Irritant

Before her alarm signaled morning time, Sakura opened her eyes to light streaming in through her window. Disarming the alarm, she stretched and got out of bed. This time, she didn't forget that Sasuke had stayed at her apartment last night, but she assumed he'd probably gone just like yesterday. The medic went to the bathroom to begin her morning routine, and when she was ready, she headed out into the living room, stopping short in surprise.

There on the couch lay an unconscious Sasuke, his breathing slow and peaceful. She remembered the last time she saw him sleep when he was tied to the bed in the hospital room with guards all around. He was noticeably calmer now, causing a smile to spread across Sakura's face. Not daring to get any closer the sleeping man, she tiptoed out of the apartment, deciding she could stop to pick up some breakfast rather than risk waking her roommate.

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A loud bang shocked Sasuke awake and set him instantly on edge. He jumped to his feet and searched for the threat, seeing nothing but an empty apartment around him. After a few seconds of continued searching, he tried to slow his breathing and heart rate, but he did not deactivate his sharingan. Another bang came from the door followed by a loud voice.

"Hey! Are you in there, Sakura?"

Taking a breath and releasing the jutsu in his eye, Sasuke walked to the door to stop his best friend from banging on it again. As he opened it, he caught the blonde muttering to himself, "Maybe I should just go in through the window and wake her up…"

"No, don't break in through her window."

Looking up, Naruto's face split into a huge grin at seeing his friend, but quickly changed to a confused expression.

"Wait, why are you at Sakura's apartment? And so early in the morning! What did I miss?"

"Nothing. Shut up and come in. She made me sleep here the past few nights on the couch," Sasuke emphasized the last three words, already expecting Naruto's imagination to run wild.

"Oh. So…. You're sure there's nothing going on between you two? You really did sleep on the couch? Don't you dare hurt her again or I'm coming for you!"

"Nothing is going on, and of course I slept on the couch."

Naruto scanned the apartment for any incriminating evidence but only saw the crumpled blanket and pillow on the couch. Accepting this, he shifted his eyes back to his friend.

Wanting to move past the topic of him and Sakura, Sasuke mentioned, "Sakura's not here. You'd know that if you felt for her chakra, idiot. She's gone to work."

"You're right! I don't sense her at all! Huh, well I'll just have to get her advice on things later then…"

Despite himself, Sasuke was intrigued on why the blonde would come to their medical ninja friend for advice. He usually just did whatever he wanted, so Sasuke pursued it, "Advice?"

Blushing and looking away, Naruto hurriedly said, "Nothing important! Just standard, um, medical stuff! Yeah, I came across some odd plants on a mission and didn't know if I could eat them."

"You want her advice on a weird plant?"

"Yep! That's all; nothing to report here!" Naruto answered while laughing. Before the Uchiha could push him further, Naruto changed topics, "What are you doing today? You should come with me to train some! This whole one arm thing is annoying, right? We could help each other adjust."

Allowing the subject to drop but filing it away for later, Sasuke nodded and grabbed his gear.

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Preferring to stay on the less crowded streets, the black-haired man was less than thrilled when Naruto took the lead and chose the busiest street in the entire village. He should have expected in. There was no way Naruto would be as aware as Sakura. She didn't avoid busy streets when with him, but she would make some distance and be sure to walk on the side of him closer to other people. And while she was a hero of the Leaf too, she also didn't wear bright orange and talk so loudly that everyone would notice her. It was almost impossible to be unnoticed like this.

The pair made their way to the training field with little interruption, but when they got there, they found it quite busy. Sasuke was going to head to another, empty field when Naruto suddenly started jogging off in the direction of a small group. Raising his eyebrow, Sasuke walked after him.

"Hey guys! What are you doing?" Naruto asked as he came up to a tall boy with glasses and a hood covering his face, a boy sitting on top of a large dog, and girl with long, dark hair who blushed immediately. Sasuke remembered them vaguely from their genin days.

"What do you think? We're training of course," the boy on the dog, Kiba, replied. "Hinata wanted to work on her twin lion fists, so we're helping out."

The group jumped into an easy conversation, mostly ignoring Sasuke except for the girl, who smiled and nodded politely at him. She soon became much more interested in his blonde friend, though. Sasuke studied the girl, remembering how she used to faint at just the sight of Naruto. At least she'd gotten over that, but the blush on her face was pretty dark. Watching the group, Sasuke also noticed that Naruto would occasionally reach out to touch the girl's arm or something and would turn a bit red himself afterword. Well, maybe the Hyuga wasn't such a lost cause after all.

Growing tired of the social niceties, Sasuke was about to say he was heading to another field when Naruto turned to him and said, "Hey, you don't mind staying to train with everyone, right? It'll be fun!"

"Do what you want, but I'm going to that empty field." Without waiting for his friend to reply, he leaped into the trees and made his way the open ground.

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After he was sufficiently satisfied with his progress, the Uchiha started walking back toward the village. Glancing over, he saw that the other group was taking a break and sitting on the grass talking. Naruto was right next to Hinata, which of course made her blush. I guess even losers like him can figure out something if it's obvious enough.

It was getting late, and Sasuke decided to go wait outside the hospital again for his roommate to get off work. On his way there, he noticed that the villagers were getting more used to seeing him walk around freely, although they probably didn't know he had an ANBU guard, and that gave them a bit of courage. He heard them whispering, some more loudly than others, about him as he passed. Most of it was what he would expect people to think: Is he dangerous? How could they let a traitor like him back into the village so easily? Do you think he really did all those things? Ah! Don't stare, what if he gets mad and attacks us?

There were more unpleasant discussions as well, but Sasuke tried to ignore them. People would get tired of calling him names eventually, or so he hoped, but then a certain voice caught his attention and was hard to drown out. It was his least favorite prison guard, Kou. Sasuke turned up an adjacent street just to avoid getting too close to the young man, but Kou had other ideas.

Following the Uchiha, he continued to tell his friends what he thought about his former captive, and when he got closer, he started to address Sasuke directly.

"So, you think you're important just because they let you walk around now? It must be nice to have three of the most influential people in the village on your side. I've never seen anyone who did half what you did just be allowed to around the village. I know they must have at least one ANBU following your pathetic self around. That means they don't really trust you, doesn't it? They say they're your friends, that they support you, but then they give you babysitters. That doesn't sound like trust to me."

Sasuke kept walking. The juvenile taunts only serving to make him wish he was alone. Ignore it. He's not worth it.

Kou's friends would chime in occasionally with support, but they were much more wary of the young man. His reputation wasn't for nothing.

As they came closer to the hospital, Sasuke was contemplating how to ditch the group while still waiting for Sakura to come out. Fortunately, he spotted a head of pink hair leaving the building. Unfortunately, Kou spotted it too.

"And there's one of them! Why does she get a say in this anyway? What reputation she had is being dragged through the mud because you. She probably feels sorry for you, but she's too weak to stand up for herself and oppose you. Hey, wait, you don't have her under a genjutsu, do you? Man! No wonder she does whatever you want! You've got all three under your control. Hokage can't be too great if he's that easy to trick."

Sasuke was getting more annoyed now. He didn't care much what people said about him, but his former teammates were different. They had each proved themselves and earned their places in the village. He knew helping him was not beneficial for their statuses, but he hadn't heard someone speculate about it before. If even this idiot could come to these conclusions, those with half a brain may be seriously wondering.

Luckily, by this time, Sasuke had made it to the front of the hospital and stopped at the corner, waiting for Sakura to see him. His little entourage disappeared down another street, not too keen on getting in a fight with the medic. Sakura brightened when she saw him, and she jogged over to where he stood.

"Hi, Sasuke! Have you been here long?"

His mood improving considerably, Sasuke the smiled slightly and replied, "No, just got here. Let's go home."

With that, the two made their way through the village back to Sakura's apartment. He didn't know it, but Sakura's heart leaped when he called it "home."