Conjoined
This chapter was beta’d by Loveless Romantic 6.
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Chapter 1- Conjoined
They hated each other. There was no other way to describe the two of them. They were both neighbours who had very few and very brief interactions with each other through the past three years. However, one meeting was all they needed to decide that they wouldn't get along and would never see each other again unless it was absolutely necessary.
Until now.
In front of Naruto was her apartment. Everything looked to be in order; the clothes she'd scattered all over the floor were still there and her kitchen was as clean as always. However, there were two things wrong with her room and that was the giant gaping hole in the wall and the man laying down on his sofa.
If she didn't have a headache, she'd complain but in the back of her head she remembered receiving a notice from her landlord and landlady stating something like this would happen. Yes, a notice; no agreement papers, no warnings, just a notice.
"Um, Hello?" Naruto said as she poked the man on her sofa. "You know this is my sofa, which is in my home, right dude?"
No movement, no twitch, no sound from the man on her sofa.
Correction, there was a dead man on her sofa. 'Now, how to dispose of my dead neighbour without anyone noticing? Surely people would notice! The landlady and landlord for starters, so maybe if I-,'
"Oh, Naruto, you're home." The voice of her landlord, and godfather, interrupted her train of thought.
She gave a groan. "There's a hole in my wall," she whined whilst pointing to the practically non-existent wall. 'How the hell did they manage to get rid of my wall whilst I was gone for work?'
"I know we didn't get your permission for this, but it's only for two months... maybe three, max. Since, ya' know, the idiot person on the floor below broke some pipes that were on his ceiling and now we've gotten rid of your wall. Don't worry, we'll cut yours and his rent by half 'til we can get this all fixed." Jiraiya explained calmly.
"Okay the wall I can deal with, no problem, for now anyway. Why the hell is my neighbour's corpse on my sofa?" she said whilst pointing to her neighbour on her sofa. His black hair covering most of his pale face as he slept peacefully.
"Well, he will be staying here until we can fix the problem in his apartment, but we also need to fix the problem in yours so… you can use the water in his apartment whilst he sleeps in yours."
That headache of hers was making itself known again.
Just what she needed after finishing from work.
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Sasuke didn't like change. He liked every day to be predictable, the same as the previous. Some called him paranoid, others meticulous and one person called him a stick in the mud, not that he ever paid mind to what people called him.
So one could imagine his surprise when he woke up with a numb leg and a lump of blonde hair in his face.
He didn't recall falling asleep in a bed that was for sure. In fact, he distinctly remembers falling asleep on his neighbour's sofa.
Slowly he got out of bed, as to not wake his sleeping neighbour. He assumed the blonde had put him on the bed to make him feel more comfortable.
He looked out the window. It looked to be about 6 am. Taking his phone out of his pocket to check the time he cursed seeing it. 6:23 am. Making it 28 minutes after his usual wake up time. What an excellent way to start the day.
Walking out of the bedroom, he walked through the 'wall' into his apartment. Thank god, they chose to demolish the smallest wall in the apartment.
He noticed that the floor was still dusty and debris was scattered across the floor and other places. One place he noticed more than the rest. His chair. The exact same chair his neighbour had, but in a different colour. That fact annoyed him for some reason. Probably because he couldn't stand his neighbour.
Sasuke carried on, walking through his apartment noticing more and more debris that would have to be cleaned when he came from work later on. He took a quick shower remembering what Tsunade had said yesterday. His neighbours' water pipes were blown and that his own gas was turned off.
Which meant that they had to use each other's apartments. That he had to hide all of his babies. Oh, how excellent this day was turning out to be.
Little did he know, that his day wouldn't be improving any time soon.
After all, luck hardly ever knocks on the same door twice.
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After living next door to each other for three years, Naruto has memorized her neighbour's movements.
The sound of his footprints, of him getting ready for work, taking a shower, eating one of his vegetables for breakfast, packing his bag and locking his door as he left. These noises are what kept her calm, knowing her neighbour was awake and, ideally, would be the first target of anyone that comes to rob them. However, every so often her neighbour would change things up and mess with her brain, as if he enjoyed mentally torturing the blonde.
That calm was broken today, as she noticed something. Her neighbour hadn't locked his door today. Which would mean she would have to go and lock it since the neighbour's apartment was currently her apartment with the lack of a wall. Meaning anyone trying to break in would try to kill her.
Key word; try.
Sighing heavily, she got up and looked at the time. 7:43 am. How odd. Her neighbour left 13 minutes late today. It made her happy knowing that it'd annoy her neighbour to no ends being late for work.
Naruto's job ensured that she worked by night and sleeps by day. To everyone else that she didn't work with, she was a security guard to a CEO who liked to party at night.
She locked the door, went back to bed and fell back to sleep. She woke up after what felt like 10 minutes later, but looking at the clock next to her bed, it was actually 3 hours later.
Getting out of bed, she grabbed an apple to eat and took out her blades. Ever since she was little she had a habit of polishing and sharpening her weapons. She always preferred using close combat weapons and her fists if necessary. She does, of course, have a few guns, but she had bad aim from far distances and since she was a night worker, guns were ineffective unless you had brilliant eye sight, which in one eye, she did not.
She then looked at the 'hole in the wall', if it could be called that. That accursed wall meant she had to hide all of her weapons. With her not having any water and the neighbour not having any gas, it meant they would be seeing a lot more of each other than she wanted.
She wondered what her neighbour worked as exactly. He always left early in the morning with a suit on and a brief case, so she always assumed he worked in an office. Then again, everyone thought she worked as a guard, when in fact she didn't.
In any event, she didn't care and didn't want to care. As long as it didn't affect her work ethic, she wouldn't let it get to her.
It was annoying enough that she had to be careful about her neighbour finding out about her job on a normal day with all walls intact, but now without a wall, that'll make things difficult.
Very difficult.
Fantastic.
Absolutely fucking fantastic.
Well, this'll prove to be a very interesting task. All she had to do was treat this as a mission and she would see it out to the bitter end.
Well, she could do that after she had slept some more.
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What does Sasuke hate more than his schedule being messed up?
Incompetency.
And in this company incompetency was happening very often. After all, this event was the second time this month he, a sniper, had to fight hand-to-hand with a man who broke past his groups' defences. If they had brains, or even eyes, they would have noticed the bulking man pass them.
But they hadn't and that was the reason why he had a very noticeable spot of blood. A large red dot of blood on his crisp white shirt.
"I'm telling you right now. No ordinary human being would be able to notice that little speck of blood on your shirt, Sasuke," said Sasuke's older brother, who was five years his senior.
"It is a very noticeable mark, Itachi. I think you need to get your eyes examined."
"I'm praised for my eyes, foolish little brother." Itachi sighed. This day keeps getting more and more difficult. Making sure his brother was safe at all times is a hard job and he really didn't like it when his brother get annoyed. It annoyed Itachi even more. "Just go home now. You've only got five minutes left. Enough time to pack up your remaining things and go home." After bidding his little brother good bye he went on his way.
Sasuke sighed. Itachi just didn't understand. It usually wouldn't bother him if he had a little speck on his shirt because he could just hide it under his suit jacket. But what about when he gets home? His neighbour was sure to notice and question it.
If there's anything Sasuke knew about his neighbour, it was that she was a very open loud-mouthed person that'd blurt out anything that came to her head and never gives up until she gets an answer she's happy with.
The number of times he's eavesdropped on his neighbour's conversations was too many to count, but he knew another thing for sure. The old saying 'curiosity killed the cat' did not apply to him.
Soon, Sasuke found himself out of the building and in the lobby of his apartment complex. As he entered the elevator, he went through his bag to look for his keys and cursed when they weren't there.
He definitely didn't leave them at work. He never takes his keys out of his bag. Never.
That meant he left them in his apartment.
How was he supposed to get inside if-?
He stopped his train of thought when he remembered he could knock on the neighbour's door and waltz right into his own. But that would mean he would have to see his neighbour.
This day just kept getting worse.
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Naruto was in the middle of tidying up some of the debris in her room when the doorbell rang.
She looked up at it and wondered who it could possibly be; she wasn't expecting anyone. Then, she remembered her neighbour forgot his keys today. Still, she put a hand in her back pocket where she kept her kukri knife.
She unlatched the three locks and opened the door and upon seeing her neighbour, she retreated her hand from her pocket, leaning against the door frame, smirking. "Forgot your keys? That's very unlike you."
Sasuke just walked past her into the apartment heading into his apartment, "Yesterday was pandemonium, I'm excused for forgetting them."
"Keep telling yourself that, pretty boy."
"Did you honestly just call me that?" asked Sasuke as he took off his shoes and hung his jacket.
"Yes, I did. And by the way I used your shower earlier since my water isn't working."
Sasuke froze turning around slowly to face Naruto with an expressionless face, "In other words, you trespassed."
"Um, no. Because that wall-" she pointed to the missing wall, "-is practically non-existent making our two large apartments, one huge conjoined apartment."
"I should at least hope you didn't use my things." He replied glaring at poor blonde.
"No, I just put my things in your bathroom. Don't worry, I brought my hamper there as well, so our clothes and towels won't be getting mixed." Putting her hand up to prove her innocence.
"Oh, sure. Make yourself at home. You may as well move into my apartment whilst you're at it." He replied sarcastically.
Naruto scoffed, "There's no need to be sarcastic. It's not like I enjoyed going into your apartment to take a shower. Anyway! It's hardly my fault I don't have any water!"
"Hn." He made his way to the hole in order to go to his side of the apartment when she spoke up.
"By the way, I swear you've got a vicious cat or something in your apartment. I went in earlier and something black and white scratched my left leg. Then, when I came out I heard growling." She winced at the memory. The damn animal took her by surprise.
"That would be my cat. Are you trying to call her vicious?"
"Hey, I'm just sayin' what I saw and felt. Not even my fox is that unfriendly." She replied pulling her left trouser up slightly to show her bandage.
In response, Sasuke just shrugged and went back into his apartment.
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What was the first thing Sasuke did when he went into his apartment?
He checked to see if his neighbour had gone through any of his things, after all, any assassin has lots of weapons in their rooms and he was no exception.
He noticed not a thing was out of place and just as his neighbour had said, she had brought her shampoo and shower gel as well as her hamper into the bathroom. Checking to see if his neighbour had gone through his bottom draw, he let out a sigh of relief when he found that she hadn't.
However, he did notice that something seemed off in the room. Some of his things had been moved, and he didn't think his neighbour would have done so without telling him.
Carrying on around the main areas in his apartment nothing seemed too odd, except a window being fully open. He'd have to ask his neighbour about that later.
Happy that he hadn't found anything overly suspicious, he went into his bedroom, not noting the fact that the door was ajar and proceeded to get ready.
Walking to his bed, he unbuttoned his jacket and removed his tie. He proceeded to unbuttoned his shirt. Once he had taken off his shirt and let it go on the bed he heard a noise.
He looked around to see what it was, but didn't see anything. He then went to his walk-in closet and once he opened the door, he heard a growl.
Despite Sasuke being a day time assassin, he has amazing eye sight in the dark. The only reason he opted for day shift was because he didn't want to see his stupid rival.
Given that fact, he could clearly see the silhouette of an animal crouched down in an attack position. He closed his eyes and when he opened them…
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As Naruto was putting the food on plates she heard something from her neighbour that she had never heard from him before.
A scream.
Sasuke came running in the room in nothing but his trousers and skidded to a halt pointing to the gap in the wall and panted out, "That is- not my- cat!"
"I bloody told you there was something evil in there!" Sasuke jumped back and landed gracefully on the coffee table and took out his handgun as Naruto took out her kukri. Both of them aiming their weapons towards the hole in case anything came out at them to attack them.
They both froze, realizing what it was they had just done. Naruto was the first to put back her weapon as Sasuke jumped off the table and put his gun in back pocket.
"A Kahr CM9." Naruto snickered.
"And a Ka-Bar combat kukri knife is better I presume?" he replied.
"Hell yeah." She paused looking at Sasukes' ankle, "You're bleeding." She stated and nodded towards Sasukes ankle.
Sasuke looked at his ankle with a confused look about his face when he realized how he must have gotten it, "Must have scraped it whilst I running in here." He said as he walked over to Naruto's bookshelf and opened the bottom cabinet, taking out the first aid kit like he has lived here for years.
"You're still not dressed." Naruto stated as she looked away, her face going slightly red. She noticed, unintentionally, that his neighbour had a great physique. 5'10", six pack and toned muscles all over with not a centimetre of fat anywhere. She noticed that she was staring at her neighbour when she realized they hadn't been formally introduced, "I'm Naruto. Naruto Uzumi."
Whilst he was applying first aid to his bleeding wound, he replied, "Sasuke Uchiage. And once I'm done here I'll go back into my place to get dressed"
"I don't think that'd be a very good idea. After all, there is a fucking vicious thing in your apartment."
All Sasuke did to reply was grunt.
"Well, where're you gonna sleep tonight? Bed or sofa?"
There was a prolonged pause before Sasuke replied, "The sofa since I'm being careful not to wake you when I get out and it's troublesome. Plus, you know… You're a girl."
Naruto hummed in acknowledgement before saying, "Yeah about that… I haven't actually told anyone besides you, Jiraiya, Tsunade, my aunt and my boss that I'm a girl, so if you see me dressed as a guy, don't question it. As for sleeping, just sleep on the bed. You don't have to be careful, I'm a heavy sleeper. Besides, my bed is more comfortable than the sofa and I won't be on the bed today. I finish late in the morning."
In truth, Naruto doesn't have guests over very often, and in her sofa were the a few weapons, just to be safe, however it was always best to keep the target it a closely monitored area, even if she wasn't going to kill him.
Even though her bed had a few weapons in it, it wouldn't be hard for her to just remove them to some-place else temporarily.
Sasuke already knew she dressed as a guy, but didn't know she only told a few people she was a girl. A thought popped up as to how she tucked away such a large chest, but told that thought to go away.
He got up and walked through his apartment with his gun in hand, prepared to shoot the damn thing if he had to. Luckily it hadn't come to that and he managed to get by the rest of the evening without another encounter with the evil cat.
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"Hey Sasuke. Are books really better than movies?"
Sighing he replied, "No movie is ever better than the book." His cat was perched across his lap, one of his hands holding a book whilst the other petted her whereas Narutos' fox was resting round the back of her neck and chest.
"So how would you rate Shadowhunters on a scale of 1-10, in accuracy to the books?" she asked as she petted the foxes head.
"0.5. They failed miserably in making any of it accurate. The book was better than that shit. Now shut up." There was a total of five minutes of silence between the two of them, much to Sasuke's shock, which turned into annoyance as his neighbours mouth opened to speak but he managed to speak first, "Shouldn't you be at work right about now? Won't you be late if you don't leave?" Sasuke asked.
Looking at Sasuke for a moment before looking back at the TV she said, "Usually, but today the manager wanted me in a little later, which would be…" she paused looking at the clock before getting onto her feet and continued, "I need to be gone in half an hour. I'll be in my room if you need anything." With that she went into her bedroom and got ready.
Changing her casual female clothes to something somewhat darker to blend in with the night, she settles for a button-up dark blue t-shirt with a jacket and chose a pair of black trousers. Under the jacket on both forearms were her knife holsters, as was another on her belt, hidden under the jacket. Not forgetting to bind her chest as well.
Once she had changed her clothes, she went for her duffelbag, making sure she had everything she needed for tonight's assassination. She had to pack extra, since tonight she would be working with a different team. And if that didn't make things hard enough, the team she was working with, was from the day shift.
And as the cherry on top, two of them were from Uchihas' team. She swore Inaho sure knew how to get under her skin sometimes.
Inaho Vermillion. The manager of the night shift at her company as well as her very own aunt. She was her late fathers' cousin yet she was only a 5 years her senior.
Once she knew she had everything she got up and left her room. Before leaving the apartment she said, "Don't let me catch you sleeping on the sofa again tonight. Just use the bed." With that she left for work.
And that was how it all started. How the two went from indifferent neighbours to room-mates. There after commenced their abnormal lives together.
But little did they know just how much their lives would change within the next few months.
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THANK-YOU FOR READING!