Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

The insurance company I utilize for my sleeping prescription is, I swear, convinced that I am running an underground company to illegally sell prescription drugs. This is because my sister has an invisible illness—POTS—and thus needs many medications to handle this and I am sometimes the one calling them to confirm stuff. It is also because I myself have a real nasty case of insomnia and require large quantities of my own prescription to accommodate my lack of staying in state. They were so hung up on this belief because my particular medication is quite powerful and is rather enjoyable for the occasional recreational trip. And I'm all, I appreciate how you recognize my skills as an entrepreneur as well as my management skills, but I swear I really am just using my medication to sleep. It took two separate calls from two different doctors to finally make the insurance company understand my lack of illegal activities. Now they stop giving me a fuss when I ask for a refill. And thus, a portion of my evil plan comes to fruition, bwahahaa!

Anyhoo, onwards with the chapter!

Naruto was ecstatic.

He was so beyond happy that he could barely contain himself.

Naruto was officially back in Suna. He was finally home!

He was not in Konoha. He was not stuck in that hell hole. He was NOT in that idiotic, small backwards town. He was NOT in that place surrounded by small-minded bigots just waiting to punish anyone who did not fit their precious standards.

He was not stuck in a town with former friends pushing their expectations on him, demanding to know why he did not keep in touch with them when they couldn't be bothered to do the same, or telling him to fix their problems for them. He was not stuck in the same small town as his former best friend who physically persecuted him for daring have affectionate feelings for him, then later confused all hell out of him when said bastard lied and said…

No, he was not in Konoha…he was in SUNA! He was home, and was simply delighted with this small miracle.

He had landed a while ago. Luckily, he didn't need to go through the luggage theatrics this time because he only had his carry-on with him and his laptop bag; both of which were able to fit in the overhead compartment.

Smiling to himself, Naruto flipped open his old, chunky phone to let Gaara know he was home and so he could call a cab service to drive him home.

When his phone opened, he saw that he had a text message from the man himself.

Call me when you arrive, it had said.

Naruto cringed a little and scratched the back of his head when he saw the message. He had arrived some time ago, but the landing of the plane and letting everyone exit properly and safely always took a while.

The smile came back as Naruto decided that right now was close enough to arriving home. After all, he was just about to leave the airport.

Dialing Gaara's number, Naruto brought his flip phone up to his ear and waited for the other to pick up.

It rang twice before Gaara picked up. 'Yes?' he greeted, a statement more than a question.

"I got your message! I, uh, landed?" Naruto replied back, unsure how truthful he should be about his arrival time. He was always too honest for his own good. He should get better at lying.

"How close are you to leaving the airport?" Gaara asked, eliminating the need to be truthful or not.

Naruto hunched his shoulder to readjust his bags and looked around, "Uh, I'm pretty close to the exits right now. I was just about to call a cab, actually."

"No need," Gaara replied, "I'm circling the loop."

"What!" Naruto exclaimed, not caring that the volume of his voice made a few people look over at him and probably caused his dear roommate to cringe and hold the phone away from himself. "You didn't need to do that!"

"But I am. Hurry up," Gaara replied before hanging up.

Naruto laughed as he flipped his phone closed. Same ol' Gaara; a man of many words.

He really was quite flattered that his roommate would take the time to pick Naruto up from the airport. The redhead had previously stated that he absolutely abhorred airports and had refused to see the blonde off whenever Naruto and Matsuri needed to go on a business trip. Among other reasons for avoiding driving either of them around, Gaara had also previously referred to airports as 'no-good sink-hole time-traps'. To which Kankuro had helpfully put in his two cents by claiming all airports were a part of a conspiracy together to raise ticket prices to an abnormally high rate so everyone would think the expensive prices were normal while they lines their pockets with essentially stolen money of the people.

Naruto hurried his pace so he could get to the traffic circle faster. He didn't want to inconvenience his friend any further, because he really did appreciate the kind gesture.

Exiting the airport, Naruto quickly looked around himself.

The first thing he noticed was a lot of headlights. The sky itself—the little he could see from his vantage point—was quite dark due to the late hour. His flight had left around nine and took a bit over three hours of travel, so it was past midnight. That seemed to have no effect on the traffic, though. Cars were whizzing by in the outer loop and many cars were aggressively trying to push passed each other in the inner loop while the drivers furiously honked and yelled at each other.

Naruto took in the sight with a large smile. He had missed this. Konoha had a small airport with a sleepy feel. He would have bet his next paycheck that no one would dare honk their horn any time after dark lest they awaken the haughty neighbors. Suna's airport was buzzing with life no matter the hour. It was loud and unapologetically so; and Naruto adored it.

The blonde snapped out of his poetic thoughts as he saw a familiar car approach him.

His smile widened as he waved at the car and at his roommate driving it. Gaara signaled that he was going to pull over at the first available spot. Naruto nodded his understanding and readjusted his carry-on bag along with his laptop bag on his shoulder and started to walk towards the car.

Gaara pulled into an empty space as soon as another driver aggressively pulled out of it to join in the traffic of the outer loop.

Naruto grinned wide enough to stretch the scar of his cheeks and give Gaara a full of his molars as he swung open the passenger door.

"GAARA!" he shouted as a greeting, diving headfirst into the car so he could wrap his arms around his beloved roommate.

There was a lot of bustling around and a lot of noise as the bags pressed against the interior of the car, accidentally honking the horn when Naruto pressed too much weight on it. Gaara grunted with the weight of the bags and a wiggling roommate on top of him intent on squeezing the oxygen out of him.

"…Naruto," Gaara mumbled in reply.

His roommate was probably annoyed with him, but Naruto didn't care. He was home, and Gaara was a large piece of why Suna was home. And the blonde was very determined to make sure the redhead knew how happy he was to see him, by means of squeezing him.

He eventually let go, aware that Gaara did not really appreciate being touched, but was allowing Naruto to hug as he pleased. It really was a nice gesture, and it warmed Naruto's heart in an indescribable way.

Backing out of the hug was a huge fiasco of movement and noise. One of his bags accidentally pressed against the horn again. "Sorry!" Naruto kept repeating whenever he unintentionally jabbed Gaara in the process of trying to wiggle backwards out of the car. Maybe diving in headfirst wasn't the best idea?

By the time he was out of the car, he heard cars behind him honking their horns and people demanding he hurry the hell up. Naruto flushed red with a bit of embarrassment, but was enjoying the life of this brash city too much to retaliate rudely. So instead, he busied himself with placing his bags in the trunk before rushing back to fully seat himself in the passenger seat.

He waited until Gaara drove them to the outer loop of traffic before turning to face him and shouting, "Gaara! It's great to see you again!"

The redhead regarded him with a cool, but warm, look before returning his focus on the road again.

"I missed you!" Naruto pressed on, "You didn't need to pick me up, you know. I coulda called a cab."

Gaara shrugged his shoulder in a small gesture and replied in his usual, quiet voice, "I missed you too."

Naruto smiled even wider than he had before; grinning so hard it actually hurt a little with the force he was exerting on his cheeks. "Awwwww, did you really? Really, truly?" he asked in a playful voice; any intent to tease his roommate was belied by how he was obviously touched by the other's words.

"Truly," Gaara replied monotonously, warmth still in his eyes as he continued to focus on the road.

Naruto allowed the peaceful silence to continue for a moment as he was reminded as to how this was the reason he had been so desperate to come back home.

When the moment massed naturally, Naruto's smile slid into a more mischievous one. Warmth and fuzzies aside, the blonde felt that he should not pass up this wonderful opportunity to remind Gaara the OTHER reason he would staunchly refuse to drive Naruto—and consequently Matsuri—around the airport.

Turning his own head to face the road as well, Naruto did his best to hide his impish smile while he said in a would-be casual voice, "You know, it's really AWESOME how you're driving me back home."

Gaara nodded his acceptance of the compliment, seemingly unaware of where it was leading.

"I usually just call a cab," Naruto continued to say as he leaned back into his seat.

The redhead did not reply, probably not seeing a point to. It was not unusual for Naruto to fill up silence with lots of chatter.

"…And I have a super-fun super-friendly tradition with all of the cabbies I ride with," Naruto leisurely stretched his arms behind himself and loosely hooked his hands together at the back of his neck.

Gaara looked over at him and raised a nonexistent eyebrow at the blonde, a hint of trepidation just now starting to bloom in his expression.

Naruto finally turned to face him, and Gaara's expression blanked upon seeing the extent of the roguish smile. "Oh no…" he muttered.

"I take selfies with my drivers!" Naruto declared in a loud voice. One hand reached for his own flip phone while the other forcibly dove into Gaara's pant pocket and grabbed hold of the smart phone.

"That does not apply to me," Gaara argued back as he shifted his leg in a vain attempt to keep the blonde from removing his phone from his pocket.

It was too late for his roommate, as evidenced by Naruto's cry of victory as he successfully pulled the smart phone out of the pocket. He immediately swiped in the password and started shifting through the apps to get the camera like he wanted. As soon as he got it, he started to press buttons on his own flip phone to access its camera. While he was doing this, he firmly told his best friend, "Yes it does. You agreed to be my cabbie tonight, and thus you totally agreed to take this selfie with me!"

"There is no legal binding to connect the two together. Consent to one does not automatically mean consent to the other," Gaara tried to point out, but he was handedly ignored.

Naruto—carefully—leaned over so the two were visible on the smart phone's screen. "CHEESE!" Naruto shouted, snapping an image of himself smiling like a fool while Gaara pointedly disregarded the screen. The action was repeated as Naruto snapped a picture with his chunky phone as well.

The blonde happily hummed his satisfaction at the pictures as he checked to see how it turned out. It was a nice picture, and Naruto immediately formulated plans to send it to Temari, Kankuro, and Matsuri, as well as thought about asking his assistant to print out a copy for his desk.

"It's great! I love how it captures your smile so well!" Naruto teased as he turned the phone around to show Gaara.

His roommate deliberately did not look at the phone, making the blonde snort with laughter as he brought it back to himself and started to send it to everyone.

"You should get a smart phone for yourself," Gaara commented to Naruto as the blonde pressed away at the touch screen.

"Heh, heh" Naruto squinted a little as he grinned, still focused on sending the amazing picture to people. "I probably should. Matsuri keeps telling me how 'impractical' I'm being by keeping my phone."

"Mm," Gaara grunted his agreement with the assistant while keeping his eyes on the road.

"I guess it's about time I fully joined the modern era," Naruto conceded, putting the phone away and looking towards the road as well. His smile dimmed as he confessed, "I just have an emotional attachment to this particular phone, is all."

Gaara gave Naruto a sidelong look. It communicated his curiosity, but also telling how Naruto did not need to talk about it if he did not want to.

Naruto looked back with a smile that was not entirely forced, shaking his head a little while he squinted and said, "Nah, it's nothin' bad. It's a special phone to me because this," he squeezed his chunky phone in his hand, "is the first phone I was able to fully afford by myself as Naruto Uzumaki. I was able to pay for it with my own money without the Perverted Sage's help. Not that I wasn't appreciative or nothing!" he quickly assured the memory of his old mentor. "But it's been proof for a long time that I'm able to support myself."

Realizing that he had made the conversation and the atmosphere in the car a little heavy, Naruto forced out a lighthearted laugh and rubbed the back of his head. "Besides, I'm completely ignorant about anything to do with buying a smart phone. I don't know anything about data plans or anything important like that."

Gaara held his gaze while Naruto determinedly smiled back at him.

Then Gaara returned his eerily focused gaze back to the road and said, "I will take care of it."

Naruto's hand flew from the back of his head as he frantically waved both hands in front of himself. "No, you don't havta do that! I can buy one myself! I have some free time coming up while I wait for the publishers to OK the story so I can use those days to look online and go to the store and stuff!"

"I don't mind," Gaara stated simply, as if the matter was over and done with.

Naruto shook his head, though, "Seriously! You don't need to. I may be pretty unfamiliar with this stuff, but I can handle it!"

Gaara spoke as if he was ignoring Naruto, which he probably was. "I will ask Matsuri to find a day when she, myself, Temari, Kankuro, and you are available."

Naruto's body froze in confusion as he stopped waving his hands in front of himself in protest. They dropped and Naruto squint his expression with confusion while his head tilted a bit to the side.

Gaara glanced to the side at him before he said simply, "It will be a family event."

Blue eyes widened and he felt himself gasp involuntarily.

It was…indescribably amazing to hear that word.

He knew, of course, that he was close with the Subaku siblings. He had lived with all three of them at one point, and they had paid for a portion of Naruto's community college tuition. He continued to live with Gaara through two apartments, and the other two visited them so frequently that more often than not they planned their dinners for more than just the two of them. And Matsuri had been a welcome and natural addition ever since the first day that Naruto had hired her.

It was not the first time the word 'family' had been used to describe them. Naruto had certainly referred to them as such in his head plenty of times.

It was most likely an unfortunate result from his time back in Konoha, where he remembered to poignantly how he had spent many, many lonely nights wishing, praying to have people to have unbreakable bonds with. But at the moment, Gaara saying the word 'family' completely floored him.

He tried to say something, but he couldn't think of any words. He was rendered completely speechless.

But Gaara was not finished. With a completely serious tone, he said in a clear voice, "Your flip phone is a symbol for how you were able to overcome your past and become able yourself in a new life as an individual you learned to be proud of. So allow this new phone to become a symbol of success in such a life and of the family you found for yourself who love you for who you are."

Naruto was overcome with emotion.

He was distantly aware that a lump was growing in his throat. He tried to breathe around it and control himself, but he increasingly found it too hard to do.

"P-pull over," he demanded weakly, blinking rapidly as he felt his eye begin to wet as he felt his nose sting with the knowledge that he was about to cry.

It took a few moments to change lanes because of the busy streets of the city, even after midnight, but Gaara managed to pull over in some parallel parking spot.

As soon as the car was put in park, Naruto threw himself onto Gaara rather awkwardly since they were both strapped into their seatbelts. He flung his arms around his roommate and buried his head into his shoulder as he started to shudder with tears.

Gaara wrapped one arm loosely around Naruto, gently returning the hug. The small gesture both comforted the blonde immensely as well as made him cry harder and with more force.

His breathing was erratic as he stutteringly heaved oxygen into his lungs while tears refused to stop pouring from his eyes no matter how hard he squint them shut. His could feel his nose redden as his snot disgustingly joined in the tears in wetting Gaara's shirt no matter the force he tried to sniff them back.

Worst of all, his cries were uncontrollably loud. Everything he did made noise, and he could not hold it back.

He tried to communicate how these were happy tears; how these were RELIEVED tears. He could not get his voice to cooperate with him and simply say how much he adored and loved the man he was holding who had called him family.

It took many attempts, but he was finally able to breathe three breaths before shuddering again. Then four breaths. At last, he was able to find his voice, horribly scratchy and hoarse, and tried to say while his voice cracked multiple times, "S-sorry. I kn-kn-know…th-this i-i-is gross-ss… a-and I'm being, being all t-t-touchy. B-but I, but I…" he couldn't say anything more.

Gaara responded by wrapping his other arm around Naruto's back and squeezed lightly.

Unable to verbally respond to the gesture, Naruto tightened his own hold and pressed his face down harder into Gaara's shoulder.

After a moment, Gaara quietly spoke. "You are the first and best friend I have ever had." He continued to say, "You were there for me when I thought my life held no purpose. You showed me I did not need to prove my existence to others, and how to find pride in life." He paused, and then spoke directly into Naruto's ear, "You were the one to show me this, and I refuse to allow you to lose sight of this yourself. I will stay by your side no matter what."

Naruto was unable to answer. He made a noise that was somewhat between a surprised guffaw, a helpless sob, and a bird squawking. He was crying too hard to come up with anything coherent and it took enough effort as it was to produce such a sound in the first place.

Gaara, like the wonderful, amazing man that he was, understood Naruto's strange sound and gave him a small squeeze, silently communicating for Naruto to let it all out.

So he did.

While Naruto had been trying to hold some semblance of control earlier, with permission, he let it go this time. He was outright bawling; nearly shouting with the volume of his cries, heaving his body with his shuddering breaths, and water-falling Gaara's shirt with the bodily fluids pouring from his drenched face.

All the while, Gaara silently held him. And all Naruto could think was how this, THIS was what he had always wanted back in Konoha. He had a family. He had a home.

In Konoha, he had always been alone. He had thought that he had made friends, that he had forged quite a number of bonds between himself and others. But he was always afraid that he was going to lose them; forever fearful that any small action he did would make them leave him abandoned again.

So he always made sure to present the best sides of himself to them, and to completely hide his weaknesses. He had constantly made sure to make himself available to them—from happy outings to helping them move—in fear that if he didn't then they would leave him and he would be alone.

That same fear was also the reason he hid that he was gay. He just knew that… no …

He cut himself off from the thought. Things were different now. He had a FAMILY now. A wonderful family that loved him and accepted him for who he was.

They knew he was gay and accepted him, and even encouraged him to look for relationships. They loved him enough to accept him for his weaknesses and offered him hugs when he needed them. He loved his family, and he loved his home in Suna.

Naruto felt himself calm down. When he was acceptably able to control his breathing, the blonde squeezed Gaara in silent thanks and moved to return back to his seat.

Once he was buckled in again, Gaara nodded his understanding and started the car back up.

When they got back on the road and Naruto was in relative control of himself, Gaara announced, "We need to hurry. I promised I would get you back quickly for a welcome-home surprise party."

Naruto, still choked up from the crying, murmured, "Surprise party?"

Gaara nodded and explained monotonously, "You left us rather abruptly, so the family decided to get dinner to celebrate your return. Very impromptu, just like your leaving."

Naruto gave a watery laugh, that sounded a bit like a cough due to all the tear-induced congestion, and commented fondly, "Gaara, you know I love you. But I think you are misunderstanding the 'surprise' in 'surprise party'."

Gaara paused at this, and Naruto noticed the subtle shift in his body language. Then the redhead said, "I did not tell you to ruin the surprise, but to give you fair warning. The other three know that you went to your birth town of Konoha and are curious."

"Curious?" Naruto asked warily. He didn't like the sound of that…

Gaara nodded again and explained, "You never talk about Konoha, so it understood as a touchy subject. But with you suddenly going back there for two days, they figure that it is alright to broach the subject now."

Naruto wrapped his arms around himself in slight panic over the thought of being asked about Konoha.

They would probably ask questions about why he had left that hellhole in the first place. They would ask why he went back all of a sudden. And… and…

'Pretend this never happened, and leave Konoha forever.'

'I'm in love with you. I have been for a long time, ever since we were twelve.'

'This isn't a lie!'

'I need you here, Naruto.'

'I came here to tell you not to leave.'

'Stay here, in Konoha.'

Naruto wrapped his arms tighter around himself and started to shake his head. He wasn't ready.

He wasn't ready to be asked questions that he could not even ask himself.

Gaara, noticing how Naruto was reacting, nodded his head again and said in a soft voice, "I understand. I will tell the others you do not wish to talk about your time in Konoha."

Naruto reached across the seat and grabbed Gaara's hand from the steering wheel, cupping them together. This man was a true miracle and an amazing friend. "Thank you," he whispered, frustrated that he could not properly communicate the true depth of his gratitude to have such a wonderful friend.

Gaara squeezed his grip as a silent way of commutating that he understood what Naruto meant. He paused a moment before saying quietly, "But we will talk together about this soon."

Naruto sighed a little and tiredly leaned his head back against the window, looking out to the city lights. "Later," he promised.

He was not looking forward to the conversation, but Naruto Uzumaki always kept his word.

Coming Back

"WELCOME BACK!" three voices chimed together.

Naruto tried his best to arrange his expression into a surprised one as he beamed at the faces of Temari, Kankuro, and Matsuri, who were pulling him into the apartment he shared with Gaara.

He was enveloped by the warmth of the feeling of home. He was in his own apartment and was surrounded by his family. It was the happiest Naruto had been in a long while.

While he was giddily smiling ear to ear, Matsuri called out, "Hey! He's not surprised!"

"Gaara!" Temari lightly scolded, no true anger in her tone as she accused, "You told him, didn't you?"

Gaara neither confirmed nor denied his involvement as he ignored them and closed the door behind them.

Temari rolled her eyes and said, "Well, it doesn't matter if it is a surprise party or not."

"Yes it does," Kankuro objected as he grabbed a laughing Naruto into a fake choke-hold. "We're calling it a 'Welcome-Home Surprise Party' so I say it matters!" He then turned his attention to the blonde in his arms and teasingly demanded, "So, kid, tell us why you left Suna without telling us!"

Naruto was too busy laughing his heart out to answer the question. He continued with the playful fake-choke hold and pulled against Kankuro's arms in a fake effort to free himself and allowed his bags to drop to the floor.

Matsuri crossed her arms in front of them and said, "And so close to your story summary outline deadline! I bet he left us to avoid his work!"

"Ohhhhh, is that so?" Kankuro pretended to consider this explanation. He then noogied the top of Naruto's blond head and started to order Naruto to confess while Naruto pretended to plead for mercy.

"Alright, alright," Temari said, pulling Kankuro off Naruto, "that's enough you two."

As soon as Naruto was freed, his stomach came alive and decided to growl noisily, letting everyone know that he was hungry.

Four of them laughed loudly while Gaara crossed over to the sitting area and settled into his chair.

Temari was the first to recover and announced, "We should start eating soon. We already prepared the meal, so we just need to warm it up a bit." Then she suggested, "Why don't you sit down and we'll set everything up?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head and said, "If you're sure…I can help set up if you want."

Kankuro lightly hit Naruto in the head and said, "No way, man. This thing is for you, so let us spoil you a bit."

Naruto dropped his hand in surprise and his blue eyes widened in surprise at the words. He pulled himself together and said, "I should at least put my stuff away—"

Kankuro physically cut his words off by grabbing his carry-on bag from where it had been dropped on the floor.

Stubbornly, Naruto grabbed his laptop bag and stuck his tongue out in retaliation.

When the blonde started to lead the way to his room in the apartment, Kankuro laughed and caught up with him. He pulled on Naruto momentarily to ruffle his hair, muttering in a fond voice "Too stubborn for your own good." He then lightly pushed Naruto back and walked ahead to the room.

Naruto beamed with happiness as he walked in after him. It was good to be home.

Kankuro tossed the carry-on bag onto the floor of Naruto's room, somewhat close to the closet door. When it thumped onto the carpet, Kankuro flopped himself onto the bed.

The blonde himself started to set his laptop up on his desk. The laptop held most of his profession, so he was careful when putting things away.

Through the open doorway, Naruto was able to see Gaara down the hall getting off his chair and following Temari and Matsuri into the kitchen. He knew that the redhead was most likely telling the two women about Naruto's aversion to talking about Konoha.

He was distracted by Kankuro started to talk from his bed. He turned his head to see the brunette casually playing with his orange blanket in his hands and facing the ceiling. "We were going to do something homemade for dinner," he said, "but in the end we didn't really feel like it. It's kind of late, and we had already eaten earlier, you know."

Naruto smiled and said "I know." He then turned back to his laptop bag and pulled his notebook out to put back onto his desk.

"Yeaaah," Kankuro drawled, "so we went to that twenty-four hour place you like and the gourmet ramen packs there. The kind that cost over THREE DOLLARS!" He had emphasized how crazy he felt the price was by waving his arms in the air, causing Naruto to laugh. Smiling himself, Kankuro continued to say, "And to make it fancy and shit, we prepared it using the stove instead of the microwave. So ta-dah! Our super fancy 'Welcome-Home Surprise Party' dinner."

Naruto straightened up after putting everything away. He had a dopey grin on his face, feeling completely overwhelmed with how much his family cared for him.

"Oi!" Kankuro called from the bed, pointing at Naruto, "stop that stupid grin and appreciate the effort!"

The blonde laughed and raised his hands in front of himself in a surrendering motion. "I do, I do! I really appreciate the thought and effort you guys put into the 'Welcome-Home Surprise Party'.

Kankuro grunted to show he accepted Naruto's words. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and pushed himself up. He walked over to the door and ruffled the blonde's hair again before saying, "Good! Now don't you forget it."

"I won't, I won't!" Naruto assured the other man, laughing a bit as he reached above his head to fix his twice-ruffled head.

Kankuro nodded his head and motioned for Naruto to follow as he led the way back down the hallway.

They headed back to the living room area where they saw the girls setting the low coffee table up to eat. Temari was placing drinks on the table for everyone while Matsuri was placing a bowl of ramen on the low table. Gaara was already sipping from a mug, sitting on the floor.

This made Naruto smile as he made his way to his own seat on the floor next to his roommate. Even though more often than not, these small dinner parties happened here at his and Gaara's place, they had yet to buy a proper table for them to eat at. Instead, they always used this low-set coffee table and sat on the floor. It seemed inconvenient, and every so often one of them would complain, but Naruto was pretty sure that everyone secretly preferred it this way; it felt intimate and something unique to them.

After he sat down, Matsuri placed a bowl of ramen in front of him on the coffee table. When everyone had sat down, Naruto saw that only himself, Kankuro, and Matsuri were eating the gourmet ramen, while Temari and Gaara only had drinks.

Naruto had to remind himself that it was after one in the morning. He was still jazzed up from all the stress involving Konoha, and they were all generally used to being night-owls due to Naruto's erratic deadline schedules and Gaara's insomnia. But it was still considered late for people.

He was interrupted from his thoughts when Matsuri called out his name.

"I have a question for you," she announced with a serious expression on her face.

Naruto quickly swallowed his mouthful of ramen and tried not to let his panic show on his face. She was going to ask about Konoha, he knew it! He had thought that Gaara had warned her against it, and that his assistant would listen to her crush, but she was sometimes too curious for her own good and rather stubborn at times. It was a good quality sometimes, especially when he was plagued with writer's block and tried to avoid work, but it was not good for his quickening heartrate.

"It's about work," she assured, and Naruto let repressed a sigh of relief.

He took another slurp from his ramen and nodded towards her, gesturing for her to continue.

"I was wondering if you were able to get the summary outline done. The deadline is Monday, after all, and you hung up on me kind of quickly when you were at the airport."

Naruto let out a burst of laughter, a little louder than necessary, and he gave her a thumbs-up in his best Nice-Guy pose and declared, "Naruto Uzumaki never misses a deadline!"

Temari laughed and said, "I seem to recall quite a few close calls when you signed on for your second book and were dealing with editors and deadlines for the first time."

Naruto felt his face flush red. He pouted and looked to the side as he pointedly mumbled, "I didn't miss any, though."

Temari reached over the table and fondled his hair. As he spluttered his protests, she agreed in a warm voice, "No, you didn't miss any of your deadlines. I'm really proud of you for that, and all that you have achieved for yourself."

Naruto smiled widely at her, squinting his eyes and stretching his cheeks wide enough to show off his molars as he exclaimed sincerely, "Thank you!"

"Oi, oi!" Matsuri exclaimed, shoving down her own mouthful of ramen and pouting a little bit. "I'm proud of you too…but that doesn't answer my question! My livelihood depends on this, you know! This is why I'm paid!"

Naruto laughed and waved his hand in front of himself in a lighthearted gesture. "It's done, I swear. I finished it when I was on the plane. It's written down in my notebook, so you should read over it after dinner. Tell me if there's anything you want me to change, but if you think it's good, you should type it up so it can be sent to the right people tomorrow."

"Hey! That's way too much weekend work after the welcome-home surprise party!" Matsuri complained a little, letting her expression fall into a full pout.

Naruto gave her an impish grin and happily pointed out, "This is your job! This is the REAL reason you're being paid!"

Matsuri gaped at Naruto before her expression fell to one of defeat. Next to her, Kankuro burst out laughing and leaned over the table to give Naruto a high five.

Naruto returned the gesture and quickly ate up the rest of his meal. Matsuri grumbled a little before handing him the rest of her own ramen, mumbling that she wanted to get started on her work so she could finish it sooner. He had no idea if she was being truthful or not, but there was no way that he was going to pass up ramen. It was not as good as Ichiraku Ramen—nothing would ever be—but the effort his family had put into the meal made it taste almost as good.

Matsuri stood up from her seat on the ground and headed towards Naruto's room so she could check out his notebook and work from there. As she started to leave, Kankuro also stood up. He declared that it was going to be a movie night, despite it being close to two in the morning, and wandered over to Naruto and Gaara's movie collection.

Temari started to collect the dishes when the other two got up. Naruto tried to offer to help, but she assured him, "No, it's fine. I'll handle this and the kitchen."

She then motioned firmly that he should take a seat on the couch. Smiling and sticking his hands up in a surrendering motion, Naruto did as she said and shuffled over to his seat on the couch.

While Naruto started to unfold the movie blanket he traditionally spread over the legs of the couch potatoes, Gaara surprised him by forgoing his usual chair and sat down next to Naruto in Matsuri's usual spot at the edge of the couch.

Blue eyes widened as he asked, "What about your chair?" Gaara loved his chair. It was where he spent most of his evenings, doing insomnia things like reading books or other chair-sitting related things.

Gaara shrugged and said in his monotonous, quiet voice, "Matsuri can sit in it after she finishes up her work."

Naruto looked at him suspiciously as he spread the blanket over their legs.

He was going to say something, when Gaara surprised him again as he gently took hold of Naruto's hand and said, "Tonight, you need your family."

Naruto tensed and took a moment to control himself. He squeezed Gaara's hand before making sure he did not have a second relieved breakdown that night.

His features were back in a happy, grateful smile by the time Kankuro had turned around after setting up the movie. The older guy's eyes widened momentarily at the change in seating arrangements, but it melted into a smile as he flopped down on the couch, throwing part of the blanket over his own legs.

Temari walked back into the living room, a bowl of popcorn in hand. She gave it to Naruto before sitting at her usual spot at the other end of the couch. She evenly distributed the blanket over her own legs before she rearranged her couch pillow into a more comfortable position since it was obvious to everyone that she was not going to last through the whole movie.

Matsuri called through the apartment that the outline looked good, so she was going to type everything up and send the summary outline to the publishing company Naruto worked for. She also called out to start the movie without her before she closed the bedroom door.

Gaara had let go of his hand, and arranged the other couch pillow so he could lean on it in his usual not-caring-about-the-movie-but-still-secretly-get-way-into-the-plot pose; this time on the couch instead of his chair.

Naruto smiled to himself as he let the sense of family warm him once more.

He knew that later he would need to open up about Konoha. He would need to deal with all these confusing thoughts, and emotions. He would need to ask himself the questions that he had been avoiding aver since Sakura had shown up in this apartment three days ago.

But for now, right in this moment, he had his family, and he was home. He was ecstatic. Naruto was HOME.

And that was the chapter.

Thank you for all the reviews last chapter. Seriously I cannot thank you enough. So many people had told me that they were so happy that I was continuing this story, and saying so many wonderful things! Every review absolutely makes my day and helped me out a lot! I was hit by a massive writer's block and was also hit by a severe lack of motivation to write at all. But I took a look at the reviews a few times and they filled me with so much love that my muse felt stirred again!

The reason I was hit by a writer's block for this story in particular was because I am stuck on creating a proper ending. I began this story in a sudden burst of inspiration and essentially wrote the first three chapters in a single week. But I only fully outlined the story until chapter seven. From there, it was mostly chapter-by-chapter. I have very poignant scenes in my head in the direction I want to take this, but connecting them together has been a problem. When I sat down and was trying to figure out an ending, I had actually come up with THREE endings, each one of them different from each other. My writer's block is coming from my not really knowing which direction I want to take it in. It's muddled in my head.

So I have a strange request for you, my wonderful readers. I was wondering if you could offer a suggestion about where you THINK this story is heading. Or even how you want it to end. I am regretful but honest to say that there is a chance that I won't take it in the direction suggested. And I am going to be candid in saying that usually very much prefer to come up with endings and scenes myself. But this story is a special case for me, and I do honestly believe that knowing the perceptions of the readers on the story will take me out of my head enough to fully formulate a satisfying ending. I understand it is an unusual request, but in reading the reviews, I know that you wonderful readers have truly insightful, and sometimes rather strong opinions and I know that it will help me passed this block immensely.

As always, thank you so much to those who favorite/subscribe to this story! And an extra special thanks to those who review! You are my light, and you help guide me in more ways than you know.