Chapter 13

"So why is this so bad?" I asked. When we came home, or some resting spot, Sasuke has not stop steaming. The paper said I have to convince Sasuke's grandparents to accept our "relationship". Neji seems upset too, if upset is by not sitting and bugging everyone by leisurely standing there bitting his lip.

"You know how my father is this powerful controlling freak with a massive empire of seemingly limitless financial funding?" I nodded. "Worse."

"But they're old people." Understand that by my definition of old people, they're generally harmless. Take a look at my oji-san. He's hitting fifty and can still do more push-ups than I can, but he has a brain the size of a monkey's. I've never really met any destructive old people before.

Shikamaru gave me a helpless look. "I think you should re-consider your priorities."

"What does that even mean?"

Kiba suddenly grab my arm, provoking it to shake from his own shakiness. He opened his mouth to say something, but instead stared at me with wide eyes. I poke him uncertainly on the forehead and he fainted. I wasn't sure; I've never attacked a stand still opponent before and this is the most scared I have ever seen him. He mostly thought it was a joke whenever I hurt him. It is unsettling.

"Look, my grandparents are the most..." Sasuke's face scrunched up, thinking really hard. "...doting people in the world. They do not even care about my father; he's just something that produced me."

"Oh," I said, finally getting it. The more love, the more hatred for the son-of-a-bitch who's trying to snatch it away. "But they're still old people. What can they do?"

Everyone shivered. Gaara's clothes even...well, it moved.

"I take it that its pretty bad."

"That's what we've been trying to tell you."

I will not say who said that because although they have said all of this, I'll still don't know what the fuck they're talking about. Exactly how bad is it?

A mansion, if you can call it so. The roof has patches, not very good during the rainy season. Mold hung on every corner which gave off a bad smell like a welcoming committee. The edges of the doorknob to the ground of which it stood tells a history of bad money, bad rep, bad decoration. With a poke of a child, no, a baby, this place would fall under its many hundreds of years of dedication and -.

"Naruto?"

I'm narrating; shut up. Where was I? Yes, dedication and committment to keep this hideous place intact. It would show how bad the situation was. It would give me a sense of hopeless, if only for a little while.

"Naruto!"

"What?!" I shouted back.

"You haven't said anything since we got here. Is something the matter?" asked Sasuke, a bit concern and angry and fear. Mostly just angry.

"Yes. Sasuke? Why are we standing in a field with a big red circle in the middle?," but I didn't let him answer. "We drive for hours and we come upon a field."

"And the circle." Ah, he has time for jokes.

"And the circle," I took a deep breath. "So please explain to me what the hell is going on because I am throughly confused and I do not like to be confused!"

"This one lacks manners. Right, Teyaki-san?"

"The girl, at least, knew better."

Coming across the field was two old people, Sasuke's grandparents to be exact. Following along is Fugaku and his wife. The grandmother is name Uruchi and the other one you already know the name of. Oddly enough they were dressed formally, quite heavily in fact. Both we're large around the mid-section there, something I don't understand in that the weather is nice for a casual dress. It is only minutes away when I realized that I should've brought my gun. The fake gun, of course. I can't exactly kill my future in-laws to-be, no matter how much I want to.

"You have been doing poorly, Fugaku. It is no wonder your sons turned out the way they are," Teyaki said crossly.

"And you, Mikoto, are a disgrace. Women are to be at home taking care of the family and household."

Whoa, these people are so 18th century. But then again, I have never seen Fugaku look smaller. Middle of a field with nice weather and Fugaku being scold; its a great feeling. Matter of fact, the feeling is so great that when Sasuke pulled on my sleeve and asked my something, I being the idiot said yes, whatever. That yes, whatever almost cost me my life.

"So...you're actually agreeing?" Kiba asked, shock.

"Yeah. Wait, what was the question?"

With there not being a table, Neji slapped himself instead. Thank god for Gaara then because he cut this knife flying right at me! I-I'm you know...where the hell did that knife come from, you know? I'm a little shock too. What happened next will make me...it is beyond word.

Teyaki grunted in annoyance that I hadn't been pierced to death. He looked at his wife and the next thing I knew they stripped. Children alert! Children alert! Old people gone wild! But no, they didn't completely strip. It was like watching an action movie. They both pulled off the outer layer of their clothes as they were flying through the air to reveal a ninja style outfit. Flying through the fucking air?! Everyone's jaw is touching the fucking ground. Flying. They are flying. Flipping, whatever. The point is this is fucking serious. And the whole ninja outfit? Damn.

"Let us begin."

"Huh? Begin? Begin what?"

Sasuke frown. I don't think this is time for frowning, but whatever. "You agreed to fight them."

"F-Fight?! Are you for real?"

Neji tap me over the head. "This is the only way they will accept your relationship with Sasuke."

I look at each of them to see if they were serious. They are. I turn to Gaara helplessly, who only gentle guide me into the red circle. "By the way, you'll lose if your feet touches outside of the circle."

"WHAT?!"

Teyaki pulled out a katana and aimed it at me. "Get ready, Uzumaki Naruto."

"I-I-I...!"

I should not have dressed casual.

A kunai is zooming towards me. I'm running for life and then the lady comes out of nowhere with a sword, swinging and swinging. I have only one thing to say. "I AM GOING TO KILL YOU, SAAAAAAAASUKE! YOU BASTARD, ONE DAY YOU'LL PAY! YOU'LL PAY!"

Okay, I had three things to say.

"Hey, old people!" I yelled at them when I'm at a safe distance. "Look I don't want to hurt you."

My eyes were alert on every one of their weapons. Shurikans, kunais, all stuff that was suppose to be extinct are very violent and currently I am its target. At my comment, their weapons aimed more accurately at parts that would hurt the most on my body.

"Uruchi-san, we are being underestimated."

Great. The son brings home his boyfriend and suddenly everybody's trippin'. If that's the case then... I stop running around and turn to face them.

Uruchi took out three knives with her right hand. "It looks as if he is serious," she said, nodding to her husband then throwing the knives.

I dodged them and ran past Teyaki as he charged by. Uruchi took out more weapons and swiftly chuck them at me. I side-stepped her and ran straight towards the one who started all this. "SAAAAASUKE!" I shouted as I jump and brought the katana down. Damn, missed. "You jerk. Stand still so I can hit you!"

"N-Naruto, calm down." He duck as I mercilessly went for his head. "I thought we talked this through last night!"

"Talked it through? We did, but I'm still pissed!" I was going to chop off one of his limps however, Teyaki attacked me from behind. Before he hit, though, I brought up the katana to block it. I caught his incredulous stare at the weapon.

"When did you -?"

We both back away, him to his wife. I grin mischievously. "Well, what's a boy to do when face against such opponents." I swung the sword around and offered a hand to them. "Come." I took a step forward and... I flew. As I was flying, like a rocket launcher, I thought, 'when in the seven hells did they plant a mine?!'. I'm falling out of the circle. I'm gonna lose. Sigh. Somehow I feel like 'not' losing, like I want to win. Curse Sasuke for giving me self-confidence. Well, I've always had self-confidence; wonder what this is then?

"Naruto!"

What a bother.

Stab.

"Sasuke, you really are too complicated." A good deal of the sword was impaled into the ground with myself angled on top of it. Without wasting a moment, I propelled myself back into the circle, using a rope to pull the sword back into my hand. I sigh again as I tied a satchel around my waist. I didn't bother to see how surprise Uruchi was to find one of her satchel missing. "But I guess its alright."

Fighting, fighting, fighting, blah blah blah. Let's get to the main point. I can't take anymore of this fighting. I went for Teyaki because he's a guy. I used his wife as bait to get him close to the circle. Obviously if I attempt to use any physical contact, he'll just fight me off. So quick as a fly, I lean forward (chicken shit) and of course he stepped (also falling) back...right out of the circle.

"WATCH OUT!!"

I turned and saw the kunai. Instinctively, I ducked, but Teyaki had not noticed it and got up right in its range. Again, the stupid instinct made me reach out and grab it. I look at the thing in my hand. That is a lot of blood. I wince as I took it out of my hand. Immediately, Sasuke grabbed my hand and wrapped it with a bandage. The bandage oodly resembles a piece of his shirt.

"Are you alright?" Uruchi asked Teyaki.

I gave her a look. "Is he alright?"

My comment was ignored. Neji step in and instantly declared my victory. "Naruto has passed your test then you should also accept them."

I was paying more attention to my hand then the conversation so I missed about half of it. Sasuke was worrying about my hand too so he missed the whole conversation. But when the pain in my hand subsided and I heard the words 'he saved Teyaki' then it continued on why I saved him. Uruchi came up with the conclusion about how I'm kind and stuff. "Bitch, please. If he dies, I'll go to jail. You think anybody will believe me when I tell them you two are assassins? Fuck no."

"He still has a bad mouth," said an annoyed Uruchi.

"Yes, but tell me, boy, if you are not kind then why did you held yourself back when fighting us? You noticed something wrong with my back and even disgusing it as a blow, it helped me."

"The answer is obvious, you moron. I don't have any insurance," I said, earning weird looks and such. "What if you break something? At your age, your bones are as brittle as twigs and I am not paying for your medical bills." I smirk at Fugaku. "Still, I won so you can't say or do anything about us. Ow!"

Sasuke had pulled on the bandage to make it tighter, but his irritated look made me think it was on purpose. "You still have two more tasks left."

He's not looking at me? I followed his gaze to his mother. Right, she hasn't said anything this whole time. Now that I look at her, there's an unreadable expression on her face. Unreadable? I don't have much experience with mothers so what they're thinking is impossible for me to see. I guess it comes from my experience. This would be bad. My second task is getting her approval.

"Sasuke, I'm sorry." She smiled at him.

See what I mean by unreadable? I can't understand that.

"I haven't been a very good mother; I haven't been here to take care of you," at this thought, her smile became sad. "So your decisions in partners, I can't decide for you. The only thing I can do will be to give you my blissings."

"Mother." Wow, very nice.

"Mikoto!" Fugaku looked ready to blow. Mikoto glanced coldly at him, probably thinking he was just a bother. Everybody tensed as an unthinkingable thing happened. He raised his hand in the manner of a slap.

"Fugaku," warned Teyaki.

Fugaku gritted his teeth and left.

A week passed and Sasuke decided to have a talk with his father. I waited. I stare at the phone, remembering Neji's words. He said to call him if Sasuke doesn't return in two hours. But by two hours Sasuke could be shipped to the Atlantic. Oji-san went over to oba-san for a drink. Yup, that means he won't be back for three days. I have no idea what they do over there, but they know enough to give me some space. Kakashi and Iruka needed some time together, but Kiba said he'll inform them of what happened. I expect Iruka to come exploding in in a couple of days, limping.

This is good. Everyone has someone to depend on. Yeah for me. It means they don't have to come bitching to me. No, there are sure to be romantic problems. Aw crap. I bet Neji will be the first one. Gaara's a difficult kid, but they all survived nine months together. Surely I'll free from their problems. However there is a saying among teenagers. The first few months are great, but when you get to truly know each other, that's when hell starts. Its not an actual saying, but it is true.

"I'm back."

I remained on the couch. Sasuke walked in and laid down on my lap. "Tired?"

"...he said he'll think about it."

"Those exact words?"

"No."

For Fugaku to even come close to saying something like that, its an improvement.

"But you still have to do the third task."

I was about to shove him off me when he started telling me what happened between the two. Long story short, Fugaku only dislikes me because I can't support Sasuke. It means he doesn't really care if Sasuke's gay or not. Shocker, huh? He didn't say this exactly. He more or less went on and on about my financial situation and my dark future, even bringing up my record. You get the point.

"So he doesn't care if you're gay?"

"Naruto," Sasuke said, annoyed.

"What? I'm just a little surprise. I mean, he lookes like a really anti-gay person. For him not to be, I'm thinking hell might freeze over."

He rolled his eyes humourously before attempting to kiss me. Attempt because I pull away. "What's the matter?"

"I want to break up."

"What?" he said, amused by my sudden declaration.

"I'm serious." I held up the third task, trying not to smile. "This is impossible so we might as well break up."

"Naruto," he said.

I stood up and dramatically walked around. "This is, like, sooooooo super hard," I said, slurring the words a bit.

"Naruto," he repeated, getting up and pulling me closer to him.

"Hmm?" I hummed out, leaning my head this way and that.

He silenced my joke with a kiss.

But I really do think this third task is impossible.

End.

A/N: One of my reviewers is a little piss and can't understand why I haven't updated regularly. I, too, hate it when other people do that, but unlike them, I have a perfect excuse. Since last month, I have not been home all week except on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I was at a place where there were no computers, which is torture. All I had to do all day was write numbers, 3 and 5 repeatedly on over 200 freaking cards. And when there isn't that, there is nothing to do. I do mean absolutely nothing. I was the only person of my age there, except for the customers. Not even my customers because then I would have something to do. By the time I get home, it is around nine and I had gotten up at freaking seven. I was BORED! When I am home, I have stuff to catch up on, study, iron some clothes etc. Its not much of an excuse, but I'm kinda lazy so... Everyone says they're lazy, but I'm more mediocre lazy, compare to some. I can write a little each day, but I have homework.

Oh I also have piano practice. By myself. In this four corner room.