- - - - -

Naruto's hand reached behind, grabbing his. Wet on the cold wind, Sasuke was a little astonished just how warm Naruto was, but he had no time to wonder for long. The grip on his hand was becoming painfully harsh; so harsh that Sasuke didn't believe Naruto was even aware of what he was doing.

"Good evening, boys." An unfamiliar female voice said from the doorstep that Sasuke couldn't see well because Naruto was shielding most of the doorway. "I presume you are the guests I have been expecting?"

Struggling out of the grip Naruto had on him in front of the person that opened the door was not a good idea. Sasuke instead stepped forward, hoping Naruto would get the reassurance he obviously needed from that and let go. It was also easier to see over his shoulder.

"Good evening," he answered, nodding to the old lady standing in front of them. It was most likely Chiyo Akasuna, the Inn's owner. "We have a reservation for a room under the name Uchiha."

She smiled, showing them her worn teeth in the process. There was nothing warm and friendly in it, but her job was to be polite, not to be their grandmother. What Sasuke actually disliked was her hair, gathered sloppily into a bun but with wild, knotted strands peeking all around. It reminded him of an old, stubborn teacher he'd had in elementary school.

Naruto walked inside first, and quickly, when she moved to make room for them.

"The kitchen is already closed," Chiyo said when the door behind them clicked, leaving the coldness on the other side. "But I could make you something to eat if you're hungry. The rain must have prolonged your trip; you look exhausted."

"No, it's fine," Naruto reassured her quickly. Sasuke was actually hungry, but if Naruto was denying free food, than he had a good reason for it so he didn't say anything. As an effort to cover for some of that impoliteness, Naruto added more slowly, "We just need to take a bath and go to sleep. Right, babe?"

That was a stupid endearment; Sasuke absolutely hated to be called that. Naruto's 'hint, hint' tone of voice made it sound… not that bad. Not bad at all, actually. Tearing his eyes away with some effort from where Naruto was still trying to make him decline the offer with the power of his will, Sasuke politely refused food.

"Well, in that case, I'll just show you to your room, boys," Chiyo said before going to a small reception desk to pick up a set of keys. "If you would follow me, please."

She was slow, but determined to show them the way. They had to follow her.

"I also have restaurant service open," she was saying, "We serve breakfast and lunch from 9:30 until 2:00, dinner from 5:00 until 8:00. The food is homemade. But if you city boys don't like it or don't get to the dining room on time, there is a dinner just on the edge of the town, not very far from here."

"Oh, no!" Naruto answered. "I like homemade food just fine . . . but I guess it will depend on if we make it in time or not."

Naruto grinned at her, rather forcefully in Sasuke's opinion, but it made the old lady nod. "Also I wanted to ask you . . . I don't have your check-out date."

"Oh!" Naruto exclaimed, still smiling. "It's just that we don't know yet how many days we're gonna stay. It depends on how long Sasuke will need to find his . . . plant."

"Really?" she asked, interested. "A plant? I thought you were working for a magazine. "

"I do," Sasuke answered as they reached the top of the stairs. Should he say more? He was supposed to be some kind of flora enthusiast to write for a magazine of that kind, after all. He should probably act interested, at the very least. "A colleague who is also a botanist reported that he saw a rare plant in this area when he was vacationing. It's really interesting, you see, because that plant, Hieracium Snowdoniense, was believed to be growing only in Wales before his discovery. But the climate here is similar, so . . ."

Naruto, who let Sasuke walk closer to their host, lingering just a little bit behind, snickered. Sasuke threw him a glare over his shoulder, but Naruto only grinned wider, definitely looking more sincere than before. He was thoughtfully amused by Sasuke's . . . enthusiasm. He was also still holding Sasuke's hand without any obvious discomfort, as if they did it every day.

Why would he feel discomfort? They were just putting on a show.

"That sounds really nice," Chiyo said. She didn't seem interested at all. Indeed, it was as if she wasn't even listening, so that was good. If she didn't care, then she probably didn't know much about plants, and wouldn't see through his story.

"But you should be careful if you are planning to wander. The forest is really big and it can be dangerous."

"We will, ma'am," Naruto said, studying the pictures lined up on the walls. They were mostly landscapes, or the pictures of what Sasuke thought was the Inn before it had a renovation at some point. "My name is Naruto, by the way."

The old woman nodded. "I'm Chiyo Akasuna, but you can call me grandma. Everybody does."

"Really? That must be nice."

Naruto wasn't even paying attention to her words; he was simply answering automatically. All his attention was on looking at the surroundings with a narrowed gaze he usually only got when investigating a crime scene. Was he looking for evidence of the vandalism? Surely not; that had happened some time ago.

"It reminds me of my age," she stated. Sasuke thought there was an odd, hurt look in her eyes as she turned from the last flight of stairs to the hallway. "The old chief, Sarutobi, and I are the oldest people in this town."

Chiyo told them a little more about how she had made the Inn from her family house, how she was living in a set of rooms in the ground floor that were once upon a time meant for the servants. And then, they finally stopped in front of a door. It felt as if it took forever for them to reach it because the old woman was walking so slowly. She gave them the key and wished them good night there, not going inside of the room.

Once the door closed behind them, Naruto looked at Sasuke and they both let go of each other at the same time. Neither one commented on the holding hands thing. But if Naruto decided to try and say something, Sasuke would at least be able to tell him that he was the one who started it. How realistic, exactly, was it for a couple to hold hands and carry suitcases up the stairs at the same time, Sasuke decided not to think about just then. If it wasn't realistic, they were just – trying too hard to do their job well.

Sasuke left his suitcase in the closet, glaring at Naruto when he - just as Sasuke expected - dropped his in the middle of the room. He was looking around just like he had done to the hallways before, a disapproving frown on his face. Sasuke was wondering about that but he kept glaring until Naruto got the hint, rolled his eyes and moved his things away.

"You know, I'm wondering how old this place is," Naruto said, making a face. "It would be so much nicer if she kept it a little bit better. What do you think this stain is?"

Sasuke walked to the corner, near the window, where Naruto was crouching and pointing at a spot on the wall. There was nothing there; that part of the wall was just as freshly painted as all the other parts in the room – and the rest of the Inn they had seen so far.

"Rust, or something. What do you think?" Naruto asked, leaning even closer. "It looks so old and dilapidated. It certainly should have been painted over by now. Gross, at any case."

Sasuke pushed Naruto out of the way and ignored the indignant protests as he took a better, closer look. The wall was still perfect, white and freshly painted, no matter how carefully he was looking.

He moved away without saying anything and rubbed his eyes. This was going to be one of those cases, he just knew it. Naruto was acting way too oddly, what with grabbing his hand at the entrance and all the staring around, like he was in a ghost train.

"Anyway," Naruto said, "Calling dibs on the shower!"

Sasuke nodded, sitting on the bed - the big, comfortable, Naruto-and-I-are-gonna-sleep-together-on-it bed. Sasuke watched Naruto get a set of clothes, making a face of discomfort when he took out his wet shoes, and then disappeared in the bathroom.

"I won't be long," Naruto promised, closing the door.

Alone in the room, Sasuke glanced to the part of the wall Naruto had been pointing out earlier. It was still perfectly white. There was no stain on it. The entire Inn, actually, looked not only clean, but freakishly clean, to him. For Naruto to complain when there was nothing to complain about . . . It was rare. And it would usually be followed with Sasuke giving his opinion on just how pathetic Naruto's whining was. However . . .

There had been a few times when Naruto had done or said something – weird, that eventually lead them to the solution of the case, without Sasuke ever noticing that there was something off.

The first time it had happened, or at least the first time Sasuke had seen it, it was in the first year of their partnership. They were working on the team dealing with organized crime. The people they were trying to corner, once there was finally enough evidence and a witness, were accused of every possible crime, from picking pockets to first-degree murder. Their team burst into the hideout with the orders to arrest everyone in sight, only there was no one there. The place had been wiped clean.

As they were getting desperate, sure that the hide-out was empty and all the important people had split the country, Naruto had walked to one of the corners, speaking softly to himself. He took his police jacket off, which left the bulletproof vest visible and let it fall on the ground at an odd angle. No one paid him much attention, no one aside from Sasuke. But then Naruto turned, announced that he knew where they were all hiding and lead the team to a room behind the kitchen.

It was an arrest that improved Naruto's reputation in the station monumentally. So, when he told Tsunade that he got the information on the whereabouts of the suspects from a girl that was hiding in a corner but later disappeared, leaving behind only the jacket he gave her because she was cold, Sasuke didn't say anything. Would anyone even believe him if he told them that Naruto had gotten his information out of thin air? Because he'd been watching Naruto talk and give his jacket away and there had been nothing there.

The worst – or the best – part was that Naruto didn't seem to realize something was off. He kept looking for that girl for a long time before he saw her picture in one of the victim files, and he had mourned her death. Sasuke still had no idea why, exactly, he had blackened the date of her death carefully out on the document, against all the rules, before Naruto came back from the bathroom where he had taken off after first seeing it. The only explanation he had to offer was that Naruto would have freaked out if he realized she was already long dead when he had 'talked' to her.

Maybe, after some time, Sasuke would have convinced himself that it was all some kind of fluke, or that Naruto had an informant he wanted to keep a secret so he invented that crazy story and acted it out for some unimaginable reason. But that was only the first time. It happened again. Not too often, and never again as obvious, but it had happened.

Sasuke took it as Naruto's special little talent. It wasn't as he ever felt or saw anything himself and Naruto would always turn out to be right eventually, so it was fine. It worked.

The only time he really freaked out was when he had invited Naruto to his house. They had been working on a case and as Tsunade had threatened them to take them off of it if they hadn't solved it before she remembered to check again, they had decided to take all the work home. As Sasuke imagined Naruto's house was a barnyard – he was proved to be wrong later - he decided it would be better if they did it at his house. He had left Naruto alone for a few minutes at one point, going to the store down the block to get some food. When he came back, Naruto looked up from the file he was trying to balance on his knee – instead of reading it - and told him that his mom looked really nice. Sasuke froze momentarily, wondering, hoping, before he caught the nod Naruto was giving to the nearby shelf, the one with framed photographs on it. He'd been snooping around; it was nothing more serious than that.

"Your turn," Naruto's voice took him out of his musings. Sasuke looked up, a little startled. His mind must have been playing tricks on him because when he saw Naruto, who was wearing only a pair of pants and drying his hair with a towel, his tan skin was glowing faintly. Or maybe that was thanks to the contrast of the steam of the shower and the light provided by the bathroom. Naruto noticed him frowning. "What?"

"Nothing," he answered, getting up to get some clothes for himself.

- - -

Naruto opened his eyes slowly. He felt giddy - or maybe comfortable would be a better word. It was still dark, probably very early in the morning. Feeling warm and content, Naruto sighed, moving a little to press himself to the body behind him. Hugging the pillow, he closed his eyes to go back to sleep as he felt the body get close to him as well.

His fuzzy mind vaguely wondered where he was, anyway. It was not his room, obviously; he didn't have a red comforter. Naruto opened his eyes again and squinted through the darkness. The silhouettes of the furniture didn't trigger anything for a moment, and then Naruto remembered. He was on an undercover mission. He was staying at that creepy, dirty inn, so the body behind him - the one he was cuddling, the person whose hand was lying loosely on his waist – that was . . . Sasuke.

Naruto's eyes widened immediately. He didn't move but his body got a little tense; he didn't want to wake Sasuke up but, damn, it was so warm, so comfortable. It felt so good. Carefully, he put some space between them, wondering if it was going to be like this every single night until their mission was over. Worse yet, he almost hoped it would, especially if Sasuke planned on sleeping through it all. Naruto sighed tiredly, closing his eyes again in order to go back to sleep.

A couple minutes passed. It wasn't working. He'd begun shifting restlessly in the bed. Finally, he changed positions to face Sasuke. Watching his partner sleep was making him even more restless. He was starting to think about things he was not supposed to. Sasuke looked so peaceful without his ever-present frown, so cute when his nose twitched like something was bothering him. Um, cute? Usually, Naruto would call Sasuke everything but cute. He was so tired already and it was just the first day. And now that he thought about it, he was a little bit hungry, too.

Naruto turned on his back and placed his forearm over his eyes. It was a trick that had been useful a couple times before when he wanted to take a nap, but it wasn't helping him this time. His stomach rumbled. Maybe if he went down to the kitchen and ate something, had a glass of milk, it would help him sleep.

Naruto removed the covers and stood up. Quietly, so he would not wake Sasuke up, he walked out and towards the first floor where he had caught a glimpse of the kitchen earlier. There were some noises coming from the corners hidden in the dark, cracks and distant clatter, but that was normal at night – nothing like what he imagined he heard when they arrived and Chiyo opened the entrance door, though. Naruto's own apartment rumbled sometimes, too. Passing a few other doors, he wondered how many rooms were taken, when a loud snore from one of the rooms near the stairs startled him.

The old wood groaned as Naruto took the stairs down. The sound of his steps echoed through the hallways. The dim light from the corridor let him see where he was going, but it also illuminated the faint yet disturbing stains on the walls and carpets. They didn't look quite as unsettling while they'd been walking up into the room earlier, but the light had been brighter then.

Naruto felt put out about them, for more than just the sanitation. Sasuke was the one who was obsessive-compulsive about cleaning, so why wasn't he complaining about it now? Even when Naruto pointed out how disgusting it was, he didn't say anything. And somehow, those stupid stains really bothered him. Naruto knew they were probably there because Chiyo was old and not as mobile as when she'd been younger. He couldn't demand of someone her age to keep the entire inn clean, but the stains were strange. It was like the building was so worn out that if he poked at them, the walls would crumble under his fingers.

Naruto sighed. The walls wouldn't crumble if he poked at them. The house was not that old, he was just letting his imagination run away him; it must be that he was trying to keep his mind off of Sasuke.

He arrived at the kitchen and looked around. He was feeling just as uncomfortable in it so, in an attempt to calm down, Naruto grabbed a glass to get some water. There was a package of cookies on the top of the counter, so he helped himself to a few.

Instead of wasting his time thinking up stupid things about the inn, he should focus on the case. This was the place that had been vandalized, one of the cases from the missing cop's file. Maybe those kids that had made trouble just wanted to annoy the old lady. Kids could be really mean when they wanted to be.

"You shouldn't be here."

Maybe because he was too concentrated on his thoughts, Naruto almost choked on the cookie he had in his mouth. He coughed it out.

When he regained his balance, Naruto answered the person standing by the kitchen door. "You scared me."

"You shouldn't be here."

Naruto rolled his eyes and drank some more water to help him wash the remaining crumbs down his throat. He should have looked for milk; it would go much better with the sweet cookies. A boy of about eleven, or maybe even thirteen years old – it was hard to tell in the dim light – was standing near the door. He looked familiar, but it took a moment before Naruto remembered seeing him before. It was that red-haired boy he'd seen with Chiyo in the framed photos hanging around the house.

"Sorry pal, but I couldn't sleep. What about you? Couldn't sleep either?"

The boy just shrugged as he sat down in the chair that was closest to him.

Naruto tried something else. "Are you related to the old lady who owns the house?"

"Yes," the kid answered this time.

Naruto smiled. The boy's voice was deep and it sounded like it belonged to an older person, as if he wasn't used to using it often. Maybe he was shy. Naruto offered a cookie to the kid, but he shook his head.

"I'm Naruto. What's your name?" Naruto smiled as he spoke.

He didn't get a smile in return. "Sasori," the boy replied.

"Tell me, Sasori," Naruto asked, struggling to make conversation. "How does the school treat you?"

"I don't go to school anymore," he said, his face blank. No happiness, no sadness. What an odd kid.

If Naruto said that he wasn't surprised he would be lying, but he tried to recall if Chiyo had mentioned something about her family. In fact, he was sure she had implied that her son was dead when she'd been explaining about the house. Well, perhaps because of all the disappearances and her son's death, she had decided to home-school her grandson.

It was a pity, in his opinion. Even if there weren't a lot of children in the town, Naruto believed all kids should interact with others of their age. Maybe the isolation was why the kid seemed older.

He tried to encourage Sasori. "But I bet you still have a lot of friends."

"I don't leave the house anymore."

Naruto felt bad for the kid. It wasn't any of his business, not unless the kid gave out some signs of child abuse. He had come for a different reason. But the simple, flat way he'd said that, like a person that had made his peace with fate a long time ago . . . it made Naruto's chest hurt.

"And why is that?" He smiled forcefully.

"Because Grandma doesn't want me to leave."

'It's a pity, really, what kids have to do for what some people call love,' Naruto thought.

"Well, I'm gonna be around for a while. If you want, we could spend some time together, do something fun." Naruto tried on another smile for Sasori.

Again, he got nothing in turn for the smile, only those same words. "You shouldn't be here."

"Ok, ok. I get it," Naruto muttered. Maybe he had touched on a delicate subject. "Geez, you don't have to be so uptight. I'll go to my room."

He put the rest of the cookies in their place, drank what was left of the water and stood up to wash the glass. Putting it away to dry, he started to say, "Well good nigh-"

But he stopped, because instead of the kid, it was the old lady Chiyo who was looking at him. He hadn't heard anything, not Sasori going out and not her when she had walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning, Ma'am," he said sheepishly. 'Damn it, kid,' he thought reproachfully.

She was frowning disapprovingly. "What are you doing up, Naruto?"

"Sorry." He smiled, trying to appease her. "I couldn't sleep."

"Because you were hungry," she finished for him, and sighed when Naruto nodded. "That's why I offered to make something for you two to eat. I don't like people wandering in my house at night."

Great, if he couldn't manage to get used to the place and sleep well, Naruto would be forced to lie in bed all night long and try not to watch Sasuke sleep too obsessively. What kind of policy was, 'I don't like people wondering around the house at night?' Like he was ten year-old hellion and would just start breaking things.

"Sorry, Ma'am. It won't happen again."

"I hope so," she said, not even trying to soften it. She stayed behind and waited for him to leave the kitchen and climb up the stairs. When Naruto arrived at the door of his and Sasuke's room, all the lights in the house went off. He was left to stand in the hallway, with his hand on the knob, in complete darkness. It was rude of her. But although Naruto was slightly annoyed, he didn't really mind it. She had her habits, and they are always hard to change, especially at her age.

Naruto opened the door as quietly as possible so he wouldn't wake Sasuke up. The darkness in the room had thinned. The sky outside was already turning gray; dawn was close. Sasuke was still asleep, unconsciously using Naruto's absence to spread over the bed. It took some careful maneuvering to make him move and make space for Naruto to sneak under the covers.

He hadn't gotten too cold wandering about, but Sasuke had kept the bed warm and inviting. It felt so good to relax into that comfortable softness, Naruto forgot all about the old annoying lady and the boy he had talked to. When Sasuke put his arm around him, which was already a familiar gesture from the way Naruto had woken up, he sighed and let the last of the tension ooze out of his body. It wasn't long before he fell asleep again.

-

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Cupricanka and I bring you the next chapter... yeay! :D
beta'ed by dolphina12 .:loves:.

Officially this has became a cookie-eating moster XD I hope that will make you happy.
Things are about to get more interesting ;)

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