Tadaima

Kiki-chan: *takes a cautious look around*… Hello. *dodges shiny kunai* I know, I know! I won't give you any excuses... Except I was just falling behind in work, and then writer's block, and then I didn't know what to do and it's been so long canyoupleasepleasepleaseforgiveme? *puppy dog eyes*
*yanks the kunai out from between my ribs* Okay then. Moving on: It's a new chapter and I won't lie, I cranked this out because moodysavage reviewed. She/he/it just sort of reminded me that my stories were still here so I read all my reviews and the story over and then I sat down and wrote.
Anyways, I'm still super sorry and I hope this chapter makes up for it.
Enjoy!

“Of Peace”

It was early morning in the land of Fire Country. It is here in this gorgeous land that we find a certain lovable, loudmouthed, blonde haired ninja was fuming.

Oh, it wasn’t a normal I’m-angry-but-I’ll-get-over-it-fuming. It wasn’t even a Once-I-exact-my-revenge-by-replacing-your-kunai-with-plastic-ones-and-you-nearly-die-in-battle-using-them-fuming. No this, this was a fuming never before seen by this jolly shinobi. A Fuck-the-world-I’ll-kill-you-all-fuming, if you will.

And why was the normally cheerful boy so angry?

Well, perhaps, it might have been the fact that the night before, he’d caught his former best friend—the same friend he’d fought to the near-death with and fought for and dragged back, mind you—slutting it up with Ginzou. Fucking Ginzou! Ginzou who was the ANBU manwhore—Naruto ignored the fact that with few exceptions, all ANBU were manwhores; it was sort of in the job description—Ginzou, the manipulative little shit who wasn’t above stealing other people’s men.

Though the Uchiha isn’t yours.

Naruto paused in his pacing to glare at his apartment wall. That’s not the point.

My apologies. By all means, explain.

The point is…. Naruto growled before picking up the thread. The point is that after all I’ve fucking done for the little bastard, this is how he repays me? By fucking some guy in a public bathroom?

Again, he isn’t yours so what does it matter? You are not his mother, lover, or keeper. He is nothing to you and you are nothing to him. Naruto got the feeling of Kyuubi rolling his eyes and scowled further. Besides, the boy didn’t ask you to run after him like some love sick puppy. In fact, I do believe he asked you to leave him alone. Numerous times. And all of his requests were accompanied with a Chidori.

The blue eyed boy said nothing to that. Instead, he just began to pace again. So what? Maybe...

Maybe? Kyuubi yawned, mouth gaping wide open, prompting his host to continue.

“Maybe I liked him, okay,” Naruto replied defensively, his voice echoing of the dark walls of his mind. He paused in front of the cage that housed the fox. “Maybe I liked him and I wasted time always chasing after him.”

“Maybe? Kid, I swear, it was always Sasuke this and teme that. ‘I’ll kick his ass.’ ‘I’ll bring him back.’ Kami, you wouldn’t shut up.”

Naruto flipped the parasite off and sigh. “I just wanted him to come home. To be happy. I would have left him alone if I had seen he was happy. Out there. Away from home.” Away from me hung heavily in the air.

The demon fox closed his eyes and mentally sighed. There would be no peace tonight.


A strangled groan lifted into the air as dark eyes opened to half mast. Sasuke, the owner of said eyes, dragged the covers over his head to block out the insistent sunlight at his window. Perhaps the next time he went out with Natsumi, he wouldn’t drink so much. Or, you know, at all. That thought brought to the forefront of his mind another. It was the unwanted image of the dark haired girl in a dark corner with another girl…. There were simply some things in life you didn’t want to see your friends do. What the Uchiha witnessed last night was one of them.

Sasuke frowned. He felt as if there was something he was forgetti-

Oh shit.

The teenager groaned and screwed his eyes shut tight. The pounding headache did nothing to take away the blurred images of the night before.

”You feel what you do to me, ne?”

Oh. My. Kami.

Sasuke, through great effort, lifted his eye lids to half mast and gave a glare that looked more like a pout. “It’s ‘kay. I know you now. So fuck me.”

A whimper escaped the pale boy and he buried his face into his pillow.

“Naruto?!””

Sasuke's head lifted from the pillow and he stared at the dancing cows adorning it. Why him? Why did he have to suffer so much? Why couldn't he catch a-

Sasuke frowned. His pillows did not have dancing cows on them. His pillows had plain white sheet cases on them.

The pale teen rolled over and promptly ended up slamming his head on a wooden floor. Underneath a bed. Sasuke stifled another moan of pain and clutched at his head.

A door opened and the boy recognized the tread of bare, dainty feet as Natsumi's.

“Sasu-kun? Where did you go?”

A pale hand stretched out from underneath the bed and seconds later, a face framed by dark hair appeared. Natsumi laid herself down on the floor beside the bed and put her head on crossed arms as she faced Sasuke, still on his back, clutching at the lump on his hangover bearing head.

“Why are you under my bed, silly?” A tired smile accompanied her statement.

Weary, pained, dark eyes ran over her face, searching for something neither of them could bring themselves to identify. When he found that he did not know what he was looking for, Sasuke focused his eyes on his friend's own brown orbs. Finally, after failing to make a clever remark, he answered, “I don't know.”

Natsumi mock gasped, then replied, “What's this? A Uchiha genius admitting to not know everything there is to know? How can this be?”

The teenager rolled his eyes and ignored the spike of pain that accompanied it. A soft smile appeared on his face.

Natsumi stared. The Uchiha did not even seem to realize that he was smiling. He never did and as soon as she pointed it out or teased him, it disappeared. Slowly, Natsumi forwned. She was not an idiot. No citizen in a Shinobi village truly is. She'd known Sasuke had defected. She'd known he'd gone to the Snake Sannin in a quest for power when he was just a boy. When they walked together in the village, she'd seen the looks thrown their way; weary, unsure, disgusted, even hateful. She'd heard the whispers and read the body language. Rumors always drift down the grapevine and in a village like Konoha, nothing stays a secret for long. Sasuke was known to be a fierce ninja with no regard for who was left trampled in his wake.

But here and now, at times like this, peeks of a wounded and a soft Sasuke peeked through. Natsumi had the feeling that regardless of how tough or how dangerous the Uchiha might seem, somehow, he was just a boy on the inside, still broken from the deaths of those for whom he cared and searching for a peace he could never find.

And looking into his drawn face now, pinched with a pain not completely due to the hangover, Natsumi was unsure he would ever find it.


Kiki-chan: I figured this would be a good place to end it. As you can see, Natumi-chan does have depths.
Oh, meow-ku, you asked if Natsumi will play a more important role here than Naruto. Natsumi is like a fungus. You may not notice it but she'll grow on you. Or on Sasuke, as in this case here. Right now, Sasuke needs someone to ground him and Natsumi is that person. He may not feel so, but it's true. I don't really want to give too much away, but yeah, that's the gist of it. I hope that helps.
Anyways, the next chapter is going to come out soon, I promise. *shifts nervously at the glinting of a knife in the crowd* Heh heh, yeeeeah.
Anyways, I hoped you guys enjoyed it and please review.