Spartan Ninjas (Abandoned WIP)

Disclaimer: We do not own or gain any profit from Naruto.
Reviews are encouraged.

-~- Author's Notes: -~-

A **BIG** THANK YOU TO ZEE FOR SAVING THIS STORY AND SENDING IT TO US AFTER WE'D DELETED IT FROM THIS SITE BEFORE CHECKING THAT WE'D BACKED IT UP!!

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS STORY IS ABANDONED AND WILL NOT BE FINISHED. Details can be found at the end of chapter 22.

DO NOT ASK US IF YOU CAN PICK UP WHERE WE LEFT OFF. WE WILL NOT GIVE THIS STORY TO ANOTHER AUTHOR.

For further reference here is a key to help you follow the story:
::this:: is a character's own personal thoughts

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Spartan Ninjas
~ Chapter One ~
By: Cecilia Tsukineko & Kirei Kitsue

----------Four AM Tuesday Night----------
Sasuke Uchiha trudged into room 256 of West Holmes on Michigan State University campus, feeling the bone weariness starting to overtake him. He'd worked his butt off in the cafeteria and then gone off to his part-time job at a dance club as a bouncer to keep himself totally pre-occupied and too busy to be bothered. Once school actually started he'd have more than enough lack of spare time but until then he would work hard wherever he could and be in the room as little as possible.

If it had been up to him he would have gotten a single, but his foster parents had insisted that he have a roommate his first year at college. Feeling the resentment all over again, Sasuke shut and locked his door and then knocked on the bathroom door to check occupancy. Finding it empty, he gathered up his belongings and took a quick shower before crawling up into bed and settling in for some hard earned rest by pulling the blanket over his head and pulling his headphones over his ears. With Gackt's sweet, sinfully sultry voice purring in his ears, Sasuke fell into a dark and dreamless sleep with only the thought of, ::Well, at least _they_ didn't get to talk to me today...:: before total oblivion engulfed his mind. As soon as he was asleep he relaxed further, turning onto his stomach in his sleep and limply dangling one arm off the bed.

--------Ten AM Wednesday Morning-------
Naruto Uzumaki navigated around the mass of bins littering the hallway to get to the door of room 256 and fished his key out of his pocket, somehow managing not to drop an armload of books. Once he got the door open, he walked in and dumped his load on the couch, getting a good look at the room.

One of the loft-beds – already occupied – was set up along the window and the other bed was perpendicular to it. The bed against the window had a desk underneath it and the other desk was in the corner at the foot of the occupied bed. A futon-couch sat under the bed he guessed was his, across from a TV cart with large TV, a small fridge and a microwave. The floor was already covered in a small carpet. Shelves rested against the wall that divided the room into a closet area and a main living space. The only things the room was lacking were Naruto's belongings.

Deciding to leave his apparently comatose roommate alone for now, Naruto left the room to fetch his things, locking the door behind him.

"This is a nice room," Mika Uzumaki, Naruto's grandmother, said as she walked into the room with him ten minutes later. She highly approved of the fact that all the necessities were already there.

"Yeah, it's alright. Not too big and not too small." Naruto took the bags she was holding and began tucking things away wherever there was space.

"Now I don't want to get any phonecalls about you causing trouble, do you hear me?" Mika scolded her grandson firmly, yet with affection. She was finding it to be just as hard to let Naruto go as it had been to let his father go when he went into the marines. "And you better not spend all your pocket money on manga and anime. Are you listening to me, Naruto?" She stopped hanging clothes in the empty side of the closet and crossed her arms.

"Yes, Baa-chan," Naruto said absentmindedly, filling a couch cubby with his manga. She'd lectured him the whole hour-and-a-half drive to the university on all the usuals – don't pull pranks, try to get along with everyone, _study_, etc. – and he was listened out.

Mika snorted in disbelief. Shaking her head, she went back into the car to grab more stuff.

Rolling his eyes at her, Naruto finished tucking his Latin and ancient Greek dictionaries into a corner of the shelves and turned his attention to the body in the bed. There was an arm dangling over the edge with a fuzzy black sweatcuff on its wrist. On the cuff was a symbol in red and white. ::Looks kinda like a leaky pokéball,:: Naruto thought, examining it. The symbol gave him a strange feeling of déjà vu, but he just chalked that up to having seen it somewhere in the zillion history texts he'd devoured through his life.

Deciding he wanted to meet his roommate, Naruto grabbed the arm and gave it a tug.

Somewhere in dreamland, Sasuke felt something on his arm and his fingers twitched and folded a little, though he remained asleep. He was absolutely out cold, exhausted after having had to handle several incidents of rowdy club-goers. Certainly he knew there was stuff going on around him, but he was comfortable in knowing that the roommate that was currently banging around and chatting with whoever the adult with him was couldn't or wouldn't be able to do anything to hurt him. Not like he'd have even worse luck than he'd already experienced in his relatively short life and get a roommate that was secretly a serial killer or something.

Now the other half of his brain, the half that only had free rein while he was asleep, was absorbing the sensations of warm and slightly calloused fingers on the smooth skin of his lower arm. The feeling of a warm puff of breath ghostly faintly over his fingertips.

Naruto hadn't been known as the bulldog of his high school lightweight wrestling team for nothing – he could be stubborn beyond all reason when he wanted to be. Determined to meet the person on the bed, he gave the arm a hard yank.

"What are you doing, kiddo?" Mika asked as she walked in, carrying a roughneck.

"I think my roommate's dead," Naruto said as he continued to yank the arm.

Pulled rudely from his sleep, Sasuke stilled completely, even held his breath for several long seconds, and then jerked his arm away, rolling over onto his side. The CD in his player had stopped spinning hours ago – he'd forgotten to hit the repeat button – and he could hear everything going on around him. He generally didn't like that, but at least it wasn't the bickering and outright fighting – physical and non – that he usually tried to drown out. He wasn't quite ready to get up yet, but when the voices persisted, commenting on his comatose state, he sighed with frustration and rolled over to lift the edge of his comforter and peer out and down at his obnoxious guests.

Eyes the color of a starless midnight peered down at Naruto and Mika from his loft bed, curtained by slightly mussed raven's wing bangs as black as the feathers of said bird. Pale rose-colored lips turned down in a frown. His pale skin was obvious in the vibrant light of the fluorescent lightbulbs above him. Sasuke remained silent and just like that, with the comforter only lifted enough to reveal his shrouded head and that same arm that had been dangling over the edge of the mattress.

"Hi!" A grin appeared on Naruto's tanned face, letting go of Sasuke's arm now that he was awake. His own sky-blue eyes easily met Sasuke's. "I'm Naruto. You got a name?" ::Wonderful… my roommate's a pretty boy. Yay for eye-candy! Hope he doesn't have an ego problem though... Looks like he might be a goth…::

"If you want to go back to sleep answer quickly and the first time he asks," Mika advised from the closet area, her voice thick with amusement. "Otherwise you're never going to get him to shut up."

"Quiet, old woman!" Naruto growled, scowling at her back before turning to face Sasuke again.

"Whelp," she shot back easily.

The blond boy pulled a super ball out of one of the many pockets on his cargo pants and threw it at her. "Name?" he asked Sasuke.

"Sasuke... Uchiha," he answered and then Sasuke sat up, stretching. Naked to the waist, Sasuke was a sight to behold all creamy skin and lithe, well-toned muscle. When he was done he looked back down to Naruto from where he sat on his calves and rested his hands on his widespread knees. His sleeping pants were hiked up to his midthighs and his bangs and rooster tail were mussed, though he'd tossed only a little in his sleep. He looked up past Naruto and towards the old woman.

"Hi Sasuke." Having the knowledge he wanted, Naruto went back to putting things away and proceeded to ignore him, humming random Queen songs.

Mika picked up the super ball once she was done hanging clothes and threw it back at Naruto, scoring a direct hit on the back of his head and getting a satisfying yelp out of him. "Don't mind him," she said to Sasuke with a cheerful grin. "He alternately has the attention span of a goldfish and a rottwieler."

"Do not! Damn old woman…" Naruto protested, earning him a light cuff. He scowled. "Hit me one more time, Baa-chan, and next time I go home I'm stealing Killer." That just got him a laugh and another cuff.

"You can try but you won't succeed," Mika taunted. She reached up and held out her hand to Sasuke. "Mika Uzumaki. Pleasure to meet you, Sasuke."

Warily looking at Mika's hand, Sasuke reached out and grasped it firmly, but carefully, and shook it. "Hi," was all he said and then he started to climb down out of the bed. There was no point in trying to sleep any more at that point. Not until that night anyway. Without looking at either of them again he settled in his chair and opened a browser on his computer monitor. He wanted to see if any of the things he ordered offline had shipped yet. He just... wasn't the social type.

Mika tried to engage Sasuke in conversation for a good hour before finally giving up. When she and Naruto finished putting everything away, she tried to get Sasuke to join them for lunch, only to fail again.

When Naruto came back after lunch he was alone. He plopped onto the couch and pulled a hacky sack out of a pocket to toss around. "So where you from?" he asked Sasuke curiously. He figured that if he was going to live with this guy they might as well get to know each other. College wasn't going to me any fun if he couldn't get along with his roommate.

"California until last year when I was dragged here to Michigan... Port Huron now," Sasuke said shortly and kept surfing the order-sites he'd been using to get most of his collections off of.

"California? Where in California? Did you ever see movie stars?" Naruto propped himself up on his elbows to look at Sasuke.

"San Fran and no. I never looked for them so I never saw them. I had other things to do."

"Bummer." Naruto lay back down and started throwing the hacky sack around again. "What major are you?"

"Double major. Forensic Science and Law," Sasuke muttered, staring intently at his computer screen still. He wasn't sure how to take all of the attention. He was wary at best at the moment.

Naruto missed his ball and it hit him on the head. "Please don't tell me you're studying to be a politician..." he said warily. As a rule he hated politicians. All they ever did was cause trouble. ...Granted he did too, but Naruto always did it in good fun and he didn't ruin the lives of hundreds of people at once.

"Detective... sort of," he answered and turned to look at Naruto. "So you know stuff about me... What about you?" Perhaps it was best to try and at least open up enough that they could get along or around each other relatively well. Functionally anyway.

"A detective, huh? Now that's cool." Naruto sat up and grinned at him. "I'm an education major with a minor in ancient history. I'm from Birmingham in Metro Detroit, where I live with my grandma, her pet skink Killer and my bullfrog Bunta. You don't mind if I bring Bunta up later, do you?"

"No... I'm planning on getting a boa..." Sasuke answered, relieved that he wasn't going to have to intimidate his roommate into sucking it up and dealing with a snake in silence.

Naruto laughed. "That's alright. But you're gonna wanna hide it whenever Baa-chan comes to visit. She's always wanted a snake but just hasn't gotten around to it. Knowing her she might get tempted to kidnap yours," he said jokingly. She wouldn't really do that but she would threaten it.

"She'd have to fight me for him," Sasuke answered and turned his chair around a little to look at him. "That it?"

"You said your last name's Uchiha, right? Are you Japanese?" Naruto may not have looked it – what with his clear blue eyes, bright yellow hair, and very tanned skin – but he did have some Japanese in him. A grandfather of his a handful of generations back had immigrated to America from Japan and married a European woman. Naruto was his descendant through a line of sons.

"Yes," Sasuke answered. "A very prominent old family clan."

"Have you ever been there?" Naruto asked hopefully, leaning forward. He'd always wanted to go to Japan and see all the castles and historical landmarks.

"Yeah... When I was really young," Sasuke answered. It felt really odd and awkward to be discuss anything with someone he didn't know. But then he supposed he'd never get to know anyone if he didn't open up a little. Perhaps here he could escape his troubled life.

"Really?! Lucky!" Naruto began rattling off a long list of places he wanted to visit, asking Sasuke if he'd been to any of them. "But the place I wanna go most is Hokkaido so I can see the Ainu villages!"

Staring, Sasuke answered shortly between inquiries about whether he had or had not been to multiple and various places in the island country and then when Naruto was finished making his last declaration Sasuke stood and moved over to sit on his beanbag. "Anything else... other than wanting to go to Japan...?"

Of course that opened Naruto right up and he proceeded to tell Sasuke about all the places he wanted to go to, why he wanted to go there, all his hobbies, all his likes and dislikes ("I _love_ ramen!), and finally the awesome prank he'd pulled on the principal of his high school the day after graduation. "It was so great!" Naruto laughed. "He's never gonna figure out how I rigged the PA system to play anime music all day! The underclassmen where talking about it for the rest of the year!"

Feeling oddly sane for once, Sasuke just nodded a little and then checked his watch. "It's time for dinner," he said shortly and stood moving towards the door and slipping on some sandals, but as he reached for the knob, the phone rang. Since he was there he leaned over to look at the caller ID, though he didn't look happy about it at all. Upon seeing the number, he looked over his shoulder and motioned Naruto over. "See this number. Do not... I mean do NOT answer for this number, or I will kill you."

"Why not?" Naruto asked curiously, reading the number.

"I don't want to talk to them," Sasuke stated simply but firmly. And he really didn't. He hated them in fact and never wanted to see them again and as soon as he was twenty-one – an age where they couldn't say anything about anything he did period no matter what it was – he was going to pull their funding and hightail it.

"Why not?" Naruto insisted. His curiosity was piqued now and he wouldn't be satisfied until Sasuke told him.

"Because I don't," he insisted and reached into the closet, pulling out a shirt and pulling it on. It was black, close-fitting and looked damn good on him. "Coming or no?" It wasn't that Sasuke wanted him to come along but the raven-haired youth figured to make a go of his first year mostly free from the horrendous life he'd been living.

"Yeah. And why not? What are they, a stalker or something?" Naruto continued to ask, following Sasuke out of the room and locking the door behind them. He let Sasuke lead the way to the cafeteria since he still had to learn where everything was. At least he hoped Sasuke knew where it was.

It wasn't long before they were in the cafeteria and all Sasuke had said about the phone call after Naruto's last question was, "It doesn't matter. I don't want to talk to them."

It was as they were getting ready to sit down that Naruto got to witness the first of many pre-glomp shudders. Sasuke stopped suddenly and stood ramrod straight and still as a lamp-post, then lowered his head and shuddered. Somehow he'd anticipated the attack of the pink-haired and blond-haired girls that came up on either side of him to take an elbow apiece.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cooed and batted long pink lashes at him, partially veiling her large teal-colored eyes. "You should come sit with us!"

"Yes, Sasuke-kun!" Ino purred sweetly, running her hand up Sasuke's arm to his shoulder. "Come sit with us!" She tugged him in the direction of one of the small round tables that littered the cafeteria, completely ignoring the curious blonde boy in cargos and a "Fat Bottomed Girls Make My Rockin' World Go 'Round" t-shirt.

"Friends of yours?" Naruto asked absentmindedly, openly staring at Sakura. She was one of the most beautiful girls he'd ever seen!

"NO," Sasuke stated flatly and carefully pulled away with enough grace not to spill his tray. Turning, he started towards another table, expecting that Naruto would follow. "They're just part of the fangirl-groupies that seem to follow me wherever I go..." he finished in a grumble.

Naruto didn't follow. He had other things on his mind. "Hi, I'm Naruto," he said cheerfully to Sakura with a huge, friendly grin.

Not to be deterred, Ino grabbed her tray and followed Sasuke, sitting next to him when he claimed the end of one of the long tables. "How was your summer, Sasuke-kun?" she cooed.

"Get lost!" Sakura snapped and shoved her way past Naruto. She wanted nothing to do with someone that wasn't Sasuke and especially did NOT want to be outdone by Ino! Settling across from Sasuke she smiled at him and said, "Yes, Sasuke-kun! How was your summer?"

Sasuke sighed and looked out the window. He wasn't talking to them unless he absolutely had to, so all he said was, "Fine." In all honesty it had sucked, but he wasn't going to elaborate and get dragged into conversation with people he didn't even like. Idly he wondered where his new roommate had run off to.

Naruto sat down next to Sakura and, being the stubborn blond he was, tried again to engage her in conversation. "My summer was just fine. You got a name, lovely?" Well, no one ever said he was _good_ at flirting...

Sakura looked over at him and gave him a funny look. "We weren't talking to you," she said shortly and the turned to Sasuke again to begin chittering about her summer and Ino seemed determined to talk over or around her.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and started to eat a little faster. He wasn't in the mood to deal with them. In fact, he wanted to go back to his room right now. Sighing over the waste of a meal, he stood and started for the tray conveyer. He'd had enough.

"Later, Sasuke," Naruto called over his shoulder before returning his attention to the girl next to him. "So anyway... Sakura, right?" The other girl had said her name at some point.

"How do you know Sasuke?" Ino asked curiously. Anyone who knew Sasuke had the potential to become an ally.

"I'm his roommate," he answered automatically, glad to be finally paid attention to.

"Oh really..." Ino gave Sakura a sly glance.

"Oh... his roommate! I'm sorry... We thought you were one of the strange boys that follow him around like puppies sometimes. I'm Sakura Haruno and this is Ino Yamanaka. What's your name again?" They could let Sasuke slip for now... because with this one a new window of opportunity presented itself.

"Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki. Pleasure to meet you, ladies," he said with a grin. Now he was getting somewhere!

"Naruto, nice to meet you," Sakura began and the rest of the afternoon was spent with him, garnering knowledge for future attempts to gain Sasuke's favor.

---

Sasuke looked up as Naruto finally returned to their room. He was sprawled on the couch – which was pulled out to make a bed – reading one of his manga, Kizuna. Laying the book on his chest, he said simply, "You know they're just planning on using you to get closer to me...."

Naruto shrugged and dropped onto the beanbag in the middle of the small room. "Attention is attention. And besides... who's to say that I can't change their focus from you to me?" He mischievously fox-grinned at his roommate.

"If you can manage that I'll pay you 500 dollars," Sasuke said immediately. He was dead serious. If Naruto could get some of those girls off his back, he would be more than glad to fund the boy's next fifty dates.

"Seriously?!" Naruto asked, looking very surprised. When Sasuke nodded he grinned hugely. "All the manga I could get with 500 bucks... You're on!"

Sasuke just wore a mysterious smile as he turned back to Kizuna. He knew that Naruto had nothing to lose in this bet but the money he already didn't have. Sasuke also knew that Naruto was certain to lose. He just knew Ino and Sakura better than his new roommate.

"So... any tips? You know them, I don't." Naruto figured if Sasuke was willing to bet 500 dollars on whether he could get the girls to pay more attention to him, then Sasuke really wanted them to leave him alone, thus he would help Naruto win.

"They're annoying," Sasuke muttered, still reading. And that was all he said.

Naruto rolled his eyes and got to his feet. "You're so helpful," he muttered sarcastically as he sat at his desk. A moment later he was blasting "Bring Me To Life" while checking his bookmarks on the internet.

Tuning out the lyrics, Sasuke let the background noise carry him into sleep as his manga slowly dropped in height, lowering towards his chest until he was out cold and the book had slipped with his arm over the edge of the couch mattress and to the floor.

The blond turned his head at the sound of book hitting floor and, his curiosity getting the better of him, picked up the manga. It didn't take long before he realized just what it was and he shook Sasuke awake. "Something you wanna tell me?" he asked, holding the manga open to one of the yaoi scenes.

Sasuke stared at it for a moment and then replied sharply, "It's two men having sex... What's there to tell?"

"Yes or no," Naruto said simply.

"Nanda?" Sasuke asked and then sighed throwing an arm over his eyes. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Gay or bi. If you were het you wouldn't be reading this," Naruto explained.

"Does it matter?"

"No, but it's generally a good thing to know, especially since we're gonna be living together," Naruto said patiently.

There was a long pause and then, "Gay. Women are too much of a pain in the ass in my case that I'd rather have another man that isn't going to fawn over me like I'm some exotic plant that needs 24/7 care and attention."

Naruto nodded in understanding (not that he really did but he was good at pretending) and put a hand on Sasuke's head. "Now was that so hard?" Using Sasuke's head as leverage, he pushed himself to his feet and sat back down at his desk, taking the manga with him. "This any good?" he asked, flipping through it again.

Glowering, Sasuke answered, "I've only read it and Gravitation and Fake eight times a piece straight through."

"Gravi's good," Naruto agreed, returning to the start of the volume to actually read it. "Great music. Haven't read Fake."

"Fake is one of the best shounen ai or yaoi series there is," Sasuke informed him and reached into his cubby. He was at Naruto's side a moment later and took the Kizuna volume from him to hand him the first Fake manga in its place. "Here, read this first."

The blond scrunched his face in protest at the sudden change of reading material. "I was just getting into that one!" he whined, reaching over and trying to grab Kizuna back.

"Read that first... Then read this," Sasuke said and turned around, heading for the cubby to put Kizuna away. When the cubby was closed again he straightened and asked, "So which is it?"

"Which is what?" Naruto said absentmindedly, already absorbed in the Fake storyline.

"Where's your sexual orientation lay?"

"My idol is Freddie Mercury. What does that tell you?"

"Right," Sasuke murmured and sprawled on the couch. "That certainly answers my question."

"The funny part is I went to a private military high school," Naruto threw in absently, now very engrossed in Dee's attempts to get in Ryo's pants.

Sasuke chuckled a little, almost inaudibly, at that and stretched out more. It was nice to be in another's company and not have to worry about getting jumped.

About twenty minutes later Naruto got up and walked over to the couch. "Excuse me," he said as he reached over Sasuke to get at the couch cubby and grabbed the next two volumes of Fake. "You were right, this is good... Bikky's hilarious."

"You're welcome to read them, or watch my anime, but I don't want to find any of it in lesser conditions than you borrowed it in, and I better not find it for sale on eBay or by flyer..." he warned and cracked one sloe-dark eye to gaze at the blond, leaning over his own sprawled form to get the next volumes. "Bikky is amusing... but I like Dee... probably because I can sympathize with him... I have several JJs of my own."

"Somehow I get the feeling I don't want to know how many..." Naruto muttered. "Does this have an anime or is it manga only? And as for keeping everything of yours in good condition... I understand perfectly. There was one guy who dared scribble comments – in PEN no less! – in one of my Ranma." He grinned wickedly. "He never asked to borrow something from me ever again – and he couldn't write for a month."

Sasuke nodded in agreement. At least they agreed on that. "There's an OAV that goes with the Fake manga. I advise you to read the manga first."

"Okay. I have Ranma and Chobits and Kodocha in my cubby if you wanna read any of them," Naruto offered.

"Thanks," came the murmur from under the arm Sasuke had thrown over his eyes. He'd never gotten those manga before because he'd been focusing on collecting all the "Good" stuff.

About an hour later, Naruto was done with all the Fake manga and was poking Sasuke awake from his latest doze. "OAV?" Never mind that it was almost eleven and they had freshman orientations to go to early in the morning.

Shrugging one shoulder, Sasuke reached under the couch and pulled out a tote that was filled to the brim with the anime and manga that he couldn't fit on the shelves. Pulling the movie out, he popped it in the DVD player and settled on the couch. "It's funny. Seki Tomokazu was the best choice for Dee's voice."

He got no arguments from Naruto. The blond was too busy laughing at Dee and Bikky, especially when they ran to Ryo after seeing the ghost and he didn't believe them.

Once the movie was done, Naruto stood up, stretching. "I'm gonna take a shower and then get in bed. By the way, have you met our suitemates yet?" he asked curiously as he dug through the dresser for pajamas.

"No I haven't..." Sasuke answered as he stood up and began to strip, heading over to the dresser to get some real sleep clothes on.

"Bummer. See you in a bit." Naruto went into the bathroom – muttering about how weird it was to have the lock on the wrong side of the door – and the sound of the shower was soon heard.

By the time Naruto had returned to the room, Sasuke was already in bed seemingly asleep or close to it since he was in the exact same position as he had been in when Naruto had first arrived.

Silently, Naruto climbed up into his bed and snuggled under his sheet. It was much too warm a night for anything more than the flat sheet. "Night Sasuke," he muttered around a yawn, soon fast asleep.

-----------The next morning, 7 AM sharp-----------
The combination of garbage trucks and trains startled Naruto awake from a sound sleep. "The hell...?!" he grumbled, burying his head under his pillow in an attempt to drown out the noise. It didn't work. Knowing he wasn't going to be able to fall back asleep now, he crawled out of bed, muttering hot curses under his breath the whole time. ::How can he be sleeping through that ruckus?!:: he thought, scowling at Sasuke's sleeping form. Determined to drown out the noise, Naruto turned on his computer and began blaring Queen.

Completely unaware of the noise around him, Sasuke continued to doze on, dead to the world.

Feeling nature's call, Naruto walked into the bathroom... only to find a puppy already sitting on the toilet. A very familiar puppy. "Akamaru...?! What are you doing here?! Where's Kiba?!"

"Right here," a grinning dark-haired, black-eyed boy said from the door leading to the room next door. "Hey, Naruto. You made it to college. Congratulations."

"I could say the same for you, dog-boy!" Naruto taunted back with a huge grin, happy to see a friend from his high school. He and Kiba had been the administration's nightmare and were proud of that fact. They were soon chatting animatedly, catching up and Naruto led him back into his own room to show Kiba some anime music videos he'd accumulated over the summer.

Eventually Sasuke stirred and pulled his headphones off before climbing out of bed and heading for the bathroom. He didn't even cast the two boys on the couch a second look before he closed himself in for a long hot shower. They had about two hours before the freshman orientation stuff started.

"Your roommate?" Kiba asked.

"Yep." Naruto grinned. "Quite the hunk, huh? I get eye-candy 24-7."

Kiba just rolled his eyes and whacked Naruto upside the head. He was used to Naruto ogling anybody and everybody that looked good. He just preferred to participate only in the woman-watching.

Sasuke re-emerged a little while later in only his black boxers, running a brush through his hair as he headed towards the dresser. He tossed his sleeping clothes back in a drawer – he'd worn that set only once so why throw it in the hamper – and started looking for something to wear that day after setting the brush on the dresser top. He remained seemingly oblivious to Naruto and Kiba's presence. He wasn't a morning person and it was best for them if he didn't talk to them until after breakfast.

Seeing what Sasuke was doing, Naruto got off the couch and stretched. "Food time. Your roommate up yet?" he asked Kiba.

"Nope, and he probably won't be for another couple hours. He's a real bum," Kiba said as he walked through the bathroom to his room for clothes and his ID.

Naruto was about to comment on that when there was a knock on the door. Since he and Sasuke were at least partially dressed, he opened the door without bothering to look through the peephole. It was the girls. "Good morning, ladies!" he greeted brightly.

"Good morning, Naruto," Ino said politely before cooing, "Good morning, Sasuke-kun!" It took a lot of effort to not start literally drooling at the sight of Sasuke in just his boxers. She pushed past Naruto easily – his attention was on Sakura – in an attempt to glomp Sasuke's arm.

Sakura stared openly right over Naruto's head at Sasuke's mostly bare body and then shoved past him just as easily with a mumbled "Good morning" on the way by. She reached for Sasuke's other arm and crooned her own greeting to him as well.

Sasuke froze when two pairs of arms grabbed one of his own each from behind as their owners came up beside him. He stiffened and looked first to Ino and then Sakura before locking his elbows tightly closed. The girls effectively trapped, he spun, the movement surprisingly graceful for having two bodies attached to his arms, and ushered them right past Naruto and out the door. Once there he effectively jerked his arms away from them and took two steps back into the room, slamming the door on them and locking it. Then he turned on Naruto, a cold fury in his eyes. "Don't EVER do that again..." he growled and glared hard, waiting for confirmation of understanding.

"What? Let the girls in?" Naruto asked innocently, not fazed in the least by Sasuke's furious glare. It took a lot more than that to intimidate him. "Y'know, maybe if you actually started being friendly to them-"

"I'd only be encouraging them. They want one thing from me and they don't realize that they can't have it. I've told them where my preferences lay and they refuse to believe me. I've told them I'm flat out not interested in either of them, they still don't get it. So now, I won't tolerate them. Period. Got it?" His expression still serious, Sasuke returned to getting dressed.

"What is so bad about getting jumped all the time? Any other guy would be like 'women! sweet!'" Naruto pointed out as he took off his pajamas and pulled on some comfortable clothes.

"I'm not into women. I'm not interested in them as anything more than casual friends, if that. They're rabid, or flakey, or just plain intolerable. I can't be anywhere near them without having at least four of them trying to attach themselves to me at any given time. They're clingy, catty, possessive in a scary obsessive way and I'm just sick and tired of them shoving everything from their ass to their boobs in my face. I don't want anything to do with them any more," Sasuke continued as he pulled on his sandals and grabbed his ID card and keys.

"You're strange," Naruto said with conviction while he ruffed Sasuke's hair, but he was smirking amusedly. "Oi! Kiba! You ready yet?" he called as he got his keychain and wallet.

"As soon as my roommate hauls himself off the couch! Shikamaru! Food! Up!" Kiba was having a very hard time convincing his lazy roomie that it was a good idea to go with them for food.

At that declaration, Sasuke walked to the door and put his hand on the knob. "There's no point in forcing him if he doesn't want to go."

Shikamaru appeared in the bathroom doorway just then, yawning and looking incredibly lazy but managing to walk in a straight line. "Lock the door, dog boy, and let's go," he grumbled, just barely loud enough for Kiba to hear and then followed Sasuke out the door. Yes, he was hungry and whether he went now or later he was still going to have to go and since they'd woken him up anyway... "Man... you guys are such a pain..."

"So are you. Akamaru, guard!" Kiba ordered his pup, who gave him a quiet yip of understanding and went to his bed, hidden behind a curtain on a bottom shelf. From there he could surprise attack anyone who managed to break into the room. Kiba locked his door and followed the others out Naruto and Sasuke's door. "So what are you gonna do today?" he asked Naruto as they walked towards the cafeteria.

Naruto shrugged. "All that freshman orientation stuff, I guess. M'not exactly looking forward to any of it, but we gotta go. The club fair tomorrow should be fun though."

Sasuke just kept walking, listening with half of his attention to the conversation behind him while paying most of his attention to the stuff going on outside his little group. As he had guessed, there were girls standing around idly as if they had nothing better to do, but he knew what they were there for, as told by the way conversations died as he passed and the way they all turned their heads slightly to look at him.

Shikamaru meanwhile paid most of his attention to nothing at all and the rest of his attention to contemplating how much longer he was going to sleep before going outside to watch the clouds for a while. The freshman orientation stuff sounded way to bothersome and dull to bother with so he wasn't planning on going.

Breakfast managed to go by without a hitch. They weren't swarmed by girls since Sasuke sat at the end of a table with the other three boys surrounding him. That's not to say some girls (Sakura and Ino) didn't try, but they ran away rather quickly when Naruto _and_ Kiba decided to flirt with them. Both boys used to rejection, they just shrugged it off and kept talking.

As soon as they were done, the four of them went their separate ways to go to the events the university had planned for them (except Shikamaru, who went back to his room for a long nap with Akamaru on his stomach).

The three others managed to make it back to the hall in time for dinner and Naruto flopped on the couch as soon as he and Sasuke walked into their room, bellies full. "I hate days where all I do is listen to people yammer at me," he complained, kicking off his shoes so he could pull his feet up onto the couch. Kiba had gone back to his room to feed his pup and fill his roomie in on what he'd missed.

Sasuke removed his sandals and his shirt at the door and then moved over to settle next to Naruto on the couch. He didn't say anything, mostly because Naruto had said all there was to say about days like this day had been. Now it was time to kick back and let all the useless information drain right out of his head. The stuff that he wanted to think on later stayed, but as soon as he settled back against the back of the couch and closed his eyes with an agreeable grunt in Naruto's direction, the rest just slipped into oblivion. The room was warm, but without his shirt it was comfortably so since they had three fans blowing. He felt a doze taking over him and shifted a little to get more comfortable and let it.

Definitely not in the mood to think, Naruto appreciatively watched Sasuke through half-masted eyes. Yep, Sasuke without a shirt was bonifide eye-candy. He smiled as the muscles on Sasuke's chest moved smoothly with each breath. Life was very good at the moment. ::I could definitely get used to this!:: He was about to stretch out and put his feet in Sasuke's lap when the phone rang. "Dammit..." he grumbled, hauling himself to his feet and checking the caller ID. The number looked a little familiar. "Hey Sasuke," he said. "What was the number you said not to answer?"

"385-5557..." he mumbled and shifted again, stretching out so that he arched off the couch making a bridge of his body from the end of the couch to the top of the back. And then he toppled over and stretched out on the couch, tucking an arm under his head and grapping his bicep with the other hand.

"Okay. Well, they're calling." Leaving it at that, Naruto walked back over to the couch and looked down at Sasuke. "You stole my spot... brat. Move over," he said, wanting to lie down too.

Sasuke cracked one eye open and looked at him for a moment before pressing his back into the couch and closing his eye again. "We could pull it out..." he muttered, not really feeling much like moving and just saying it to give the option of more room. To be honest, he really didn't care if Naruto pulled it out or not. The idea of cramming together on the little couch with Naruto pressed up against him wasn't exactly an unappealing idea. In fact... he actually thought Naruto was rather good looking. Appealing... tasty might be a word he'd heard used for himself a few times but he thought it actually applied better to the slightly shorter, slightly thicker bodied, well-toned young man hovering over him.

Naruto looked at him for a moment longer before sighing and reaching down, grabbing the underside of the couch and pulling. It wasn't very difficult for him to pull the couch out despite Sasuke's added weight. Deciding it was too humid in the room – August in Michigan sucks... damn humidity – he tugged his shirt off and grabbed his pillow before dropping onto the bed, his head at the opposite end from Sasuke's. He poked the side of Sasuke's chest with his foot to get him to move and make room so that Naruto could have enough space to really stretch out.

Sasuke moved but barely, just enough so that they could both stretch out comfortably and then did so. He remained silent, just enjoying the quiet. He didn't usually get a lot of that.

They lay there in quiet until Naruto just couldn't stand it anymore. Needing noise, he got up and turned his computer on, setting it to play Evanesance before flopping back onto the bed couch, singing along under his breath. His foot tapped against Sasuke's arm in time with the beat.

Music he could live with. Pleased with Naruto's choice, Sasuke listened for a little while and then picked up the lyrics, singing softly as his fingers tapped against his own side in time to Naruto's foot since the arm not cradling his head was laid across his stomach.

::Woah...:: Naruto stopped singing and lifted his head to look at Sasuke with wide eyes, his foot stopping. Sasuke had a voice that could make even dead straight guys melt. Listening to him was like wearing the finest silk-velvet – it felt _good_ and wonderfully sinful. He could almost feel Sasuke's voice smoothly roll over him and he shivered. "When did you make a deal with the devil?" he asked him when the song ended, only half joking.

"What?" Sasuke asked, his voice still low as if he might start singing again. He felt wonderfully relaxed, free and entirely serene. He lifted his own head and met Naruto's wide gaze with hooded black eyes that were seductively dark without even meaning to be.

Naruto could only stare back, captured by Sasuke's gaze. He didn't even notice the blush that completely covered his face, throwing the strange whisker-like marks on his cheeks into sharp relief.

Sasuke smirked a little and he looked a little... pleased. "What?" he repeated. ::He has freckles... sort of... long ones, three on each cheek. He's even cuter when he blushes...::

"Never mind," Naruto mumbled, laying his head back down and shifting a bit to get more comfortable. He folded his arms under his head and shut his eyes, trying to force down his blush by focusing on the music coming out of his computer.

Laying his head back down, Sasuke shrugged a little and muttered, "Okay," before picking up the lyrics for the new song playing.

A few songs later, Naruto began to feel restless and all of a sudden Sasuke got a pillow in the face. Naruto didn't even look like he'd moved.

Scowling a little, Sasuke lobbed the pillow right back at Naruto but didn't let go when it hit the other boy. Rather, he pulled it away and then slammed it down again, effectively hitting Naruto twice with the same attack. "Dobe..."

Naruto grabbed the pillow and hugged it to his chest so Sasuke couldn't attack him again. "What did you call me?" he asked, his tone warning. He didn't know what Sasuke had said but he had a feeling he wasn't going to like it.

"Basically translates to 'Dead Last'... Would you prefer baka or... no! I have the perfect nick name for you. Usuratonkachi," Sasuke murmured, smirking a little more broadly than usual. He couldn't believe himself, taunting someone else in... play.

He didn't know what that one meant either (he only knew "baka") but Naruto definitely didn't like it. Pulling his legs under him, he sat up on his knees and whacked Sasuke soundly in the face with the pillow, growling. It was war now!

Sasuke caught the pillow, wrenched it free of Naruto's fingers and tossed it aside, looking a little smug at having 'won', or so he thought. "Usuratonkachi," he stated, still smirking.

Yep, war. Naruto glared at him for a moment before diving forward and attacking Sasuke's sides ruthlessly. If there was one thing Naruto was good at it was tickling.

For one, precious second Sasuke looked like the world had come to an end as he lay beneath Naruto's pounce-and-tickle-tackle. ::Shit!! NO! I never wanted anyone to know I'm -:: And that was the end of his coherent thought as he writhed away, trying to flee torturous hands with as little noise as possible.

::Oh ho ho!:: Grinning mischievously, Naruto kept one hand attacking Sasuke's side while the other slid up to his armpit. If that didn't work he was going to try the neck next.

Feeling one of Naruto's hands wandering astray, Sasuke bucked and squirmed all the more, but in the end he was dissolved into a helpless, weak puddle of laughter. He couldn't help it. He was just way too sensitive to tickling. Still he tried to continue the fight and bucked and pitched and twisted and writhed beneath the blond, making the couch bed squeak loudly in protest to such rough-housing.

Naruto trapped Sasuke's thighs between his knees to reduce the squirming, grinning all the while. Finding Sasuke's armpits to be especially ticklish, he attacked them both. This was fun!!

He wouldn't squeak, squeal, or scream! He wouldn't!! Writhing all the harder, Sasuke tried even more to unseat Naruto. It hadn't escaped his notice the way Naruto was pinning him and it wasn't exactly conducive to allowing his escape as it distracted him all the more. It'd been quite a while since he'd last... 'relieved stress'. And Naruto's nicely muscled chest and the feel of him straddling Sasuke's thighs was making him feel that lack of relief acutely.

Laughing as Sasuke tried to get away, Naruto paused in his torture just long enough to let Sasuke breathe before tickling him with full force again. "Say uncle!" he demanded cheerily. He wasn't even thinking about what Sasuke might think about the way he was pinning him – his focus was on winning this.

Finally unable to take it any more and stubbornly refusing to give an inch, Sasuke twisted and then his arms shot up and around Naruto's body, pulling him down and tight to his chest. "Never..." he said solidly.

Naruto smirked and raised one eyebrow, not at all fazed by how close their faces were now – he'd effectively reverted to five years old. His hands just happened to be by Sasuke's neck. "I'm gonna make you say uncle," was Sasuke's only warning before Naruto started tickling the base of his neck.

Sasuke did squeal that time and he arched up, trying to stretch his neck away first before scrunching his chin down and trying to shield his sensitive neck from Naruto's wicked fingers. It just wasn't fair and here Naruto was pinned on top of the already pinned Sasuke and Sasuke wanted nothing more than to go in the shower and get away from those evil wriggling fingers and to fix a certain problem that was starting to rise a very little bit.

"Say it!" Naruto laughed, digging his fingers under Sasuke's chin. He wasn't getting away that easy! Naruto'd had tickle fights with his grandmother and the neighborhood kids his whole life. He knew every trick to win. And he didn't notice in the least Sasuke's other discomfort.

Growling through his laughter, Sasuke again declared "Never!" and rocked his body towards the back of the couch and then lurched them both to the other side, sending them to the floor in a heap. He immediately shoved away from Naruto and to his feet, trying to get away from the torture, gasping for breath.

"Owww..." the blonde groaned, clutching his head. He could feel a bump growing, and his back hurt. "Jackass... I was just fooling," he grumbled, pouting at Sasuke. "You didn't have to nearly kill me."

Tilting his head, Sasuke eyed him suspiciously for a moment and then very slowly moved over to kneel next to Naruto. "I didn't mean to hurt you..." he muttered and reached out to help Naruto sit up slowly.

Naruto took Sasuke's hand... and pulled him down, rolling on top of him before he could protest. "Sucker," he taunted with a smirk, sitting on Sasuke's thighs while pinning his hands on either side of his head. "Now say uncle!"

He lay there stunned and then relaxed, a slow sly smirk tugging at his lips. "No," he insisted. Sasuke wasn't giving up. He simply wasn't. And Naruto could pin him just like he was for as long as he wanted. Sasuke had the feeling he was going to have to do something about his little problem... soon. It was starting to get a little worse... How would it not with Naruto straddling him in a manner at that very moment that did everything but scream "Screw me now!"

"Stubborn bastard," Naruto declared, scrunching his face at Sasuke. It didn't even occur to him that he was rough-housing with Sasuke as if he'd known him for years instead of only a day and a half – it just felt natural. He thought for a moment about how to make Sasuke give in and came up with a plan. He held Sasuke's wrists above his head with one hand and ticked Sasuke's stomach with the other.

His entire body seized, stiffened... and then suddenly Sasuke just exploded into motion and noise. The pause had only been a very slight one, going from shock to action in the blink of an eye. He squirmed and giggled and laughed and screamed, unable to contain it. His stomach was simply loaded with sensitive nerves and now he was unable to resist its demand for release through vocalization and movement.

"I'm not gonna stop until you say uncle~!" Naruto sing-songed with a huge grin. Finally he got him to laugh! And it was a wonderful laugh... He decided he definitely wanted to hear as much of it as he could. Sasuke was way too uptight most of the time for Naruto's taste and he was going to make sure Sasuke loosened up.

"U-uncle! Uncle!" he gasped and tried harder to get away. There was nothing else he could do anyway.

Naruto immediately got off and sat on the couch, grinning mischievously down at Sasuke. "About time. Now was that so hard?" he asked sweetly.

Sasuke slowly, very slowly picked himself up off the floor and settled beside him on the couch. "If you _ever_ tell anyone about this......" he warned and glared at him.

The blonde mimed zipping his lips with a smirk. "Though I can't guarantee Kiba won't say anything, 'cause you were pretty loud," he said out as he stood up, walking over to the dresser and pulling out fresh clothes. "Gonna take a shower," he announced, going into the bathroom.

Eyeing the bathroom door for a while before settling down on the couch again, Sasuke remained alert for another attack from Naruto. Now that the blond knew his weakness he had to be careful not to be caught off guard.

About a half hour later Naruto came back out, pulling pj pants over his boxers. "Relax," he said as he passed Sasuke on the way to his bed, ruffing his hair and tossing his pillow up onto his bed. "I never attack more than once per day." He gave Sasuke a playful grin and climbed up into his bunk after turning his music off. Pulling a battered novel out from under the covers at the foot of his bed, he began to read.

Relaxing a little at those words, though he couldn't explain why he would be put at ease so quickly, Sasuke went over to the closet/entrance-way and pulled out his own PJs and stripped down to his boxers before pulling on some loose, low-riding drawstring pants. Black to suit his mood, which was more relaxed than he'd been in a long, long time. Ready for bed, he put the couch back to the standard look and climbed up into his bed. Looking over to Naruto as he fished out his headset, he asked, "What are you reading?"

"Xenocide. Third book in the Ender Wiggens Saga," Naruto said absentmindedly as he turned the page.

"That doesn't tell me anything..." Sasuke stated but settled into bed, regardless of not having a proper explanation. He pulled on his headphones and turned the volume down a little, relaxing back to the purrs of Gackt.

When he reached the end of the chapter, Naruto put the book away and climbed out of bed to turn the light off. On the way back up he poked Sasuke's arm. "G'night, Sasuke." He snuggled under his sheet and was soon asleep.

TBC...