Underneath the Sakura tree, Somei Yoshino

Alright guys here is another chapter.

Right there are one announcement i have to make but first i'll answer LadyRonin =)

LadyRonin: would not be complete without a round of questions for you =) yeah i though people would wonder their age so i though i'd get it out of the way =) Well their are not going to be sleazy as such, but it is kakashi, he is not well know to be not sleazy from time to time. so yeah it will be leaning more towards the nice guys with hearts. well i'll at least mentioning Itachi at least a couple of times, havent really decided yet what role he will be playing yet if any at all. =) And don't worry ther will be chapters from Naruto's days in the clubs, that has already been decided.=)

hisoka kurosaki: hehe you are right, but it is his favourite food =)

AnA La PaNa83: yeah but then again it is Sasuke =).

XoXgaaraXoX: well here is another update =)

j7nx: thank you, makes me happy when i get comments like that =)

thank you guys for the comments, love it. and of course a huge thank you and loads of hugs to my two awesome beta readers Kurai Kisu and Leila. *sends all my bear hugs*

well as for the announcement:

yeah, as some might know i'll be leaving for an exchange year to Hong Kong. which means there will be harder for me to write, but i will do my best. but i did say i would try and finish the other story a bond thicker than blood before i leave so i will be prioritizings that. but dont worry i will not leave this story it will just be longer between updates =).

dunno if this will be the last update before i leave or not, maybe i'll manage to write another chapter if people want it.

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"speach"
'thoughts'

Chapter 5
A new member

Naruto stomped down the road towards the club earning a lot of weird looks from the passing people, since he was having a conversation with himself as he walked.

“Ungrateful bastard, the least he can do is say thank you. Here I am cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner; I even went shopping for him.” the more he thought about it the more annoyed he got, Sasuke had really gotten under his skin. After years of training Naruto had perfected his mask and it rarely ever broke even with the most annoying customers or other people, he would only smile and agree or just laugh it off.

“Aahh he’s so damn annoying” Naruto almost half yelled making all the people around him stop and look at him as he put his hands on his head pulling his hair a little in frustration. Naruto took a deep breath and let his hands fall to his sides, he had to calm down and let it slide at least for the hours he was at work. The club did not have many rules for the employees, but one rule stood higher than any other. Never bring personal business to the club, ever. Break that rule and the usual lenient Iruka and Kakashi would throw you out in seconds and you would not be let back in. It was not really a bad trade, most of the boys working in the club were street boys taken in by Iruka and they owed much of their new life to him and Kakashi who just put up with Iruka’s overly soft heart. Naruto guessed that’s why the club was as popular as it was, everybody followed the rule and helped out in any way they could and the club was never short of staff.

Naruto took another deep breath and calmed himself, ‘time for work’ he said to himself and turned the corner and onto the street the club was on.

As usual Iruka stood in the doorway waiting for everybody to arrive; he could be such a mother hen sometimes.

“Morning Iruka” he said as he passed Iruka at the door.

“Morning Naruto. Oh that’s rare, where is Gaara?” the brown haired man said as Naruto had passed him.

‘Shit’ he had totally forgotten about Gaara again, his mind had been fully occupied with his annoyance with the raven haired man since he left the man’s flat. Everyday since he had started, him and Gaara had always shown up together.

“Well I have decided to be a bit more independent” Naruto cursed himself for coming up with such a lame lie “besides I was at the old bookstore up at the lake, you know the one with the wooden sign. There is this book I really want and although the owner didn’t have it in the store he said he could ordered it for me” without even noticing Naruto’s face light up talking about the book, which he still had no title for. But he had not read any of Kajii Motojirō books yet and the Scrolls of Darkness that Sasuke was reading looked interesting.

Iruka had to laugh, books were the only topic which the blond boy would show any signs of emotion.

“You really love books, I feel sorry for Gaara.” The man said smiling at Naruto. On the inside Naruto was quite pleased with himself as he had managed to make a good comeback, everybody knew Naruto had a soft spot for books and whenever he began talking about it they would just agree as the topic was too boring for them to follow.

“Of course” Naruto gave him one of his smiles, which were not exactly fake but on the other hand not really a real smile either, and headed into the club.

“Morning Naruto” the silver haired bartender stood drying some glasses.

“Morning Kakashi” Naruto said and gave him the same smile he had given Iruka. Kakashi noticed as Iruka had that the blond boy had come alone but he decided not to ask as he already knew the mother hen standing on the outside would have already asked.

Naruto went into the dressing room and headed for his locker, if he had managed to fool Iruka and Kakashi fooling Gaara would not be a problem. He took off his long coat and began searching the pockets for some gum. ‘where did I put the damn gum’ Naruto dug deeper in one of the pocket when he felt something. Triumphantly he grabbed it and pulled it out of the pocket thinking it was gum, but instead his eyes met the shape of a key. ‘key? That’s not my key …’ then the memory of where the key came from popped in to his head, it was Sasuke’s key ‘damn it I forgot I had it in my pocket.’ This meant he had to go back up to the raven haired man’s flat and give back the key, or did he? Sasuke could just easily change the locks, Naruto was sure that must have crossed the man’s mind.

“There you are!” a familiar voice filled the room; startling Naruto that he almost dropped the key onto the floor.

“Gaara” Naruto turned around and shoved the key back into the jacket pocket, trying not to look as if he was hiding something. “Geez, you gave me a fright.”

“Sorry” the red haired boy said and smiled “but that’s what you get for ignoring your best friend for two days” he took off his jacket and unbuttoned another button on his red shirt.

“I haven’t been ignoring you, I told you I had the flu yesterday and today I was hanging around the old bookstore up by the lake, there is this book …” again Naruto’s face lit up without him realising. Gaara could not help but laugh a little, books were really this blond’s passion and sometimes he wondered why Naruto had chosen to follow him in this in the first place.

“Yeah yeah, you found yourself a new book” Gaara lifted his arm telling Naruto to join him, which he did after he had locked his locker. ‘Well not so much a book as it is a person’ Naruto thought to himself.

Back in the club area, most of the Hosts had gathered and stood around chatting amongst themselves. The club was not as big as it looked like from the outside. As soon as you got in you could see the bar at the end of the room, on the right there were about 4 booths with sofas around the tables, instead of chairs, which were at the tables scattered around the room. The bar was of dark mahogany wood, it almost looked black in the dimmed light. In front of the bar there were ten bar chairs which were reserved for the Hosts and each Host had their seat, of course it was not written anywhere but they all knew which seat belonged to whom.

Before opening, Iruka and Kakashi always had an opening meeting; a pep talk was probably the more correct word for it. Naruto and Gaara sat down in their chairs next to Haku.

“Morning” they both half whispered to the long haired boy who smiled at them.

“Morning guys”

“Well boys another day is here, as you all know we are still doing really well and we are more popular than we ever have been.” Iruka smiled to everyone as his eyes scanned the room; people began whispering amongst themselves before quieting down again when Kakashi put a finger over his mouth telling everyone to be quiet for the brown haired man to continue.

“And as you all know we have had a spot open since our number one Host Sai left half a year ago and Gaara took over the number one place.” Everybody looked over at Gaara, who stood up and bowed to everyone as a joke. They all began to laugh and shook their heads at him, to tell him he had succeeded in his joke. Again Kakashi had to put his finger in front of his mouth telling them to be quiet.

“Well we have a new recruit, Menma would you please come up here.” Iruka searched the room for the long haired blond boy, who had taken a seat in the far corner of the room trying to avoid any attention. Menma stood up and walked slowly up to the man waving his hand at him, telling him to walk a bit faster.

“Well everyone this is Menma.” Iruka lay his arm around the boy and let his eyes float over the room “be nice to him, oh and Haku I am putting him under your care. Okay then boys lets show our customers a good time.” Iruka smiled and walked behind the bar where his lover stood drying some more glasses. Everybody began chatting amongst themselves again as they waited for the time to turn 23:00, Haku waved at the blond boy who had been left standing alone at the bar.

“Over here Menma.”

Menma slowly walked over, still acting shy. It was a bit odd to see a person wanting to be a Host that was so shy, usually newbie’s were always talkative and social. When Menma reached the 3 boys sitting around one of the tables, Haku reached out his hand towards him.

“Hiya, as you probably guessed I’m Haku.” The long haired boy gave him a warm smile, it was not easy being the new one on the block and Haku remembered that very well from his first day at the club.

“I’m Naruto and this is Gaara” the blond said holding out his hand for Menma to grab.

“Hiya, Menma” he said in a low voice and sat down next to Haku and Gaara. Each new Host got a buddy to learn the ropes from; Sai had been Haku's buddy which everyone had been a little jealous of, since he was the number one Host.

“Don’t worry Menma we don’t bite” Naruto smiled.

“Nah, don’t worry. I know the first day seems a bit scary but there isn’t anything to worry about, I’ll show you around. The good thing about Iruka’s place is we set our own boundaries, so when ever you feel uncomfortable just tell me and I’ll take you back to the bar. Usually we don’t get any strange customers, but that doesn’t mean they don't show up once in a while.” Haku tried his best to ease the long haired blond boy’s nervousness but he was not so sure he was succeeding with the task.

“Um, can I ask something?” Menma asked. They all looked at him, a bit surprised the boy had just asked permission to talk.

“Sure, but one thing first, there is no need to ask permission to ask or say something to us. The customers are different but they're usually too drunk to pay much attention to what we say anyways.” Haku said.

“Why do you say Morning when it is night?”

Naruto smiled and cleared his throat. “Well we are different from most people. Our day starts at 11 pm and we finish at 5 am, usually we all stay till about 6 or 7 to have a few drinks. We sleep when “normal” people are awake,” Naruto made the bunny ear sign with both hands “And we're awake when they sleep, so this is morning for us.” Menma nodded in agreement as it made more sense to him now.

“Well let me show you where your seat at the bar is” Haku got up and walked over to the bar closely followed by the long haired boy.

“He seems nice” Gaara said looking after the two.

“Yeah, lets just hope his shyness disappears soon or else he will be eaten alive” Naruto said also looking after the two boys.

“True, well with Haku as a sempai it shouldn’t be a problem.” They looked at each other and smiled. “Right it’s 11, lets work” Naruto nodded and got up from the chair walking over to the bar.

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well hope you enjoy and don't forget to comment, and maybe ther will be another chapter before i leave for Hong Kong. =)