Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any copyrights at all.

The Risk

By Nine Tailed Vixen

Naruto yawned as sun drenched his face from the crack in the curtain. Sleep bleary eyes searched out the clock. 6:30 am.

Naruto groaned as his muscles ached from training last night. Ever since Sai aided in his training his muscles had a perpetual ache. Naruto smiled. His life seemed better with the constant reminder of how hard he was working. This needed to happen. Every time his muscles ceased to ache he felt useless. Like he had gotten lazy ad didn't care anymore.

It was a tick. If he wasn't training then it would tickle him. It was an itch he couldn't scratch and it was always out of reach. It drove him nuts. If he was forced to sit down for long periods of time then he would start to twitch. People thought that he was just doing to be annoying and grab attention. Nobody knew of the conditioning that he had put on himself, albeit accidentally. Even when he was sleeping then he would toss and turn and kick and punch in his sleep. Woe to anyone who decided to share his bed.

A soft knocking at the window drew his attention. Pulling the curtains back Naruto was momentarily blinded by the sudden light illuminating the room. When his eyesight cleared Sai was already stepping into the room.

"How do you feel this morning?" Sai asked with his usual 'I know every thing' smile.

Naruto moaned, "It's too early for this. Lose the smile. You know I hate it."

Sai smiled wider this time. Time for him to work his magic. "Turn around and lay down."

Naruto sighed as he lay face down. He knew what was coming. It was a routine by now although he would never talk to Sai about it. It was times like these when nothing was said.

Sai straddled Naruto's back and began his work. His hands, hands which could easily kill, began to work at the numerous knots littering Naruto's body. Rubbing them out and attempting to release Naruto of the tension in his body.

It was a twisted sort of friendship that they had, Naruto thought, much different then…you know who.

A sudden slap on the shoulder made Naruto snap back to his senses. "You're tensing up idiot. This doesn't really work if you aren't even trying to relax." This was the most that was ever said on the subject.

Naruto growled at the name, "You know that you're supposed to give endearing nicknames to friends, not insulting ones."

Sai chuckled, "But it suits you so well. A name should be given in reflection to their personality." Sai knew better, however, Naruto was definitely not an idiot; hot-headed and quick to act before thinking, definitely. But still, ruffling Naruto's feathers was too much fun to pass up.

Naruto sighed in both exasperation and relaxation as the knots were worked from his body. He almost fell back asleep; Sai was really good at this. It really was a strange kind of friendship that they had. Naruto was by no means gay. Sai by every means was. That much he knew for sure. Naruto thought that it was probably mean to lead Sai on like this. I mean, his crush was so obvious, wasn't it? Naruto didn't want to tell Sai anything though for fear of losing another friend. And at this point though he wasn't really sure what he was. So maybe gayness could grow, couldn't it?

Gay, straight, bi what did it all mean anyway? He really didn't care anymore.

Sex was something that he did on his own in the shower or whatever, anyway. There was really no point in getting help with that sort of thing, was there? It was just something that needed to be done, like urinating or sneezing.

Sai got off Naruto's back and headed to the window, completely unaware of Naruto's sexually depressing thoughts. "I'm going to train today. Are you still trying to make that new jutsu?"

Naruto groaned as he realized that he really needed to get up now, "Yeah, I haven't quite perfected anything yet."

"Oh. Well if you get a chance I'll be in training block 17. Bye, idiot"

"See ya, shit face." Naruto shot to Sai's back. With that Naruto got up and headed to the shower. He didn't have a chance to bathe last night after training before he collapsed into bed, so now he was feeling really dirty and he knew that he smelled something fierce. Naruto grimaced. How did Sai put up with this? He could barely stand it and it was his own smell!

Naruto winced as the water hit his body. The hot water must be out again. Reaching for his soap he quickly washed his body before lathering up his hands and scrubbing his hair. He never bothered with shampoo. Why bother spending an extra three dollars when soap did the same thing. And don't even bother asking about conditioner or aftershave.

Naruto stepped out of the shower and grabbed a clean white towel. Furiously drying off his hair he dried his body off soon after. Wrapping the towel around his waist he stood in front of the mirror to shave. Normally he wouldn't have bothered but after training with ero-sennin he learned that he didn't grow enough hair to grow out into a beard. He just looked horribly ugly when he tried.

Naruto looked at the clock and swore. He threw his towel down and the razor in the sink and bolted from the room. He put on a t-shirt and some track pants before bolting out the door, racing to the grounds where Kakashi and Yamato were waiting for him.

He never even noticed the red smear on the towel.

To be continued…

A/N: I know that this was a relatively boring chapter but I kinda needed to set up a basis for my story.

Please let me know what you think. And just to let anyone know I may or may not make this shonen-ai. Please let me know where you think this story should go.