Naruto 1. A Start

**Warning:** This is a SasukexNaruto story, so if you have a problem with yaoi, shonen ai, or anything of that nature, you should not read this. Please do not post hateful comments based on the sexual orientation I have chosen for the characters (though hateful comments based on my writing are fine). I've rated this M just in case, because there will be slight violence, language, and possible sexual things in later chapters. it depends :)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. If I did... *smirk* well, there would be a few changes.

**Note:** I hope you like this! I know it's pretty short, but I'll work on lengthening later chapters. Now, I present the first chapter of my story :)

SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto

**thechange95: Wanna chat?**

_Ramen4thewin: Ya, I was lookin 4 someone to chat with!_

**thechange95: r u a boy or girl?**

_Ramen4thewin: rite to the point huh? Ima boy. U?_

**thechange95: boy 2. **

_Ramen4thewin: hmm so why u lookin 4 some1 to talk 2?_

**thechange95: … shit sux in my life. I just wanna talk to someone who doesn't know me**

_Ramen4thewin: ya I get that_

**thechange95: cool. Wat should we tak bout?**

_Ramen4thewin: umm, fav color? Mines orange!_

**thechange95: blue. Band?**

_Ramen4thewin: I like the ramones, the clash, alkaline trio, blink-182, the dead milkmen, the Lawrence arms, the get up kids, pavement, nirvana, and the white stripes!_

Idle 5 minutes

**thechange95: well just tell me everything on ur whole damn ipod why don't ya spaz?**

_Ramen4thwin: I'm not a spaz teme!_

**thechange95: lol well ur a fan of exclamation points.**

_Ramen4thewin: :) __I suppose ur rite_

"Sasuke! Get your fucking ass out here right the fuck now!" Sasuke looked up from the chat screen. It was the real world now. He glanced around his room, at the pealing wallpaper and bed without sheets. He knew that as soon as he left his room, he would be open to the hurt. Fuck, even when he was in his room he wasn't safe.

The fucker in the other room was probably wondering where is microwave dinner and beer were. Sasuke's face still hurt from the slap his 'father' had given him earlier for not locking the door when he'd gotten home from school. The fucker always suspected that he was the one that screwed up. Never did the man think to question Itachi. Itachi was the golden child and hence could do no wrong. Sometimes Sasuke hated Itachi. Then he remembered the fact that Itachi saved him from half the beatings their father always had handy. No, he didn't hate Itachi, he just envied him.

Turning back to the computer screen he typed: **g2g, can I chat with u another time?**

_Ramen4thewin: sure. How bout 2moro nite?_

**thechange95: sounds cool.**

With a sigh Sasuke got up and trudged out of his room and into the living room. Uchiha senior sat in front of the TV with a scowl on his face. "What the hell took you so long? Go get my dinner ready." Sasuke nodded and preceded to go to the kitchen to microwave dinner. Absently he wondered about _ramen4thewin_, what kind of guy he was, where he lived, if he hated gay people as much as his father did….

SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto

Naruto logged off and shut down his computer. He wished that **thechange95** had been able to talk longer; they had just started to get into a real conversation. He chatted online a lot and usually ended up talking to old perves. It was disappointing that he would have to wait until tomorrow for them to continue their discussion.

Naruto turned off his TV that had been playing a movie in the background to keep him company while online and went to his bedside table to feed his fish. He loved his fish. They were so hypnotizing and looking at them helped him forget things. After feeding them, he turned off the lights and got into his queen sized bed. Before he let sleep overtake him, he mulled things over in his mind.

He wished that his dad would come to see the play they'd been working on in drama class next week. He already knew that it wasn't possible. His father straight out said no, he didn't have the time nor the desire to attend a poorly produced high school play. That had stung, but it was one of the nicer replies he had received when he asked his dad to see him in a production or cheer him on at a basketball game, or even see him in the science fair. It would be okay, he would ask Iruka sensei to come watch him. Iruka was nice. He helped to relieve some of the crushing loneliness that would sometimes start drown Naruto. But he couldn't be their all the time.

He rolled over onto his side and started thinking about **thechange95** again. Another way Naruto attempted to ease the loneliness was through chat websites and **thechange95** was the first interesting non pervy person he'd talked to in a long time. He hoped that he would be an understanding person and not a homophobic dickweed. That was another thing that seemed to plague Naruto's life at every turn. He was gay. _God I hope __**thechange95**__ isn't a homophobe… I really want to open up. I need to tell someone and have them understand._

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_Well there it is! hope you enjoyed and I definitely hope that you choose to review! I really want to get better!_


	2. Friends

**Warning: **This is yaoi, shonen ai, guyxguy, etc. Please no flames! If you do not like this genre, then don't read it. This is rated M just in case. I'm not 100% sure how far I plan to go with this so... yea. Language and slight violence.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto. If I did, Gaara would have more screen time and half the cast would be gay. Just sayin'.

**Note:** I'm having so much fun with this story. The next few chapters will probably have time skips in them so be aware of that, and they probably won't come for a few days. I wrote the first 2 chapters before i posted anything. chapter 3's only a fourth of the way done. Hope you enjoy and here I present chapter 2 :)

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Naruto was getting antsy. He was sitting in his room at his computer waiting for **thechange95**'s name to pop up on his list of friends who were online. In the background, a Ramones song played. The song ended and 'Teenage Lobotomy' started. Naruto looked at the screen again and sighed. _When the hell is he gonna get on! _Then, like magic, the named appeared. "Finally!"

_Ramen4thewin: wat took u so long!_

**thechange95: we never set an exact time dipshit, just '2moro nite'**

_Ramen4thewin: o… ya_

Sasuke smirked at his computer. Ramen must have been waiting for him to get online for a while. That made him happy; someone actually wanted to talk to him.

**thechange95: haha. So how old r u?**

Naruto shifted uncomfortably in his chair. This was starting to sound like the many conversations he'd accidentally had with perverts. They always started out nice… then got creepy. Sigh…

_Ramen4thewin: I'm 17 and no, I have no interest in sexting with u or meeting u._

**thechange95: .. well that wasn't wat I was gonna ask next. End up talking to a lot of older guys do ya? I'm 17 btw**

_Ramen4thewin: ya, but not on purpose. Does my username attract child molesters or something?_

**thechange95: not gonna lie. Makes u seem like a 4 year old.**

_Ramen4thewin: hey fuck u. wats with ur name? thechange? Wats that supposed to mean?_

**thechange95: im waiting 4 shit to start changing to wen my life doesnt fucking suck and hurt so damn much. So fuck off ramen boy**

Idle 20 minutes

_Ramen4thewin: hey I'm sorry. I do wanna tak._

**thechange95: ya, me 2**

_Ramen4thewin: ur 17, so r u finishing up ur junior year like me?_

**thechange95: yep. 1 more year then I'm out of this hell hold**

_Ramen4thewin: stuff sux at home?_

**thechange95: u could say that. Where u plannin on going to college?**

_Ramen4thewin: Oregon state university. I wanna be able 2 pay 4 it myself, then I wont have to owe my dad anything._

**thechange95:huh… that's where I planned on going. They'r big on scholarships and I was hopin to get 1**

_Ramen4thewin: so do u live in Oregon ?_

**thechange95: well duh**

_Ramen4thewin: don't duh me! It was a legit q!_

**thechange95: yes, yes I do. And since u plan on paying 4 college urself, I assume u live in Oregon 2 because if u live in the state, the college is less expensive.**

_Ramen4thewin: umm ya…_

**thechange95: hey, I hate 2 let u go so soon again, but I gotta. Same time 2moro?**

_Ramen4thewin: totally! _

**thechange95: cool, later**

Sasuke logged off and sat for a minute. He could hear his dad yelling out in the living room. He had come home from his trip to the bar and was angrier than when he'd left. Uchiha senior was an angry drunk. Mix that with his usual violent personality and you got an extremely unpleasant person. His unemployment check had come today, and instead of saving it for the things they would need later in the month like food, the fucker had gone straight to the bar. Now he was home and yelling for no particular reason that Sasuke could discern and that didn't mean anything good. Actually, him yelling never meant anything good but that was beside the point.

Quietly as possible, Sasuke got up and went to his dresser to gather a change of clothes and a bag. Staying here tonight wasn't wise at all, especially now that he could hear things being knocked over in the other room. After he got his bag ready he grabbed his lap top and slipped it into his bag. It was the most expensive thing he owned and he'd worked long hours to be able to afford it. He wasn't about to leave it here so that it could get smashed in one of his father's drunken rages.

Sasuke pushed up his window and slid through. He mentally went through his list of friends who might let him spend the night. Kiba was visiting family in Seattle, a no go there. Shino's apartment was just too creepy. The guy really needed to call an exterminator but refused too because he liked the bugs. Sakura was also a no. She knew he was gay, but that didn't stop her from trying to get into his pants every time he spent the night. There was only so much abuse you can handle from an obsessed fan girl, even if she was a pretty good friend a majority of the time.

That only left Gaara. Gaara was a lot like him. He came from an abusive house hold like Sasuke. Unlike Sasuke, he was pretty fucked up. He was really quiet and liked to get into fights whenever he had the chance. He'd been in so many gruesome fights that the mere mention of his name could make people freak out. Gaara didn't mind though, the fact that people who had never even talked to him were afraid of him just showed what kind of people they were. Sasuke didn't mind him. True, he was scary as shit when he was pissed, but he was still a good guy. If you were loyal to him, he would be too.

And at the moment, he was the only person he could think of that he could stomach being around and who was available. Plus, he had his own apartment. Years of having to deal with not only a fucked up dad but hateful siblings had taken its toll on Gaara and he finally moved out. Sasuke had been thinking a lot lately about moving out like Gaara had, but he wanted to save as much money as he could so he could get into college.

Sasuke walked towards Gaara's place, and after twenty minutes he made it. Gaara basically never slept so Sasuke made no hesitation to knock. Thirty seconds later, the door opened. Gaara didn't need to ask why Sasuke had come over, they had a silent understanding. He walked in, placed his bag on the coffee table, and went to lie on the couch. "Thanks for letting me stay." Gaara merely nodded and went back to his kitchen table where he'd been working on school work and bills.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Naruto smiled at the computer. He wondered what thechange95 looked like and if they would ever meet. It made him happy knowing that they both planned to go to the same college.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

_So there was chapter 2! hope you liked it and review! or hated it and review, i'm cool either way :) gotta get better somehow._


	3. Out In the Open

**Warning: **This is yaoi, shonen ai, guyxguy, or whatever you want to call it. If you have a problem with homosexual relationships, do not read this. This story is rated M just in case. Language, and possible future violence and sexual things.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto. If I did, Kakashi and Iruka would be together. Forever :)

**Note:** I wrote this chapter to help explain and get some stuff out in the open between the two. The next chapter should be more fun! lol, I have so many ideas for what to do with this story, I'm excited! Also, Sasuke refers to R_amen4thewin_ as Ramen and Naruto refers to **thechange95** as Change. Now, here's chapter 3

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

_Two months later (Summer has just started)_

**thechange95: are u homophobic?**

_Ramen4thewin: nope…. actually… I'm gay_

Sasuke read the line over a few times. He'd been meaning to ask that question for a while now, because he didn't want a prejudiced person for a friend. Ramen's reply relieved him so much.

**thechange95: cool, me 2**

Naruto about passed out from happiness. He'd never actually talked to someone else that he knew was gay. It was nice to find someone else like him. Not wanting things to become awkward between them, he decided to bring up a new topic.

_Ramen4thewin: so watcha doin in history?_

**thechange95: we've been goin over WW1. **

_Ramen4thewin: eh, I hate learnin about wars. Its so boring and horrifying._

**thechange95: agreed**

Sasuke completely agreed. He had enough violence at home. He didn't like having to come to school and learn about the disgusting shit that humans have done to each other in the past. It was such a fucked up world and he wished that people would wise up and stop brutalizing each other. Or at the very least, stop brutalizing the innocent. After all the shit his father had put him through he had vowed to never beat up another human being. Unless they really fucking deserved it of course.

_Ramen4thewin: ooo ooo! Did you see the latest episode of the office! _

**thechange95: I dont have access to a tv.**

It wasn't a complete lie. He wasn't allowed to watch what he wanted on the TV. His dad was in charge of the remote and the day the channel wasn't on ESPN, would be the day the world ended. The fucker loved sports. Sasuke could never get into them, mostly because of how much his dad loved them.

_Ramen4thewin: o. well then what do u do with ur free time?_

**thechange95: computer. Or I'm hanging with friends.**

So Change had friends? Naruto had thought that he was like him, with no friends, so he too went to the internet to fill the void.

Naruto didn't really have any friends, unless you counted Iruka sensei, though he was more like a big brother than a friend. Everyone else was afraid of him and it was his fathers fault. His dad was an important man in the field of computers and he was known for his deadly tactics when it came to the competition. Anyone who dared to oppose him and his company could end up with a dead relative or ruined business at any time. Or sometimes something even worse would happen. Naruto went to a rich private school with the kids of many millionaires and billionaires. Not wanting anything bad to happen to their families or companies, the parents told their children to avoid Naruto at all costs. They didn't want their kids to piss off the son of the president of Uzumaki Inc.. Hence, Naruto's lack of friends and increasing depression.

_Ramen4thewin: wat do u and ur friends do?_

**thechange95: idk, friends stuff? Just hang out and do watever. Wat do u do with ur friends?**

Naruto wasn't sure how to answer. He could easily tell the truth and be open to the ridicule that was sure to come. But then again, thechange was different from other people, he understood that life sucked. No, Naruto decided to lie. It would be easier that way, no explaining involved.

_Ramen4thewin: same, sometimes we'll c a movie or something_

**thechange95: cool. Ur friends know ur gay? **

_Ramen4thewin: no_

Only two people were aware of Naruto's sexual orientation. One chose to stay his friend and act as his older brother. The other… Well, his father's hate for him seemed to increase with the knowledge. Not only had he killed his mother, but he was also a fag.

**thchange95: hmm, every1 around me knows im gay. Its 1 of the reasons my dad hates me.**

Sasuke wasn't used to saying that out loud, well, typing it. He thought it, but he never expressed it to another human being. He wasn't sure what had come over him and tempted him to tell Ramen his secret. Sasuke didn't even really know this person, but maybe that's why it felt okay to tell him how his dad felt about his sexuality. His friends knew how his dad reacted to him being gay, but still, he'd never verbally expressed it to them. Sasuke blinked. There was no going back now, he'd already pressed enter.

Idle 8 minutes

_Ramen4thewin: ….mine 2_

It had been hard for Naruto to type his reply. They had so much in common, it was weird. But it was also nice. It was nice to know someone else had problems and not just him.

**thechange95: hey, family sux. My mom just up and left my dad and that just made him more mad at the world. and my brother got the hell out of here as soon as he was old enough to leave.**

Now Sasuke really couldn't believe what had possessed him. He was glad that at least a strand of sanity had kept him from telling Ramen about his dad's favorite punching bag/form of stress relief. He was being way too truthful today. But it was too late. Again. He'd already pushed enter. Again.

_Ramen4thewin: my dad hates me bcause my mom died wen giving birth 2 me. He says its my fault she's dead, which I guess it is._

**thechange95: no its not. U shouldnt blame urself 4 shit u had no control over.**

_Ramen4thewin: thanks_

**thechange95: no prob. Nite**

_Ramen4thewin: night! _

Sasuke got up from his computer and went to lie on his bed. Ramen seemed to have a pretty fucked up life, like him. He probably didn't get beaten up, but how must it feel to be told that it was your fault that your mom was dead? Plus they were both gay and that came with its own set of shit you have to deal with. Sasuke was glad that he had a few understanding friends that stood up for him. Not that he exactly needed their help. Violent homophobes were on his list of "people who deserved to be beat up".

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruot SasukeXNaruto**

It felt nice for Naruto to tell another person about his mom's death and his dad's anger. He felt lighter now.

Change was such an understanding guy. Naruto smiled, thinking about what it would be like to have a boyfriend. He concluded that the guy would have to be like Change.

Naruto turned his thoughts to other things as he got ready for bed. He put on a pair of neon orange pajama bottoms and brushed his teeth. He needed to get a summer job. Tomorrow he'd probably try his luck at a few gas stations and grocery stores. To pay for college himself, he was going to need to be able to _pay. _He kicked himself for not thinking of this a few years earlier. It would be okay though, everything would work out. He also had quite a bit of allowance money saved up. His dad might have hated him, but he wanted Naruto away from him even more. So to shut Naruto up, he paid him a very large allowance.

Naruto sighed thinking about that. Then he perked up thinking about the ramen he planned to get at lunch time tomorrow while he was job hunting. Ramen could fix anything! His love of ramen had helped him to create his awesome username… though it was also a molester magnet.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

_There you go, hope it was... interesting? please review! :)_


	4. Bookstore

**Warning: **This is yaoi, shonen ai, guyxguy, whatever you want to call it. If you have a problem with homosexual relationships, then do not read. This story is rated M just in case for Language, future Violence, and possible Sexual things later on, though at the rate I'm going, it'll be forever before you'll have to worry about those things. I'm starting to think that I totally overrated this story...

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. If I did, then Naruto wouldn't whine so much about becoming Hokage (He sounds like Ash from Pokemon whining about becoming a Pokemon Master! lol)

**Note:** Powell's Book's is a real place in Portland, Oregon and it's one of the reasons I want to move there :) I thought that since the characters are living in Oregon, they might as well live in my favorite city. I love Powell's, though I've only been there once in my life and I think it's the coolest place in the world. Please enjoy the latest part of my first chapter story! Here we go, chapter 4.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

_A week later_

Sasuke yawned. It was 9:15 in the morning and he had to get to his new job at Powell's Books. It was his third day on the job and he didn't want to be late. He still couldn't believe he'd gotten the job. Powell's was the biggest independent bookstore in the world and the coolest place in Portland. When he was younger, his brother Itachi would take him to buy a book or two. It brought back happy memories of Itachi and him. That was back when their mom was still around and she would lend them money to spend on whatever they pleased. The main store was huge and stepping into the building had felt like stepping into a magical book factory that created happiness when he was a kid. Sasuke would never tell anyone he thought that though, not even Ramen. It was too embarrassing.

The job also paid well, way more than he was used too. He'd been fired from his last job a couple of weeks ago do to budget cuts and the job had paid shit, just barely minimum wage. Powell's was certainly a step up in life.

Sasuke got up and took a quick shower. His dad wasn't home so he was able to go to the kitchen and make himself some toast. While the toast was toasting, he dried his hair off and grabbed some clothes. He put on a pair of loose jeans and tight black v-neck shirt. Then he picked up his name tag, wallet, and keys. Before he left his room, he picked up his lap top, put it in its case and hid it under the loose floor boards under his bed. There was no trusting his scumbag dad.

He closed his door and went to get his toast. After slapping some butter on and taking a bite he headed for the door. Locking it, he turned around and headed to work.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Naruto's job hunting the other day had gone pretty well. He'd landed a job at a grocery store as a bag boy. He also had to restock the shelves occasionally. It was a good job for him. He was able to talk to people as much as he wanted and nobody was afraid of him. One customer had rudely commented on the whiskerlike scars he had on his face, but that didn't damper Naruto's spirit. He loved being able to talk to people, even if the replies weren't particularly nice. Hey, at least they were making eye contact with him. What more could you ask for?

Naruto also made a couple of friends, Hinata and Neji Hyuuga. They were cousins, and they were super helpful to Naruto on his first day when he'd been a bit mixed up and not sure what to do. You could tell they were related because they had similar hair and their eyes were both an odd milky color. Hinata was very soft spoken and stuttered. Neji was also quiet, but he came off as being the silent but deadly type of person. He was also very protective of his cousin. The three's friendship seemed unlikely, but it was very much welcomed from Naruto. They were a lot of fun to hang out with and they even planned on going to see a movie sometime.

Since Naruto's shift didn't start until 1:00 p.m. and it was only 10:00 a.m., he decided to stop by the bookstore to see if they had the newest issue of his favorite manga. The bookstore was also on the way to his job, so he could stay there for a while and not have to worry about being late.

He walked down the street and opened the door to Powell's. As he stepped in, he saw all the people moving around and walking up and down the stairs. Little kids were holding their parents hands and asking if they could go look at books. Customers were asking employees where they could find certain books and then were directed to the level where they could find them. It was a really busy day. Naruto briefly thought that if it was like this on a Wednesday, it must seriously suck to work here on a Saturday. He gave a quick glance up to the directory to see where he needed to go, then hurried up to the level that contained manga.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Sasuke about moaned, but then caught himself. The dipshit in front of him wanted to know where the books on gardening were. He pointed his finger up to the sign that specifically said "Gardening". The man laughed and started apologizing for his stupidity. "It's no problem, Sir, it's my job. If you need anything else please ask." He hated faking kindness, but this was a really good job and he planned on keeping it. If he had to kiss some ass when his manager was nearby, he'd kiss some ass. If this had been any other job, he wouldn't have been so quick to surrender his pride.

"Sasuke!" A girl, whose name Sasuke hadn't bothered to remember yet, was asking for him. "Sasuke, could you handle the register for a while? I need to go call the guy who ships some of the stores books."

"Sure"

"Thanks, I should be back in half an hour."

Sasuke nodded and made his way to the register. A blonde boy wearing an orange polo shirt and jeans was waiting to buy what looked like a manga. The guy was pretty cute too. If you looked closely at his face, you could see that he had a few faint scars that kind of looked liked whiskers. That just added to the boy's cuteness. _Yes, _Sasuke nodded to himself, _definitely fuckable._

Naruto felt himself heat up a little bit. The hot cashier in front of him seemed to be checking him out. Naruto had never experienced that. He had to admit that he did have low self esteem when it came to this sort of thing. The guy was really handsome too. He had black messy hair and his shirt made it pretty obvious that he had a magnificent body. The name tag said 'Sasuke'. Naruto liked that name.

With a smile, Naruto handed 'Sasuke' his money to pay for the manga.

"Thanks for shopping at Powell's Books and we hope you come again." 'Sasuke gave Naruto a devious smile and handed him his change.

"Thank you." Naruto grabbed his purchase and smiled before he turned to leave for his job, thinking he'd had a nice start to his day.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

_Ramen4thewin: peaches or plums?_

**Thechange95: peaches. 1 or 2?**

_Ramen4thewin: I like 2! It's an even number! And I like even numbers!_

**Thechange95: haha ok spaz**

_Ramen4thwin: how many times do I have to tell u not 2 call me spaz?_

**Thechange95: I only speak truth. Plus I know im rite. If we met in person im sure u'd b a total ADD spaz. **

_Ramen4thewin:… no im not_

Naruto almost sighed. Change was right. He was a hyper person. It was weird that even though they'd only talked through text, they could still tell what kind of person the other was. From what Naruto could find, Change seemed to be a cynical guy who didn't like having to explain himself or suck up to others. And he obviously liked to make fun of others!

**Thechange95: yes u r. **

_Ramen4thewin: fine. Ooo! Do you like chocolate or vanilla better?_

Sasuke laughed at his screen. Ramen changed subjects so easy, it was cute. He seemed like he would be the sort of hyper active guy that would usually piss him off, but Sasuke had a feeling that he'd be able to stand Ramen. The guy would probably irritate him to no end, but he'd survive. Sasuke couldn't help but admit to himself that he was starting to like Ramen. In a more than friend way. It was off putting to find yourself falling for someone you had never even met. But the world had lived through weirder things, and Sasuke didn't mind.

On the other side of the town, Naruto was having similar feelings. Change had been his first friend. It seemed natural that he would also be Naruto's first big crush.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

_I'm quite proud of this chapter, if I do say so myself. Please review! Loved it, hated it, or merely tolerated it, I need to get better somehow :)_

**Note # 2: **I'm just writing this as I go and I do not have a definite plot planned out for this. Sorry for that :/


	5. Hangin' Out

**Warning: **This is yaoi, BL, shonen ai, whatever you want to call it. This is rated M just in case for future chapters. There will be some language, future violence, and possible sexual things. I think... *sigh* I should of rated this T instead of M but I guess violece will be happening in a few chapters...

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto, or any other tv show/anime/manga/book/movie/establishment that is mentioned in this story. lol thought I'd let you know.

**Note: **Ok, so Naruto and Sasuke won't meet for a while. Probably not for at least another 4 chapters. Thought I'd let you know. That may change though because I have absolutely no plot planned out for this story, I'm just writing as I go. sorry. Here's chapter 5!

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

_(End of Summer)_

Naruto could barely contain his unnatural excitement. He'd been looking forward to today for the past week and he still couldn't believe that the day had finally come. Happiness radiated off of him. "It's going to be a Grrrreaaaaat day!" He'd eaten frosted flakes for breakfast and the memorable catch phrase was still fresh in his mind.

Today, he would be going to the movies with Neji and Hinata. They'd been planning to go for awhile now, but lately they'd all been busy and they'd had trouble finding a day where they were all free to hang out together.

Naruto's usual overly hyper attitude was on double time as he got dressed for his first 'hang out day' with his friends. He was so nervous about what to wear and he kept changing his outfit. Finally he chose a white t-shirt with the words 'The New Conspiracy: Kyuubi is a Ninetales' on it, a pair of faded skinny jeans, orange converse, and an orange hoodie. Orange was Naruto's safe color, if he was wearing it, he felt confident. He looked in the mirror and even though he knew he looked good, he still had to force himself not to change. Changing wasn't going to help anything and he knew it. Then he smiled. Hinata and Neji were his friends. They weren't critical people and neither seemed to be obsessed with material goods. They weren't phonies**(1)**.

After quickly feeding his fish, Naruto grabbed his messenger bag and left to go meet Neji. Then they would have to go pick up Hinata at her house. Neji had a neat car; it wasn't what Naruto was used too. It was a faded blue color and had dents and was rusting in a few places. It also didn't look totally safe, but he sucked it up and got in.

"Hey"

"Yo. So what movie do you think we should see?"

Naruto paused. He hadn't really thought that far. He had been hoping that Neji or Hinata would have decided without him.

"Errr, not sure. Why don't we wait 'till Hinata's here? I don't want to pick a crap movie and have her mad at me." They both smirked at that. Yeah, like Hinata was going to get mad.

After they picked her up and discussed what movie they wanted too see, they made their way to the theater. They'd decided on a comedy. Mostly because Naruto was very vocal about his opinion, Hinata was a push over, and Neji didn't really care.

They made their way in and sat down. Hinata stuck her hand in her purse and got Naruto's attention when candy came into view. She smiled at Naruto and handed him a bag of Skittles. The thought had never come to Naruto that you could sneak in your own candy instead of paying the outrageous prices for theater candy. It was a new concept and he liked it. He eagerly opened the bag and started munching. Hinata then tossed a big Crunch bar to Neji. She glanced in her bag and decided to settle with a gobstopper for herself. With Naruto and Hinata smiling and Neji looking indifferent but satisfied, the movie started.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Sasuke was heading over too Gaara's. It was his day off and he hadn't hung out with all of his friends in a while. He had actually wanted to chat with Ramen, but the dobe wasn't online when he'd logged on. Obviously he wouldn't be on though. It was 11 a.m. on a Saturday and you would have to be crazy if weren't either 1.) still asleep or 2.) out doing something.

Sasuke had opted for choice two. Except his 'out doing something' was probably going to turn into 'go to Gaara's and sit around his apartment and watch TV while his friends just happened to be in the room'.

He walked into Gaara's place and was greeted with a flashy grin from Kiba who was sitting on the couch flipping through channels.

"Yo dude! I haven't seen you like all summer! You don't know what it's been like for me without you there to glare at me every two seconds!"

Sasuke glared and that made Kiba chuckle. Sasuke didn't dislike Kiba or anything, but Kiba was just that friend that everyone has who talks too much, gets overly loud, and was just generally irritating. But he was also constantly happy and that rubbed off on his friends, making him a nice influence. His dog Akamaru was hopping around at his feet. Sasuke wasn't really a dog person, but Akamaru was cool. The dog could behave itself when it wanted and it didn't slobber all over him like other dogs. Kiba loved the dog too. If anyone were to mess with his pet, you can bet they would turn up the next day fucked up and in the hospital.

"Are Shino and Sakura coming?"

"Yeah, they should like be here in a few minutes." Kiba also had a habit of saying 'like' a lot in the middle of his sentences. It was usually bad, but when he was nervous the habit was amplified.

Right on queue, the two walked into the room.

"What the hell you been up too, Sasuke!"

Sasuke gave a half grin to Sakura. "Workin'. I got a job at Powell's."

"Coolio! That place is awesome."

His half grin turned to a whole one. He didn't like to show his excitement over things, but he was still pretty happy with his job.

"Hey Shino." Sasuke had almost forgotten that Shino had also arrived, Sakura tended to steal a room's attention. Her bright pink hair and random exclamations brought her lots of attention. She also didn't always dress particularly modest. She was in no means a slut, but occasionally her friends liked to inform her that the skirt she was wearing was too short or top too low cut. But that was just how she dressed and in a way, it was just an endearing characteristic of Sakura. Almost. Her friends still critiqued her outfits at every possible turn just to be mean.

Shino was an enigma. He was the poorest out of their group and loved bugs. He was also a genius. The dude was so smart that it made people go out of their way to avoid him. Add his smarts to his creepy bug interest and silent demeanor and you get a guy that many didn't know how to react too. Sasuke had been partnered up with him on a middle school project and they just clicked as friends. Soon he began hanging out with their group and nobody questioned it. He was always in the background, only providing commentary when it was needed most. The dude was freaky, but everyone valued his opinion.

Gaara walked out of his bathroom and acknowledged all the people in his living room. His face lightened and came about as close to a smile as Gaara could. He liked having his friends over, though he would never openly admit it to them. He sat down next to Kiba on the couch. Akamaru jumped onto Kiba's lap, Sasuke seated himself next to Gaara, and Sakura sat in the faded red recliner. Shino settled himself on a cushion on the floor between the chair and couch.

Kiba flicked through a few more channels, and then stopped when he heard a familiar song.

_Hangin' out, down the street_

_The same old thing, we did last week_

_Not a thing to do, but talk to you….._

The group sighed contentedly and sat back to enjoy _That 70's Show._

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

**thechange95: so watd u do today?**

_Ramen4thewin: I saw a movie with my friends! Hey, did u know u could sneak candy in to a theater and then u save money!_

**thechange95: umm ya. I think that's a widely acknowledged thing that many people do.**

_Ramen4thewin: wat? Sense wen?_

**thechange95: dobe**

_Ramen4thewin: teme. So wat's u do 2day?_

**thechange95: sat around with my friends. **

_Ramen4thewin: that sounds fun!_

**Thechange95: ya, I suppose. its wat my friends and I do**

_Ramen4thewin: haha nice. Wel I gotta go sleep, work 2moro_

**thechange95: k me 2. nite **

_Ramen4thewin: :)_

Naruto's day had been so perfect and talking with Change had been the multi colored sprinkles on the icing of the cupcake. Meaning that he was even happier now. Life just kept getting better and better. He was sure that his senior year would fly by in no time and then he'd be off to college away from his dad. Meeting Change online had been the first in nice line of good things that had been happening lately. The only thing that could possibly make him happier was if Change decided he was falling for him and wanted to be his internet boyfriend. That would be awesome. But it was impossible, and embarrassing to think about that little fantasy of his.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

**(1)** _haha Catcher in the Rye! I love that book and I just really wanted to use the word phony_

**Note # 2: **_Hope you liked. I just wanted to introduce Sasuke's other friends a little bit because they'll come up again in the story. Also, There is going to be another time skip in the next chapter, and probably the next one too. And the next few chapters are gonna be kinda angsty. lol Please review! Yosh, do I love reviews ;)_


	6. When All the Lights Go Out

**Warning: **Angst... This chapters pretty angsty so, sorry about that. Later guyxguy. This is rated M just in case for later chapters.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto. If I did, I would of made it clear what century the story is set in. I mean really, they have modern looking refrigerators, but no cell phones. hmmm

**Note: **I'm not very proud of this chapter, I don't think it's that good. Sorry. Also, if you have any suggestions for later chapters, please message me and tell me your ideas! well, here's chapter 6

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

_October (senior year)_

Naruto needed to get out of the house. Even being in his room with the door locked couldn't help him escape the cold blame that had started to be directed at him these past few days. October had never been Naruto's favorite month and it probably never would be.

His birthday was in a few days. His birthday meant the date of his birth. The date of his birth meant the date of his mother's death. He is mother's death meant… the day fate screwed him over. It was his fault his mother was dead and during this time of year, his father never let him forget. Icy remarks followed him at every turn and the ice seeped through every corner of the house making it almost unlivable. "Your mother _used _to love making breakfast in the morning." "I'm glad she didn't see you do that." "Get out of the way, Naruto, you… waste." It really hurt, and he'd finally gotten out of there.

He walked into a gas station to look around and kill time. A pretty blonde ponytailed worker smiled brightly when he walked in. He smiled and nodded back then went to look at the stores assortment of gum. Down the isle an old wrinkled man was talking to a young boy as he bounced excitedly around him. "And can Kirie and Ichijo and Kyou and Harima and Tamaki and Momo and Izumi come to my birthday party too!" The boy was naming off as many of his friends as he could, talking in a blur. The aged man consented, "Alright Konohamaru, why don't we just invite your whole class?" A thoughtful looked came over the boy for a second and then he readily agreed.

Naruto listened to the little discussion. His heart started to ache and he felt a stinging in his eyes. Taking a deep breath to settle himself, he shook away the tears, though his heart still hurt. He went back to focusing on the gum and after a while, picked out a pack of juicyfruit. Juicyfruit is the best. It tastes exactly like candy and you just want to keep shoving it in your mouth and eating it instead of pacing yourself and just chewing it. Naruto looked around the store a bit more and waited until the kid and guy left. He eventually strolled up to the register and to pay for the pack of gum. He felt bad that he'd spent so long in the store and then was only buying gum, but it was too late to fix that.

"That will be $1.59 sir." The girl with the ponytail smiled, obviously not caring he'd spent the last 15 minutes loitering.

He reached into his pocket and grabbed out a one and some coins and paid. With a wave, he left and thought about what he was going to do the rest of the day until his shift started. A warm, relaxed feeling came over him when he thought about seeing Neji and Hinata. Having a job was nice. It got him out of the house and it let him spend time with his friends. It only sucked at the end when he realized he was going to have to leave and go back to his depressing house.

"Where have you been?" his father's tone was very disinterested and it was surprising that he'd even bothered to ask where Naruto had been.

Naruto's eyes darted down and the stammering commenced. "I-I have a j-job remem-remember…"

"O yes, I remember. You're disgracing the Uzumaki name by working at a _grocery store_." Disgust radiated from every word and Naruto had no idea what to say back.

Naruto looked up to meet his fathers gaze and it told him all he needed to know. 'Get out of my sight' was what it said and that's exactly what he did. He quietly walked up the stair and closed the door to his room. He glanced at his computer and vaguely considered logging on to talk to Change, but decided he'd rather not. As much as Change could cheer him up and take his mind off things, he absently felt that he deserved to suffer, despite Change's past words.

He grabbed his ipod and got under his orange comforter. He searched through the artist list and then stopped on what he'd been looking for. He had a secret passion for the artist he clicked on, a passion he would never in a million years tell/admit/fess up to anyone. He searched for the song that he planned to play multiple times before he slept and pressed play.

_O it's a sad picture/The final blow hits you/Somebody else gets what you wanted again…_

As the Taylor Swift song played, tears streamed down Naruto's face.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

**Thechange95: r u still there? u keep not replying.**

_Ramen4thewin: o ya sorry_

Sasuke was getting frustrated as shit. Something was bothered Ramen and he knew that he was never going to get it out of him. There were definitely a lot of drawbacks to only talking via internet. Someday he really wanted to meet Ramen for real, but he just wanted to wait until he was at a better place in his life. Hopefully in college, the time to meet would arise. That didn't fix anything at the moment though, so he was going to have to try to coax Ramen out of his … funk… for lack of a better word. Sasuke couldn't even believe he thought that word. Sasuke Uchiha did NOT say funk and he would deny it if anyone ever fucking asked.

**Thechange95: no prob. So wens ur birthday?**

Idle 10 minutes.

Damnit! What was it going to take to get Ramen to care about their conversation?

_Ramen4thewin: umm oct 10_

**Thechange95: wat? But that's in 3 days.**

_Ramen4thewin: ya sorry. I g2g._

Sasuke sat for a minute and thought. What could he get the dobe? What would make the guy happy and make him himself again. Then it came to him. He'd seen this one book at work a few times and he knew that Ramen would love it. Now he just had to think of a way to get it to him.

He thought for a few minutes and then decided what he'd do. Tomorrow he'd message Ramen and tell him to go to Powell's on the 10th, talk to one of the workers, and say his name is Ramen. Sasuke had the 10th off. He would just call the store and order the book and then say that someone named 'Ramen' would pick it up. It was perfect.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Today was the 10th.

*sigh*

Naruto sat up and got ready for school. He ran from the house so as to avoid a confrontation with his dad. Today always sucked, but it could be worse if he was involved. He was slightly excited though; Change had messaged him that he should go to Powell's today and tell an employee that his name was Ramen. _Hmmm, how vague._

A majority of his day passed without anything eventful. Then, as he was about to slip out of the school building, Iruka sensei cornered him. Though, 'cornered' isn't the best word because Naruto loved talking with Iruka and he never missed a chance to hang out with his favorite former teacher if he could help it.

"Naruto! Don't leave yet, I wanted to talk to you!"

Naruto's face lit up and he started smiling. "Hi Iruka, what'd you wanna talk about?"

"Well, I know it's your birthday" –cringe- "and I thought that we could go get some ramen." –uncringe-

"Really sensei! Will you pay?"

Iruka started to laugh and then warmly smiled down at his favorite student. "Of course I'll pay Naruto, it's your birthday."

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Eating with Iruka sensei had made him feel a lot better about things. Then, after words he had stopped by work because Neji had said he needed to talk to him. He'd wondered why they hadn't just talked on the phone, but Neji had insisted that he come by.

When he got there, he was jumped by an atypically non shy Hinata. She hugged him and asked why he hadn't told them that it was his birthday. When she let go he just shrugged.

"Well y-you should of told us!" She was using a fake mad voice and it sounded really funny coming from her. She waved over to Neji and he came over carrying two little bags.

"These are from Hinata and I. Happy Birthday Naruto." He handed over the presents and watched as Naruto just stood there, not sure what to do, so he looked at the two and smiled.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Naruto didn't know what to expect when he walked into Powell's, he'd already had an unbelievable day. He shoved the door open and went to the nearest checkout desk. An older guy who looked tired glanced up from the desk to Naruto.

"Umm… I think I'm supposed to pick something up. I-I guess my name's Ramen."

The guy was momentarily confused then he remembered the order the store had gotten the other day. "O yeah, here give me second and I'll get the book."

He left briefly and then reappeared with a package. Naruto took it and glanced up at the employee.

"It's already paid for."

"O, ok, thank you." Naruto nodded and left. He rushed back home and snuck back into his room to open up his present.

He sat on his bed and took a big breath. Then he tore off the brown paper concealing the book and about forgot to breath.

_Ramen for You, Me, and Everybody: A Guide to Everything Possible to Know About Ramen_

Naruto cried. He couldn't remember having a better day, let alone birthday.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

**Note #2: **_Thanks for reading. The next chapter will contain lots of violence! If you've got any ideas please tell me and also, please review! Reviews are so much fun!. Loved it, hated it, please let me know :) _

**Note #3: **_If you want to read a quick smutty oneshot, I wrote one called Study Time? it's a ShinoxKiba, so check it out if you want ;)_


	7. In Our Darkest Hour

**Warning: **Violence! This chapter is chock full of violence/abuse, cursing, and a few derogatory terms that are used for people who are gay. If you do not like, then do not read. Finally, the M rating is coming in handy!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto. If I did, then Ino would be with Kiba. mmmm, Kiba. (XD haha that's from Naruto the Abridged Series)

**Note: **I've been planning on writing this chapter for a long time. I got the idea from the song "In Our Darkest Hour" by Phantom Planet. It's an awesome song and I love Phantom Planet lol. Also, this is the longest chapter I've written so far, it was about 5 pages on microsoft (I know, its not that long but it was long to me...) k, here it is:

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><p><em>(January)<em>

Today was the day that Sasuke's mom, Mikoto, had left them. He personally had no feelings for the bitch. She had chosen to ditch Itachi and him and leave them with their son of a bitch 'father', so he didn't give a shit about her since she obviously didn't care about him.

His dad on the other hand felt differently. He thought that it was entirely Sasuke and Itachi's fault, though more Sasuke's than Itachi's. At least Itachi could get perfect grades and never got bullied. Sasuke had obviously been the one to drive his wife away and not his lack of job and drinking. Though, even if he'd had a job she would have left. She didn't have anything invested in their relationship except two kids and she could live without them. That had been eight years ago.

Now, every January 5th, Sasuke stayed out late.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Sasuke looked at a clock that was shining through the window of a gas station. 1:30am. He'd been walking around half heartedly thinking about going home. Now it was the 6th, so not technically the day of his mom's betrayal anymore. He sighed and decided that he might as well go home.

He lingered at the door of his place for a second. There wasn't any sound from a TV blaring on the other side, which seemed odd because that TV was always fucking on. He shrugged and went in.

Sitting on a chair facing the door was his dad. He had the blankest look on his face and it was innerving. He looked around the living room and saw that shit had been tossed everywhere. Their few pieces of furniture were knocked over and the TV was smashed on the ground. That explained why there hadn't been any noise coming from the apartment.

"Where the fuck have you been?" The blank look was still on his dad's face, but the words sounded like acid.

"Out."

A disturbing laugh started to come from the guy. He looked happy suddenly, no longer blank with no emotion. It wasn't a pleasant change. Sasuke started to shuffle uncomfortably and skimmed the floor. There were beer bottles scattered everywhere. Usually there were a lot, but today they basically carpeted the floor. By the broken TV there was some white powder on a plate. Sasuke's eyes started to dart around, _that's new. He doesn't usually use drugs. This isn't good._

His maniacal laughing died down and he managed to force out some words. "What the fuck haha, makes you think you can –haha- do that?" Immediately after he got that little message out his face got sober. The laughing stopped and his bloodshot eyes bore into Sasuke.

Sasuke started to back away a bit.

"Don't you dare fucking move you goddamn faggot!" Without a second's noticed Uchiha senior stood up and grabbed Sasuke by his black hair, dragging him down. Sasuke fell on his stomach and his dad kicked him, forcing him to roll over. He tried to get up but a vicious kick to his side made him fall back down.

"You Stupid fucking fairy! You fucked up my whole life you know that! You made her leave us! Leave me!" His dad straddled him and punched him square in the nose. Blood started gushing and that only seemed to piss his dad off more. He pounded Sasuke's face for minutes that seemed like hours. One particular punch busted his lip and another almost definitely broke his jaw.

He leaned down to Sasuke's ear and started yelling. "You screwed everything up! This better fucking teach you!" Sasuke could smell the putrid alcohol breath and wanted to pass out from the pain, but all his years of getting beat up had let him build up a tolerance. He wanted to scream and cry but he wasn't going to give the fucker the satisfaction. Even when the fucker got up and smashed his foot down on his arm, the cracking sound echoing through the room, he barely uttered a sound.

For a little bit the yelling stopped and the only sound that could be heard was heavy breathing from both. Sasuke could feel blood drying on his face. Everything felt numb. His dad had never gone this far, the most he'd ever sustained was a broken nose. He felt like he wasn't real, like he was in a movie. His eyes were all puffy and he could barely see through them, but he still looked up at the fucker who had done this to him, not bothering to hide his bitter hatred like he usually did.

The cold eyes glared down at him. "Fucking fag. You ruined my life." He kicked Sasuke one last time with all his strength in the side, spit on him, and then walked out the door.

Sasuke lay there for a while, not quite sure what to do. Finally with a huge groan, he heaved himself up and wobbled to his room. He sat on the bed and, while using his only good arm, managed to put his computer in its case and get it over his shoulder. Then he left as fast as his broken body could carry him.

He wandered down the streets, not sure what to do. He looked up at the street he was on and absently decided that since he was close to Gaara's, so he'd just go there.

He opened the door to his friends place and went to go lie on the couch. He just wanted to fucking sleep. That was all he wanted. He closed his eyes and finally allowed himself to lose consciousness.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

"Sasuke! Fuck Sasuke wake the fuck up, don't die!" In the distance Sasuke could hear a loud voice and thought that it should shut up. Eventually the voice faded and he was left to his blackness once again.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Gaara was freaking out. He'd woken up in his small but comfortable bed thinking that it was going to be an average Sunday. He was going to shower and then eat some Cheerios. He'd go to work at HomeDepot and then come home and eat a peanut butter sandwich or something. Waking up, walking into his living room, and finding his best friend passed out on his couch covered in blood with bruises and broken bones had not been what he was expecting. Not only that, but Sasuke wasn't waking up. He wanted to shake his friend awake but he didn't want to make his injuries worse. Screaming at Sasuke to wake up also wasn't working and now Gaara was freaking out. And Gaara Never freaked out.

"God, don't die Sasuke. Jus-just let me call an ambulance." He scrambled for his phone.

"911, What's your emergency."

"My friend is unconscious on my couch and he's bleeding and it looks like he has broken bones. H-he's not waking up." Gaara was breathing heavy, not sure what to do. This wasn't like him at all, he always knew what to do.

"Ok listen to me Sir, is he breathing?"

"umm." Gaara looked down and saw his chest moving up and down. "Yes."

"Ok, now please tell me where you are and I'll have an ambulance sent."

"***** Nutmeg, it's by the one building….." Gaara told her where to find his apartment and then tried to stay patient until help came. He stayed silent after talking to the 911 operator and became calm again as he watched his friend. The ambulance would be here soon.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Slowly, Sasuke became aware of things. It started with a slight murmur. Then words started to form ... and then faded away again. And eventually his eyes fluttered open, though 'flutter' wasn't a word Sasuke liked to use to describe him.

The light was blinding. Everything was so bright. When the light finally dimmed he had to think about where he was. He could have sworn he'd gone to Gaara's, but here he was in what looked liked an uncomfortable hospital bed. He was hooked up to an IV and the door to his room was cracked open.

_What the fuck happened?_ He sat up and pain shot through him. His left arm was in a cast and he felt bandages on his face and sides. _O yeah, the fucker beat me up._

The door of his room was pushed open and Sakura walked in. When she saw that he was sitting up she started yelling.

"Holy shit! You're awake! Kiba! Shino and Gaara! Come in here, he's awake!" Sasuke grimaced at the loud piercing shrieks but wasn't able to say anything before all his friends rushed into the room to see him. Kiba and Sakura ran to his bed and started fussing over him while Gaara and Shino stood in the doorway looking a bit unsure.

"Like dude you're like alright we like were so fucking like worried about you! Like never do that like again k?" Kiba's eyes were scared and the number of 'likes' just proved his worry.

Sasuke didn't want to talk just yet so he nodded his head in agreement. All his friends were scared for him and it meant so much. He still felt crappy from the beating but he was grateful his friends had stopped by to show they cared. The room was quiet after that and he waited for someone to say something

"What happened?" It was Shino who had broken the silence. They all turned to look at Sasuke expectantly. He had a feeling that Gaara probably had an idea of what took place, but the rest of his friends barely knew about his father's abuse.

He glanced off to the side, avoiding eye contact and answered. "My Dad…" His reply had been softer than he'd meant it to be and short, but it was all the answer they were going to get.

"What! That fucker did this too you! Sasuke you need to get out of there, we'll help you find another place!" Sakura was pissed and the anger was evident in her voice. "He had no right to do this Sasuke!"

Sasuke just shrugged. He knew it wasn't his fault or anything, but he'd been beaten up to the point where he was in the hospital so he didn't exactly feel good about himself. He just wanted silence at the moment.

Gaara stared at Sasuke, trying to decide what his friend was thinking at the moment. Sasuke probably just wanted to be left alone. Gaara decided that they'd all have to talk about this later. Meanwhile, Shino, Kiba, and him could go to Sasuke's place and grab his stuff. Sasuke would be living with him now and there wouldn't be any arguments. He'd been needing a roommate for a while and Sasuke was the only person he could even imagine being able to stand living with. It would all work out. Plus they both planned on attending the same college, so that would make things easier.

Gaara nodded to himself. "I think we should leave for now."

"but Sasuke's-" He cut Sakura off.

"I think he would prefer to be by himself at the moment." Sakura and Kiba looked like they were about to argue and then changed their minds.

"'kay"

They all headed out the door with Gaara at the back. Before he made it out though, he turned and laid something on Sasuke's bedside table.

"You had this when you came to my place." Then he left, shutting the door behind him.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Hours later, after the nurses and doctors had come in and asked question after question, he was finally able to be by himself. Sasuke flipped open his lap top and logged onto his chat website.

_Ramen4thewin: where'v u been these past days?_

**thechange95: shit happened. Can we tak about something else? Tell me bout ur day**

_Ramen4thewin: sher. Well, I had toast 4 breakfast and I watched CSI 4 the first time 2day._

**thechange95: toast and CSI huh?**

_Ramen4thewin: yep lol. Toast is the best! …except for ramen :)_

Sasuke smiled. He'd been feeling like shit lately. He'd felt like shit when his dad beat him up. He'd felt like shit when his friends had visited. And he definitely had felt like shit when the doctors/nurses had checked on him. But looking at the screen and Ramen's ramblings, he couldn't help but feel… not like shit. He felt relaxed and happy.

He turned back and saw that Ramen had continued typing and describing his day.

…_. and I didn't believe that roadrunners were real. So my friend had to go online and show me pics. Theyr real. Crazy huh?_

**thechange95: You're perfect**

idle 5 minutes

_Ramen4thewin: thanks Change_

Sasuke smiled again.

**thechange95: your welcome**

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><p><strong>Note#2: <strong>ok, so from now on, I'm going to try to update every Monday (which is what day it is now where I am). That's going to be my schedule unless I forget or something lol. O, and sorry that there is soo little Naruto in this chapter. I promise that the next one will have more! And if you have ideas for the story PLEASE MESSAGE ME. I'm having a bit of writers block...

**Note#3: **So one anonymous reviewer commented on chapter5 saying that nobody says 'coolio' anymore... is that true? damn, I say it all the time haha. It just seemed liked something Sakura would say :) Also, I like That 70's show, and I thought I'd be a show everyone would be at least slightly familiar with. lol I'm not mad, just thought I'd explain! Thank you to everyone who reviews!

_Thanks for reading and please review! Liked it, hated it, please tell me. I have to get better somehow :) and remember, next chapter should be up next Monday!_


	8. Visiting

**Warnings: **Violence, though not as severe as last chapters. This is rated M just in case for future guyxguy. yep.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto. I just write fanfiction about it...

**Note: **I am so so sorry. This chapter is pretty short and it's no very good. Read the notes at the bottom when you've finished this chapter for more sorry's and explanations. But you might like :) (I'm uploading this a day early because I have alot of stuff that's going to be going on the next few days) anyway here it is:

* * *

><p><em>(the day after previous chapter)<em>

Gaara, Shino, and Kiba walked into Sasuke's previous home with Sakura trailing close behind them. She had insisted upon coming saying, "Sasuke's my friend too, I wanna help." They didn't really mind though, they were all Sasuke's friends and they all had to do what they could to help him out, even if they were just there to gather his things.

They stepped in and grimaced with disgust. It was like a trash pit in there. Gaara looked down and could see a place on the floor that was covered in blood. It pissed Gaara off. That had been where Sasuke had suffered his abuse. He thought back to the time he had spent with his family and the shit they had put him through. He had to grit his teeth to stop the rage that was forming. This trip was about Sasuke.

The group waded through the garbage on the floor to Sasuke's room. The room was sparse. Nothing on the walls except pealing wallpaper and the bed had no sheets. Kiba and Sakura felt guilt start to eat at them. They'd never known how bad Sasuke had it. They both came from average middle class families and never had to deal with stuff even slightly close to this. They suddenly started to think about how hard Sasuke worked in school, how hard he worked for the scholar ships he was getting for college, and how he had a job. They should have known.

Shino and Gaara were hardly surprised like the other two. Sasuke sometimes confided in Gaara about things and Shino just happened to be even poorer, though he didn't receive physical abuse like Sasuke and Gaara did.

The friends quickly went to work clearing out Sasuke's things so they could bring them to Gaara's. It took very little time and soon they were ready to go.

*Slam* The group jumped. The Uchiha bastard had come back.

"Hey fag! You can come out now queer boy!" The words were slightly slurred and filled with hate. Gaara could feel his blood start to boil and the monster start to surface.

The door to Sasuke's room was thrust open and Fugaku Uchiha fumbled in. His face turned to confusion when he saw them in the room instead of his son. The confusion quickly turned to amusement as he stared at the obvious anger coming from the kids that he didn't know.

"Ha, so where's my cocksucker son?"

The next thing anyone knew, Fugaku was rolling on the ground covering his nose as blood poured between his fingers. A stoic Shino looked down at his handy work with pride. The other three were momentarily confused. They'd all expected Gaara to make the first move, but Shino had beaten him to the punch line.

Gaara quickly regained focus and grabbed the Uchiha by his collar and slammed him into the nearest wall. He winced in pain and then stilled himself when he saw the demonic look in Gaara's eyes.

"I think the rest of you should leave now." Gaara's cold voice scared them momentarily and they almost complied. Then a defiant look came over the friends.

"No, if we leave… you'll kill him." Shino's voice was hesitant and quiet but certain. He was being extremely atypical today, vocal and spontaneous.

"So the fuck what!" Kiba's loud reply echoed through the room.

Shino was silent for a few seconds and then locked eyes with Kiba through his glasses. "Nobody deserves death." The group soaked in Shino's words.

Then Sakura ran over and kicked Fugaku in the shins.

A piercing scream erupted from the man and he struggled to be released from Gaara's grip and Sakura's wrath. Shino pulled her away from the screaming man and didn't notice when Kiba ran and repeated Sakura's previous action except harder. The assaulted man looked to be in so much pain now that he couldn't produce any sound. Kiba was satisfied with the one kick and backed off before Shino could decide to grab him as he'd done Sakura.

Gaara let go of the mans collar and let him sink to the floor. He bent down and whispered in the Uchiha's ear. "I'd leave Sasuke alone if I were you." The man started to shake when he saw barely contained monster in Gaara's eyes.

Gaara stood up, grabbed one of the bags filled with Sasuke's things and left the apartment, followed closely by his friends.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Naruto skipped down the sidewalk on his way to Iruka sensei's house. The street was pretty vacant, with basically no people on it, so it seemed safe to skip. Every time someone came near enough to see his skipping he stopped and walked like a normal 18 year old boy should but as soon as they passed the skipping resumed. He was in such a good mood and skipping seemed like the perfect way to express his outstanding frame of mind. Nothing could ruin his day. Even if a man suddenly came up to him and informed him that Ramen noodles no longer in existed in this world, he'd still be happy. Though, he would probably stop skipping.

He made his way up to Iruka's apartment and knocked. The door opened to reveal a smiling man with brown hair tied in a ponytail.

"Naruto! Come in, come in." Naruto was ushered into the decent sized apartment and sat on a couch. The living room walls were lined with bookshelves full of books. A medium sized TV sat in a corner. The coffee table in front of the couch was spotless and underneath it in a hidden drawer were all the movies that Iruka owned. Naruto was over at Iruka's a lot, so he knew where he kept the movies.

"So what do you want for lunch? I was about to make some macaroni and cheese, that alright with you?"

Like Iruka even had to ask. "Of course that'd be fine Iruka!"

Iruka smiled and went to work. A little while later the two were sitting at the kitchen table eating macaroni and cheese and drinking tea. A weird combination, but Naruto was happy and couldn't have cared less if they were eating this or steak with Kool-aide.

"So, Naruto, I know we've talked about this in the past, but what are you planning to do about college?"

"Well, you know I'm going to Oregon University and I'm gonna pay for it myself. I started selling some of my stuff, like the TV and sound system, and I've got a lot of money saved up." Naruto looked off in the distance as he spoke and told his plans. Then he turned back to his former sensei. "I guess I'm pretty much set."

"Have you given any thought to where you're going to live? The dorms are pretty expensive and you don't want to waste all your college money on that." Iruka's face looked attentive if not slightly worried.

Naruto blushed and looked down to the cup of tea between his hands. "Ummm, I hadn't really though of that…"

"Well, I've been thinking…. Would you like to move in with me?"

Naruto jerked up and looked at Iruka with wide eyes. "What?"

"I think you should stay with me while you attend college."

"Really? Can I Iruka sensei!" Naruto loved the idea. He'd have more money for college and he wouldn't have to stay in that house with his father. Plus, he loved Iruka. He was the nicest person he'd ever met and he thought of him as his big brother.

"Of course, Naruto. I actually already have the guest room all ready for you to move into. Once school ends, I can help you move."

"Thank you so much." He stood up and went around the table to give Iruka a huge hug.

A little while later, after they had discussed Naruto's soon-to-be living arrangemenst, they had started talking about Naruto's job and his new friends. "And Hinata is sooo sweet! She's always stuttering and it's so cute! Haha, but I hope it doesn't keep her from getting a boyfriend, cuz she's so nice!"

Iruka's face turned thoughtful and he carefully asked Naruto a question. "Is there anybody that you're interested in?"

Immediately a deep red tomato like blush crept through Naruto. He turned down in embarrassment and started to breath hard. "u-ummm, I-I th-theres this o-one guy I've been talking t-to online…."

"That's nice, but… are you sure he's safe, or who he says?" Iruka felt bad having to say it, but he knew the internet could be a dangerous things and he didn't want anything bad to happen to Naruto. The boy could be very naïve.

Naruto's embarrassment was gone in an instant and he began defending his online friends. "Change is the best person I've ever talked to ever! And he sent me a birthday present and he talks to me when I feel bad and he's the first person that I've ever known who was also gay! And-and he called me perfect!"

It was quiet for a bit after Naruto's outburst then Iruka spoke. "Well, he sounds like a nice guy." Naruto settled down and smiled.

"He is." They left it at that.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Gaara sighed. He'd decided that he needed to pick up some groceries before Sasuke came back from the hospital so he was now standing in a no-name grocery store.

With Sakura.

She was currently hanging on his arm and blabbing on about her new girlfriend and it was very irritating. Even after everything that had happened these past few days, it seemed she was still able to chatter without a care in the world. She also didn't seem to realize who she was hanging on. Most people flinched in fear and avoided him. But, his friends were always at ease round him and that was nice. Sometimes.

"I can't wait till you guys meet her! She's going to take me to a movie next Friday, I'm so excited!" Gaara rolled his eyes at her carefree demeanor.

He walked down the bread aisle and grabbed the cheapest edible brand of bread available and put it in the shopping cart. He ran through his mental shopping list and decided that milk was next. When they made it to the milk aisle Gaara stopped.

A girl with long dark black hair that held a tinge of purple in it was unloading milk. She looked so determined and Gaara just froze at the sight of her. Somewhere behind him a man yelled, "Hinata" and the girl looked up. Gaara was star struck when he saw her deep whitish eyes. They were so unusual.

Something rushed by him and ran over to 'Hinata'. Most likely the person who had yelled. He had blonde hair and was waving his hands in the air franticly. He faintly heard something about 'Iruka's' and 'ate mac and cheese'. Hinata smiled and hugged her friend.

During this entire scene Sakura had continued to prattle on about her love life and didn't seem to notice Gaara's sudden halt. A smile slowly spread over Gaara's face. _I think I'll come here more often._

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><p><strong>Note #2: <strong>_I'm sorry that there is no Sasuke. I couldn't think of a way to fit him in and the chapter already seemed kind of choppy. I'm also sorry to the people that I promised when I said there would be romance in this chapter. I just couldn't really fit it in and then for some reason I decided to add that Gaara part in at the end and it didn't really need to be..._

**Note #3: **_However! Over the course of writing this chapter, I finally figured out what I'm going to do with this story! To give you a heads up, college starts in the next chapter. Yes, they will finally get to college and that's where things are going to get interesting! They WILL meet in the next chapter and you guys can hold me to that!_

_Thank you to everyone who has reviewed Ramen and Change it means so much~_


	9. A Brand New Day

**Warnings: **Language. That's about it for this chapter. Rated M just in case for later chapters.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto. If I did... hell I don't know, I just don't own any of it so don't think I do.

**Note: **I know, I know I'm late. Sorry about that. I had cousins visiting for a couple of days and I also got side tracked cuz I started writing a couple of other things. But mostly I was just lazy and was procrastinating. Sorry. Here's chapter 9:

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><p>Today was the day.<p>

The day Naruto had been waiting for forever.

It was finally happening. _It was finally happening._

Things could only get better from here on out.

Naruto took a deep breath and then looked to his side where Hinata was walking. She nodded encouragingly to him. Neji was trailing behind them nonchalantly. Naruto had asked them to come with him so he would be less nervous. This was a scary day. He needed his best friends with him on this life altering day. His heart was thumping out of his chest with anticipation and a monstrous grin was plastered to his face.

The group halted for a second, mostly to allow Naruto a chance to calm down.

Then they stepped onto the college campus.

"Woo hoo! Today's our first day of college! We're all finally here!" Hinata quietly smiled at Naruto's out burst. She thought it was cute how happy he was about today.

"I was already in college," Neji remarked from behind them. He thought it was funny how Naruto seemed to have forgotten that.

"Yeah, yeah whatever." Naruto rolled his eyes and then ran up to the nearest college student handing out fliers. By the time he was done with his first day, he planned to have a very large collection of free pamphlets, fliers, and leaflets.

Only Naruto and Hinata actually had any classes today. Neji hadn't had to come, but Naruto had begged him. Plus, some of his friends were here and he decided he could meet up with them after helping out Naruto and Hinata.

Naruto continued to run around to the various people with handouts. The person he was currently accepting a flier from was a guy dressed entirely in green. He also had jet black hair and big fuzzy eyebrows. The guy looked behind Naruto and got a huge smile on his face. "Hello Neji kun!"

Neji wanted to put his face in his hand in embarrassment. It seemed that Lee still hadn't gotten over his obsession with green. And he still had to add the –kun to the end of his name even after Neji had told him it was unnecessary. Neji mentally sighed and got over it. Lee was his friend, and with that overly optimistic attitude of his, it was hard not to like him.

"Hi Lee." Hinata waved from beside Naruto at her older friend. "Lee t-this is Naruto. H-he works with Neji and I. He's o-our friend."

Lee offered out his hand. "It is very nice to meet a friend of Hinata chan and Neji kun. My name is Rock Lee."

"Nice to meet you fuzzy brows!" Naruto vigorously shook Lee's hand. At the mention of 'fuzzy brows' Lee merely raised his eyebrow but said nothing in return.

"Neji was just gonna show us around! I'm soooo excited about bein in college! Haha." Naruto then whipped around to continue their tour and ended up slamming face first into a hard, muscular chest. The impact caused Naruto to fall backwards onto the ground and the other boy to stumble backwards.

"What the fucks your problem?" Naruto looked up to see a thoroughly pissed raven headed man. "You need to watch where you're going."

At first Naruto didn't know how to react. He hadn't meant to run into the guy, but he was acting like Naruto had just kneed him in the shins. Instead of being the nice guy he'd planned on and apologizing, Naruto opted to get mad too. He stood up and yelled back, "What's _my _problem? What's _your _problem! It was a fucking accident, no need to throw a hissy fit!"

Quiet giggles erupted from behind the raven headed man. He turned back and shouted, "Shut up Sakura, and you too Kiba, don't try to act all innocent." The two who had laughed stopped trying to hide their amusement.

"But like dude, you so got ticked for no reason and it's like funny." The boy named Kiba managed to gasp that out. Naruto immediately liked Kiba.

Naruto took a second to check out the little group that was surrounding the irritating jack ass teme that he had run into. Their was the brown haired boy named Kiba and beside him was a pink haired girl in tight clothing who was most likely Sakura. A creepy looking guy with sunglasses on stood in the back. Next to the raven was a shorter boy with red hair. He had a very intimidating aura, much more intimidating than the bastard who got pissed for no reason. The red head gave a small smirk towards Naruto's friends. Naruto heard Hinata give a quiet squeak but he didn't think much of it.

The angry raven growled and then rolled his eyes. "Get out of my way." He pushed Naruto aside and he and his group started to walk away.

Naruto called after them. "Hey Screw You!"

The boy didn't turn around but raised his hand to flip Naruto off. "No thanks."

Naruto started to seethe. He hated that guy.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Sasuke was pissed, and he didn't even really understand why he was so pissed. It had to be because of that stupid blonde he had run into. Sasuke wouldn't normally get that mad about someone smacking into him (though he would still say unpleasant things regardless), but for some reason that stupid blonde had just infuriated him.

He had just looked so…. Stupid! Though he did have a nice body, Sasuke had been able to tell that when they'd made contact. He also seemed strangely familiar.

Sasuke decided not to let the little inbred dumb ass mess up his first day of college. He was here with his friends. They'd finally made it to college. Kiba and Sakura were going to be living in the dorms and Gaara and he shared an apartment now. Shino had a full ride scholarship, but it didn't include a dorm room so he was going to continue living at home. They were all set.

Sasuke looked at the schedule he had. At noon he had a creative writing class and then after that he had a beginner level college chemistry class. Then that was it for his first day. The rest of his week would be considerably busier, but on Mondays he only had two classes to attend. He was pretty excited about the creative writing class he had gotten into. Writing had always appealed to him. It was easier to convey emotions in writing rather than by speaking.

Sasuke's class started in fifteen minutes but he wanted to get a good seat so he ditched his friends and hurried to the room it was held in. He walked in and grabbed a seat that was in the middle. The room's walls were a boring grey that was hardly conducive to _creative _writing. In the front of the room hung a humongously long and large chalk board. There was also a small desk situated in the front by the board. That was all the room contained other than chairs. Sasuke wasn't so sure he was going to like this class anymore. It seemed like the room of an incredibly boring high school math teacher Sasuke had a few years ago.

Sasuke just sighed, took out a cheap mystery novel he bought at a garage sale, and waited for people to start filing in. Slowly students came in but Sasuke didn't acknowledge any of them. They weren't worth his time. He tried to look as intimidating as possible while reading so that nobody irritating would sit next to him, eventually though the seats were filled up and one last student rushed in and sat by him. He was panting a little but when he eventually stopped huffing, he turned to Sasuke and held out his hand.

"Hi, I'm Naruto." Sasuke reluctantly stopped reading and turned towards the boy who had introduced himself. He immediately grimaced. It was the stupid blonde from earlier. The stupid blonde, wait ,_Naruto_ looked surprised too once he figured out who he had just greeted and quickly scowled in response. The two glared at each other for a few minutes. Then a voice at the front of the class room snapped their attention away from each other. Sasuke briefly snuck a peak at his watch and saw that the teacher was ten minutes late.

"Hey. Sorry I'm late, I was trying to find the can opener so I could feed my dog but it seems somebody stole it. Anyway I'm gonna to be your teacher for this creative writing class. My name is Kakashi sensei."

Kakashi sensei stood there for a bit after he gave the class that little bit of information. Sasuke took a sec to look his teacher over. The guy looked fairly young to be a college professor and for some reason he had a bandana covering one of his eyes. Sasuke just shrugged at that. He'd heard that college professors could be eccentrics. And Kakashi sensei was definitely different. Especially with the coming in late and making the can opener excuse.

Kakashi sensei then continued to his talking and outlined their course for them. He talked in a very noncommittal way, like things could change at anytime. Sasuke suddenly understood why the room was so dull. It wasn't because the teacher was boring; it was just because he was lazy.

"Ok, so before you all leave there's one more thing. In this class we mostly do individual work, however, I occasionally like to make you guys work as partners. The person sitting next to you will be your partner whenever I decide do group writing." Sasuke and Naruto both froze. Sasuke wanted to scream, there was no way he would be forced to spend any extra time with this blonde dobe. "Ok, class dismissed."

Sasuke glanced over to Naruto and smirked. The boy looked so confused, as if he still hadn't quite processed what Kakashi sensei had told them. He chuckled quietly to himself. "Hello Naruto, I'm Sasuke," Sasuke said in a taunting voice.

Naruto jerked towards Sasuke with wide eyes. They then narrowed and swiftly stood up and huffed away. Sasuke then grabbed his bag and left to find his next class.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

After his chemistry class, Sasuke went straight home. He knew his other friends had already finished their classes for the day and were getting settled.

He stepped into his apartment and found Gaara sitting in the kitchen waiting for a TV dinner to finish cooking.

"Hey."

Gaara nodded. Then an evil smile started to form on his lips. "Got pretty pissed at that blonde didn't you?" Gaara was mocking him.

"O fuck off. Guy looked annoying." Gaara shook slightly with some silent laughter. He went to his room and grabbed his lap top. He brought it out to the living room so he could watch TV while he talked to Ramen. Hopefully he'd be on.

When Gaara saw him get online he spoke. "Internet boyfriend time now, huh?"

Sasuke whipped his head around to the kitchen. "He's not my boyfriend!"

Gaara just rolled his eyes and turned to the microwave just as the alarm went off.

Sasuke checked his chat screen and saw that Ramen was online. _Good, now I have someone to bitch to who won't criticize me. _

**thechange95: hey**

_Ramen4thewin: hiya! How'd ur first day o college go?_

**thechange95: fuckin sucked. I had to deal with this dumbass and now im partnered with him in one of my classes.**

_Ramen4thewin: omg me 2. this guy totally got pissed at me 4 no reason. Dick._

**thechange95: ugh, I hate annoying people**

_Ramen4thewin: exactly. Other than that was ur day alrite?_

**thechange95: ya, all my friends were there and I got an interesting teacher.**

_Ramen4thewin: haha me 2! And I made a couple new friends cuz one of my friends was already in college and he introduced me to people! That was fun. Haha o o and I found a penny when I was walking home so nnow im lucky XD_

**thechange95: cool. Was the penny face up or face down?**

_Ramen4thewin: why does that matter?_

**thechange95: well, if it was face down it doesn't count as lucky.**

_Ramen4thewin: lol well good thing it was heads up! U had me worried change!_

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Naruto was sitting at the dinner table with Iruka after his chat with Change. They were eating tuna fish casserole, which is possibly one of the greatest things in this world. Naruto had reenacted what had happened between him and the Sasuke guy and was now whining about how he had to be his partner in his creative writing class.

"Why do I have to be partnered with him! He's an ass!"

Iruka smiled. "I'm sure it's not that bad of a thing. You'll get over it Naruto, you need to learn to adapt."

Naruto shrugged, "I guess."

"So, have Change and you decided if you're going to meet yet?" Iruka decided to change the subject.

"Ummm, we haven't really talked about that… I think we're both kinda nervous to bring it up." Naruto looked down and sighed. He wanted to know who Change was, but he also really liked how things were now. Change was his safety net. "I think…. I think we're just gonna keep things how they are… for now."

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><p><strong>Note #2: <strong>hahaha I said they would meet :D Just maybe not in the way you guys thought they would. Also, school will be starting up soon so I'm gonna be busy. I will still try to update once a week!

_Hope you liked! Remember liked it or hated, please review! I gotta get better somehow :) Thank you to everyone who has reviewed!_


	10. Just Dance

**Warning: **cussing... that's all... again. sorry.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto. If I did, I would have made Sakura less useless.

**Note: **None really, when you finish the chapter read the one at the bottom.

**Dedication: **This chapter is dedicated to my friend **yaoi lover14706**. I haven't had the best summer this year but she has really helped me through it. I really want to thank her :) If you want to read some good Naruto yaoi, go check out her profile! She's awesome! haha, Thank you!

* * *

><p><em>(about a week later)<em>

Sasuke was currently restocking books in the children's section of Powell's Book Store. His advanced algebra class had finished an hour ago and he was now at work. He'd gotten a crap load of homework in that class. He had known that college was going to be harder than high school and more challenging, but damn, he hadn't expected _this _much work.

"Sasuke Uchiha, please come to the front desk," The stores intercom bellowed throughout the store. Sasuke jerked when he heard his name. It freaked him out. What did they need from him that they had to use the intercom to find him.

He looked at the books he had yet to put on their selves and rolled his eyes. As he walked towards the front he muttered, "Dammit, I was almost done. This better be important."

When he got to the front he looked to see who was there and almost burst a blood vessel. Standing there, chattering away with Sasuke's boss, Kurenai, were Kiba and Sakura. _What the fuck are they doing here? _When he got to the desk they all turned to him and smiled.

"Yo Sasuke!" Kiba was grinning and waving his hands in the air like an idiot. It grated on Sasuke's nerves and he wanted to shoot Kiba a death glare but he couldn't because his boss was standing right there.

He walked closer to the group and tried to change his irritated and confused look to a more neutral one. He nodded to his friends and said, "Hey." Then he turned to his boss and politely asked, "Hi. Was there something you needed?"

Kurenai looked at him puzzled and then laughed. "Oh, ha ha not really. Your friends just came by and asked if you were around to talk. I better get back to my office, I need to go over some shipping forms. It was nice speaking to you again Kiba, and nice meeting you Sakura." She smiled again and turned to go back to her office.

Now Sasuke was really confused. Kurenai was being unusually nice today. Not that she was mean or anything, but she liked to get things done and was never pleased when her employee's friends stopped by to chat. Instead of being curt and annoyed at his friends request to speak with him, she'd actually used the intercom to get him to come see them. And how come she seemed to already know Kiba? Sasuke sighed. He decided that since he didn't get in trouble with his boss, then he didn't really care.

"What are you two doing here?" Now that his boss had left, it was alright for the famous Uchiha death glare to come out.

"Yo dude like no need to get pissy." Kiba wasn't vexed at all by Sasuke's glare.

"Yeah, we just wanted to invite you to see this band with us tonight!" Sakura was bobbing up and down in excitement as she told Sasuke their plans.

*Sigh* "And this couldn't have waited until I got off work?" He ran his hand through his hair trying to calm himself down.

"Haha I guess it could of. Gaara just like told us about it and we couldn't wait to like go tell you!"

Sakura quickly chimed in, "They're supposed to be awesome! They're this new band called The Paperplates. I heard they kinda sound like a cross between the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Ramones, and The Get Up Kids." She looked positively giddy as she talked.

Sasuke felt like he was about to snap. He felt anger pooling in his fists and he wanted to punch something. God, he needed to take an anger management class.

"Gaara? The person I live with? Gaara called to tell you about a band we're going to see tonight and instead of waiting until I got home to hear it from my roommate, you two decide to interrupt me while I'm at work, talk to my _boss, _have her call me on the intercom, and tell me. Are you fucking _stupid?_"

Kiba and Sakura really wanted to moan in annoyance and their expressions turned from happy-go-lucky to serious sober. Sasuke always overreacted to small things like this for no reason. Sure, they probably shouldn't have stopped by to tell him while he was at work but they'd been in the area and they just felt like doing it. It shouldn't have been that big of a deal.

Sakura and Kiba always hung out together. They thought really similarly and had lots of fun. They did things for shits and giggles and acted impulsively. They had an almost mental connection because of their close friendship. Through their almost 'mental' connection, they decided that Sakura should talk next because she could be more tactful when she wanted to be. And they didn't want Sasuke more pissed off than he already was.

"Sasuke, we didn't mean to make you mad and we're sorry."

He was a little surprised at the apology, he hadn't expected that. "Oh.. umm, it's ok. I shouldn't have gotten mad."

Their expressions lightened immediately after Sasuke admitted he'd been wrong and quickly asked to verify if he would be coming to see the new band.

"Yeah, I'll come."

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

"H-hey Naruto. Do you w-wanna go and see this n-new band play? Neji and Lee kun are coming along w-with a few other friends." A huge smile grew on Naruto's face as Hinata quietly asked him to come.

"Hell yes!" Naruto about dropped the handful of Fruit Loops he'd been putting away. Of course he wanted to go do stuff with his friends. As longs as the activity didn't involve kicking puppies or something like that, he was up for anything. "What band? Where? When?"

Hinata's eyes brightened. "Umm they're called The Paperplates, t-they're new. At this club c-called Ivanka, at 8:30."

"Cool, Cool, Cool!"

Through the rest of his shift, Naruto couldn't help but squirm and be extra excitable. He was going to go see a band!

When he finally got off work, he rushed back to Iruka and his apartment to get ready. Iruka wasn't home because he said he would be going to see a friend tonight so Naruto didn't have to worry about modesty as he stripped on his way to go take a shower. He made the water scalding and sang as he washed, "I'm walking on sunshine, whoa, and don't it feel GOOD!"

When he was done he ran to his room to start deciding his outfit for the evening. He opened his closet and puffed out his cheeks as he thought. _Shorts are out, don't think that'd be cool at a club… no blue jeans.. and definitely no button up shirts or polos. _Finally, after several minutes, he pulled out a pair of grey skinny jeans and one of his many t-shirts with random sayings on them. The one he picked happened to be black with 'Believe it' written in white letters.

After he put his clothes on, he held his two pairs of converse up and tried to decide which to wear. One pair was his favorite orange pair, and the other was black. He really wanted to wear the orange ones, but he knew they probably wouldn't look that great with his outfit. He went with the black pair, though grudgingly.

Naruto took a bus to Ivanka. The outside of the club made it look kind of grungy and there was a bouncer leaning against the wall. A sign next to the guy said that tonight was the underage show for people below 21. Naruto sighed in relief. When he saw the club he'd been scared that they wouldn't let him in because he was only eighteen.

He walked up to the entrance. The bouncer gave him a half nod half smile to let him know he could go in. It was really loud inside from the band and people talking. Naruto glanced around nervously and then saw Hinata sitting in a booth with a red haired boy.

He quickly ran up to her.

"Hey Hinata!" He gave her a flashy grin and then slid into the other side of the booth. Then he turned to the red head and looked him over. Naruto could tell he'd seen him before, and recently, but he couldn't quite remember where. He didn't think about it too heavily though because he knew it would come to him eventually.

"Hi, I'm Naruto! Nice to meet you!" He held out his hand to the boy next to Hinata.

The guy looked at it warily and sent a quick look towards Hinata to see what she thought. Hinata was blushing with a bright smile on her face and didn't notice the look he gave her. The boy looked back at Naruto and shook his hand. "Gaara."

"Nice to meet you Gaara!" Naruto winked at Hinata, who turned an even darker shade of red, and then went to go dance. He stood towards the back of the crowd and tried to get a feel for the band. The lead singer was a girl. She had rough, sultry voice and she was dancing along to the music with her bass guitar as she sang.

_Centennial _

_A perennial _

_Who the fuck are you?_

_Respiration_

_Condensation_

_Where'd you put my shoes!_

Naruto laughed, they were kind of funny. He started to jump and dance along to the fast punk beat. The song really got you moving. After a couple of songs, he started to get a little out of breath and decided to go sit down somewhere.

*Smack* Naruto ran into somebody…. again. Second time this week. He started to apologize and then saw who it was. He was standing right in front of an angry raven headed man.

"Son of a bitch! How come everywhere I am, you have to turn up too!" Naruto yelled.

"Excuse me, but I think it's the other way around dumb ass. And you're the one who keeps running into _me_." Sasuke narrowed his eyes and gave Naruto his death glare, the same one he'd given to Kiba earlier that day.

Naruto looked confused for a moment and then he burst out laughing. Sasuke was giving him the weirdest look and it was hilarious. Was he trying to intimidate him or something? He would have to tell Change about this.

Sasuke crossed his arms in frustration. How come his glare hadn't been working lately? "Why are you laughing?"

"Cuz you look funny dude." Naruto wiped his eyes and tried to stop chuckling. A pink haired girl followed by a blonde girl with a ponytail walked up and started talking to Sasuke.

"Oh my gosh Sasuke! You have to meet my girlfriend! Sasuke, this is Ino. Ino, Sasuke." Sakura stood between Ino and Sasuke as she introduced them.

"It's nice to meet you Sasuke." Ino nodded her greeting while Sasuke just muttered a "yeah".

During this little conversation, Naruto was just standing there awkwardly. He wasn't sure what to do and he kind of wanted to just slink backwards into the crowd. Before he got the chance to do this though, Ino started talking to him.

"Hey! I know you! You always stop by the gas station I work at and buy like gum and stuff. Man it's such a small world. Haha you're such a loiterer. So are you and Sasuke together?"

Ino's little speech ended with two very stiff bodies and a pink haired person trying to drag her away from the scene she had created.

Naruto gave Ino an uncomfortable smile. "Umm, I'm Naruto by the way, and umm I would never date this ass hole in a million years." Then he turned to scowl at Sasuke.

Sasuke spit back, "Likewise, I would never date this dumb ass."

Now everyone was uncomfortable and Sakura was still trying to drag her girlfriend away. Then Ino cracked a grin. "Oh, my bad, you just kinda looked like you were together." She looked both of them over and added, "You seem like you're meant for each other.. you know, opposites attract and everything. And you kinda got a whole sexual tension thing going on between the two of you."

She watched as they both paled a little and got flabbergasted looks plastered on their faces. Then she gave them a very knowing smile, grabbed Sakura's hand, and turned to leave.

After a few minutes of just standing there, Sasuke finally decided to just ignore the embarrassing things Ino had just spouted and talk. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"My friend Hinata invited me! What are _you _doing here?"

"Hinata? Oh, you mean the girl Gaara invited." He looked over to the booth where Gaara and Hinata were. Gaara was whispering something in her ear and she immediately got pinker than she already was. Sasuke was surprised at Gaara. He rarely showed an interest in girls (or guys for that matter). He seemed really happy though and that's all that mattered to Sasuke. He didn't want his friend to be lonely and Hinata had seemed like a nice girl, though if she was friends with the blonde haired dobe, he might have to reevaluate her.

He met Naruto's questioning gaze and realized that he hadn't answered his question. "Gaara invited me. He's my roommate."

Naruto's eye's widened and he muttered something along the lines of "so that's where I knew him from."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and then took a moment to really study Naruto. He had a nice body, he couldn't deny that. The outfit he had on really complimented his form. The saying on the shirt, 'Believe it,' was incredibly stupid though. Then he looked at his face and saw six faint whiskerlike scars. Sasuke couldn't believe he hadn't noticed them the other day, they were pretty obvious. On anyone else the scars would probably look ugly, but on Naruto they were kind of cute.

That thought jerked Sasuke out of his analyses. Sasuke turned and walked away from Naruto and headed towards Shino. Kiba was most likely hanging out with Ino and Sakura and Sasuke wanted to be as far away from that ponytailed girl as possible. And he didn't want to interrupt Gaara's date so he sat down next to Shino and ordered a coke. Shino was good company for times like these. Times when he found himself using the word cute to describe people he hated.

Naruto continued to stand there confused. Sasuke had just suddenly left and Naruto didn't know what to do. Finally he shook his head and went to find Neji.

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><p><strong>Note: <strong>There is no such place in Portland, as far as I know, called Ivanka. I made that up. The Paperplates are also made up. That's just what I would name my band if I had one. haha I think it's a fun name :) The lyrics I made up too. They're actually part of a song/poem that I wrote last year. Just wanted to clarify those things. Not much else to say about this chapter.

I'm kind of at a loss for what to do next... so, any ideas?

_Thank you for reading. Liked it or hated it, please review! I gotta get better somehow. And thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far, it means alot :D_


	11. Bored

**Warnings: **Slight languge?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto... yep, not even a tiny fraction of it.

**Notes: **Sorry, sorry, I know I should have posted yesterday but I had serious writers block. It sucked, but thanks to my lovely friend **yaoi lover14706 **I was able to think up this chapter. lol I use the word bored thirteen times in this chapter. Oh, and Kiba gets a chance to shine! yep, so here it is chapter 11:

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><p>Naruto was bored. So bored…. His head was currently rested on his desk and he was rolling his pencil back and forth and back and forth because of his boredom.<p>

Today had been the slowest day of his life. He had woken up unusually early and couldn't get back to sleep so he'd decided to sit with Iruka as he read his daily newspaper. He'd tried to sit silently and force himself to laugh at the horribly unfunny newspaper comics that Iruka had slipped him but to no avail. He'd even tried drinking coffee, which, amazingly, did not give him a caffeine high. How boring.

Then Naruto had walked to the college campus to go to his class. Usually, on his walk, something would happen. He'd talk to a hobo, find change on the ground, be offered a free pamphlet, or see a hot guy to ogle. Nothing good like that happened today.

And now he was sitting in class waiting for Kakashi sensei to get there. Kakashi was late… again. That meant more boring waiting with nothing to do. He'd forgotten to bring his ipod or a book to read and he was now suffering because of it. He didn't even have Sasuke to argue with. The teme must have skipped class or something because he was nowhere to be seen. Naruto may hate Sasuke with a blinding passion, but as long as he's around he knew it would't be boring. Maybe uncomfortable or irritating, but not boring.

Naruto sighed and stopped messing with his pencil. He decided that as soon as class was out, he was going to rush back home and talk to Change. They hadn't talked as much since school started but Naruto still thought an awful lot about him. Nobody else could make him feel as wanted as Change. Hopefully Change had a more interesting day so that they'd have something to talk about.

A sound at the front of the classroom signaled Kakashi sensei's arrival.

"Sorry guys, a squirrel attacked me on my way here and I had to stop by the hospital to make sure I didn't have rabies."

A collective groan came from the class and Naruto rolled his eyes. That one was actually kind of funny. Kind of.

After a particularly boring class with Kakashi was over, Naruto wasn't sure what to do next. He'd planned on talking with Change, but he probably wasn't at home yet. He walked out outside and stood there staring at a tree to think. He didn't have any other classes and it was his day off from work. All his friends were busy so that left nobody to hang out with. For what seemed like the umpty-umpth time today, Naruto sighed. He hated boring days.

A few yards behind Naruto stood Kiba. He was looking at his feet in despair because all his dumb friends had blown him off today. Gaara had work, Sakura was busy with her stupid girlfriend, Shino doing research for some anatomy project, and Sasuke was sick with a cold. Kiba thought that maybe he could stop by his place and to see if he was alright, but that would probably end up pissing Sasuke off. It was no fun irritating Sasuke if there was no one to back you up.

His dog, Akamaru, was next to him. The dog gave out a small whimper and Kiba gave him a slight smile to cheer him up. Today sucked. It was turning out to be a boring and lonely day with just him and Akamaru.

Kiba glanced up from his feet to have a look around him. He turned and saw someone who looked just as bummed out as he did. It was the blonde guy that Sasuke had bumped into on their first day. Kiba chuckled at the memory, Sasuke had been so pissy that day it was hilarious. Naruto had seemed like a cool guy though, like someone that Kiba could get along with. _Hey, like what the fuck? He seems like a fun guy to hang out with, ima go see if he like wants to do something._

Kiba grinned at Akamaru and called out, "Hey Naruto!"

Naruto was jerked out of his stupor at the sound of his name. He turned around and saw Kiba waving his arm in the air to get his attention. A dog was skipping around at Kiba's feet. A smile spread over Naruto's face. Maybe Kiba would hang out with him. He didn't really know the dog loving guy much. The only times he ever saw him were when Sasuke was around, so he was never really able to get to know him. Today seemed as good a day as ever to start hanging out with Kiba. "Hey!" he replied.

The two walked up to each other and stood there for a second not sure what to do. This was the first time they'd really ever talked. Since Kiba had been the one to holler at Naruto, he thought it would be best if he tried talking first.

"Yo dude. Man this is weird, like we've never really like talked before." Kiba internally laughed at himself. That was a lame way to start a conversation.

"Haha I know! So… what are you doin' today?" Naruto mentally winced, this was turning into a slow uncomfortable conversation.

Kiba sighed, "Nothing. This has like been the most boring fucking day ever! Like all my friends ditched me and it's like no fun doing stuff by yourself!"

Kiba watched in amusement as Naruto's eyes about bulged out of his skull. "OH My God, Yes! I'm soooo bored! None of my friends are available today, they're all working and stuff! It sucks!"

He was so fascinated with how Naruto's arms flailed around as he talked that he almost didn't notice when Naruto had stopped talking. He'd been listening, but he got distracted easily too. " Ha ha this is like awesome! Do you wanna do something? We could like go see a movie! Or like check out girls at the mall? That's always fun!"

Naruto got an uncomfortable look on his face at the mention of girls. He looked off to the side and started to fidget. Kiba understood immediately, but wasn't bothered at all. "Oh, sorry. Guess you're gay, huh? Damn, like how come all my friends are gay?" He said it in a joking manner to put Naruto at ease. He could tell from the shocked look on Naruto's face that he didn't tell people about his sexuality very often and probably wasn't very secure with himself.

"Y-you're not…?" The shocked look on Naruto's face turned to a confused one.

"I'm not what, mad?" Naruto gave him a slight nod to confirm. "Yo like dude, why would I be mad about something stupid like that? I'm not some jack ass homophobe and none of my friends are either. I mean like Sakura's bi and Shino and Sasuke are gay. It's no biggie." Akamaru barked in agreement.

Relief seemed to wash over Naruto. "Thanks Kiba, you're the first friend I've told… that wasn't online."

Kiba grinned at that. "No prob dude."

They started to walk off the campus in silence. Naruto was thinking about what Kiba had said and it was putting his heart at ease. Kiba was really understanding and he didn't care at all that he was gay. That was awesome. He decided that if Kiba took it that well, then he should think about telling his other friends. Hopefully they would be as cool about it as Iruka, Change, and now Kiba had been.

Naruto burst into a huge smirk when he remembered something Kiba had said. "So… Sasuke's gay?"

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

_(A couple hours later)_

Kiba, Naruto, and Akamaru were getting tired and hungry. They'd spent the last few hours going into every store they came upon. They'd look around and see how long it took before an employee would ask them to leave because they had a dog with them. Amazingly some of the stores didn't care at all and let them wander around until they got bored. It had been fun for a while, but now they wanted to sit somewhere and watch the movie they'd just rented. Now they were talking about whose house they should go too to watch the movie.

"Ugh, I don't want to go back to the campus yet and beside, we'd have to like use my roommates TV and he can get pissy sometimes."

"My house is nearby, but Iruka probably just got home from work and he's usually super tired afterwards."

They stopped walking to think for a bit.

Then Kiba got an idea.

An awesome idea.

A stroke of genius idea that he knew Naruto would love.

An idea that, though closely resembled the Potter Puppet Pals 'Bothering Snape' episode, was actually much more refined.

"Hey Naruto, I know where we can go watch our movie."

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Sasuke groaned. He was sick and felt like shit. When he'd woken up this morning, he'd felt all achy and his nose was running. At first Sasuke had no idea what was happening. Then it had dawned on him that he must be sick. But that was preposterous, Sasuke Uchiha never got sick. Getting sick was for dumb people. And yes, Sasuke knew that his reasoning sucked, but that didn't matter.

He rolled over onto his back and looked at the ceiling. He was actually feeling a lot better than he had this morning. Earlier today had been horrible. He was glad that nobody had decided to visit him. That was probably thanks to Gaara. He probably called all their friends and informed them that he was sick and not to be messed with. Gaara was cool like that. He knew Sasuke really well and was a good friend. He'd even made Sasuke breakfast.

Sasuke felt his stomach rumble but decided to wait awhile more before he got up. He closed his eyes and attempted to fall back asleep.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Naruto and Kiba made their way up to Gaara/Sasuke's apartment. Kiba pulled out his key and quietly unlocked the door. They slipped inside, shut the door, and then grinned at each other. Mission part one accomplished.

Kiba tossed Naruto the movie and motioned for him to put it in the DVD player. He could tell that Sasuke was asleep. If he'd been awake, he would have heard them come in.

He whispered to Naruto, "Haha Sasuke's asleep. Let's see how far into the movie we get until he wakes up."

"This is the awesomest idea ever." Naruto chuckled. He couldn't wait to see Sasuke's face when he woke up and walked into the living room only to find him sitting on his couch. Naruto was in love with Kiba's plan :_ Operation Sneak Into Sasuke's Place and See How Much We Can Antagonize Sicky_. It was genius.

It ended up taking longer than they would have liked too. They made it through half the movie and Sasuke still hadn't woken up. And it was a long movie too, two hours. Naruto's stomach finally growled and Kiba laughed.

"Man, I'm like hungry too. Let's see what Gaara and Sasuke have to like eat."

They got up off the couch and started searching the kitchen. A loud groan from just outside of the room stopped their exploration.

"Who the fuck is making all the noise?" An incredibly bedraggled Sasuke walked into the kitchen. He looked annoyed and really sick. In one of his hands was a tissue. He opened his eyes to see who was in his kitchen and froze when saw two boys smirking at him.

Sasuke went into a rigid stance and pointed his finger at Naruto. "What the fuck are you doing here!"

In a taunting voice Naruto asked, "Well hello Sasuke kun! How was your nap?"

He gritted his teeth and turned his death glare towards Kiba. "What the hell Kiba? Why did you let _him _into my house!"

"We thought you could use some company! Oh, hey, like where is all your food? Do you and Gaara like never go shopping?"

Sasuke was a loss for words. He wanted to say something witty back but nothing was coming to him.

Then a huge coughing fit came over him. It wracked through him and he started to shudder with each cough. Seeing Sasuke shake like that freaked Naruto and Kiba out and they got worried. They both rushed to his side.

"Sasuke, you ok?"

"Hey, like don't die!"

"Do you need something? Water, cough medicine? Kiba, where's their bathroom ima go check for medicine!"

Kiba jerked his head in the direction of the bathroom and Naruto ran to check. He found it almost at once and came back. Kiba was rubbing Sasuke's back to try and help the fit pass, though they couldn't really do anything for him until he stopped coughing.

Finally, Sasuke's coughing slowed down and then stopped. He looked especially pale once it passed and that worried the other two. Naruto got a spoon and got the recommended dosage ready for Sasuke to take. He looked at Naruto uneasily and then retrieved the spoon from him so he could take it himself. He swallowed with a grimace and then continued to look uncomfortably at Kiba and Naruto.

Naruto broke the silence. "So… glad you didn't die."

Kiba chuckled, "Yeah, you had us scared big time. You want us to make you something to eat? Though like the only thing you seem to have is Ramen."

At the mention of Ramen, Naruto's ears perked up. "Ramen! I fricking love Ramen! It has to be the greatest invention of all time! I'll make it!"

Naruto then got to work preparing their late lunch early dinner meal. Kiba went to sit back on the couch and Sasuke just stood there. He wasn't sure how to take what had just happened. He was confused and grateful and pissed all at the same time. He was definitely frustrated that Naruto was in his house. The guy was stupid, and even if he had helped him during his coughing fit, that by no means meant he suddenly liked him.

But…. It was strange. Naruto seemed kind of familiar.

Sasuke watched as he hummed 'Ramen, Ramen, Ramen' and got their meal ready. Then he started shouting at Kiba, telling him about miscellaneous things. The yelling caused Sasuke to flinch in annoyance. The dobe didn't need to shout.

"….. Oh, hey Kiba! Did you know that roadrunners are real?"

"What? No way, those are just cartoons!"

"No they're real! My friend Neji showed me pictures and stuff. It totally surprised me too!"

Ok… Sasuke definitely knew this conversation from somewhere…. but where? As Sasuke stared at Naruto, he started to feel uneasy.

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><p><strong>Note #2: <strong>Ok so there was that chapter. I hope you liked it. So I'm thinking that this story is only going to last a few more chapters, like maybe 3 or 4. I just thought I'd let you know. And I'm ALWAYS up for ideas, so if you have a suggestion for the story please PM me! Anyways school's starting tomorrow for me and I am so nervous and not ready geez...

**Note #3: **If you are interested in Soul Eater, I wrote a Death the Kid/**Male **Crona oneshot called I Like This. It may turn into a twoshot with the second part being more smutty. Go check it out if you'd like :)

_Thank you for reading! Remember, liked it or hated it, please review! I gotta get better somehow :) And thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far. You guys are awesome!_


	12. Food

**Warnings: **Cursing

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto. Or any other TV show/book/movie that I mention. We've been through this!

**Note: **Ah Sorry I've been a procrastinaty bitch! Shoulda updated sooner.. haha I'd like to thank **Aymichyan **and **AngelGirl0200 **for giving me some ideas. thanks you two I'm pretty sure I got the rest of the story planned now :D Also, sorry about any errors. I was scrambling to get this done so I didn't end up editing it as much as I usually do. Here's chapter 12:

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><p>Things had been going wonderful since he'd left Portland. After leaving, he'd been able to loosen up and stop constantly worrying about getting perfect grades and staying out of trouble. He'd made friends that he didn't have to constantly lie to. He'd gotten himself a bachelor's degree and a stable job as a secretary at a television station. There was no longer any need for him to hide his sexuality and he'd met a sexy, outgoing guy who loved him. And he never had to hide things precious to him in fear that they would be stolen and sold. To him, that pretty much meant a perfect life.<p>

Except, in the back of his mind there was that constant nagging guilt that he'd left his little brother alone to deal with all that shit that he'd been able to escape. He knew that it was pretty much too late to try and fix things, but lately the guilt had gotten to be too much and he _had_ to go check on his brother.

He stepped out of his boyfriends beat up black car. Before he shut the door, he turned back to his black haired boyfriend for confidence. Kisame smiled his toothy grin and nodded for him to go on. He gave forced smile back and then made himself go to the apartment building, open the door, walk up the many flights of stairs, and then stand in front of the dreaded door. The door that held behind it, his childhood. He gritted his teeth and knocked. He replaced his uncomfortable looking face with his old emotionless mask before the door could open.

The door swung open to reveal a bitter looking man. "What the fuck do you- Huh? …." The man's eyes widened and he looked like he'd seen a ghost. "I-Itachi?"

"Hello father." Itachi's face showed no emotion. He hated his father and but preferred to hide his distaste so as not to anger him. Sasuke had always had problems with that and he sincerely hoped that he had gotten better at it since Itachi's departure.

Fugaku's surprised composure soon disappeared as he welcomed his favorite son into the apartment. "Itachi it's been such a long time! You never stop by to visit and I was beginning to get worried! Would you like a cup of tea?" His voice was light and happy. His life had been going straight to hell since Sasuke had left and he hoped that with the appearance of his oldest son, things might look up for him. Itachi wouldn't deny his father if he asked him for money. Could he?

When his father's back was turned away from him as he hurried to the kitchen to make tea, Itachi scowled. The apartment was an utter mess. His father was obviously still a heavy drinker because beer cans were everywhere. It was disgusting. In the corner of his eye, he glanced into the kitchen and saw the loads of dirty dishes piled in the sink. Something didn't seem right here. Itachi was sure that Fugaku would have made Sasuke clean the house instead of leaving it in the gross disrepair it was currently in.

Itachi sighed. It was time to get to the reason of why he had visited. He couldn't have cared less about his father. This visit was about Sasuke.

"Father, is Sasuke around? I'd like to speak to him."

A loud crash came from the kitchen. A coffee cup had been dashed onto the floor. Fugaku whipped around and glared at Itachi. "Don't you dare mention that good for nothing cock suckers name! He doesn't live in my house any more! That fucker got me beat up!"

Itachi narrowed his eyes. If Sasuke was no longer living here, then that meant Itachi never had any reason to set foot near his father again. There was no need for false pleasantries anymore. He hated his father. Now he just needed to find out where Sasuke was. And what had happened between the two of them that had caused his father to be so pissed off at Sasuke.

"What did you do to Sasuke?"

The question hung eerily in the air. Then Fugaku gave an evil grin to Itachi. "I beat the fag up cuz he ruined my marriage."

With the swiftness of some kind of automated machine, Itachi flew forward and grabbed a handful of his father's hair and forced him down. The man scrambled at the hand in his hair and gave a pitiful whine. "Let go Itachi!"

"You beat Sasuke because of something that is obviously your fault you drunkard?" Itachi's voice was icy. He huffed, "Whatever, this is such a waste of my time. Where is Sasuke?" He tightened his grip in his father's hair.

"I-I don't know! He might've gone to live with some of his friends or something!"

Itachi mentally went through the list of people he remembered Sasuke being friends with. There was that hyper dog boy… the girl who dyed her hair pink…and the distant red head. The red head seemed like the best bet.

Itachi looked down at the trash below him. This man had beaten his brother up for things that Sasuke had no control over. It was disgusting. And he'd used the word fag… he didn't like that either.

"Don't ever come near Sasuke or I again, _father_." He then slammed his dad's head into the side of the wall and left.

Fugaku moaned in pain as he rolled on the ground. What had he ever done to deserve all the beatings he'd received lately? Life must have just been out to get him.

Itachi rushed outside and ran into the car, slamming the door shut. Kisame glanced at him in concern. He was breathing hard and looked shaken. "Are you alright?"

He looked up and sighed, "Not really. I've been a shitty brother! I left my little brother with that monster upstairs and now I don't know where he is. Why did I leave him there!"

Kisame's eyes widened. Then they went back to their normal size and he leaned over to hug Itachi. "It's alright babe, it's alright." He pulled back to stare at the distressed Itachi and then leant forward to press his lips to his boyfriends. The kiss was chaste and meant to be comforting more than anything. "It'll be alright."

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Kakashi sensei was late for the billionth time this year. Naruto wished with all his might that he could put a shock collar on the guy. That way, when he was late, he would receive shocks from his irritated students who wanted him to get his ass to class. Seriously, they were _paying _to attend this class. It was complete bull.

Naruto decided that he might as well eat as he waited. He searched through his bag and pulled out a small container of applesauce. He always had a couple containers in his backpack for just in case. Applesauce rocked. It was the ultimate on the go snack… though many probably disagreed with. But screw those people! Applesauce was awesome, though not as awesome as ramen. He hated to admit that ramen had its drawbacks, but you really couldn't take it with you where ever you went… and it wasn't the best when cold sooo yeah.

As he started pulling out his applesauce and spoon, he noticed a sulky looking Sasuke sitting next to him. He always looked sulky though. But he had been different as of late. The guy hadn't been as mean since that day he'd been sick. He'd actually been slightly pleasant, in a Sasuke sort of way.

"Yo Sasu, want some applesauce?" He held out a container and a plastic spoon from the cafeteria.

Sasuke's face scrunched at the nickname, but then he saw the face Naruto was giving him. It was a persistent happy look that shook Sasuke a bit. He wasn't used to people giving him looks like that. Naruto looked way too pleased about giving him food.

"Umm sure." Naruto's smile intensified and he tossed the food and utensil to Sasuke. He then quickly grabbed some more applesauce out of his bag and started eating.

Sasuke slowly opened it and dipped the spoon in for a bite. He turned his head to see Naruto and about rolled his eyes. The dobe had already finished his snack and was pulling out another one. He sure could wolf his food down. Sasuke sat with the spoon in his mouth and laughed silently to him self when he thought about how much money Naruto must spend on food. Though maybe he was just hungry today. Sasuke doubted that though. The guy was probably always hungry.

He turned towards the front and noticed that their teacher had just walked in.

"Okay class, I decided on my way here that your next assignment will be a partner project." It seemed Kakashi sensei wasn't going to come up with an outrageous excuse for his lateness. Odd. "With your assigned partner, I want you to spend the next two weeks writing a story together using the prompt 'it's ridiculous I couldn't see it until now…'. It must be ten pages long and BOTH partners must contribute. I'll know if you don't. That's all. You can leave and do what you want now. I've gotta go. See ya!"

Kakashi waved in a sayonara fashion and then exited the room.

Naruto immediately jumped up to yell. "WHAT! He made us wait for him for a good ten minutes and then stops by for half a minute to tell us our assignment and then leaves! That's crap!"

He started for the door so that he could go after their sensei but a hand grabbed him before he could leave. "Let me go Sasuke! I gotta go bawl out Kakashi for being a prick!"

Sasuke chuckled. He was pissed as well but he knew that tracking down Kakashi wouldn't do anything. "Calm down…. _Naru. _Now quit your bitching, it's not going to do anything."

Naruto froze at his statement. He'd been wrong, Sasuke was still an ass. "Screw you teme! You're a jerk!"

It then suddenly occurred to the two that there was a class full of college students watching their little fight. As soon as the two glanced around at their classmates, the room suddenly bustedt out laughing. Naruto burst into a bright blush while Sasuke smirked at his embarrassment.

"Eh.. umm.. yeah.." Then Naruto grabbed his bag and hurried out of the classroom.

Sasuke sighed and then leisurely followed him. They needed to discuss what they were going to do for the project and Sasuke didn't want to have to spend a shit load of time trying to track him down to set up times for them to work on it.

"Hey, Naruto, wait up!" The boy stopped and looked back.

"Yeah?"

"We need to talk about the project. Are you doing anything now? If you're not, why don't we just go to my place to work on it. I kinda just want to get it over with."

"Err sure… You got ramen at your place still?" Sasuke had no idea where that had come from. Naruto's mind must wander at an outstanding speed.

"Yes. Yes Naruto, I've got ramen at my place. Will you hurry up now?" Naruto grinned his stupid grin and ran to follow Sasuke as they walked to the bus stop.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Sasuke unlocked the door to his apartment and stepped in. Naruto whooshed past him to get to the kitchen. He started digging through the cabinets until he found ramen and started preparing it. He was starving.

The raven laughed and then shut his door. He walked to his couch and tossed his and Naruto's bag (Naruto had somehow convinced him to carry his bag at some point. He was either secretly devious or just really good at guilt tripping you into things. Either way Sasuke had still ended up carrying his bag.) onto the couch.

He sat waiting for the blonde to get his lunch ready. The TV was playing a rerun of Futurama and he half paid attention to it as he waited. 'Blackmail is such an ugly word. I prefer extortion. The X makes it sound cool….' That got a snigger out of Sasuke.

Suddenly Naruto hopped onto the couch yelling "Ok I'm ready to start!" A bowl of ramen was in his hands.

"Alright, so I was thinking that-" *Knock* A knock on the door broke his focus. "Damn it, we're never going to get this assignment started."

He got off the couch and went to open the door. He opened it and gave a small gasp. He quickly composed his face he gazed at the person standing before him.

It was his brother. Itachi. The guy who had completely ditched him with their father. Itachi had a pleasantly surprised look on his face. He seemed glad to see his baby brother. Sasuke did not reciprocate those feelings.

"What are you doing here?"

The glad look slipped from Itachi's face and he now looked unsure of himself. "I wanted to come see you. I've been worried about you."

A grunt from behind Sasuke broke the two out of their cold conversation. "Who's this?" Naruto was pretty confused. He'd never seen Sasuke so silently angry. Though granted, he didn't really know Sasuke that well so he shouldn't really be jumping to conclusions and such. He sent a questioning look at Itachi.

"My brother." The reply was curt.

An uncomfortable silence came over the group and nobody talked for some time. Itachi was the one to speak first. He'd been staring at Naruto since he'd appeared in the brother's conversation. Itachi suddenly jumped to a conclusion and narrowed his eyes at Naruto.

"Are you my brother's boyfriend?"

An irritated groan left Sasuke while Naruto got a stunned look and started talking. "Why does _everyone _keep assuming I'd be together with this arrogant teme! We're not going out!"

"Naruto? Could you please leave?"

A hurt look flashed over Naruto's face at being asked to leave. "But the assignment.. and ramen…"

"Take the ramen with you and I'll see you tomorrow at school." Sasuke had a slightly desperate tone that Naruto decided to obey. He silently gathered up his things and left the apartment giving Sasuke a small "later" as he left. The door was shut leaving the two Uchiha's alone in the room.

"Now please tell me why you really came here Itachi."

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><p><strong>Note # 2: <strong>My first cliff hanger! hahahaha, ah I'm mean. I feel as though I got off topic though... and Yes, Itachi has come to visit. And I just had to pair him with Kisame. I've only read a couple of KisaIta fics, but they were pretty good so I thought I'd try that out. Oh! And I totally carry applesauce around in my backpack and eat it during class. I thought Naruto would do something like that to XD

Also! If you are interested (which I doubt any of you are lol) I put up a super depressing Harry Potter songfic oneshot featuring DracoXHarry called Farewell. There is a smut scene just so you know... :)

_I hope you enjoyed! Remember, liked it or hated it, please review! I gotta get better somehow_


	13. For Your Own Good

**Warnings: **umm does stalking count?

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto.

**Notes: **I am soooo sorry this took so long to post. School takes up a lot more of my time than you'd think. Also some bad stuff happened to my friend. yeah. Also, Itachi is fucking hard to write! **Please read: **Itachi is probably OOC. I tried my best but it is just really hard for me to write him. So sorry about that, but please understand. Also, most of this chapter is from Itachi's point of view.

* * *

><p><em>Now please tell me why you really came here Itachi.<em>

Itachi really wanted to roll his eyes or sigh, but Sasuke probably wouldn't take that very well. Plus, that was a Sasuke reaction and he needed to maintain his calm cool Itachi disposition. The insinuation was a bit hurtful and Itachi didn't like hearing, but that didn't mean he was going to react to it. He did, however, understand where Sasuke was coming from. He'd ditched his baby brother and he was obviously not going to be forgiven immediately, if ever. But he wanted to get to know Sasuke and help him out if possible. So instead of reacting to the irritating and negative comment, Itachi just stared peacefully and began talking.

"I was speaking the truth earlier. I wanted to check up on you and see if there was anyway to fix our relationship as brothers." Sasuke was sporting a disbelieving and pissed look as Itachi spoke. The look started to ruffle him and he started to speak slower and more carefully. "I.. I know I have… neglected.. my duties as your brother and I would really love to make it up to you. I want to be apart of your life again."

Sasuke stared at his brother and then started to laugh. "Hahahah yeah, no, we're not having this conversation. I don't need you to whine about how you wished you could have been a better brother. Leave." Sasuke's voice went from amused to stoney in a second and he promptly pushed Itachi out of his house and locked the door.

Itachi stood outside of the apartment looking really confused. He was having a hard time grasping what had just happened. "What?" _Ok, how the fuck did Sasuke manage to push me out of his house without me even realizing? We're the same size!_

Itachi finally shook the dumbstruck look from his face and turned around and headed back to the car. Kisame was waiting looking worried. "Everything go alright?"

"Not really. Kisame, I'm going to be staying in Portland for a while so would you mind helping me find a hotel to stay in?" Itachi was looking out the window with a distant look on his face.

"Uhh, sure? Do you want me to stay with you?"

"No, I need to be alone while I'm here. I've got things to do." Kisame gave him an uneasy look but didn't say anything. Itachi usually knew what he was doing and it was best to leave him to his own devices.

The long haired raven became silent as Kisame drove him to a hotel. He was planning his next move. He decided that he was going to get to know his brother whether or not Sasuke agreed or even knew. He was decided.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

_Ramen4thewin: grr! I have the stupidest partner in this one class!_

**thechange95: haha sux 4 yu, but I got the same problem as u already know**

_Ramen4thewin: oh ya… well good! I think its important that we both suffer._

**thechange95: like to bring people down with u huh? **

_Ramen4thewin: wat? No! I just meant it makes me feel better knowing u got a sucky partner too.. I ithink.._

**thechange95: I was just kidding. Fuck, but my dumb shit brother came to visit and he's all "I just want to get to know u" .idiot.**

_Ramen4thewin: not a big fan of ur brother I take it_

**thechange95: ya, he basically ditched me and left me to stay with our dad.**

_Ramen4thewin: sorry_

**thechange95: not ur fault. I just… really hate my brother**

_Ramen4thewin: anything I can do to help?_

Sasuke thought for a second. It was really thoughtful that he'd asked that question. Just the fact that he asked made him feel better.

Seeing his brother had really shaken him. He'd thought that Itachi had completely forgotten about him when he'd gone to live his dream life. That, apparently, wasn't the complete truth, but it didn't matter. Itachi was still basically dead to him. Screw Itachi! Why care about him when he had Ramen?

**thechange95: na, just be urself and that'll cheer me up ;)**

_Ramen4thewin: lol dork. Thanks tho_

Sasuke smiled at the comment. It was too bad he would have to go to work soon and end their talk.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Itachi Uchiha was _not _stalking his little brother. He was merely lingering outside Sasuke's apartment waiting for him to leave so that he could sneak in and search through his stuff in the hopes of learning more about his brother. That wasn't stalking. Uchiha men do not stalk.

… Okay it was stalking.

He didn't even understand what had compelled him to do this. What was going on with him? His life had been going fine until he'd decided he needed to help his brother.

But who was this more about? Sasuke or him?

It had started out with him exclusively wanting to get Sasuke out of the abusive clutches of their father that he had left him with. Sasuke, it seemed though, had already gotten out of that situation. It shouldn't have come as a surprise, he _was _18. That plan had failed and now Itachi just really wanted to see what kind of person he had become. So basically, it was about Itachi satisfying his selfish need to be involved in Sasuke's life.

He was hiding in the alley next to the apartment building biding his time. Finally, though, Sasuke came out and headed down the street away from Itachi. He waited for a second or two to make sure his brother was really gone before running into the building and rushing up the stairs to Sasuke's apartment.

Now was the hard part. The door was probably going to be locked and Itachi hadn't picked a lock in a few years. He didn't want to force his way in either.

He half heartedly turned the doorknob. A smirk formed on his lips when he realized that Sasuke hadn't locked the door. _I would have thought Sasuke was smarter than this. He should know not to leave your house unlocked when you leave. _He slowly opened the door and walked in.

The room was as he remembered it, neat and a bit sparse. A couch, chair, coffee table, and TV stood in the living room. The kitchen looked clean with no dirty dishes in the sink. From what he could see of the house, it seemed a bit emotionless.

Sasuke had always been careful been very… hidden? He liked to keep the things important to him locked away where people couldn't comment. That probably came from having to hide things you didn't want stolen and sold from their Dad though. Itachi was the same way.

Itachi sighed and started to snoop. The living room held basically nothing, so he hurried to start looking through the cabinets in the kitchen. _Ramen… macaroni and cheese… chicken noodle soup… ketchup. Yeah, nothing interesting here. _He turned to the fridge next and saw the same ordinary things as the cabinets. Tomatoes, milk, bread, ham, jam, and spam. Definitely nothing interesting.

It probably should have been obvious that the kitchen wouldn't have held any major secrets/truths about Sasuke. That left his bedroom and bathroom. The bedroom seemed like the best bet because although Itachi didn't really have any qualms about searching through some ones bathroom, it wouldn't have helped him any more than the kitchen had.

He walked down the hall and was surprised to see two rooms. Sasuke shouldn't have had the money to afford an apartment with two bedrooms. Oh well, he had probably just gotten a good deal on the place. With that thought in mind, he pushed open the first door

to reveal a boring, angsty bedroom. He cringed slightly when he realized that his room looked almost exactly like Sasuke's. The walls were bare, there was a cheap desk in the corner, and random college text books lined the walls. A small bed covered in dark blue sheets and blankets was the most colorful thing in the room. It was actually quite eye opening for Itachi. He made a note to buy some posters or something when he got back home.

Itachi huffed and then attempted searching through the sparse room. He got on his hands and knees to search the floor for loose floorboards and the like. In Sasuke's old room back at their dad's apartment, he'd had a loose floorboard where he hid his precious items. Sasuke hadn't known that he knew about it, but Itachi had actually searched through it quite a few times. Sasuke would kill him if he knew that, especially since there'd been some love poems in there.

He was starting to worry until he noticed a box tucked underneath the bed. He quickly pulled it out so he could start rummaging. After picking the box up, he went to sit on Sasuke's bed. Then he opened it.

Right at the top of the box was a computer. Understanding that Sasuke had probably spent a lot of money on it, he was careful as he lifted it out of the box. Underneath the lap top were papers and books. Itachi thought those things looked boring, so he went right to work turning on the computer so that he could learn more about Sasuke. There had to be more to his brother. So far, all he had learned was that Sasuke didn't own many things and that he was a college student and that didn't tell him much.

Itachi was surprised when he found the computer wasn't password protected, but that was nothing compared to what he found when the computer desktop popped up.

A cartoon cup of ramen with a big smiley face was the desktop background.

Where did that come from? This was Sasuke's computer right? Had he completely misjudged Sasuke right from the beginning?

Itachi bit back his questions and started looking through the computer. It was interesting because it seemed as though most of his life was contained in this computer. He listened to music. Linkin Park, Dashboard Confessions, Simple Plan, and Fightstar seemed to be among his favorites. He had tons of pictures stored on the computer of his friends and him as well. Not to mention the tons upon tons of stories and poems he seemed to have written. It relieved Itachi to know that his little brother had interests and friends.

After scouring through Sasuke's many computer files, he decided to go online and check Sasuke's history. The first thing in the history was a site called **(1). **He quickly clicked on the website to see who his brother was communicating with on there. He was happy to find that it was logged into Sasuke's account from the last time he'd been on.

Almost as soon as he was on the site a chat screen popped up.

_Ramen4thewin: back from work already?_

Itachi paused. He'd never really used one of these sites before. It also surprised him how quickly this person had texted as soon as they had seen that Sasuke was online. And lastly, it seemed Sasuke had a job.

**thechange95: I forgot that my work shift had changed.**

_Ramen4thewin: haha dork! that doesnt seem like u! r u still upset about ur brother?_

Sasuke was upset that he'd come? Well, that was actually pretty obvious, he shouldn't have been surprised. More important was the fact that Sasuke talked to this person about his problems. They must definitely be close.

**thechange95: I suppose. What are you doing currently?**

_Ramen4thewin: o I'm just raeding the ramen book u got me 4 my birthday __OMG! I freaked out earlier cuz I thought I lost it and I tore apart the apartment lookin 4 it! Dolphin was pretty ticked haha XD_

Sasuke bought this boy a book for his birthday? It perplexed Itachi that this person was important enough for him to buy a present. It stung to know that this person had more contact with Sasuke than he did. He wondered if they knew each other in real life as well. The desktop background back ground would make a lot more sense if the two were close.

_Ramen4thewin: o ya, and u know how I got that stupid partner! Well its 4 creative writing class and now we have to write a stor y using the prompt 'it's ridiculous I couldn't see until now'. Can u help me with ideas? I dont wanna look stupid in front of him and have no ideas. Ur always so smart I thot u could help_

Itachi decided right then and there that this person, whoever they were, might just be a goldmine of information on Sasuke. He needed to meet them so he could evaluate the person and learn about Sasuke in the process. He didn't want his brother's internet friend to be useless or irritating or creepy. Sasuke only deserved the best.

**thechange95: Okay, how about we meet to discuss it. Where would you like to meet?**

15 minutes later

He was starting to get irritated. This _Ramen4thechange _was taking an obnoxious amount of time to reply. Then finally he answered.

_Ramen4thewin: umm ok… how about powells? _

He thought for a minute. Itachi couldn't think of a place called Powell's. Perhaps they had meant the bookstore.

**thechange95: Do you mean Powell's Bookstore?**

_Ramen4thewin: well duh, haha… how about in an hour? I'll.. i'll be wearing a black t-shirt with blue jeans. And i have blonde hair. Ya, just look for the nervous lookin boy holding a book k? _

Itachi froze. It seemed as though they had never met before. It was no wonder he (it was apparently a boy) had taken quite a while to reply. It was too late to back out now, so he decided to follow through with his plan.

**thechange95: Okay, I will find you. See you in an hour.**

_Ramen4thewin: kk :D_

Itachi logged off and smoothly placed the computer in the box and secured the box to its original place. A smug look formed on his face when he realized that he now knew more about Sasuke than he had when he'd first broken in. It left a content feeling.

"Hey Sasuke, are you here? Did you decide to continue talking to your internet boyfriend instead of going to work?"

A feeling of dread replaced the content as he realized that he wasn't the only person in the house. The voice was relaxed, deep, and spoken very slowly. There was an edge of humor in it as well.

Then some of the male's words registered in Itachi's brain.

Internet boyfriend.

Now Itachi was _definitely _going to meet this man. He would not allow his brother to have an inadequate boyfriend. It seemed that meeting this boy before Sasuke was actually justified now. He needed to check this boy out. Allowing Sasuke to have a bad friend was forgivable, but allowing him to have a bad boyfriend was unspeakable.

And if _Ramen4thewin _ended up being a bad person who hurt Sasuke, then he would be first on Itachi's hit list.

A knock on the door made Itachi jump and completely forget his thoughts. The door soon opened to reveal a lean red head. A small smirk was on his face until he saw Itachi, and then it turned into a hateful glare. Itachi faintly remembered the boy. Gaaria or something.

"What are you doing here?" The words were spit out in anger.

"Nothing that should concern you." Itachi countered the red heads glare with his famous Uchiha glare.

"Get out of my apartment." Itachi wanted to kick himself after those words. Obviously Sasuke wouldn't be able to afford this apartment by himself. This boy must be his roommate. He wondered how long he'd been home.

He gave a silent nod and left. There was no use trying to explain his motives for being here to the angry red head. Besides, he had somewhere to be.

Gaara watched as Itachi left, a pissed off and uneasy feeling in his stomach. It wasn't going to be a pretty scene when Sasuke came home and he had to tell the raven about Itachi's unexpected visit… and how no one had let him in and how Gaara had found him in Sasuke's room. That was going to be a sucky conversation. Why would Itachi break into their house? Something wasn't right.

He sighed and took out his cell phone to call Hinata. She was a good listener and he needed to talk.

**SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto SasukeXNaruto**

Naruto was really excited. He was finally going to meet Change! The person who had helped him get through the worst of times and the person who Naruto had a small crush on.

He wondered what Change looked like, as he had multiple times. Lately, as he did this, though, a certain teme bastard entered his thoughts in the middle of his daydreaming. The guy just pissed him off so much that he had a hard time not thinking about him. It was ridiculous.

But Sasuke didn't matter at the moment. He was going to meet Change and that meant the world to him. The boy of his daydreams would be meeting him and that was all that mattered.

Though, Sasuke did seem to be acting weird…

* * *

><p><strong>(1) <strong>I don't know if this is a real site, but if it is I didn't know~~

**Note #2: **So how'd I do? Things are getting serious now lol. The next chapter will probably take me awhile like this one did but I will eventually post.

_Please review! Remember, liked it or hated, please review! I gotta get better somehow :D_


End file.

Naruto, Hurt-Comfort, Romance