Come Home With Me

Story: Come Home With Me
Chapter: Aquaintances
Author: Sarah Keller
BETA: Rasengan22
Genre: Romance/Psychological Drama
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto hence why this is a FANFIC
Warnings: still a hint of boyxboy, half nekkie Sasuke, SakuraxLee
Pairings: NaruSasuNaru
Author's note: For clarification purposes, since it isn't stated in the text. Sasuke and Naruto are 18-19 years old.

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Tomorrow the six-month probation would be up. Sasuke had made a great deal of headway in clearing the private training grounds and checking all the other buildings in the Uchiha district. After a thorough inspection, he had decided to tear down a few more buildings and now was planning on making a few small parks throughout the area. Sasuke figured if Sakura and Lee had their way, children would be running through the streets again. He wasn't too sure on how he felt about that, but he would attempt to make the transition from ghost town to family friendly place as smooth as possible for the couple. After all, he owed Sakura a lot.

And he had done all this without the dobe's help. It would figure the blond would be shipped off on a long-term mission the day after he moved in. It had been over a month before Sasuke decided to take it upon himself and finished unpacking Naruto's things. Surprisingly, it had taken less than a day to unpack Naruto's sorry excuse for possessions. Apparently the lack of possessions hadn't been exclusive to the blond's bedroom. Most of his clothes and bathroom supplies had already been unpacked. There were only a handful of other boxes. A rather large one held an expensive cooking set and a few other boxes held weapons and the various tools used to keep them in fighting shape.

When Sasuke had finished, the only things that could have been considered personal mementos were a silly looking sleeping cap and a few framed pictures. All the pictures were of an older Naruto with friends and teachers. As far as Sasuke could tell, the one that dated back the farthest was a picture of Naruto and Iruka from after the blond's graduation from the academy. At first, Sasuke thought that was strange but then he recalled what he knew of the teen's childhood. Of course there was no pictures of Naruto as a child, who was there to take them? No one. And suddenly Sasuke realized what had felt so off about Naruto's apartment. There had been no prized possessions; none of those things children and adolescents covet as treasures. Everything Naruto had served some type of practical purpose. The books were all about ninja techniques and training. One book had been about meditation, though, and that gave Sasuke an idea.

Going back to the main house, Sasuke worked his way through the various traps and tricks until he managed to get into the main family vault. After the massacre, anything that was thought to have value was put into one of the half dozen vaults hidden throughout the compound. The main vault, which was under the main house, held all of the most valuable objects. Sasuke had to stop for a moment after he entered the vault. He could place everything in this room; he knew the story behind every bowl and wall painting and for a few moments all those memories made it hard for him to breath. Quickly grabbing what he wanted, he headed back to Naruto's home. In the back corner of Naruto's house was a small three-mat room. He decided it wouldn't take much to transform the room into a meditation studio, and he doubted that Naruto would have much use for the room otherwise.

Sasuke carefully set about checking the sliding panels that opened into the back garden. The doors were a bit sticky, but after about an hour he had fixed them so that they worked perfectly. The garden wasn't much to look at right now, but he had some free time, perhaps he'd see if Sakura wanted some help with her garden, too. After he was done cleaning a bit and setting up the various objects he had brought from the vault, he went back out to grab a few more things. Once outside he noticed Sakura had come home and was setting pots of plants outside on the front porch.

"Sakura." Sasuke said approaching her. The pink haired girl looked up and smiled at Sasuke.

"What have you been up to? You're all dirty." She pointed out. Then she noticed that Naruto's door was still open. "Did Naruto come home?" She asked a bit alarmed. "I'm sure Tsunade would have said something to me.

"No, no. The dobe's not home, I just decided to finish unpacking his things for him."

"That bored, hmm?" Sasuke smiled slightly and nodded.

"I hadn't realized he didn't have much of anything." Sasuke said, noticing how Sakura's eyes darkened at that. "So I decided to give him a few things to fill the place up. If you want you can have a few things, too."

"Things? What things?" Sakura was intrigued; she stepped down until she was eye level with the young man in front of her.

"Stuff put away in the vaults. I was making a meditation room for Naruto with some of the stuff in the main vault." Sakura's eyes had gone wide at the mention of a vault and curiosity was taking a firm root.

"I'm not sure I'd be comfortable taking any of that, but I'd like to see the vault." She said carefully. Sasuke nodded with that little half smile.

"That's fine. I might need some help moving some things, and you can feel free to have whatever you like."

By the end of the day Naruto had the basics to make a meditation room, the blond would have to put it together the way he wanted. There was also a smattering of other objects throughout the main rooms that Naruto would be using as well as a few decorative pieces. Sakura had even given in and taken a few things after Sasuke had assured her he would like to see them have use again. After making plans to start working on fixing up the gardens, Sasuke and Sakura parted ways. Sasuke had gone off to check a few other buildings before calling it quits for the day. It was later that night, while Sasuke was in bed that he realized Sakura had been giving him this odd knowing smile the entire time they were together. Once again deciding not to look to closely at that, he fell into a fitful sleep.

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"I'm sorry, but this is the only way to build up trust again, Sasuke." Tsunade said staring at the young man standing in the middle of her office. The teen didn't look pleased, but if he had expected anything more then a C-rank mission he was deluding himself.

"No, I understand, Hokage-sama." Sasuke shifted uncomfortably. He was going to get only genin level missions for the next few months until they decided it was safe to test him and gauge his real skill level. He wasn't too shocked by it, but he was a tad annoyed that they were only going to let him do serious training under supervision from one of the jonins. He found himself hoping that Sakura would pass the next jounin test so he could train more often.

"You can take your time on those missions, they just need to be done by the end of the week." Tsunade said while nodding to the scroll Sasuke held.

"Understood. Thank you, Hokage-sama." He turned to leave, gripping the scroll in his hand a tad too tightly.

"Do you have anything you wish to inquire, Sasuke?" The question threw him off a bit. He looked at the blond Hokage quizzically. "Is there anything you wish to know?" about a certain person, she added silently. Apparently, Sasuke caught on and a look of pure confusion crossed his face. She's asking about the dobe? Granted the teen had been gone for almost five months, but that wasn't hugely abnormal for a long-term mission. Sasuke shrugged and bowed, leaving the room without another word. Tsunade sighed before an evil grin spread out across her face.

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It was another two weeks before Naruto returned. Sasuke didn't really have much to do. The list of missions the Hokage kept giving him at the starts of the weeks never was enough to keep him occupied for more than two days. Currently, he was on his way to the hardware store to pick up more sealant. In his free time he had decided to reseal and repair the wall surrounding the Uchiha complex. He found it slightly amusing that he had done more genin level missions in the past seven months than he had in the entire time he had been a genin. Well, actually he was still a genin, but that was only a technicality. As he passed through the market, he heard a murmuring that could only mean the gossip mill was in over drive. Try as hard as he might to ignore the people, he still picked up bits of conversations.

"Not a scratch on him."

"Killed an entire enemy ANBU squad."

"The little monster returned."

That last bit gave him pause. He turned to the woman who had said that and glared hard. The woman picked up on the stare and looked up at him only to turn away quickly, a look of fear crossing her face. He smirked smugly and wondered how Naruto would react to the improvements made on his house, especially to the painting Sasuke had put into the meditation room.

The shop owner at the hardware store noticed something different about the Uchiha as he bought more of the sealant. As the young man left the store with his four cans of sealant, the owner finally put his finger on it. The young Uchiha heir was walking with an extra spring in his step.

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Naruto was pretty sure he could go to sleep right now and not wake up for a week. He had turned in his report, been questioned by Tsunade and parted ways with his teammates in less then two hours. Finally free to go home, Naruto started walking on autopilot until he realized that he was headed in the wrong direction. Re-directing himself, he made his way to the Uchiha compound. As he neared the main gates he noticed a dark haired young man slathering something onto the large wooden door. Naruto's heart sped up a bit at the sight of Sasuke's back muscles straining underneath his dark blue shirt. Part of him had wondered if the Sasuke would still be here when he came back and now that part of him was jumping for joy at the sight of the Uchiha.

"You look like shit." Naruto snapped out of his daze at the sound of Sasuke's voice. Apparently during some point Sasuke had turned around and was now staring at Naruto.

"And yet I feel like shit run over, I must look better than I thought." Naruto threw back, moving past the other man.

"Hn."

Naruto was half expecting something more but when nothing else came he turned around and noticed that Sasuke had turned back to his work. Despite his need to sleep, Naruto didn't want to leave just yet.

"What are you doing, teme?" Sasuke looked up at Naruto's voice. He took in the slightly slurred words and the glazed over look in those baby blues before turning back to the gate.

"Go get some sleep, dobe. You'll find out tomorrow when you help me out." Sasuke said with a smirk. Naruto smiled a bit and did as he was told. It was good to be home.

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Despite his words, Sasuke didn't wake Naruto up when he started back on the wall the next morning. Sasuke had been being kind when he told Naruto he looked like shit. In truth, the boy had looked like a living corpse. The normally tanned skin was drawn and pale, his brightly colored hair limp and dirty. A part of Sasuke that he didn't want to dwell on had felt pained at seeing the normally energized blond walking around with dark bags under his eyes. The voice in the back of his mind had demanded that Sasuke find out just what that mission had entailed, but instead, he had playfully ordered the nin to bed. When Naruto had smiled at that, Sasuke felt a little relief. And once again, no analyzing of what that meant had occurred. Damn what's underneath the underneath, at this moment he was more concerned with resealing the north wall.

"Did you see Naruto?" Sakura asked coming up behind him. There was an interesting clinking noise and Sasuke turned around to see that Sakura had brought out iced tea with her. Wiping his brow, he took a long gulp of the offered glass before answering.

"Yeah, looks like shit run over." He added that last bit with a smirk.

"Sounds like you talked to him, too." Sakura pointed out. "I kinda snuck into his house and left some medical supplies for him. Didn't even move while I was in there."

"I'd be surprised if he woke up at all today." Sasuke reached for the pitcher of tea only to realize it was one of the things Sakura had claimed for herself out of the vault. A small smile tugged at his lips as he poured himself another glass. "You didn't need to prove to me that you were going to use it."

"I wasn't, not really. You've been out here for a while, and I thought it was the perfect time to put it to use." Sakura beamed at him as he drained the glass and set it down. "Anyways, I actually came out here to talk to you about something else." Sasuke could tell Sakura was nervous so he could guess what this was about. He said nothing and instead waited for her to continue. "I . . . uh, I mean, . . . Well Lee and I, we, uhh." Sakura looked at Sasuke and as far as she could tell he was simply looking at her with mild interest. "LeeandIpickedadateandwearegettingmarried!" She suddenly declared. Sasuke chuckled.

"Despite the fact that I was able to decipher that, why don't you take a deep breath and try again?" Sasuke said with a small smile.

"You . . . you understood that and you're not mad?" Sakura was confused; she was so sure he would freak at having Lee as a neighbor. The look he was giving her said he was more amused than angry. Perhaps she really wasn't clear enough. "Lee and I will be getting married in about six weeks. He and I . . . uh, we were hoping to stay in the house you gave me?"

Sasuke couldn't help but smirk at the obvious question mark on the end of that statement. "Sakura, I would be happy if the two of you stayed here. It would mean all that work I put into the small parks will be used when the two of you decide to have kids." Sakura looked dumbfounded for a few seconds before sputtering.

"THAT'S why you did that?" She asked incredulously.

"Partly. The buildings had to come down, and I figured that with the way you and Lee had been progressing it was only a matter of time. It was a logical conclusion and there needed to be more greenery around here." Sasuke shrugged. Tears welled up in the pink haired teen's eyes. Without warning she jumped and hugged him. Sasuke was eternally thankful she didn't add chakra to the tight embrace before he got a loud squeal in his ear.

"Oh, I can't wait to tell Lee!" She turned to speed off, but then remembered the tea.

"I'll take care of it, don't worry." Sasuke waved her away and the medic nin didn't need another push, she took off to find her fiancé, leaving Sasuke in her dust.

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Sasuke was just setting the tea tray and its contents on Sakura's porch when a light came on in Naruto's house. Deciding to wait and see how long it took the dobe, Sasuke took a seat next to the tray. It was a good five minutes before a second light came on upstairs. But that seemed to trigger something as several more lights flickered on. Sasuke heard some muffled cursing and pounding as Naruto ran downstairs. Getting up, Sasuke walked to the side of the house that faced the mansion and waited for Naruto to discover the meditation room. It wasn't long before every light in the downstairs was on, a string of curses following each light being turned on. However, when the light came on in the meditation suite there was dead silence. Something in the back of Sasuke's mind started to panic, wondering if it had all been too much causing the blond to have a stroke. But that voice quieted when he heard Naruto shriek.

"SASUKE!" The blond must have left the house through the garden because the next thing Sasuke knew was the gate to the garden being thrown open and said blond stalking out into the street with only a pair of bright blue boxers on.

"You called?" Sasuke relaxed against the garden wall and crossed his arms over his chest. Naruto's ears were practically steaming as he stalked over to the Uchiha.

"WHAT did you DO to my house?" Naruto's pointing finger came dangerously close to hitting Sasuke's nose.

"I believe I fixed a few of the doors and dusted." Sasuke stated calmly.

"That's not what I mean and you know it!"

"What, so I added a few things." Sasuke shrugged.

"A few things? You practically decorated my house. Where did all that crap come from?" Naruto demanded. He suddenly regretted his words when Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"That stuff is not crap." Sasuke stated carefully. "That all came from the various vaults I have access to. I figured that it be better to put all of it use rather then leave it to rot in the vaults. Furthermore, I did not decorate your house. I decorated one room and left maybe a dozen or so things throughout the house."

"But, if it's your family's things why . . .?" Naruto looked confused as Sasuke straightened from the wall.

"Like I said, no one else is going to use it. If you really don't like it I'll give you access to the vaults so you can pick your own things, fine?" Sasuke stared hard at the still slightly confused blond.

"But, it's . . ." Naruto looked anywhere but at the teen in front of him. He had gone from pissed at finding someone had messed with his things to slightly sorry at having blown the whole thing out of proportion.

"Yes?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"It's too expensive, I can buy my own things." One day, he added silently before gathering his anger to him and lashing out. "Besides there is nothing wrong with what I have already!"

"I'm not going to repeat myself, keep it or return it to the vaults. And I never said there was anything wrong with your crap, if I had felt that way I would have tried tossing it out." Naruto had to admit that he had a point, but it still felt weird having expensive Uchiha property in his house, even if the house was also technically Uchiha property. "Listen, if it bugs you so much, I can always start charging you rent."

Rent? Naruto thought about that a bit. Yeah, rent would be good, cheap rent, but not really cheap. Naruto had to stop that train of thought when he suddenly started confusing himself.

"Why don't you just think about it tonight. It's late and I'm in desperate need of a shower and sleep. I'll wake you up in the morning so you can help me finish with the walls."

Naruto simply nodded, a sign that his little bout of energy was winding down and his brain had already shut off. Throwing a wave over his shoulder, Sasuke walked through the large gates that separated the mansion from the rest of the Uchiha compound. All Naruto could do was watch the dark haired teen walk away. As he stared at Sasuke's retreating back, Naruto suddenly realized that the teen's shirt was hanging out of the back pocket of his shorts. Naruto simply stared at the way Sasuke's shoulder blades moved beneath the pale skin until he disappeared from view. He shook his head to clear it of what could only be fatigue-induced thoughts. Turning around he came face to face with the smiling pink medic nin that lived across the street and gave an involuntary shriek.

"Geez, Sasuke wasn't kidding, you do look like shit. You were only on a B-ranked mission, what could have possible happened to make you look this bad."

"That's classified information." Naruto stated as he turned back to his gate and walked into the now beautifully kept garden.

"Does that mean what I think it means?" Sakura inquired alarmed. Naruto didn't say anything causing the young woman to gasp. "Does Sasuke know?"

"Not that I'm aware. Tsunade said she'd talk to him about it in the next couple of days." Naruto sat down on the porch that separated the garden from the house. The paneled sliding doors that lead to the meditating room was still wide open from when Naruto had stormed out of the house. Sakura didn't sit down but instead put her hand to the blond's forehead before reaching for his wrist.

"Was it . . .?"

"No, two other's I haven't seen before."

"Well, you're in one piece and safely home. Just remember to take those pills I left by your bed." Naruto nodded and smiled up at Sakura.

"I think I should be more worried about people coming and going from my house without permission."

"Well, I think it could be worse than just Sasuke and I coming and going. Anyways, are you saying you don't like the presents Sasuke picked out for you?" Sakura asked looking into the meditation room and staring at the large painting she had helped Sasuke move into the room. Naruto turned to look at it as well.

"No, its just weird. Plus, you know how well I generally take getting presents."

"I know, the thought did cross my mind that I should tell him that you don't like getting unexpected presents when we moved some of those things in."

"Ah, so you were in on it. You'd think I'd love getting gifts, but as much fun as I get out of being the most surprising ninja, I really don't like getting surprises."

"With the type of surprises you got as a kid, I'm not shocked that you see them as a challenge or insult, but I think its safe to say that Sasuke means well."

"Hmm."

"Go get some sleep Naruto, maybe you'll look like crap instead of shit by tomorrow." She said happily and turned to walk away.

"What's the bloody difference!?";Sakura paused at the gate and turned around,

"Severity?" And with that, she was gone.

Naruto sighed. He really was too tired to socialize right now; he did feel sleepy despite having slept for over 24 hours already. Naruto reasoned that the fox must be behind this hibernation of sort. His teammates on the last mission had been impressed that Naruto could still stand after using so much chakra much less get back to Konoha and his bed of his own volition. The fox. Naruto stood up and walked into the meditation room, making sure to close the sliding doors after him. Sitting on the floor behind a small table that held some incense was a floor to ceiling painting of a large fox.

The fox in the painting had only one tail, and had a noble quality to it. Instead of violence the dark eyes of the magnificent creature held only wisdom. The vulpine was sitting on its stomach with one of its front paws crossed over the other. Behind it, large magnificent red and orange flowers bloomed. Naruto had never seen anything like it, and as he gazed at it he felt his heart get heavy. The young shinobi's hand came up, and his fingers ghosted over the dried paint. Before he really knew what was going on he felt tears run down his cheeks. Years of being avoided and hated for having the fox sealed inside him seemed to fade away while he was in this room. In this room, foxes could be noble; they could be beautiful and wise. Is this what Sasuke sees in me? Several other thoughts ran through his mind as he turned out the light and went to bed. He didn't bother turning out any other lights besides the ones in his bedroom and bathroom. When he finally fell into a deep slumber he dreamed of red and orange flowers instead of blood and tears.

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Pictures:
"Cover Page" http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/36963641/ (by me)