Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, the dumb blond wouldn't be going through all this 'let's learn some 1337 jutsu!' crap. What he would do, is learn a door-locking jutsu, find Sasuke, find the nearest closet, get a piece of rope, and work from there.

Chapter 15 – Epilogue

"Gah! We don't have any classes together!" Naruto cried, glomping the poor, unsuspecting boy reclining on the couch. After a moment, Sasuke was capable of breathing despite the large mass on his chest. Naruto shifted slightly, finding a more comfortable position on the smaller boy, resting his head on Sasuke's neck. "It's not fair." He grumbled.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and stretched his hand out for Naruto's schedule, laying innocently on the coffee table. Finally catching it between two fingers, Sasuke deftly lifted it to his face.

"Naruto," He said with an amused/exasperated sigh, "He have Lit. together... With Kakashi, go figure. And we've got lunch together too..."

His voice trailed off as Naruto nuzzled his neck, the horny bastard, and started pawing playfully at Sasuke's clothes. Growling, Sasuke pushed him away, only making the blond laugh as they half-heartedly wrestled until a bark of a chortle escaped Sasuke. Naruto grinned widely and sat back on his heels.

"Ha! I made you laugh!"

Sasuke's face was already schooled, completely serious.

"No you didn't."

"Yes I did! You laughed, just now!"

"No I didn't."

Naruto gave an amused sigh and dropped to his elbows, very deliberately invading Sasuke's personal space.

"Yes you did."

Sasuke stayed calm for about all of two more seconds before another tiny laugh escaped him. Naruto snickered triumphantly, forcibly stealing a kiss.

Sasuke had loosened up. He smiled more—still not very much, but more than before. And he let Naruto in a little more. There was still a lot that he didn't say. Still not happy enough. But happier. Nine years of depression didn't just go away. But it fades. A little. It was a reward unto itself; making Sasuke smile and laugh. Even if he was still a moody, cranky bastard. It was a little fragment of peace, what they had.

All the same, it was late and he was hungry. Naruto lifted himself up, straightening his tee slightly. Suddenly, slender pale hands reached around his shoulders and pulled him back down.

"Bullshit, Naruto. You're warm," Sasuke growled, a playful smirk sneaking onto his face, "You're not leaving."

"That's very sweet... but I'm damn hungry!" whined Naruto, knowing it was futile to attempt to break Sasuke's grasp, earning a dark glare.

"Too bad. I'm cold." The moody teen grumbled, eyes narrowing in challenge.

Naruto was at a loss at how to deal with this new predicament. "Please?"

A mischievous grin flashed across Sasuke's face. "No."

He pulled Naruto down for a long kiss and wrapped his legs around the boy's hips.

Naruto completely forgot about ramen then.

A short time later, Sasuke woke from a nap, with Naruto using him as a pillow. Moving carefully, Sasuke slipped out from underneath the blond, who did little more than grumble, and the raven picked up the blanket from the floor, where they had tossed it so it wouldn't get messy, and covered him with it.

Sasuke straightened and pulled on his boxers and quickly took a shower to clean up. When he left the shower he pulled on some comfortable clothing and took refuge in the kitchen.

Sasuke stood next to the window, watching the rain pour outside in thick, silver sheets. It pooled up in the sidewalk and streets, swirling around in a pointless cycle and eventually spilling into the drains, down to the sewers. The rain was nice. For some reason, it made him think of home. His heart twinged with a longing he couldn't remember, but it was soon replaced by the contentment of his new home and life.

He could see his reflection, but his eyes were black, not red (like his), and they would stay that way. He focused instead on the street below. It was empty under its gray sky, and only once in a great while would a car charge down the sopping streets, preceded by yellow headlights that seemed like monstrous eyes.

Sasuke straighted and took in a sharp breath, as he saw someone in black with red flit down in the street—but he blinked and the figure was gone, but he kept watching, waiting, certain that someone had been there.

The streets stayed empty.

"Yo, Sasuke."

The raven glanced into the window's reflection and saw Naruto approaching him, dressed in gray sweatpants and with slightly damp hair. He must have taken a shower without Sasuke noticing. The blond wrapped his arms around the pale boy's waist.

"It's really pouring out there, huh?" Naruto said thoughtfully.

"Yeah."

Naruto glanced down at Sasuke, his dark eyes distant and still staring at the street.

"Are you going to be okay?"

Sasuke blinked and looked up at Naruto, all at once forgetting about the entrancing figure down below.

He smiled and entwined one of his hands with Naruto's.

"Yeah. I will be."

Naruto gave Sasuke a smile that warmed him all the way to his toes. They turned back to the window, and Sasuke didn't think of the dark ghost he saw down in the streets.

This is okay, isn't it, Kimimaro? It's okay to just live and let live, right? It's okay that I don't know everything yet, because I've got a little piece of happiness, right here... Even if it won't last forever...

End Chapter 15 – Epilogue

End Potential

It's finally over. I'm half happy, half sad. Lots of energy put into this.

I've thought about it a lot, and there won't be a sequel. I'd kind of like to write one, to wrap up a few lose ends, I just don't know how I would do it. Sorry! I know a lot of you wanted me to continue... but I really feel like this is the end.

Anyway, I feel a bit compelled to critique my own story (I'm not sure if that's orthodox or not, but whatever).

Overall, I'm pretty proud of it. I think maybe it was a bit rushed, and there were a few awkward parts that I could never quite fix, and the descriptions were in the lacking, and it didn't feel like anyone other than Sasuke went under a lot of character development. I also totally screwed up how the Japanese school system went, but I didn't feel like going back and fixing it. The writing style was rough and unrefined, but it was great practice. And, I dunno, it felt kind of innocent, if you get what I mean. Just a couple of kids trying to live a normal life. So yeah, I'm proud of my first completed story, despite its shortcomings.

And I totally loved writing the twisted father-son relationship between Orochimaru and Sasuke. Lots of fun.

A fun little thing to notice in the story: Sasuke never refers to Orochimaru's mansion as 'home' (except for once, but he was speaking in very broad terms).

I know that a lot of you are curious about Itachi, so I'll try to point you in the right direction: when Orochimaru is informed that the police have found him, he mentions two names (names that might not mean much, if you aren't familiar with Part Two of the manga). Also, Orochi mentioned that the prototype Sharingan caused progressive blindness. Who does that remind you of? As for Itachi's current status... who knows?

I thought someone would be curious about Sasuke hearing/seeing Kimimaro early in the story (but apparently not :snerk:) so these are my thoughts: That can be written off as a hallucination; Sasuke's not very stable and desperately needed to be comforted. Or, if you prefer something more cheerful, you could say he was an angel of some sort watching over him. Either way, it makes sense that as Sasuke grows closer to Naruto, Kimimaro's active presence (but not his memory) gradually fades away and eventually drops off altogether.

I think that I should mention that the biggest influences on this story were Taes' Ai no Koto (writing style, not that you can tell) and The Magician Fuuma's Don't Say a Word (characterizations, except for Kimimaro). Awesome stories, which I encourage y'all to check out. There were, of course, other things, but those were the most major and apparent to me.

And now that you've gotten this far, I shall reveal to you the (almost the only) reason why I wrote this in the first place:

Utter lack of AU fanfics of Sasuke living with Orochimaru.

No joke.

Seriously, I thought these type stories would be so insanely popular... but one day when I tried to look for a story like this... it was nowhere to be found. I'm sure there's a few that I just skipped over, though (tell me!).

If anyone's curious, I've listed information about my upcoming projects in my profile. If you're further interested, you can head to my LJ (link is also in my profile) and read an excerpt.

But thanks, everyone that reviewed and supported me. It was fun. I shall be quiet now, before my note gets longer than the epilogue! (What can I say? I like to talk!)

Ja!