Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Sector Five	By : FlairForTheVeil Category: Naruto AU/AR > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 2291 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor its characters. Rightful ownership belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I make no profit of this fanfiction.

Chapter List
- 20
- 21
- 22
Chapter 20: Raw Innocence

The refrigerator opened with the sharp clinks of glasses and containers against each other, the low rumble of its ice maker accompanying the slide of its doors. Sasuke stuck his head inside of the fridge, squinting his eyes from the brightness and scrutinizing every single food item it held. Most of the containers of vegetables, instant everythings, and uncooked meats looked edible enough, untouched and neatly organized.
He had laid in bed for about three hours, drifting in and out of nightmares and unwelcome memories before deciding that he was tired of being tired and got up to explore the building. He had used the urinal in the locker room, having to turn on the light. The dull clicks above his head as he walked through his dorm wing let him know that it was around three in the morning and the lights under anyone else’s rooms were off.
Sasuke had lingered the neighboring halls and eventually used the quiet makeshift elevator to venture to the lobby and another large room it held. It held dozens of crude metal tables with scraps of food on them, small puddles of water, soda, juice and the occasional bent paper plate. A smaller room inside that room led him to a large kitchen with a fridge and pantry that seemed welcoming enough. He was starving, anyway.
He eyed a sandwich spread and quickly remembered an article he had read in one of Karin’s magazines. Foods that triggered some sort of chemical in his brain to help him sleep… but a placebo affect would do, too. Sasuke pushed the twin doors farther open and ducked into the fridge, pulling out a few items and nearly knocking over an open bowl of strawberries.
As he leant over his turkey and hummus sandwich, an abomination Naruto would have surely yelled in his ear for, the hanging light above him shuddered and flickered. He glanced up, sending it a questioning look and peeled the crust off of the wheat bread, eating it alone before the meal as he always did. Perhaps the shuddering meant something was moving above ground, but he didn’t feel as if he should be concerned.
“You’re welcome,” an irritated voice startled him.
Sasuke turned to the origin of the voice and raised an eyebrow, leaning on the kitchen island and picking at the bread’s crust. “Oh. Well, thanks for the shelt-“
“I’ve already heard about how thankful you are for the place to say,” Temari interrupted, crossing her arms over her white robe and scratching her leg with her bare foot.
Oh. Sasuke wasn’t stupid, and his mother had hounded over his manners in situations like this. “I hope this is okay-“
“Eat all you want,” she sighed and meandered over to the pantry across from him, flicking the light on inside and leaning against the doorframe to inspect the snacks inside. “I’m saying welcome ‘cause I saved your ass.”
Sasuke’s sandwich hovered halfway between his hands and his mouth. He lowered it back to the marble island and cocked his head.
Temari snatched a bag of dried fruit from a shelf and clicked the light off, shutting the door behind her. “What, did you think blondie came to rescue you on his own? Kimimaro wasn’t going to let go just because of your bloodline.”
She had been the one that shot Kimimaro? His eyes widened a fraction of an inch and he tapped his fingers into his bread, leaving indents. “You…”
“Yeah,” she called over a mouthful of banana chips. “You’re welcome.”
Sasuke was silenced for a few moments, both by awe and holding back a sarcastic comment that Temari was blonde as well. She had literally saved his life, and anyone who did that would never be able to receive thanks efficient enough to cover the miles of gratitude.
So he swallowed roughly and settled for a, “Nice aim.”
She didn’t reply and swiftly walked out of the kitchen, munching on her fruit. Damn, he was so fucking awkward – if he ever wanted to get remotely close in a relationship with Naruto, he’d have to work on that. The other had commented so much on his “sucky” communication skills and now he had finally seen just how sucky they were.
Sasuke leant against the island again and took a large bite out of his sandwich, chewing quietly and staring at a crack in the tile on the ground. He wondered what wing Naruto’s room was in, and whether or not he was sleeping soundly. He guessed that now the other didn’t have Sasuke’s cold feet to complain about, he would be quite literally sleeping like a baby.
Then he realized just how quiet it was without the girl’s constant chatter and the occasional intimidating bellow from Sakura or Ino. Karin always seemed to be bouncing her leg, tapping her fingers, or humming a mindless song while Juugo stared at birds or took long walks. Kakashi’s presence in the room always brought on some sort of mischievous activity, multiplied by ten whenever his “rival” Gai burst in. Along with Gai was dragged Tsunade and Jiraiya, always bickering at a perverted comment the older man had made, accompanied by the occasional (and quite painful) looking punch to Jiraiya’s head. In the background, Lee would cheer his mentor on alongside Shino’s quiet existence and some sort of challenge from Kiba with a yip from Akamaru to back his master up. In the background was himself, observing alongside the enthusiastic flow of commentary from Naruto and the periodic complaint of Shikamaru who would be woken up by that same commentary. Next to him was Ino tugging at his ear and nagging for him to wake up, we have work to do, why do you never listen to me, and Chouji bemusedly chewing on a bag of potato chips he had gotten from Kami knows where.
Sasuke’s chews slowed as he accidentally pictured Itachi’s solitude right behind him, stoic as ever and a long ponytail spilling over his shoulder. Holding the food in his mouth as a sour taste suddenly came upon it, he closed his eyes and the picture of Itachi faded away, instead focusing on the ridiculous and intrusive insults from Sai the damn pervert in his mind.
Altogether, he wasn’t so sure that Temari was prepared for the group that she had just welcomed into her camp. They were a hefty and rowdy one, though they worked together well enough.
He finished his sandwich and dusted his hands over a sink filled with various pots and pans. Now, he hoped that he would be able to take at least a nap; he would explore a bit more, and once he tired out, he’d return to his room.
Sasuke cleaned up after himself and quietly opened the rickety swivel door to the kitchen, tapping the light off and slipping out. A few blue lanterns lining the wall allowed a dull glow to let him see where he was walking, and another small red blink from what looked like a small security camera in the corner of the large room. Oddly, he didn’t feel watched.
Sasuke turned to another door and eyed the turning handle, unlocking it and peering inside. A low rumble filled the area and a few washers and dryers were stacked on top of each other, a single dryer struggling to tumble a large blanket inside. The owner of the blanket laid sprawled out on a utility cart in the corner of the room, snoring loudly with a hand on his chest. He glanced around the unkempt room, glad that he hadn’t stepped inside and slipped on a piece of blank paper littering the ground. Multiple utility carts and shelves lined the walls, along with wooden cartons and a few buckets of spilled paint and detergent. Several sinks lined the wall, large and permanently stained brown with paint. It seemed like a room stuck between the label of junk and wash, humid and heavily scented of artificial flowers. He nearly sneezed from the aroma of freshly chopped wood and the laundry detergent on the floor, immediately backing out of the room and shutting the door. Sasuke would only ever go inside that room when he needed to.
He strolled to the next door, the rumble of a dryer fading behind him. A quick glance was all it took for him to turn around; the door was metal and secured with a card scanner, a pale azure falling from the small screen and lost into the darkness.
Sasuke tucked his hands into his pockets and trudged to the center of the room to get back to the elevator. He wished that it was a normal time to be awake so he could exhaust himself in the conversations of others, most favorably Naruto’s. Not a single soul was awake, besides Temari’s enigmatic appearance and the sleaze back in the utility room. He yanked the lever and the elevator softly creaked, barely shuddering to a start and carrying him to the lower level.
He stepped off and headed towards his wing, jiggling the key inside his pocket. Sasuke guessed he felt tired enough, and that maybe it would take him under an hour to fall asleep before being pledged by nightmares and cold sweats. He was used to it, but he no longer had his mother to shuffle in his room late at night and hurriedly click his solar system lamp on and kiss his forehead to remind him that monsters didn’t exist, and no, his brother wasn’t one.
Ten years and he could still remember being just over three feet tall and fifty pounds, could still remember how much he hated cookies with milk and the odd looks Itachi would give him for that. Mikoto’s weight sinking into his bed late at night was still fresh in his mind as she tucked his hair behind his ear and assured him that nothing would hurt him. Sometimes even Fugaku would come out, taking pity on his son haunted by inexplicable night terrors, and read him one of the little adventure stories he kept on his bedside table. Sasuke’s stubby fingers would finally stop clenching his pillowcase so tightly and he would simply rest his hand by his chest, inspecting the subtle wrinkles in his overtaxed father’s face as he pushed up his reading glasses to read Sasuke the next short sentence.
It was all calming enough, he thought, and he hoped that he’d never forget. Sasuke brushed the ones from the military academy away and focused on the time that he had pretended to hate Mikoto using his fingers as a guide for knots when Christmas or birthdays rolled around.
He quietly pushed the door open to his room, quickly shutting off the light. He shuffled towards his bed, taking his sweet time to push both of his long legs under the covers and tug them up to his chest.
Maybe sharing these memories with Naruto would help him remember, because the only thing he could recall was red hair and the story Sakura had laid out for him. If the other had nights like Sasuke, where he would roam around the building and eat out of boredom and restlessness, then he deserved to dwell on the positivity that once filled his life. Naruto deserved a family, and Sasuke would never be able to live up to that.
He rolled over and shut his eyes, grateful for the cotton around his body and under his head.
----------------------------------------------
The whole right side of Naruto’s body hung off his bed, his fingers twitching as he dreamt of chasing after chickens and cows. In the dream, he had been with Shikamaru and Kiba, but they had both either given up and fallen on their back to watch the clouds pass by (cough, Shikamaru) or tripped on a rock and hit their head so hard they passed out. So Naruto kept on chasing a huge black and white cow with a pink bow tied to its tail, mooing loudly and glaring at him over its meaty shoulder.
On top of the cow’s back was a fluffy young hen, squawking whenever he managed to get an arrow whizzing a feather’s width away from his head. It tilted its head at quick and odd angles, stamping on the cow’s back or attempting to intimidate the blond by ruffling its feathers up. They were running through an endless field of soft green grass, and for some strange reason, Naruto was naked again. Of course he could have a bow and arrow in this dream, but he was always naked.
The cow heaved and kicked dirt into his face, mooing loudly when the hen flew high off its back and flapped its wings. Naruto made an immediate dive onto the ground to catch it, narrowly missing being pummeled by the cow’s hooves as it ran away from them. The hen landed in his hands, its claws painfully digging into his palms and its feathers ruffling, but-
“The hell are you looking at, dumbass?”
He screamed and tossed Sasuke’s head out of his hands, scrambling to his feet and struggling to catch him again. He looked traditionally angry and ready to chew Naruto out for making him airborne for a few moments, scowling at the blond.
“What the fuck are you waiting for?” Sasuke snapped and his floating head tilted in Naruto’s tan hands. “You better-“
“Open up!”
Naruto sat upright in his bed, falling onto the floor in a heavy tangle of sheets and limbs. His pillow fell right on top of his head as he struggled to wake up and process the loud banging on his room door, spreading his hands wide on the floor and pushing himself up. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes, his vision blurry and his shirt twisted around his chest as a muffled female voice leaked into his room.
Naruto shoved the sheets off of himself and stood up, eyeing the door and its shaking under her fist. He swallowed heavily and carefully approached the door, raising his left hand in front of his face to protect himself should the door splinter under force and gouge his eyes out.
“Naruto!”
Kami help him, she sounded like a demon! He stared at the shaking doorknob and finally leant forward to open the door wide, shielding himself partially with the door and blinking heavily.
“Sak’ra? What’re y-“
“Do you understand this?” she waved her fist in front of his chest, peering up into his eyes with a genuinely terrified look marring her face. “Do you understand what they’ve-“
“Wait, wait,” Naruto held up both of his hands. His mind was too slow to take all of this, and hey, it was early in the morning, his clock said. Sakura’s hair was ruffled out of its short ponytail and she was already dressed in her bodysuit and looking ready to kill with the takeout box in her hand. “What the hell is going on?”
“What, you just woke up?” she growled. “It’s eleven, Naruto! Why the hell are you still sleeping? You missed break-“
His face fell and his shoulders slumped, regardless of the bulging vein in the middle of Sakura’s forehead. Damn, he really should have set his alarm. “I did? I missed… breakfast?”
But Sakura only took part of the puppy face as bait, losing the menace in her glare and standing down, her expression calming. She crossed her arms and he could practically read her mind, knowing that she knew she had overreacted a little bit. “Yeah. But I saved you pancakes and a biscuit.” She placed the Styrofoam box on his table, a packet of plastic utensils and mini bowls of jam and butter on top.
Naruto smiled and inched towards his breakfast, doing his best to look as best as he could with wild bed hair and wrinkled pajamas with a nearly overturned mattress behind him. “Thank you, Sa-ku-ra,” he cooed.
“Oh, just eat,” she sighed and simpered as he grinned to himself, seating herself next to him at his desk. He popped open the lid to the box, the sweet aroma of pancakes filling his nostrils. Naruto hadn’t had pancakes in years – just the smell of them made him salivate, reaching for a packet of syrup to drown them in.
Naruto glanced at Sakura as she sighed and rested her head on her hand next to him, finishing up his first syrup packet as the last of it dribbled on the edge of a pancake. “What’s got you so angry this morning?”
“Sorry about that…” she said sheepishly and tugged at a strand of her bangs, wrapping an arm around her stomach. “You must’ve gotten back here late last night, so you probably haven’t noticed.”
He scrunched his nose and poked squares out of his pancakes, stabbing his fork into the fluffy layers. “I guess I did. What is it?”
Sakura sighed. “There’s only about six people in this wing of the building, and five of them are men. I watched through my door.”
“You’re the only girl here?” he queried over a mouthful of pancakes.
“Yes,” she groaned and rested the side of her face on the table. “I asked that guy who gave us the keys why I was put with the guys, but he said it didn’t matter where we roomed. I asked him to let me speak to Temari-“
Naruto scoffed and rolled his eyes. “You mean threatened to beat the shit outta him-“
“Shut the hell up, Uzumaki,” she growled. “but, of course, she’s busy, and won’t schedule a meeting with anyone other than her guards and spies.”
He paused and swallowed his mouthful, sticking his fork in his mouth to lick the syrup off of it. “Maybe you should see if there’s a guy in another wing that’ll switch with you.”
“I think I’ll look into that,” she said, drawing an invisible pattern on her hand. “But I want to take a shower.”
Naruto looked around and tossed the box into a trashcan next to the table, picking his biscuit into little pieces. “I can see where this is going,” he sang.
“Just stand around and make sure nobody goes in my stall, okay?”
“-and I see what you did,” he continued. “You bribed me with breakfast so I could be your watchman.”
She sighed. “Quick as ever, Naruto. Wipe the drool off your face and just go with it.”
Naruto quickly slapped his palms over either side of his mouth, dragging them together to rid himself of the dried drool on the left side of his face. She laughed and stood up, wiping the crumbs off of the desk and onto the floor.
“Hey!” he snapped, holding the door for himself open behind her.
“It’s not like you would have done any better,” she teased, taking a right to the end of the hall. Sakura lived just a few doors down from him, and allowed him to see her identical room before shooing him to the shower room.
Naruto grunted and trudged to the bathroom, pushing the door open and glancing around. He hadn’t taken a shower either, but it seemed all the more tempting with decent and private stalls. If the leftover steam in the room wasn’t an indicator that there was hot water, he thought as he motioned for Sakura to come inside, he’d be tickled pink.
“How on earth can you stand to be so dirty?” she scolded and shut herself inside a stall.
Naruto frowned. “I was too tired to take a shower last night,” he insisted.
“And so help me if you don’t take one right after I’m done,” she called over the spray of her shower.
He ignored her jabs and made quick use of one of the urinals in the corner of the room, hoping that the flush wouldn’t have Sakura screeching at him. He patiently waited for her to finish up by sitting on a sink, staring at a few uniforms hanging on the wall, putting his feet in front of each other one by one along the wall…
“Hey, you’ve been in there for over thirty minutes!” he yelled. “You’re gonna use up all the hot water in the whole damn building!”
“Shut up,” she called back. “I need to pamper myself.”
Naruto scowled. He wasn’t sure what pampering meant, but he damned sure didn’t like the sound of it, and if it was taking this long, then he definitely didn’t like it. He leant against the wall and poked through the long cabinet above the sink. The men that lived in this wing had organized their belongings inside – anything from shaving cream, gross used ravers, and an extra pair of underwear. He eyed a pair of scissors and turned as Sakura shut off her water and her towel disappeared from the shower curtain.
Well, his hair had certainly gotten a lot longer. Some of his bangs poked him in the eye and went inside his ear, the hair on top of his head beginning to curl a bit at the ends and looking weighed down. He didn’t trust himself to put a pair of scissors anywhere near his body.
“Sakura, will you cut my hair?” he asked, opening and closing the blades between his fingers.
She hummed, opening her shower curtain and emerging with a towel on top of her head and the same bodysuit she had been wearing before. “But Tsunade always cut it for you in the past.”
Naruto could see his blurry reflection on the left blade. He was nothing but a tan and blond blur on the metal. “I wanna change it up.”
“Okay,” she shrugged and rubbed the towel on top of her head.
He placed the scissors on the edge of the sink and grabbed a clean towel from the shelf by the door, throwing it over his shoulder and slinking into a stall next to the one Sakura had used. There was generic shampoo, conditioner, and body wash in a grove on the cement wall. He stripped and threw his clothes over the wall, tugging the water to hot and standing away from the stream as it heated up.
Truth be told, he probably should have taken a shower last night. He was sore and still pretty cut up, but the small areas all over his body Tsunade had disinfected had made him feel clean enough. Naruto stuck his hand into the stream, stepping under the hot water and tilting his head back to let it run over his chest.
Finally, he thought, a night that had ended well. He was finally somewhere he could get a full night’s sleep, wake up to three full meals a day, and end it with a hot shower. Naruto wondered how he would ever thank Temari for letting them join forces. He flipped open the cap of a shampoo bottle and poured it straight onto his head, setting it to the side and roughly working his fingers into his tangled locks. His hair felt heavy on his head, ruthless suds threatening to fall into his eyes and burn his irises.
Sakura hummed somewhere deeper in the locker room, audibly brushing out the tangles in her hair. Naruto washed the thick soap out of his hair, the dense clumps of water hitting the shower tiles with loud slaps. He was tempted to whip his hair forward and make himself a mohawk, but better judgment filled him and he simply washed down the rest of his body with a cloth. Whoever owned the body wash had an overly masculine sense of smell; the odor of the gel reminded Naruto of gasoline and wood. He supposed such luxuries here were taken advantage of, though, and he’d eventually have to run out and loot his own essentials.
The door to the room swung open. Sakura must have left, he concluded, too impatient to wait for him. Geez, and he waited almost an hour for her just because she wanted to get all pretty! And who for, anyway? Sasuke said it was redundant to-
Naruto nearly gasped as he saw the real meaning of the situation, his eyes wide as he held a ball of foam in both of his hands. Him! She was getting ready for him! He smothered soap into his stomach. He would have to stop her from making any advances, but now he was cornered, in a shower, naked behind a curtain-
The locker room door swung open quietly again and he pressed himself against the same wall the shower head hung from. Sakura was a master of stealth and was nothing less than intelligent - she had probably planned this moment out for years.
Naruto hissed as a figure was barely decipherable through the opaque shower curtain, pressing himself into the cold shower corner and covering his dick with a shower cloth. Never did he think a moment like this would ever come, one in which he would be tracked like game and violated-
Sakura’s dainty hand appeared over the curtain rail and a plastic package hit him square in the face. In a few minutes, he would deny that the sound he had made wasn’t a squeak but a manly gasp of surprise. It loudly slid off of his face and against his chest before hitting the floor.
“I think we’re all supposed to be wearing it,” she called, moving away from the curtain and towards the counter. “It’s pretty comfortable.”
Naruto bent over and picked up the package. He wasn’t surprised to see that it was the jumpsuit everyone in this place sported. It was heavy in his hands, reminding him of the tights Lee strutted around in all the time. The blond rinsed off once more and shut off the water, tossing the package to the top of the wall lining the stalls. He made quick work of drying himself off, glancing towards the curtain every few moments. Naruto grabbed the jumpsuit off the wall and quickly unwrapped it, letting the plastic fall to the floor and the suit unfold in front of him. It seemed harmless, made out of thick, thermal, and waterproof material.
He squinted his eyes at it, expecting it to start moving on its own or suck him into a vortex of another dimension. It had no zipper, so he stretched the neck of the suit. Substantially stretchy, he noted, cautiously stepping into it. Because his skin was freshly warm, it dragged along his thigh as he yanked it up before jamming his other foot inside and struggling to stand. He leant away from the wall and snaked his left arm into its respective hole. The material rolled on his back as he dragged it higher and higher and finally, he was able to smooth out the single roll along his neckline.
Naruto frowned. Wow. Was he supposed to wear underwear with this? If he was supposed to, then oh well, and if he wasn’t, he appreciated that. It densely covered any provocative dips in his body and held everything together comfortably. Now it felt like he was wearing almost nothing, able to move freely. No wonder Rock Lee and Gai seemed to favor these things so much.
He pushed open the shower curtain and exited, dragging his towel behind him. Sakura sighed from her stool in front of the sinks, shaking her head at her friend’s antics. Naruto wrapped the towel around his shoulders and neck, trudging towards her. She raised her hand and clipped the scissors in his face, moving out of his way so that he could take a seat in the stool.
Seeing her in the jumpsuit made Naruto a bit nostalgic. Now she had evolved from the skinny ribbon-wearing pal he’d share animal crackers with in daycare to some woman with subtle curves and a mature face. He knew her as Stop Stealing My Apple Juice Sakura, not Puberty Has Done Me Well Sakura.
“Okay,” Sakura said, pumping the stool so that the back of his head was level with her chest. Naruto could only see his eyes in the mirror now, widening them at Sakura. His hair was a golden and shaggy mop atop his head. “Oh, Kami…” she sighed.
He grinned, knocking his ankles against each other. He closed his eyes as Sakura raked her hand through his hair, gently massaging his scalp and combing out some large knots.
“What is this bush you call hair?” she joked, grabbing a brush off the counter and tugging it through his hair.
“I think that it’s beautiful.”
He watched Sakura smile through the mirror. She finished brushing his hair and caught his eyes in their reflection, once again raising her scissors and snapping the blades against each other. She picked up a lock of hair on the top of his head. “And you just want a trim, right? Want me to cut it like Sasuke’s?”
Naruto gasped dramatically. “No!”
His chuckles and Sakura’s giggles echoed throughout the locker room. Smiling, she trimmed about an inch off the lock of hair and twirled it in her fingers for him to behold. She dropped it on the towel and quickly got to work, diligently cutting his hair at a slightly sharp angle so it wouldn’t be choppy.
Naruto watched his own hair fall to his shoulders out of the corner of his eye. He picked up a chunk of some, running his fingers over it and parting it to toss it in the sink. Blond, blond, blond showered the towel and he realized just how much hair he had.
“Sergeant Suna said that we’d each have a few days off,” Sakura said, her hand tickling the back of his neck. “Then she’d put us in conditioning.”
He sighed. “At least we’re doing something now. We’re being productive… it’s a lot better than what Kabuto tried to propose.”
Sakura paused, snipping away the long hairs above his left ear. “I know,” she murmured. “I don’t think I should say this, but… it’s kind of a pity. I know they’re all good as dead on their own.”
Naruto pursed his lips. “Maybe they made it to wherever he took them.”
She shook her head and sighed. “Our friends walked away, just like that…” she tugged a bit too roughly on a sensitive patch of hair and he felt the cold metal brush against his ear. “And Neji took Hinata with him. She didn’t do anything to deserve that.”
“I can see why he did. Neji was an ass, but he always protected Hinata…”
Despite the cold feeling their rogue friends brought upon them, their memories were brighter. “I wish I could have family like that,” Sakura said wistfully, turning him in the stool so she could work on his bangs.
He said nothing, letting her words hang in the warm air. Family… the closest family he had was the members of their former camp. Family was something he hadn’t known in over ten years, stolen from him by a Sector. Sakura, Ino, Tenten, and Karin all felt like sisters to him, Tsunade and Jiraiya being godparent figures to him and Kakashi and Gai being the creepy uncles in his extended family. Itachi… Itachi had been a lurking guardian to him, somehow guiding him into his bit of an unrequited love. Naruto glanced into the mirror. She had leant down to fiddle with a stubborn piece of hair on his temple, her pale green eyes pensive and attentive.
“I feel bad for Sasuke,” she whispered. “He doesn’t look to be taking it well at all.”
“He is,” Naruto assured. “He’s just really tired. Did you see him at breakfast?”
“Yes. But one of his wing mates must have woken him up since he didn’t look too enthusiastic about being there. You need to wake up earlier so you can be with him.”
He pursed his lips. “Is he really doing that bad? Will you wake me up if I’m not already awake for breakfast?”
“Maybe, maybe not - and I’ll try. You sleep like the dead.”
Naruto pressed his fingers together as Sakura ruffled out his shorter hair, setting her palm on the stool so she could have an all-around view of his scalp. She turned him so that they were facing each other, hovering above him to finger his bangs. Sakura messed with the pieces of hair framing either side of his face, glancing back and forth between them to ensure that they were even. She stepped back to inspect Naruto even further, rushing forward to chop away at the hairs atop his head. He stared at her thin waist and the ribs barely protruding from her (not very ample) chest. Sakura smelled of some flowery body wash that kind of made his nose itch.
She stepped back and studied him again, fluffing his hair with both of her hands and offering Naruto a small smile. “You look like your dad.”
He grinned and nearly overturned the stool to stare at himself in the mirror. His hair was no longer some shame of an overgrown plant, now returned to its characteristic spikes that didn’t fall into his eyes or tickle his ears.
“Thanks, Sakura!” He grabbed her by the shoulders, startling Sakura and attempting to twirl her around in between her attempts to sock him in the gut.
Regardless, she burst into a fit of light giggles. Naruto did his best not to hurt her and to dodge her killer punches.
They were interrupted by a colossal growl, eerie in the empty room. Sakura gave him a mighty roll of her eyes and he scratched the back of his neck, sending her a lighthearted grin.
“I haven’t eaten in a while, alright?”
“As if four pancakes and a biscuit would ever hold you up,” she scoffed. “Silly me. You eat enough for three.”
“I am a growing man,” Naruto boasted, holding the door open for her.
Sakura shook her head. “Lunch is around noon. You don’t have to wait for long. Aren’t you glad you owe me a favor now?”
He tilted his head, walking beside her as they passed closed door after closed door. “Actually, I think we’re even now. That was for the time you hit me in the head with a bas-“
“Really, Naruto?” she groused. “We were four. I can’t believe you.”
Naruto laughed and pushed her a bit, crossing his arms behind his head. “Hey, what goes around comes around.”
She rolled her eyes and stepped on the ledge that would take them to the upper level. “I’m only thankful that you even remember that right now.”
Naruto pursed his lips at her hesitancy to address his memories. “They’re coming back little by little… everything - my memories, I mean.”
Sakura hummed. “I see.”
He nodded and crossed his arms behind his back, gently rocking back and forth on his heels. Their heads finally rose above the floor of the next level, the elevator clicking as it aligned with the cement floor. Others roamed around them, nobody short of business-like and just beginning to settle down as they stood around to wait for lunch. Some already carried platters of various foods to flimsy rectangular tables with built in benches. Naruto eyed the meat and patties a woman was carrying around on a tray.
“A lot of us have already started to mingle,” Sakura jolted him from his thoughts and pushed him towards the last tables. “Like the adults went out and introduced themselves to everyone. There’s not too many people here our age, so…”
“I don’t wanna eat while Granny Tsunade tells me to slow down!”
“Everyone tells you to slow down, Naruto.”
He harrumphed and ignored the gazes on the back of his neck from people he didn’t know. Sooner or later, they’d all come to know the great Naruto Uzumaki, whether they liked it or not.
A table filled with all to familiar faces came into his view. It seemed like everyone from his camp had crammed together in one table, an abundance of water bottles sitting in front of each of them. Backs facing Sakura and he, half of Chouji’s butt was hanging off the end of the bench and Lee was practically sitting on his lap, squashed up to Shikamaru whom had never looked so miserable in his life. Ino and Tenten were sitting comfortably together, Ino’s leg folded where an evident space for Sakura was saved in-between her and Kiba, Konohamaru ending that side of the table. Across from them, Juugo took up a vast majority of the bench and squeezed Suigetsu into Karin, who didn’t look all to begrudging to be smushed into Sasuke. His best friend looked nothing short of furious, leaning forward so that his shoulders wouldn’t be poking into Shino’s. At the end of the bench facing him, an empty spot worthy enough of his ass nearly shined in the overhead light; however, Sai looked a bit cheeky to have that spot next to him, and Sakura ran off to be with her friends.
Naruto made a decision within a few seconds. His possible choices were A) to sit next to Sai and possibly be molested/mocked/harassed or all three, or B) of which he had already chosen…
He skirted around the table and made a beeline for Sasuke, using Sasuke’s right shoulder as leverage to squeeze his ass between his and Karin’s hips, smashing all three of their faces together. Naruto grinned, loving the feel of soft skin on his cheeks, feeling pretty damn affectionate. Karin squawked to his right and, in a lame attempt to figure out what had just happened, Sasuke turned his head towards Naruto, effectively squishing their cheeks together again. The blond snickered and greeted his friend, being acknowledged with a simple grunt and a shove.
“There’s this thing called personal space, dumbass,” Sasuke snapped. “Do you understand it?”
“I understand it, all right,” Naruto leered at his friend. “I have just momentarily disregarded it.”
The other scoffed. Before and from a distance, he had looked all to pale and reluctant to even be there, but now, a subtle flush of color returned to Sasuke’s face and the confident glint had returned to his eyes. He noted that Sasuke was still in his pajamas.
Chouji suddenly slammed a long silver platter and a stack of paper plates on the table, filled with foods that made Naruto’s jaw drop. Chicken wings, beef patties, beans, and a bunch of vegetables that he could care less for.
“Don’t let Chouji touch it first!” Ino screeched and dove for the paper plates, hip-bumping Chouji out of the way. “Save yourselves!”
Karin shoved him further into Sasuke to stand up and cram food onto her plate, nearly sending them tumbling onto Shino and Sai. He griped something incoherent to Naruto that was drowned out by his utter lust towards the wonderful food, grasping for a paper plate.
Sasuke growled and pressed equally as roughly against Naruto, their shoulders jabbing each other in the sides as they fought to get food for themselves. The blond cried out when Karin grabbed him by the ear and pushed him back into his seat, his plate overflowing with food and the vegetables Sakura had snuck onto it while he was eyeing the meat.
He chewed with much gusto a few minutes later. There was some food left on the platter, but only enough for about four of them to get seconds. Suigetsu belched loudly an earned a well-aimed punch from Karin along with a few hearty cheers from Kiba and Konohamaru.
Naruto rolled his peas around his plate, wincing at the thought of eating them. He glanced over to Sasuke, who had slowly eaten his food in a counter-clockwise circle like the snob he was. He elbowed the other in the side. “Are you gonna finish that?”
“I’m gonna finish it. Eat your vegetables,” Sasuke chided, nearly poking at a pea with the tip of his fork.
“No!”
“You’re gonna get sick. If you’re really not, at least give me your corn.”
Naruto scowled and pondered if not eating his vegetables would really make him sick. He reluctantly sent his friend a sheepish glance and slowly put a forkful of peas in his mouth, making a sour face as he chewed.
Sasuke snickered and tossed a thin piece of white meat onto his plate.
Suigetsu belched loudly again, this time making the whole table smell like sulfur. Karin continued shouting at him and Shikamaru actually shivered from the smell.
“You piece of fuckin’ shit! Sergeant Suna’s on her way over here and you pull shit like this-“
“She’s on her way over here?” Ino gasped and hit her hand on the table. “Kami, save us!” She picked up her empty paper plate and waved it around.
“What the fuck,” Sasuke grumbled, watching the (somehow rejuvenated) woman clad in a pressed uniform near their table, surprisingly without her watchdogs.
“I think it’s best if you learn your table manners soon, Suigetsu,” Juugo said.
“Hello all,” the woman announced, looking oddly professional with her hair pulled back in four ponytails. “How’s the food?”
They all looked like a deer caught in headlines for a few seconds, trying to decide who would speak up first. Chouji finally took the initiative, raising his chubby fingers in a greeting.
“It’s great. Thank you, Sergeant, for the food.”
“Don’t thank me,” she deadpanned and placed both of her palms flat on the table, frowning once she made eye contact with Sai. “Everything we have is from the Sectors.”
Someone choked on their water.
“Never mind that,” she waved her hand and angled her body away from Sai’s intense gaze. “I guess all of you have a… duty… you need to perform. It’s only protocol to have my new recruits up for forest cleanup.”
“The hell are we picking papers for?” Kiba grimaced.
“Excuse me,” Temari shook her head. “Forest cleanup here is ranging the woods for Katons and scouts, which there are usually a few of. I send my new recruits out there to see how they’re doing. Whoever makes it back, cool, they’ll move on to training within a few days, and whoever doesn’t probably wouldn’t make it here in the first place.”
Her words hung in the air and, once again, nobody said anything. Naruto didn’t dare to move should he attract her attention to him, intimidated enough by her presence.
“So you’ll have forest cleanup tomorrow afternoon. Heal up and do your best,” she pushed off the table. “And good luck.” Temari sent a discreet wink to Sasuke.
“Already?” Naruto whined. He brushed his hands together, crumbs falling onto his plate. He followed what everyone else had done and put their empty plates in a pile inside the platter, polishing off his water bottle and tossing it in there as well. The blond was just about to stretch out and rest his head in his arms when Sasuke stood and turned to leave.
Naruto stood as well, almost kicking Karin in the side as he did so. “That was some good food, right?”
“It was,” Sasuke said simply, tilting his chin down.
“That reminds me,” Naruto kicked his heels on the floor as he walked next to Sasuke towards the elevator. “What wing are you in? Where’s your room?”
The other sighed heavily, figuring Naruto wouldn’t stop bugging him until the day ended. “You’ll see. I want to sleep, Naruto, so if you’re planning to mess around, just go play a game of cards with Kakashi or something.”
“I promise I’ll be quiet,” he whispered as they stepped on the elevator, a polite distance away from another adult. “The only person I know in my wing is Sakura and she wants to have girl time all the time. Save me?”
“I think you’ll do just fine,” Sasuke deadpanned, eyeing just how large the population of this camp was as the ledge went higher and higher.
“Just lemme stay over sometime. I don’t think I can handle waking up as early as she does. Please?” Naruto bent his knees to tilt his head up at Sasuke, trying to look as desperate as he could without crossing the line of constipated.
The elevator jerked to a stop at the lowest level, spray painted letters lining the walls. “Fine,” Sasuke sighed.
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Sector Five