When I was looking through some old files on my computer, I suddenly found this. I had forgotten about it, but I edited it a little and decided to make the best of it... It's not much, but I hope you can enjoy it, even after such a long time…

-oXo-

Epilogue

Date unknown

Sasuke stared at Naruto, who was almost the same height he was, and waited for the blond to speak. The raven was annoyed, and wanted to go home. He had just done another stupid D-rank mission along with Sakura and Naruto, and hoped he would soon be allowed to do more than these simple and mostly boring jobs. It had almost been a year since he had started doing the missions.

Not that he would ever complain; he knew it was a part of his punishment, and he had to admit that with Naruto joining him -and maybe even Sakura and Kakashi as well- it made the punishment more bearable.

"So? Why are we standing here?" he finally asked the uncharacteristically silent Naruto. He looked up to the oak tree they stood under. It was filled with tiny acorns. Behind it was a small bakery, surrounded by dwellings. There was a small open place behind him, like a tiny square. When he looked down he saw a droplet of water fall on the stones at his feet.

"Well," Naruto muttered softly. "I just thought…" He looked away from Sasuke.

It had only been three weeks since they had gone on their 'first date' to the Hokage monument. Naruto was still not very used to the idea of them liking each other, which made him react in very cute ways, like making him blush red more than necessary (in Sasuke's opinion). Not that he cared, because he liked Naruto acting in this way.

"Thought?" Sasuke asked. A couple of rain droplets made soft ticking sounds on the leaves of the oak tree.

To his surprise Naruto, with puffed cheeks, turned to look at him. "I don't want to go home yet," he said almost childishly, folding his arms.

This unsettled Sasuke a little. "Eh?"

Naruto shook his head. "Today's missions were over so quickly. I don't have any missions of my own…" he lowered his head, "baa-chan must have forgotten about me…" Then suddenly he looked up again. "And I don't know what to do now."

Thinking it was not unusual for Naruto to be bored and whiney over something like this, Sasuke leant against the tree to listen to Naruto's rambling. This could take a while.

It started to rain harder, and Naruto got closer to the trunk as well, leaning against it next to Sasuke, their shoulders almost touching.

"You mind standing here for a bit?" Naruto asked suddenly.

Surprised by the lack of words, Sasuke glanced to Naruto. "Hm," he shrugged.

Naruto smiled.

They watched the small square as the stones turned a dark colour, and people quickly moved away to get some shelter from the spring rain.

"I think Sakura-chan doesn't really like me," Naruto suddenly said.

"You only noticed now?" Sasuke joked.

Naruto glared at Sasuke. "I mean… since… you know…" His whiskered cheeks soon rivalled the Kyuubi's fur in colour. He turned his head away.

"Since… I kissed you?" Sasuke finished Naruto's sentence. His heart skipped a beat at the memory of their lips touching back in that alley.

Naruto did not answer, and was so silent that Sasuke started to wonder if he had gone deaf. "She's just… you know… being a girl."

Naruto turned his head back to Sasuke. "A girl?" he asked, and it almost sounded like he had never realised that she was a girl.

"Yeah, they get all…" Sasuke waved his hand, "you know when…" He glanced at Naruto curtly before mumbling 'it's Sakura' and turned his head away.

Naruto was obviously amused by Sasuke's behaviour, and seemed to have forgotten his own problems rather rapidly. He watched the bluish black spikes, the cloth of the blue headband, and the round shape of Sasuke's ear. He had a tiny birthmark there, Naruto noticed. He was wearing his white long sleeved shirt, the dark pants and the blue cloth twisted around his waist, held together by a purple rope.

Suddenly Sasuke felt a finger prick in his side. "Na, Sasuke, why are you still wearing these clothes?"

Sasuke looked into Naruto's blue eyes. "Why are you still wearing those orange pants?"

Naruto pouted, his eyes narrowed in annoyance, and turned to look at the square. "I like orange," he muttered.

They listened to the sound of the rain falling, watching some people hiding under their umbrella as they went to the small bakery.

Suddenly Sasuke felt a soft touch against his hand. He looked down without moving his head, making it look like he had not noticed the touch. Then he felt Naruto's fingers brush against the side of his hand again.

He noticed from the corners of his eyes how a soft red tint spread over Naruto's cheeks, making Sasuke smile ever so slightly. Still staring at the square, he calmly waited for Naruto to finally complete his failing attempts. Fist he felt two fingers move between his loose fingers, carefully followed by more. He opened his hand ever so slightly, and welcomed Naruto's warm hand into his own.

Neither looked at the other; neither spoke. They just stood there, holding hands, while the rain kept falling.

-oxo-

Naruto stood with his hands in his sides, looking up at a big banner above his head. On it someone had written in a nice straight handwriting the word 'tournament'. Naruto grinned and looked up to the tall raven standing next to him.

Sasuke looked down at Naruto, seeing his huge grin.

Today Kiba and Sakura had arranged a competition to be held between their friends, including their senseis. Tsunade had approved of it, and had arranged an area where they could fight; safely, far away from the village. She was there as well, to watch the fights.

The fight would take place in an arena-like training field just outside Konoha. Some other ninjas had heard about it, and had come as well, wanting to see this tournament among high skilled shinobi. The word of the friendly tournament had spread rather fast -for some strange reason- , and had attracted a lot of people, even normal civilians.

Naruto had been very excited about it, and had been happily humming all morning. He had never really fought in a tournament, not like this. Nothing depended on it and it was purely friendly, but it was so very exciting. Akira had wanted to come as well, and Sasuke had only approved if he would stay with Iruka and Naruto's students, who of course didn't want to miss any of this either.

Naruto looked over to Sasuke. "Ready to finish our last fight?"

Sasuke grinned. "You bet."

They entered the field and walked over to the others already waiting there. There was Gai, Kurenai, Lee, Tenten, Neji, Chouji, Ino, Shakiamru, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Sai and Sakura. Once the joined the others Sasuke turned around and could see Akira up on the tribune, sitting between Iruka and Eri.

They didn't have to wait very long; somehow Kakashi had been only a little late, which of course was highly unusual. Tsunade held up a big pot filled with small balls on which had been painted the numbers 1 to 16.

"This didn't change into a bingo afternoon, did it?" Kiba asked grinning.

"Everyone will be assigned a number. According to the number on the ball that you will draw from the pot, you will be placed in a match." Tsunade answered. She pointed to a board behind her on which a contestant schema was drawn like a family tree. All the way at the bottom were written all the numbers one through 16. Number 1 was positioned to fight with number 2, 3 with 4 and so on. Under each number was space to add a name.

"Right."

"Everyone will draw a number as soon as you have lined up," Tsunade explained. "Okay, but first I will explain the rules. Rule number one: stay inside the arena, you can go underground and in the sky, but not go over or under the walls of this place. Rule number two: when it comes to the fight, I will decide when to start and stop the fight, and you will not argue with me. Rule number three: I decide on the winner and loser, no argue possible here either. That was that."

Everyone nodded and Tsunade continued. "This competition has been arranged by Kiba and Sakura; don't come to me for any of your complaints."

"You helped as well, Tsunade-sama," Sakura reminded her with a smile.

"Hai, hai," Tsunade waved her hand. "All right, let's start." Tsunade called everyone, one by one, to her and let them draw a ball from the pot. Every time someone drew a ball, they could hear the other plastic balls move inside before Tsunade wrote down the combination of the two fighting contestants. Finally the pot was empty and she stood up. "Alright, everything is written down. The first fight will be between Sai and Sasuke."

"Hn."

Sasuke and Sai walked up to the field and stood very still opposite of each other while the rest retreated to the side, where there was a waiting area. This was a little to the left of Tsunade, who sat on a small platform so that she looked down a little on the field.

Naruto bent a little to Sakura. "This could get interesting."

Sakura grinned. "Or very boring."

Naruto laughed.

Tsunade gave the sign for the match to start, and immediately Sai pulled out his drawing set. He had already drawn a number of animals before Sasuke had even lifted a hand. For some reason Sasuke just stood staring at him even though the beasts Sai'd drawn ran towards him, still lifting his hand. It soon became clear why Sasuke was so very, very calm.

Sai followed Sasuke's hand, making sure to see which weapon he would draw, only to be surprised when the hand moved over the weapon's pouch, over his katana, higher over his chest and finally a finger moved to his nose.

At that very moment Sai knew that he had been tricked. He looked up into Sasuke red eyes. His Sharingan changed into a Mangekyou Sharingan, and Sai was caught in a powerful genjutsu.

Some people in the crowd stood up when Sai's beast dripped to the floor in a puddle of ink. Neither man moved, and the normal citizens in the crowd started wondering why nothing was happening. However, not even a minute had passed when Sai fell to the ground, panting.

"A boring one," Naruto nodded, looking down at the pink-haired woman standing beside him, hanging over the railing. "You were right."

Sakura swore loudly, telling Sai how stupid he'd been, and that she had at least expected a little more of him. But Sai didn't seem to be bothered by it. After Tsunade had declared Sasuke's victory, Sai let Sakura pull him off the ground and guide him back to the waiting area. There he seemed to enjoy her screaming and caring hands checking out his body for injuries.

After Sasuke had been declared winner, Shino and Tenten followed them up for the next battle. After a long and exciting fight, Shino won just by a hair and maybe some luck. Next followed the match between Kakashi against Shikamaru, which Shikamaru lost. No-one was sure if it had been because of laziness or because he'd actually lost. Probably only the two of them knew.

Shikamaru lazily strolled back to the waiting area, followed by Kakashi, and yawned as he lay down on a wooden bench. The crowd didn't really seem very thrilled to watch the match, but would soon cheer in excitement and joy as next up were Gai and Lee.

This turned out to be a rather interesting fight. They really gave it their all, and Naruto had been very thrilled to watch the fight. Sakura was cheering Lee on from beside Naruto while Sasuke silently watched, his red eyes following every movement they made on the field.

At long last both Gai and Lee seemed very worn from their match, and both were in tears when Gai had punched Lee as his final move, which had knocked Lee out for a good couple of seconds.

Tsunade wrote down Gai's name on the board before reading aloud the next contestants. "Kiba against Naruto."

Kiba smirked, his sharp canines showing as he turned his face to Naruto, arms folded over his chest. "Haha, I have to fight fox-boy."

Naruto frowned. "Shut it, Kiba. Better be prepared for some payback time." He pointed at the brunette.

Kiba's grin didn't wither. "Don't know what you are talking about, pretty boy."

Naruto's right eye twitched, as did his right ear. "Oooh," he growled angrily, following Kiba and his dog onto the field.

-oxo-

Standing next to a tree his eyes were scanning his surroundings. It was like Naruto was waiting for someone, or something to happen. He turned his head slowly, looking around, his blond spikes blown to one side by the warm summer breeze.

His sparkling blue eyes, looking somewhat lighter today, were searching for something. From left to right they moved; first over the few trees to his left, the grass, the street, a few houses, and a bridge to his right.

Taking a deep breath when he didn't find what he was looking for, he leant back against the tree, and looked up into the green deck of leaves. A few seeds of the maple tree came whirling down; looking like small helicopters as they slowly turned around their axes, floating on the wind. A smile appeared on his face as he followed a few of the dancing feather-like seeds.

Some of the seeds landed in his yellow hair and on his clothes. Brushing them off his orange and black jacket, he noticed his black pants, traded for his usual orange one by request. He didn't really agree to the change, but from the moment ramen had been involved he didn't really care about what he was asked to wear anymore.

He looked up to the slightly pinkish tinted pale blue sky. It was still early, and not a lot of people were up yet. The only people out on the streets were early birds to go to the market, or were getting ready for work.

His eyes followed a few people as they passed by for a while, but he soon started to get bored. A few passers-by noticed him standing in the brown playfully twirling snow. Again he shook his head to get rid of the maple offspring.

"Naruto," a deep soft voice suddenly sounded from behind him. He turned around to his left to find a slightly pale face, framed by bluish black hair, and dark eyes staring into his as if they were looking into his soul. He hadn't expected the person next to him to be standing on such a short distance, their noses almost touching.

"Wha! Sasuke!" Naruto took a step back in surprise, his right arm moving up as if he wanted to protect his face. This earned him a smirk from the Uchiha. "Teme," Naruto mumbled, narrowing his eyes.

Sasuke's smirk didn't disappear while his eyes narrowed. "Dobe."

Naruto pouted. "You're late," he frowned, and folded his arms over his chest in protest.

Sasuke arrogantly heaved his head a little. "I'm not," he simply stated, not finding it necessary to explain himself.

Naruto looked back, still waiting for the explanation to come, but it didn't. "You're not?" he decided to ask, following every movement Sasuke made, seeing how he looked to his left, then back to Naruto before looking at him from head till toe.

"You're wearing the black pants," the Uchiha stated.

Naruto's eyebrows rose since he had been waiting for an answer to his question, not for another question. Then he looked down when he saw Sasuke stare at his pants. "Huh, oh, yeah." He looked up again, smiling. "You promised me ramen."

Sasuke's mouth curved up ever so slightly. Naruto was so easily distracted. He moved his hand to Naruto's shoulder, brushing off some maple seeds. Then he turned around and walked off.

After a few seconds Naruto realised Sasuke was just walking away without saying a single word. He had to take a small sprint to catch up. "What are we going to do?" he asked, looking around a little nervously as if very aware of his surroundings all of a sudden.

Sasuke noticed this, but didn't say anything. He just kept walking without saying a word, leaving his thin lips sealed.

Naruto tried not to be curious, and instead took a few breaths, telling himself not to ask anything. To distract himself from the silence between the two, Naruto decided to take a look at Sasuke, glancing at him from the side.

He was wearing his usual dark blue pants and white long sleeved shirt with a big red fan, the family symbol, on the back. The shirt, a bit too white for Naruto's taste, was loosely wrapped around his torso; his bare chest visible, showing his pale but certainly attractive features. The high collar masked his mouth from Naruto's position, making it hard for the blond to decide if he was frowning or smirking. His thin eyebrows were curved downward ever so slightly, and his darks eyes looked serious. They were hard, but also not. They were arrogant, but also not. Naruto wasn't quite sure how that was possible, but now that he was thinking about it, he was sure a couple of months ago he would have only been able to see the hard arrogant look. However, at this very moment he saw more than that, even though he could not exactly say what else it was that he saw.

Finally noticing the blue eyes on him, Sasuke looked over to Naruto, turning his head ever so slightly. His expression didn't change.

Quickly Naruto gave Sasuke a goofy grin, and turned to look forward to where they were walking. After a few seconds Sasuke turned his head back to the street as well.

Sasuke could feel the tension rise within Naruto. Slowly the kettle was starting to boil. He liked seeing Naruto like this: the blond really tried not to be curious, but he was. It was his nature, and he would never be able to do anything against it, as hard as he might try. Just a few more minutes, before they would reach the end of the street, Naruto would explode, and Sasuke would be sprayed with a rain of questions.

Which he would ignore as if he was a deaf man.

Smirking internally, he counted down to Naruto's boiling point.

Soon, before they would round the corner of the street, he would find out he had been right.

"Where are we going? Why don't you say anything? Is it a secret or something? You know you can tell me, right? Are we going to the training field? What do you have in mind? Why won't you tell? What about the ramen you promised? Are you listening to me?"

Noticing Sasuke was ignoring him, Naruto started to get even more irritated. "Teme! You ask me to come here in the middle of the night, only to arrive late, which you never do! And now you expect me to just follow you? Tell me, where are we going? Sasuke, you bastard, where are you taking me?"

So predictable. Naruto would probably soon stop walking, refusing to take another single step.

Naruto grunted, balled his fists, and -indeed- stopped walking; not satisfied by not getting an answer to any one of his questions, or even a single glance. "I will not keep following you like this until you tell me where we're headed!" To emphasize his words he pounded his foot onto the ground, making sure that Sasuke heard him come to a sudden halt.

However, Sasuke still continued walking, as if nothing was going on behind him. Unable to stay rooted to the spot for much longer, with Sasuke getting away further and further, Naruto had to move again. Muttering and grumbling, clenching and unclenching his fists, the blond strode forward until he was on level with the raven once more.

Already knowing what was about to come, Sasuke took a step to his right, at the same moment Naruto wanted to grab his arm.

Noticing he had missed the raven didn't do much good for the blond's mood. He looked at Sasuke's back, and once more started walking to catch up with the ever silent Uchiha. Almost literally shaking from anger, Naruto raised his arm, only to bump into Sasuke when the raven had suddenly stopped walking.

"Argh, teme! What are you-" Naruto stopped when he saw Sasuke's face, looking ever so slightly down upon him. "What?" he asked, pursing his lips indignantly.

Sasuke slowly blinked, waiting for Naruto to calm down a little, but when he noticed that his own calmness was probably irritating Naruto even more, he decided to speak up. He had successfully managed to draw Naruto's attention from their surroundings long enough.

"There," he said, pointing somewhere to his right.

Curiously Naruto looked around Sasuke, trying to find out what he was pointing at. "Where?" he asked, not finding anything he could imagine Sasuke would point at. To their left was a park, but Sasuke's finger was aimed at a few houses to their right.

Sasuke sighed, seeing Naruto's brain work overtime for something like this. "Where am I pointing at?"

Naruto looked up to Sasuke, who had an empty expression on his face. "Ehm… to some houses?"

Sasuke nodded. "Go on."

Naruto took a better look at the houses, having to peer around Sasuke again. "Dwellings, a bakery…" Naruto looked up to Sasuke, looking for confirmation.

"Look at my finger," Sasuke told him again.

As if Sasuke was a statue that Naruto had to examine, the blond walked around Sasuke, taking in all angles of the pointing finger. Finally he moved his head next to the hand, closing one eye, and tried to follow the pointing finger.

Sasuke wanted to roll his eyes as Naruto held his arm to keep himself steady. "Don't move," Naruto told him. Now he did roll his eyes.

"Okay, I think I see…" Naruto said slowly, "I think that is…"

Starting to believe he might have made a mistake kissing the blond in the back of that alley, Sasuke narrowed his eyes. (Of course he hadn't made a mistake; he's Sasuke after all).

"What am I looking at exactly?" Naruto asked, looking up to Sasuke, still holding his arm in place.

Sasuke looked up to the sky to calm himself down.

"Uh, Sasuke? Are you alright?" Naruto asked a bit worried.

"Dobe."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "I guess you're fine then."

"I'm pointing at that big oak tree, can't you see?"

"Really?" Naruto followed the finger, still floating in the air. Then, "oooooh, now I see."

Sasuke started walking toward the tree.

"So, why a tree?" Naruto asked, following behind Sasuke.

Sasuke said nothing, and again silence was all that came from Sasuke as the two of them walked up to that tree.

-oxo-

Naruto jumped backwards over Kiba to dodge Akamaru. Kiba looked up while he had been running at Naruto, and watched how the blond almost seemed to fly through the air, all the while facing Kiba as if the axis of his jump was between both their heads. Naruto's hands were crossed as he reached for the shuriken holster at his right leg with his left hand and with his right hand moved pulled out a kunai from his sleeve.

Before Kiba could turn around Naruto had already landed behind him. Quickly Kiba kicked backward, and barely missed Naruto because the blond jumped out of reach, throwing the kunai and shuriken in the process.

It almost looked like Naruto was merely playing with Kiba, which frustrated the brunette even more so when he saw the smile on Naruto's face. He growled and began doing some hand signs, Akamaru coming up beside him.

Naruto stopped, wondering what Kiba was about to do, and brought his hands together, ready to make some Bunshins. However, before he could even put his fingers together the ground underneath him began to shake, and suddenly without warning came upward. The ground moved him high into the sky so fast that Naruto was pushed against the ground as it rose higher and higher into the sky, like a spike shooting up from the ground.

As the height of the growing tower of dirt grew, the smaller the area on the top became. The ground to the sides sometimes just stopped growing along with the rest, making the top smaller and look more like a sharp tip. Naruto had trouble to keep himself balanced on the rapidly decreasing area on which he tried to stand.

And then suddenly the growing stopped. Naruto was launched a few meters further into the air due to the momentum he had obtained as he had been pushed up by the ground. However, he made a slight direction adjustment, turned in the air, and gracefully landed on top of the spike that was now barely big enough to place one foot on.

He looked down at what seemed like a 200 m depth. He had to squeeze his eyes a bit to see what happened on the ground. He could barely distinguish Akamaru as he emerged from the ground, probably having set some traps.

Naruto waved his fox tail behind him as he crouched down on the tip of the sharp rock, one hand touching the spike while the other moved to his hip, hovering over his weapon's pouch. His hair waved in the wind, his fox ears as well; the wind was strong up here. He observing and weighed down his options.

All the way down, Kiba was grinning as he looked up. He wondered how Naruto would get out of this. He had set traps all around the spike, there was no way Naruto could come down and step onto the ground without stepping on at least one of them. Kiba narrowed his eyes. All he had to do now was wait, wait for Naruto to step onto the ground.

He watched how Naruto's red tail swished behind him, moving like a flag in the wind. Then suddenly the blond moved his hands together in his famous hand sign while he straightened up. Kiba couldn't imagine how making Kage Bunshins was supposed to help Naruto so far high up while he barely had space to keep on standing there on one foot.

Smoke formed around Naruto as two Bunshins formed at either side of him. They both stepped against the side of the tip of the spike, holding a hand of the Naruto in the middle, like acrobats. They all looked down for a moment before suddenly the middle Naruto let go of the two Naruto's at his side. As they began to fall a lot of things happened in a very short time.

The middle Naruto dived graciously into the depth, following the other two blonds, and Kiba's eyes widened. Did Naruto want to kill himself?

Naruto's two clones moved their feet down, toward the surface of the spike, which was growing in surface the further they moved down. Finally their feet touched the surface of the spike, and they began running down.

Suddenly Kiba heard Akamaru give a bark before a whining sound followed. He looked around and saw another clone of Naruto holding Akamaru to the ground. When had he made that clone?

When he turned back it was just in time to see the two clones disappear from his sight, just like that, vanishing into thin air. The next thing he knew was that it felt like he was being pulled backwards, and before he could fully realise what had actually happened he was pinned to the ground by his arms by clones that had only seconds before been running down at him, even though they had still been many meters away from him.

He now had a clear view of the real Naruto as he dived down directly toward him. He saw orange chakra flare as two giant Rasengans were formed, one in each hand.

Kiba's eyes widened as he tried to free himself.

He wouldn't, would he? No, Naruto couldn't do such a thing.

Nonetheless he felt quite frightened as the two orange balls came closer rapidly. He closed his eyes.

He felt the ground on either side of him crush and crumble as a force met the ground. When he finally dared to open his eyes again he saw Naruto hanging over him, sitting on his hunches as he grinned broadly at Kiba. A finger hovered over his face and flicked his nose.

"Gotcha."

Right at the moment that Kiba had closed his eyes, Naruto had let the Rasengans dissolve in the air, and had turned his body so he could land on both feet.

Kiba stared wide-eyed at Naruto, and when he glanced to his right, to the other waiting in to the side of the field, he noticed more stunned faces. Naruto had survived that fall? Without breaking any bones?

Naruto stood up and pulled his leg back over Kiba, like he hadn't just jumped from such a great height which would surely have splintered the bones in everyone else's legs.

"You were a bit scared there, weren't you?" Naruto asked.

However, before Kiba could answer, Naruto had turned around and slowly began walking back to the waiting room, his hands behind the back of his head. Kiba felt the two clones that had been holding him down help him up before they disappeared. With another 'poof' Akamaru was freed as well.

As the dog came to stand next to him, Kiba patted him on the head. "You did fine, boy." Finally he was able to grin again. He had lost from Naruto… again; had underestimated him again.

"Uzumaki is the winner. Next is Hinata against," Tsunade looked at the whiteboard, "Chouji."

During Hinata's and Chouji's fight Hinata actually knocked Chouji out, giving him a bloody nose that didn't stop for at least half an hour. The next fight was between Ino and Neji, which was over rather quickly.

Ino had already said so from the start, and everybody knew it was true, that she worked better in a team. Ino-Shika-Cho had the best teamwork from all of them.

Last was the fight between Sakura against Kurenai. Kurenai used her genjutsu against Sakura, but over the years Sakura had become a pro at deflecting and fighting off genjutsus, with help from Sasuke. So in the end Sakura won this battle.

Tsunade stood up and looked up to the results of the first round. She turned to the cheering crowd. "Let's start the second round. Sasuke. Shino. Come forward." The Hokage watched the two stoic men walk onto the field, and after facing each other they just stared at one another.

"Win for me, Sasuke-chan!" Naruto shouted, grinning widely. "Make it spectacular."

-oxo-

Standing next to the oak tree, Naruto looked up and down the big trunk until his eyes reached the deck of leaves. He didn´t see anything special at all.

"So…?" Naruto asked, looking down to Sasuke.

An eerie smile slowly spread over Sasuke's face, making Naruto slightly nervous.

"What?" the blond asked. "What?" he asked more urgently when Sasuke's expression didn't change nor when he said anything. "If you don't tell, I'll go away." No reaction. "I'll really leave!"

Sasuke's smile became smaller, and even slightly confused. "You don't remember?"

Naruto and Sasuke stared at each other for a while.

"Eh, should I?" Naruto asked, grinning awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. Had he forgotten something important to Sasuke?

"You don't," Sasuke stated, turning a bit away from Naruto. Instead he leant against the tree.

"Maybe you should help me remember?" Naruto asked, moving in front of Sasuke.

"No, never mind." Sasuke turned away once more.

"I'm sorry?" Naruto said, moving in view again.

Sasuke pushed himself away from the tree and began walking again. Naruto quickly followed.

"Wait, why don't you tell me?" Naruto caught up to Sasuke and fell in step beside him.

"No, it's not important, just forget it." Sasuke walked on with a face that showed nothing.

Naruto started to get both frustrated by Sasuke ignoring him and to get more and more curious as to what he should have remembered.

"Does it have to do with a mission?" he guessed. Lately he had accompanied Sasuke on a lot of D-rank missions (Sasuke couldn't do any higher missions yet because of his punishment).

"Just drop it."

Naruto didn't. "It was during a mission?"

"Hn." Sasuke stopped walking.

Naruto stopped beside him, standing at the side of a busy road. "When we were alone?" Naruto continued. Sakura and Naruto both liked to go along with Sasuke on his missions, just to be together as a team again.

Sasuke looked left and right before he took a few steps forward as he had the opportunity to cross. Then he stopped again for people to pass him.

"It was after Sakura had left." Naruto wasn't really asking anymore since he knew he wouldn't get an answer, and at the same time something seemed to dawn on him. Unfortunately it was something he couldn't quite put his finger on. It was like trying to remember a dream.

Sasuke took another couple of steps, looking around where all these people came from.

"We walked back home together." Naruto narrowed his eyes. "But we stopped before taking separate roads."

A few more steps, they were halfway now.

"Or did we go to Ichiraku?" Naruto grinned at the thought.

Sasuke saw that there was a market going on, and someone was shouting something, but he turned his head back to the road and shuffled further in the streams of people.

"No, we did not." Naruto said, almost run over by an old lady, earning him a slap on his shoulder from her (strangely heavy) purse. "Ouch," he said, rubbing his arm while following the raven. "Was it that time we were waiting under that tree?"

Sasuke stopped. Some people gave him some glares, but no one hit him in the shoulder like they did with Naruto while he tried to stay standing in the moving crowd.

"You remember?" Sasuke asked. On the background a deep voice could be heard screaming 'half prize!'.

"I…" Naruto decided to do something he did not do very often. He decided to think first before speaking. Should he tell the truth, that he still didn't remember? All he remembered was them standing under a tree. Maybe he should say he did remember, just to please Sasuke. Maybe Sasuke would talk again, and Naruto would be able to find out what it was Sasuke wanted him to remember later.

"I d-"

"You don't." Sasuke's eyes narrowed. Then he took Naruto's arm and pulled him out of the crowd. Together, standing flat against a building, Sasuke looked around to Naruto. "But you tried."

Naruto saw the dark eyes and knew it was okay. He didn't see a particular emotion on his face, or a small movement of his mouth or eyebrows, but he could see it in those black eyes.

"I did," Naruto grinned sheepishly.

"Let's go then." Sasuke moved his head, indicating for them to move away from the busy street. "I would like to take you somewhere else."

-oxo-

As Sasuke stood there, standing still just like before, Shino lifted his arm toward him. A swarm of bugs, a black mass, flew from his sleeve and got bigger and bigger. The thick, and dark, veil of insects moved as one toward Sasuke. The raven knew not to bother setting a genjutsu upon Shino. His bugs wouldn't be affected.

Instead he formed some hand signs and shouted, "Katon: Gouryuuka no jutsu!" and a giant dragon's head formed in the fire, flying at them. The first layer of bugs were all burned, the second layer however survived and still flew in the direction of Sasuke, but as the smoke and the fire cleared Sasuke was gone.

A katana swing later Sasuke had cut Shino in half. Bugs began to fly away, dispersing in all directions when Sasuke put electricity through his katana before he disappeared too. Nothing could be seen, but Naruto heard plenty of battle going around in the small woods inside the stadium. It wasn't a big forest, but it certainly wasn't small either. It took about a quarter of the arena.

Lavender chakra moved over the tops of the trees, but like an enormous beast hiding in the shadows, moved away again before anyone could make out what it had been. The sound of bugs swarming, the clash of weaponry, some shouting. Naruto twitched his ears to all sides, with his eyes following the invisible shapes move through the forest. His tail twitched and he frowned for a second as he had heard something no one else had, but then his ears perked up again.

Sakura watched Naruto from the side, knowing he knew more than anyone else about the battle, beside the Hyuuga who could actually see everything if they wanted to.

The next thing they all heard was a slash. It was near the border of the woods. A shadow came stumbling into the clearing, and just as the light shone upon him, he toppled over. Shino lay on the ground, and on his back they saw a slash. Blood was dripping slowly from the open wound. When Shino tried to stand up he fell down again. He was obviously out of chakra.

Sasuke appeared into the light, and walked right past Shino. Tsunade made Sasuke the winner, and immediately Ino ran over to Shino. However, he was already standing up by himself.

"You had to slash him?" Kiba asked when Sasuke neared them.

Naruto looked up to Sasuke. "It was an accident, am I right?" he asked the raven silently, so that only he could hear.

"Hn."

"He's back to his arrogant old self, ne teme?" Naruto said, leaning over to Sasuke with his hands on his back, tail swishing behind him and a grin on his face.

"Dobe." Sasuke walked pass Naruto.

"He is!" Naruto smiled and put an arm around Sasuke's waist, not really able to reach over his shoulders. Sasuke suddenly halted at the touch and turned to Naruto.

Kiba raised an eyebrow. He didn't think he would ever understand their relationship.

Tsunade was standing again, and pointed at the white board. "Next. Kakashi and Gai."

Kakashi gave a deep sigh. "Uh~"

"Let our rivalry be decided with this battle, we stand at 69-69," Gai said, placing his hand on Kakashi's shoulder.

At first Kakashi didn't seem very interested in the battle as he walked over to the middle of the field. But soon he uncovered his Sharingan, and they went all out. Gai with his taijutsu and fighting style ninjutsu, Kakashi with his 1000 copied jutsus.

It was actually a very entertaining battle. Lee screaming for Gai to do his best and Anko for Kakashi. She sat on the tribune with their little boy on her lap, who bounced with every sentence his mother yelled.

"Come on, Kakashi, kick his butt! Beat that youth right out of him! Kick that old guy's ass!" she screamed over all other voices.

"We are of the same age." Kakashi told her, but Anko went on as if she had never heard a thing.

In the end, both men tired and their chakras drained, they each decided on their final move. Gai jumped up in the air with amazing strength for someone so exhausted. "Konoha…" he yelled, turning around in the air with his leg aimed at Kakashi.

Kakashi jumped almost horizontally, avoiding the leg by jumping over it, and moved his foot forward; first straightening his leg before waving it forward in a kick of his own.

"Senpuu!"

Gai's leg managed to kick Kakashi's shoulder while Kakashi kicked Gai in the side. They both fell to the ground, panting. Kakashi fell down onto his knees, and Gai seemed to be kneeling. For a moment neither tried to stand up and just stayed still on the grassy ground.

Then Gai tried to stand up, pushing his body up on his knee. It looked like he was about to stand up, pulling his other leg under him, but at the last moment he slumped forward with a deep sigh. Kakashi was just able to stay sitting on his knees until the "Kakashi is winner" echoed through the stadium, and fell down on his hands, breathing heavily.

As the sensei's cleared from the field, it now gave way for Naruto and Hinata's fight. Hinata immediately went all out. She pushed him back and gave him no chance to defend himself other than avoiding her chakra punches. He didn't even had time to take out a kunai. Naruto stumbled back, not even watching where he was going as Hinata's rapid blows nearly caught up with him.

And then Naruto tripped…

He fell back onto the ground and for a second he saw Hinata looming closer, her purple shape hovering over him while her feet stood to either side of him, making Naruto unable to roll to the side. A fist was pulled back, the purple chakra around her hand glowing more fiercely than before, becoming a bigger shape and more clearly formed into a lion's head before her fist came hurrying down toward Naruto.

Her fist neared Naruto's stomach and the next thing everyone saw was HInata's fist hitting the ground. She looked up surprised, and turned around to see Naruto standing behind her, a Rasengan in hand. Her hair was still flying around her face when the orange chakra of the Rasengan neared her. Right before the Rasengan would have hit Hinata, Naruto actually hesitated for a slight second, which he shouldn't have done.

Hinata pushed off and spun around, her chakra deflecting his jutsu. Naruto waved his hand as it had hit Hinata's defensive wall and shook it due to the pain. Once Hinata came to a halt, facing Naruto, she immediately charged with both hands. Again her fists glowed with her chakra and this time she managed to hit Naruto's shoulder.

Naruto stumbled back before he kicked Hinata in the side. An 'umphf' was heard and she fell into the arms of a Kage Bunshin standing behind her. The Bunshin wrapped his arms around her neck and held a kunai to her face.

When the wind lowered and all action came to a halt, it became clear Naruto had won as time seemed to slow down again back to normal.

Tsunade stood up and declared the battle over. Immediately the clone dispersed, and Naruto grabbed his sore shoulder. "Ah, that really hurt," he whined. Blood was on his sweater that had torn open, exposing his bloody shoulder.

Hinata took a step forward and moved her hand to Naruto's shoulders, but when she pulled away his hands the wounds had almost completely healed already. She smiled at him and he grinned back.

After that, the battle between Sakura and Neji followed. Sakura was doing very well, evading and deflecting Neji's punches while even throwing around some of her own punches. She cleverly used the Bunshin no jutsu and Henge no jutsu to her convenience, even a few times replacing herself with an object with the use of the Kawarimi no jutsu.

And then, finally, she hit Neji on the arm, disturbing his nerves in his left arm, rendering it unusable. Neji seemed to be losing, but by using his chakra and the Byakugan he willed his arm to move by sending extra chakra through his veins. Sakura's eyes widened in surprise as she came to a halt, moving back to evade Neji's left hand. His hand moved in front of her face, only hitting her hair. Sakura jumped back, but it was already too late. Sakura was standing too close to Neji, and thus he somehow managed to complete his Gentle Fist, 64 hands of Hakke on Sakura.

Sakura lay on the ground while Neji fell to his knees next to her, his dark hair framing his face. Sakura opened her green eyes and looked up to the Hyuuga. A finger twitched, a kunai swung, and the battle was over.

-oxo-

They walked toward a small wooden bridge with a red railing and brown floor boards. On the other side of the bridge, after having crossed the water, Naruto stopped and turned around to wait for Sasuke, who was no longer at his side. However, Sasuke didn't catch up with him. Instead he had walked over to the red railing, and was looking out over the small river.

Naruto watched him for a moment before he traced his steps back and leant against the railing next to Sasuke, looking out over the clear water as well.

They stood there, looking over the dark bluish green water while some pink sakura petals fell down from the tree next to the bridge, growing over the water. Every time a pink leave fell onto the surface, the water wrinkled. Sasuke watched the rings around the leaves grow wider and wider, until they collided with the rings of another leave. The pink blossom slowly whirled down around them, even landing on their shoulders and on the railing. Naruto tried to count the leaves, but he soon lost count.

"Damn."

Sasuke gave him a sideways glance, but didn't say anything. He turned his dark eyes over the beautiful scenery… oh, and of course the water and the tree too.

Naruto did not seem to notice how the leaves landed softly on top of his blond hair; the soft pink accentuated the yellow. The sakura almost seemed to brush over his hair while the spikes moved a little aside under the weight of the pink petals.

Sasuke moved his hand toward Naruto's hair and brushed the petals away, which made Naruto look around at him, his head tilting. Then he grinned.

"You know what I was reminded of just now?" Naruto asked. He jumped up the railing and moved his legs over it, swinging them back and forth.

Sasuke thought he probably didn't wanted to know, but Naruto just talked on without waiting for an answer.

"That time that Shino, Ino, Neji and I were on a mission somewhere in the Fire country. I don't remember the name of the village, but it doesn't really matter anyway, it sure was a nice village. Everyone was so kind and-"

Sasuke wasn't sure if he wanted to listen or not, but couldn't help but keep one ear on the story even though he wasn't actually interested. Sasuke had only eye for the beauty that was called Naruto. The way his mouth moved when he talked, his teeth showing when he grinned or smiled. He also couldn't help but notice how Naruto's eyes sparkled, and how much his lips screamed to be touched.

Suddenly Sasuke was pulled out of his thoughts when Naruto stopped talking. He followed Naruto's look to their right before looking back over the water.

"Nice girl you have there," a brown haired man came walking up to the two. He leant sideways against the railing next to Sasuke, grinning. "Your skirt is nice; though I'm sure the split of your dress should be to the side." The man sniggered as he thought he was funny.

Sasuke blinked, and slowly turned his head to the man. Naruto had to admit that he was glad he could not see the look on Sasuke's face when the raven turned to look at the man next to him.

The face of the man went through a lot of different emotions in such a short time that the only ones that Naruto could recognise in the short time were surprise, shock, fear, horror and something that might have been absolute terror.

Before Naruto had puzzled out what emotions he had just witnessed, the man was already gone.

"Wow, Sasuke… I think… he actually wet his pants," Naruto said slowly, sounding impressed, "really." He turned to look down at Sasuke, who was still leaning against the railing, but was now facing the blond. Naruto saw the smirk on the raven's face.

Naruto moved back and forth on the railing. "I'm so glad that you came back, I really missed this," Naruto told Sasuke with a smile, his eyes closed.

"Me scaring people away?" Sasuke asked, still smirking.

"That too, certainly," Naruto nodded.

Sasuke tilted his head a bit up. "What were you talking about then?" he asked.

"That I really lo-" Naruto stopped for a moment, seeing Sasuke's eyebrow rise, "-ike to… you know, just hang out with you." Naruto turned to look the other way.

"Hang out?" Sasuke asked softly. His smirk disappeared, an eyebrow rose, and he looked up curiously to Naruto.

"Ooh, you see that?" Naruto changed the topic, pointing over the water.

"Hn." Sasuke looked up at Naruto's sitting form. "You like to hang out with me?" he asked again.

He saw the sides of Naruto's ears turn red before the blond stood up. He twirled around on the red railing, his arms spread. "It's a wonderful view from here, isn't it?"

Sasuke grinned, angling his head a little while looking up at Naruto. "It sure is."

-oxo-

"Neji wins the fight." Tsunade stood up and looked down at Sakura, who lay panting on the ground, face down with a broken kunai in her hand. Neji sat down on his behind and sighed deeply, closing his eyes while his Byakugan disappeared.

"Wow, that was so very close," Naruto told Sasuke.

Naruto moved over onto the field and helped Sakura to the side, where she and Neji received some medication to fuel their chakra and heal their wounds. "That was awesome Sakura-chan," Naruto said. "I thought you had him."

Sakura punched him in the shoulder.

Tsunade turned to the group of ninja standing to the side and grinned. "Start of the third round: Sasuke versus Kakashi."

Naruto rubbed his sore arm and looked down at Sakura. "I've been waiting for this one."

Sakura smiled. "Oh yeah, this will be good."

"Epic," Naruto grinned.

And so it was.

Sharingan vs. Sharingan.

Chidori vs. Raikiri.

Jutsu vs. genjutsu.

Amaterasu vs. Mangekyou Sharingan.

They pulled out everything, and it even came so far that Sasuke used Susano'o in his second form.

A giant man formed out of violet chakra hovered over the stadium while a bow and arrow was aimed at a panting Kakashi.

Sasuke had to shoot three arrows, the first was evaded, the second one hit Kakashi's arm, and the last one disappeared into another dimension by Kakashi's Mangekyou Sharingan.

The giant leg-less Susano'o was loading a new arrow when one of Kakashi's dogs, the biggest one of all, jumped up from the ground behind Sasuke. Sasuke started to spin around, but the dog bit him in the shoulder, causing the Susano'o to disappear. But the battle hadn't been won yet.

Sasuke summoned a big snake which attacked Kakashi. The copy-ninja avoided the snake, but not the blow from Sasuke's foot. The dog had disappeared, and the snake went back home as well. Sasuke hit Kakashi once more in the stomach, and the silver haired man fell backward onto the sand. Sasuke was standing over him, his katana on his sensei's throat; a big grin on his face. "You're getting old Kakashi."

Kakashi sighed before he moved his hitai-ate back over his left eye. "Ah, so it seems."

Sasuke helped a very tired Kakashi up, and half-carried him to the side while his sensei leaned on his shoulder. "I hope I managed to make you sweat at least a little," Kakashi said. Sasuke smirked.

"That brat," Anko said. She hadn't said a thing since the beginning of the fight, too caught up in it. She swore, realised the baby boy on her lap, and covered his ears a little too late. "Luckily Kakashi wasn't here to see that."

Kakashi and Sasuke had not even returned to the waiting area when Neji stood up and walked onto the field, shortly followed by Naruto.

"Next fight is Naruto against Neji," Tsunade told the crowd.

"Like last time," Naruto grinned.

"Not at all," Neji said stoically and took his stance.

Naruto grinned. "Maybe not." He moved one leg back as if preparing himself to take a sprint, and waited for the sign to start the battle.

Tsunade gave the signal, and immediately Neji spun around while Naruto disappeared before suddenly be seen jumping away, up in the sky. Neji stopped spinning once he had deflected Naruto's attack, having guessed correctly that Naruto had planned to attack immediately.

As he floated in the air, his tail moving between his outstretched legs, hair blown to the front while he moved backward, Naruto shook his hand; he had touched the chakra barrier from Neji's defence. "Again," he muttered to himself.

Naruto landed to the side of the giant spike of earth that his fight with Kiba had left behind, and immediately he pulled out two kunai, one in each hand. He formed around twenty Bunshin and they all attacked Neji.

Neji deflected each and every one of their weapons, avoided Rasengans and evaded some more kunai. When he finished his last spin he suddenly stumbled back when Naruto appeared right in front of his nose out of nowhere.

"Boo." Naruto grinned, showing his long canines while his tail happily swirled behind him.

Neji quickly recovered, but suddenly froze in his tracks. He shivered as a cold and eerie feeling filled him up. It was everywhere, wrapping up around his body like a heavy cloak. He felt horrible, and then suddenly an evil and vile voice sounded inside his head, echoing through his body like a deep bass or drum.

"Fear me."

-oxo-

Hopping on one leg while leaning on Sasuke's shoulder, Naruto kept himself from falling over.

"Dobe," Sasuke muttered.

Naruto turned his head sharply to Sasuke. "It was an accident!" he barked into Sasuke's ear which was in a very close range.

"Hn, just let's go to my house, it's closer than yours," Sasuke suggested, his ear ringing.

Naruto huffed and turned his head back to the road. "Fine. At least it's better than the hospital. I was afraid you wanted to take me there."

Sasuke frowned. "Why would I do that? Like that would do any good."

Naruto glanced over to Sasuke. "Hmm, I see," he grinned. Sasuke knew most of Naruto's injuries were healed after a good night sleep.

"Stop grinning and hop along," Sasuke grunted, feeling Naruto put more and more weight onto his shoulder, "you're putting too much weight on me."

Naruto quickly turned his head to Sasuke. "I'm not…. I'm not that heavy…"

Sasuke glanced to Naruto, but just kept dragged him along without answering.

Naruto, taking the glance as an answer, felt his mouth fall open. When Sasuke turned his head to the blond to tell that they were there, Naruto quickly closed it and grinned eerily. Sasuke frowned at it, but didn't respond.

Finally they entered Sasuke's apartment, and took off their shoes before Sasuke helped Naruto over to his couch. "Don't move." After saying that Sasuke walked away toward the kitchen.

"Don't… move?" Naruto asked nervously. "Sure." He nodded, and realised that was considered moving too. He closed his eyes, sitting very still.

When Sasuke came back with some white bandage in his hand, he immediately noticed Naruto sitting so still that he was sure birds would have liked to sit on his shoulders (good thing the windows were closed). All he could do was stand there and watch Naruto not even move a hair.

After twelve minutes Sasuke thought he had seen enough. "I know you're not dead."

Naruto peeked at him before he closed his eye again.

Sasuke sat down on the couch next to Naruto, but still Naruto wasn't moving. "I know you're not sleeping." Still nothing. "You can move."

Immediately Naruto's eyes opened and he sighed, letting his shoulders fall. "Finally." Then he looked down at Sasuke's hands, and saw him holding the bandage. "What's that for?" he pointed at the bandage.

Sasuke just stared back before suddenly reaching for Naruto's foot, holding it up.

"Whoa! Careful!" Naruto exclaimed in surprise.

"Hold still." Sasuke tightly held Naruto's leg.

"Again?" Naruto asked, though he had a foxy smirk on his face.

Sasuke gave Naruto a look.

"Sorry," Naruto apologized.

Sasuke started to wrap the bandage around Naruto's ankle. Naruto stopped struggling and instead watched Sasuke work. His face was serious as he put the bandage with precision around Naruto's foot. It was as if he thought every wrap he made around Naruto's leg over. Perhaps he had exactly memorized Sakura's movements with his Sharingan…?

Naruto pouted, wondering why Sasuke was taking care of him like this, while they both knew his foot would be fine tomorrow. "Hey, teme," Sasuke didn't even glance over, "Sasuke, why are you doing this?"

"Because you were stupid and hurt yourself." He stopped wrapping and looked up to Naruto. "What kind of ninja spins around on a railing and falls off?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "I… I tripped. Teme." He pouted, then bit his lip before muttering, "It was your fault."

Sasuke could only give him the look. "How so?" he asked.

"You distracted me."

Sasuke looked up for a moment while he continued bandaging Naruto's foot. "In what way did I distract you?" he asked smiling.

"You…" Naruto muttered, feeling blushes come up on his cheeks. He didn't like Sasuke's smile. "You were…"

"I see," Sasuke said, and turned back to the foot, almost done.

"It wasn't like that!" Naruto was bright red, but he crossed his arms and looked away.

"Hn." Sasuke finished the bandage and turned to Naruto. He looked the blond up and down before standing up and walking away, leaving a slightly confused Naruto behind.

When Sasuke was gone, Naruto looked around the room before his eyes landed on his foot. He lifted it up to see Sasuke's handiwork before he lowered it again. Then he sighed and looked at himself and his clothes. He pulled his hands over his orange vest. Then he stared at his pants. "I knew I shouldn't wear black." He pouted before he started staring at a lonely cactus in Sasuke's window sill, pouting over not wearing his orange pants.

He was still staring at the cactus when Sasuke came back with a bowl of soup. He placed it on the coffee table in front of them before he sat down.

"It stings," Naruto said, still frowning.

Sasuke looked from Naruto to what he was staring at. He saw the cactus and let it slide. "Your food," he said, pointing to the bowl.

Slowly Naruto moved his eyes from the cactus to the sound he had just heard, and noticed the bowl on the table. He stared at it for a while before he suddenly decided to ask. "You only brought soup for yourself?"

"It's for you… but I'm willing to share it with you," Sasuke smirked.

"Share? You?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke turned his eyes to Naruto. "Hn."

Naruto started laughing. "Haha, Sasuke, you-"

"Shut up, and just eat; you need it."

Naruto's face fell. "Just a while ago you said I was heavy."

Sasuke frowned. "Hn, you heavy? I never said that."

"You did, you said…" Naruto had to dig in his memory for the right words.

Sasuke remembered first. "That 'you're putting too much weight on me', is what I said."

Naruto was silent, thinking this over, remembering. "Oh, right." He grinned goofily.

Sasuke took the bowl from the table and started eating.

"Hé, I thought that was mine!"

"You took too long." Sasuke started eating the soup.

"But I need it…" Looking up sadly, pouting, he waited for Sasuke to see this look on his face. However, as usual, Sasuke didn't.

So Naruto's next action was to pick the spoon out of Sasuke's hand, and eat the soup while Sasuke held up the bowl in his hands. "Haha."Naruto took a couple of spoons before Sasuke handed the bowl to Naruto, who greedily began eating the soup.

A little later Naruto put the empty bowl down, rubbing his filled stomach. "That was sooo good." A big smile was on his face as he lay back, and he closed his eyes.

Sasuke stood up to bring the bowl away. "Don't fall asleep, while I get something else to eat."

"Hmm," was the only, kind of short, answer he got. A bit too short, and soon, when Sasuke walked back into the living room, he found out why. It was just as he had expected.

First he just sat down in the chair next to Naruto, reading some mail or something. Then he decided to wake Naruto up, then decided not to. Next he thought he would just go to the bathroom, thinking that maybe when he would come back after having taken a shower, Naruto would either be already awake or wake up because of him returning. Of course that didn't work either.

Standing in front of Naruto, he looked down at the blond, seeing Naruto's mouth hang open ever so slightly, his soft breathing making his chest rise and fall discretely, while his hand rested on his stomach. Sasuke must have stood there for a while, because when he turned to the window it was already dark outside.

"Naruto… you should go home," he said softly.

Nothing.

"Naruto. It's already dark; go sleep in your own bed."

Nothing.

"Dobe."

A movement. Naruto shifted and started snoring softly.

"Great."

He walked away, to shortly thereafter return with a glass of water.

Standing in front of Naruto, with the glass in his hands, Sasuke looked down upon the sleeping blond. It took him ten minutes, but finally he decided not to do it. Instead he sat down next to Naruto, and started prodding him.

"Naruto."

"Hmm, I'm sleeping," was the muttered answer.

"Not anymore."

"I am."

"Then why are you talking to me?"

"I can sleep-talk."

"You can… Of course." Sasuke prodded him again, harder. "You know we have a mission tomorrow… early in the morning."

Naruto opened his eyes and sat up straight. "Mission?" He turned to Sasuke. "I should go home!" He stood up, leaning on his weak ankle, yelped, and fell down, face down on the floor. "Ouch," he muttered into the carpeting.

"If you really want to…" Sasuke leant forward to see Naruto better, "you can sleep on my floor." Grinning, he stood up, and saw Naruto's foul look.

The blond held out a hand to the raven. "Help me up?"

Sasuke smiled. "I tried to wake you up, but you were too fast asleep. So now you can continue your sleep here on the floor. Why should I help you up?" Sasuke stepped over Naruto and went for his bedroom.

"Wait!" Naruto held out a hand to Sasuke, just in time to grasp his pants. "I would very much like to sleep on your couch instead of the floor."

Sasuke turned around to look down upon Naruto. "Suit yourself."

He wanted to walk away again, but Naruto held him tightly. When Sasuke looked down again he saw Naruto grinning. The blond struggled to stand up, but finally Sasuke helped him up and back onto the couch. "I'll get you some blankets."

Naruto smiled and started to open his orange and black jacket.

When Sasuke came back with a few dark coloured blankets he found Naruto sitting and waiting for him in just his boxers and a t-shirt. He was hunching a bit with his hands resting around his body.

Sasuke looked down upon the blond boy. Immediately Naruto snatched the blankets away from Sasuke. "Finally; took you long enough. No wonder you are always so cold. You should turn up the heat when you are at home."

Almost pulling the blankets back, but being able to restrain himself, Sasuke instead answered. "I have, but we are going to sleep, so I turned it down."

He watched Naruto cover himself up, roll up into the blankets for a while until he was apparently satisfied, and lay still. "Thanks for letting me sleep on the couch."

The tone of voice indicated what Sasuke thought of doing too. "Hn," he said before leaving the room and turning the lights of; going to bed for a good sleep.

-oxo-

Neji still shivered every now and then, making Naruto feel sorry for what he had done to the man. "Did I take it too far?" he asked Sasuke as they walked back onto the field.

"He's an adult man, he'll survive."

Naruto glanced up to Sasuke before turning his eyes back on the changed arena, where the scars of all of their many battles were left behind.

"Finally our last battle, Sasuke against Naruto," Tsunade spoke loudly.

Naruto looked up at the applause they got and grinned sheepishly. He turned back to Sasuke, who stood there as if he couldn't hear the cheering.

"Finally, this is it." Naruto said. Sasuke stared back at him. "Let's start where we left off."

"Sure."

They both closed their eyes.

"Start," Tsunade yelled.

When they opened their eyes it wasn't blue meeting black. Sasuke's red eyes, decorated with his Mangekyou Sharingan spun around while Naruto's yellow eyes with horizontal pupils stared back at him, red marks around his eyes from sage-mode.

Immediately Sasuke called forth Susano'o in the last form, a hooded man, reaching far up into the sky as he stood on two legs. Naruto disappeared from view. Not much later four Naruto clones came into view again, all with a Rasenshuriken in a hand which they threw toward Sasuke.

Susano'o deflected two of them with his shield-like bow. For one Rasenshuriken he had to step aside, and the last one cut his arrow in half.

The four clones ran to Sasuke and began making Oodama Rasengans to blast against the Susano'o. However, Susano'o shot two clones down and then grabbed the last two in two hands coming from his left arm.

Then Naruto, the real one, jumped in front of Sasuke, his orange chakra flaring around him like he was on fire. The necklace of the Sage of the Six Paths around his neck, a swirl with a 'tail' that seemed to form a tomoe on his stomach and a swirl on each shoulder could be made out before the chakra around him spread. It expanded, forming nine tails a body, four legs, and a head. Two hands were about to punch Sasuke's Susano'o.

Susano'o let the clones go as they dispersed, and grabbed the chakra hands in his own, just in time. Susano'o slipped back by the force of the punch. The ground groaned under his feet as the stadium floor changed. All of a sudden the area seemed way too small as the two giant shapes, one of a man and another of a nine tailed fox, casting a shadow over the audience.

The earth seemed to shake when the chakra fox landed. They stood there, pushing and pulling each other, for quite some time. Finally they both let one hand go and were about to punch each other. They both flew back from the force.

Screams sounded as the two shapes toppled backward, crushing trees and rock. It was a good thing the tribunal area was to the other sides.

The fight of the giants continued for quite a while. That was, until they had used up too much chakra to keep up these huge forms for much longer. They punched each other at the same time, knocking each other out.

Naruto almost seemed to fly out of the chakra fox as it went up in the air. He hit the ground hard and made some backwards rolls before he stood up as soon as his feet found the ground; swaying a bit when he finally came to a stop.

Sasuke had been thrown sideways. Susano'o lost most of his shape and became sort of a blur for a moment until Sasuke hit the ground as well. He made a side roll that was followed by a forward roll, and stood up as well when he stuck his foot out and came to a halt. His Susano'o was now a mere skeleton of only half a man.

Both Sasuke and Naruto were panting as they faced each other. The audience was quiet, keeping their breaths, waiting for what else was to come.

As Naruto stood up, and made three more clones, he noticed Sasuke get some things from his pouch, but instead of throwing them or using them as weapons, he began making something. Naruto stared as he saw Sasuke bind a string around a kunai and something else.

Confused Naruto took out a kunai himself, just in case Sasuke might want to throw that… thing, whatever it was supposed to be. Maybe it had an exploding tag.

His clones had surrounded Sasuke by now and charged forward, a Rasengan in hand. Sasuke held up his self-made device and moved it to his mouth before he blew on it.

Naruto flinched, and as Sasuke blew it again, he heard a high pinched sound. His clones stopped in place, let the Rasengan dissolve, and clasped their hands over their fox ears. Naruto did as well before the clones disappeared as he fell to his knees.

The sound that came from that thing in Sasuke's hands was so high that it actually hurt Naruto's ears. He tried to stand up again, but fell to his knees once more.

Sasuke slowly began to walk forward, still blowing on his hand-made whistle. Naruto felt dizzy and nausea arise. All he did was shift his knee to put his foot on the ground, and he already began to sway. This was enough to make him double over and throw up his breakfast. And still, all the time Sasuke was coming closer, just staring at Naruto, no emotion on his face.

Naruto tried to stand up somehow, but fell over and tried to crawl away instead. The earth was moving like there was an enormous earthquake. There was no up and down, everything was the same. It was all spinning around him, and he couldn't feel from where gravity came anymore. He could only think of destroying that thing, but he had no idea how to do so. He couldn't aim a kunai or shuriken right now. He couldn't even stand up, let alone find his weapon's pouch.

Sasuke was two metres away from Naruto. Susano'o's hand moved forward to the blond, its bone fingers spreading, ready to grab a hold of him.

He had to do something now, or it would be too late. Somehow Naruto managed to turn over and sit up, though he had absolutely no idea how he had done that. He brought his hands together and crossed his fingers. Concentrate, concentrate! He told himself, but it was so hard to do as everything spun around him.

The hand still inched closer to him and he shut his eyes, waiting for something to happen.

-oxo-

Naruto sat bold upright, though he had absolutely no idea why. His stomach bothered him a little, so he rubbed it. He was too sleepy to feel the presence of the Kyuubi so close to the surface.

He yawned and decided to get some water. It was only half way to the kitchen that he realised his house looked different. And since when did he have a couch? He looked around sleepily and finally stared at the lay-out of the kitchen. Now he was certain; this wasn't his house. He put his weight on his right leg and felt a dull pain. As he looked down at the bandage his memories of the previous day returned. "Oh, right."

He took a glass of water, drank it and walked back into the living room, but he stopped before he reached the couch. Something pulled him to Sasuke's bedroom. He opened the door ever so slightly and peered inside.

It took a while for his eyes to see more clearly in the dark, but then finally he saw the raven, his back turned to him. Naruto bit his lip and looked around. Finally he shook his head and stepped away from the door, back to the living room. After two steps he stopped again, and slowly turned around, staring at the open door.

He shouldn't.

He turned around again, but made a full spin and finally stepped to Sasuke's bedroom. He opened the door far enough so that he could squeeze through the opening. He silently crept closer and closer until he stood next to the bed.

He glanced around the room quickly before his eyes were drawn back at the sleeping form of the Uchiha. Naruto looked down at him, stared at the back of his head. What was he supposed to do now? He hadn't thought this through.

For a couple of minutes he merely stood there, watching, listening to Sasuke's soft breathing. When a thought occurred to him, he bit his lip and a blush crept over his face.

He couldn't.

He closed his eyes, but once the thought had found roots, it was like a stubborn weed; unable to get rid of. The thought kept growing and growing, while Naruto grew redder and redder. This was too embarrassing, he finally decided.

He turned around, ready to go back to the couch -and he had every intention of doing so- when Sasuke mumbled softly. Naruto froze in place while Sasuke slept on.

Naruto again bit his lip, and before he could take a single step away, his body had lowered onto the bed. This time he froze with one eye on Sasuke as the mattress shifted under his weight. When he sat, he waited. He waited for Sasuke to wake up. But he didn't.

When the raven just slept on, Naruto suddenly sprouted some more confidence and courage, as if he had turned it into one of his pranks, and lay down on his back on top of the blankets. He turned his head to the side, only to see Sasuke's back.

Slowly he lifted the blanket and crawled under it. Every time he thought he heard Sasuke move, he stopped, but eventually he was completely under the covers, and Sasuke was still resting with his back to him.

When he realised he was in one bed together with Sasuke he started to blush enormously. His face felt warm, like a heater radiating his emotions off. He wiggled and when he looked to the side, to Sasuke, he stiffened.

"Did you miss me?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto jolted and fell out of the bed.

Sasuke sat up and looked down at the blond in surprise.

A minute later Naruto was back in bed and they lay facing each other, Naruto still blushing madly. "Is your foot better?" Sasuke asked, maybe trying to break the ice.

Naruto nodded.

For a long time neither spoke, and eventually Naruto eased up and closed his eyes, just like Sasuke had done. He rubbed his cheek over the pillow, Sasuke's pillow. He was lying in Sasuke's bed, Sasuke's covers, his blanket, his mattress. A place where Sasuke had been sleeping for a while now. Every night he was here, Sasuke would step into this bed, lie maybe on this very spot.

Naruto buried his warm face in the blanket, only to smell Sasuke's scent and look up again. "Ne, Sasuke?" he finally managed to ask.

Sasuke's eyes fluttered open. "Hm?" he asked sleepily.

"What is your dream?"

"My dream?" Sasuke carefully repeated.

"Yes, your life dream." Naruto kept fiddling with the corner of the pillow. "Like I want to be Hokage and surpass all previous ones," Naruto grinned happily.

Sasuke was silent and thought this over. "I don't have a dream like that," he finally decided.

Naruto leant a bit closer. "Of course you have. Why else would you have come back to Konoha?"

-oxo-

Suddenly the hand of Susano'o faltered, and slowly his form dissolved into a mere hand and a small ribcage. Sasuke stopped his movements, and even stopped blowing on the whistle when blood came from his left eye.

Naruto immediately took this opportunity, made a clone that jumped to Sasuke, and more or less stumbled upon the raven. He himself somehow was able to jump into the small woods. As he landed there he slumped against the ground and breathed heavily, trying to steady the world around him.

Sasuke threw the clone off, and in the process demolished the whistle because the clone pulled on it before disappearing into a cloud of smoke. The raven stood panting, holding one hand over his eye while he looked around, scanning the area for Naruto.

Minutes past as nothing happened, except for Sasuke looking around and panting. All of a sudden Sasuke turned to his right as Naruto had briefly appeared there, but just as soon had vanished.

Sasuke wasn't fast enough to turn around when he noticed Naruto jumping to him from behind. Sasuke turned his head just enough to be able to see Naruto fly horizontally through the ribs of Susano'o. As Naruto seized him, Susano'o waned away and immediately electricity came from all over Sasuke's body.

However, the blond didn't let go, and they both rolled over the ground a couple of times due to the force of Naruto's jump. Eventually Sasuke lay on his back, sweating and panting, the electricity fading away, while Naruto sat on top of him holding a kunai to his throat, panting as well as some leftover electricity sparked between them. Blood trickled from the corner of Naruto's mouth. Both he and Sasuke were worn out, covered in scratches and bruises, some blood as well.

Sasuke struggled a bit, but Naruto held him firmly in place, and pushed the kunai a bit harder against his throat. Sasuke stopped and blinked, and his eyes turned back to black once more.

They sat there for maybe a minute before Sasuke grinned, and Naruto smiled back. Then Naruto let the kunai drop and let himself fall on top of Sasuke, his eyes still open and his tail swishing.

"Don't ever do that thing with the whistle again, you hear?" he warned Sasuke.

"I won't, I promise." Sasuke smiled back.

"I'm still dizzy," Naruto said, closing his eyes.

"Sorry." Sasuke placed his hands on Naruto's sides and pushed him up into a sitting position while he sat up too.

Naruto sat there, leaning against Sasuke's chest for as long as he could before he fellt Sasuke move under him. In one smooth movement he stood up, taking Sasuke's hands, and pulled him up as well.

"The winner is Naruto," Tsunade said as the pair came walking toward her, Naruto happily swaying his tail.

"Wow! That was really an awesome fight, Naruto-kun, Sasuke-san."

"Thanks, Lee," Naruto smiled back, in his still slight dizziness swinging against Sasuke, who almost fell over, being so exhausted.

"Whoops."

Tsunade came walking toward them, smiling at Naruto. "Congratulations Naruto," she said. "It's a good thing you won, or it would have been rather odd to give you the Hokage title over Sasuke."

Naruto stared back at her, letting the words sink in. "Eh?" he asked. He turned toward Sasuke who smiled happily at him. "What?" he asked again as he turned his head back to Tsunade.

"From the start of next month and onward, you will be the Rokudaime Hokage, Naruto," she told him, putting her hands on his shoulders.

Naruto's mouth fell open. "Y-you're kidding, right?"

Tsunade almost laughed, but didn't. "No, I'm very much telling you the truth." She gave him a hug. "You better live up to everything you promised," she whispered in his ear.

Naruto still couldn't comprehend what Tsunade was saying. She wasn't kidding? He was going to be the next Hokage? Naruto just couldn't believe it. He stood rooted to the ground, unable to say anything, to move or to even think.

You're going to be Hokage, a voice inside his head told him.

Tsunade let him go, and others came to congratulate him. He shook their hands and had a small smile on his face, but he still couldn't believe it. That was until Sakura came to him and flew around his neck.

"Oh Naruto, I'm so glad for you to have finally reached your goal." She pulled back so she could look into his eyes as tears streamed down her face. "After having fulfilled your promise; you brought Sasuke back and now... Hokage." She leant forward and kissed him on the cheek. "I'm so happy for you."

Naruto turned his head to Sasuke, who stood there, still smiling at him. Naruto let go of Sakura and took a step toward the raven. "You knew?" he asked softly.

Sasuke nodded. "I did. But don't think I didn't give it my all," he said.

Naruto stepped even closer, but before he could touch Sasuke, a girl was around his midsection. "Congratulations, sensei!"

Naruto looked down at the brunette. "Thanks, Eri-chan."

Ryomaru and Kenji shook Naruto's hand before Eri and Ryomaru started doing a small victory dance, turning around and around while singing 'sensei is Hokage' over and over. It was very compelling and somehow alluring to join them. Some laughed or sang along with the two, or even clapped on the rhythm of their made-up chant.

Even Kenji got caught up in it as well. He separated the two dancing figures, who looked up surprised at his sudden actions, before joining them in their dance.

"Sensei is Hokage," they sang together.

He didn't know why, what caused him to let his feeling go lose, but all of a sudden Kenji stopped dancing, letting go of the hands, and to everyone's surprise he kissed Ryomaru full on the mouth.

Ryomaru turned instantly as red as a lobster while Kenji came to his senses and realised what he had done. Eri stared at them until they broke their kiss. Then she happily giggled a 'finally'.

"Those two have something to discuss." Naruto turned back to Sasuke and finally flew into his arms. Sasuke pulled him closely against his chest and kissed his forehead.

"I'm so happy right now," Naruto said.

"I know."

Naruto lay his head against Sasuke's chest and sniffed in his scent. He was finally Hokage; he had everything he wanted. His life was complete, his dreams fulfilled.

-oxo-

Sasuke lowered his eyes. 'Why else would you have come back to Konoha?' Naruto's voice sounded in his head.

"There must be something you would really like to happen," Naruto said. "Something you dream of?"

To Naruto's surprise he saw blushes form on Sasuke's cheeks. Naruto's blue eyes widened in surprise. "Oh?" he asked.

Sasuke looked up into Naruto's eyes, pouting ever so slightly in embarrassment. "Don't laugh," he said.

This behaviour and these words, of course, made Naruto all the more curious. "What is it?" he asked softly.

Sasuke gathered his courage and spoke. "If you become Hokage, then I want to be your personal ANBU guard."

Naruto's eyes widened. Sasuke wanted to be his guard? His personal guard?

"WHEN I become Hokage," Naruto corrected Sasuke.

Sasuke smirked. "Of course, when."

Naruto fiddled with the corner of the pillow while he felt Sasuke's eyes on him. Sasuke's dream was to become his personal ANBU guard. He wanted to protect him all day long? To hide in the shadows next to him? No way, he was lying, right? "You really would want to be my personal guard?" Naruto asked slowly.

Sasuke smiled, which made Naruto's heart skip a beat when he saw the genuine smile. "Of course. I always want to be at your side."

Naruto blushed furiously before he pushed Sasuke hard. So hard that he fell out of bed. "Don't say such things while we're in one bed together."

-oXo-