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Chapter Three: So It Begins

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Green eyes stared up into angry black eyes. Gaara didn't blink as the ebony depths turned red and began swirling menacingly at him. There was a challenge being issued and if the distinct chakra signature of his elder brother wasn't in the other room, then Gaara would have stayed wrapped around the blond until the other man got the point. However, if Kankuro was here, that meant something important had happened and it was time to get up.

Rising to half-slouched, sitting position, Gaara brought up his right hand and brushed the blond hair out of Naruto's eyes. Keenly aware of the gaze still on him, he bent down and whispered into the other's ear. Naruto mumbled, swatting at the hand that was still resting lightly on his forehead.

“It's time to get up, dobe,” the other said gruffly.

Naruto's eyes opened and he shot up into a sitting position. Gaara narrowly avoided a head-on-head collision.

“Haven’t you ever heard of knocking?” the blond grumbled, ignoring the warmth of the other body near him.

“I’ll knock when you stop sleeping in a closet like a freak.”

“Not a freak,” he mumbled back.

The redhead watched the two speak back and forth. It felt more like a rehearsed set of lines than an actual argument. Meaning, they probably went through this same situation often. So what did the Uchiha dislike the most: the fact that Gaara had been lying in the closest with Naruto or that his usual routine was disrupted? The keen Suna nin made a mental note to observe the Uchiha’s behaviour.

“Get up, the both of you,” Kankuro’s angry voice yelled from the other room. “Temari’s temporarily awake, and I want to get back before she falls asleep again.”

With no further prompting needed, both men stood up and headed out of the closet. Sasuke continued to glare at Gaara, who ignored him completely. “We’ll meet you there?” he said, not wanting to wait on Naruto to change first.

The blond nodded before heading to his chest of drawers. Looking over at the Uchiha once more, Gaara left the bedroom to find his brother. They both left silently seconds later, efficiently making their way to the hospital.

“So what was all that about?” Sasuke asked, once he heard the door shut.

“What was what about?”

Naruto was pulling out clean clothes from his drawers and throwing them over on the small, rarely used bed.

“You know what I mean, the psychotic no-brows was sleeping in the closet with you. Where do you want me to start making the jokes?”

“He’s not psychotic anymore; well, not really, and he doesn’t sleep, so that joke can be thrown out the window altogether.”

"Still, you both came out of the closest together."

Naruto threw a piercing look at his old teammate. Sasuke had an odd sense of humour, fitting his cold, sadistic personality. The blond shot him the bird before turning back to his clothes. He stripped down out of his pajamas.

"You a voyeur now?" Naruto asked.

The Uchiha made a noise in the back of his throat. "No marks," he said. "You two really didn't do anything?"

"Fuck you. I don't even know why he was in there with me and I don't just go sleeping around with random people."

"Unlike some people I know," he added after a pause.

"Leave me out of this, they ask for it."

"Whatever," Naruto grumbled through the fabric of his shirt.

He finished pulling the blue shirt on before looking around for his jounin vest. He found it hanging haphazardly from the knob of his closet door. "Leave me out of your freaky sex life."

Sasuke smirked. "There isn't anything 'freaky' about it. What's freaky is that you're still a virgin."

The cocky look on the raven-haired man's face fell when he saw the pained grimace of his friend. While their banter may indicate other things, they were actually very close. In reality, Naruto was the only one that Sasuke showed any part of his true personality too. They had been through thick and thin together, and their friendship had persevered like stone through the ages. It had definitely changed from its beginnings, weathered and cracked in spots, but it still remained strong against that which was thrown against it.

"M'sry," Sasuke mumbled.

Naruto looked up at the other man. He blinked a few times, the cerulean depths hidden from view for seconds before the confusion melted and a genuine smile came over his face. "And the mighty Uchiha apologies. Maybe all the rejection and hate is worth it, if just for that."

"Shut up or it won't ever happen again."

"Oh," the blond crooned. "Again, he says! You were planning on apologizing to me for other things too? Did hell freeze over?"

"Yeah, I'll apologize for beating the shit out of you if you don't shut the fuck up now."

Naruto just laughed as he finger combed his hair, too lazy to find his hairbrush at the moment. He headed towards the door when he felt he was ready. Sasuke followed.

-----

When they arrived at the hospital, there was a flurry of activity within the hospital hallways. There were mostly visitors, with a few nurses piping in here and there. Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other and shrugged. "Do they normally get this excited over one patient getting better?" Naruto asked.

"How should I know, I despise this place?"

In truth, the Uchiha disliked most public places. He was a private kind of guy and would rather suffer the agonies of death on his own than drag himself into a hospital. Luckily he had old teammates like Sakura and Naruto who dragged him anyway, usually after he had lost consciousness.

"Hey," Naruto called out when he saw Ino just ahead of them.

She was talking to Hinata and Neji and stopped briefly to see whom it was. She waved to them and beckoned them to hurry.

"What's going on?" Naruto asked, leaning forward to give the woman a hug.

She returned it. "Oh my--you wouldn't believe it!"

"Believe what?"

"That lazy fool actually did something good, for once! And how romantic too, don't you think Hinata?"

The shy brunette blushed, looking over at Naruto before averting her eyes. "I--I suppose so. I mean, the timing does seem a bit odd but it is sweet."

"Mind explaining this further, or are you two just going to continue to ramble on?" Sasuke said, getting a bit frustrated.

"It seems," Neji said. "That the trauma of almost losing girlfriend shook Shikamaru up some and he proposed to her."

"What?!" Naruto screeched.

The entire hall stopped to stare at him. He blushed, looking apologetic, as he tried to hunch down into himself. "Are you serious?" he continued, this time in a more hospital-friendly voice.

"Yeah," Ino said. "And she accepted, of course."

"Well that was out of the blue," the blond said.

Ino nodded in agreement. "But he probably figured if she ever left him, one way or another, no one else would take his lazy ass."

Sasuke snickered, looking just slightly behind Ino to see said 'lazy ass' looking at his former teammate with a very disgruntled expression. "Thanks for the vote of confidence there, Ino."

The blonde woman spun around. She didn't even bother to look ashamed before she pounced on him. "Congratulations, baka! It's about fuckin' time."

"Again, thanks," he mumbled.

He looked over at Naruto. "She's asking to see you, Naruto. Come on in."

The blond man nodded, giving quick good-byes to the people still in the hallway. Sasuke took a step forward to follow but Shikamaru stopped him. "Sorry, but the nurses don't want too many visitors at once."

The sharingan user narrowed his eyes. "Since when am I not trustworthy?"

"I never said it had anything to do with trust."

Shikamaru nodded at the Hyuugas before giving a half-hearted glare at Ino. He turned to return to the room but was stopped when Sasuke called out to him again.

"Tell Hokage-sama that I want in on this mission, as well."

Shikamaru didn't say anything. He quietly closed the door behind him, closing out Naruto's happy exclamations from the rest of the hallway.

-----

"So you really are going to get married?" Naruto asked for probably about the millionth time.

Kankuro rolled his eyes as he chewed on his takoyaki. Shikamaru sighed and ate his own meal. They were all still in Temari's hospital room. Shizune had earlier snuck in some food for them to eat if they promised not to allow the blonde kunoichi to have any of it. She was on a strict liquid diet until further notice. One of the wounds barley missed her stomach but some damage was done all the same.

“Leave her alone gaki,” Tsunade said, as she walked into the room.

The noise level had increased in the hallway to a point where she had to step out to silence them. The nurses, still humming from the excitement of a marriage proposal in their workplace, bustled away to do their work.

“No one has respect for the sick anymore,” the Hokage bemoaned, walking over to sit down next to Naruto. Gaara was sitting behind his brother and Shikamaru, perched precariously on the windowsill. Naruto rolled his eyes, making a face. In turn, Tsunade slapped the back of his head. He moaned and cradled his head between both arms. “What was that for baachan?”

She ignored him. So many years beside the blond had taught her a thing or two. He still provided more surprises than she could ever keep up with; however, he had certain habits that she recognized. His pranks, jokes, and childish habits were often used as comic relief, and the tension within the current room was proof enough that Naruto had taken the job of clown and perfected it to an art.

“Do you have any information,” Kankuro asked, putting down his chopsticks.

Temari stiffened, already having been interrogated for any information she could give. It was minimal but enough. Shikamaru stood up and walked over to lean against the bed. The blonde kunoichi searched out for his hand.

“The information our scout came back with was just a further confirmation of what Temari reported to us. The attack was directly connected with the assassination job you completed earlier. It seems,” she said. “That we have a much bigger problem than originally thought.”

“How big?” Shikamaru asked.

Tsunade paused, looking over to the genius nin, and one of her best strategist. “Unknown at this time.”

“Unknown? How do you not know?” Kankuro asked.

The Hokage glared over at the impertinent Suna shinobi. “Because we don’t. No one does. I contacted the Kazekage and he’s just as much in the dark as Konoha.”

“So what now?” Naruto piped up. “We’re not just going to let them get away with this, are we?”

“No. Kankuro, Gaara,” she said. “The Kazekage is demanding you be allowed on this mission. I have no reason to argue the fact. There will be micro missions within one large one. I have another group of jounins that are being debriefed and will leave first thing tonight. The Kazekage is doing the same thing. There will only be essential communication of information between the three groups.”

“Will it just be us two then?” the elder brother asked.

Tsunade looked over to Naruto who was looking down at his hands. His brows were knit and legs were bouncing anxiously.

“You may choose one other teammate if you wish.”

“Naruto,” Gaara supplied immediately.

Said blond looked up and made eye contact with the red head.

“Before jumping into things so quickly, I want to present some information to you first. You two will have to be in disguise all the time. There is no deadline for this mission. You will be undercover until the objective, which is not yet known, is accomplished, or you get the orders to pull out. If Naruto goes with you, he will have to be in disguise too. However, you can choose a lesser known, yet just as talented ninja from Konoha and that way at least one of you can avoid the problems of all three team members being in disguises.”

“No. Only Naruto.”

Tsunade sighed. She closed her eyes and counted backwards from ten, trying to hold her temper. “Would you at least consider it? I have a list of capable—”

“The thing is,” Kankuro interrupted. “It’s more of a trust issue, not to mention the fact that we like Naruto and we know we can work with him. Why tempt fate by having some other person who is going to grate on our nerves, especially Gaara’s.”

Naruto was grinning at the two, happy that they were going to stand by him. Temari and Shikamaru looked as if they were going to support him as well.

“Fine,” Tsunade sighed. “Be in my office by noon tomorrow. Be ready to leave as soon as I give you more of the details.”

She stood up, looking down at the still smiling Naruto. “And this is confidential. He doesn’t need to know and he will not be allowed on this mission, at this point of time.”

He nodded.

“Good. You have an hour left before I instruct the nurses to kick you out. Temari still needs her rest.”

Naruto and Kankuro snickered.

“Stupid brats,” she mumbled, realizing there was little anyone could do to get them out of the room.

She allowed herself to grin as she heard Naruto begin up the same conversation from earlier.

“So are you two really going to get married?”

-----

He wasn’t surprised, when he neared his apartment, to feel the chakra of his friend and former teammate. Naruto sighed, a bit happy that Gaara had chosen to stay in the hospital with his family. The blond knew he might be a little dense when it came to some things, but the tension between those two was not lost to him. Naruto climbed up the stairs, keys ready to unlock his door. As he half expected, the door was already unlocked. He opened the door, immediately figuring out where the other man was.

“Honestly,” he said. “I should really take away your copy of my key.”

“I’d just come through the window like I did before,” Sasuke shrugged off.

“I don’t come barging into your home, why do you do it to mine?”

Sasuke snorted. He was laid out on the couch, his feet hanging over the armrest. Naruto frowned, a bit perturbed again at the reminder of the height difference between him and the Uchiha heir

“You never come over to my house, that’s why.”

“It’s creepy,” he mumbled.

Again Sasuke let out a brief snort of amusement. It was a long time understanding that they—and no one really—spent more time at the Uchiha compound than needed. Not even Sasuke liked to spend that much time there. He had been considering taking an apartment within the main part of Konoha anyway. Even the council had been contemplating taking away some of the land that once belonged to the Uchiha clan. Sasuke hadn’t really been actively trying to repopulate his clan, anyway, though his active sex life contradicted that some.

Naruto knew--discovered in a drunken night after a heavy mission--that Sasuke was conceited to the core and didn’t feel there was any woman he had met yet that was worthy to carry an Uchiha child.

“Are you staying here tonight?” the blond asked.

He didn’t wait for the response before he shut and locked the door. The kitchenette was alit with the soft glow of the overhead fluorescent light. It hummed in the silent of the apartment.

“Is there a mission already?”

Naruto grunted a non-response as he opened his fridge and rummaged through its contents. “You want anything to eat?”

His obviously ignoring the question roused the Uchiha from his reclining position. He got up and walked over to the kitchenette. Much to the blond’s chagrin, he jumped up on the limited counter space and seated himself. His feet swung hitting the wooden cabinets below him with a heavy thud. Naruto shot him a look, pulling out some leftovers on the remaining, unoccupied counter.

“You ignored me,” Sasuke stated. “Which means there is a mission but you can’t speak about it.”

He paused, judging the other’s response. Naruto continued to ignore him as he started heating up the food and plating it.

“Can you tell me if you’re going or not?”

“I will be on a mission,” Naruto replied.

“How long?”

Naruto was chewing on his meal. He avoided making eye contact. “Undetermined.”

Sasuke grunted. “No way I can get on it?”

He shook his head.

“And are the Suna brothers going with you?”

Naruto swallowed his food and gave a warning look to the other. “I can’t speak—”

“Stop being so dense, Naruto,” Sasuke interrupted. “The psycho freak has something for you.”

“You’re imaging things.”

“He was laying next to you while you slept!”

Naruto tossed his plate into the sink; it chipped against the stainless steal. “It’s Gaara, Sasuke. Think about it. The guy probably doesn’t even know what it means to like someone.”

The Uchiha slid down from the counter to stand at his full height. Naruto came only to his nose, not a huge difference but a difference all the same. Looking down at the blonde, he couldn’t help but smirk. “You’re not giving him enough credit. For a person who hates people underestimating him, you have a nasty habit of doing the same to other people,” he said, pausing only to stop from being interrupted. “Those three are considered to be the top in Suna and not one of them got there without being observant and keen. I have no doubt that Gaara knows exactly what is going on and what he is doing.”

Naruto stepped away from Sasuke. He stood there looking eleven years younger (as he did back when he was still a genin) with his cheeks puffed out and arms crossed in a disgruntled pout. “You’re sure speaking a lot today. What happened to the usual broody bastard that hangs around my apartment?”

“He’s worried that his best friend is about to go off on a mission and come back without his ass virginity.”

He couldn’t help it. He really just couldn’t. Naruto blinked a couple times, his eyes watering a bit from holding back his natural reaction, until finally he couldn’t hold it in any longer and he burst out laughing. “Did you really just say that?”

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. “I’m not joking.”

“Whatever, I’m not going to continue having this argument with you,” still jovial about the earlier comment.

He turned to head to his bedroom but was stopped when the other man grabbed his arm.

“I’m being serious.”

“I’m sure you are,” he said. “You usually are actually, but I’m tired and don’t feel like dealing with your jealous paranoia.”

Sasuke sputtered and stepped back. “Jealous?” he said his voice cracking into a higher octave. “W-who said I would be jealous of a dobe like you?”

Naruto sniggered. “Relax. That was what us unrepressed people call a joke.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes, a hint of pink still tingeing his pale cheeks. “So says the virgin.”

The blond flicked him off before entering his bedroom. He didn’t bother shutting the door, knowing his former teammate would follow him eventually. It has become common practice now: he would sleep in the closet and Sasuke would take the bed.

“So I can sleep in the closet too?” Sasuke joked, half-heartedly.

“Nice try,” Naruto said. “But you’re still not funny.”

The other man rolled his eyes again. He watched with feigned disinterest as the blond disrobed and changed into his pajama bottoms.

“Goodnight bastard.”

“Goodnight.”

The closet door closed before he made his way over to the rarely used bed. He disrobed on the way and climbed in only in his boxers. Sasuke contemplated briefly joining the blond—mostly to piss off Gaara—but he disregarded it for the commotion the blond would make later. No—he’d find other ways to aggravate the red head and to figure out Gaara’s real agenda.

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…TBC…

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