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Sasuke was infuriated, no one had ever talked to him like that except Naruto. He had made an exception for the other boy because they were rivals. It was almost like a brother thing, they could insult each other but if anyone else did it was on. Sasuke stood up and left, he didn’t have to take that from a bunch of losers. Naruto watched slightly apologetically as the other walked off stiffly. He’d have to apologise for it later of course but he had just been trying to loosen everyone up. If they all started calling him Sasuke-teme Naruto knew he’d be in trouble.

“Where’s he going?” asked one of the girls, “Attitude much?”

“Oh don’t worry about Sasuke, he’s just not very social but he’s alright when you get to know him.” There, Naruto had done his best to stop things before they got started. He could have used Sakura’s help in shutting himself up but she was too busy talking about blow drying techniques to a bunch of rapt listeners.

Naruto thought about it as he made his way to his locker after his final class. Everyone else had emptied out pretty quick with smiles and waves and promises to talk tomorrow so he had the halls almost to himself. Their group had always worked in Konoha, there had always been a bit of a balance but why? He and Sasuke were always fighting and calling each other names and Sakura was always trying to break them up. She always took Sasuke’s side but Naruto liked her too much to fight her over that and he was too positive to let their fights get to him. But here Sakura wasn’t doing her part and the whole group was falling to pieces, she wasn’t massaging the Uchiha’s ego the boy realised and that seemed to be the problem. Naruto could handle being insulted and everything, he had been his whole life, but Sasuke wasn’t built to handle it. He could handle attention, which he ignored but being ignored didn’t seem to sit well with him. It was odd. If their friendship, if you could call it that, was to survive it would have to change somehow. Become more self sufficient rather than dependant on Sakura.
He sighed, he should go find Sasuke and apologise. He wasn’t sure what for yet he just knew he had to.

“Our little boy is growing up,” Kakashi said putting his arm around Iruka’s shoulder.

He pulled away, “Kakashi please! Not at school, we have to be under cover.”

“I tried to get you under covers all night!” the jounin said innocently.

“Undercover! You idiot, what if someone sees?” Iruka blushed as he felt a hand hit his bottom.

“Iruka honey, that’s the least of your worries.”

Gross, Sakura had just seen something she never wanted to see in her life. Kakashi-sensei groping Iruka-sensei. She would never look at them the same again. Actually she probably would, it was just the kind of the thing you’d expect from Kakashi and Iruka’s reaction was just what you’d expect of him also. What she hadn’t expected was the reaction of the other students to their arrival. She had already surrounded herself with a whole group of friends both male and female, that wasn’t what had surprised her. But their reaction to noisy, annoying Naruto was. They had all taken to him like they had known him all their lives, it was so strange watching him be popular. He did it so much better than Sasuke a voice inside her head told her. And Sasuke, well she’d barely seen him she had to admit. They hadn’t really had any classes together that she had noticed. She would have been astonished to learn that in that one day they had shared three classes that she hadn’t even noticed him in.

Sasuke wasn’t jealous. He didn’t like people and therefore could not be jealous at the way they had reacted to the three of them. He knew Sakura would make friend easily, after all she was a people person. But Naruto was a surprise, sure he had a natural charisma and made people laugh but he had never really had friends so how did he seem to know exactly what to do with them? It had come as a surprise to the Uchiha that no-one had reacted to him like they did back in Konoha. Here they all seemed to ignore him as much as he ignored everyone else. It was slightly depressing to know that it wasn’t even his looks that attracted people to him back home, only his name and history. That was all he had when he came here, he still looked and acted the same as he always did but now everyone seemed to hate him rather than love him. It was a weird change. Not that he was complaining, of course he would never complain about being disliked after all he didn’t like people so why should they like him? This was what he’d always wanted wasn’t it? To be liked or hated for himself rather than his name or some sort of romantic ideal of him, if it happened to be hated all the better for him. So why wasn’t he happy?

“Hey Sasuke-kun,” Naruto said taking a seat next to him, “What’s up?”

“Hn,” the Uchiha informed him still absorbed in his own thoughts.

“Hey look, I’m sorry about today, in the cafeteria I mean. It’s weird huh? Being at a new school I mean, I’ve never been to any other school so starting new is weird. Especially in a different town, I haven’t even been teased properly once since I got here. Still it is early days, I’m going to go hang out with some of them on Friday did you want to come too?” Naruto’s face was open and smiling.

“Why? We’re here on a mission dobe, and I don’t need your apologies. We’re not here to make friends they’ll only get in our way. Don’t forget that,” Sasuke told him in a flat tone.

“You’re wrong,” Naruto told him cheerfully, “Sakura said we should be making as many friends as possible so that if anything goes on they’ll talk to us about it. It’ll make intelligence gathering much easier.”

Sasuke bristled visibly at being told he was wrong, “And give whoever is causing the problems leverage. If you get attached to someone they have a hostage they can use to their advantage. And what the hell would you know about intelligence gathering? You couldn’t even gather enough for yourself!” Sasuke felt a little better after his insult, insulting Naruto, although easy, never failed to cheer him up slightly.

The reaction however left something to be desired, “Think what you like Sasuke, friends will come in handy. And by the way if people pick up my habit of insulting you I am sorry, but only because I’ll have to share a room with a bitchy Sasuke.” With that Naruto dropped out of the tree and went inside.

“How was your first day?” Iruka asked as the blonde walked in the door.

“Awesome!” Naruto said smiling, “Everyone here is so…nice! Oh is it alright if I hang out after school with some of the others? They invited me, how cool is that?!”

Iruka smiled, “Sounds like you had a terrific day, of course you can hang out with them. You seem to be making the most of the new start.”

“Yeah its cool going somewhere no-one knows anything about you. They have no preconceptions or anything it's awesome!” Naruto enthused, “How was your day?”

'Well that’s a loaded question,' thought Iruka, 'I found out what classes I’m teaching. Organised the syllabus and everything that the other teachers had set up for me and familiarised myself with it in amongst dodging Kakashi who groped me every time we came in contact. But I can’t tell that part to Naruto.'
“It was good,” he said finally, “I’m going to be teaching Japanese, they had everything set up for me and everything so all I really had to go through everything and make sure I understood it so it was a fairly easy day for me. I’ll start taking classes tomorrow so that should be interesting. Especially if I have any of you which I imagine I will at some point.”

“You’ll make a good teacher,” Naruto agreed.

“Naruto I already am a teacher, I taught you for ages,” Iruka said laughing.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that,” Naruto scratched the back of his head, “Hey have you seen Sakura? I haven’t seen her since I got home.”

“Oh she’s here somewhere,” Kakashi said from behind him, “I think she’s on the phone. Where’s Sasuke?”

“He’s out in the tree,” Naruto told him heading into the kitchen.

“Thanks,” Kakashi called out and squeezed Iruka on the bottom as he headed out the door.

“Ka- dammit he keeps on doing that! I’m going to have to start wearing padding,” Iruka muttered to himself.

"Hey Sasuke," Kakashi greeted the boy as he joined him in the tree, "How was the first day? Different to Konoha isn't it?"

"Hn," Sasuke told him in a toneless voice, still staring off into the distance.

Kakashi looked at him and raised an eyebrow, interested at the Uchiha's reaction, not the verbal reaction, that was fairly standard, but from what he could see the boy was not handling what he had imagined he always wanted. He was now just Sasuke, his family name meant nothing he had no terrible history, no expectations and no pressure to do anything. Yet rather than enjoying it as he had always imagined he would, he appeared to be miserable. Well he tried, let him come out in his own time.

The second night was, if possible, worse than the first. Naruto managed to snore even louder and totally destroy any hopes of sleeping any better.
'At least I know how to fix it now,' Sasuke thought, blushing as he remembered the night before, he caught the blush and scowled. There that was more like the Uchiha. He padded over to the other boy's bed and started to roll him over again, this time there was no awkwardness, no hug or caught arms. He walked silently back to his own bed. It was almost anti-climactic really, he thought there would have been some sort of reaction, even if only the boy waking up from the touch of the brunette's cold fingertips. He laid down and tried to sleep, he had been expecting something to happen and had resigned himself to it. Sasuke almost laughed out loud when he realised he actually felt cheated, as if the universe owed him something for taking away his moment of awkwardness.

"Sasuke," Naruto mumbled as he rolled over, the other boy froze in his bed, had he woke him after all? But no the blonde was still fast asleep.
"Din't mean to, bastid," he rolled over again and abruptly fell off the bed and sprung into a defensive position, suddenly very awake.

Sasuke sighed and rolled over, leaning up onto one elbow, "Could you be any louder dobe? First your snoring and now this. How the hell am I supposed to get any sleep? I'd probably get more sleep sharing with Sakura."

Naruto relaxed and sat down, "But she'd be squealing all night and....oh. Sorry Sasuke." Naruto lowered his head slightly, almost chastised.

Sasuke blinked at the unexpected reaction, hadn't he even heard what he said? The dobe was acting like he had just gotten in trouble rather than been insulted and compared to a squealing girl.
Sasuke sighed and laid back down, "Don't worry about it dobe. Just go back to sleep."

Naruto grinned at the other boy's back, score one for Naruto. If a new approach was needed for their new environment then Naruto was willing to try. He was nothing if not adaptable.

"Come join me," Kakashi called from the hot tub he had somehow managed to hook up in their bathroom, "You know you want to."

"I'm fine," Iruka called, he had angled himself so he couldn't see through the open door, "Will you please just put some pants on!"

Kakashi laughed at him, "Would you join me if I did?" He asked seductively walking into their bedroom.

Iruka turned instinctively and blushed turning away, "Fine whatever! Just hurry up and put some pants on!"

Kakashi laughed and forced his wet fingertips under the other man's shirt and gave his shoulders a squeeze.
"Just remember you promised," he said slyly.