Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Piece by Piece, Back Together	By : Sasunarufan13 Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Naruto/Sasuke Views: 8229 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor profit of it. Kishimoto owns it.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
- 3
Author's note: First of all, many, many apologies for taking so long with this second chapter. I wanted to finish it earlier, but the heat wave is still going on strong and it's seriously sapping my energy :/ I've got a few other fics ongoing too as well as a personal project I've been working on for a while now - and that's not mentioning the work in the household - but I'm sincerely sorry for taking so long with this.
That being said: I unfortunately don't have an updating schedule for this one. I will try my best to have the chapters out quickly and you can be assured that this story won't be put on hiatus or dropped. I'm going to finish this, you can be sure of that. It just might take a little longer, because of circumstances I've mentioned above. I hope you can understand this; it's not my intention to keep you all waiting, but I don't want to deliver half arsed chapters either.
Thanks to the following reviewer: Ela-Distrix
Warnings: some time jumps; nothing else in particular
I hope you'll like it! And yes, I did cut this chapter into two parts, because I wanted to give you something after this long wait!
2 Confiding Part 1
He waited until their classmates had filed out of the room after their last class of the day was finished, waving off Kiba when the boy looked at him curiously. Kiba shrugged and walked out of the classroom, calling out to Shikamaru.
Uchiha looked up with an unreadable look on his face when Naruto stopped in front of his desk. He had already put everything away in his bag, but the blond knew that the Alpha waited until he was the last one to leave the room. He wasn't entirely certain why, but he hoped to find out the reason for that one day.
"You need something?" Uchiha asked; his voice flat. His eyes weren't as blank as they had been at the start, though; there was a glimmer of curiosity in them.
"I was wondering …" Naruto hesitated for a moment before pushing through, "It's the start of our weekend and to celebrate the end of our project, would you like watching a movie with me or so?"
"A movie," Uchiha repeated tonelessly, drawing his eyebrows together slightly.
"Yeah, or we could do something else. You just seem the type to prefer watching movies over going to the mall or so," Naruto said, shrugging weakly. Truthfully he couldn't exactly picture Uchiha sitting at the movies with a bucket of popcorn either, but Uchiha visiting the mall out of his own accord seemed even less likely.
"Where would we watch the movie? At your place?" the Alpha questioned, cocking his head to the left.
"Eh." Naruto stared at him blankly, thrown off kilter for the moment. He had actually thought about going to the local cinema and picking a movie there, but now that he thought about it, watching a movie there wouldn't exactly help with his plan.
He wanted to get to know Uchiha better, become actual friends with him, but in order to do that they needed to talk at least a little bit. A cinema wasn't exactly the best place for that. He had quite the collection of movies at home, though, and mum had gone to the stores yesterday, so there was bound to be some snacks in the cupboards.
"Yeah, at my place, if you don't mind," he answered rushed, not wanting to annoy Uchiha by taking too long to answer.
Uchiha blinked before nodding slowly. "Sure, sounds good to me," he murmured and rose up from his chair, swinging his bag over his shoulder. "Let's go then."
Perking up – and inwardly doing a dance in victory – the blond boy hastily followed him outside, snatching his own bag from the floor. There were still some students left in the corridors; some lingering to talk to their friends while others still had club meetings. They stared at Uchiha as he walked past them; their eyes growing even bigger when they noticed Naruto clearly tagging along with the Alpha. Soon they started whispering with each other; their gazes following the pair and Naruto felt his cheeks burn when he caught some of the comments carelessly thrown around between friends.
"Isn't that the new kid? What's he doing with Uchiha?"
"It has to be a coincidence, right? No way Uchiha would ever go for a guy like him."
"Seems like all Omega flock to that guy, huh, no matter whether they're a chick or a dude."
"Gross! You really think they're fucking?"
"Nah, can't be. Uchiha doesn't look at anybody."
Scowling at the floor, Naruto tightened his grip around the strap of his bag. Just because he was an Omega didn't mean he couldn't be friends with an Alpha! Sure, yeah, at this point he didn't think they could be called friends yet, but that didn't matter! The point was that he wasn't after Uchiha just to bone him, all because he happened to be an Omega. What did they know about him anyway? What did they even know about Uchiha? He hadn't spoken with those people before and he was willing to bet they never had managed to talk to Uchiha either.
Yet here they were, gossiping and assuming things about them, despite the fact that none of what he and Uchiha did with each other was any of their business.
Presumptuous arseholes, the lot of them.
He shook his head and took a deep breath to calm down; there was no point in getting worked up about what those idiots were saying. He wouldn't let them ruin the rest of his day with their thoughtless comments; especially not when Uchiha had actually agreed to spend time with him outside of the classroom. Who cared what they thought anyway? He was still the one leaving with Uchiha, not them.
Feeling better, he stepped outside, letting the doors fall shut behind him. Expecting Uchiha to follow him to the bus stop – mum's car was at the shop and she wouldn't be able to pick him up today – he was therefore quite surprised when the Alpha turned towards the carpark instead, striding towards it.
For a moment he stood in front of the school entrance and gaped, before he hurried after the dark haired man. Maybe Uchiha was brought to school as well by car? It wasn't as Naruto could be the only one who got dropped off by car, instead of using public transport.
They halted in front of a sleek, black car, but when Naruto peeked inside, he saw nobody waiting for Uchiha. Strange. They weren't that late, so it couldn't be that whoever drove Uchiha home – his mother or father? – had grown tired of waiting and had stepped outside for a bit. A quick glance around showed nobody waiting around for them.
"Get in," Uchiha ordered calmly.
"Don't we need to wait for - " Naruto's mouth dropped open when he saw Sasuke stepping into the car – on the driver's side.
Wait, what?
He jumped nearly three feet in the air when the window on his side lowered with a buzzing sound and Uchiha leant forwards; a look of annoyance plastered on his face as he asked curtly, "You're getting in or what?"
Hastily Naruto ripped open the door and practically fell inside his seat. He closed the door and dropped his bag between his legs before fumbling with the seatbelt. All the while his mind was screaming at him about the fact that Uchiha was the one driving this car.
How the hell had he managed to get a driver's license? He wasn't eighteen yet. Naruto was certain of that considering how smart he was; there was no way he had ever had to repeat a year.
"You can drive?" he blurted out stumped.
Uchiha stared at him as if he was an idiot – which fair enough, given the fact that he was sitting behind the wheel, it was obvious that he could drive. But give him a break: who the hell expected a seventeen year old to have a driver's license already?
"I received an exception," was all Uchiha offered as answer before starting the car. "Don't worry, I'm a good driver. Which way do I need to go?"
Still reeling from the fact that Uchiha was already driving a car – and not just with a learner's permit either, considering Naruto was his passenger – the blond started giving directions to his house.
Uchiha turned out to be an excellent driver, navigating smoothly through the streets and it wasn't long before they were parking down the street where Naruto lived. It was a quiet neighbourhood, the sort where everyone knew everyone who lived there, and Naruto waved at old lady Hana, who was puttering around in her front garden, watering her flowers. She waved back and her wrinkly face grew a few extra wrinkles as she studied Uchiha, clearly interested in who the mysterious boy was.
She'd probably badger him about it the next time she caught him alone. He would be annoyed by that thought, but really she was a sweet lady, even if a tad too curious, and she made amazing chocolate chip cookies.
"I'm home," Naruto mumbled habitually, even if at the moment neither of his parents were home. He kicked off his shoes in favour of putting on his slippers and retrieved another pair, ones they kept for guests, from the shoe closet, offering them to Uchiha. The Alpha was a lot neater in putting away his shoes than Naruto was and after placing his bag against the wall, he followed Naruto deeper into the house.
"The films are on the shelves underneath the television," Naruto informed him, pointing at the living room. "Take your pick; I'll grab some snacks. What do you like to drink?"
"Soda or water is fine," Uchiha murmured and disappeared into the living room.
Trying to contain his bubble of excitement at having Uchiha in his home was rather difficult and he was buzzing with restless energy as he raided the cupboard where mum stored the snacks. He grabbed some bags of crisps, some candy bars and a sleeve of chocolate cookies, figuring that at least one of those items would appeal to the dark haired boy. A full bottle of soda was snatched from the fridge and two glasses were retrieved from the cupboard.
Somehow he managed to bring everything to the living room without dropping a single thing – which was honestly a miracle, but he wasn't about to complain – and he put the soda and the glasses on the table first, before opening his arms and letting the snacks tumble down.
"You found a movie you'd like to watch?" he asked, but when he looked up, he didn't see Uchiha near the television as he had expected.
Instead the Alpha was looking at the pictures on the wall, a few feet away from the television. He was studying them intently as if they were something important enough to memorise.
"Please tell me mum didn't hang up any embarrassing pictures of me," Naruto griped, walking over to the other boy. The pictures hadn't been hanging there when he left for school this morning, so mum must have finally got around to doing that today.
To his great relief, she had not in fact hung up any embarrassing pictures and he silently thanked her for her restraint. The last thing he needed was for Uchiha to see the picture of when he had been five years old and had got into mum's make-up, slathering his mouth full with bright red lipstick until he had resembled a clown. He might also have tried out her black pumps – and had discovered they were utterly impossible to walk around with – but that was neither here nor there.
The photos she had chosen to hang up were mostly ones they had taken during family outings with them visiting amusement parks, the beach, or a picnic in a clearing of the forest near their first home. His parents' wedding picture was right in the middle with another picture of them both in their work uniforms above it.
When he followed Uchiha's gaze, he found him staring at a picture of mum holding his eight year old self in her lap. They were both grinning widely, having just celebrated mum's birthday. There were still traces of the strawberry cake visible on their mouths if one looked closely enough.
"Your parents are with the police?" Uchiha asked neutral, now scanning the picture in which both Naruto's parents were proudly wearing their uniforms. That one had been taken two years before Naruto was born if he remembered correctly.
"Yeah, well, my dad is. My mum's thinking of going back to the force, but she hasn't decided yet," Naruto answered and when Uchiha graced him with a blank look, he elaborated, "She was with the police right up until I was born and then she decided to stay home to take care of me. Said she didn't want to miss anything of me growing up. So she's a housewife now, but she's thinking of going back to work in the force eventually."
"Your mother is beautiful," Uchiha murmured.
Naruto grinned, clasping his hands together behind his head. "She is, isn't she?" he said proudly. He had always thought he had the prettiest mum of everyone; he wished he could have got her beautiful red hair. Mum said she'd always been teased about the colour – though that teasing had tended to stop quite fast after she had shown them just how little she thought of their opinion; yeah, his mum was not someone you could screw around with – and that was something Naruto had never understood. Her red hair was incredibly beautiful and everyone who thought otherwise could fuck off.
"You look like her," Uchiha commented offhandedly.
That comment made Naruto feel flustered for some reason and bashfully he mumbled, "Eh, thanks." Clearing his throat, he took a couple of steps back and jerked his thumb at the collection of films on the shelves. "So which one do you want to watch?"
They ended up watching a film about a couple of samurai, set in the 1860s. Naruto had feared it would lean to much to the history side for him to enjoy it – dad was the history buff, not him.
To his surprise, though, he ended up being as engaged in the film as Uchiha was to the point that he yelled in surprise and nearly jumped three feet in the air – thereby almost falling off the couch – when mum suddenly appeared in the living room.
"Hello there," she smiled, clearly surprised at the presence of an Alpha aside from dad in their house. "I don't think we've met before."
Uchiha rose up from the couch and bowed. "Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki-san. It's a pleasure to meet you," he introduced himself, even going as far as offering her a very faint smile.
Well, it was more like a twitch of the corners of his mouth, but that was more than the Alpha tended to offer others, so.
"Oh my, so polite. You could learn a thing or two from Uchiha-kun, Naruto," Mum grinned, winking at her son, who whined in dismay. "I'm Uzumaki Kushina. Sorry I interrupted your film, but I got curious when I heard the dialogue, because I know Naruto tends to prefer other genres."
"Mum," Naruto groaned, rubbing his forehead. She had to know Uchiha was the guy he had been trying to befriend for weeks now and for some reason, she decided now was the time to make fun of him.
Granted, if the roles had been reversed, he'd do the same thing, but still …
"You don't like this film?" Uchiha was staring at him with such an intensity that a nervous chuckle escaped Naruto before he could hold it back.
"Ah no, I do like it. I just never watched it before, because I thought it would be boring," he explained, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Then why do you have it in your collection?" Uchiha asked blankly.
"My dad's a history buff and likes this genre," Naruto replied and shrugged.
Mum clapped her hands together; her violet eyes gleaming. "Well, I'll leave you two to the rest of the film then. Let me know if you need more snacks or drinks." She practically flounced out of the living room and Naruto couldn't help but stare suspiciously at her retreat.
The gleam in her eyes had been way too excited and he just knew he'd be fielding off her questions later on once Uchiha was gone. Why had he thought it was such a good idea to bring Uchiha home with him?
"You want to watch the rest of the film?" he asked brightly, forcing himself to ignore the cheerful humming he could hear emitting from the kitchen.
Yeah, she was biding her time, he just knew it.
"Sure." Uchiha shrugged and sat back down.
Naruto settled back down too and they watched the rest of the film in companionable silence.
"So, that was Uchiha Sasuke, hm?"
"Don't even start, ma."
"What? I'm just glad I can put a face to the name, that's all!" A teasing nudge in his side. "You didn't do bad at all, you know. Quite a looker, he is!"
"Ma! It's not like that!"
"Of course it isn't." A smirk. "I believe you."
"Ma!"
From then on they started spending more time with each other.
Naruto had feared at first he'd need to come up with a decent excuse every time to spend some time with the dark haired Alpha, but to his surprise – and which caused him to be immensely pleased – Uchiha started seeking him out on his own volition too.
They usually spent time at Naruto's place, Uchiha bringing him home with his car. Dad had nearly had a fit when he discovered Uchiha was already driving a car, but after a couple of times of seeing him drive, he seemed to begrudgingly trust him to bring his only son safely home.
Naruto was pretty sure, though, that dad had ordered his colleagues to keep an eye out on Uchiha's car, just in case he did go out of line. Naruto would scold him for that if he had any real evidence that the older blond had put out that request.
At least he wasn't eyeing Uchiha suspiciously anymore; that was a plus.
"All right, I'll see you on Monday!" Kiba grinned, slapping Naruto's shoulder as they parted at the school gates.
"Yep, see you then," Naruto smiled and turned left, making his way to the bus stop.
The beginning of July had announced itself with a brightly shining sun and high temperatures and he tried to stick to the shade as much as possible. Even so he broke out in a sweat, making him feel tacky and sticky as he wiped his forehead and neck. He'd like to go home immediately and take a cold shower, but mum's birthday was next week and he needed to buy her a gift today.
Thanks to his volleyball training he was out of school later than usual and he hoped he'd be able to catch the next bus on time. The store he wanted to go to would close in an hour, so he had to make sure he'd be there on time. It would suck if he had to return next week.
"You going home?"
"Holy shit! Warn a guy! You're like a freaking cat!" Naruto cursed, whirling around to face the Alpha.
Uchiha for his part just raised an eyebrow and smirked slightly. "Maybe you should pay more attention to your surroundings," he suggested.
"I pay enough attention, dickhead. You're just freakishly silent," Naruto snapped. They had been spending time together for almost two months now and he had got past his initial hesitation, dropping the careful act. Even at his chattiest Uchiha didn't seem that bothered by him, so Naruto had figured there was no need to restrain himself anymore; it didn't seem like Uchiha would let himself get scared off.
He did wish the guy would make a bit more noise when approaching him from behind, though. This wasn't the first time he had almost scared the shit out of the Omega by suddenly appearing behind him.
"Whatever you say," Uchiha dismissed his complaint. He wasn't carrying his bag anymore, so he had to have dropped that off in his car already. "So you going home?"
"No, not yet. I'm going to a store first to buy a birthday gift for my mum," Naruto replied, adjusting the strap of his bag so that it wouldn't dig that much in his shoulder.
"I can drive you if you want," Uchiha offered offhandedly.
Naruto furrowed his eyebrows. "You sure? It's already quite late; don't they expect you home?"
To be truthful, he didn't know how many family members Sasuke had exactly. He hadn't mentioned his parents so far nor any siblings he might have. Kiba nor anyone else of their class knew anything about Uchiha's family life either, despite having spent more time in class with him than Naruto had done so far.
Naruto had the impression that Uchiha's family was kind of a sensitive subject, so he hadn't dared to approach it yet, figuring he'd let the Alpha tell him about them in his own time.
Uchiha shrugged, beckoning him to follow him. "Not really. I don't have a real curfew," he answered vaguely.
"Well, okay, then. Thanks, I appreciate it," Naruto smiled and turned his back to the bus stop, falling into pace with the dark haired boy. If he had to choose between a cool car with AC or a bus where they were stuffed inside like sardines … Yeah, the choice was quickly made.
As they made their way to Uchiha's car, they caught the attention of some other stragglers. After all these weeks they stilled turned wide eyed with shock as they watched Naruto walk besides Uchiha, but the whispers had more or less stopped.
Naruto thought that had something to do with the fact that Uchiha just ignored everyone talking to him – except for Naruto – and well, he just tended to laugh off their incredulous comments. It wasn't his fault they had never attempted to just talk to Uchiha, so they shouldn't badger him about this now. They had had several opportunities so far, but apparently they had never made use of those.
Their loss.
"So, looking forward to the summer break?" Naruto asked casually as they made their way through the streets.
Uchiha grunted and the blond chose to interpret that as a positive answer. "Yeah, it's going to be great to not have to stay in class for a while with this heat. You got any plans?"
"None in particular," Uchiha muttered as they entered the busy town centre.
"My parents and I are probably going to the beach for a day or so if dad can get some time off," Naruto said, squinting out of the window. The harsh glare of the sun reflected on every shiny surface made it difficult to look outside without hurting his eyes.
"Sounds like fun," Uchiha commented idly.
"Hm, until one of us turns as red as a lobster," Naruto chuckled. The unfortunate victim of a sunburn usually turned out to be his mum, even though she slathered even more sunscreen on her skin than Naruto or dad did. Dad tended to tease her that her skin just wanted to match her hair.
That usually earnt him a slap around his head.
Uchiha miraculously managed to find a parking spot with plenty of shade and once he had shut down the motor, they stepped out, joining the other people on the footway.
"I won't take long," Naruto reassured Uchiha when he spotted the store and led the other boy to it.
"Take your time. I'm not really in a hurry," Uchiha mumbled, narrowing his eyes at the rather garnish display of bright pink teddy bears set in a pyramid form when they walked into the shop.
With the weather being this hot, the shop owner hadn't even bothered with keeping the doors closed, having chosen instead to keep them open all the time – probably in a vain attempt to catch a breeze. It was rather warm inside the building too, not as bad as outside, but definitely not a temperature that invited people to keep lingering in the store.
Leaving Uchiha behind at a shelf with notebooks varying in size, the blond made his way deeper into the store, praying they still had the item in stock that he wanted to buy for mum. He had checked their website last night and there it had stated they still carried the item, but you never knew. With his luck, it might even be sold out by now.
It wasn't, though, and he grinned widely when he spotted it.
'It' was a stuffed fox, dyed a deep red with black paws and a white snout. It had nine tails instead of just one, representing the mischievous fox spirit from the mythology; the tails were a deep red colour as well, tapering off into white tips. Seeing as both he and mum loved foxes in every form, he figured this would make a great birthday present for her.
On his way to the cash register, he spotted something else and before he could think twice about it, he snatched it off the shelf and paid for both items.
He met Uchiha at the entrance. "Uchiha-san, I've got something for you!" He dipped his hand into the bag and retrieved the item he had bought on a whim.
It was an actual tomato plushie with little arms and legs and a big smiley face at what was supposed to be the stuffed toy's front. Having shared some lunches with Uchiha before, he had taken notice of how fond the Alpha was of tomatoes, even eating Naruto's share if the Omega not so inconspicuously dumped his tomato slices into Uchiha's bento box.
Waving it in the air, he grinned, "Figured you might like a plushie of your favourite food!"
For the first time since he knew the guy, Uchiha actually looked stunned as he stared at the stuffed tomato toy. Slowly he reached out and took it from Naruto, holding it in both hands. "Thanks," he said and actually sounded genuine.
Naruto released a relieved sigh. When he had spotted the smiling tomato, it had seemed like a funny present for Uchiha and he was glad Uchiha wasn't angry about it; this gift could have backfired spectacularly after all.
"No problem," he smiled.
They were almost at Naruto's house – only two more streets to go – when Uchiha suddenly murmured, "You can just call me Sasuke, by the way."
"Hm?" Naruto looked away from the window and glanced at the other boy.
"You can call me Sasuke," he repeated and threw the blond a quick glance before focusing back on the road. "It's not like we're strangers after all."
For a brief moment Naruto stared at him surprised. He hadn't really thought about it, but yeah, he had still been calling him Uchiha, both in his mind and aloud, despite having got closer to the boy the past weeks. To be fair, he hadn't wanted to be so presumptuous as to use the Alpha's first name without really knowing where they were friends or not.
That the dark haired boy was the first one to breach that distance between them and pull down that barrier made something in Naruto glow with warmth and he smiled giddily. "Okay, you can call me Naruto."
Being on first name basis appeared to have made something in Sasuke click.
It was the first day of summer break and Naruto had planned on languishing the morning away in his bed, enjoying the opportunity to sleep in after weeks of having to get up early in order to get to school on time.
That was the plan, at least, but the loud ringing of the doorbell put a stop to that plan quickly.
As the echoes of the bell died out, he contemplated just staying in bed. Mum was home, anyway, so she could answer the door.
Which apparently she had done, because not even a minute later, she called from downstairs, "Naruto! Sasuke-kun is here! Get your butt out of your bed and get down here!"
What the hell? Rolling over, he snatched his phone from the nightstand and stared at it. No new messages that he might have missed while he had been sleeping. He selected the message thread between him and Sasuke, but the latest message there didn't indicate at all that the Alpha would be showing up today. He couldn't remember Sasuke saying anything about it either when he had dropped him off last week.
Stumbling out of bedroom, clad only in his shorts, he went downstairs, nearly slipping down the second to last step when he put his foot down too far over the edge. Mum shook her head when she saw him and sighed.
"You couldn't have put on a shirt at least?" she asked disapprovingly.
"It's warm," he remarked snidely. Besides, Sasuke had the same equipment as him, so it wasn't like he would be seeing anything different than what he had.
Well, all right, so Sasuke was definitely more muscled than him, sure, but the essentials were still the same.
Sasuke was waiting in front of the closed door, dressing in a grey T-shirt and gym shorts for some reason. His eyes ran quickly up and down over Naruto's body and the Omega cleared his throat, scratching the back of his head. Shit, his hair must look like a bird's nest.
"Yo, Sasuke, did we plan to meet up today?" he asked curiously, hoping he hadn't somehow managed to forget their plans. He didn't think so, because he tended to have a good memory when it came to his friends, but why else would Sasuke be here?
"I thought you might want to join me for my martial arts class," Sasuke said calmly. He cocked his head to the right. "You mentioned you were interested in that, no?"
"Eh, yeah, I did," Naruto replied, a bit taken aback. He had mentioned that when he had discovered that Sasuke regularly attended a martial arts class, but he hadn't thought the older boy had remembered that particular remark. That conversation had taken place weeks before, after all.
"So, you interested?" Dark eyes looked at him expectantly.
Aware of mum's interested look piercing in the back of his head, Naruto nodded. "Sure, let me go change quickly and eat something and then we can go."
There were already ten other people present in the dojo when they stepped inside. They were all practicing a different type of move on their opponent and Naruto watched fascinated how one girl – a tiny brunette; a Beta – effortlessly threw her much larger opponent over her shoulder, not even breaking a sweat as she did so.
"Uchiha, you brought someone with you this time?"
The low, monotone voice had Naruto ripping his attention away from the girl who was grinning at the guy, tugging him back on his feet.
The guy approaching them had flaming red hair with a few wispy locks brushing his forehead. His eyes were an intense shade of green, made even more intimidating by the dark circles underneath them; a bad sleeper? The kanji for love was tattooed in blood red above his left eye.
He was around Naruto's height, making him a bit smaller than Sasuke, but he was obviously ripped, given how his shirt clung to his chest. He was an Alpha – his scent a curious mixture of grass, earth and coffee – and despite his smaller statue than most people present in the dojo, his aura screamed 'Don't fuck with me!'.
Frankly he was quite intimidating and Naruto swallowed nervously.
"Naruto's my friend," Sasuke introduced him, waving at the blond. "Naruto, this is Gaara, he runs this place."
"How old are you?" Naruto blurted out before he could stop himself. He cringed a bit as soon as the words left his mouth, but seriously, the guy looked as old as they were!
A slow blink of green eyes. "Twenty-one," Gaara answered flatly. "Been running this place for three years now, but I've been working here since I was sixteen and been training here since I was eight."
"That's quite the long history you have with this place," Naruto squeaked. Gaara narrowed his eyes slightly, studying him more intently now. That did nothing to calm Naruto's nerves.
Sasuke snorted, apparently amused by the blond's predicament, the stupid bastard, and said casually, "Naruto's interested in martial arts. I figured you could show him some techniques."
It wasn't a request, nor really a demand, and while Naruto stood there a bit dazed, Gaara seemed to consider him in another light now. The red haired Alpha assessed him with critical eyes and Naruto found himself automatically straightening up underneath the scrutiny.
"Omega, right?"
The question took him off guard and he frowned. "Yeah, what of it? You don't work with Omega?" he asked, sharper than he had intended.
Gaara quirked an eyebrow. "Relax, we don't tolerate discrimination here," he said calmly and Naruto pursed his lips, a bit embarrassed at having leapt to conclusions so quickly.
"Just asking to be sure. There are some techniques that will work better for you, that's all," Gaara continued and jerked his head at the tatami mats. "You ready for your first lesson?"
Changing a glance at Sasuke – who seemed to give him an encouraging nod, eh, okay – Naruto slowly nodded. "Yeah, I'm ready."
He had already got some defence lessons when he was younger – courtesy of being a child of two police officers – but knowing more techniques could never hurt.
Hell, his parents might actually be ecstatic once they heard about his lessons and it would probably endear Sasuke to them even more – if that was even still possible.
After his first lesson – which he enjoyed a lot more than he thought he would; Gaara was an excellent teacher – Naruto joined Sasuke three times a week at the dojo, getting taught a new technique each week.
Normally it took students a lot longer than one week to really master one technique, but Naruto seemed to have a talent for it, Gaara had mentioned approvingly during one of their lessons.
Naruto would lie if he said he hadn't enjoyed hearing that compliment.
Attending these lessons actually taught him something new about Sasuke as well, despite the fact that he and the man hadn't sparred together so far – Sasuke being a lot more advanced and all that.
"You know, I never thought I'd see the day Uchiha would bring a friend over," Gaara mentioned offhandedly during one of their breaks.
There was a peculiar inflection on the word 'friend' and it made Naruto stop drinking his water, eyeing the other man with a slight frown. "What do you mean?"
Gaara shrugged, throwing his half empty bottle from one hand to the other. His gaze was pensive when he stared at Sasuke, who had just thrown his opponent to the ground with a loud 'smack'. "I've known him for several years now and never once has he brought anyone here or even mentioned someone else. I'm pretty certain he used to not have any friends actually."
His gaze switched to Naruto and it turned appraising. "You must be special to him," he told him frankly and while Naruto spluttered, turning red for reasons he didn't really understand, Gaara rose up, setting his bottle on a chair against the wall. "You up for another round?"
Naruto shook his head and dumped his bottle into his bag. "Yeah sure, let's go."
If he landed on his back a couple more times than usual now, he blamed it entirely on Gaara and the weird conversation they had shared.
Special to Sasuke, huh?
After saying a quick goodbye to Sasuke, he rushed to the front door as the rain beat down around him. The beginning of September had started with a heavy downpour and he was cursing vehemently as his keys kept slipping through his wet grasp.
Finally he got the door unlocked and hurried inside. The noise of a car departing had him shaking his head wearily. He had told Sasuke so many times already that he didn't need to wait until Naruto was inside the house to leave, but the man was a stubborn git and refused to listen to him.
"Naruto?"
"Yeah, I'm home!"
Dad appeared in the doorway of the living room; home at one of his rare days off. "Welcome home," he smiled; the corners of his eyes crinkling slightly and he crossed his arms. "How was school?"
"Boring as always," Naruto answered flippantly, peeling off his wet jacket and hanging it on the peg with a grimace. Being dropped off by Sasuke meant he wasn't as wet as he would have been if he had to walk home from the bus, but the short walk between the car and the door had been enough to soak his jacket completely.
"Sasuke-kun already left?"
"Yeah, he had something scheduled for tonight." Naruto looked up with a grin as he tugged off his shoes. "Why, you miss him?" He snickered, dropping his right shoe on the floor before doing the same with the left.
The weird look on dad's face had him pausing and he frowned. "Dad?"
"Just wondering," Dad started and hesitated visibly before pushing through, "Is there any reason in particular why Sasuke-kun asked me yesterday whether I knew how to handle a gun?"
Eh, what?
AN2: I know I said you would find out why Sasuke behaves the way he does in this chapter, but it turned out a lot longer than I expected it to be and because I wanted to update it today, I ended the chapter here. I hope you can forgive me ^^;
Next chapter will definitely offer an explanation as to why Sasuke is how he is!
I hope this chapter met your expectations! Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.
I hope to see you all back in the next chapter!
Cuddles
Melissa
- 1
- 2
- 3
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Piece by Piece, Back Together