Scared Stiff

Part Two

“You know, we do have a ward for psychiatric disorders here. If I ask nicely, and point out that you have a habit of stopping abruptly and staring at random things, the nurse will recommend you.” Sasuke said.

Really, that was too much. The boy hated him. Naruto had only stopped to see the odd, metal, robot-like box in the corner and now he was getting insulted. Or threatened. God knows Sasuke could do what he said, with his connections in this place. Either way, it made his ears burn and his mouth opened without his permission.
“I don’t stare at things! Just…what is that?” Oh. That wasn’t so bad. Naruto had expected his mouth to say something along the lines of “Just you try to put me behind bars, you stupid arsehole. I’ll stomp all over your face, until your big nose comes out on the other side of your head and makes a hole in the floor.”

Fortunately, three days of hot meals with salt had thickened his brain-to-tongue link. Even if he was feeling slightly unfulfilled, he also felt relief when Sasuke answered, “It’s a rubbish bin. A box where you put useless things. Like that rag you’re wearing.”

“Oh…hey!” said Naruto. “This rag was the best fit they could find on short notice!”

That rag had probably been a pair of nice pants at some point. Before all the wear and tear the previous owner had put them through.

…and before the he had made a rather big hole in the place where Naruto’s ass would’ve been if he didn’t hold them up all the time. The pants weren’t half bad now, actually. Not when you compared them with what Naruto had been wearing earlier. Even better, they were orange; his favorite color. The shirt they gave him was black.

“Fine, you don’t stare at things. You just stopped to take a closer look at the rubbish bin because it’s oddly shaped, and you were only watching the curtains in the hall, for a full minute, because they had printed various flowers on it. And, obviously, you were just trying to imprint the back of our room’s door into your memory.”

Dear God, and Kiba was always accusing Naruto of talking too much.

“Just in case you took off and I had to find the room on my own! I don’t want to barge in on someone changing.”

“That would seriously disturb them, I’m sure.” Sasuke answered and then started muttering something that sounded really rude. At his own expense. “Let’s go. The Canteen is on the bottom floor.”

Naruto was confused. Three quarters of all the things Sasuke had said in the last few hours since they had met were offensive. The rest didn’t make any sense at all. This boy was strange.

Naruto followed on at a safe distance, just in case Sasuke was the sort of person that snapped at you when you walked too close or too fast. He had already proved to be the sort of person that lost his patience when you stopped to look at things.

Naruto tried to calm his nerves. They were going to The Canteen for breakfast, and there were going to be people there. Many people.
People who were going to be looking, judging, and asking questions.

On the bright side, there would be food. Maybe even something sweet.

They met a boy at the entrance of The Canteen who was wearing a very short shirt, short enough for Naruto to see his bellybutton. If he dared to look, that is.

“I’ve been waiting for you.” The boy said to Sasuke, at the same time scanning Naruto up and down. It made Naruto feel highly uncomfortable.

“Sai.” Sasuke answered in tones that sounded much more natural on Kiba. “This is my roommate, Naruto.”

“Hi.” Naruto said and held his breath.

“He’s certainly cuter than Shino’s roommate. Are you sharing?” Apparently, Sai had the annoying habit of talking about you as if you weren’t there. Naruto determined that he was rude and creepy, as well.

Sai tried to slip his hands into Sasuke’s pockets. Sasuke rolled his eyes and pulled away, but smirked a bit as he did. Now they were both staring at Naruto.

...Who really, really wanted to go away, have breakfast, and give them some time alone. They made him unreasonably irate and he felt out of place.

“I’m hungry.” He chipped in, hoping that they would move away from the door. They just looked at him as if he was mildly insane.

“He’s not mine to share. Thank God.” Sasuke turned and walked through the double doors with little round windows.

Naruto followed him, and Sai followed after.

“So, how do you like it here?” Sai asked when they got in line to wait for the food. The canteen had some helpful staff, but there were many people in here.

“It’s nice.” Naruto said, much more interested in looking at the menu. There were all kinds of different sandwiches just a few short steps away, and he could smell cocoa. God, if all it took to get him food like this was to be nice to Sasuke, he would keep his mouth shut forever. And he would never try to slaughter him...no matter how much he wanted to when Sasuke opened his mouth.

“Did you have a tour around the place?” Sai asked further.

“No.” It was the truth. They had arrived yesterday afternoon, Kiba and he, but Itachi made them do some psychological tests until late into the night, and then immediately showed them to their rooms.

“I have a nice room, though. My own bed, too.” Naruto added, for Sai looked as though he was expecting a more multi-syllabled answer.

“Hmm, I was wondering about that. I’m quite disappointed. It was a delightful fantasy.” Sai snuck right into Naruto’s personal space, leering. "Never mind. You’re cute enough on your own.”

“If you leave smudges all over my floor again Sai, I will kill you. In some appropriately bizarre way.” Sasuke interrupted, without even turning around.

Wondering vaguely what one had to do with the other, Naruto spotted Kiba and made his way down the aisle, a loaded tray in his hands.

Sai was next to him, and he sensed that Sasuke was following a bit behind.

Sai inquired, “So, is it true that you and your friend lived out in the wilderness for years?”

“No. There was a town nearby. It had a comic books store.”

It was a reasonable answer; There was no need for the odd look. Kiba and he had spent many nights in that town and store. Didn't reading comics mean that you were in touch with the world, at least a little?

Naruto speculated for a moment that 'out in the wilderness' might be some kind of equivalent to “virgin”, but shrugged it off. It was probably just his imagination.

“So,” Sai continued, with the air of someone who believed that Naruto's last answer had been remarkably amusing, “You two hunted for your own food and made sure you didn't miss out on the weekly chapters of your favorite comic books? Sounds appealing.”

It sounded "appealing" when you said it like that, Naruto thought.

Kiba, who had probably heard every word since before they waked in, was now close enough to answer for him.

“We would break into the comic store for the warmth when it was especially cold on winter nights. The owner even started leaving food for us, after a while. But Naruto read everything in it five times around.”

Naruto made himself comfortable on the bench and started eating. Sai sat next to him, and Sasuke sat across the table.

Kiba spoke up again. “This is Shino, my roommate.”

Shino was either very tall or he had a pile of books on his chair. He was wearing sunglasses even though they were inside on a cloudy day, but he looked nice enough as he nodded to them all. So Naruto offered him a smile.

“Who’s your friend?” Kiba went on, unaffected by the silence around him.

“Um.” Naruto answered, because he really liked his sandwich; It had two kinds of cheese in it. It was not very nice of Kiba to make him stop eating. It wasn't as if Naruto knew, anyway.

“I’m Sai. Nice to meet you.”

“He’s Sasuke’s friend.” Added Naruto, so as not to appear completely rude, and went back to his sandwich. This turned out to be a mistake.

“Sasuke? That boy you gave a lap dance to last night?”

Naruto choked. Well, he almost choked. His face went very, very red and hot. Naruto didn’t dare look in Sasuke’s direction; He could see him smirking out of the corner of his eye anyway.

“Oh, that will keep me up for weeks.” Sai said, looking like a big cat that had just found dinner. His eyes were narrowed and unfocused.

Naruto knew what that meant, but there was just no way he could get any redder. He tried to think of something to say; something that would explain that last night was a perfectly innocent mistake, no matter how he felt about it, that at the same time would keep Sai from doing anything suspicious with his hands and Naruto’s pants. Or Sasuke’s pants, for that matter.

He was interrupted in his efforts by a female’s voice.

“I know you.” A girl with long pink hair said, looking at him. Naruto knew her, too. Her name was Sakura. She had been at the Institute around the same time that Kiba and he were. "You're the one who killed doctor Starski...aren’t you?"

Dead silence fell upon them and Naruto desperately wished they could all go back to sexual innuendos. He had lost his appetite.

“The fucker deserved it, everyone knows that.” Kiba growled.

Naruto shivered, despite being aware that Kiba's anger was for him, not at him. “So if you say that again where I can hear you, and keep in mind my ears are very sharp, I'll sic my dog on you.”

“His dog is big.” Shino supplied, as if he were answering someone’s innocent question on the subject. “Very big.”

Naruto found himself liking Shino, odd or not.

Sakura looked a bit lost, probably wondering what she had done wrong, and Naruto felt the heat wave in him rising.

“I had a terrible crush on you back then. No idea why, because we all knew you were making your forehead smaller so you could look prettier. That didn't work, by the way.”

Naruto was too busy trying to forget the sound of Doc. Starski’s neck cracking to come up with a better insult.

That man had been a sick bastard, and stupid enough to sexually molest mutant kids; Someone had been bound to kill him.

Naruto just wished it hadn't had to be him.

He could feel everyone openly watching him now, but he was beyond caring. Sakura was either very stupid, or just a bitch for asking about this in a public place. Apparently, she realized this and decided to go back where she had come from.

“So, you killed someone?” Sai asked after a bit.

“Yes." Naruto heard himself answering, even though he hadn't given his mouth permission to open. “Not on purpose, of course. It was a great surprise for me to find that the human body is so fragile. Especially in the neck area. You just turn it a bit, and it snaps. Odd.”

Kiba was already on his feet.

“Naruto,” he said. “I’m on my way to check out the TV room. Will you come with me?”

Naruto felt a grin spreading all over his face. Kiba was a good friend, to take care of him like this. That was nice. Who wanted to think about stupid people and their stupid mouths anyway? Naruto followed Kiba out.

The Canteen was very quiet when the door closed behind them.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The chair was very comfortable. That was its purpose. Itachi wanted everyone who came into his office to feel relaxed. He had a theory that when people felt comfortable, they lowered most of their defenses.

Sasuke thought that that depended on character; He himself had always felt especially twitchy in that chair. It felt like sitting on a dentist’s chair, with the exception that Itachi was far more likely to poke you through the brain instead of the mouth.

But then again, Sasuke was the only one who knew about Itachi’s theory; Maybe that was what made it different for him.

Sasuke sat in that chair, waiting for his brother to finish his telephone conversation and tell Sasuke why he had been called into his brother's office. That was not his day for “tests”, and his painted message had (surprisingly) come off last night. It was possible that Itachi was mad about the thing Sasuke had written, but that was unlikely…

He was sure he would know if Itachi was angry. His brother never bothered to hide his feelings, when he actually had them.If this was a family matter, Kakashi would be here. Since there was no trace of porn in sight, Sasuke's godfather was obviously not around.

So it must be the events that had happened over breakfast.

Itachi finally put the phone down, and turned to stare levelly at Sasuke. “What happened this morning?” His question confirmed Sasuke's suspicions.

“I don’t know.” That was the half-true, after all.

“You were there.” That was not a question by any means. Surveillance cameras were all over this place. They were one of the reasons Sasuke wanted out.

“I still don’t know. You tell me.”

Itachi leaned back in his seat. It was unreasonable, Sasuke knew, for him to act like this.

Itachi was asking Sasuke for information he knew Sasuke had. Sasuke had been sitting at the same table as Naruto, after all. He stayed quiet, out of spite. They had been fighting for months now over what Sasuke would do once he came of age.

“I know we don’t always agree on things Sasuke, but do you actually want Kabuto to get more votes in the next meeting and take over this place instead of me?”

Sasuke didn’t care much. He wouldn't be here for much longer. But he kept quiet. It would not be good for him if Itachi became suspicious now.

Kabuto was a mutant himself, same as Itachi.

He was also a freak under the protection of one of the founders of this place, Orochimaru. They were both power hungry, and not nearly as considerate as Itachi was.

Itachi continued, “Because I doubt he will let you kids get away with running around at night, or stealing Tsunade’s vodka.”

“…No, I don’t want him to get the votes.”

“Then tell me what happened.”

“I really have no idea. Naruto went a little…odd. What do you want to know?”

“I’ve got complaints that he was threatening people. My team spent three days with Kiba and he in a hotel and his psychological tests were fine; Nothing suggested he’d be violent.”

“Not even the fact that he's killed before?”

“That was an accident.”

“How can snapping someone’s neck be an accident?” Sasuke was actually curious if that was the truth, or if Naruto just wanted to make sure everyone knew he was not open for that particular discussion.

It was strange.

No one who lived in this building was exactly harmless. Everyone, from that maniac Gaara who had been a serial killer before he was locked in, to Hinata, a telepath who had never in her life used her talent on someone without consent, was dangerous. The outer world was terrified of all of them.

Before Itachi and Sasuke came, The Institute had been survival of the fittest. It still was, but in a more subtle way. Now it was more about what you could do, then what you would do on the slightest provocation. The people here were still tough and on the edge.

But when Naruto’s eyes had turned red and he had started talking about snapping necks, everyone had become uneasy, if not scared.

Maybe that Starski thing was giving him credibility, but there was something... some quality in the way he had held himself that was … promising.

Sasuke shivered. Promising in more ways than one.

Itachi was quiet for a while, looking through a window.

“I was there, you know. You were safe at home with our parents, but I was locked in the Institution long before Naruto killed Dr. Starski. He was a sick man and he had been sexually molesting and hurting kids for years.”

Sasuke knew that, as it was a common story in here. It was the first argument in why everyone stayed and let experiments be done on them. The doctors and nurses were nice here; Kabuto was the only one nobody liked. Everyone got painkillers whenever there was a need for them, and the rooms and food were good.

Since Itachi had become supervisor, there was also sex. He firmly believed that sex was crucial for the health of teenagers, and turned a blind eye on midnight trysts. Everyone was reasonably happy and no one tried to escape.

Sasuke was just a special case.

“I really believe Naruto killed Dr. Starski in self-defense. But if he was threatening others…”

“He didn’t.” Sasuke said. Even if it wasn’t in self-defense, that man had deserved to be killed. Sakura and Sai deserved whatever they got, too. “He just told Sakura off for asking about Starski. Kiba was mad, too. Apparently, they aren't very fond of the subject.”

He didn’t really want Naruto to get into trouble, but this was a good opportunity for Sasuke to find out more about him. Just in case.

“Naruto was not exactly threatening, but he changed a bit after Sai tried to pick up where Sakura left off.”

“He did?” Itachi looked interested. “How?”

“His eyes turned red. But that was the only physical difference I noticed. Is that transformation also part of his… talent?”

“It is. It seems Naruto has to be mad to do that.”

“You couldn’t copy it?”

“No. And you?”

“I never tried. Why would I want to be a weird fox? Or violent all over?”

Itachi smirked.

“According to his file from the Institution, he is very strong when he does that other transformation. He can also heal himself instantly from almost anything, and fire can’t hurt him. It sounds good to me.”

“It would. You are a collector.”

“So are you, Sasuke. It’s in our nature. Have you ever missed the opportunity to copy a talent?”

Sasuke decide he wasn't going to answer, because that would just lead into yet another fight on the subject.

But it wasn't the same. Sasuke was just copying because he could. Mutants were all around him.

Itachi, on the other hand, was actively looking for new kids with fresh possibilities. His plan was to find everyone he could and cure them, in order to make himself even more special.

Orochimaru, and to some extent, Kabuto, were trying to find a way in the lab to steal talents. It was a public secret that Orochimaru was insanely jealous of the Uchiha brothers.

“So he wasn’t threatening anyone, he just responded on provocation?”

“Yes.”

“It’s interesting to see you defending anyone, Sasuke. It is very unlike you.”

“I just told you the truth.” Why would he defend that idiot? He was hot, but he had come here at the wrong time. Not to mention that he was also naïve and extremely stupid.

Itachi picked up the phone again, and asked his secretary to connect him with someone whose name Sasuke failed to hear.

“So you don’t like him? And I really thought he was your type.”

“My type? What, a male?” Naruto looked different from anyone Sasuke had ever met, and his brother hardly knew anything about him.

“A feisty male. Go away now, I have a work to do.”

Sasuke went back to his room to hide the extra set of keys he had stolen from Itachi. Now all he had to do was wait for his brother to go away on another trip and he would be out of here.

As he had been awake all night, Sasuke decided to get some rest. His new roommate hadn’t been back in the room since this morning, and Sasuke wasn’t looking forward to seeing him again.

It was unlike him to think about one person so much. He had spent the day worrying about Naruto, and trying not to actively look for him. If he continued this way, he was sure he would work himself into a crush based on two conversations in less then three hours.

Ah, well. It was unbecoming for Uchihas to lie to themselves. He had already worked himself into a crush. And it had much more to do with the fact that he’d been thinking a smile would look much better on Naruto’s face instead of that haunted expression he had been wearing.

...Of course, Sasuke also couldn't help but admit that Naruto was hot.

Itachi would laugh his ass off.

Sasuke dozed off, still musing, only to be startled awake by a loud sound. He was sitting up trying to calm his furiously beating heart before he was even aware that it had only been the door.

Naruto looked nervous. Adorable, his mind supplied.

“Did I wake you?”

“Hmn.” Not eloquent, damn it. Sasuke wasn’t very talkative when he was drowsy. It was better to keep his mouth shut around Naruto anyway, because he couldn't tell what would come out.

It wasn’t as if he was trying to impress anyone, anyway.

…Right.

“I’m sorry.” Naruto said, taking his mumbled answer as a ‘Yes’. “I tried to be quiet, but it’s kind of hard to be quiet and keep your pants up at the same time.”

“Then use a belt, moron.” Ah, well. He wasn’t trying to be rude; Naruto hadn't done anything to deserve that. It was just...stressful, lying to Itachi and sharing a room with someone who thought Sasuke's nose was the size of a mountain.

Sasuke figured that he should be a better roommate and help Naruto. He should offer to hold Naruto’s pants for him, at the same time giving Naruto a very good idea about the actual size of his nose. So the idiot could see that it wasn't that big. Then, Sasuke would drop his pants.

Naruto gave him an amused sort of glare, as if he couldn’t make up his mind on whether he had been insulted or not.

“I don’t have a belt. They burned my clothes, remember?”

“Take mine.” Naruto gaped at him, so Sasuke added, “I’ve already seen as much of you as my sanity can handle.” And then some.

“Thank you.” Naruto gave him a brilliant smile. Sasuke felt his breath catch in his throat, and he franticly cursed inside his head. It wasn't fair.

To cover any visible reaction, Sasuke fetched a belt from his bottom drawer and gave it to Naruto, carefully avoiding eye contact.

“So, are you feeling better now?”

“What?” Naruto lifted his head from where he was putting the belt on, confused.

“I haven’t seen you since breakfast. Are you feeling better now?”

“Oh… Yeah, I am. I was just upset. That's not exactly my favorite subject.”

Understatement or not, Sasuke was glad Naruto wasn’t apologizing. It was sort of hard for him to keep his voice flat when there were two big blue eyes looking at him worriedly. He would just get sappy, and then irritated with himself. That would lead into nerves snapping, and maybe even a fight.

“Am I in trouble? I heard Itachi called you into his office.”

“No, you're not in trouble. He just wanted to know what happened.”

Naruto was silent for a second.

“But he knows what happened? Before. What I did?”

“He does. He knew that before he brought you here.”

“And he put me in a room with his own brother?!”

Sasuke laughed. If Itachi was watching this from somewhere, he must be rolling in the aisles. Probably literally, as hard as that was to imagine if you didn’t know him very well.

“I can take care of myself, Naruto. But knowing him, he probably put you here hoping that I would have to. Nothing provides as much amusement for Itachi as an annoyed and fuming me.”

“That's… dysfunctional.”

“It is. How does it feel?”

There were surely better ways for him to ask that question, but Sasuke had asked on impulse.

“Ha?” Was Naruto's confused response.

“When you transform like that...how does it feel?”

“Why, so you can copy it?” Naruto glared at him a bit. At Sasuke's surprised look, he added, “I’ve met a lot of people today.”

“If Itachi couldn’t copy it, there's no point in me to trying at all. I was just curious.”

Naruto looked a little suspicious, but he answered anyway.

“It's like…there was fog all around before, but then it’s finally gone and I can see things clearly.” He continued, slightly embarrassed, “And my mouth runs off on me.”

“But it’s still you?”

“It’s still me when I’m the fox, too.” Sasuke tried to hide his snickering, but not hard enough. Naruto noticed. “Shut up. The fog is thicker then. I don’t always approve of the things I do when I'm like that.”

“Not always? What about last night?” Okay, that was already flirting. It wasn’t on purpose, it just came naturally to Sasuke. For the first time in his life.

Officially, someone should come in now and kill him. With an ax, maybe. That would be dramatic enough.

Naruto wasn’t that ignorant after all, if the blush that was creeping up his neck was anything to judge by. He found his way out of answering.

“I can’t buckle this up, damn it! Your belt is too short.”

Sasuke bit his tongue to prevent himself from making some blatant innuendo, and answered when the pain steadily making it's way to his brain made him lose the will to do so.

“Make another hole in it. Will that work?”

“Maybe, but it’d ruin your belt.”

Sasuke shrugged and moved closer to see for himself. Just to help Naruto with the belt. Really.

He took the ends of the belt in each hand and tried to overlap them. Naruto lifted his shirt a bit and exposed some skin. Sasuke tugged harder and it worked. There was enough space for another hole. His hands were trapped behind the belt though.

Naruto’s stomach was smooth and warm against his knuckles.

“It will work.” He said, almost whispering, and moved his hands away before he could do anything…unrequited.

Like push Naruto onto the bed behind, and follow him. And then procede to do several things that would likely get him killed.

“What can I use to make a hole?” Naruto asked, in a voice that was a little higher than usual. He was still keeping his pants up with one hand and his shirt with the other. "They don’t let you keep knifes and needles here, do they?”

“No.” Sasuke smirked and closed his fist. “But we can work something out.”

It hurt him, of course. No matter how many times he did it, it still hurt. He his arm felt cold from the elbow down, but the rest of his body was burning. This was just a cute little parlor trick, he told himself. It would be over soon.

When he opened his palm, there was a small spike there. Naruto laughed and moved right into Sasuke's personal space.

“Is that ice?” He looked like he was afraid to touch the spike, so he took Sasuke’s hand in his own instead. “You’re so cold!”

“It’s ice.” Sasuke said, closing his eyes and waiting for the dizziness to pass. “Have you meet Haku today? This is his talent. I copied it from him.”

“No, I haven’t. Can this cut through the belt?”

“No, I've risked fainting in a most inelegant way just so that I could show you something you could’ve snatched from the staff in the canteen.”

Naruto made a face at him.

“No need for sarcasm. I would love to see you faint, though. It would give me a perfect excuse to hit you in the face and say it was for your own good. No one could blame me.” Naruto offered a smile to show that he was only kidding, and Sasuke realized how was startlingly close Naruto was. “Why would you faint?”

“When thieves steal pants, they aren't always in the right size. My body just isn't built for this.”

“Um, I think that's probably why thieves are stealing money these days.”

Sasuke opened his eyes completely.

“I can steal their money but I don’t need it. I can’t buy their talents, though. Not yet. You can take this, you know. It won’t melt, I won’t fall down if you let go.” He didn’t want Naruto to let go, this was kind of nice, but it was better for him to avoid temptation. No one had ever called Sasuke restrained.

Mortified, Naruto immediately let go of his hand and took the ice spike. Feeling some sensation coming back into his arm, Sasuke tried a little circular massage Sai showed him once when he had stayed too long in an… uncomfortable position. It worked.

“Wait, what did you mean by ‘not yet’?”

“There's a group of doctors here that work on that.”

“Why would anyone… never mind.” Naruto turned towards the window to get more light and messed around with the belt.

“Done! This is really sharp.”

“Better give that back to me before someone accuses me of arming you.”

Naruto rolled his eyes, but gave him spike and started waving his hands around.

“They can accuse you of arming me just because you freed my hands. See, now I can do interesting and unspeakable things with them.”

‘To me?’ Sasuke wanted to ask. Instead, he said, “Yes, like shovel twice as much food into your mouth.”

“Hey, that sandwich had two kinds of cheese in it!”

“That explains it.” Sasuke said, and closed his palm around the ice stick. When he reopened it, only a tiny puddle of water was left.

Naruto looked impressed and grabbed Sasuke's hand one more time. Sasuke bit his lip, knowing he wouldn't find it in himself to ask Naruto to let go again.

“This doesn’t smell like normal water. It smells like you.”

“Well, I made it out of fluids from my body.”

“Oh.” Naruto said almost in his hair, because he was that much taller when Sasuke was leaned on the dresser between their beds. Naruto caught a couple of drops from the edge of Sasuke's palm with his tongue and licked them off, as if he was trying to taste Sasuke. “And this hurts?”

“For awhile.” He answered and when he lifted his head, their eyes met. Naruto was smiling dazzlingly at him and there was no force in the world that would stop Sasuke from reaching out this time.

But even if he was able and willing to ignore a rather loud knocking on the door, Naruto jumped away as though he had been caught with his hands in the cookie jar. He was blushing like a schoolgirl. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him, and told the person on the other side of the door to come in.

A head of pink hair showed through the crack.

“Hi.” Sakura said.

Naruto hesitated for a second and then waved.

Encouraged, Sakura opened the door a bit wider.

“Naruto, I wanted to apologize for this morning. It was stupid of me, but I really didn't mean anything by it. I was just curious. I’m sorry.”

Naruto looked bewildered and confused, but managed a nod.

“I’m sorry too.” He said. “I overacted.”

Sakura brightened.

“So...you have to come to this welcoming party we organized for you and Kiba!”

Naruto looked at Sasuke, as if asking for his opinion. He shrugged one shoulder in reply.

“They do it all the time. Just steal a bottle of drink from Dr. Tsunade and go to the basement where there are no cameras and throw a party. Itachi knows about it.”

“Okay then.” Naruto smiled at Sakura. “When?”

“Right now is good. Sasuke knows where, he can bring you along. I have to go tell the others, and invite Kiba.”

After she left, Naruto asked, “You don’t mind?”

“No. Do you really want to go?”

“They’ll think I’m some kind of maniac if I don’t.”

Sasuke wanted to tell him that they were all idiots and who cared what they thought anyway, but it seemed Naruto did. Sasuke also wanted to tell him that they should stay in the room and finish what they had started, but that was a bad idea because Sasuke would be out of this God forsaken place soon. Instead, he settled on, “Fine. Let’s go.”

And they did.