I blame the plot bunny. It just wouldn't die no matter how many times I shot it, drowned it and dismembered it among many other things. The annoying long eared thing just kept coming back. So here is the result of the rabid rabbit wreaking havoc on my brain. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I do not own anything that can correspond to being a professional mangaka. So it's pretty safe to say I don't own Naruto.

Sasuke flinched slightly at the sound of fangirls fighting for him in the background. Sure, he should've been use to them by now seeing as they existed prior to his clans…demise, but this was just ridiculous. It seemed that now he was the last loyal Uchiha, his little clique had grown in size, age range and ferocity. But he would deal with it, just like before, by ignoring them.

"Mah~ will those idiots ever shut up?" said a familiar voice from his left, "Isn't it obvious that no matter how much they fight nothing will come of it?"

Click

"Yeah right, I honestly don't get why they are so into him in the first place." replied a second equally familiar voice.

Click

"True, nevertheless, I thought they would have more commonsense then that."

Click

"You know fangirls," the replier scoffed, "Absolutely nothing in their heads except for their desire and things related to that desire."

Click

"You are correct for once." Click, "And I believe that's my win"

"NO!" screamed the blond dramatically, "Not again!"

The avenger glanced at two of the three females in his class that weren't part of his fanclub, curious at what they had been doing. Studying the shogi board between the two, Sasuke couldn't help but be impressed by the placing of some of the pieces.

His gaze flicking towards the players themselves he took a moment to reacquaint himself with them. On one side was the black haired Tsukikage Kurai, with amber coloured eyes, bronze skin and one heck of a nasty grin when provoked, she was one of class's most terrifying people when she felt like it. It probably didn't help that she also appeared to be a sadist at heart, enjoying people's pain and humiliation, although only when they deserved it strangely enough. Dressed in a black battle kimono embroidered with red designs, knee length leggings and standard shinobi sandals, the girl was a rather intimidating figure and definitely one heck of a kunoichi.

"I will win next time dattebayo!"

On the other hand, her friend was quiet the opposite. Loud, carefree and an absolute klutz at the worst of times, Uzumaki Naruko had her own brand of annoyingness ready to be bottled and sold. Long blond hair tied into twin pigtails, sparkling cerulean eyes and three matching whisker like marks on each cheek, the other girl wasn't exactly the most subtle of all ninja. The fact she wore florescent orange didn't help either. Yet despite the fact she was dressed in the colours that literally screamed 'Look here, I'm a target! Kill me!' the girl managed to pull off some impressive pranks without being caught until much, much, much later.

"Yare, yare, not my fault you focused so much on that general that you forgot about protecting your king."

Privately, and buried deep, deep, deep, DEEP down, the boy admired the two. It wasn't a secret neither of them had parents, yet the two seemed to thrive. Tsukikage was the top kunoichi of the year, her practical and theoretical skills far above the rest as seen in her test results throughout the year. Her results and abilities were even better than the Hyuuga's and the Yamanaka's, both who he knew to be from shinobi families. Uzumaki, although dubbed the classes dead last, had amazing chakra reserves and cheerfulness that enabled her to keep going even if things seemed impossible for her.

Yes, he definitely respected the two. They were also goals to surpass if he was going to kill THAT man.

Finally it was the end of the day, and the last Uchiha loyal to Konoha Village was slowly meandering his way home, not really wanting to get there.

Memories of blood splashed against the wall and of that man killing his father in front of him-no he had to stop thinking about them…

But he got there eventually, steeling himself for another lonely night full of haunting memories. Only to be surprised by the fact someone was already there. Someone's' to be specific.

"Damn your slow teme!"

He stared impassively at the two females who were stalling front of his house – one leaning against the wall reading, the other arms akimbo glaring at him – waiting for him of all things, as he floundered internally with shock.

"What are you two doing here?" he demanded, an annoyed scowl on his face.

Glancing up from her book, Kurai returned his look with one of her own.

"Waiting for you to turn up." She said bluntly as she stood up straight and put her book away, "What else would we be here for?"

Scowl deepening he shot back, "And why would you do that?" As far as he knew, there were no advantages for them to do so. It was unlikely there was anything he had that they wanted and they couldn't possibly have anything that he wanted.

"We thought you could do with a decent meal."

Sasuke's mind, who was rapidly generating reasons why the two would be here, grated to a stop.

"Huh?" was his intelligent reply.

Surprisingly, it was Naruko who replied, "Anyone with two brain cells to rub together can see that you're not eating properly. You're pale – more than usual anyway – and your concentration wanders. Not to mention your punches don't hurt as much as they use to either."

"Let's add the fact that you don't eat lunch all that often and when you do, its store bought." added Kurai calmly, "So our conclusion was you just weren't eating properly or you don't know how to cook, since if you did, you wouldn't be so badly affected."

His frown still evident on his face, the Uchiha considered his options. To say he wasn't annoyed that someone had noticed that he wasn't eating all that well was an understatement. But nothing ever came for free.

Eyeing to two carefully as he considered his options, the boy finally asked, "What's in it for you two?"

"Apart from extra chances to hone our cooking skills? Not much, I mean, is it really that mind boggling that people can do things out of the goodness of their hearts?"

Apparently it was as Sasuke pretty much just stared at them. Eventually, Naruko getting fed up with the silence exclaimed, "If you must pay us back help us out by sparring with us occasionally, fighting Kurai all the time does get boring until one of us learns a new trick. Then it gets boring again."

Finally agreeing - albeit somewhat reluctantly on his part - it was decided that in exchange for learning how to cook, he would find time to spar with the two girls at least once a week and not let anyone know that they were doing so.

"Fine then, when do we start?"

Feeling a shiver of fear run down his spine at the girls rather evil looks, the Uchiha could only sigh when they pulled out shopping bags from seemingly nowhere with a grin and a cheerfully shouted "Now!"

It was strange to admit but, somewhere along the way, the two girls who had forcefully intruded his home had wormed themselves into his heart, becoming Naru-chan and Kauri instead of Uzumaki and Tsukikage.

Kauri was the level headed one, sarcastic with a gilded tongue that allowed her to persuade anyone to do practically anything and surprisingly gifted in all sorts of artistic forms. While he would argue that HE was the more responsible one, she was the one that ensured that none of them got themselves killed in a spar by patching them all up with various medical jutsu she had many to learn from medics and that they did everything they were suppose to. And that they didn't get caught when they did something they weren't supposed to depending on the circumstances. In someway, she had become his surrogate older sister, and once when Sasuke had let it slip, she had simply smiled and replied that what he said better be true since she was going to look like that one day. Brushing the comment off as her being strange again, he had turned back to try and find Naru only to be hit in the face by one of the girl's traps. He had also discovered the girl was very much a tomboy, a rather crass one too, only wearing feminine battle yukatas because she could hide so many things in the sleeves and no-one would be any wiser.

Naru was quiet simply, a ball of boundless energy. He had soon discovered in their spars that Naru was anything BUT the dead last. With insane flexibility, the boy had trouble guessing where she was going to strike next; in fact, he had activated his sharingan in one of their spars because she had pretty much attacked him without restraint. Not to mention her stealth and trap skills were way above what was needed in the academy. When she had seen his look of shock the first time he had been caught in her traps she smirked – his heart skipped a beat at that – and said "How else do you think I prank ANBU headquarters?" Although the clear animosity the girl received from the villagers confused him and when asked, Naru would brush it off as something that happened although she wasn't sure what. But he did link the fact she performed badly in academy to it, which also happened to be linked to some ulterior plan that the two had concocted. It also helped that the real Naru wasn't actually as loud as the mask she put up in the academy, although the fact that they were rival's remained.

Either way, the girls were here to stay, and suddenly, he wasn't sure what he would've become if they didn't decide to stick their noses into his life.

Although the words given to him by that man lingered, and part of him wondered was letting them remain a good thing.

It wasn't until the first celebration of the Kyuubi's defeat after the three had become friends that Sasuke saw exactly how close they had become.

There was no academy that day so he was at home doing a bit of cleaning – something the girls had instilled in him after seeing the almost pigsty of his room – when Kurai came rushing in.

"Have you seen Naruko?" she demanded and at his negative reply, she had actually growled, a low feral sound that was more likely to come from Naru or the Inuzuka in their class.

"Quit cleaning and look for her," was the next order, "She's in trouble."

So not really wanting to be on the receiving end of her anger, Sasuke had dropped his work before beginning his search of the village. What he found in the end had horrified and angered him to no end.

The Kyuubi festival was getting into full swing, colourful yukatas and kimonos everywhere, stall owners' loudly calling to attract customers, the place was just short of pandemonium.

He unfortunately had run into Ino and Sakura, who had grabbed him by either arm and proceeded to play human tug-a-war with him while he had frantically tried to find an excuse to escape as well as scouring the crowd for the familiar blonde shock of hair.

"Oi, what you on a date for," was suddenly snarled into his ear before he was whisked away by Karui.

"Dunno what you were doing, but I found her," was the next sentence, "I'm gonna need your help to get her out of this."

Slightly confused, the boy simply followed her to a deserted alley way, to be met with the sight of Naru being pummelled by a mob of men made up of villages and ninja's of all ranks yelling "Die you god damned Fox!" and "Kill the demon!"

"We can't handle this." Was all that he could say, because really, no matter how good they were, they were academy students and there was a freaking jounin in that mob.

"I know." Was her terse reply, "I just want to keep an eye on them, make sure she doesn't get moved to somewhere else, and follow them if she does. I'm gonna get a couple of ANBU to help out, but it's going to take time to get there."

And with that she was gone, his protest on his lips. Instead he opted for gritting his teeth and watching the group, no matter how grisly it was. After what seemed to be hours – it was only minutes, he knew that – the almost familiar white masks of ANBU appeared Kurai grimfaced among them. Joining her in the alley, he watched as the group was carted off and the girl rushed forwards to her friend, hands immediately aglow with healing chakra as she assessed and began healing the worst of it.

"You'll need to find another place to heal her properly," said one of the remaining ANBU, a man with white gravity defying hair and a dog mask, "Take her to the hospital."

"Fuck no," was snarled, "I ain't letting those goddamn bastards getting their mangy paws on her again. Her apartments no good and they know where mine is"

"Ah yes, that incident."

Sasuke looked at the two, curious about what had happened – he never really paid much attention to his classmates before, and even now only knew what had transpired in their lives after they had barged into his life – but knowing it wasn't the time.

Biting his inner cheek as he thought of a solution, he hesitantly offered "We can take her to my place, there's room and no-one will bother us."

Feeling eyes snapping around to gaze at him, he could practically see the thought process of the ANBU and Kurai as they considered his offer.

"That's a good idea," his friend said softly, he could hear the layers and layers of thankfulness in her voice "they wouldn't think we would be in the Uchiha compound."

Nodding sharply, the girl ran her hands over the blond once more and stepped back to allow the dog ANBU to pick up Naru's prone figure.

"She's stable enough for Shunshin." She added, "See you there."

In response she received a sharp nod before the man formed a one handed hand seal and promptly disappeared. Turning her gaze onto Sasuke, he was overwhelmed by the turbulent emotion in Kurai's eyes.

"We'll discuss this later, grab my arm."

So he did before feeling a moment of vertigo and seeing his living room with a waiting ANBU blur into place.

Wordlessly leading them to an empty room – a guest room even before that fateful day – opening the door for the group and he watched as Naru was placed on the bed, Kurai immediately going to her side, hands once again lit with the green glow of healing chakra. Knowing that there wasn't much he could do, the boy turned to go to the kitchen. He could at least make a cup of tea for Kurai as she worked.

"You know, I was surprised to see you there."

Whipping around, a kunai in hand, the avenger blinked at the sight of the dog ANBU behind him before putting the weapon away with a scowl. How could he have forgotten that the man was still there?

"It's none of your business." He snapped.

Water on stove to boil, three scoops of tea leaves in to the teapot, teacups set on the tray.

"I didn't think you would make friends with those two." was the amused drawl, "They are rather private. I suppose they saw something about you that they liked."

"Well whoop de doo," hmm, it seemed that Kurai's sarcasm was rubbing off on him, "That doesn't matter, I'm surprised that you're willing to help after they pretty much ransacked your headquarters."

It was only the day before the two had decided to pull an all out prank on the ANBU out of boredom. He had gone with them before and had seen the dart boards there with their barely recognisable picture pinned to them. All it made the girls do though was grin and put up new ones.

"The pranks are harmless, a couple of days of irritation at most," the ANBU operative answered flippantly, "No-one in ANBU really hates the two, in fact most sympathize with them, hence why so many of us help them out when we can."

Huffing in reply, Sasuke lifted the pot of boiling water and added it to the teapot. Next was steeping it for three minutes.

Finally, Sasuke cracked, "I don't understand, why do they hate Naru so much? What has she done? Surely nothing more than a few pranks?"

The mask of a stylised dog stared at him, evaluating him.

"I cannot say. Asked the girls, they may choose to tell you. Especially Naru, it is her secret after all."

A moment longer, the ANBU bowed his head slightly in acknowledgement and disappeared, presumably to go back to work. Sighing, Sasuke simply poured the tea before carrying it to the room. It seemed the girls were staying over night.

And that's a wrap! I wanted to write more but I wasn't sure if my fact were right, so instead, I'll finish here and just add another instalment for those who want it. And I know, Sasuke is kinda OOC here, but hey, I'm writing pretty much just after the Uchiha Massacre and he hasn't really had the chance to be all emo-y cause the girl's haven't given him a chance to do so. I mean, you wouldn't either if you had a Naruto hounding after you determined to be your friend right? Right? *looks at audience nervously* ok, maybe not, but still, I have to admit Fem!Naru is cute, so it'll be fun developing their characters later on, although it will be pretty close to the canon characters, can't change them too much after all. Kurai who's an OC will be fun too!

Well, there is a button at the bottom of this page that says 'review' and it will be much, much, much appreciated if you do click it thanks for reading!