And we have a miraculous update! Feel free to shoot me for taking far too long. (And I've yet to come up with a halfway decent reply other than letting RL pwn me.)

This chapter was beta-ed/beta'd/betaed by Kaikouken. (I'm really grateful that she helped sort out some of the issues in here.)

So, ah, um. Thank you to all who're still sticking to this story despite the horrible update schedule and to those giving this story a chance.

Crit, comments, or reviews are all very much appreciated as they help fix any disturbance in the writing.

Chapter 3 - These People

"Sasuke," Naruto sang. "Come here. I have something to teach you."

Sasuke stopped preparing their afternoon tea to look at Naruto.

The man was sitting near the low dining table they'd come to know as their tea table — there were just far too many tables where they lived and he got off on naming their tables to lessen the confusion whenever anyone told someone to else to go to so and so table in order for so and so event — with his characteristic bright grin aimed at Sasuke.

"What is it, Namikaze-sama?" Sasuke asked, continuing the tea preparation afterwards.

"I invented a new form of writing!" Naruto said, puffing his chest out in pride despite knowing that Sasuke couldn't see it. "And what did I tell you about my name?"

Even after they'd been married for more than quite a bit, Sasuke still refused to call him Naruto. It was a pet peeve and Naruto had been trying to get the other to get out of the habit of calling him Namikaze-sama in vain.

Namikaze-sama made him think of his father and that was not cool at all because he was more awesome and, well, younger. Then again, everyone had always said that he thought oddly. That his thoughts were far too revolutionized.

Sasuke resisted the urge to sigh. It wouldn't be like him, like a wife, to blatantly contradict his husband's wishes. Though, being stubborn like most Uchiha, he refused to be so informal with his husband. It was impolite and unheard of.

"I'll be right there then, Namikaze-sama," Sasuke could hear Naruto complain about the name yet again, "after I finish making our tea."

It was around five minutes later when Sasuke found himself sitting adjacent Naruto with a teacup in his hands, a somewhat inquisitive and expectant look on his face as he stared at his husband and the mountains of scrolls surrounding the latter.

Naruto, with a mouth grinning like there was no tomorrow and eyes twinkling as if he'd just done the best thing imaginable, plucked a nearby scroll and opened it. He pushed it toward Sasuke and implored the other to peruse it.

Try as he might, Sasuke couldn't at all understand what was written on the scroll. If anything, it looked like a jumble of characters. It seemed like a mix of languages.

He looked up at Naruto, quirking up an eyebrow as he did so.

"Isn't it ingenious?" Naruto asked. "Sasuke, you're now looking at the inventor of a full-fledged language! None of that secret friend-friend code thing, either! I dreamed about everything last night. The grammar, how the syntaxes should work, and all that other stuff." His arms were practically flying everywhere as he wildly gesticulated something which Sasuke couldn't understand at all.

"How nice then, Namikaze-sama," Sasuke said.

Naruto frowned at him. "You don't seem impressed."

"I am."

Naruto's frown deepened. "Really, Sasuke. You sound sarcastic. That's just mean."

Sasuke languidly sipped his tea before answering with, "You're only imagining things, Namikaze-sama."

"Come on, Sasuke! It's great! I made a new language in one day. Others took years. They were even a group of people!"

"Who will use your language then, Namikaze-sama?"

Naruto was quiet for a bit. His face donned a contemplative look. Then his visage brightened. "We could use it. It'll be our own little language!" He looked as excited as most children were before festivals. Despite being an adult, the look suited him.

Naruto was, as always, whimsical. Sasuke decided to humor him though. It was the job of a wifeband such as he. "Of course. Do try to enlighten me on the matter then."

Naruto had taken him seriously and was soon listening to the other's explanations about the new-found language.

Sasuke had gotten interested for real somewhere in the middle of Naruto's explanations.

He asked questions and Naruto was more than glad enough to supply the answers.

By the end of the day, Sasuke found himself actually writing a few of those characters. Naruto was complimenting him — the way he'd always wanted to be praised by his family, Shikibu name be damned — all the while and it was burning his ears. Though he could've gone without Naruto's hair mussing.

They never managed to finish the pot of tea Sasuke had prepared. It was left to cool all on its own.

Sakura bit her lip when Sasuke hadn't answered at all. His eyes were merely glued on that slab.

"You don't need to answer it now of course," she said. "Kakashi-sensei was just, well, presenting you the question now so that you wouldn't be surprised by it when he asks it later on. It's, er, like preparing you for the future—"

"The slab says nothing of importance," Sasuke interjected. "It was written by Namikaze-sama as a joke. It's filled with fake prophecies, things he liked writing during his spare time."

"What does it say?" Kakashi asked yet again.

Sakura stared at him. Wasn't it obvious that Sasuke didn't want to talk about the past right now?

"Why are you so interested in it anyway?" Sasuke asked, looking at Kakashi.

Sakura wanted to know the answer to that, too. Kakashi, and every other individual that was well-informed about the matter, had been tight-lipped about the background of the tablet.

"It's supposed to be something of value," Kakashi replied; the best thing to do when the one being interrogated didn't want to answer was to give the person the answers to their own questions, all the while knowing that they might not really understand the answers in the end, "there are people after it, after all."

That tablet had been causing far too much ruckus that it couldn't just be fake prophecies.

"Namikaze-sama has an awful sense of humor," Sasuke said in a slightly sharp tone.

He clenched his hands. It wasn't that he was getting irritated by the man that endlessly asked him questions. He was getting irritated by the fact that Namikaze-sama could still make him feel. It was almost a year. He was sure that it was almost a year since Naruto died.

He shouldn't still be attached. He shouldn't.

He grit his teeth.

Sakura glared at Kakashi who continued to ignore her in favor of staring at Sasuke.

"This is enough," she angrily said as she glared at him. "We're leaving."

She turned to Sasuke and gave him an apologetic smile. She said in the gentlest voice she could, "We're sorry, Shikibu-san. It's been a rather hectic week and I think that it's beginning its toll on Kakashi-sensei."

Before either Sasuke or Kakashi could speak, Sakura had latched onto Kakashi's arm and dragged him out of the room. She closed the door behind her as softly as she could, given her current livid state.

Sasuke could hear bickering at the other side of the door.

Once he was assured that they wouldn't hear him or that they wouldn't be coming back inside the room soon, he violently flopped down on the bed, his frustration so evident that it was nearly as tangible as the sheets wrapped around him.

He wanted to thrash around or break anything within his arm's reach. He wanted to be improper, the very thing which he was instructed to never be by countless of teachers and Uchiha elders.

Only Naruto could make him want to be like that. Only Naruto. And it was vexing him beyond belief.

It didn't help that he was in some odd place he'd never encountered anywhere before, be it on books and scrolls from the library or on tongues of travelers and merchants.

Just when he was about to act upon his impulses, he heard a rather loud thud. He looked around the room to try and see if the cause of the noise was there. And indeed it was. It turned out to be the blond who was now lying, sleeping to be more exact, on the floor with his left arm and leg spread, the right side of his body somewhat draped on the couch a bit. A bit of drool was escaping his mouth.

Sasuke visibly cringed.

He shuddered when he heard the other give out a loud snore.

Utterly disgusting if he could say so himself.

He laid on the bed in a more passive way and looked at the ceiling, having decided that he should simply ignore those boorish snores. He could only wonder how he'd gotten himself into such a place and what exactly did these people want with Namikaze-sama's mindless drivel.

And why that blond over there looked far too much like Namikaze-sama for it to be a joke.

Sasuke wasn't laughing though.

He pursed his lips and inhaled a lungful of air. Before he released his lips from the confines of his mouth, he ground his lips with his teeth as hard as he could, as if the motion would bring him some sort of divine manifestation that would answer all of his questions.

Just why?

He pressed his cheek even more into that soft thing his head was lying on. He stared at the only door in the room. If he ignored the loud snores of the blond, he would have the peace and quiet that he honestly deserved. His mind was lost in thought for a while until he was forced back to reality when the door opened and more of that ungodly bright light seeped inside the room. He squinted his eyes only to see the form of the pink-haired girl.

She went inside the room and closed the door behind her. She smiled sheepishly at him again.

Sasuke sat up straight, not minding the slight pain he felt from doing so, and looked at her.

"I'm really sorry about Kakashi-sensei," she said. "He's really just a bit off today."

He nodded.

The room quieted again.

Sakura fidgeted some more before she moved closer to Sasuke and sat on the chair beside his bed. Somehow, being in the same room as him made her incredibly awkward, and everyone knew that Sakura just didn't do awkward. The Sakura a couple of years ago might've, but not the her of today.

"So how are things?" she asked.

The only response Sasuke could come up with was to raise an eyebrow. How could he answer that if he'd only been awake for only a couple of minutes?

Sakura, with some of her nervousness seeping into the action, laughed and said, "Of course. I shouldn't have asked."

It was really hard maintaining a conversation with this person. That was the thought that instantly popped into her mind afterwards. Well, if she couldn't maintain any sort of decent, casual conversation with him, she might as well give him the important news. She didn't exactly like sounding like some stuttering idiot who babbled on and on about nothing.

"Oh, um, Shikibu-san, it seems as if, well—" Sakura started.

"What is it?" Sasuke asked. If he hadn't asked, he was sure that she would've continued stuttering for a while. Women were mostly like that.

Sakura twirled a lock of her hair. It was something she oft did when she was nervous; a habit, one might say. She smoothed the lock she was twirling when she noticed what she was doing and looked at him squarely in the eyes. "It seems as if you'll have to move out of this room as soon as possible. There was a bit of an information problem with the hospital's main desk and someone who needs this room more than you do has been assigned to it."

"I understand."

"The only problem is that we don't exactly know where to put you now."

It took around one minute of silence from Sasuke to make Sakura open her mouth to continue whatever she was going to say. But before she could even utter a word, a rather long and loud snore from Naruto interrupted her.

He was now lying face-down on the floor.

Sakura growled and kicked him. Hard. Her sudden shyness with Sasuke had made her very irritable. After all, it was an unknown and unwelcome occurrence as she was used to being comfortable and in command of the situation.

Naruto woke up with a jolt. He clambered to his feet and wildly looked around to see if there was any danger — it was in this instant that Sakura felt a bit of guilt; but she easily squished this feeling with the rather childish thought of 'He deserved it'.

With such a wake-up call as a bone-breaking kick, Naruto thought that there had to be something up. Something worthy of his attention. When he deemed that, no, there was no fighting to be seen, he looked at Sakura and whined, "What?"

Sakura ignored the tic developing somewhere in her forehead and replied as sweetly as she could, "You'll be in charge of finding Shikibu-san a place to stay for the meanwhile."

"What?!"

"You heard me." Her voice suddenly had a dangerous edge to it.

Naruto gulped and violently nodded. "Whatever you say, ma'am."

"And don't call me that. That's rude."

Naruto blinked. Wasn't it supposed to be...?

Women. Naruto sighed. This was done in his head, of course.

Not that he would ever voice out his thoughts, of course. Sakura-chan really packed a mean punch. Not to mention he also really liked her and he wouldn't want her at all to be distressed or disturbed by any of the words he said — though he did do this subconsciously already; the good thing was that he didn't know the effect of what he was doing.

"You have only a couple of minutes left before a number of nurses claim this room as theirs again," Sakura said. "So think fast."

Naruto looked at Sasuke and frowned. Great ideas, at least for things like these, didn't come to him as fast as Sakura-chan probably wanted, so he'd only managed to think up of one, partially safe option.

And it wasn't exactly an option that he liked.

The things he did for his job and Sakura.

"I know a place," he slowly said.

"That's good!" Sakura chirped.

She looked at Sasuke and smiled at him. She said, "Naruto here will take good care of you, Shikibu-san. I'm sure that the place he's chosen won't disappoint at all." She knew that he was practically nobility from where he came from, so she thought that he would probably be picky.

The last thing they needed was to piss off the person whom Kakashi said was the key to their current mission.

And the details to that aforementioned mission, she just remembered, hadn't exactly been divulged to her and Naruto completely and clearly.

She turned to Naruto again and said, "You make sure that he's safe, alright?"

"Count on me!" Naruto exclaimed.

She gave him a smile. Naruto was just so endearing.

"I'll be going ahead then," she said. "I need to have a talk with someone."

"So, yeah, Uzumaki Naruto, your awesome new roommate. Call me Naruto-sama and we'll get along reaaaal well, Shikibu," Naruto said with a grin on his face.

"Naruto," Sasuke said, ignoring Naruto's informal usage of his name.

"Right. Didn't even bother to humor me. Well, okay. Whatever you want."

Naruto was one of those sorts who turned out to be exceedingly chirpy after they had rested. It was almost as if nothing could anger or sadden him.

Sasuke frowned. But he couldn't call the blond Naruto.

"Uzumaki," he said.

"So, uh, really, dude, it's just a name. Don't let it get to your head and all. I know that it sounds weird and stuff, but that's my real name. Got it all up on my birth certificate and... stuff," Naruto said.

"How far are we from your home?" He had always been quick to avoid trivial conversation. Then again, he was also quick to chalk most topics up as trivial.

Why hadn't they exactly gotten out of this... hospital? That was the other, unsaid question that was tacked to the one he just asked. Hopefully, Naruto would impart him some wisdom to the structure of this odd building. Hopefully. But Sasuke wasn't expecting much from someone like that.

"Couple more minutes before we get to the living quarters. And then a few minutes after that before we actually reach my room." He put his hands on the back of his head and began a more carefree way of walking.

A way of walking which Sasuke didn't approve of at all. He didn't voice his opinion, though the grimace on his face was enough.

To avoid more annoyances on his part, he decided to look at his surroundings and, if possible, remember the path from Uzumaki's room to that room he'd previously stayed in. He wouldn't want to stay completely lost in such a weird place. Besides, there was the possibility that he'd find some sort of exit while he was journeying to the room he was to stay in.

He eyed the hallway they were walking along. Nothing but white walls with the occasional door which also looked as if it was a part of the wall. The walls, as preposterous and new to him as it seemed to have such walls inside a building, were even more boring than the walls in his old home. It didn't at all help that the doors — though they had provided him a bit of an amusement as they just looked so new to him, just like everything else in this weird building — were just as white as the walls and weren't vibrantly painted like the doors in his home.

Naruto glanced at Sasuke. Could anyone really stand to be quiet the way that guy did? Or maybe this was just an old person thing. He remembered that, when not provoked, Jiraiya and Tsunade could be like that, too.

"But, really, would it kill you to call me Naruto?" Naruto asked, deciding to break the silence himself as the other would never make a move to do so. "I mean, I'm even calling you by first name, I think, and it seems kinda odd that I'm the only one going by first name here."

"What if I don't just like your name?" Sasuke asked. "What if I don't like calling people by their surnames?"

Naruto glanced at him. "For someone who spent most of his time acting as a woman from the past, you sure are rude."

"Well, for someone from the future, you do seem stupid."

"Hey! Is that how you repay someone for their hospitality?!"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Hospitality? That pink-haired girl forced you to provide some sort of temporary living arrangement for me. I would hardly call that hospitality. In fact, it seems as if you've even disregarded what she said as you're letting me loan your house."

"What is up with your speech? You sound like someone from the Senate or something!"

Sasuke gave Naruto a stare which effectively voiced that he didn't at all know what Naruto was talking about.

Naruto sighed — Sasuke felt compelled to give the other a glare; he did just that — and said, "Never mind. You just sound so... prim and proper. It's odd, man. I need to get you talking casual."

"Oh, so you would want me to talk barbaric just like you?" Sasuke scoffed. So what if he sounded prim and proper? It was how he was supposed to sound. He was a Namikaze, an Uchiha better yet. They were, by default, supposed to be well-mannered as it was expected of people from a high social status. It would be scandalous if he started sounding like Uzumaki.

"Seriously, man, you're all grrr over me and I haven't even done anything to you!"

"Nothing but be yourself, of course."

Naruto stopped walking and whipped around to look at him. He glared at Sasuke. "And what's wrong about being myself?!"

Sasuke noted that the other seemed to be rather sensitive about topics like those. He would make sure to remember to mock Naruto with it sometime in the future again. That is, if they were to stay near each other for a while. "I could go on and on about it."

Naruto huffed and continued to walk to where his apartment was. Prissy guy from the past was a complete and utter bastard. Without even sounding as crude as most of his friends, too. Pshaw. Just because the wife or husband, or whatever the fuck he was to that Namikaze dude, of some high and mighty clan leader's son didn't mean he was above the rest of the world.

Naruto was not happy about his decision of letting such a guy stay with him.

Sakura-chan definitely owed him one.

Now, he would just have to formulate a plan as to how he could tell her that without managing to get himself beaten to a pulp.

He halted when he noticed that he'd already gone past his door. He went back a couple of steps and punched in some digits on the number pad that was right beside his door. He turned to Sasuke as the door slid open, noticing the other's astonished expression at the door opening automatically.

"Home sweet home for a while, bastard," Naruto said with a cheeky grin.

Sasuke stared at the room presented to him, seemingly shocked. Though why he looked as shocked as that was something Naruto missed.

"Bastard?" Sasuke asked, sounding a bit scandalized.

The two of them were quiet for a while. Sasuke was fuming and Naruto looked like he was contemplating something.

Naruto soon broke the silence yet again by laughing.