The Guardian

Chapter 2:

The drive home was silent, neither knowing what to say nor wanting to speak to each other. To Naruto it was clear that Tsunade had known he would agree, when the blonde had dropped Sasuke’s luggage (two big suitcases) in front of him and assured him that some of Sasuke’s other stuff would be delivered soon.

To Sasuke it was painfully clear that Naruto didn’t really want him but had accepted Tsunade’s proposal out of pity. Sasuke didn’t want anyone’s pity…he just wanted their understanding. No one, not even his foster dad Nawaki had understood him well. And here was some idiotic college kid who pitied him, and was to be his guardian. Sasuke glared out of the window.

Naruto glanced at the kid and turned his eyes back to the road. He wondered how he could handle this kid…God knew he had a sickening childhood himself and it was sheer will on his part and kindness on Tsunade and Jiraiya’s part that he had managed not to become a nutcase. How Tsunade thought that he would be good for the Uchiha was a mystery.

They got home in a while. Sasuke hauled one of his suitcases in as Naruto got the bigger one. He looked around once he’d made it into the living room which was past a small lobby. It was painted a light buttercup yellow with orange skirting. The room was furnished tastefully with comfy looking black leather armchairs and a couch. A rectangular coffee table in black metal and glass stood on a black throw down rug. The wall to wall carpeting was fluffy pale yellow. There was an open kitchen with pale cedar wood cabinets and counter…a round dining table of black metal and glass stood a little way from the counter. All in all it was the ultimate bachelor pad, except for the wall colours.

Naruto stretched. Then he gave Sasuke a smile. “Well, this is my home. Welcome to my humble abode. Follow me, if you will, to your room!” he sentence was finished with another idiotic smile and the blond walked off. Sasuke followed him to a nice light blue painted room, with a large teak wood bed and a nice blue comforter on it.

“We’ll have to get you a desk and stuff. I’ll order it today, so we’ll have it by tomorrow. You can do what you like this with this room. My room’s opposite…” and with that the blond disappeared.

Sasuke peeked out and saw that Naruto’s room was done in almost the same fashion, except it was a darker blue with pale cedar desks and beds and all. Then he went back to his room and started to unpack. He hung all his clothes up in the closet and then lay on his bed. It had taken about two hours to unpack and his underwear was still in the suitcase because Naruto still had to get a set of drawers.

The blond popped his head in. “Oh…you’re done. Ok then, why don’t you come downstairs? We can decide what you’d like for dinner and then order some. We can get to know each other…um… you can watch TV if you feel like it.”

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Sasuke looked at the pictures on the cabinet in the living room. There were some of Naruto when he was young, with who seemed to be his parents. And then there were many pictures of Naruto and his friend, and Tsunade…his parents didn’t seem to show up in the rest of the pictures. He turned around to see the blond watching him, an odd look in his eyes.

Then he just grinned again. “What says you, we just order pizza today? I’m not in the mood to cook and well, I don’t think you’d want instant ramen. We can get a large one and you can get anything you want on it, except anchovies…that is one fish I can’t stand! Here place the order ok?” he handed the phone to Sasuke after dialing along with a menu.

Sasuke nodded. “That’s fine.” He took the phone and then went through the menu before ordering. He loved pizza with loads of extra cheese, so he got one with mushrooms, chicken, pepperoni and extra, extra cheese. Then he went to see what the blond was doing.

Naruto was sitting on the couch, watching Miss Fire Country! The way he was looking at those girls, made Sasuke role his eyes. All he needed was a pervert being his guardian! He sat down next to the blond, silently but disinterestedly observing the women. He didn’t feel anything for them…not even lust. His main need was to have someone who’d get to know him and like him for being himself…no one did that. They fawned over him for his looks and mysteriousness and pretended to understand his pain, just so they could use him for their popularity or get his body.

No, he had been kissed…but it was a by a guy, he had known long ago…one of Nawaki’s godsons, who would have been about Naruto’s age now. But it was a one time thing. He hadn’t felt anything for the boy. The doorbell woke him up some.

Naruto got up and opened the door, thinking it was the pizza guy. Sasuke heard a yell and looked around to see Naruto on the floor with a pink haired limpet attached to him and a few others surrounding them. The girl was screaming something as she shook Naruto, until his head looked like it was going to snap off.

“I’ve been calling you, you idiot! Why haven’t you answered? You forgot that we were going to the movie this afternoon didn’t you? Call yourself my boyfriend? How can any boyfriend forget his girlfriend? Was there another girl? We’ve been dating for a week and you already get another girl? I felt so embarrassed waiting alone and no one showed up! Everyone knew I’d been stood up!” she ranted.

Sasuke wished she’d stop! Her voice was getting on his nerves. She did thankfully when Naruto pried her off of him and rubbed his head. “Sakura-chan, calm down. I didn’t go out with another girl…I went to meet my godmother on urgent business. I’m sorry I forgot and I know we’ve been dating for a week, you told me that yesterday too! And anyway…why would I dump you?”

“Hmph…you know her man…she always think you’re out to get her or cheat on her! I haven’t seen anyone as insecure as dear Sakura!” that came from a brunette with short hair standing at the doorway, with a white dog.

Sakura punched him really hard. “Shut up, Kiba! You have no say in this! It’s between me and Naruto!”

Naruto grinned. “Ok, come on in, guys.” Then Naruto looked at Sasuke a little apologetically and licked his lips. “Um…here’s someone I’d like you to meet. This is Sasuke…my…um…ward.”

“What ward? We’re not in a hospital!” came Sakura’s shrill voice.

“Sakura, he means that he’s Sasuke’s guardian.” Came a drawl from a pony tailed young man.

“Guardian!” Sakura and Kiba yelled together. Then Kiba stared at Naruto.

“What the hell man? You’re still in college! Can you adopt someone? What made you want to get a son?” He cried.

Naruto gestured to the chairs and took his seat next to Sasuke on the couch. Sakura sat next to him, on his left. Naruto sighed. “Well, yes I can adopt. And Sasuke needs a home and I can give him that. Oh yeah…I forgot.” He looked at Sasuke.

Then he pointed at the pony tailed guy. “This is Shikamaru, the idiot is Kiba and that’s Akamaru his dog, the long haired one is a guy and his name’s Neji, that’s TenTen and this is my beautiful girlfriend Sakura.”

Sasuke grunted, when the doorbell rang again. He took the money from Naruto and paid for the pizza. Taking a few slices he placed them on his plate and informed Naruto that he’d go to his room. He heard Naruto apologizing to the others, the lat sentence he heard was “He’s um…not too friendly…”

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Sasuke didn’t go to school for a few days, he told Naruto he wanted to settle down and that no one would question his absence. He also roamed the neighborhood, while the blond went to class, getting to know the best shortcuts to school and the different places to hang out at…which were many. The only glitches in Sasuke’s days were the times when Sakura would come home with Naruto.

The blond had sensed his dislike for her and Sasuke could see that he was making an effort to keep her away, but she hung on anyway. She was always really sweet to him. But Sasuke didn’t like the way she looked at him. She invariably ended up staying for dinner and Sasuke invariably ended up eating in his room.

Naruto was quite a good cook…Sasuke was grateful since he couldn’t cook a thing and would have hated take out all the time! He liked the place actually and Naruto kept out of his way as much as he could, so it wasn’t that bad. As long as he kept by Naruto’s rules…which were fairly simple everything was fine.

Have proper meals three times a day.

Get back home before ten.

Call when you’re not coming home or going to be late.

Keep your room as clean as you possibly can…cos I can’t be bothered to clean up your mess as well as mine!

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Sasuke sighed as he walked back to the house. He wondered what Naruto would be cooking for dinner. He unlocked the door and his nose got assailed by the seductive scent of yummy food. He couldn’t help licking his lips and heading in. a shout stopped him.

“I don’t care! I can’t believe you’d do this to me! And you thought that I would cheat on you? Just get out will you?” Naruto’s voice was loud and harsh.

“It wasn’t my fault you idiot! He kissed me! I wasn’t kissing back! Naruto I love you…I wish you’d believe me! We’ve been fighting for a whole hour! Quit it!” Sakura was yelling too, her exceptionally shrill voice managing to reach an octave higher!

“From where I saw it, it looked like you were going to swallow his tongue! For the last time get the hell out of here, I don’t want to see you anymore, you bitch!”

“Naruto!” then Sakura begun to snivel and then cry. Sasuke could hear some shuffling around and then…”Sakura-chan, I’m sorry. I was just jealous… fine, I believe you…just don’t cry. Please…”

Sasuke rolled his eyes…he would never figure out why Naruto liked Sakura so much. She wasn’t too nice and well, she was plain annoying. He decided it was safe to go in now and sauntered into the living room, to stop in shock! Naruto was kissing Sakura! Sasuke stared at the disgusting yet somewhat interesting spectacle. It interested him, the way that Naruto’s lips moved against Sakura’s, but the disgusting fact was that it was Sakura that Naruto was kissing.

It was the blond who noticed Sasuke first. His eyes got impossibly wide and he broke away from Sakura. “Sa…Sasuke…I didn’t know you were home! I mean you should have knocked…I’m…I’m sorry!”

The blond looked adorable as he apologized. Sakura gave Sasuke a cool look, no doubt a little miffed that he’d intruded on them. She pursed her lips. “Why don’t you go to your room Sasuke-kun? Dinner will be ready soon…Naruto and I need to talk…”

Sasuke smirked. He reveled in making life difficult for the girl…for some reason he hated her with a passion, since day one, even though she had been nice to him. “Actually, I’d rather stay here. I haven’t got a TV upstairs and I want to watch something. Konoha is playing against Suna today…I want to watch that match really badly.”

Sakura looked like she was going to burst but gave him a smile that looked more like a grimace. “Well, alright Sasuke-kun. Naruto I don’t think I’ll be staying for dinner tonight…I have to get some assignment done for tomorrow.”

Naruto started to protest but she had already walked to the door. He followed her and then gave a slight kiss. “I’m sorry. I promise we’ll meet up sometime later ok?” Sakura nodded and left.

Sasuke watched bored. The blond turned to him with a smile. “So shall we watch that match you’re talking about? I made you some onigiri, fish and miso soup today. I think I’ll stick with ramen…though.”

Sasuke felt a weird feeling crop up inside him. It was the first time someone had done something for him, with genuine care and no pity behind it. He nodded, his expression softening. “Why though? Why did you cook just for me? I mean you aren’t joining me right…”

Naruto’s smile widened. “Well, I don’t know…just felt like it I guess. Sakura doesn’t like any of this food anyway, so it’s just as well that she left. Go clean up and you’ll get your dinner.”

Half an hour later, Sasuke was found to be sitting with Naruto watching the match. Naruto was vociferous in his cheering and cursing. Sasuke watched him and then gave a small pleased smile when he knew the blond wasn’t watching. He liked this camaraderie he felt with this new guardian…maybe they could be friends. Then he turned back to the match as Konoha scored and Naruto jumped up and ran around the sofa! Sasuke shook his head and went back to taking small measured bites of his food.

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A/N: second chapter done. Wow I loved you guys for all the reviews! If you want the link to the doujinshi look for Toshi no sa nante. I don’t have the link I got it long back…neways I don’t know if I’ll make things go fast or slow but I do have a definite plot, but the rest will only come to me as I write. Ja ne pple! Oh and I’ll be a little late in uploading due to college, exams and stuff. Oh by the way are any of you having trouble with They aren’t sending me my alerts for some reason and refuse to send e-mail verification to any other e-mail I try to change it to. Please help.

Taka