One Rainy Night

I'm sorry it took me so long to update the chapter... Y_Y

But I kind of lost interest in Naruto for some time... Add to that that I don't really like this chapter and the delay was sure to happen V_V

I'm really sorry

Review Replies:

Sneakyfox: The comment about Sakura's breast was supposed to be funny so I'm glad it made you laugh :) You'll see about the illness, though you'll have to wait some more to get to know the reasons behind it

smint45: lol you're quite close with your suggestion about what might happen XD I won't say more about it though, don't want to give too much away

A very large thank you to the other reviewers as well!

Warnings: crappy humour, some angst
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5. The One Determination

It was a cloudless and late night. The sky was filled with stars, twinkling down onto the slumbering Konoha, Houses and apartments were illuminated by the mystical light of the full moon and the stars. Even the hustle and bustle of Konoha's largest streets had fallen asleep. Every last person was lying in bed with their beloved partner, feeling happiness and contentment.

A lone figure was standing at a window of an apartment. The room being only scarcely equipped, but every last item was picked with love. The light that fell onto the face of the person revealed sad and thinking features, some blond strands glittering in the soft rays. However, the saddest expression was in the cerulean blue eyes that were looking out of the window, watching the sleeping city full of normal people. Even the moon seemed to fit in, it looked like a big star.

Nice, now I'm even more different than other people!

Why did he bite me? And why the hell did he put some of his friggin' chakra in me?

Why did he take me in the first place?

I mean it's not as if he found me attractive or anything...

So why?

To torture me even more or what?

Shit, I'm successfully making myself depressed.

Why did we meet anyway?

Normally I can do the hell knows what and I don't find him! And then, all I need to do is to be ill and I find him? How stupid is that?

Tears started falling down anguished features.

That's just fucking stupid!

Why did he let himself be found?

Fuck that Uchiha!

Why did he do that?

And then, why did he leave me?

Was I a simple fuck for him? Nothing more?

But do I want it to be more? Do I want it to be more for him?

Damn him!

Why is he doing this to me?

Why did he fuck me, bite me for some strange reason and then leave me?

He... He's a bastard!

Doesn't he know... that...

Sobs joined the tears.

Damn him!

I want him to be here!

Legs giving out, the blond broke down in front of the window and his body started shivering, weeps shaking his whole form.

It was very unusual for him to have a break down. That went against his normally cheerful attitude. He knew that he wouldn't be able to live on if he succumbed to the daily challenges the villagers inflicted on him so he wouldn't allow himself to be hurt by them. But right no it was very hard not to give up, to simply end his life.

The villagers wouldn't miss him, that he knew.

And Sasuke wouldn't, either. Otherwise he wouldn't have left him. He wouldn't have left him all alone in that cold cave with that dreadful fever. He wouldn't have left him when they had been genin together in the first place.

Another sob shock his already wheezing body.

He knew he couldn't just give up. Giving up was like letting the villagers and the bastard win. He wouldn't let that happen.

But right now with nobody seeing his crumbling self-control he couldn't stop his emotions from getting the upper hand.

All he wanted was his best friend back.

And so he cried alone.

The only witness being the moon, illuminating him with its white rays of light.

A single, sorrowful howl was heard in the night.

If people listened closely they would realize that it sounded almost like the Kyuubi's had...

The annoying sound of his apartment's door bell startled Naruto awake the next morning.

Somewhere during his break down he had managed to drag himself to his bed and collapsed on it. Nevertheless he had continued to wail, giving room to his desperation.

Disorientated, he looked around in his room and searched for his alarm clock. Still half asleep he noticed that he had been oversleeping. Probably because of the exhausting days prior, maybe even because of the last night.

But still! Why hadn't his alarm gone off? It should have woken him an hour ago!

Trudging to the door, he opened it and found Iruka standing in front of it who had been ready to ring the bell for another time.

“You're still here. I didn't think I would still get you here.” The teacher said.

“What are you doing here, Iruka-sensei?” Naruto asked, rubbing his eyes with one of his hands, the other still on the door handle.

Iruka gave him the once over and noticed several things. His former pupil's hair was even messier than normally and his white sleeping shirt was rumpled from the night.

That, however, hadn't been what had the teacher worried. Naruto had drawn attention to his eyes when he had been rubbing at them and Iruka had noticed the red rims around them.

Had he been crying? Surely not... right?

“Naruto, are you ok? You look like you have been crying.” Iruka asked anxiously.

Immediately Naruto flashed him a smile and said, “Na, I haven't been crying. That's not a thing the future Hokage does. Besides why should I be crying?”

“Are you sure? You can talk to me about everything you want, you know that, right?” Iruka said.

“Everything's ok, Iruka-sensei.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, so why're you here?” Naruto asked.

“I was thinking about inviting you over after training. Eat dinner together, you know. We haven't seen each other very often lately.”

In an instant Naruto was awake completely.

“Really?” He asked, his eyes filled with awe and pleasant anticipation.

A soft smile graced the teacher's lips.

“Yes. And I was thinking about inviting your whole team.”

“All of them?” Naruto asked. He wasn't exactly disappointed, but he was afraid the food wouldn't be enough for all of them. After all Iruka's cooking was more than delicious and Naruto always asked for seconds. So what if everybody would be asking for seconds and Naruto wouldn't get enough?

Food was precious to him...

“Of course. They were the ones who found you. Without them you would still be out there in the open, most likely dead because of some animal that would have eaten you or an enemy ninja who would have stabbed you to death!”

Now Iruka was exaggerating...

“Ok, I'll ask the others.”

“Thank you”, Iruka said and grinned at his former student before turning around and most likely going to the academy.

“You're late!” Both Sakura and Naruto yelled as soon as Kakashi arrived.

“Ma, ma, I was wandering the path of life when an old lade needed help with her groceries.” The copy-nin said.

“That's a lie”, Sakura said, but he didn't bother to answer her. Instead he took out his porn and started reading.

The blond was not as vicious as he normally would be when it came to scolding his sensei about his tardiness. The reason was that if the copy-nin had been on time, Naruto would have been the one to be late and thus he would have missed half of the training they would be doing that day.

“We won't be doing a mission today due to Naruto's late return and his condition”, Kakashi said from behind his book. He didn't even look up from it to face them while talking. “We will simply do some training. Some one-on-one fights. Afterwards we can go and eat something.”

“Iruka-sensei invited us to have dinner with him.” Naruto said enthusiastically.

“Really?” Sakura asked, her mouth already watering at the thoughts of her former teacher's self-made food.

“Yeah, probably worried that he won't see enough of me before our next mission. And you are invited because he still thinks that it was you who found me. Probably feels some kind of gratitude and sense of duty to thank you.”

“I don't care why he invited us as long as I can get some food he made! His cooking skills are awesome as far as I can remember from our days in the academy!” Sakura exclaimed.

Naruto grinned and nodded his head. “Yeah, everything he cooks is delicious.”

“Are you two coming as well?” Sakura asked Kakashi and Sai.

Sai smiled one of his fake smiles and said, “I can't turn down such a nice offer of Iruka-sensei.”

“The same with me.”

Naruto grinned happily.

He would get something delicious to eat while being in the company of people he cared deeply for. It would be of no importance if the food wasn't going to be enough as long as his friends were with him.

At least he tried to tell himself that the mouthwatering, absolutely yummy and almost orgasm inflicting food wasn't as important as his friends...

But nevertheless: Could life be any better? Spending time with his pseudo-family – they were as close of a family he would ever get – and eating were his most favourite things to do, after all.

He conveniently forgot about that little encounter with Sasuke.

There was no way he would fall back into his depression.

He had worried Iruka-sensei with his bad mood and he couldn't do that ever again.

“Lead the way”, Kakashi said after they had finished their training, his nose still buried in his porn.

Naruto didn't need to be told twice. He started walking immediately towards Iruka's house, although slower than usual because he was quite battered after training – he hadn't been any good today, probably due to his fever.

Right now he didn't care whether the rest was following him because his mind was already set on the food he would receive.

They reached their destination only a short while later.

It was the apartment building for any shinobi that didn't want to live in the city – or couldn't afford it. Besides that the building was closer to the academy and the Hokage tower than any other apartment could ever be, so most shinobi preferred to stay in one of these buildings.

Impatiently, Naruto rung the bell.

A moment later Iruka opened the door, smiling at all of them.

After greeting them and fussing a bit over Naruto due to his tired looking form, he led them to his standard living room and to the table they would eat at.

Again, Naruto noticed that Iruka had tried to make his home as comfy and different from other ninja apartments as possible. Plants and rugs were making Iruka's house more homey and the many photos of Iruka and his students showed his affections for them.

“Dinner's not ready yet. It will still take a bit to be finished.”

The disappointment was clearly written all over Naruto's face.

“Thank you for inviting us, Iruka-sensei”, Sakura said when she saw the look on her friend's features. She didn't want Iruka to look into Naruto's dejected face. It would only dampen the teacher's mood.

“It was nothing.” Iruka replied.

“No, Iruka-sensei. You didn't have to invite us.” Kakashi said from behind his book.

Even in the house of another person he didn't refrain from reading that piece of perversion. Sakura was only moments from hitting him for it. It was disrespectful to Iruka-sensei to read it here.

Iruka did notice what Kakashi was reading, but decided against saying anything. He had just realized that even if the copy-nin was lazy, he still had to like his team. Otherwise he wouldn't go on a search mission for a missing member. Kakashi could have just given up on searching for his subordinate because they hadn't been able to find him when they had been looking for Naruto on their mission. He hadn't have to go on another trip to search for him.

But it seemed as if there was a caring person carefully hidden away behind that perverted book of his.

And because of that little fact, Iruka restrained himself from scolding him, at least this once. The next time he would see the jounin reading something like that – in front of students, no less – he would tell him to stop.

Iruka couldn't help but wonder what else Kakashi hid behind that mask.

His personality, that much was clear, but what else?

And why did Kakashi think it necessary to hide behind a mask?

Was his face ugly so he decided to hide it? Because he didn't want to have to feel these looks of other people pitying him for his face?

Or was it that his face was beautiful? And he just didn't want the stares of the other people on him, only seeing his beauty?

Somehow the desire to pull that strange mask down crept its way into Iruka's consciousness.

He blushed.

Why the hell did he want to pull down Kakashi's mask?

That was just... plain stupid...

He didn't like the other in that way!

By the way, he didn't like men in general!

So what was this stupid desire to pull down Kakashi's mask?

“Iruka-sensei? I think your food is boiling over.” Naruto said, hoping to save the precious food.

Why was Iruka-sensei red in the face? Had he a fever as well? Or was it that he had just farted – although nobody had noticed – and he was just embarrassed about it?

Iruka's eyes widened and he made a bee-line for the kitchen.

After a short time later Iruka's head appeared at the door frame and he asked Naruto, “Could you set the table?”

Getting up from his seat at the table, Naruto started rummaging through various cupboards to get the necessary cutlery and some plates. This was, after all, his second home and thus he knew exactly where everything was they would need.

“The food is very good.” Kakashi said.

It was a mystery to Naruto how Kakashi-sensei was able to eat with his mask still on, but the fact that his food was slowly disappearing showed that the copy-nin did indeed eat. Then again, his face was still a mystery to him as well.

For some unknown reason Iruka developed a slight red hue to the face.

But why?

Why would Iruka become red in the face?

Had he farted again? Like before?

Naruto was confused.

It couldn't be that Iruka liked Kakashi, right?

It was more than likely that Iruka was embarrassed because of the comment. Most likely he assumed that Kakashi-sensei thought him a wife or a woman because of his good cooking.

It was simply ludicrous to think that Iruka liked Kakashi.

That just couldn't be, it was just too absurd!

But nevertheless it couldn't be long for Iruka-sensei to find a partner. He was a charming person after all. And who didn't want a man who could cook? A lot of them let their wives cook for them.

Naruto looked around the room after dinner.

Sakura was complaining about Sai's behaviour and Iruka-sensei was blushing because of Kakashi-sensei's comments.

Sakura secretly liked the perverted comments the artist made in his typical emotionless voice, she just couldn't admit that deep down inside she was a pervert, too, just like Sai.

Naruto still wasn't sure why Iruka blushed, it couldn't be that he liked Kakashi, he'd already thought it over earlier.

However it couldn't take long for him to find someone. Women were probably fighting over him to get his love and affection! Who wouldn't want a domestic husband?

And Kakashi was the most famous Copy-nin! The girls probably lied to hist! He just had to pick one!

It seemed as if all of them wouldn't be alone for much longer.

Only he would be alone...

Alone without friends.

Alone without a partner.

Alone...

Damn it! Again Sasuke had managed to depress him completely.

What a bastard!

The wish to take revenge on the Uchiha for every time he made Naruto depressed made him only more determined to get Sasuke back.

It didn't matter whether they were lovers or not; as long as he would be back, Naruto wouldn't be alone any more. And that was everything that counted.

Someone would be there who would understand him.

Sasuke would be brought back no matter what!

Having set his new goal Naruto participated in the conversation with even more vigour.
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Again sorry for the long wait.

But I don't know if I'll be able to update the next chapter very soon because I'm going to be in Great Britain for about 4 month from next friday on and I'll only have limited internet access because i'm gonna live on campus (imagine which page(s) is(are) going to be restricted... Y_Y)

Give me some nice reviews! That'll motivate me to update faster!

R&R