Part Four

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Simple Living

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A SasuNaruSaku FanFiction

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WARNING: CONTAINS SOFT CORE YAOI AND SOME OTHER SEX RELATED STUFF

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"Sakura!" Naruto stood by the car, under the light of the setting sun, waving not only his hand, but his entire arm at her. When she was close, he grinned at her, "How was work?"

She hesitated. Bad! she wanted to scream out, Horrible! Terrible! Exhausting! Irritating! But how could she say anything like that to a face as cute and bright as Naruto's looked right then. She smiled weakly, "Fine, Naruto, but I'm tired."

Sasuke, standing on the other side of the car - the driver's side - raised an eyebrow at Sakura, and for just the slightest second, his cold demeanor turned to a look of worry. But when Sakura looked over at him, the cold came back, and he furrowed his eyebrows in frustration. She was hiding something. That was unusual.

The three of them had a silent ride home. Another unusual thing. Sakura always blasted her radio, or chatted about all the things that had happened that day, but not today. Anytime she was asked a question she answered it with a one-word answer, or stayed silent.

Even Naruto, oblivious and dumb as always, could sense something was wrong. He and Sasuke were both worried now, though neither of them said anything.

The silence continued. The three of them went inside and Sakura ordered take-out to be delivered to their house. They ate it on the couch, watching some show that none of them actually liked, but nobody felt the need to change.

When at last Sakura got up to go to the bathroom, Naruto turned straight to Sasuke. "What's wrong with her?" he wanted to know.

Sasuke shrugged and swallowed some fried rice. "I don't know," he answered, "She ordered take-out... So maybe she is just tired."

Naruto frowned. That didn't seem right. Even when Sakura was so exhausted she came home and passed out on the couch, she was still cheery and exuberant up until the moment she went down. This was... wrong. This was like the way she had been behaving the two days she had been hiding the fact that her parents were coming to see her.

Yeah. That had been an uncomfortable visit. Sakura's father was especially displeased with her living with two single boys. Of course, it had been even worse three months later, when she had to tell them she was dating both boys. Naruto had taken a fist to the stomach for that little news flash to daddy.

"No," Naruto said finally, his tone a little more dominant than usual. Sasuke looked over at him with a surprised look, then smirked. Naruto's boldness was getting hotter and sexier by the day.

"We need to talk to her," Naruto told him, "We need to find out what she's hiding."

"So you noticed it too, dobe," Sasuke reached for the remote to change the channel before his brain started oozing out of his ears. "Leave her be," he warned, "She's always given up and told us what's on her mind at the very last second."

Naruto shook his head, "I think it's different this time."

"Don't worry about it," Sasuke told him, nonchalantly flipping through the channels until he found some thing on the History of Swords in Japan.

"Sasuke," Naruto was getting irritated with him, "Maybe you should be worrying more. Do you even care if there's something wrong with Sakura?!"

Sasuke turned dagger-like eyes on Naruto. "First off - Keep your voice down," he hissed, knowing how much Sakura hated it when they spoke about her behind her back, "And second - Don't you ever say I don't care about Sakura."

"Oh, sorry," Naruto stood, not lowering or raising his voice from the level it was at, "Maybe it's just me then? Maybe I'm the one you don't care about, since you're obviously not willing to back me up on anything."

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke asked him in disbelief, "So because I want to give Sakura the space she obviously needs before she's able to come to us with whatever it is that's bugging her, I suddenly stop caring about the two of you?"

Naruto was so angry, he actually growled at Sasuke. "I guess so," he spat. He slammed his half-eaten container of food on the coffee table, and stalked off to their room.

Sasuke looked down at the coffee table. Naruto... to angry to eat? This was really bad now.

Sakura passed him in the hallway. "What's all the arguing about?" she asked apprehensively.

Naruto didn't answer. He dipped into their bedroom and slammed the door behind him.

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