The Guardian

A/N: (smiles sheepishly) ok i converted the C to F for the fever here!! thank you for telling me!!

Chapter 5:

Chicken nuggets. Chicken nuggets were all it took to drive Sasuke nuts…well onigiri and chicken nuggets were all it took to drive Sasuke nuts. How had Naruto known that? Though the first two days after their little trip had been extremely awkward for Sasuke, now two weeks later everything was back to normal. And Naruto…the sweetest man in the world was making him chicken nuggets. Sasuke had no idea whether to hug him or just stay in character. In character would be better---body contact with Naruto was the second thing could drive him nuts…more like drive his nuts and dick to do the thinking for him.

He settled for his half smile-smirk, controlling it lest it turned into a smile…Uchiha’s never smiled over food! “Chicken nuggets, dobe? What happened to all your fancy dishes…?”

Naruto smiled. His hair was really mussed, his face a bit red from the heat, sweat dripped down his forehead, but his eye glimmered with happiness. “Not in the mood. Thought you might like these… but since you’re being oh so condescending about them, maybe I should give some to that homeless mutt and make you something else.”

“No!” Sasuke realized that came out a bit desperate. “I mean, no I don’t want you tirelessly slaving in he kitchen for me. Chicken nuggets won’t do my system any harm.” I can smell them…nice fried chicken nuggets with ketchup and mayonnaise. Oh don’t throw them away please…

“No, really. It’s no biggie. Kiba’s coming over with the gang and they dig chicken nuggets. So I’ll just make you onigiri shall I?” Naruto’s eyes danced with mirth. “Ok, since that’s settled, you should go freshen up a bit. This time I want you to talk to my friends…at least a little instead of glaring at them…I think Shikamaru said something about bringing over a charge too. Maybe you’ll have some company.”

Sasuke covered up his disappointment. You asked for it…now they’re all going to get the nuggets…oh no! “Yeah, whatever dobe. Think they’ll be interested about hearing about the bull?”

Naruto's expression sobered at once, his eyes serious and his mouth set in a straight line. “Now, Sasuke the bull topic is off-limits. The next time I meet Izumo and Kotetsu, they’ll be in heaven!”

Sasuke sniggered as he left; sometimes teasing Naruto was much too funny. Of course, if the occasion arose, the bull story would be out and Naruto wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it.

Sasuke finished his homework and took a small nap. When he woke up it was seven in the evening. He could hear voices downstairs and some music. He slipped on a black t-shirt and a pair of jeans and then headed downstairs. Downstairs was a mess to put it mildly. There were also a few people he didn’t know.

Naruto was on one arm chair, Sakura cuddled up on his lap; Neji was in the middle of the couch sitting straight and glaring at any male who got near a female look alike of his, sitting in the corner of the couch, Shikamaru and a blond were stuffed into one more arm chair…a slightly plump man with another blond was on the ottoman, a man with big eyes, huge eyebrows and a bowl shaped cut was on Neji’s other side, TenTen sat on the armrest next to Lee. Some of the dining chairs had been brought into the living room…four to be precise, occupied by Kiba, a guy in dark glasses (who wore dark glasses inside?), another dark haired guy and…Gaara.

“Gaara?” Sasuke stared at his classmate who was placidly following the ruckus. The red head looked up.

“Uchiha, what are you doing here?” He said in his deep voice.

Naruto smiled. “You know each other? Sasuke lives here, he’s my ward! Everyone say hello to Sasuke.”

“Hello Sasuke!” chorused out.

Sasuke shook his head and got himself a chair too. He looked at plate of what had to be chicken nugget leftovers and let a crestfallen expression wander onto his face…no! Naruto shifted a bit, so that Sakura wasn’t suffocating him and then started to introduce more people.

“The guy with the dark glasses and the two on the ottoman are Kiba’s friends, Shino, Chouji and Ino. The guy sitting next to Gaara is Sai, a friend of Sakura’s. The blond squished in with lazy-ass is Temari, Gaara’s sister and finally the little lady you see next to Neji is Hinata, Neji’s cousin. Neji’s fiercely protective of her; don’t get too close he might bite your hand off.” Naruto chortled, getting cut off as Sakura kissed him.

Sasuke looked away, trying not to let his disgust show. He door bell dinged and Kiba almost ran to it. “Pizza!!” and it was…four, huge cheesy pizzas.

Sasuke sighed; he wasn’t in the mood for pizzas. Everyone else cheered though. Shikamaru somehow got his girlfriend to get up so he could lie back more comfortably. “Naruto, where’s the booze?”

“Got it!” Kiba hyperactively bounced off and got crates of beer. He tossed one to everyone. When it went flying towards Sasuke, Naruto's hand shot out, catching it.

“Nuh uh…none for the under aged guys. You can get soda if you feel like. Shika, take hat away from Gaara please.” Naruto ordered. Sasuke grimaced.

“For the love of God, I’ve had beer before Naruto! It doesn’t matter I can hold my alcohol!” he glared ice at Naruto. The blond shook his head firmly, but before he could say anything, Sakura piped up.

“If Naruto says no, hen it’s no Sasuke-kun. Don’t whine.” She smirked at him, before trying to keep Naruto's attention to herself. Sasuke frowned, the stupid bitching trying to poke her nose into his business!

For the rest of the night, Sakura barely let Naruto talk to Sasuke. She made sure the only people he talked to were his college mates. Sasuke had to make do with observing all the bums at this party. Lee was talking to TenTen, occasionally going a little crazy and showing her martial arts moves. His made everyone…the sober ones at least try to save the falling vases, books and such like. Kiba would gaze at Hinata with a love sick expression and the girl blushed and stammered whenever she noticed it. Neji glared at her, but he was also throwing glances at Gaara, who was nonchalantly staring back.

Chouji and Ino were discussing food, Sai was intently looking at Sakura and Naruto, Shino was examining a spider which he’d brought with him and Sasuke…was bored. Plus he could stop wanting to kill the pink haired bitch.

Gaara sauntered up to him and they went to the dining room for a while to get away from the chaos. Shikamaru had fallen asleep and Temari was angry. Gaara looked at Sasuke for a minute and then raised an eyebrow.

“So you like him…”

Sasuke looked up in surprise, eyes widening a bit. “What are you talking about, Sabaku?”

“Your guardian…Naruto. You really like him, don’t you?” Gaara repeated slowly, but softly making sure he understood.

Sasuke shook his head and glared. “No. Not in the way you mean. He’s my guardian…I’m his ward. Which part of that don’t you get?”

Gaara smirked. “So you’re glaring death at the pink slut because he’s your guardian? You’ve been staring at them all evening. If you want him, you should go for it!”

“And how would I do that, Sabaku? That Neji dude had been giving you looks as well…what are you going to do about it?” Sasuke asked mockingly. He hated that Gaara knew, but was in a way relived that he could talk to someone about this.

“Tell me Sasuke, do you think everyone’s drunk?” Gaara asked his eyes on Neji.

“Not really no. why?”

Gaara sighed. “Oh well. Then for a different route.”

Sasuke walked as Gaara walked confidently up to Neji, they had a short conversation and then Gaara headed away to the space just behind the open kitchen…there was a small corridor, hidden from view by the wall. After a few minutes Neji followed, Sasuke peeked. Then he heard a thud and saw Gaara against the wall, with Neji’s tongue in his mouth.

Sasuke turned away. Yeah he was wishing he could do that to Naruto, but he did not want to watch Gaara go at it. It was about ten now, and everyone was boozed up and had eaten their pizza. They began to leave; Sasuke heaved a sigh and made for his room. His tummy growled, he hadn’t eaten a thing since he hadn’t been able to find any onigiri…Naruto must have forgotten. Though the blond never forgot things before…must be the bitch’s fault.

He changed and fell onto his bed, feeling hungry and wiped out. He could hear Naruto and Sakura make their way up to Naruto's room. So the bitch was staying. Naruto's door opened and then closed again; suddenly Sasuke heard a soft knock. He mumbled a “come in”

Naruto stepped inside with a plate; he looked behind him to make sure Sakura was in his room still. Then he smiled at Sasuke, his cheeks a little flushed, his eyes lazed over with drink. “I saved some nuggets for you, teme. Here I got you onigiri too. You should eat right. Wash up once you finish ok?”

He handed Sasuke the plate and gave him half a hug, kissed him on the forehead and then went back to his room. Sasuke stared after him, before turning o gaze at the plate of his most favorite food in the world. How in the world had Naruto known I liked nuggets? Then he proceeded to eat it with relish. Onigiri first, then the nuggets dipped in mayonnaise and ketchup…Naruto had even brought those. Finally he finished and went to wash up. On his way back, he heard moans from Naruto's room. Then Sakura’s yells, she was a loud bitch. The whole evening Sasuke felt like he’d been competing with her…she’d won now.

He couldn’t go to bed, not with their moans, pants and screams permeating his walls. Somehow Naruto's noises sounded the loudest…Sasuke couldn’t stop himself from feeling turned on. Once more he had to flee to the bathroom with some alone time with his hand.

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Four weeks later:

Today was not a good day. He’d been yelled at by Anko-sensei for coming in late after lunch. That had in turn made him late to gym, then he’d realized he’d forgotten his gym uniform and had had to pick some from the seconds they had in a box. The shirt was too big for him, it kept slipping to the side revealing a bit of his shoulder. He finished the laps Ibiki-sensei given him and then joined everyone else in their obstacle race…he beat them all once more.

Then Ibiki had called him to deliver a lecture about tardiness…Sasuke was glad it was the last hour. When he finally finished and made his way to the locker room to change. He’d finished showering and gotten his shorts on when a hand slipped down his bare chest. Sasuke tried to turn, but he got slammed into the wall. His captor stood behind him, face coming forward to nibble his ear. Sasuke struggled, trying to turn back far enough to glare.

“My, my…been too distracted today, eh Sasuke-kun?”

“Kabuto… let me go, you prick!” Sasuke struggled even more, managing to get an arm free. He whirled and punched Kabuto across his face. Two pairs of hands caught him, slamming him back into the wall. “I said let me go, you want to get back into hospital again?”

Kabuto smirked. “Hospital? No I don’t think we’ll be going there, anytime soon. Actually I wanted to see if you wanted to get some coffee some time?”

“A date? You’re asking me on a date…I wouldn’t touch you with a barge pole, you bastard!” Sasuke growled, straining against the two holding him.

“I was going to be nice, but since that doesn’t work with you…” Kabuto caught his face and kissed him. Sasuke bit down hard and Kabuto back up choking on his own blood. There was a cut in his tongue and blood was gushing out. His eyes narrowed as he punched the Uchiha hard.

Sasuke winced seeing stars, he’d have a huge bruise they now. Kabuto’s leg slammed into his stomach, Sasuke crumpled as his captors let go of him. He staggered, as Kabuto delivered another kick sending him stumbling towards the far wall. Sasuke panted trying to regain his balance…he was just bruised, not if he could concentrate, hen he could kick their ass. Just as Kabuto walked up to him menacingly, there was a cry. Both the boys turned to see one of Kabuto’s lackeys fall to the floor, blood gushing from his nose. The other one went down too.

Gaara stood there, calmly staring at Kabuto, daring him to hurt the Uchiha. “I think you should go home, Kabuto…before you get sent back to hospital.”

Sasuke glared. “Sabaku stay out of this ok? It’s my fight.” He ran at Kabuto, slamming him into the wall. Then he tried this move he’d thought off and brought his leg and hand up simultaneously breaking Kabuto’s nose and kneeing him in the groin, and then he flicked his wrist forwards, poking the boy in both eyes. He older boy slid to the ground, crying out in pain.

Then there were footsteps, Gaara suddenly caught Sasuke and shoved him out the window. “I’m taking responsibility for this. Don’t argue, you don’t want Naruto coming down here again.”

Sasuke nodded and picked up the clothes and bag Gaara had thrown at him. Then he ran as fast as he could…which wasn’t his usual speed. His face was throbbing…he grit his teeth and made his way to the bus stop. He didn’t want to walk home today…Naruto wouldn’t mind him taking a bus.

Back at the house, Naruto was lying on the couch, with a painful headache. He’d had to do this internship with this ad agency for his Media course and he had been getting back home at three in morning, before laving for college at seven. Plus he’d had to wake up at five to be able to make breakfast and get assignments done…that had been his routine for the past three weeks. He hadn’t been feeling too good. Sakura had been whining so he’d taken her to dinner whenever he could, leaving Sasuke to get take-out.

Today was the one day; he’d been given the rest of the day off. That was only because his boss Tsunami had noticed that the cheerful blond had been looking peaky and dead. They’d had a huge project on their hands…to be done in a month…and the clients weren’t satisfied with anything. They’d got Naruto working on it since he was pretty creative, but they had a deadline. Naruto opened his eyes as he saw the front door open, he got to his feet, ready to get something for Sasuke to eat.

Then he saw his charge’s disheveled appearance and the huge bruise forming on his face. “God, Sasuke what happened? Was it those guys again? The same ones as last time?”

Sasuke saw the state he blond was in and sighed. “Yeah, but it’s my fight Naruto. Don’t worry about it. Besides, you look awful…have been looking awful for days. You should hit the bed…do you have a thermometer?”

Naruto nodded and Sasuke went to get it. He shoved it into the blond’s mouth and waited three minutes. Then he checked it. 102°F…so the blond had high temperature. (I use the metric system here…so just convert it ok?) he tried to get the blond to go to bed, but Naruto refused, wanted to spend eternity on the stupid couch.

Finally Sasuke just brought the quilt down, filled a hot water bottle and got a footbath; he bundled the blond up and then wondered what he should do. Chicken soup was good, but he had no idea how to make it. He went to bookshelf near the kitchen and looked through the many recipe books, finally finding an easy one. After seeing that they had all the ingredients, he began to follow the directions to the tee.

The doorbell rang when he was almost done. He opened it to admit the Sakura-bitch into the household. Sasuke brushed off an uneasy feeling he had and went back to his soup. He saw that the female hadn’t bothered to ask Naruto what was wrong.

Naruto looked up at Sakura with a weak smile, throwing the covers off him and sitting down properly. “Hey Sakura.” He said his voice a tad raspy.

Sakura sat down. “Naruto, we need to talk.” She looked up at Sasuke watching her and bent a bit more closer.

Naruto nodded, his face as alert as he could get. Sakura took a deep breath. “I’m ending this.”

Naruto stopped mid nod. He stared at her before rasping out a “Why?”

Sakura grimaced and then continued. “Look, I’m really sorry but something’s come up.” She looked at his shell shocked expression and didn’t bat an eyelid. Her eyes just filled with tears.

“I love you, Sakura. What could have come up for you to break up?” Naruto questioned his face pained.

Sakura took a deep breath again, tears trickling down her face. “I’m sorry, but I…I love someone else. I really wanted to give this a try again, but I’m…I’m pregnant with his child…and…”

Naruto stared at her in disbelief. “You…you were cheating on me?”

Sakura shook her head and stood up. Her voice was shrill and angry. “Don’t put it like that! I knew you’d over react! It’s your fault actually! I tried telling you so many times! You never listened…you were never around. It was always Sasuke this, Sasuke that and then work this and work that! I never figured! Couldn’t you see how desperate I was to spend time with you? I really loved you, but Sai was sweet to me. He was always there for me. I love him! I’m going to have his child and live with him, so there!”

Naruto watched her for a moment, speechlessly. He felt really hot and stuffy…too hot. Everything she told him rung in his head a little. He struggled to cope, but his head felt like mush. There was a ringing in his ears, then his vision went white, he heard Sasuke shouting something distantly and then there was welcome blackness.

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A/N: that’s it. You’ll have one more chapter soon! I can’t believe I actually had time to write this whole chapter in a day. Yippee! So more reviews faster updates!! Keep it in mind! Ja ne!

Taka