himself against it. It wouldn't be very good for his image if Uchiha Sasuke was found in a hospital stairwell with his head cracked open, would it?

All the same, his right fist didn't stop with the rest of him. It pulled itself back without his conscious orders to do so, and slammed itself directly into the stone. At first, he didn't feel the contact. More miniature pebbles tumbled to the floor as he drew his hand away, only to let it clench back into a fist and strike out again.

__

Tsunade saw that Sasuke was about to speak again, but to keep control of the subject, she cut him off once again. "For the time being, I can't allow you to make any altering decisions regarding this situation." Sasuke's glare at her was hard, un-submitting to her orders. Tsunade made her a notch voice harsher (again). "In other words, Uchiha, if I suspect that **anything **damaging happens during your pregnancy, I will personally put a bow around your neck, oil you up, and deliver your taunt, young body to whichever one of my former teammates sends in the highest bind. Is that clear?"

Sasuke's fist continued to throw itself against the wall, the same one going over and over, unaware of startled blue eyes watching his every move from above. His forehead leaned against the back of his unmoving hand, still placed between himself and the stone. The unusual position made the punching harder, but he couldn't seem to push himself away from the wall at the moment. The only part of him that wasn't screaming for him to go back home and swallow the entire bottle of sleeping pills and never leave his apartment until hell froze over or someone finally mercifully said, "We sure had you fooled!" was quite literally banging itself against a fucking wall, while his legs threatened to crumble under him every time his arm drew back.

He really wanted to go back to sleep for awhile.

__

"Going back to the council, who is the father?"

Sasuke could feel his arm muscles beginning to strain from keeping his punches coming at a steady rhythm. There were red blotches coloring the rocky gray of the wall that he could see through the corner of his eye while his head remained angled at the floor.

He still didn't feel like pushing himself away.

One of the ways that Sasuke was able to keep himself steady during his daily life was by looking at complications as he would do if he were facing an opponent. Tsunade was the Hokage. She had the contract made by his forefathers. And the stress that she put on the council suggested that despite being forgiven for his rendezvous with Orochimaru, there were still some that would be happy to label him a threat to Konoha again. Obviously, he had the disadvantage.

There were only so many ways for him to leave the office without parting with his pride.

So he jumped onto the first plan that came to mind.

__

"Sasuke..."

He lied.

__

"...It happened on a mission."

Sasuke had been told once that people tried to block out thinking by counting. If this was true, it certainly wasn't working for him. He couldn't seem to focus on the number of punches he threw. He had also been told that some people tried inflicting physical pain on themselves to block out emotional pain, but since he was already steadily creating a raw mound of flesh from his knuckles, he couldn't say that he agreed with that method either. It was only after he stubbornly threw his hand into the wall one last time before allowing himself to rest, that the pain finally shot up his arm. The backs of his fingers stayed pressed against the wall afterwards, assisting in keeping his weight up now that they had stopped moving. He couldn't be sure how long he had been standing there.

__

"What mission was this? Genin wouldn't be given any tasks with this possible result."

__

"It was..." Sasuke pulled his arm away from his stomach, mind franticly grasping for a way to make his explanation plausible. The most important thing to remember was not to change anything after it had been said, "a personal one."

__

"A personal mission?" Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Do you mean to tell me that you left the village-"

"Hai." Sasuke interrupted his Hokage to latch onto the suggestion. He saw the irritation written on his superior's face and prayed that relief wouldn't show on his own. It was good that Tsunade was angry at him for leaving the village without permission. Frustration clouded judgment.

Sasuke flipped himself over, so that his back was pressing against the wall instead while he waited for the blood to return to his arms. There was a small voice in the back of his head telling him that he should probably keep his fist suspended in air instead of letting it hang limply at his side, but he decided to ignore it for a little while longer.

__

"Well? What the hell were you thinking?"

__

Sasuke paused, thinking. He kept his expression blank so that to Tsunade it would appear that he was only stubbornly making her wait for his answer. "I was trying to get close to someone."

__

"The father?" Tsunade put in. She sounded skeptical. Or maybe she was just annoyed. Watching her, Sasuke thought that she did look a little like Naruto when she huffed.

Sasuke raised his hand, his bloody hand, and pressed it tiredly against his temple. At least the scraps weren't bleeding too openly. He applied a little more pressure to the outside of his head, trying to relieve the headache that he felt coming on.

Purely by coincidence, the angle of his arm, which unnoticedly pushed aside his bangs, stretched out to keep his sideview of the stairs blocked. Just enough so that he couldn't see a brightly colored figure tentatively creep out from his hiding place.

__

Tsunade became impatient waiting for Sasuke to speak on his own. She gave him thirty seconds before repeating her question yet again, "Was the father the person you were trying to get close to or not?"

__

Sasuke gave up trying to think of a better response than what had come to his mind originally. Looking away, he tried to make himself sound embarrassed when he mumbled, "I can't be sure."

__

Tsunade was instantly thrown back into her frustration. Sasuke could have sworn he saw the vein from earlier reappear in her forehead. "How can you **not** know who the father is!"

Naruto stood quietly at the top of the stairs, watching Sasuke as he idly brushed his bangs away from the side of his face. He waited for Sasuke to spot him- he was after all, wearing _orange _for Yondame's sake, and standing only a few feet away- but his teammate seemed to be completely oblivious of his surroundings for the first time in his life. Walking down the stairs, Naruto made almost no effort to be quiet. He half hoped that the Uchiha heir's head would suddenly snap around and he would be the target of a very irritated and thus normal glare. But Sasuke seemed to be totally content to just stare dazedly ahead of himself.

The atmosphere was still less than pleasant, Naruto thought to himself. It faintly reminded him of their first C ranked mission, when Sasuke had momentarily considered stabbing himself before Kakashi assured him that he would die to protect them. Sakura was too busy debating what would happen if they were suddenly attack, but Naruto had been watching their stoic teammate to see what Mr. Show-off would do. And they said he was unobservant!

__

"So let me see if I understand you, Sasuke. You claim to have passed out at some point during your 'personal' mission?"-

"Hai."

"And when you woke up you were alone?"

__

Sasuke nodded to confirm that Tsunade had his lie straight. She was still looking at him in a way that bluntly told him that she was not fooled, but she hadn't stopped him from continuing with the story yet. She also hadn't asked who his "target" was in his mysterious mission.

__

"And when you woke up you were still in a female form?"

__

"Yes."

Tsunade looked him over, eyes narrowed. The steaming cup that he had seen on her desk earlier when he came in had long since cooled and stood forgotten in the corner by her right elbow. She reached for it now, and downed its contents in one long sip that bent her head back to draw out the last alcohol-laced drops. When she looked at him again, she wiped her mouth daintily with her fingers and said, "Is there anything else you want to add to that?"

Sasuke's attention returned to the world around him slowly. In the back of his mind, he was aware that he had just broken a contract that was possibly the only reason that his clan had survived long enough to produce him, and that if Tsunade found out -or more likely, found _proof _that he had, there was going to be hell.

He had just lied to his Hokage. And not very well, at that.

Sasuke's legs finally gave out on him, leaving him to slide down the wall and settle as little more than deadweight on the ground when another thought accrued to him.

What about Neji? There was no way that Neji wasn't going to hear about this. Hinata was going to be one of his examiners for the next eight months. Kami...what if he told?

What if Naruto heard?

__

Sasuke was just about to leave the Hokage's office without his story being questioned once since he started pasting it together. The sharper part of his mind told him that he was being an idiot for not thinking about what the Hokage might have been putting together while listening to him, but he was too eager to get out of the room. The entire meeting had already ensured that he wouldn't be sleeping for the next three months, until his stomach either started to expand or proved that this was all some kind of sick dream induced by his sudden change to the ramen-diet. (Bad food does effect the mind, he had been told). 

__

"Sasuke," Tsunade called to him when he was about to open the door. He glanced over his shoulder at her, wordlessly.

__

"Just out of curiosity...would you mind showing me what you look like in Sexy no Jutsu?"

Sasuke's breathing returned to normal. He put his head back, momentarily forgetting that he was sitting next to a wall, and grumbled to himself when the back of his skull made contact with the unyielding stone. Tsunade still didn't have proof that he was lying. He could have used a henge during his "mission," and he was sure that was what kept her from doing anything more than coyly smiling when their eyes locked and he was reminded of one important error in his story: He didn't know how to use the dobe's jutsu.

"Ne, Sasuke. Can't you wait until you get home to throw a hissy fit?"

Sasuke's body stiffened all except for his neck, which whipped his head around at the sound of the very last voice he wanted to hear at the moment. Blaringly standing out against the bleak gray and white of the stairwell, was Naruto, steadily descending the stairs. The voice in his head came back yet again, having already accepted that whatever god he had offended was not only not going to leave him to bang his head against a wall in peace, but had place a curse on the remainder of his life instead, snickered, _"Great fucking timing, dobe."_

Naruto didn't shout down to him as Sasuke would have expected him to, nor was he grumbling to himself about beating him to a pulp for slighting their team only a few minutes ago, or even stomping down the stairs loudly enough to alert the every nin and non-nin within a three-story radius of his whereabouts. He was simply coming down the stairs with his hands shoved into the pockets of his hideously orange pants, doing that adorable, immature mix of a pout and a frown that made his eyes squint ever so slightly. Exactly the same expression he had worn whenever their eyes met during the early days of their rivalry. Sasuke could guess what the inner monologue in the blonde's head would have been saying at that moment. Under normal circumstances, the dobe would be imagining a sparkling children's television scene, in which the moment he reached the end of the stairs, Sasuke would burst out tears and hurriedly swear to completely change his attitude, apologize for every wrong he had ever committed because he had just discovered that he had caught some terrible disease that would surely send his fangirls running if they found out about it.

Inwardly, Sasuke gave a half-hearted smirk. That was precisely what was probably going through his teammates head. Dobe. He was so easy to predict.

Sasuke's observation was hardly original. Over the years, the same thing had been stated about Konoha's Number One Most Surprising Ninja by both his comrades and his enemies. Even by his female teammate and sensei. However, since this thought was almost never spoken aloud, even one who had spent as much time around the blonde as Sasuke, had not figured out that by even thinking of a sentence that consisted of both the words "easy" and "predict" in association with his blonde haired teammate was an irresistible challenge to fate. And fate never leaves a challenge unanswered.

So it was then that Uzumaki Naruto did something that was so completely _in character, _that it was unexpected.

He tripped.

Naruto, up on the stairs just moments before Sasuke formed the condemning thought, was giving Sasuke his _fierce _expression, which was in no way to be associated with "that adorable face he was making just seconds before yaoi fangirls around the world squealed with joy." He was imagining how Sasuke would apologize for everything once he got to the corner and gave him one astounding punch to the side of his head, and then tell him all about the terrible disease that he had caught for the mere reason of having a stick shoved so far up his ass on a daily bases, and then beg him not to tell anyone least it ruin his image.

Sasuke could see the exact moment that his rival's foot missed the step from where he was sitting. He saw the blue eyes widen when the owner realized that he had allowed his foot to go to far out to possibly land in the correct spot. Of course, the sudden realization didn't stop the dobe from going ahead with taking the next step. Sasuke sometimes wondered if perhaps each of his teammate's limbs had a mind of their own, but was not given enough time to fully bring up his list of reasons why this could be so and add on this newest bit of proof, before his attention was drawn back to the event at hand.

Naruto, who anyone would have already known to be balance-challenged (for one thing, it has been mentioned multiple times in this story), let go of the railing he had been holding onto in favor of flailing his arms in an attempt to steady himself. But because he had given up his hold on the railing, he had also already given up whatever hope the blonde haired klutz had of _not _falling ungracefully forward and tumbling down the remaining steps separating himself from his black-haired teammate. Which it just so happened, were made of the same indifferent stone as the wall, which Sasuke knew from his earlier experience to be very, very hard.

The voice in Sasuke's head snickered again. _"Idiot."_

Naruto's decent ended with the blonde sprawled out on the concrete, the majority of his body still awkwardly angled on the stairs. His head was only a few inches from Sasuke's feet, pillowed on one protective arm that was probably the only reason that the dobe's head hadn't spilled its meager contents on the floor, Kyuubi or no Kyuubi.

The Uchiha heir thought about saying something condescending, maybe naming the idiot for the klutz that he was for the mere sake of finally doing something in character since arriving at the hospital, but thought better of it when he heard a groan come from the twitching heap of blonde hair and orange clothe that was his teammate.

Naruto picked himself up, and Sasuke mentally braced himself for the onslaught of shouts that normally accompanied the dobe's arrival, expecting it to be all the louder now that the dobe had made a fool of himself by falling down the stairs in a manner that would have done serious harm to anyone else. For a fleeting moment when Sasuke's mind was still trapped in the sluggish haze it had been in since leaving the Hokage's office, he wondered if the demon-induced ability to endure the physical strain the Naruto daily put on his body during training and other "incidents" that are too numerous to list, would be passed down to his children. It was only for a short moment though, before Sasuke tried and failed to ward off an entirely knew train of thought that took the opportunity to pounce on the forefront of his mind, demanding attention.

Like Naruto's baby. Inside him.

Naruto dusted himself off, not watching his teammate's face when the already scarce traces of an expression drained away. He was busy grumbling to himself and remembering just why he normally kept the extra padding of his favorite jacket on over his arms and upper torso. When he at last looked up, Sasuke's face was as blank as it usually was, if not a little absent. There was a moment's pause, similar to what had happened to him when he walked in on the Uchiha heir hurling the contents of his stomach into his toilet earlier that morning, where the rival and the friend fought for control of his consciousness.

He hadn't gotten much information out of either Hinata or Sakura while waiting for Sasuke to come out of the office so they could all leave, and Kakashi had been almost ignorable with his face buried in the graphic pages of his book. But unless there was a powerful group of enemy nins nearby to ruthlessly attack the dark haired boy sitting in front of him (they would have attacked by now, right?), even he was able to guess what the only other alternative cause for the stone-faced Genin's break in character. Whatever Tsunade-baa-chan had told him must have been bad.

Sasuke, having lost the battle against his thoughts, was unnoticing of his rival's movements as he was held captive by his subconscious's whim. He was forced, while sitting at the bottom of the stairs without betraying a breath, to remember... curious hands, hot tongue...the feeling of being pressed into worn couch cushions, and trying whole-heartedly to keep rhythm…

A warm touch near the base of his neck made Sasuke flinch. His body snapped back to attention again, his eyes suddenly able to once again send images of his surroundings to his brain. At some point, Naruto had crawled over to where his was sitting and reached out for his shoulder. Whether the blonde was planning to shake him out of his daze or use the grip for better leverage while he vocally assaulted his ears until the dobe's short attention span thought of something shiny -or possibly ramen flavored- was undeterminable.

His head turned and met with blonde, spiky hair, almost close enough to brush against his chin. He had thought that the hand on his shoulder had been meant to keep him in place, but after a moment of studying the angle of the golden head under his, he realized that it had probably only been placed there without thinking. Naruto was leaning across him, using his shoulder to keep a somewhat decent amount of space between their bodies, while his head hovered directly over Sasuke's beaten hand.

For the first time, Sasuke noticed that his teammate was missing his trademark jacket. Frowning, he looked up the stairs to see if the idiot had done another completely in character act and gotten it caught in the doorway or railing and had chosen to shuck the garment off rather than bother to untangle it.

Unfortunately, Naruto couldn't allow Sasuke enough time to see if the offensive orange jacket were anywhere in sight. Just as Sasuke's neck was craning up, he felt another warm touch close securely around the wrist of his right hand.

"Jeese, Sasuke," he heard the dobe mutter, still facing the bleeding hand, "I always knew you were going to crack one day, but can you try not to cripple yourself while you're at it?"

Sasuke didn't say anything in response, which probably did more to assure the blonde that things were at least remotely normal, whether the Uchiha heir was aware of the assurance or not. Sitting back, Naruto pulled the pale hand with him. But even with the benefit of the better light, the dobe had to hold the hand close to his face and squint at each of the miniature cuts in turn. The muscles in Sasuke's arm spasmed on impulse, trying to pull the arm away automatically. Even in his post-shock state, the Uchiha heir knew better than to assume that his teammate's hands were clean enough to be touching the open sores.

Naruto held onto him all too easily. Most likely because he hadn't spent that last five minutes ruthlessly pounding against a stone wall to the point of exhaustion. Still, as he returned more to awareness, and the dobe idiotically ran his fingers over the raw knuckles, Sasuke came to the realization that his hand _hurt._

While Sasuke was refusing to give into the powerful urge to wince, Naruto shifted so that he could stand on his knees while keeping his hold on the captive hand. With his free hand, he dug into his left front pocket, pulling out objects and dropping them onto the floor after checking to see what they were. Sasuke spent a moment wondering what it was the blonde was looking for, but as a pile of packaged needles, rubber gloves, and unmarked white bottles began to form, his senses suddenly returned and told him to take advantage of the dobe's proffered distraction.

While Naruto's hand continued to bob in and out of his pockets, which Sasuke had to admit, where able to hold a surprising amount of hospital utensils, he forced his wrist away from the warm fingers encircling it with one insistent tug.

The blonde's head shot up, his arm still extended in the air, and with that fierce, not cute, frown-pout highbred on his face. "SASU-_KAAY!"_

It was a given that the dobe had been annoyed when he came after him, but Sasuke was still a little surprised at the reaction. He thought he saw fangs.

"Dobe," he said back. The hand that was unharmed unconsciously slid up his side to lay protectively over his stomach area.

Naruto, of course, was never one to notice such vague subtlety, much less when the person doing it was not even aware of the gesture. Voice sounding loud against the quiet stillness of the stairwell, the very clearly miffed blonde growled out, "Give me back your hand!"

Ignoring the annoyance in his rival's voice, Sasuke gave the same answer he always did, another small step towards normalcy. "Hn. No."

Naruto's left hand was still shuffling through the contents of his pocket. Sasuke was partially surprised that his teammate didn't try to store weapons there. Even now that they were older, the old orange jumpsuit was still so baggy of his lithe form, it was hard to tell when the blonde was hiding anything in on his person.

Naruto reached out again, while Sasuke was debating just how far down he could shove his arm into the blonde's front pocket if he tried, and took a firm hold of the Uchiha heir's neglected, bloodied hand. Sasuke could have thrown his head against the wall when he noticed, hadn't he already decided that he was done zoning out today!

Naruto ignored whatever signs of mental berating that might have shown on the other boy's face as he pulled the white hand, tinged slightly pink from the multiple tiny scrapes and such, closer so that Sasuke had to lean forward a little in order to relieve the strain on his arm. Whatever it was that the dobe had been looking for; Sasuke was able to see when he had found it by the triumphant, self-satisfied smile that suddenly replaced the _not-adorable-frown-pout _on the scarred face.

Sasuke eyed the white roll that Naruto produced a second later suspiciously, not able to see it clearly until the clear plastic bag it was packaged it was torn away (a feat accomplished by the use of the dobe's teeth since he still refused to let go of his hold on Sasuke's arm). The white roll was brought to the blonde's lips, where he took the corner of a thin material in his mouth and pulled. White material unrolled into a thin strip before Sasuke finally recognized it.

Bandages.

Fumbling because it was very likely that he had never used so much as a band-aid since childhood, Naruto forced his raven-haired teammate's limp hand to straighten out enough so that he could tangle his own tanned arms in the bandages while trying to wrap up the other boy's knuckles. Sasuke held his hand out on his own after the wounds were unwrapped for the second time for the dobe to start over. He waited for his pulse to return, listening to the occasional muttered curse that preceded a tangle of arms, before he came to the conclusion that their roles had been reversed. Naruto was ignoring him. So, to fix this problem...

"That's too loose, baka."

"Shut up, ungrateful bastard!" the blonde's response was immediate. Normal. That was good. Sasuke found that he like normal very much at the moment.

"Dobe," Sasuke said, giving a slight tug with his arm to indicate that he wanted the death grip off. Naruto didn't notice. "Where did you get that?"

Gruffly, Naruto responded to his hand, "I raided the supply closet down the hall waiting for you, now _stop moving your hand_ or I'll rip it off."

"Hn." Sasuke watched Naruto huff, noting that the other boy was now trying to wrap the bandages tightly enough to cut off circulation, despite the fact that the earlier mention loose bandages only served to cushion against the new ones. At this rate, Sasuke wasn't going to be able to move his hand at all by the time the dobe was finished...

Silence settled between the two Genin, which was rare when they weren't trying to out do each other during a training session. As one of the most stoic ninjas living in Konoha (and if one ignored Neji and certain others that was no small title) the lack of sound shouldn't have affected Sasuke. But as seconds went by and it became clear that Konoha's Loudest Ninja had no intention of saying anything least it force him to restart the bandaging job over again, the Uchiha heir became uncomfortable. Who would have thought that Uchiha Sasuke could be unnerved by silence?

"Dobe," he started with the pet name again, knowing that it would get immediate attention. "The Hokage is expecting you right now."

"So?" Naruto said to Sasuke's wrist. He noticed with some relief that the blonde was tying it off. "Baa-chan sees me all the time, so if she _really _wants to yell at me, she might as well do it later."

Sasuke experimentally tried to move his fingers, and thought to himself that he was mostly right about the bandaging job's effects on his movements. There wasn't even a ripple in the material to indicate activity beneath the mass of white material.

Still holding onto his teammate's hand, Naruto gave a not so gentle tug on the other boy's hand to emphasize his demand for attention when he said, "_So?_"

Sasuke looked up at him blankly.

Leaning back against the bottom step, and stretching the Uchiha's arm uncomfortably while doing so, the oblivious (or was he still mad?) blonde clarified his question with, "What's wrong with you?"

As if he were suddenly push backward into the shock-induced pit from less than twenty minutes ago, the Sharingan wielder froze. Naruto hadn't been told yet. Sakura, Kakashi...even Hinata, hadn't said anything yet about..._it_.

"Bastard?" Naruto said impatiently, glaring and pouting at the same time as he tugged on the Uchiha's arm. "Are you gonna tell me or not?"

"Dobe..." The right thing to do was to tell him. A brave person would do that, Sasuke said to himself as he blinked to bring himself back from the mental void that he'd been sliding back over to.

At the sound of the ridiculing nick name, the blonde across for him crossed his unoccupied arm over his chest with an exaggerated "Hmph!" He continued to wait, expectantly looking to his teammate.

"Naruto, it's..." Sasuke's voice was quiet when he started to speak. Too quiet for someone like him. He hated how it sounded weak. The next sentence he forced out at a louder tone, though the speed of the words made their effect just as bad. "Just don't ask, dobe. Just don't."

He didn't have to wait long for a response. Sasuke wasn't sure whether he was disappointed or not when his teammate snorted and said in a deliberately offhand tone, "Fine, don't tell me, teme."

There was a moment where Sasuke thought that another awkward silence was going to accrue again, one that might have actually had him repeating the same story that he gave to Tsunade, or worse, telling the dobe a different story to get tangled with the first. That was what usually got liars caught in these sorts of situations...

Naruto stood up suddenly, unknowingly stopping his teammate from being held captive by his thoughts yet _again _that dayBrushing the pebbles off the back of his pants with one hand, Naruto took a step back to pull Sasuke up from the ground. He started walking toward the second stairway, dragging Sasuke behind him.

When he was pulled down the first step, Sasuke finally demanded, "What are you doing, idiot?"

"Don't call me that." Naruto continued going down the stairs. Sasuke followed him only because by trying to yank his hand back again, he might damage the bandaging or somehow end up falling forward and likely crack his head open on the ground, unlike his demon-housing rival. Naruto continued after another step, "If I have to stand up Hinata to chase after you're drama queen ass, the least you can do is by me lunch, teme."

There was another tug, and the Uchiha heir was brought down to the same step as the blonde, where his bandaged hand was exchanged for the undamaged one. Naruto looked at his rival and teammate for a second out of the corner of his eye, guessing at how much of the raven-haired ex-Number One Rookie's strength had returned, before he abruptly broke out at a run. The smile he put on when he heard the startled grunt as he pulled his friend forward was smugly satisfied, despite knowing that he still needed to pry his friend's new secret from him.

kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

A/N:

Hello everyone! This chapter was really just Sasuke throwing a tantrum after he found out about, you know. Sorry that you guys didn't get as much humor in here as last time. Speaking of which…Nineteen…NINE-FRICKIN'-TEEN REVIEWS! That gives me a total of SEVENTY reviews for the story. That was my maximum expectancy for the entire story! I could dance. So, I decided to reply to them again. Just 'cause.

I'm sorry that I took so long with this chapter. It was supposed to be a part of chapter nine, but it would have been entirely too long. Come to think of it, chapter nine was supposed to be a part of eight. DAMN MY WORDY NATURE! This story seems to be getting written in chunks rather than chapters, so I guess that I'll tell you all that the next chapter starts off another "chunk" before their will be a time skip. Unfortunately for everyone who was hoping for it, Naruto wont find out about the baby until things get a little more developed, if you know what I mean. I hope that the poorness of this chapter didn't send anyone away. :nervous smile:

Review Responses:

kanzeyori: You brought up some great points! I'll try and hit as many of them as I can once Sasuke's a little farther along. Especially the Naruto trying to get cozy with Hinata again. I think Neji would probably go out and kill some poor, innocent soul out of frustration. Or maybe just Sasuke. I'm still a little confused on how I can use Sakura (I'm not exactly doing too well of a job writing about her so far, unfortunately), but I have been asked before to write about her reaction. You're ideas should help. Got any more, I'd love to hear 'em!

minn yun: **1st Review** YAY, love! You've been reviewing a lot of my stories lately, and I can't tell you how excited I am that you liked all of them so far (though if you go for Late Affections, let me warn you that it is by far my worst put together story this year). I'm sorry that this chapter didn't have much humor in it, but I'll try to get some in later. **2nd Review** Herbal Essences? Neji? Have you ever read "Gambling" on AFF? That exact scenario is played out in the fourth or fifth chapter...(OH yeah, and Neji WILL be making another appearance soon. You can probably expect him in chapter twelve, hopefully).

Isarandel: Yoai fans unite! YES!

Quichi: Heh, I'm glad that you liked my idea for an organization dedicated to little "Oops!" that happen when ninjas get a little kinky. I was actually surprised that no one else ever used it. Even if Sexy no Jutsu wasn't around, ninjas can still use henge, right? And you know people like Kakashi and certain legendary frog tamers who also write books about unmentionable subjects, would try it. Thanks for the review!

digi-girl: Two hours? This story took you TWO HOURS? That's half an afternoon! WHEWT! I'M THE CAUSE OF SOMEBODY'S AFTERNOON!...Anyway, now that I'm done with my happy dance::cackle: I can understand why people would peg Naruto to be the mommy in the relationships, but since everyone knows that Sasuke's more likely to be the overbearing mother than the let's-go-play father, I think Sassy-uke can be the b-i-t-c-h every once in awhile. I hope that this chapter was a suitable continuation of the story. :walks away mumbling: Two hours...two...

hopeless-flame: Don't worry! I wont hurt Hinata, I love her too. She's one of my favorite female characters in Naruto, to be honest. I also really like Neji. Which is why I couldn't help bringing him in when I first sat down and thought about writing a fanfiction. :snuggles plushies: Hinata didn't get much attention in this chapter, but she will in the next, 'kay?

Lost ninja #1: Not much sappiness in this chapter, I'm afraid. And Naruto didn't find out about Sasuke's little problem yet, but you know, there's always others ways for him to find out. I don't really think that Sasuke would come out and say it to his adorable little dobe's face. I'm gad that you decided that you like this story after all. You're not the first person to review and say that you were on the edge of not-liking and liking ;; The whole thing with Hinata right now is because I don't think that Naruto would really enter into her life perfectly, despite the fact that she clearly had a thing for him for years. And despite her (kind of) stalking him when they were at the Academy, I think that she would be the kind to ignore Naruto's rougher points when she was watching from a distance. Thanks for the review/chance to rant.

joanne: Sorry, Naruto hasn't even found out about the baby yet. It will happen though...eventually.

OintmentJar: Did you give me the right email address? I tried to contact you twice after I posted chapter nine. **1st Review** I actually was going to bring that possibility with Sasuke carrying a member of the Hyuuga family once Neji found out (dang it, now it's not going to be a surprise :pout:). Gotta keep the plot going, right? I'm glad that someone else thought of it too, though. **2nd Review** You do have a point about me needing to put in more NaruHina. --; I've been really neglectful in that area so far, but please understand that Sasuke's pregnancy does contribute a lot to the plot of this story. Hinata will be in a lot of the nest chapter, and the chapter after that (I promise), but I'm sorry to say that I wont be telling you the end pairing ahead of time. If you are still reading by the time I end this story, you'll find out then. I hope you do continue reading though, even if I didn't have that pregnancy Hyuuga vs. Uchiha idea, I probably would have asked to use it after you sent in that first review.

permetaform: Such compliments! I like you already. Though, I had hope that no one would notice the lack of Hinata Naruto communication after "the night." I had planned to address it eventually, but that's mainly because I'm nervous about writing Naruto's confrontation. I'm alerting the story a bit to cover this bare spot in the story (I even tried dropping a few hints in this chapter. Did you notice?). Thanks for letting me know, I hope that this chapter was acceptable to ya.

Helen: Don't worry, you don't have to choose between KibaShino and NejiHina. Though I'm curious, how do you think Hinata would react to the relationship between her two teammates?

cellia: Despite NejiHina being my favorite het pairing, I have to agree with you that if you really think about it, it is kind of disturbing. Especially since their dads with IDENTICAL TWINS, I recently learned in my Life Science class that Identical twins have Identical DNA, so their like half-siblings. But then again, in Japan it is perfectly acceptable to marry your cousin. There, now I've told you why it' a sub pairing so far, though you listed some good points too (especially if Neji saw his cousin in the little black tank top XD). But about the argument of Hinata's feelings toward fighting: I didn't mean to say that she was against Naruto's SPIRIT, I just think that she would be freaked out by friends arguing and parent's screaming down the hall type fighting. You know, the unnecessary kind. Though, I also think that her "I want to change and be strong" might have been her trying to win her father's love. She just seems like she would do that, to me. ANYWAY! I love reading your review! I hope that you do it again if you keep reading!


	11. In the Beginning

No matter where you go, every town, village, or road-side inn has a history. Whether it is taught and known to all of its citizens varies, as does the accuracy of the story's details, but nevertheless, the story is there. Konoha's history is fairly typical for a ninja village. It began as a gathering place for a group of shinobi, many of them coming from older villages, and banding together silently in the heart of the Fire Country. (Which was why, after the village population began to grow and the First Hokage finally had to approached the region's feudal lords and become an official village, and part of the country.) And, as happens with most shinobi villages, after its location was revealed, it became a home to a large number of civilians. It was a necessity, as a certain blond resident would claim years later. After all, if everyone in Konoha were busy being sent out on missions, who would make the ramen?

Konoha was also, as many places supporting a healthy population of both genders often are, home to a large multitude of children. (Two schools were established to accommodate them. One was for the children of civilians who also wanted to grow up to become average, civilian chiefs, weapon makers, writers of explicate novels, or workers of whatever other trades might survive within the walls of a shinobi-based village.The other school, as could be predicted, was established for shinobi; The Academy.

The latter school was created first, for the simple fact that shinobi parents often raised shinobi children. Retired ninja would stay in the hidden village to teach them, and when they grew older hand over their development to other, more accomplished ninja until they were able to fend for themselves. But with the arrival of the civilian residents, another creature came. A creature that was so fierce, so unpredictable in its nature that even the beloved Hokage himself trembled before its wrath…

Stay-at-home-mothers.

On its own, a stay at home specimen is rarely anything more than a persistent, if wearisome thing. But the First Hokage quickly learned that they had a habit of finding each other and banding together to form a second, though unofficial, counsel all their own. And when they attacked, the First quickly learned that there was a terrifying power to their intensity that made him debate stepping up on his security methods for the Hokage building. A correspondence quickly sprang up between the Hokage and the Fire Country feudal lord(s) that carried on from the First's reign to the Second's. The Hokage had said that when he welcomed civilians into his village, he did not realize that a band of idle females could reek such havoc on his Academy, his regulations on shinobi conduct and uniform in public (a petition had been started banding one's right to carried blades more than six inches long without a permit!), and the lack of restrictions at the local bookstore.

The feudal lords had all written back with similar comments, that that was part of allowing civilians into his village.

The Hokage suggested that maybe he should have the civilians evacuate his village.

In response, the feudal lords had remarked that if he wanted to have the civilians recalled, he was going to have to come up with something better to say "than they annoy me."

When the Third Hokage came into office, he preferred to avoid fall outs with the parents of his non-shinobi residents. And so, his plan of action was one that came naturally to any man facing an opponent whose soul purpose for breathing was to nurture and develop the younger generation: he pointed them toward the school boards and told them to go nuts. Great changes followed in both of Konoha's schools. Pictures and practice models were brought into the classrooms to replace dried and preserved organs for students to study. New classes were introduced that at the time seemed strange to ninja culture, such as Ninja Dance class and Ninja Poetry class. And among other villages, Konoha began to earn the slightest bit of a reputation of being a pack of pansies.

Later, the Yondaime had had to have an armed guard on hand when he addressed the leader of this committee of over-zealous civilian parents to say that no, he could not put off the weapons training program until after students graduated from the Academy. After all, its purpose was to train _ninjas!_

It could also be noted, among skeptics, that this was the time that ninja such as Jiraiya and Orochimaru were at the Academy and that the changes in the shinobi schools stretched on until after other famous ninja like Hatake Kakashi, Maito Gai, and Ebisu graduated.

After the Yondaime's death there had been some worry about whether the Academy would revert back to its former ways before the civilian parental involvement had been severed, but luckily the Fourth had left some very firm laws regarding the matter.

However, through all the mess that developing the Academy had caused, one factor had always remained the same: the lack of excess teachers. The Academy, set up with the intention of turning small children into cold blooded killers almost as soon as the first clans started breeding, was small at first. Its sensei's were worn out or injured ninja who were no longer fit to take on serious missions, but also not quite yet useless to their home. With time, the position of teaching began earning more respect in the village, but the fact still remained that one did not become a ninja for the sake of teaching. Chuunin usually took on the teaching work, after careful testing and debate by their superiors. Following that came the careful placing of which age group and which personality type best responded to the teacher in question. Needless to say, the process took some time after the standards of teaching became a bit higher than finding somebody to sit in a room and explain the basics of killing to a cluster of eight year olds.

Iruka however, insisted that there were no problems with it. He claimed that any teacher would be perfectly willing to nod along with every task the counsel set for them to prove that they were ready to teach. A teacher should be the ideal, after all, and the ideal ninja followed orders. Faithfully and without question. So he demonstrated how he would react in certain situations, memorized and recited the Academy safety routines for the event of fires, earthquakes, or sudden invasions from foreign shinobi. He told his students that once, in a rather odd test that took place after his official final on the Chuunin obstacle course with Mizuki, he was even called out in the middle of the night to baby-sit a counsel member's children.

A few students in the back of the room at the time had snickered the word, "dope" at that, but went pointedly unnoticed.

And then, finally, he was allowed to try his hand at shaping the mind of Konoha's children. It was purely by coincidence that during the same year, the council was looking for someone who had just the right amount of patience and forcefulness to handle a certain problem that had sprang up… A problem that had blue eyes and a never-say-die smile.

At age eight, Naruto had already gone through several teachers at the civilian school, where the Hokage had tried to persuade him to stay the seven years before he reached the entry age for the Academy. Iruka had been slightly alarmed when he was told that he would have the Kyuubi vessel in his first class. When he asked about the state of his predecessor for curiosity's sake, he was told by the Third's assistant that the man wouldn't be able to for a while, but if he went to the medical center and asked around, he might have some luck with the nurses. Iruka was not comforted by that.

Hinata, also in that class, hadn't understood until years later what the tense looks that her teacher sent to their blond haired classmate meant. Of all the stories that Iruka had been willing to tell his class during his time with them, the story of his parents had pointedly not been one of them. Naruto's role in the class was to be a distraction, a clown, someone to make Iruka-sensei's face turn exquisite shades of white, green, and red, particularly after the unveiling of a certain _voluptuous_ jutsu. Iruka's annoyance and frustration with the blond was excused by the few of his students who were observant enough at that point in time to notice it. In many cases, it was even shared.

So it was not surprising that Hinata's attraction to the blond was not immediate. At the age of eight, her first impression of Uzumaki Naruto involved seeing Iruka jump to his feet and bounce about their classroom while hurriedly pounding the edges of his hair against his shoulders to put out a tiny set of flames. Naruto had been standing beside Iruka's desk, clutching a candle, and staring wide-eyed at their sensei, as if he hadn't been aware that human hair was capable of catching fire.

After that day, Iruka had made a point of wearing his hair in a very high ponytail at all times during class.

Hinata, like the rest of her class, quickly learned to follow along with her father's hints that she should avoid that boy as much as possible without causing trouble for her poor teacher. Hyuuga Hiashi was after all, one of the shinobi who had lived through the Kyuubi's attack on their village. Around Naruto, she smiled politely and avoided eye contact. When he said hello, she turned her head, just like everyone else did.

Nevertheless, when she heard of the scroll incident years later, she had stopped in mid-sentence while ordering her teammates lunch so she could listen to the story.

Iruka was a nice man, the sales clerk said. He was quiet, sensible, and they had all been sure that the hated orphan had failed the Genin exam. There was just no other way to explain how he managed to pass on the last day with record-low scores, and then suddenly he was best friends with the Academy teacher. When she caught up with Kiba and Shino later, cold ramen clutched against her chest, Hinata didn't even hear Kiba growl about what had taken so long, or Shino mumble something at him about how his impatience would one day get them all killed. She couldn't help thinking about it then, or the night after, or the night after that. Naruto thought that Iruka was the first person to notice him, the first person to care. But he was wrong.

Despite society's pulls, she still had him beaten by almost seven years.

It hadn't been love right away after she did acknowledge him, either. Hinata was certain that at one point she had envisioned Naruto as a living tribute to the "Hang in There" posters with the little kitten hanging onto a tree branch for dear life. It had been more of a subtle change, she thought, from a source of entertainment, to an inspiration, and then to a crush… But it hadn't happened all at once, as much as she would have liked to say so during the afternoons when she and Naruto were able to curl up in the park together during lunch, after Kiba and Shino had disappeared to whatever new training technique they had invented sometime last month. But it wasn't in Hinata to lie, even about something as small as the fact that at one time, her boyfriend had meant nothing more to her than a baby feline dangling his legs in the empty air as he struggled to pull himself up onto a branch that was always just a little too high.

The truth probably would have made Naruto laugh, anyway.

During their first year with Iruka as their teacher, there were still some rules that lingered on from the obsessive, stay-at-home parent's time that were enforced, and looked like they were going to stay that way. Such as a family member needed to be present when a child was admitted into the Academy to ensure the family's approval; field trips outside of school grounds needed to have permission slips sent out at least a week in advance; and at the beginning and end of the school year, a certain amount of time was set aside so that the parents could review the progress of their child. The last rule was one that was largely favored by both civilian and shinobi parents alike. During this time, the kunai and jutsu scrolls were put away, and instead the younger classes were instructed on how to cut out pieces of paper that vaguely resembled their animal counterparts, while their teacher prepared reports on his students from his desk.

Normally, it was not something that would cause much trouble, other than a bit of adjusting in some teacher's schedules to keep the time off from being completely wasted. Unless a teacher happened to be preparing for his first review night with a class that would have not one, but TWO leaders from major bloodline wielding clans coming into his classroom with no other purpose than scrutinizing his teaching skills.

For three whole days before that night, the future prodigies, geniuses, and the rest (Naruto) worked to clean the classroom, make decorations, and listened to Iruka outline what things they were allowed to say in front of their parents and what would earn them a swift slap on the back of their puny, little heads. The slap, naturally, was at the top of the 'Do Not Mention' list. The brighter students were able to recognize the cause of their teacher's distress, and even sympathize, on some level, while watching the brown haired Chuunin as he ran from one side of the room to the next in a thoughtless, nervous frenzy. The others, though, were at a loss. Some even began to think longingly back to their regular lesions, such as the one detailing exactly how to angle a necklace clasp into a child's ear to render it entirely and irrationally pain struck.

Towards the last day of Iruka's road to a nervous breakdown, the Chuunin's eyes were darting continuously toward the window as he tried to explain to every student, from Uchiha to Uzumaki, that a crayon was not to be held like a kunai or else it would break, and no, that did not mean that shoving it down your neighbor's throat would not result in a trip to the hospital.

Neji, a nine year old boy walking down the hall to use the bathroom, swore that when he looked through the open doorway into the underclassmen's room, he saw the irate Chuunin looking as if he was about to fling either the orange crayon in his hand or the blond boy seated in front of him out the window. Thankfully, since Neji had not mastered how to mold chakra yet, he was only walking on the first floor.

In Iruka's defense, he did have every right to justify the vein pulsating in the side of his head. Later that same day Neji had seen him, Chouji, in an amazing display of stealth that at any other time his teacher might have been proud of, had managed to mysteriously disappear around the same time that the refreshments for the upcoming night were supposed to have arrived. Sakura and Ino were in a corner of the room, drawing pictures and thankfully staying peacefully out of his way, though definitely _not _dusting the bookcase like he told them to. Shikamaru, who was supposed to have gotten a sponge and started cleaning the desktops with several other children, had instead snuck behind Iruka's desk and was resting his head on table top, scattering a once neat pile of test papers that his teacher had been hoping to have graded before the parents arrived. Sasuke was supposed to be vacuuming since he had insisted that he knew how when Iruka was assigning jobs earlier, but was instead busy standing _in the middle of the room, _of all places, trying to perform bunshin no jutsu over and over, while babbling about how his aniki had actually shown him how to do it. Where Naruto had gone, Iruka had no idea, which in itself was a reason to tear his hair out. There was also an energetic, brown haired little boy with teeth that he wasn't sure were suppose to be that pointed, who had walked in from another class to tell anyone who would listen to him that his mother had promised him that, one day, he could get puppy of his very own. But since Iruka's students each seemed to have found an activity of their own to do, and because they were all still at the age where they believed that the other gender was suffering from some incurable disease called "cooties," the anonymous boy ended up in front of one of Iruka's few students doing what that were cleaning the classroom like he was supposed to, Shino.

Hinata had been in her own corner of the room, washing the tops of her classmates' desks, being one of the four students that Shikamaru had left behind when he went to take a nap behind their sensei's desk. From where she was at that moment, she could see the louder, more outgoing girls hiding behind their bookshelf while they drew pictures and took turns _ooing_ and _ahhing_ at each other's work. And then, in the opposite direction, which Chouji's larger shape managed to hide her from view (he came back to class with a stomach ache and had been told to rest at his desk until it went away), she watched as the class comically crept about the room on tip-toes in the way that children's comic books showed them how to do.

There was a certain amount of amusement that came from being the only one who noticed when the blond haired boy began crawling toward Sasuke's desk and fiddling with the buckle on the other boy's school bag. During that time, they had only been at school together for a matter of weeks, too soon for the rivalry between the two boys to have started yet. Sasuke himself was across the room, having given up trying to execute the replication jutsu and instead joined Shikamaru behind their teacher's desk while he fished out a scroll on fire jutsu from one of the drawers. The class had already been informed by the then sociable Uchiha that he was learning how to do a very important jutsu that his family created.

Sasuke was so wrapped up in studying the scroll, which Iruka hadn't noticed his prized student had found, that he didn't notice the often ignored blond crouched next to his desk smiling triumphantly as the buckle to the Uchiha's school bag slid soundlessly apart.

Hinata had seen this performance a few times before during the weeks since starting her formal education on Ninjutsu. So far, she secretly knew the reason behind the disappearances of one pair of sandals, nine packets of dried herbs, and twenty-eight fresh baked cookies (Chouji had been heartbroken that day), and why they all appeared in different locations. She suspected that other members of her class had a guess as to who the re-locator might be, but so far as she could tell, Iruka-sensei was not one of them.

One of her classmates shrieked, and for a moment, Hinata thought that someone else had spotted the blond's antics. Looking around a moment later, she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the boy with brown hair from the other classroom had raced back into their room to talk to Shino, knocking into the bookshelf and nearly causing a potted plant to crash down on Ino and Sakura. Ino was yelling for Iruka to send the brown haired boy back to his own classroom.

Meanwhile, their blond classmate went on undisturbed, and hours later, Hinata thought she saw him grin when Sasuke found his lunch stashed in the corner under Shikamaru's desk, hidden right under his jacket.

When class was dismissed later that day, the students had quietly walked out the door, ignoring their teacher's slumped form behind his desk. His eyes seemed twice as large as their regular size and yet still seemed unable to see that the boy from the other classroom had snuck in again five minutes before the bell rang and hidden himself in the space between Shino's desk and Hinata's. The teacher was mumbling as she walked passed him, and for a moment she thought that she heard him saying her last name, then Sasuke's, then hers again.

At home, she wandered around the Hyuuga estate, not sure whether to will the time to go faster or slower. At eight, Hinata knew vaguely that there were things that her father expected from her performance at school, grades and progress reports. She wasn't the top of her class, like Neji's was in his, and she knew that her daddy would be sad when he found out Uchiha Sasuke was the number one instead.

Twice during her walk, she ran into her cousin. Both times she spent a minute blinking at his back in the distance before running up to greet him. But each time, the nine year old future prodigy turned around so suddenly to ask if there was something that he could do for her, that she was stunned into stuttering uselessly and shaking her head until she slinked out range of those white eyes. He wouldn't turn his back on her until he was sure that she was leaving. Her daddy told him it was rude to.

When they were children as surely as when they were teenagers, Neji was a mystery to his younger cousin. He was always quiet, courteous when necessary, distant when not. There were only a few times that she could say that she honestly sensed an emotion from him without doubting herself on its interpretation later. One of them was during their first Chuunin exam, when it was, obviously, different from the distant but still insistent sense of familiarity from her childhood that was fueled by little things that _almost _suggested friendship was possible between them. Like when Neji seemed to deliberately place himself between Hinata and her father when they walked back to the Academy in the evening, as if sensing his cousin's discomfort at having to go.

When they reached the school, Neji went on ahead to his classroom. Due of their family situation, Hiashi was going to review Neji's progress with his teacher as well after he was done talking with Iruka, which for Hinata might have been better or worse, after her father heard about her pathetically normal abilities.

Inside the classroom, the youngest Hyuuga present had watched her father nervously as he looked over the drawing she had made during the class time that was taken away from her normal studies. He didn't say anything to indicate whether he liked them, or even knew that they were hers, and that she would be taking them home with her when the night was over so that she could hang them in her room, or maybe present them to him as gifts. After a while, he had switched his attention from the art projects to her teacher, weaving his way around the parents clustered by Iruka, who had thankfully stopped foaming from the mouth before the parents began to arrive.

Hinata stayed by her father's side for as long as her tiny legs could stand before slipping away to the corner near the back row of student desks, where her classmates had more or less gathered. By that time, there was only one parent she could see who was still allowing herself to be led around the room by her excited little boy. Uchiha Sasuke was one of the few students who had been able to bring both of his parents to school with him that night, since most of his classmates either had siblings who were still in the Academy, or their parents simply had other things to do. So, while his father was standing guard by Iruka's desk and glaring down other parents insisting that the tests might have been wrong, and that their child _must _have scored higher, Sasuke's mother was still available to lather her youngest son with unfaltering attention.

Hinata couldn't help an envious twinge as she stared over her shoulder at the display of paternal affection as the Uchiha's mother stopped to give each picture her son pointed to an appraising look and murmur of appreciation.

Hinata didn't even notice that the other children she sat down next to were playing a game that involved a spinning plastic bottle and asking some question or other; she was too occupied watching the knowing, amused look that came onto Mrs. Uchiha's face when she pointed out two pictures to her son that displayed a blonde or pink haired stick figure standing next to another stick figure with black smudges of hair. Each drawn pair was surrounded by a multitude of purple and pink hearts of varying sizes.

Sasuke glared up at his mother in response and looked away from them indignantly, but his mother wasn't put off. She only messed his hair with one hand, and pointed to his next masterpiece, lips moving as she said something else.

"Hinata? Yo! It's your turn!"

Hinata was shaken out of her captivated state by Shikamaru's bored droll beside her. She had heard him talking earlier about how his parents were going to force him to stay at the school all afternoon until they arrived for the tour of his classroom. They thought that the extra time outside would do him good, though probably didn't know that the time was most likely spent lying on his back in the grass rather than running around with other children on the playground.

She blinked and looked around stupidly, counting the faces turned toward her, and feeling the heat increase in her cheeks. "I...um, I...?"  
Ino, sitting across from Hinata, next to Shikamaru as their class setting chart had conditioned them to even outside of school hours, rushed ahead with the next question before giving the white-eyed girl a chance to admit that she didn't know what they were doing. Gesturing toward the bottled pointed in the Hyuuga heir's direction, Ino asked, "Truth or dare?"

She glanced down at the bottle, then up at Ino's face, then over to Shikamaru. She wasn't even sure which of the two she was supposed to answer.

She felt her face heat up, and she hesitantly answered, "T-truth."

The first syllable was hardly out before Ino snapped, "You have to say dare at least three times before you can say truth."

Hinata blinked, looking up at Ino for a second, and then immediately looked away from the fiery blue eyes that suggested anything that so much as suggested disagreement would have her pounced upon and beaten senseless within the minute. Hinata could still remember a poor girl from their flower arranging class who had come running up to their teacher crying that Ino had poisoned her for no apparent reason at all. Her eyes fell onto the bottle, clearly and unquestionably pointing at her, and she could almost hear the taunting "HA!" coming from it.

Shikamaru didn't even look up at her from where his head was resting on the desk. Even by that age, he had already developed the habit of boring easily. "How troublesome..." he murmured dully as he lifted his head for a second to rearrange his arms in a more comfortable position, "I don't know any good dares."

"Well, think of one!" Ino said, nudging the side of her dozing classmate's head with the point of her elbow.

Shikamaru grumbled something to the desktop beneath his mouth. Hinata thought that she could understand the word "troublesome" linked to "females," but waited quietly, head bowed, for Shikamaru to either pass on his turn or Ino to force out a challenged for her to do.

Ino, meanwhile, watched her future teammate's head resting on his arms while she waited impatiently for the game to go on. Beside her, Sakura had turned around to glance over the Chouji's shoulder to watch their raven haired classmate energetically talking to his mother. Chouji, unable to sit next to his friend because of a pushy blond girl shoving him aside to sit their first, had taken the closest one he could get, which happened to be beside the pink haired girl. Ino's head turned after five seconds to stare at the object of her childish affection as well, before she tore her eyes away and announced suddenly, "I know the _perfect_ dare!"

Shikamaru cracked one eye open for a second. "Great for you…"

Ino ignored him. "You," she said, stabbing a finger into the air between herself and Hinata to get the attention of the other players who might have begun to drift away from their game during the pause, "I dare you to go talk to the _weird kid."_

Hinata blinked, then on impulse, glanced over toward the grown ups, and where her father was still talking with her teacher. Even the grown ups would know about the "weird kid." Even if the parents of a child in an entirely different class were to come into their room and over hear the game, they would know. And every child in their classroom knew that it was dangerous to talk about him from the way their parents herded them away from him on the street. And so, at Ino's dare, the other children seemed to look back two the two girls by the table in union.

Hinata's face had darkened to a deep cranberry color. "I…I…uh—"

"You can't force her to do that, she might get in trouble!" another voice came up in Hinata's defense. Sakura, at eight years old, was still concerned mainly with her appearance. That wouldn't change until years later. But because of the teasing that other girls had put her through because of her forehead—which Hinata really didn't understand, it seemed normal enough to her—had left the pink haired child with a certain sensitivity toward others more timid than herself.

Sakura's dislike for her blond male classmate wasn't yet as strong as it would be at the beginning of their teammateship. It was too early for that too. But Sakura was known for being everything that her parents wanted her to be, which included avoiding contact with certain people her parents encouraged her to, another thing that wouldn't change for years to come. The weird kid was exactly the same thing to Sakura as he was to Hinata: someone to look at, laugh at when safe, but not associate with. Like the people they'd see at a circus sideshow.

Hinata didn't speak to Sakura very often. Ever since the pink haired girl had become friends with Ino, they had managed to scare her just the _tiniest _bit when they ran into the occasional disagreement.

"She has to," Ino said back, "its Shikamaru's dare!"

"But, Ino, you just made it up," Sakura said, her voice firm but not as harsh as it would be when she and her future rival were older. The words "pig" and "forehead girl" were never used in their arguments at this point in their friendship.

"He wasn't going to make one," Ino insisted stubbornly.

"Yes, he was!"

"No, he wasn't!"

"This is troublesome…"

"Be quiet!"

"Ino, don't be so mean…"

Hinata couldn't remember exactly how long the argument went on, worthy of one of Konoha's future brightest students, and a lover of winning a good, _loud _debate. It ended when Chouji, leaning across Sakura's lap to reach his friend, finally roused Shikamaru by persistently poking the other boy in his side. Yawning widely without covering his mouth (his mother would spend two years drilling basic manners into her son before he would expend the energy necessary to simply lift his hand), he muttered to the air in front of him, "Why don't you just go with her?"

The two girls sitting next to the Nara blinked in turns, just as stupidly as Hinata must have each time her cousin asked her, 'What do you want?' that afternoon.

Sakura was more out going than Hinata, but still on the recovery from her shyness during the Big Forehead Girl incident, and so it was Ino who asked her future teammate, "Who do you mean?"

Shikamaru's head was already re-settled into the cushion of his arms on the desk's surface, and needed to be prodded again by Chouji before he would frown and open his eyes again. "I don't know," he grumbled. Then pointing a finger that was only slightly more angled toward one girl than the other, he said, "You."

Ino beamed.

"What!" Sakura cried back, only a little too loudly for her regular image as the nice and somewhat timid girl. Even as the offending finger dropped back down and then curled back to reform the comfy little nest around its owner's head, she was snapping, "You're just going to let her take over your dare like that!"

Hinata, sitting on the opposite side of Shikamaru, was convinced that she saw at least three parents turn their way.

Shikamaru, a little too used to hearing the sound of an enraged female than what was healthy for an eight year old child, didn't even flinch at the roaring tone. Without opening his eyes, he answered, "Yes."

Sakura's eye made a movement that might have won her the award for Konoha's youngest ninja to ever display the Eye Twitch of Irritation, but before she was allowed to form a more compelling response to disentangle her from Hinata's dare, Ino leaned in close behind her. "You're not trying to get out of the dare, are you Sakura?"

Hinata thought about reminding the blonde girl that she was the one that was supposed to be doing the dare, but decided not to when she noticed the locked eyes of her two female classmates. Later, she admitted to herself that _maybe_ she hadn't really wanted to be sent out alone to talk to the weird kid. Incase her daddy came looking for her.

However, when she was taken by the hand and half dragged by an indignant, stomping Sakura five minutes later, she didn't think of being relieved so much as keeping up with the other girl's steps with out hitting her knees during her "angry walk." She had no desire to be the target of lingering frustration as they walked down the rows of desk and toward the classroom door to sneak outside. But when they were nearing the doorway to their classroom, Sakura suddenly pulled back. Hinata, who had been looking down toward where her fingers had found a loose string on her shirt and were steadily pulling it free, bumped her forehead into the back of her pink haired classmate's head before she noticed, and then began to stutter an apology before a squeeze on her hand told her to be quiet.

"Uh…Uh…A-After you, Mrs. Uchiha!" she heard the girl in front of her say. When Hinata looked over Sakura's shoulder to see what stopped her, she was greeted by the blue shape of a tall, ankle-length skirt, and the sound of a woman's voice saying gently down from above their heads:

"Thank you very much." And then more softly to someone on the other side of the skirt, "See, honey? Those girls are nice—"

_"Mom!"_

After the mother and son had passed, Hinata was ready to go on with their dare. However, when she looked toward her classmate, she found Sakura wearing a vacant, dreamy expression on her face as she stared through the now empty classroom door. During the moment before animation returned to the rosy haired eight year old, Hinata mused that back on the children's corner, poor Shikamaru must have suddenly found himself being pushed away from his desk with a very enraged Ino standing over him for not choosing her when the dare was set. In her mother-in-law's opinion, it was always better if a girl was "nice," wasn't it?

When Sakura's smile began to shrink back down to its normal size again, Hinata quietly asked if they were still going to go outside to find the weird kid. As they went, Sakura tried to pretend that she was interested in conversation as they passed down the hall, but Hinata was able to see every time her green eyes darted forward to snatch a glimpse of Uchiha Sasuke trotting along to keep up with his mother as they made their way downstairs and into the schoolyard. Of course, Hinata didn't say anything to indicate that she knew what her companion was doing. Even at eight, Hinata knew better than to come between a female classmate and her crush-observing. Though later she would wonder just how Sakura and Ino managed to get as far into their friendship as they did without noticing that their dream husbands were the same person, when it was so obvious to someone like her.

Why they were going outside, Hinata had not been entirely sure. She did know that she hadn't seen the abnormal blond boy inside the schoolroom with the rest of their class, and that even if Ino hadn't notice, Shikamaru certainly wouldn't have sent her out looking for someone who wasn't there. Sakura also seemed to know where she was going as she led the Hyuuga along, making idle comments about the new colors that the hallways had been painted in over the summer, and how her mother had promised her a surprise if her grades were good. She didn't seem to have any doubts about where they were going, but Hinata had to wonder if that could be at all credited to the black haired figures walking down the hall ahead of them.

They followed the Uchiha until they reached the exit, and Sakura suddenly pulled back on Hinata's hand to make her stop. She blinked questioningly at the other girl, but was told not to answer by a finger place firmly in front of the other girl's lips. She gestured with her head for Hinata to look in front of them, where the lady Uchiha could be seen bending down to gather her youngest son into her arms near the doorway.

"Are you tired, sweetheart?"

Her son was in the middle of a yawn, uncovered like Shikamaru's, that made him look like a little kitten stretching its jaws. Even so, after it passed he shook his head from one side to the other in response, making his ungelled hair flap freely around his face as he did so.

His mother only smiled in response though, holding the little boy close as she turned and began walking toward where the schoolyard gates led out into the street. As their forms grew smaller as they walked away, Hinata heard faintly, "Your father and I are both very proud of you, honey."

Sasuke murmured something back to his mother that was unintelligible for a child standing as far from the pair as Hinata and Sakura were when they approached the doorway. But she was able to see the contented smile that came onto the young Uchiha's face as he nestled into his mother's shoulder, completely unaware that only a few weeks later she would be gone.

Hinata turned away from the two Uchiha before they left the schoolyard, stepping away from her pink haired classmate as she began scanning the playground for the blond haired weird kid. She couldn't think of a reason why he wouldn't be in the classroom with everyone else, but she found him all the same, sitting on a lone swing tied up to a tree across from the Academy doorway. The light from inside the building threw a rectangular shape of yellow-white onto the ground leading out to him, reaching just far enough to touch the tips of his sandals. The swing was swaying idly as an early autumn breeze blew into the Academy courtyard, making the leaves that had fallen ahead of time dance and scrape against the concrete parts of the playground. It blew directly into the weird kid's face, but the blond didn't blink, he was staring toward the gates with the same hollow expression that Hinata occasionally saw on Neji's face around Christmas time.

By that point, Hinata had seen the blond haired boy only a few times outside of school. Not enough to have learned his name, or dream, or that his favorite food in the whole wide world was ramen noodles with barbequed pork. She knew that his favorite color was orange from their art projects, and that he was the one that made Iruka-sensei stutter and make the class laugh, delaying their lessons for a few minutes at a time. She had watched him for those reasons, but she was sure that even so she would have noticed if she saw an emptied expression on the boy's face in class. She was sure…

A tap on her shoulder and a gentle tug on her hand brought Hinata back to the schoolyard, where Sakura was standing on the Academy steps, waiting for her to follow her as they continued on with their dare. It was mid October, and the fast approaching autumn made the air chilly as they stepped away from the Academy building's warmth, but Hinata decided abruptly after a leaf crunched under her foot, that the temperature dropped lower when a pair of curious blue eyes fastened onto them. As they looked, the unusual expression from moments ago disappeared from the small boy's face.

As they came closer, Hinata felt Sakura's steps slow down, becoming reluctant now that they were so close to the object of their dare. When they reached the tree with the lone swing tied to it, they were walking side by side in their hesitant pace, and Hinata imagined that the other girl used the memory of her beloved's angelic, happy smile to create one on her own face when they finally stopped in front of her future teammate.

"Hi there!"

Hinata watched as the curious expression on the blond haired boy's face immediately jumped into a large, crooked-toothed smile in response to Sakura's standard greeting.

Sakura squeezed Hinata's hand and, head angled a little downward out of habit, she offered her own, quiet, "Hello."

"Hi!" the blond boy answered back, smile growing excitably as his swing wobbled to a stop.

Hinata glanced over her shoulder, compulsively looking to see whether anyone was there watching them with the weird kid. It was another habit, one that she comforted herself for by saying everyone shared. Talking to the weird kid made grown ups angry for some reason.

Sakura, gracefully ignoring the urge, held onto Hinata's hand firmly as if to say _'You're not going anywhere.' _When Hinata turned back around, it was while listening to the other girl say cheerfully, "Mind if we sit here?"

The weird kid look back at them and for a moment Hinata thought that the blue eyes darted back toward the Academy door too, though why the weird kid would have that habit was beyond her. But even as he did, he said, "Okay!"

Sakura sat down in the dirt in time with his response, smoothing the legs of her pants under her and tugging on her white eyed companion's hand to make her do so as well. The final version of their dare, as told by Ino before Sakura had grabbed Hinata by the arm and stomped off toward the classroom door, called for them to spend a minimum of five minutes talking to the weird kid before they could come back to continue the game. Though considering that the children had not yet been taught how to tell time during their first year of traditional schooling, the two eight year olds couldn't be sure how long five minutes _was._

Ino was very good at manipulating Sakura as a child.

After sitting down, a moment of silence passed before the blond haired boy wiggled out of his place on the swing to join them on the ground. "So…" Sakura finally broke the silence after a moment had passed of the blond looking at both of them with the same smile on his face, and Hinata staring at the dirt. "What are you doing out here alone?"

Naruto didn't show any outward signs of faltering, though inwardly, Hinata choked on the word "alone." What else would he be?

"Nothin'," the boy answered back.

Sakura didn't do anything more than smile politely in response. Hinata felt another squeeze on her hand and took it as the other's way of reminding her that she was the one who was supposed to be doing the talking in this dare. But Hinata only needed to look up once at the endearingly large blue eyes focused on her face, before she ducked back down. Stammering, she forced out the first polite sentence that she could form in her head, "D-Don't you w-want to show your p-parents around?"

"I don't have any."

Looking down as she was, Hinata was not able to see the boy's smile temporarily leave his face, but she did hear the change that was in his voice that made it clear the subject was not up for further discussion. Sakura, entirely unbothered by the demons that consumed Hinata whenever she met a new person, was far more likely to have seen any strange expressions that might have come onto their classmate's face. The other girl took back command of the conversation as smoothly as a small child was capable of doing a second later with, "Why don't we play a game?"

"Okay!"

While Sakura withdrew a pencil that she must have had stored in her pocket incase of emergencies (it was rumored that if the weird kid bit you, you would sprout whiskers and fangs, and be forced to run away from home), the blond boy scooted closer to them. He watched as the pink haired girl drew lines in the dirt, two diagonal and two horizontal. When she looked up, she said, "Alright, we'll play tic-tac-toe."

"Um…" Hinata thought about pointing out that tic-tac-toe was only a two person game, when Sakura raised the hand that she was still holding and disentangled herself. Pressing her pencil into the now free palm, she said:

"You two go first, I'll play the winner."

Hinata stared at the pencil in her hand, momentarily stupefied.

"Do you want to be Xs' or Os'?"

"Um…I'll b-be Os'." Hinata leaned over the board that Sakura had drawn in the dirt, though her shadow blocking off the light made it difficult for her to see the lines. She scratched a large circle into what she hoped was the middle box, and then sat back to sheepishly offer the pencil to the blond haired object of her dare.

But for some reason, the boy didn't take it from her. Hinata felt her face began to heat again. Immediately, her mind shot back to her question from a few seconds earlier, and she felt a pang of guilt. He would be mad at her…?

_"Well?" _Sakura's voice cut through Hinata's jittering nerves. The pink haired girl was staring expectantly at the blond, waiting for him to take the offered pencil.

The weird kid, who had been looking strangely down at the object being offered to him, smiled a little crookedly toward Sakura. One of his hands came up behind hid head to lightly scratch at the hair there. "Uh, well, heeheehee, I, uh-"

Sakura cut in with only the slightest amount of impatience leaking into her voice. "It's okay if you lose. We won't tell anyone."

That won Sakura a much more familiar look from the boy, one that was more often used when Iruka-sensei would ask their class if anyone needed extra directions and stare directly toward the blond boy sitting in the back row. Snatching the pencil from Hinata's still outstretched hand, the weird kid bent over the board, and mumbled, "I'm not going to lose…"

But then when he sat back on his legs again, Hinata leaned forward to make her next move and saw a clumsy, but notably _circular_ shape in the top right box. She merely looked up at the blond haired boy in confusion, while Sakura, frowning over Hinata's shoulder, didn't waste a breath. "Baka! You're supposed to be _Xs'."_

There was a pause, during which Hinata sat back and waited for her blond classmate to respond. She thought for a moment that the other eight year old was gapping at them, but if he had been, it was quickly covered by another wide smile. "Heheh, I knew that…I was just showing her what she could do for her next move…"

He pointed a finger in Hinata's direction, and Hinata suddenly remembered that the weird kid didn't know her name. Or anyone else's for that matter. Nobody ever played with the weird kid. Then another thought occurred to her: if the weird kid never played with other children, and if he didn't have parents to entertain him at home, who would have been around to teacher him about games like tic-tac-toe…?

"Of course I know I'm Xs'!" the blond boy across from her was saying, announcing his statement to the area above their heads. "Xs', yep. I'm good at being Xs'. In fact, I love them…"  
Hinata began to hold out the pencil for him to try again, then looking down at the board, thought better of it. Hastily drawing back her sleeve to keep it from touching the dirt, she leaned forward with her pencil and drew large, clear X in the bottom left box, exactly the place where she could have made her next move to win the game if Sakura let her count the weird kid's "suggested" move. She tried to make the letter as clear as possible, so that the scarred eight year old she was playing against would be able to see the difference and hopefully understand the game without verbal instructions.

When she sat up, she tried looking at the scarred boy, but her face began to burn up nervously, and so she drew back shyly. "Y-You can try th-that move."

Hinata could see the other child squinting in the dark to see what she had added to the board. She felt herself blushing so hard that she was curious why blood wasn't seeping out her pores when the blonde sat up straight and declared the move perfect and claimed that it was exactly what he would have done himself.

On the sidelines, Sakura muttered to herself that that wasn't how they were supposed to play the game, but she didn't tell them to start over. The pink haired girl was probably beginning to think that their time limit had to be close to over by now, or maybe that "five minutes" was exactly how long it took to drag a class freak and a timid clan heiress through a semi-social encounter.

"So…" Sakura said while the object of their dare was drawing out his next move. Sakura, despite the future mannerisms of her crush, never did like silences. "What are you doing here if your parents are…_gone_?" the last word was spoken at a whisper. Children, even in a ninja village, were still reluctant to openly talk about death to one another, in case some evil spirit might decide to show them _exactly _what it's like.

"Iruka-sensei walks me home," the eight year old said easily as he drew away form the board. He offered the pencil to Hinata, but kept his eyes on the pink haired classmate talking to him.

Uncaring or perhaps unnoticing of the weird kid's shaky grasp of the game, Sakura went on talking, "Why? Do you live with him or something?"

"Nope," Hinata heard the weird kid say as she drew her next circle in another of the boxes. "The old man makes him walk me around the village everyday. He thinks I'd get in trouble if I went out alone."

That made sense, in Hinata's opinion. The boy in question had on one occasion managed to release all the cats down at the local pound on garbage day. For the entire day there were Genin teams running around Konoha trying to round up the stray felines, all of which had a big yellow tag attached to their tails with a sluggish drawing of a fox sticking out its tongue. Hinata remembered how Neji had let out the shrillest sounding scream she had ever heard when a full-grown male cat jumped onto his lap when he was sitting under a tree on the Hyuuga estate. It was before he had developed his Byakugan. Hinata had never heard his voice so high since.

Sakura, though, must have either forgotten the cats incident or not been directly effected by it. She asked, "What? Why would he do that?"

In response, the blond shot the pink haired girl a look, head cocked a little to one side and one eyebrow raised in a way that suggested she had just asked a rather idiotic question. "To get home."

"Why? That takes so long! Can't you at least go _through_ the village instead of around it?"

Again, the blond's face took on that expression where he seemed to want to say _'Duh!'_ "The old man says it's dangerous to walk through the village."

"Oh."

Hinata held out the pencil again for the weird kid to take his turn at filling in a square on the board. She watched his hands move, trying to guess by where he put his X whether or not he understood the motive of the game. She noticed that his fingers weren't exactly right on the pencil when he held it, and that even when monitoring his hand closely, his letters still seemed to come out sloppy and deformed looking. It seemed odd for someone at their age, but she didn't say anything. He was making an X in the top middle box, knowingly or by chance, blocking Hinata from drawing an O there that would have won her the game. She could still win if she took the space in the left bottom box on her next turn. But it seemed like it would be a shame to. Really, the weird kid wasn't doing _that _badly for someone who didn't know how to play…

He didn't look at Hinata when he handed her the pencil. Instead, his blue eyes were still fixed on Sakura. A pretty, shimmering figure with the light from the Academy doorway behind them reflecting off her hair and giving her a rosy glow.

"Hey, what's your name?" Hinata heard Sakura asking the question while she was debating over whether of not she wanted to take the space that could win the game or whether to settle for a tie. Would Sakura mind…?

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" the boy supplied without hesitation, and then a second later, he added in a whisper, as if it were still a debatable secret, "I'm going to be the future Hokage."

In their class, the word "Hokage" was still a vocabulary word that would be covered in the months to come. But unlike Hinata, Sakura was at that time one of the few children who were well informed enough to know the word's definition already. So when she answered back, possibly thinking that the other eight year old was joking, she playfully added onto the end of her name, "I'm going to be the future Lady Uchiha!"

Naruto didn't ask what that was, or show any sign of realizing he was being humored. He merely smiled at the tone, happy to have someone responding so enthusiastically to him for once. Then a silence began to form, and both the boy and the pink haired girl tuned to look at Hinata, clearly waiting for her name. Hinata began to sit back up, a pair of big, eager-to-trust blue eyes focused on her. "I…I…" her hand clutched the pencil to her as blood rushed to her face yet again. She couldn't remember how many times she had blushed that evening. "I am…"

"There you are."

Hinata felt her eyes widen at the sound of a familiar voice behind her. She was also able to see the same thing happen to Sakura in front of her. A large shadow blocked off the little light that managed to reach them from the Academy building's doorway, and Hinata paused in her already weak sentence as she turned to look at its cause. At the same time, a pair of hands hooked themselves under her arms as her father bent down to pick her up. And while blinking up at him, Hinata could only think comically, that in the odd lighting, he looked faintly like Mrs. Uchiha with his hair let down the way it was.

He father was saying something to her as he turned away with her body held against his shoulder, but she only understood, "…Neji's waiting."

She wouldn't know until later that he had taken a quick glance at her friends before picking her up. Sakura, he must have heard about from Iruka. She was the brightest girl in their class, and easily recognizable by her unique hair. But he had also looked over at the little boy, sitting in the dirt wearing worn, old clothes, and holding the pencil that she must have dropped with its ruined eraser.

She didn't see how Naruto had looked before her father picked her up and tucked her against his shoulder, but she was able to see the little space under the tree as she was carried away. Faintly, she heard Sakura say, "Okay, let's set the game up again. I'll be X's this time…"

Even as Sakura spoke, her head was already angled downward, hands stamping out the board from the first game and preparing to draw a new one. She didn't see the expression on the blond boy's face, or how his smile became frozen for a moment. At eight years old, Hinata didn't know how to recognize when someone's eyes glossed over or unfocused, or how they could look at you and seem like they weren't really _looking _at you when their attention went inward. Hinata only knew that the smile became less big, and the weird kid seemed to be looking after her as her daddy held her close, and that somehow the effect made her feel…sad.

kkkkkkk

That was the night that Hinata first started looking for something other than a source of amusement in Naruto. Affection wasn't involved, just a curiosity that later became a feeling of sympathy when she discovered that under the weird kid's hilarious failures in the classroom, there was a genuine effort being made to improve. She could relate to that. Then later, a crush had started to develop, after they had gotten older and she had spent more time than she thought she would watching the unfailing determination in her classmate and his desire to learn from his errors rather than be discouraged by them. She had glimpsed the part of the weird kid that didn't involve an overwhelming smile or loud proclamations.

By the next day, after they first brought their parents in to interrogate Iruka about their progress, Sakura, the girl who had come outside seemingly without purpose to talk to Naruto, had already been transformed into a goddess in the rejected blond's eyes. Hinata told herself that of course Naruto would have remembered Sakura instead of herself. Even if her father hadn't come out looking for her, the pink haired girl had been the one to draw the attention, while Hinata just watched and dumbly drew circles in the dirt. She kept watching all the same. Hinata didn't have a chance to talk to the blond boy again for years, though that was credited largely to her own shyness, and a little to intimidation. She had been right when she thought that her father wouldn't like her playing with "that boy."

In the present, at age sixteen, Hinata was walking down the hospital hallway with Sakura once again at her side. This time there wasn't a dare in place, only a mutual desire to get home and rest since the Fifth had told them that she was too tired to oversee their exam today. In her arms, Hinata carried the bright orange jacket of the former "weird kid," which had been left behind when he suddenly decided to go running after his best friend and rival. She would have to return it to him later.

She reminded herself that Naruto had noticed her eventually, with a small intervention from Neji. She had finally gotten to a place where she could be close enough to see Naruto whenever she wanted, and know that he would be happy to have her with him. Unfortunately, it had come at a rather inopportune time with her exam. Over the last month, her time was effectively eaten up by her need to study. Save for the lunch dates that she was still able to keep with the blond, but all too often, Kiba and Shino decided to stay with them during those hours.

And, now that the test had been extended, there would also be…

Looking out a hallway window, Hinata paused before turning a corner. She had just been looking idly around when a sudden flash of bright orange had caught her eye from the streets below. Searching the sidewalk across from the hospital, she tried to find the unusually bright shock of color again. She found it easily when two pedestrians below suddenly lunged out into the street, one leading the other by the hand. A small smile came onto Hinata's face the way it did every time she thought of her still-new-enough boyfriend.

He stood out less than he usually did without the aid of his jacket, but even so the orange pants were still bright enough to catch her attention from the second floor of the hospital. From there, she was able to follow him with her eyes as he darted back onto the opposite sidewalk and began pulling his charge in the direction of the part of town where she knew Ichiraku's could be found. The way that he moved down the street, too eager to walk peacefully behind larger groups of people when he could weed his way through, was so different from her. She always went slowly and took care to avoid accidentally bumping into other street goers by staying close to buildings.

Naruto's companion, though it should have been obvious from earlier, took Hinata a moment to identify. Uchiha Sasuke, she had noticed once, had a different way of getting from one place to another in town too. He walked at his own pace, never running, with his eyes set levelly on whatever it was he was looking for. He didn't take notice of the people around them, but let them scramble around him as he made his way through crowds. Hinata inwardly thought that it would be perfectly in character for the Uchiha heir to master the art of fazing through people who weren't able to get out of his path quickly enough for his liking. But at the moment, the cool stalker was being forced to match his polar opposite's pace as Naruto raced around the other pedestrians with the Uchiha's pale hand held tightly in his own. It actually looked funny to see Sasuke hurriedly dodging people as his teammate's sharp turns attempted to swing his body first in one direction and then another. He was a good ninja, capable of doing it, but the look on his face made it clear that he wasn't enjoying the exercise. And from where Hinata was standing, it looked as if Naruto was completely oblivious.

Since seeing the weird kid on the swing outside their old Academy, Hinata had wanted to be closer to Naruto. He had always been so eager to accept someone new into his circle of friends in a way that Hinata suspected was rooted in the loneliness from his childhood, but somehow, it seemed that Sasuke had been the first one to take the blond up on his offer. Besides Iruka that is, who Hinata suspected was viewed more like an uncle, or maybe even a father, rather than as a close friend. In a way, she could almost be jealous of the Uchiha for that.

On the street, just as Hinata was beginning to turn away, Naruto rounded a particularly sharp corner that Sasuke had to put up one of his arms to keep from losing balance when he was pulled along. Pausing to stare as the Uchiha heir disappear, she frowned. Was Sasuke wearing a white boxing glove?

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((crickets)) Is there anyone out there who's still waiting for this story to update?

I'd like to thank my beta, Unreasonable Sin, for getting me back into working on this story. This was genuinely a fun fic to write, and I feel a little guilty for neglecting it for so long. After all, if it weren't for Family Matters, I wouldn't have gotten into writing fanfiction at all (and geek that I am, that has become a large part of my life.)

So if anyone out there is still interested in reading more of this story, I'm back! And I promise to try and keep this story steadily updated (though it has a nasty habit of growing longer in my head. Stupid plot bunnies...)

Now then, they were mostly written last year, but here are the review responses:

**False-Image** Well, I did update, though nothing new really happened in the story. The next chapter will have the real update in the story. Promise.

Now, then. If you'll excuse me, there's a KisaIta AU drabble calling my name. ((walks away whistling))

**Nekotsume** Well, I think you've read just about everything I've written by now. I'm glad that you like this story too (Tsunade's scene with Sasuke is still my favorite so far too XD; oh, poor Sassy...his brain is going to implode eventually). And yes, in this story Naruto didn't go through his training time with Jiraya. I actually started writing this fic before I was up to date with the Naruto story, hence why it's so horribly out of tune with the time skip. But all well, it's a comedy, right? And those don't always have to match up so long as they can keep readers amused.

**silverluna** I did update. : ) Though, I'm willing to bet that you meant for the story to actually make a little progress when you asked for one. Next chapter I'll pick up with the boys again, I swear!

**BoredAzn** Indeed, it's very confusing. Especially if you're up to date with the manga...that what I get for getting over excited and writing a story without waiting to see what things would be like after the time skip. I'm glad that you were willing to bare with it enough to find the story interesting though. Thanks. : )

**mkh2** lol, actually I didn't think anyone would notice. I changed it when it occurred to me that I was using the name "crinklescofftrip" on every site I post to except for this one.

**pie-chan** I updated! And look, character development! (seriously though, I real update will be out next chapter)

**Decapitated Marshmallow** ((points upward)) There's more.

**tea** Thank you. : ) And I like you name. Tea is awesome.

**Khaz** Okay, glad you want me to. : )

**Taiy-Chan** ((giggle)) Poor Sasuke has gotten himself into a sticky mess, especially when Neji finds out.

**The Thief of Kuronue's Sister** lol, well I hope you didn't rush through reading all those chapters. It took me awhile to get an update out, eh? I'll try not to make the next gap between updates so long, if people are still actually waiting for an update out there.

**fluffypup** I did update, though not really as soon as I would have liked. ((nervous behind-the-head-scratch))

**Yume wo Nozomu** ((blush)) You reallythink I've been keeping him in character? I was getting worried that the hissy fit in the stairwell was pushing it a bit. But don't worry, I'm going to try and make a point of avoiding crying. Just because he's knocked up doesn't mean he's not still Sasuke, eh? And yeah...I can't stand the mpreg-Sasuke-got-raped fics. I mean, COME ON! It's SASUKE! Maybe Itachi could rape him, but really, what arethe chances that Itachi would want to rape FEMALE!Sasuke?

**minn yun** ((blink)) Wow, I'd forgotten how long your review was. lol. An overly active little Uzumaki jr? Poor Sasuke would be groaning with pain! But I suppose that might result in a nice Aw-Sasuke-Needs-Me-to-Take-Care-of-Him! scene...so long as it involves Naruto instead of Sakura. I'll see what I can do. I think that there will bea fewmore chapters before I have a time skip though (gotta let Naruto know what's going on, and add a little more stress to poor Sassy-chan's life ; P), and then we can get to some of the more "fun" parts of the pregnancy. And get a little closer to the J.I.S.S.P.A!

**Lost nin#1** lol, yes Naruto will get very, very confused by the end of this story. But don't worry, he wont be running around thinking, "Strange...why does Sasuke's baby have blond hair?" I have the chapter that he finds out during set up in my head. It should be sometime in the next four chapters or so (hopefully they'll be out soon).

**akilana** Thanks for your energetic review, I hope you're still interested inreading more of the story.: ) Unfortunately, Naruto and Sasuke wont be hooking up in the next couple of chapters, this kind of thing will have to be approached delicately, you know, with the whole tricked-you-into-nailing-me-to-your-couch-while-I-was-pretending-to-be-your-girlfriend bit.

**digi-girl** You're right, Sasuke doesn't seem like the type to cry. He'd just be very upset about it, and try biting a hole through his lip before saying anything. He may be the one pregnant in this story, but I still think that he would have all of his stereotypical tough-guy walls up. : ) I've read the first couple of chapters of Self Reliance. It seemed like a really good story (and Sasuke was in character! At least up until the part that I left off on).

**Adhenefallen** Thanks. : ) I hope that you're still willing to read on after that outrageous lack of updates that came up during the school year (life's a pain in the arse sometimes, isn't it?). Though I'm sorry to say, it will be at least three or four chapters before Naruto even figures out his rival's pregnant.(That's what he gets for running after angsty teammates when he's supposed to go meet with the Hokage, eh?)

**Cyndi1** : ) I have Naruto's realization scene (at least for the part where he discovers that Sasuke is _pregnant)_ all planned out in my head. It should take place in the next four chapters or so.

**permetaform**Gai buying baby clothes? XD I can see that! He's definitely a candidate for a J.I.S.S.P.A. member! Even if he's not having a baby himself, I can imagine him volunteering to assist with the Planting of New, Youth Flowers! And displaying his support for the Modern form of reproduction. As for Naruto displaying sympathy pains...that idea didn't even occur to me: ) I might steal it though, after Sasuke gets a little farther along. Maybe right before he finds out who the real father of his rival's baby is. (And I think it would work, because even if he doesn't KNOW his role in Sasuke's pregnancy, they're still best friends, and Naruto would want to be as involved as possible with helping Sasuke set up his new family).

Now, then. If you'll excuse me, there's a KisaIta AU drabble calling my name. ((walks away whistling))


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