Haze

The sun hung low in the sky as Sasuke cracked open his eyes and groggily sat up, fighting the nausea and the urge to retch. Pushing aside the blanket he got up off of the mattress, stretching his long pale limbs and clicking the bones in his neck. Examining his hands, he flexed the fingers until the stiffness faded a little.

Neji was already up, head stuck inside the cupboard without a door as he tried to screw the broken hinges back together. Sasuke grunted a good morning and was rewarded in kind. Opening the fridge he frowned at the cool air and pulled the carton of milk from its depths. Opening it, he took a cautious sniff, recoiling at the foul smell.

"We need more milk. This shit's gone off."

Neji didn't look up from where he was buried in the cupboard. "If you had gone shopping when I said, yesterday, then we would have fresh milk. It's your fault."

Sasuke scowled. "Asshole. You know I was recovering from that Sector 5 punk yesterday."

Neji grunted, but didnt reply. Sasuke glared at Neji's back, and noticed the large blue and green bruises across his side. Neji finished tinkering with the cupboard and extracted his head, closing the cupboard experimentally and then sighing when it still hung at an angle. Then he noticed Sasuke's line of vision.

"Some of Orochimaru's shits tried to 'persuade' me to join him last night." Sasuke looked away.

He and Neji had an almost unique thing, the way they were. Whores, living in the shithole slums, they didn't owe their alleigance or hard earned cash to anyone. It was rare to be able to say that. There were a multitude of pimps in the slums, some more dangerous and persistant than others, and Orochimaru was the worst. He'd been after Sasuke ever since he had arrived in Sector 7, and after Neji since before that. Orochimaru got thugs to do his dirty work for him, so Neji had had it hard avoiding getting taken forcefully to Orochimaru's hideout.

When Sasuke had turned up, Neji and he had struck a deal. Sasuke was versed in at least five different styles of martial arts and in return for sharing his admittedly pretty good living quarters, had taught a couple to Neji. Very few thugs could stand up to them now, and nobody was strong enough to defeat them entirely.

Sasuke didn't like thinking about what Neji was to him. Not a friend, he was too much of an asshole for that, but they shared living space and grocery shopping and food, so there was something. 'Co-worker' was what Sasuke had Neji termed as in his mind, and 'Co-inhabiter' rather than roommate. That implied too much familiarity.

Sasuke didn't know how long Neji had lived in the slums for, but he got the impression it was most of the cold bastard's life. He was the bastard child of one of the most powerful men in the city, Hyuuga Hiashi, and if he had been legitimate he would have been heir to the vast Hyuuga fortune, power and prestige. As it was, Hiashi's daughter Hinata stood to inherit everything. Though he had never met her, Hyuuga Hinata was Neji's sworn enemy.

Nobody knew who Sasuke's sworn enemy was, or anything much at all about him, even Neji. Some of his 'co-workers' talked about their past with abandon, others, such as Neji, released only scant details and left the intelligent ones, like Sasuke, to figure out the rest. Others, including Sasuke, never talked about their past at all.

In public, his enemy was Uzumaki Naruto. The blonde boy was loud, annoying, hyperactive and always so happy that it really got on Sasuke's nerves. Plus the idiot had a habit of baiting Sasuke until he reacted. The blonde was the only one able to make him completely lose his cool. Neji occasionally made him irritated, but only Naruto could bring about a shouting match between them.

Unfortunately, Naruto was the only drug dealer in the area that had a reliable supply of Exeat, the drug that most of the whores were hooked on. Rumor was he made it himself, but nobody ever found out whether that was true or not. It was a pain to have to go to Naruto and buy his stash, but the only other option was walking to Sector 6 and buying it off of Gaara instead. Gaara was really strange, and known to be very dangerous. For some reason, Naruto was friends with him.

"I'm gonna go find Naruto." Sasuke said, and Neji nodded, having gone back to the fruitless task of trying to fix the cupboard. Sasuke snorted as he returned to his room, pulling on the loose black clothes he wore when not 'on duty'. They covered his body almost completely, leaving only his face and fingertips exposed.

Naruto was in his usual early evening spot, a junction in the backstreets of Sector 7 that was choked with rubbish and filth. Rats scrabbled about in the debris but Naruto sat happily on top of one of the stacks of crates that littered the scene, a bright spot of colour in the brown and grey.

Naruto always wore bright colours, usually orange, which were only slightly less conspicuous than the brilliantly golden hair that framed his face in messy spikes. Today he was wearing his orange jeans, kami only knew where he got them, and a neon blue t-shirt with a picture of a full ramen bowl on it. Sasuke had seen this particular t-shirt before, and knew that on the back it had the same picture, but that the ramen bowl was empty. Naruto liked ramen.

"Hey, hey Sasuke!" The idiot waved happily and jumped down from the crate pile, landing on all fours like an animal before straightening up, grinning. Sasuke scowled and pulled out the credit notes. Handing four to Naruto, the blond boy started pulling boxes out of his backpack before he paused. "Um, Sasuke, that's a lot more than you usually buy. Double it, even. You sure that's a good idea?"

Giving the frowning blond a withering look, Sasuke answered. "You idiot, that's Neji's shit too. He's still fixing the cupboard in our kitchen. The one you broke."

"Ah. Heh." Naruto smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, it's just I wouldn't want you to overdose or anything." He counted out four of the little pink pills into Sasuke's awaiting hand, careful to not touch the skin as he knew Sasuke hated that. He was putting away the boxes when Sasuke replied.

"Why the fuck do you care, dumbass."

"I dont!" Naruto exclaimed, grimacing. Then a frowned a bit. "Of course, bastard, if you died then I'd have one less customer." Sasuke grunted, turning away. "Plus Neji would probably kill himself too." He murmured under his breath. Sasuke paused in his stalking away and spun back to face Naruto.

"What was that about Neji? What does that asshole have to do with anything?" He glared at Naruto, who put his hands up in defense, though he grinned.

"Nothing, nothing at all. Don't get your boxers in a twist. Assuming you're wearing any." Sasuke glared at Naruto again, harder this time, but the idiot seemed impervious. "Seriously though, Neji is fucking hot!"

Sasuke blinked. Of all things, that had not what he had expected Naruto to say. He stared, blank faced at the grinning Naruto for a few seconds. Then the blond spoke up again. "Oh yeah, that reminds me. Gaara, Kiba, Shika, Shino and me are going to catch a flick in Sector 3 on saturday night. Do you and Neji want to come with us?"

"Dumbass." Sasuke scowled. "You know saturday night is one of the busiest of the week. We can't afford to take time off on saturdays."

"But Sasukeeee." Whined Naruto. "It's only playing for one night! Besides, saturday is the busiest time for Gaara and me as well. We're taking time off. Please, pleeease ask Neji?"

"Fine." Sasuke said, turning swiftly, vowing to do no such thing. "But I guarantee he'll say no!" He called over his shoulder.

A/N: Theres more where this came from already written. Review if you want some!