Rooftops
Sasuke was not in the best of moods the next day. He received a message sent to all assassins that work with the company that there was another breach of security and everyone had to stay out of work till further notice.
Which meant he couldn’t kill people.
And he would have to be with his neighbour all day and night.
Last night Naruto had decided to stay home, as she should have, but had kept on bugging him throughout the night. One moment she’s fine, watching a show and the next she makes a joke about Sasuke, which in turn makes him snap and Naruto snaps back. That was how the night had gone up until they had to go to sleep.
They had agreed to use the bed as Naruto wouldn’t let him sleep on the sofa and he himself did not want to sleep their either.
‘We’ve been neighbours for years. This should be no problem. We’ve slept together before’, were both of their thoughts.
They couldn’t have been more wrong.
The other times they had shared a bed one had already been unconscious and it was only ever for a few hours.
First Naruto had said she didn’t want to sleep on one of the sides. She had to sleep in the middle. Then Sasuke said that he had to sleep in the middle as well. After over a half hour of arguing about it they both decided to sleep in the middle with their backs to each other.
The night had been peaceful after that.
But the next morning he woke up to find the two of them cuddling. Narutos head on his left shoulder and an arm around himself. Sasukes own arms were enclosed around the female, keeping her in place. Their legs were also tangled around each other.
Then he had to get out of the bed slowly, disentangling himself from Naruto without waking him up.
Fail.
He got out of the embrace yet somehow Naruto got a hold on his arm and started to cuddle it, so he had to get a pillow and replace it with his arm. Once he got out of the bed Naruto had woken up and questioned where he was going so he explained he was going on with usual morning routine to go to work and the other fell back to sleep.
Once he got out of the room he checked his phone and noticed the message stating he was going to be in hell today.
Hopefully the crappy start to the day wouldn’t define the rest of the day as well.
By 8 o’clock he had cleaned the kitchen, taken a shower, gotten dressed, eaten and then realized he had nothing to do. So instead he decided to clean up what little debris was around his side of the apartment.
He had to admit, Naruto had done a great job cleaning considering she hated to do it. There was only a bit of dust and stone here and there on Narutos side and a bit more on Sasukes side.
Well, he couldn’t expect her to clean up his side for him.
So after an hour and half he had finished tidying up and noticed Naruto still wasn’t awake and he still had nothing to do.
Well, there was one thing he could do.
Naruto was awoken to a very loud and very annoying, yet very distinct, sound.
The sound of a gun being reloaded.
Groaning into her pillow and peeking an eye open, she said, “What’s with all the noise? I’m tryin’ to sleep ‘ere.” Sasuke only grunted in response and carried on loading his guns.
Sasuke looked like that child who usually sulks and broods in the corner when no one wants to play with the toy he brought or is currently playing with.
Except, here, the toy would be his guns.
Making him, not only grumpy, but very, very dangerous.
Naruto, having had enough of the noise disturbing her sleep, shot up and glared at Sasuke then yelled, “Sasuke, what the hell?! We have a huge conjoined apartment and yet you choose my room which I am sleeping in to load your guns?!”
“It’s past 8 o’clock, idiot. Way past time for you to be in bed. Up.” Sasuke replied, putting down the gun and going over to her and taking the duvet fully off of the blond.
Naruto got up, glaring at her neighbour slash room-mate. “I was enjoying myself, in case you couldn’t tell.” The reply she got was a simple roll of the eyes as she got out of bed.
“Shut up and stop complaining.” And he sat back down to carry on loading yet another gun. He looked up when he saw Naruto hadn’t moved yet his attention was drawn to the blondes exposed stomach. It had a tattoo he hadn’t seen before.
“Well somebody’s pissed off.” She replied seeing the behaviour of her neighbour changed to sub-zero.
“I am not pissed.” Sasuke replied slowly between each word, not forgetting to glare at his blond neighbour.
“Let me guess.” She said in a sing song voice, “Something came up at work.”
Sasuke paused his gun loading before carrying on and replying, “Something came up and all employees have to stay home.”
“So…” she started, “you’re angry… because you got a day off work…” Naruto decided in that moment that Sasuke Uchiage was a workaholic who had a gun fetish and couldn’t go a day without shooting somebody.
Sasuke looked back at Naruto with an expressionless face and said, “Basically, yes.” Sasuke suddenly got up after having put a few sniping guns in a bag and said, “Come on.” And he started to leave the bedroom.
Naruto quickly got out of bed and followed him out of the room and to the entrance of her apartment and asked, “Where exactly are we going? I just woke up not even five minutes ago.”
“The roof. We own the top floor so we have free access to it.” He replied as he changed his shoes and put on a hoodie.
“Um no we don’t. And what on earth are we going to do on the roof? Wait are you seriously going to walk out carrying your guns like that? In broad day light?” she said as he out on his shoes and locked the door behind them both.
“We own the top floor to ourselves so I don’t see why not.” And they made their way to the end of the corridor where a door opened to a set of stairs leading to the roof. “And in case that tiny ass brain didn’t notice we own the top floor to ourselves. No one will see us.”
“Oh and using guns in the middle of the day, in broad day light isn’t suspicious one bit? And is most defiantly not going to get us caught.” She replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“We’re not using the guns, per say… we’re more… practising with them.”
Naruto blinked, having nothing to say back to that comment.
“You’re wounds don’t seem to be bothering you as much as they were yesterday. That’s some fast heeling you got there.” He said to distract him from what was currently going on through his head. None of it was good.
“Hmm. I usually get right back on my feet in no time anyway.”
Sasuke smirked as they reached the roof, “Well then. Naruto Uzumi, today I shall teach you how to aim properly like a human being and not some monkey.” He said, throwing his arm around Naruto as if they were old buddies.
Naruto had a bad feeling about this.
A very bad feeling.
And her bad feelings… usually end in a high note.
---------------
It’s a funny thing how much a person’s life can change in such a short time.
One moment, Naruto is living a happy life on her own the next his landlady and landlord decide to demolish a wall between her and her neighbour’s apartment. Said neighbour seemed to be okay with the situation, at first. But then she realized that Sasuke was a workaholic, bodyguard, gun obsessed psychopath who seemed to have an abundance on sniping rifles on hand.
Where the hell does he keep all of them?!
Yet, Narutos one and only downfall was her social activeness. Whenever she meets someone she has to be friends with them. Why? Jiraiya had always told him ‘Make friends with as many people as you can, less people can kill you then.’ Then his damn wife, his landlady, would say something like, ‘Talk to people. Make friends and good things are bound to happen.’
Look where that advise got her. On a roof, with her neighbour, at 8:30 AM without each eating their damn breakfasts and in the freezing cold. What her psychopathic neighbour called ‘practise.’ Did she forget to mention, they were on the roof, in the cold, where anyone could see them. And said neighbour seemed to be more than willing to kill him as well by the simplistic comments.
Yet Naruto was optimistic. She always saw the bright side of things. She saw the entire world his home as he was born into it-
“Just because you’re born into the world doesn’t mean it’s all your home. It simply means that the precious air around us and a fully functioning human body is going to waste on you.”
Apparently, Naruto hadn’t said that all in her head, as she had originally thought. Wait a second, “Hey! I am not a waste of air a space! I happen to be very important. I mean without me your day would be significantly boring today, now wouldn’t it?!” she shouted indignantly. Sasuke only grunted and rolled his eyes in response.
“If it weren’t for you I could be spending time doing other more… productive activities right now. And it’s not that cold outside.”
“That’s easy for you to say! You’re dressed appropriately for the weather! I’m in my bed clothes here!” she replied, gesturing to himself and his clothes. She was in a tight fit t-shirt and guy’s shorts. Freezing.
“I said we were going to the roof. I didn’t say you couldn’t get a jacket. And if you wanted to get changed you could have and still can. I’m not a sadist.”
Two thoughts went through Narutos head for that comment. Details, details. Sasuke focuses on too many details and as for that sadist comment… well that is entirely debatable. For as long as Naruto had known Sasuke, she knew him to be pure evil and seemed to be quite content in making others’ lives a misery.
But it would seem that said details made it a very hard mission to win an argument against the taller male which seemed to make him quite content with himself with that smug face.
Instead of focusing on the others face he decided to focus on what he was doing. He seemed to be, once again, loading some more bullets in his rifle and looked through his scope at something.
“What are you doing?” she asked suspiciously but disguised it as curiosity.
“Testing.” Sasuke muttered, then he suddenly through said rifle at the unexpected blond neighbour. Catching it quickly she noted the fond look her neighbour was giving his way. Did Sasuke have a crush on her?
Before she could voice out her thoughts Sasuke said with a fond smile on his face, “That was my first rifle and took my first kill. Shoots up to 1700 meters and beautifully pierce through my un-expecting victims.” The expression on Sasukes face was that of a person who is having a fond memory of a lover.
“Oh.” Was his only reply. Naruto came to the conclusion that Sasukes obsession with guns was a bit over board. He even had a thought that the rifle had been his first love who he never truly got over.
Sasuke moved his head in a ‘come here’ or ‘follow me’ gesture and said, “Come here.”
Both males went to the ledge of the roof and ducked down to a position similar to crouching and took a moment to observe the busy streets of their neighbourhood.
Couples were walking hand-in-hand and other people were on their own carrying groceries and other just walking whilst on their phones to people.
Neither of them had time to fully observe their surroundings as they had both come here to snipe and not look and their surroundings.
The idea in itself was absurd. Naruto a sniper. Those words did not belong in the same sentence. They did not even sound like they belonged together. Naruto preferred close combat and had a very bad aim from distances. Mostly due to being partially blind in one eye.
“Right so the first rule of sniping is to not shake like a loose leaf.” Sasuke said as he moved the gun over Narutos shoulder. God, did he have to do everything himself around here?
“Well sorry. But I’m not exactly dressed for this sort of things. Lest you forget, I am in bed clothes ‘ere. And it’s freezing up here. What the hell do you want me to do?” she asked, not disguising her current annoyance.
Naruto was a night assassin who was used to hand-to-hand combat. So she generated enough heat to keep her warm by constantly moving around. Whereas here, she was sniping, meaning she couldn’t move and by default could not generate any body heat.
“Tsk. Here.” Sasuke threw his hoodie he had been wearing to Naruto who gladly took it, taking in the smell feint smell of gun powder and of course, Sasukes usual smell as well. Naruto, begrudgingly, admitted that he really like both of those smells combined. He held a strong smell of cologne and cats. Not surprising, Naruto was very sure she would smell of fox if someone sniffed her.
“Only since you offered. Remember, I didn’t ask for it.” She said as she slipped into the hoodie. Paying close attention to the smell, it also had that smell that Sasuke had inside of his closet. Not that she would ever tell Sasuke that she had been inside his closet.
Sasuke burrowed his eye brows for a moment before saying, “Don’t punch me… or elbow me in the ribs. Okay?” when Naruto confusingly nodded her head Sasuke moved behind the blond haired female and wrapped both his arms around her.
Naruto stiffened, fighting off her instincts that screamed at her to get the taller male away from him as she noticed that Sasuke was only trying to show her how to properly and securely hold a rifle.
The embrace was cliché and, dare she say, relaxingly warm and felt very slightly… romantic.
If anyone saw them now and didn’t see the gun, they would assume that the two were a couple with how Sasuke kept a firm hold on the blond and the way Narutos face was tinted pink. Whether that was from the position the two were in or because it was cold outside was a mystery to her.
“And this part goes here between your shoulder and collar bone-” he stopped abruptly when he noticed the slight wince Naruto gave. With one hand he removed the rifle and with the other he gently massaged the back of his shoulder to ease the pain. Idiot. How could you forget she was shot? It wasn’t even that long ago.
As he was mentally berating himself Naruto was leaning into the hand massaging her shoulder and suppressed a moan as they eased some tension that had been gathering there. “It’s fine. Doesn’t hurt that bad. I’m good enough to carry on, if you want to that is.”
Sasuke paused his movements and said, “Sorry. We’ll continue but tell me when you need to stop.” With that he gently placed the rifle back into position but slightly away from his neighbours wound. “Right, then you need to aim then do this and shoot.” They shot the rifle and a feint pop was heard in the background. Naruto blinked, once, twice. Sasuke had just shot a tin can that was on the roof ledge of a building that was too far for her to be bothered to estimate.
“Okay, now you try.” Sasuke said as he let go of Naruto and got up, pointing to a bottle that was a ledge of a few buildings away from them.
Sasuke reminded Naruto of a teacher she once had as a child. Her math teacher to be exact. She had questioned the teacher as to why three times three made nine and the teacher merely glared at the boy and said ‘Logic is how boy. And common sense.’ And at that age Naruto hardly knew what he was going on about but went with it anyway. It was always like that with her teachers anyway.
Naruto just shrugged and went with it. Leaving both of her eyes opened she did just as Sasuke said and shot.
She missed.
“Naruto. That shit didn’t even move. Try it again.”
Naruto frowned but did as she was told.
She missed again.
She tried again and missed.
She tried another time and missed again.
“You need to fucking aim before pulling the trigger. Make sure the target is in the centre of the scopes circles then shoot. Now, try again.”
She did just as Sasuke said for her to do but again she missed.
“Calm down. Don’t shake and don’t hesitate. If it helps think it’s the assailant from the other night and pretend you’re shooting him for something.”
Naruto tried that and had she been shooting something in a closer range there was a possibility of that actually working, however it didn’t and she missed again.
But there was something she had managed to do. With all the shooting she had done she managed to shoot a J into the wall.
She looked towards Sasuke, he gave him a crooked grin and Sasuke just sighed and nodded his head in approval.
Looking around Sasuke pointed towards the building next to theirs. “That red container over by the balcony.”
Seeing it she nodded, and once again tried aiming and shot. This time, she closed her half blind eye.
It hit the container which splattered red paint all over some clothes that were currently drying on that balcony and any chances of the two celebrating was completely gone as the bullet continued to cut through the air and hit the glass window of a shop, shattering it all over the round and the next thing either of them knew, a scream was heard and a body fell limp onto the ground.
They both stared with blank expression, neither saying a thing until Sasuke broke the silence, “This was, by far, the best aim I have seen come from you yet.” There was a hint of approval Naruto noticed in the comment from the dark haired male.
They both laughed and fist bumped however when what had happened finally sunk into them, their smiles vanished and they reassessed what had happened.
They had just shot and most likely killed a person. Outside of work. Where it was perfectly illegal.
Not that their line of work was legal.
They both jumped back and started to pack their things from the roof. Sasuke packed the rifles as Naruto looked at their surroundings to see if there was even a single person who had seen them up here. Luckily they were high enough to not have been seen by anyone and by the looks of it no one had seen them up there.
“What the hell are we gonna do?” Naruto asked Sasuke as they made their way back inside.
“I don’t know about you. But I’m leaving the country and starting my retirement early.” He replied as they made their way back to their apartments.
“Take me with you!” she said as he unlocked the door, ignoring the stings of pain coming from her ankle and shoulder.
“No. Three years with you has made me mad enough. I don’t need any more time with you.” He replied entering the apartment without changing his shoes.
He was going to get lectured about this later. He just knew it but didn’t have time to think about it.
Naruto gasped. This wasn’t Sasuke. This was a traitor. Or a person in disguise as Sasuke. They had been neighbours for three years and six months. He dared to forget their anniversary, had they not been in a predicament Naruto would have said something about it. As it stood, she would have to do that later.
Just as Sasuke began pacing in the living area, Naruto said, “You do realize that the gun that was used was your own and the fingerprints on the bullet would prove to be yours, right?” she mentioned, genuinely concerned but she’d be damned before admitting it.
“I’ve made in a habit to wear gloves whenever loading bullets into my guns. So they be finding any fingerprints. Now shut up and let me think here.”
Screw thinking! They didn’t have time for that!
Naruto had exceptional hearing could hear police sirens.
“Not good. I can hear police.”
Sasuke turned to look at his neighbour, because he couldn’t hear any and was about to voice out his thoughts, however not long after that thought he could hear them. He would have to praise his neighbour for her hearing later on.
“Have you finished thinking yet?” Naruto asked shifting from one leg to another as she watched her neighbour carry on pacing.
“Nearly. Shut up.”
She did as she was told, but that didn’t help calm any of her nerves. Looking at the clock on the wall, she noticed that Sasuke had been thinking for roughly 3 minutes. Meaning it had been 7 minutes since they fled the roof. The police were most likely-
Sasuke interrupted his train of thought by finally saying, “Get dressed to blend in with the civilians.”