Notes: Oh my god, you guys! I return with gifties! Here is the next chapter of le storie... and I'll hopefully be updating a little more frequently. Hopefully. RL is being a bitch these days. 'scuse my language.

Chapter Six: Spaces

Gaara was not satisfied with the arrangements, and he made it quite clear to Sasuke, if not Naruto. One smashed vase is an accident. Two is suspicious. Three... is unacceptable. Sasuke gritted his teeth and rounded on the red haired boy, who stood looking at a sizeable painting in the hallway. "Would you mind watching your sand?" Sasuke growled, glaring pointedly at him.

"Yeah," Naruto chirped. "I thought you were really good with that stuff."

The eyebrowless boy didn't reply, but there were no more broken vases. They even managed to have a halfway decent meal (Sasuke cooked) without any problems more than sand on the table. Naruto remarked that he felt like he was eating in the middle of a dust storm, and said nothing more, which was unusual for him. This made Sasuke worry. Not that having Naruto silent for once wasn't a blessing... it just made him nervous to see the blond's mouth shut.

"I don't have any clothes," Naruto announced suddenly.

Gaara made no sign that he had heard.

"We'll break into your room and get some," Sasuke suggested. He, for one, did not want to loan Naruto more clothes. And if he didn't- the blond would be smelly (or naked) over the next few weeks.

"We can't break in. It's too expensive! I'm broke!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Don't brag about it, idiot."

"I'm not an idiot!"

"I can get in without breaking anything," Gaara said, his voice low.

"How the HELL do- ooohhhh the sand," Naruto nodded knowingly and smiled his foxy smile. "Yeah! Then I don't have to live with you guys!"

"I will stay in your house then," Gaara replied, complacently.

"You can stay with Sasuke."

"No, he can not. He asked to stay with you." Sasuke eyed the red haired boy. "And besides, Asuma wants both of us to stay with him." Which was not exactly stated, but Sasuke wasn't going to let that stop him. He didn't want Gaara staying with him, but neither did he want Naruto and Gaara to be alone. "Your place is too small for all three of us. We're going to stay here."

-

Rather typically, Sasuke sulked all the way to Naruto's house while the blond jabbered to Gaara about how much cooler he was than Sasuke. Gaara was silent, but Sasuke could see a sort of thin trail of sand that connected the two boys like a child holding his mother's hand. And he had thought Gaara couldn't possibly creep him out any more. And what was with that 'Naruto-kun' earlier? He had almost sounded like a bratty Sakura. Not exactly the image you wanted to show when you were a murdering demon child to be feared across the lands. Or was that the point? Did Gaara want to be accepted? Sasuke thought about it for a moment, and then decided that was a stupid idea.

Naruto stopped at his doorway and jiggled the handle. It was still locked. Inwardly, he was relieved- he didn't want to face the embarrassment of having the whole trip be useless. Even if Gaara didn't laugh at him, Sasuke would be sure to mention it "casually" when Sakura was around.

"Move." Gaara slipped in between Naruto and the door, and unlocked it almost quicker than thinking.

"Doesn't it take time to pick the lock?" Naruto asked, curiosity overcoming his urge to appear unimpressed.

"I didn't pick it. I sent sand inside to unlock it."

"Oh."

The three boys entered, Naruto loudly telling the other two not to touch his stuff and to "keep your sand out of my ramen, Gaara." Sasuke moved quickly over to the couch and sat down, as it was one of the few clean spaces in the small three room apartment. Gaara stood in another, which was a patch just next to the sink. Naruto, on the other hand, ran about, nimbly jumping over piles of clothing and weapons and pools of scrolls. He stuffed things into a bag, and more often than not, stopped and dumped the whole contents on the floor, just to begin stuffing it with new things. Sasuke sighed. He was used to things like this by now.

Gaara glared at Sasuke. What was going on behind his pale eyes, he didn't say out loud, but he was clearly hostile towards the dark haired boy. Sasuke did his best to ignore him.

"…and your house isn't exactly warm." Sasuke caught the tail end of some of Naruto's babbling. He did it so often that Sasuke had begun to tune him out completely. Dangerous, considering that the last time he hadn't paid attention to the loud boy, he had run into a post. That was embarrassing.

"What are you chattering about?" Sasuke asked rather rudely.

"I'm just saying that maybe I should bring my heater, because your house is so cold."

"I have a heater, you moron. And maybe you should try saving some money by not heating your place up like an oven."

"I like it," Gaara butted in.

"You would," Sasuke said under his breath.

"Gee, thanks, Gaara!" Naruto grinned. "You're not such a weird cold bastard after all!"

-

Of course, the minute Iruka blinked, what had just been Kakashi turned into a log. He held the box close to his chest and listened as the older man rooted out their attacker. It didn't take long for the rustling in the bushes to suddenly turn into the whistling and thudding of kunai as Kakashi faced off against an unseen opponent. Iruka chose to take that moment to run down the road. The farther away he was from the battle, the better. Inwardly, he wished he could remain this far away from Kakashi for the rest of the trip. Unfortunately, that wasn't possible.

It took less than a minute for the silver haired Jounin to return, much to Iruka's dismay. He had been hoping for half an hour. "He was a common thief. And a rather dumb one, too to attack two high level Leaf shinobi," Kakashi said, yawning. "I left him tied up. Good thing he didn't try using any higher level attacks."

"I'm a little surprised that the kunai didn't react to your usage of chakra when you used the switching technique," Iruka glanced down at the box, getting his mind off the fact that his companion annoyed him.

"It must have to be a certain level of chakra or something."

"The letter didn't say that."

"Hokage wasn't a god. He could have forgotten to mention it."

Iruka grumbled a little. "This whole thing just sounds like the bad plot of a poorly written story. I mean, come on... who makes two super deadly kunai and then sends them to a village far away? Not to mention the aged wise man dies and sends two ninjas to return it. Watch something else go wrong. I'm putting my money on either one of us dying, or some international weapons cartel trying to steal them away from us." He sighed and then laughed. "It's absolutely ridiculous."

"No, I think if this was a book, it would also include large breasted women... someone getting pregnant... and most likely some explicit sexual material."

"Shows what kind of books you read."

"Don't tell me you don't."

"I don't!" Iruka's face flushed brightly. "It's completely inappropriate."

"Not if you're old enough."

"Not if you're a teacher."

"Funny how kids are allowed to go kill themselves for our villages, but not allowed to read porn."

"If I catch Naruto reading any of your dirty books because you believe that..."

"I'd never show Naruto those books. I was thinking about Sasuke. Poor kid needs some release."

"You're sick."

"I'm just being realistic here. The only thing is, Sasuke seems to be kind of asexual. I don't know if I could interest him in some of the stuff that I read."

"Don't even try!"

To be continued...

End Notes: Finally I got this chapter done! I kept writing it and then the compie would crash... ;; Ah well. Hope you enjoyed!