Living Together
The first time they sparred, they destroyed a new training ground, and the loud noises alerted the ANBU. Sasuke quickly cuffed under chakra-restraining chains despite the displeasure and heavy protests of his team.
When they arrived, the air was thick with a toxic atmosphere so heavy it caused Naruto to sweat even before they arrived at the floor where the Hokage office was situated. Tsunade was furious. She had given Naruto and Sakura permission to watch Sasuke without an ANBU, confident in their ability to keep Sasuke in the village. He stayed alright, but their spar had caused worry to ripple within Konoha.
"You three!" She pointed at them accusingly, "you're driving me up the wall! Why did you fight, huh?! You said you were going to spar! But you leveled an entire training ground! The new one too! DO YOU THINK I HAVE ENOUGH FUNDS TO KEEP REPAIRING BROKEN TRAINING GROUNDS, YOU DAMNED BRATS?!" she raved, yelling her frustrations at them.
Naruto thought she was drunk. Sakura knew her Shishou was misplacing her anger. Shizune most likely ordered her to do her work and got threatened by the disposal of her sake should she deny.
"And you!" Tsunade's finger found Sasuke's face, "what do you have to say for yourself?!"
Sasuke, under the sudden attention of the most powerful woman in Konoha instinctually threw Naruto under the bus, "Naruto goaded us into it."
Naruto did not. It was a spar, as the three agreed, a spar that quickly got out of control after the three understood the skills each achieved over the years of distance. Sakura could topple a mountain with her pinkie, and Naruto could overwhelm him with his clones. Holding back is not something Sasuke could afford.
He hid his smirk when Sakura affirmed his lie, even giving out an edited version of what happened. She was still mad that Naruto had bailed the other day from Ichiraku, saddling her and Sasuke with the bill.
Naruto's "WHAT!? SAKURA-CHAN HOW COULD YOU-- SASUKE YOU BASTARD I CAN SEE YOUR SMIRK--" went ignored, and he and Sakura looked the other way as he pointed and yelled at them.
Sasuke was supposed to be under probation. For a year, he was under orders to assist in Konoha's advancement by doing community services and minor missions, his eyes too valuable to be discarded. Until his probation was over, Sasuke was not allowed to harm anyone in the leaf, even in training. Somehow, Naruto and Sakura convinced Tsunade to exempt both of them from this order. After three months of begging, groveling, and bargaining, Tsunade relented and gave Sasuke two sparring partners. But not before taking advantage of the situation. Naruto was insistent in his annoyance and made Sasuke question if he should stay after all. Sakura being violent on Naruto was the only thing that kept him from breaking his probation, feeling vindicated whenever the sharp "eeeekkkkk" reached his ears as Naruto went flying.
At first, he was hesitant in fighting with the pair, especially with Sakura. She was just so weak the last time he saw her. Frail and so easy to bruise. Just how far could they have gone? Far enough to replace everyone in the village with a clone in the case of Naruto, and far enough to heal an entire village worth of people after she destroyed their home in the case of Sakura. His team grew strong while he was away. He grudgingly found them to be adequate sparring partners, both giving him a chance to hone his different skills.
"Give me a reason why I should pardon Sasuke from this. The council will be annoying to deal with!" Tsunade growled.
Naruto scratched his head, pouting, "uhh... Our... err... Our relationship-- EWW NO--I meant brotherhood! Yeah! Our brotherhood would struggle if we don't... beat each other up... regularly?" Naruto's confidence worn on as he gave his excuse, whipping his head around so fast Sasuke swore he heard his neck snap. And only to pin a burning glare at Sasuke when he murmured, "you idiot," under his breath.
Tsunade's brows twitched, her face resembling a furious dragon.
"YOU'RE DEMOTED TO D-CLASS WORK! YOU TOO, SAKURA!"
Sakura's smug face morphed into a look of horror.
"Shishou! You can't do that!"
"I just did! Out!"
Outside, the three of them stood, Sasuke finally free of his binds. There was a pregnant pause between the three before Naruto opened his stupid mouth.
"On the bright side," Naruto started hesitantly, "we can hang out longer now."
A fist to the face was his answer. Naruto went flying with a sharp "eeeehhhh," crashing violently to the end of the hallway.
"My rent is due next week, dumbass! Where am I going to find money?!"
Naruto's crawled under the wreckage, his bloody face draining of color from Sakura's frustrated yell. "Mine is due in 4 days! Where... Where am I going to live?!" He looked stricken.
And so, the two panicked, getting more and more hysterical the more they conversed with each other, their anxiety being fed by each other faster by the second as they voiced their concerns out loud. Sasuke has no desire to stay and watch the insanity unfold, so he shifted. Which ultimately became his mistake, for he had quickly reminded Naruto of his existence.
"Sasuke has a big house," he voiced faintly, his eyes glinting a manic glaze that had Sasuke flinching.
Naruto looked mad, his hair was a mess, and dark bags missing from his earlier appearance decorating his eyelids.
"Sasuke you lucky bastard! You've found yourself a handsome roommate!"
"No," he was quick to close that possibility. He refuses to live under the same roof as Naruto the slob. Naruto looked offended. "What do you mean no? Sasuke you ass--"
"What am I gonna do?!" Sakura had not heard Naruto and Sasuke's recent squabble, worried as she was.
She was pulling at her pink locks, walking in circles as she worked herself to a frenzy.
"I can't go back to my parents! They believed in me! How could I go back after they thought I could take care of myself—" At this, Naruto's eyes seemed to lose their (lunacy, downright medically alarming) madness, replaced with something Sasuke doesn't like nor care. Within a millisecond, Naruto had his arms draped over Sakura, body leaning close to her. His eyes, however, stayed on Sasuke.
"Hey, here's an idea Sakura-chan! We could live together and split the bill 50-50!"
"...what?"
What indeed. Sasuke raised an eyebrow as Naruto covered his mouth with his hand, and Sasuke realized the two looked awfully like a budding crime scene.
"I mean, you sometimes sleepover at mine when you get out too late at the hospital, and I sometimes crash at yours when I have nothing to do, it's perfect! Less money and we get to be close!” He bent down and conspiratorially whispered, “And we could plan on how to beat Sasuke while we’re at it. What do you think?"
Sasuke’s brows twitched. Sakura became hellbent on beating him in combat now, aggravated when he called her annoying by accident while he was distracted by her new prowess. She had learned a violent skill, witnessed by his two eyes as she threw Naruto around like a ragdoll. He found his predicament in battle annoying. He did not realize he voiced his dissatisfaction until he had a furious Sakura charging at him. Sakura heard him. She did not appreciate it.
Like hell Sasuke’s going to give them a chance to plot.
"Hn. Annoying, you can stay at mine."
"What?"
This is a mistake, he thought. But instead of backtracking, Sasuke grunted, "it's closer to the hospital," stop talking, "you can live with me until you picked yourselves up."
Sasuke regrets his words right after he said it, regrets it even deeper when Naruto whooped, elated. It got ignored, however, when Sakura directed a beaming smile at him.
The first week, Naruto almost got a daily beating from Sakura because of his filth, worried they might be imposing on Sasuke's good graces. Still, she was busy, and she usually was in a hurry because of the demand of the hospital, which means things got left behind, and Naruto wasn't the only one leaving messes in their household anymore.
Sasuke finally felt his house was home instead of a room he lived in. His empty living room became decorated with Naruto's TV and his bean bags with Sakura's white couch. His table, usually empty and clean, was now covered with open scrolls and notes, his bookshelf full of thick medical tomes alongside his family books. His sink holds three toothbrushes, and his bath regularly clogs with pink hair. His laundry consists of a mix of pink, blue and orange garments, and he now has to be careful of his kitchen. If he was not cautious, he would find instant ramen have taken over his cupboard. His fridge was half-full of ramen already, much to his disgust, along with the fruits and vegetables Sakura bought. He did not need a cupboard full of ramen. He found himself cooking for three every day because Naruto only ever learned to turn everything into soup (the only thing he ever learned to make being ramen), and Sakura turned everything into a disgusting healthy blob of black poison only people with dead nerves can consume.
Naturally, having Team 7 (which consists of people with strong personalities) in one house, it was unavoidable for fights to break out. Sasuke and Naruto bickered like brothers, and inevitably their fights almost happen daily. Sakura usually comes home from the hospital disgruntled, which either ends up with her passed out on the couch and Naruto or Sasuke would have to carry her to her room, or it ends with a beaten-up Naruto or a silent war between her and Sasuke.
But in the end, they would patch up. Sakura would leave tomatoes in the fridge or fix Naruto up with an apology. Naruto and Sasuke would spar and let out steam. They easily fell into balance, staying together in one house.
There are times when Sasuke would retreat to his room, irritated and wishing he had his home for his own. But always, the shadows would grow longer, the night would become so silent he would be transported to a body so small running down bloodied halls littered with the bodies of his relatives, heart in his throat as he prayed and pleaded Not my family, please, God, not them. It would take seconds, but to Sasuke, it took an eternity, always.
The room would be suffocating and he would escape from it, hands shaking, expecting to open the door to see his parents sprawled on the floor, bathing in their blood. Itachi, hands trembling would turn to him, tears streaming while his Sharingan spun dizzyingly. Each time, as if Naruto and Sakura had predicted it, one of them would be outside. Sakura who had just recently returned from the hospital would be asleep at the table by her medical books in need of moving to her room, or Naruto slurping down ramen away from Sakura’s furious and disapproving eyes for a midnight snack.
Sasuke, each time, would find his arms to be full of Sakura, her scent a mix of fresh leaves and hospital disinfectant calming him down from his adrenaline. Or he would see himself being dragged down by a frantic Naruto, mouth full of ramen and hands flailing, whispering, “Shh, Sasuke, you asshole are you trying to get me killed?! Quiet down!" And then Naruto would look horrified as he added, "Sakura-chan can’t know, Sasuke! She’ll take my spine, use my bone to pick food in between her teeth, and use my body as carpet!”
He'd look at him incredulously and would shift in the direction of his room to retreat, only for Naruto to scramble after him in panic, and the two would silently wrestle. Naruto's desperate plea of, "please don't tell Sakura-chan I swear she'll kill me! You don't want that in your conscience, do you?! Killed the 6th Hokage before his coronation!" and his "Get off me, dead last!" whispered in between punches and kicks.
Sasuke would calm, silently thankful his team was with him.
The first day Team 7 first sparred was the day Team 7 started living together, and the first day Naruto and Sasuke lived with a family after the tragedies they faced.
It has been a year since the three started to live together, their presence in each other’s life quickly becoming a solid truth. Although Sakura and Naruto have enough money to move out, the idea wasn’t even entertained, because Team 7 living together is a fact that can’t be changed. Just like the fact that Naruto will always eat ramen until his stomach gives out. It is fact. As such, the idea of separating for a year, even for something as important as a mission, sounds ludicrous. Team 7 refuses to be separated, and woe to those that would dare separate them.