Muted Love

Chapter 3

Naruto’s alarm went off around 8 in the morning. He looked at his phone with a yawn before getting up. He went into the bathroom where he relieved himself and gave a knock on Sasuke’s bedroom. “If you’re up, make some type of noise.”
He pressed his ear to the door and jumped when a loud banging sound was heard. He opened the door to see Sasuke sitting up in his bed glaring at him. He looked down to see a book on the floor, most likely the object that was thrown. He gave him a big grin before stepping into the room, picking up the book. “I’m sorry princess, did I wake you?”
Sasuke gave him the bird before standing up and stretching. He was only wearing sweatpants and Naruto couldn’t help but to admire Sasuke’s lean form. ‘Like what you see?’ He signed with a smirk.
Naruto turned away blushing. “S-shut up bastard. What do you want for breakfast?” He walked over to place the book on Sasuke’s desk and turned to face the raven, the blush still present on his face.
Sasuke gave him a shrug and walked over to his closet, taking out a black T-shirt and a pair of dark grey skinny jeans. ‘I’m taking a shower.’ Before Naruto could say anything else, Sasuke walked into the bathroom.
Naruto let out a sigh as he headed downstairs and into the kitchen. “Oh, Itachi! You’re still here?” He tried to hide the surprise he felt when he saw the older Uchiha casually leaning against the island, a mug of coffee in his hand.
Itachi gave him a smirk. “I have some flex time and decided to use that while waiting to make sure you're all set for today.”
“O-oh, of course!” Naruto quickly nodded. “Yeah, I have the directions and phone number to his group therapy. I even set a reminder and everything. I just made sure he was awake and he’s taking a shower now so I decided to make breakfast.”
Itachi gave him a nod before standing up and placing his mug in the sink. “Well, it seems like you have everything under control. If you need anything, you have my number so you can text, call for emergencies. I should be home around 7, feel free to have dinner without me.”
Naruto nodded. “Alright. Have a good day, Itachi!” He watched as the older brother left the room before letting out a breath and started getting breakfast ready.
When Sasuke finished his shower, he headed downstairs to see an omlette, toast, a cut up banana and a glass of orange juice waiting for him on the island. His eyebrows raised in surprise and he looked up at Naruto who just finished cleaning the pan.
“Oh, hey Sasuke. I made a tomato and cheese omelette, I hope you like tomatoes, i wasn’t too sure.” He nervously laughed as he sat down with his own plate.
‘I thought you told my brother you didn’t know how to cook.’ Sasuke looked down at the food suspiciously.
Naruto shrugged. “It’s not like I don’t know how it’s just I’m not that good.” He laughed as Sasuke started to poke at the omelette, wary of eating it. “I don’t think it’s bad enough to kill you.” he took a bite and nodded in approval. “It’s good.”
Sasuke gave Naruto one last look before taking a bite of the omelette. Naruto stared at him in anticipation as he watched Sasuke eat. Sasuke gave him a shrug before continuing to eat with hidden content.
“I’ll take you still eating it as a sign that you like it.” Naruto smiled. “So, what do you wanna do this morning?”
Sasuke ignored the blonde, leaning his head in his hand as he continued to eat.
“I mean, we don’t really have to do anything together, I guess.” Naruto shrugged. “It would just be nice to get to know each other, don’t you think?”
Sasuke gave him a pointed look.
“Or not. That’s cool too, I guess.”
‘I have work to do.’ Sasuke finally responded after some time.
“Oh, okay.” Naruto tried to hide his disappointment. He stood up and picked up his plate and took Sasuke’s after asking if he was finished. He walked over to the sink and started to wash the dishes.
Sasuke watched him for a minute before letting out a small sigh. He knocked gently on the counter, getting the blonde’s attention. ‘If you want, you can hang out in my room.’
Naruto watched him carefully before he smiled brightly. “Awesome!”
Sasuke scowled at him, standing up. ‘Just don’t be annoying.’
Naruto chuckled. “Okay, okay. I’ll head up after finishing the dishes.” He watched out of the corner of his eye as Sasuke headed up to his room. He smirked to himself and finished up before
heading to Sasuke's room.
Without knocking, Naruto entered the room and sat down in the chair from the night before.
Sasuke glared at him for the brief interruption before turning back to his computer.
Naruto studied him for a bit before dragging the chair closer to Sasuke. “So whatcha workin on?”
Sasuke's eyes widened at Naruto's closeness as he quickly turned to see Naruto practically leaning on his shoulder. He pushed the blonde's head away with a scowl. ‘Not so close, moron.’
Naruto put his hands up in surrender, leaning back in the chair. “I got it. So, whatcha workin on?”
Sasuke was silent before briefly moving a bit so the blonde could see over his shoulder.
Naruto narrowed his eyes at the screen. “What is this?”
Sasuke rolled his eyes and gave the blonde a blank stare.
Naruto glanced at Sasuke. “What?”
‘It's a poster, dumbass.’
“Of what?”
‘Characters from a video game.’
“Oh.” Naruto nodded and closed his eyes. “Yes, yes. I get it now.”
Sasuke shook his head before giving his attention back to his computer.
Naruto opened one eye to watch Sasuke. He leaned forward once again, keeping a safe distance from Sasuke. “So is this for a company?”
Sasuke paused and shook his head. ‘I do fanart. People go to my website and order stuff. Or they can get something custom made for extra.’
“Cool! You have a website?! Let me see!” Naruto excitedly sat up in his seat.
Sasuke rolled his eyes and held out his hand. Naruto looked at the outstretched appendage before giving a questioning look to Sasuke. ‘Phone.’
Naruto quickly unlocked his phone and handed it to him, watching as Sasuke quickly typed on the device. After finishing, he handed the phone back to the blonde who looked on in amazement. “You can do all this? Really?”
Sasuke nodded and went back to his computer.
Naruto scrolled through the website, commenting every few swipes. As he reached the end of the page, he bookmarked the site before giving his attention back to Sasuke. “You're really good at this. How come you don’t work for big businesses and make a shit ton of money?”
Sasuke turned to face Naruto, something about Naruto's natural curiosity made Sasuke want to answer the blonde’s questions. ‘As you can see, money is not an issue for me and my brother. Working for a business would stifle my creativity and make me hate doing this. At least with this I have freedom to do whatever, making money is just an added bonus.’
“Ah, I see.” Naruto nodded then smiled brightly at Sasuke. “As long as it makes you happy, right?”
Sasuke lightly blushed at the blonde’s smile and quickly went back to work.
The rest of the morning and early afternoon the two boys spent their time in Sasuke's room, only breaking for lunch where Naruto ordered them a pizza.
At 1:30, they got into Naruto's car and headed to Sasuke's group therapy. They arrived with 15 extra minutes to spare.
Sasuke led Naruto through the building, turning corners until he stopped  in front of a double door. The doors led into a large open room where a circle of chairs were placed in the middle. The chairs were empty except for one where a guy who looked to be in his late twenties was sitting with a clipboard and papers in hand. He had snow white hair and a cloth mask was covering the bottom half of his face. He smiled at the two boys as he entered the room. “Welcome Sasuke!”
Sasuke gave no greeting to the man and instead sat in a chair, crossing his arms across his chest.
The man turned to face Naruto. “I'm Kakashi Hatake, the group coordinator. You must be Sasuke's new caretaker.” He held out his hand for Naruto to shake.
Naruto firmly grasped the hand and gave the man's hand a shake. “Yep, that’s me, Naruto Uzumaki. I'll also be interpreting for him as well.”
“I'm pretty sure Sasuke will be grateful for that. Now he doesn’t have to be constantly be writing.”
Naruto nodded. He then studied Kakashi as he smiled at the blonde. “Hey, why do you wear that mask?”
There was a loud slapping sound and Naruto and Kakashi both looked over at Sasuke whose hand was now covering his face.
Kakashi chuckled and faced Naruto. “I see you're pretty blunt, but to answer your question, I wear it due to facial scarring from an accident that happened a few years back.”
Naruto hummed in response. “Isn’t that just hiding what happened instead of embracing your flaws? I mean, you're literally hiding behind a mask.”
Sasuke's eyes widened and Kakashi just smiled at Naruto. “You're absolutely right. It's a coping method, and this is a safe place to talk about all that.”
Naruto nodded his head and sat next to Sasuke who glared at him. “What?”
‘You’re an idiot. You don't go around asking people why they do whatever they're doing. Especially if you just met them.’
Naruto pouted and crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at the floor. “I just wanted to know. Don't have to get so mad, bastard.”
“Sasuke!” A high pitched voice called out from the doorway.
Sasuke tensed and Naruto gave him a quick glance before looking to see a girl with long red hair and glasses waving at the door. She ran into the room and quickly sat down in the chair next to Sasuke. She grabbed onto his arm and leaned into him.
“I've missed you so much, Sasuke! Did you miss me?” She looked at him hopefully.
Sasuke didn't move, staring straight ahead.
“After group, do you want to go out and see a movie?”
Sasuke turned to Naruto and pulled his arm out of the girl's grip. ‘Tell her I will never go out with her ugly ass and I want her to leave me alone.’
Naruto glared at the raven. “Sasuke! You can't say those types of things!” The raven responded with a smirk as he watched Naruto lean forward and give an apologetic look to the girl. “Sorry, he says he doesn't want to and would appreciate it if you didn’t ask again.” Sasuke sneered at the blonde’s kind words and decided to glare at the wall ahead of him.
The red-haired girl looked Naruto over before tilting her head in question. “Who are you?”
Naruto sat up straight in his chair, puffing out his chest slightly. “I am Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke's caretaker!”
“So you didn't go for Sakura then, eh?” A girl with blonde hair that was pulled high into a ponytail walked into the room, taking the seat next to Naruto. “Smart choice.” She gave a quick glance at Naruto before giving him a wide grin. “Ino Yamanaka.”
“Naruto Uzumaki.” Naruto quickly replied. He turned to face the red-headed girl. “Uh, sorry, I didn’t get your name.”
“Karin Taka.” Karin gave him a weary glance.
“Yo everyone!” A brunette walked into the room, red triangle tattoos on his face. “I'm here now and so is Suigetsu! Don't fret.”
            After the brunette walked in and sat next to Kakashi, walking in after him was a boy with white hair who took the last seat next to Ino.
            “Hey, you’re new!” The brunette pointed at Naruto. “The name's Kiba Inuzuka! And that over there is, Suigetsu Hozuki.”
             Suigetsu sneered at Kiba. “You don’t need to talk for me, Kiba.” He turned and smirked at Sasuke. “Unlike Sasuke.”
              Sasuke rolled his eyes before giving a bored look to Naruto. “Uh, my name's Naruto Uzumaki! I'm Sasuke's caretaker.”
              Kiba flinched and shook his head. “I'm so sorry.”
              “So Itachi finally went back to work?” Ino asked with a huff. “That sucks, he was pretty hot. It was nice to have something nice to look at.”
              “Hey!” Kiba and Suigetsu shouted at the same time.
              “Well, now that everyone's here,” Kakashi spoke up, causing the room to look at him. “Let’s get started!”