Aftermath
That night Naruto had stayed awake watching some movies as she avoided Sasuke, causing him some degree of concern and annoyance. Concern for her as the sofa wasn’t very comfy to sleep on all night and annoyance because of his idiocy.
He had simply been concerned at the time and the two of them hadn’t been closed off when it came to touching each other since Naruto seemed to be very… carefree when it came to him.
He had taken her off the sofa and placed her on the bed, taking over her place on the sofa and when he woke up breakfast had been made and there was no Naruto in sight. There was a note saying Shisui had called her over to get advice on what he should wear and do for his date. Who planned a date on Saturday morning was beyond his comprehension.
After that she was going to have lunch meeting with her aunt and a co-worker, meaning she wouldn’t be home till mid or late afternoon. Giving him plenty of time to strategize his ‘sorry’ plan.
His original plan correlated to him making dinner and getting her a small gift. It was then he realised she wasn’t a girl who liked jewellery as she mostly dressed as a boy.
He was almost certain the only jewellery she owned was the silver ring on her middle finger of her right hand and the blue crystal necklace that she wore. Both could be worn by males and females and couldn’t arouse any suspicion.
He had taken a quick scan around the room and had seen she any jewellery and had seen she owned similar jewellery to the ones she wore, each had a carving on it that rang bells in his mind yet he couldn’t place where he had seen them.
He had decided against cooking, he would most likely embarrass himself when he compared his cooking to Naruto’s. Instead he would go and bring home lots of ramen from her favourite place and make simple onigiri himself.
He had a vague idea what he should get her and as he stared at his laptop, an idea came to mind.
--------------------
Naruto had been very nervous the entirety of the day after she had left the apartment. She was dressed as a guy with her hair tied up and her trusty weapons hidden yet easily assessable to herself.
She had the distinct feeling she was being watched yet a simple look through her selfie mode had proved otherwise.
Once she got inside she finally allow her walls to drop. Shisui was an Uchiha, but he was a friend and co-worker, trustworthy like Obito.
She left her things on the coat rack and made her way through the apartment into Shisui’s open bedroom only to see it was a mess.
His clothes were scattered across the floor, bed and desk, causing her to blink before she spoke, “Shisui… I dress as a girl and a guy and I can safely say you have more clothes than I do. I think you might have the same amount as Sasuke does in fact.”
She sat down on the rolling chair behind his desk as he came out of his walk in closet, wearing a white button up shirt and dark grey trousers.
“What do you think? Yes, no?” he gave her a twirl causing her to sigh and mentally judge what type of friends she had.
She pointed to a navy blue button up and the black trousers next to it that had been scattered. “Go change into these two.”
He went and did as she said, so once he came out she undid the first three buttons, rolled his sleeves up to his elbows and told him ruffles his already messy hair, giving it an organised bed head look.
Once he looked at his reflection he gave her a large squeeze, thanking her over and over for the simple yet date like look. Once he let go she went around the desk looking for something and decided he kept it in his wardrobe and found what she had been looking for. She gave him his old necklace, a guitar pick that had the Uchiha fan on one side and the name of the band he and his friends had been a part of during high-school.
The two had left not long after, Naruto going for lunch with her aunt whereas Shisui went to his business meeting and date.
Once she arrived at the designated place she was greeted by Gaara, Temari and Konkuro, her aunt had been waiting upstairs for them in the restaurant.
The meeting had been a simple affair. The company had worked out that the people being targeted were from clans who came from Japan originally, which honestly made up quite a large percentage of the company.
When her aunt had named a few people who had been attacked caused her to give her suggestion which would narrow down the list; each one had the blood of the nine clans. They called themselves that, yet outsiders were also taken into these clans. Each member had an ancestor somewhere along the line that had something to do with the nine tailed beasts.
The siblings had gone shortly after, leaving her with her aunt, in a situation which she didn’t want to happen.
“So…” Inaho sipped her tea, dragging out what she wanted to say, causing Naruto to slightly squirm in her seat, knowing where her aunt was going to go. “Aunty tells me that she walked in on you and your neighbour about to get frisky.”
She looked Naruto in the eye as she said that, causing the younger blonde to squirm, “We weren’t doing anything. Granny just so happened to have bad timing when she walked in on me checking his temperature. Since she decided to be rude and not knock before she came in, the two of us just decided to tease her.”
Inaho placed her cup in its saucer as she linked her finger together, taking a pose she often called the sandaime pose. “And why didn’t you tell me that your neighbour knew you were a girl?” at the question Naruto knew she was screwed.
She had been told to inform her aunt whenever someone found out she was a girl or found out who she was, yet she hadn’t done that.
Yet she refused to allow her aunt to make her feel like a child again, “I didn’t feel the need to tell you when he’s clean. I didn’t want to keep binding my chest around him for no good reason. I get to be the girl I never got to be as a child whilst I’m at home-”
“And if someone other than aunty came in and saw the two of you? Your safety is my main concern Naruto. You are the only family I have left, I want you safe…” she dragged a hand through her albino hair as she looked down. Sighing she placed her head in her hand and spoke, “The Company will be closed till further notice, for at least a week. Take a vacation, or something but be on prepared for video meetings and phone calls. And be prepared to have a meeting with Uchiha when you get back. He messaged me saying he wanted to formerly apologise to you for his team’s insubordination the other night.”
The rest of their conversation was a civil one and they finished talking just after 4:30PM, leaving Naruto to go home.
She had decided she wasn’t going to ignore Sasuke anymore. He hadn’t meant to feel her up and was simply concerned for her. She was sure having ignored him for some time had taught him a lesson to not do so again.
------------------
In the end their weekend had been, in a nutshell, awkward.
Sasuke trying to talk to Naruto normally, and Naruto trying to avoid him like the plague.
What Sasuke didn’t know was why.
When Naruto had come home from dinner with her aunt she had been fine around him. However, the next morning when Sasuke woke up around 9 AM he couldn’t feel nor see any sign of Naruto in the apartment.
He had been in a panic, thoughts running wild, thinking someone had snuck into their apartment- no Narutos apartment- and kidnapped her whilst the elder slept.
He hadn’t calmed down until he noticed a few notes, each saying the same thing, most likely so he at least found one of them. Each one saying she had gone out with some friends and would be back to make lunch for him, but then was needed to go out again after that.
Naruto had, in fact, been true to the fact that she was meeting up with friends. However she had been the one to invite them out last minute in order to get some space between the two of them. Mostly because her aunt had rang Saturday evening stating she would come in at any time she pleased so she had best not be up to anything.
When she told Sasuke, he hadn’t believed a single word coming out of the blond.
So on Monday he had been so distracted he hadn’t noticed any of the hush whispers around the building that were about him. He only noticed them when Shikamaru came and sat next to him a quarter way into their lunch break and started a conversation which was very odd for the lazy sniper.
“So, since you’ve had your head in the gutter all morning and have been glaring holes into your phone for the same duration, I’m guessing that you haven’t heard the rumours going around?”
Turning his face round to face the other male he replied in a rather bored and detached voice, “What rumours?”
Taking a sip of his coffee he replied, “That you are currently in a relationship with a distinctly, specific blond. Don’t give me that look.” Sasuke was currently giving him his trademark ‘shut the hell up’ and ‘what the hell’ look which Shikamaru was having none of. “First there’s you acting differently since Tuesday last week. Then there’s the phone call you received last Thursday that seemed to be very, domestic and, caring of you. Neither of which I have ever seen from you. And I’ve known you since we were since before we even started high school. Then on Friday, your day off, you were seen, out, on what seemed like a lovely walk around the area you live in with a certain blond, when usually your day off is spent cuddling with your rifles.
“Ino told me she saw you with said blond on a date so we followed the two of you to his place. We know it was his and not yours. And to add to this pile, that same day, your brother goes to your place to have dinner alone with his only little brother, and what does he find? Your neighbour, in your apartment, wearing your clothes, with marks on both of your necks. Somehow almost everyone here knows about most of this as well.
“So what do you have to say for yourself?” Shikamaru had finally finished his speech, leaving Sasuke gob-smacked.
He didn’t know what to be more surprised about, the fact that everyone thought he was screwing his neighbour or the fact he had heard so much from Shikamarus own mouth, in one go, on his own volition. Or perhaps the fact that his brother had told someone about what he had seen at his apartment. He would have to make sure he didn’t tell Shikamaru that Naruto was a girl or they’d be in big trouble.
The on lookers of this conversation were greeted with the sight of a very flustered and confused sniper who was being interrogated by his oldest friend. They were also tuning their ears to hear this conversation better.
“No comment.” And Sasuke went back to eating but was once again interrupted by his old friend.
“Oh no. You’re not getting out of this one-”
“Just what the hell were you two doing spying on the two of us anyway? What I do in my personal time is just that. Personal.” Sasuke cut him off and started to glare at him.
He hated when people, even his oldest friend, got into his personal business.
Raising his hand in a defensive manner Shikamaru replied calmly, “I just thought you should know. I didn’t actually think you would give me a reply. Honestly, Ino wanted me to ask and wouldn’t stop pestering me about it and then tag-teamed with Tsunade. So I had to ask.” He shrugged and continued whilst taking another bite of his lunch, “But I thought you might want some help keeping your not-so-secret, secret, a secret.”
Nodding slowly Sasuke went back to his lunch as well before replying, “There’s nothing going on between us. But I do want him safe and out of harm’s way-”
“So that’s why you got one of our guys to watch over your apartments. But the guy can look after himself, ya’ know.”
“One, I thought nobody knew about that. And two, I know he is strong but he has a few injuries that make defending himself difficult - Why the hell am I telling you all this?”
Shikamaru just shrugged and took another bite of his food, hiding his knowing smirk that the class valedictorian wore when he knew something the other person didn’t.
Sasuke didn’t like that look what so ever.
And later, he would hate it even more.
------------------
When Sasuke got home that afternoon he was shocked to notice that he didn’t go to his own door, but to Narutos- he also had a key to Narutos apartment that he wasn’t even aware that he had.
Slowly he unlocked the door and entered only to be greeted by the sight of his landlord scolding a very annoyed Naruto and his godmother slash landlady in the kitchen looking for what he didn’t know. Most likely something alcoholic.
“You need to be more careful gaki, you don’t want anyone to know your secret and that’s fine but you need to be on guard at all times-”
“Welcome home Sasuke! Did you have a nice day at work?” Naruto asked cheerfully as she turned to face him, but the look on her face was ‘help me’.
Hanging his coat up, he replied, “Fine. What are you two doing here?” after taking off his shoes he entered the living area and sat down on the sofa when he saw the serious faces of both the elderly people in the room. Not that he would ever call them elderly out loud in front of them.
Once both of them were in front of the two of them, one on the armchair and the other on the coffee table.
Before either neighbour could speak, Jiraiya spoke first. “Okay, I’ve done one of the things we came here to do already. The other thing we came here to do is because of your living arrangements. We gave you a week to choose whether or not you wanted to stay here Sasuke. If you choose to not stay, we have a place for you to stay at that is owned by the two of us and is almost the same as your apartment. So, what’s your verdict?”
“I’m staying.”
With a curt nod Jiraiya carried on, “Right. Another thing is, we have contacted everyone and anyone that can help to repair the wall and piping etcetera. And, well, that would take just over a month and a half. Will you two be okay for that long?” when he received a nod from both on the sofa he carried on, “Well, now that that’s done. Tsunade and I wanted both of you to come over for dinner. It’s been a while since the whole family has sat- actually, the family has never all sat down together for dinner. We’ve even drag your aunt-” he nodded to Naruto, “-and your brother.” He nodded to Sasuke. “It’ll be this Saturday night. That way we’re not intruding on either one of your work lives.” Nodding to himself he looked over to Tsunade and the two of them rose up.
“Right, we’ll see you then, I’ll text you the time. Don’t be late. Okay?” Tsunade said with an overly sweet smile that generally means not to piss her off.
When both the boys nodded they left and it took a few minutes for the both of them to digest everything that had just happened before Sasuke muttered, “The whole family? Why the hell would…”
“Jiraiya is my grandfather as well as my godfather.” Naruto answered his unasked question.
Sasuke blinked. Once. Twice. “What?”
Rolling her eyes she repeated herself, “Jiraiya is my grandfather as well as my godfather. I have another godfather but I doubt you know him.”
“My godmother is married to your grandfather.” He said slowly. “I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around all this.”
Naruto muttered something under her breath but Sasuke wasn’t paying much attention to her.
She got up and asked, “What do you want for dinner ‘cause I’m not in the mood to cook dinner.”
Snapping himself back into reality he mentally berated himself for acting like a confused four year old. “Let’s order out then. Pizza or Japanese?” he asked getting up and stretching, putting what happened on hold for now.
“How about a bit of both?” Naruto replied. She was really in the mood for both since Sasuke mentioned them and by the look on his face, he knew what he was doing.
Nodding he went into his own apartment to get changed and relax himself.
When he got back in he was greeted by the sight of Naruto trying to change her bandages. Her shoulder wound seemed to have been getting better and since Naruto was getting on with everything quite normally, Sasuke didn’t think the blonde’s wound was as bad as it still was.
Once again, he mentally slapped himself. Naruto was only wounded a few days ago. Gunshot wounds don’t just go in a day.
Snapping back into reality he went over to Naruto and spoke, “I didn’t realize it was still bleeding. Do you want me to do that for you?” he sat right in front of the blonde on the coffee table where Jiraiya had been sitting just a short while ago.
“It had stopped, but I dropped something earlier because Mr. Creepy outside came inside whilst I was in the shower. So I punched him, and completely forgot about my shoulder and ended up opening it. So, I had two reasons for this bleeding shoulder. And right now it’s killing me. So, yeah. If you don’t mind givin’ us a hand. This time, that is.” By the end her face was a bright shade of pink.
He leaned forwards and helped to change the bandages, trying not to let his eyes wonder over the blonde with no shirt. Sadly, he failed and noticed another tattoo she hadn’t mentioned that he hadn’t previously questioned her on, but then he fully realized what Naruto had said. “I didn’t send anyone to guard the house whilst I was gone. And even if I did, they wouldn’t come into the apartment unless you got hurt or called for them.”
He had a frown on his face as he thought of the possibilities of who could have been outside the apartment when he remembered that over the weekend he had CCTV placed outside the doors of their apartments and could see just who it was.
“I had CCTV installed outside the doors of our apartments, with both Tsunade’s and Jiraiya’s permission of course, so we should be able to see who came here earlier today.” Nodding to himself he put on the new gauze and sat on the sofa next to Naruto on the sofa.
“When the hell did you get time to do that? I didn’t notice any.” The confused look on Narutos face was making it hard for Sasuke not to laugh.
“Over the weekend. You were avoiding me like the plague so I didn’t get a chance to tell you.”
“I was not avoiding you! I was avoiding my aunt!” the blonde paused before saying, in a more calm manner, “Apparently Ino blabbed that she had seen the two of us together on what seemed to be a date on Friday and she also stalked us home and saw us enter my apartment. Needless to say, my aunt was very concerned as to why she wasn’t informed of one of her only relative’s new ‘relationship’-” she inserted quotation marks, “- and she said she would barge in at any time. I told you this!” She shivered and Sasuke released a small chuckle at his expense earning him a fierce glare from his neighbour slash roommate.
“Yeah well it can’t be worse than my day. When Ino saw us on Friday she got one of my friends to come with her and stalk with her and he saw as well. When I came into work today, everyone knew but I was busy with work and didn’t notice that everyone was whispering about me and my so called relationship. So on my lunch break, said friend, decided to tell me what everyone was saying.
“Apparently the two of us have been in a relationship for three years and are currently interested in getting married to one another. Another rumour was that you were pretending to be a male and are actually pregnant, but I don’t want anyone to know.
“Oh then there’s my personal favourite, the two of us were childhood sweethearts who hadn’t seen each other since we were kids and when we did, we hit it off and have been married for two and a half years, keeping our relationship a secret from Itachi but we had to tell him because we’re going to have twins in the next six months by our surrogate.”
He sighed deeply and the headache he could hardly feel earlier was making itself known. “I don’t know where the hell these people come up with these ideas. And don’t worry, no one has any solid evidence that you’re a girl. I rang my brother and he didn’t tell anyone.” He leaned all the way back and looked to the clock above the bookshelf and was surprised to see that it was it was past 6 o’clock already.
Naruto couldn’t help it, she laughed. Stomach clenching, rolling over and banging the floor, laughed and not long after Sasuke felt himself laughing as well, just not as much as Naruto was.
-------------
TILL NEXT TIME!