Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, the anime or the manga, or any of its associated characters. It's a damn shame, too!

A/N: One of the pieces I've been working on! I hope you all enjoy :) Not really anything to do with Naruto's birthday, but happy birthday to him all the same!

Welcome Home

Chapter 1: Moving In

"I still can't believe you did this," Naruto said, his bag threatening to fall off of his shoulder as he stared up at the veritable mansion before him.

"I liked it," Sasuke shrugged, already moving to get their things out of the car.

"I liked it," Naruto mocked, waving his hands a little, "I'd like a Mercedes, too, while you're at it—"

Sasuke unceremoniously threw a duffel bag at Naruto's chest, sending Naruto to the ground with an "oof!"

"Are you going to help or am I going to be living alone after all?"

"Asshole," Naruto replied, but he dutifully stood, picking up the bags around him and stopping by the car for more. Sasuke took a moment to shake his head at the blonde desperately trying to fit the key in the door, bags swinging from his arms, balancing his stack of boxes with the other arm and some careful leg work.

Well, if the dobe was going to flaunt how strong he was, he could carry it all. Sasuke set to unpacking the truck and building up a nice pile for Naruto to take up.

"Aahhh," Naruto collapsed onto a pile of boxes, sighing. Sasuke closed the door behind him and looked around the large, still fairly barren, house.

"You didn't unpack any of it," he remarked.

Naruto's head swiveled around, and he looked about as incredulous as someone could with half of their face squished against a plastic box. "I brought this all in! You ought to unpack it," he grumbled, but the smirk that lazed across Sasuke's face made it impossible to be angry.

"I unpacked the truck," Sasuke shrugged, "and how exactly am I to unpack the boxes you are laying on?"

"Work around me," Naruto's grin squished his cheek into the box even further, and Sasuke snorted.

"Lazy," Sasuke smirked, heading for the box that Naruto's head currently rested on.

"Noo," Naruto sat up enough to cling to it, "let me rest, bastard."

Sasuke sighed and looked at Naruto. Serious, but warm, blue eyes blinked back up at him, and Sasuke was undone.

"Fine," Sasuke said, sitting on the box beside Naruto. Naruto gave him a tired grin and rolled on his side, closing his eyes. Sasuke looked at him for a moment – no doubt, within a minute the dobe would be asleep – and shook his head.

"What an idiot," Sasuke muttered to himself, arranging some boxes so he could lie down comfortably.

"I heard that, bastard," came the muffled, slurred reply. Sasuke grinned, and let his eyes close.

When he opened them, it was dark outside, and Sasuke cursed himself. He should have never let Naruto talk him into letting him rest – he knew they were both exhausted and they could have been completely moved in by now—they both had to work tomorrow, and—

"Hey, you're up!"

Sasuke blinked towards the noise, and then the lights were turned on and he was promptly blinded. He made a pained noise, holding a hand in front of his eyes.

"Ooh, sorry," Naruto said sheepishly. "Um," he scratched the back of his neck, "you seemed really tired, so I just let you sleep."

Sasuke stopped rubbing his eyes and looked up, and then immediately looked away—Naruto was wearing nothing but pajama bottoms that were riding dangerously low on his hips.

"You've…you've already moved in?" Sasuke looked around.

"I grabbed most stuff—not what you're sitting on obviously, and I don't know about like, bedroom stuff," Naruto seemed a little flustered, "I didn't really know where you wanted everything, but—"

"I'm sure it's fine," Sasuke waved a hand, a wave of relief washing through him as he realized he didn't now have to unpack everything they had brought. "How long was I out?"

"Uh," Naruto checked the time, "it's seven O'clock now, and we got here, what…at 10? I slept until two, I think."

Sasuke stared at him and then stared at his own hands. He hadn't realized he had been so obviously exhausted. "I can't believe I slept that long," he said, mainly to himself.

"Me either," Naruto grinned. "C'mon, help me get the rest of this stuff together."

"Sakura says hi, by the way," Naruto said, as they were moving another piece of furniture that Naruto had placed in an incredibly wrong place—at least, according to Sasuke.

"Sakura? When did you talk to her?"

"She called when you were asleep. Wanted to know how the move was going," Naruto lied. Actually, he had called her after he had woken up, walked around the giant-ass house, and realized this is where he was going to fucking live. He had taken one look at the pool—their own pool, and lost it. He talked to Iruka (his foster dad), and then Kakashi (his other foster dad, whom Iruka had put on the phone), and then Sakura (who had known him since primary school)–he was the most level-headed for the last one. It was a bit much for a kid who had grown up in an orphanage and gotten to university on a sports scholarship. Pretty much the first thing he had picked up on about Sasuke was that he had money, but he hadn't any idea just how loaded the Uchiha was until he had casually remarked he bought the house Naruto had been drooling over since he accidentally saw it on their house hunting adventures. The whole thing had been a bit wild, really…

(University, Six Months Ago)

Naruto smiled for another photo with another friend he had made—he was going to get one with absolutely everyone by the end of the day. He spotted a glimpse of pale skin and black hair and quickly excused himself.

"Sasuke!" He called into the crowd. The figure stopped and turned around, and Naruto ran up to him. "Let's get a photo!"

Naruto grinned and fiddled with his phone, but a hand grabbed his wrist.

Sasuke was frowning. "No."

Naruto blinked. "…no?"

"I don't like photos," Sasuke let go of Naruto, an odd look on his face.

"That—I'm not going to post them anywhere, it's just for me! Make an exception, Sasuke!" Naruto practically bounced on the spot. "I'm not going to be able to see you anymore, so I—"

Sasuke's frown deepened, and he turned away.

"Hey! Bastard!" Naruto grabbed his arm before he could move further, "I'm talking to you!"

"I don't want to talk to you," Sasuke's voice was like ice, and it made Naruto let go of his arm. He walked away, a pain settling in his throat…and then he was fiercely grabbed, spun, and the pain was in his nose. He doubled over, hands over his nose, blinking furiously. He really ought to have expected that from Naruto, but his mind had been a flurry of annoyance and panic all day—to hear Naruto casually accept what he had been so distraught over…his eyes narrowed and he put his hands down, scowling at the blonde.

"What the fuck, Sasuke," Naruto breathed, voice quieter—as if he was startled that Sasuke was still angry.

Sasuke's face twisted. "Go away, Naruto. I don't want to see you—" he cut himself off before he said 'either', "I don't want to see you. Leave me alone."

But Naruto, infuriating as usual, barely reacted. After a moment of squinting slightly, his head leaned back and he crossed his arms.

"Pull the other one."

"What?"

"Pull the other one," Naruto challenged. "I call bullshit."

"Fuck off," Sasuke went to turn around again, but Naruto's voice caught him.

"Really, Sasuke? Running away?"

Sasuke spun back around, ready to be furious, but found the anger just…wasn't there. He stared at Naruto with wide eyes and tight lips.

"What's this actually about?" Naruto—always calm at the worst of times—examined him patiently. Had he known that over the four years of living together, his roommate would learn to read him like a book, he would have fought for the single room much harder.

Sasuke didn't answer.

Naruto laughed, and it broke a little. "I'm going to miss you, you stupid, stubborn bastard. Give me a damn photo so I can put it up on my stupid wall."

Sasuke crossed his arms. "Why?"

Naruto looked uncomfortable.

"Do you even have a place to live after this?"

The blonde shrugged. "I'm going back to stay with my parents until I get enough money from this new gig."

"That's stupid."

"The fuck you—"

"Two hours commute. You should just stay with me." And then he turned tail and walked away so briskly that Naruto nearly couldn't see him when he broke out of shock.

Sasuke wanted to scream and throw himself off a bridge for how messily he had fucked up the day, but when an out of breath Naruto caught up to him, and with big, hopeful eyes, asked if he had been serious—all he could feel was happy.

And then they had begun looking at houses, and Naruto had gotten lost in the listings and stumbled across the beautiful, far too large, luxurious house and promptly made the view of the pool his desktop background. Goals, he had said—for when he really worked his way up through the marketing company that had hired him.

Then Sasuke hadn't returned any calls for a few days, and when he finally went out of his way to look for the bastard, said bastard called him up and said he had bought them a house.

He was pissed, until he found out which one it was.

"Pah," Sasuke said. "Did you tell her I made you do all the work? I bet she didn't believe you." Sasuke's voice broke him out of his thoughts.

Naruto laughed. "You're right, she didn't." Actually, that was another lie—she had completely believed that Sasuke was asleep because Naruto wouldn't have called for her advice if he hadn't been. His parents…his parents were who he called when he hadn't any idea of what he was doing, or who he was going to be. Sakura was who he called if he hadn't any idea what other people meant to him—or, especially, what he meant to them. He had been talking to her a lot since Sasuke had asked him to move in with him.

"There," Naruto said, when they finally got the table into Sasuke's bedroom. Naruto had put it in the bathroom, much to the Uchiha's dismay.

"What about all the furniture that's already here?" Naruto asked. "Is the old owner going to come pick it up or something?"

"The old owner of the house? No. This furniture is from the staging company that decorated the house. I bought what suited the place already." Sasuke shrugged. "No sense in buying new furniture if there were already perfectly good pieces here."

Naruto found himself unable to do anything but nod, as he often did when Sasuke talked about money—somehow, Naruto had been convinced that what they were bringing with them would have been it: no purchasing new furniture involved. God knows Naruto didn't have the money for new furniture.

"So you've dibs-ed this place," Naruto indicated to the bedroom. "Where should I sleep?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Pick a place. It's getting late."

Naruto laughed. "Don't tell me you're tired after that ridiculous nap you had."

Sasuke snorted. "No, I guess not. I'll come with you." It came out as more of an order than anything else, but Naruto grinned and happily followed the Uchiha.

"There's the one right beside me," Sasuke remarked, opening the door and looking around. The room was pretty plain, but they all were—staging companies didn't leave much room for character lest it be the wrong type for the prospective buyer. "And then there's two more across the hall. I think they're all roughly the same size."

"Yeah, I looked at them. I looked through the house when you were asleep," Naruto grinned and Sasuke's cheeks warmed a little. "This one's fine." Naruto said—fine was an understatement; it was amazing, it was huge and bright and lovely (a little boring but Naruto could paint it and make it his own because this was his house now and—)

"You sure?" Sasuke sounded surprised. "There's a partition door there," Sasuke indicated the door in between their rooms. Naruto hadn't seen it before.

"I mean," Naruto went and opened it, and then closed it again. "It's not like it's see-through. And there's a lock on it," he gave the lock an experimental twist.

Sasuke shrugged. "I don't have a problem with it; I lived with you for four years. I just figured you didn't notice." He smirked, and Naruto blushed.

"Whatever, teme. I'm gonna go get my stuff." Naruto went back downstairs, and Sasuke eyed the partition door for a moment longer before following.

A/N: Let me know what you think! I'll be posting a chapter a day, with a total of 9 chapters, providing I don't make any last minute changes or anything!

See you tomorrow!

- Kinomi