Disclaimer: I don't own

Disclaimer: I don't own. Simple. As. That.

Warning: Yaoi. SasuNaru. GaaraNejiGaara. Possibility of bad British humor.

If you don't like, please don't read. Hit the back button and have a good day!

A/N: Chapter 4. Sorry I took forever. Clearly I've been enjoying the non-existent British summer too much. Oh well, its September now so I can wear jumpers and tights and 3 pairs of socks. Joy.

CHAPTER 4: Iruka & Shadow Clones: The Chocolate Of The Ninja World.

-The Argument-

Blonde hair brushed over Naruto's forehead as he looked at his feet, waiting outside Iruka's classroom door. He toed the ground nervously; he really, really didn't want to tell his former sensei what had happened between him and Sasuke. Especially as Iruka wasn't overly fond of the Uchiha. But he honestly didn't know who else to turn to.

Sakura, well, it's not like he didn't trust the pink haired girl but it was… difficult. There were still unspoken, uneasy spaces between the three of them. Sakura claimed she could deal with Sasuke and Naruto being together but Naruto, at least, didn't like rubbing her face in it.

Therefore going to see her about this was very out of the question.

Sai…Naruto rubbed his face wearily, thinking of Sai looking up some sort of emotional response. That he couldn't deal with.

He'd felt Neji leave the village some time this morning.

Gaara, Kiba, err…No. Kami he needed more sensitive friends.

Suddenly Naruto was ripped from his thoughts as he was faced with the sunny grin of his childhood teacher. "Naruto-kun! It's so nice to see you!"

Naruto smiled warmly when the teacher hugged him fiercely to his chest. "Hey Iruka-sensei"

"I'm sorry I couldn't see you straight away, Mokito, you see is new and wasn't very subtle about your arrival. I had half the class trying to break down the door so that they could 'spar' with you. Honestly Naruto, you really should create quite such a chaotic name for yourself."

Naruto's grin widened as Iruka both scolded and complimented him.

"Ne, sorry Iruka-sensei, I tried to warn him." Naruto said earnestly, big blue eyes shining.

Iruka chuckled fondly. "I sure you did Naruto." Naruto opened his mouth to protest, he really had tried to warn the new guy not to just rush on in and tell Iruka but he'd been smugly told to wait while the matter was 'organised'.

But when Iruka smirked knowingly at him he realsied that the older man was just messing with him.

"So," Iruka stretched and yawned. "What's the special occasion? Just a quick hello or have you come to rescue me from my educational hell?"

Naruto smiled quickly, before the expression dropped off his face completely, nervousness filling him again. He could feel Iruka's frown before he saw it.

"Actually I wanted to umm talk to you about something." He peeked up at the brunette through the hair that fell across his eyes. "Is that ok?"

Iruka blinked at Naruto in surprise but recovered quickly. "Of course. Just let me send the class out to target practice. Want to help?"

The biggest, wickedest grin covered Naruto's face. "Sure Iruka-sensei. Sure."

-The Argument-

10 minutes later and Naruto was leaning against a tree watching Iruka watch 25 shadow clones give the chunin class one on one target practice.

"I wish I had enough chakra to do that…" Iruka muttered wondrously.

Naruto laughed at his teacher. "I guess it's a positive in an otherwise negative situation."

Iruka turned around and grinned at his former student. "I guess." He leant against the tree with Naruto. "So what did you want to talk about?"

Naruto remained silent for a while, blue eyes watching the children playing and training with his shadow clones. He breathed in deeply and exhaled through his nose, "Well, me and Sasuke had a fight…"

-Flashback-

"Sasssssssssukeee!!" came a loud shrill cry, as Uzumaki Naruto slide open the door to the apartment they shared.

A small frown marred his forehead when no one answered. He knew Sasuke was in and hoped that the bastard wasn't in a bad mood. The atmosphere in the house had been somewhat tense in the past few weeks.

He found the Uchiha moodily looking in the refrigerator. "We have no decent food." He growled in greeting.

"Hello to you too." Naruto replied dismissively as he ruffled the stooping boys hair, rolling his eyes when Sasuke jerked away.

"Jesus what's wrong with you?" he questioned.

He was met with silence.

"Whatever."

Sasuke scowled at Naruto before slamming the fridge door closed with way too much force.

"Sasuke! Calm it will you?!"

"I don't want to calm it. I've had a bad day can we just save to interrogation for later?" The tone of Naruto's voice was just too grating on his tired mind right now. It was as if the gods were laughing at him. Why today of all days did Naruto have to act like Naruto-on-intensive-stimulants?

Naruto snorted. "Interrogation?"

Once again he was met with no reply.

"Okkkkkkkkay, well if you want to know I had a great day. I met up with Tsunade and we talked about getting some training for 'future promotions'" He grinned. "Admittedly she did say that there were some other strong candidates but I can totally beat them!!"

"Good."

"TOTALLY good more like! I tell you what seeing how incredibly superior I am, I'll even cook you dinner to celebrate."

"Joy."

"You're welcome, prick!" Naruto shouted good-naturedly to the retreating form of his boyfriend.

-The Argument-

Naruto moved around the kitchen/dining room like a child, smiling and giddy with excitement. He smiled over his shoulder at his dark haired boyfriend, who was still as grumpy as sin. But Naruto being Naruto couldn't resist winding him up even more. "You're just jealous because I'm in ANBU."

"Why would I be jealous? I'm in it too."

"Yeah but I've been there longer." Naruto replied quickly, goading his partner and loving it.

"And I'm still ahead of you."

Naruto scowled. "No you're not." The blonde was confused, he'd been joking but the tone of Sasuke's voice was seemingly deadly serious.

"Well technically I am idiot."

Naruto turned fully to look at Sasuke. Leaning against the counter briefly before he pushed him self off and carried two bowls to the table. "Don't call me an idiot bastard."

"Can't you just shut up?"

"Unfortunately not." The blonde had grinned.

"Well you better learn quickly. I don't want to have to lower my mental age in order to talk to you anymore."

Naruto eyes widened at the comment.

"What the hell Sasuke? Just because you've had a bad day doesn't mean that you can fucking insult me!"

"That's the only way it ever works though isn't it Naruto." Sasuke sighed irritably. "You only listen when I insult you."

He knew this wasn't fair. Not fair at all. But since when had the world ever been fair? A monster had been let loose inside him. A monster that Naruto could usually dispel but now… now it was raging. Anger that he hadn't felt in a long time was coursing through his veins.

It wasn't Naruto's fault. He hadn't meddled in things that weren't his concern. He understood. It was them. It was always them.

It wasn't Naruto's fault. But he wanted, needed, to take it out on someone. And as usual it was Naruto that took the full brunt of his rage.

"That's only because every other time you talk to me you use remedial words so you can keep your self from feeling inadequate!"

Sasuke frowned and Naruto assumed that it was because he had won the argument with his superiority.

"So I don't feel inadequate?" Sasuke asked incredulously, face screwed up in distaste. "Why would I feel inadequate? I'm not. Especially not compared to you."

Naruto frowned and fell silent for a while.

He was going to leave it but his anger at the other prevented him from doing so.

"Why are you being such a prick? I haven't done anything to you!" Naruto burst out, arms waving around as he failed to understand when the usual banter had turned in to a trade of not-quite-ok insults.

"You think you haven't done anything?" Sasuke scoffed, fury raging behind his dark dark eyes.

"You do it every day! The fucking bragging, the endless showing off. Yes well done Naruto you trained with Jiraiya for 3 years, wow. You're now in ANBU. Congratulations. Well so am I. So where the hell did those 3 years get you? Except further behind everyone else. Further behind than you were before?!"

"But Sasuke, I was look-" Naruto frowned again. "It doesn't matter. I'm there now. I beat you."

"Yeah you got into ANBU before me but I left the damn village! I was nearly sentenced for treason and now who is the captain and who isn't? Don't you think its time that you stopped acting like such a fucking child?"

Naruto stared at Sasuke in silent fury. How very fucking dare he?

Walking up to the other he spoke, voice low and controlled, eyes stained a dark murky blue. "For your information, Uchiha, that 3 years, got me ready to get you back here. Where you belong."

"You don't know where I be-"

"And furthermore why weren't you charged with treason? Have you already forgotten about that?"

Naruto glared at Sasuke, standing in front of him confrontationally.

"I'm childish because I'm excited about the meeting I had with Tsunade baa-chan because it takes me one step closer to becoming Hokage. And I thought that being my boyfriend might make you slightly interested."

Sasuke's scowl had deepened at that. "Interested? Naruto it's been 8 years since you first told me you wanted to become Hokage. And I think its safe to say that you've told someone at least once every day since then. It's boring and you need to grow up."

"I am grown up!" Naruto was shouting now. Shocked beyond clarity that Sasuke was talking to him like this.

"No you're not Naruto. Otherwise we wouldn't be having this fucking conversation. You claim to be closer on your way to be Hokage but in reality you are no closer than you were on the first day of the academy. Which technically you shouldn't have joined that year anyway. It's only because of Iruka and his favouritism of you that got you in."

"Don't you dare insult Iruka sensei!"

"I'm not insulting him. You just need to get it that you need to stop obsessing over becoming Hokage."

Naruto blinked and opened his mouth to reply however Sasuke cut him off, with cold, harsh clarity.

"It's never going to happen. SO. JUST. GET. OVER. IT!"

Silence had run out in the apartment as Sasuke's shout reverberated through the kitchen.

Naruto stepped back as if Sasuke had hit him.

The colour drained from his cheeks as his mouth hung open and a look of utter disbelief etched itself across his face.

Putting a hand on the table beside him, he clumsily knocked over the dinner he'd spent hours on. He stared glassily at Sasuke seeing but not really seeing him, barely noticing as the dinner spread down the table leg and across the floor.

Sasuke moved towards him, eyes wide, a quiet 'Naruto' on his lips when the blonde snapped out of the daze he had been in.

He then stepped back again, catching the back of his leg on the edge of the table.

The rage that had previously filled black eyes was gone but tear filled, shocked red- tinged eyes were now consumed by it.

"Get out." Naruto said firmly and surely.

"Naruto don't be ridic-"

"I said get out."

"And I said no."

"Sasuke, remember when I told you I'd break your arms and legs if it helped me bring you back."

Despite himself Sasuke nodded.

"Well I'll do the same to make you leave."

"Naruto I have a mission-"

"Then get your things and get out."

Sasuke had opened his mouth, ready to argue but Naruto beat him to it.

"I won't say it again Uchiha."

Sasuke stared at Naruto, taking it all in. The tense lines of his body, the shaking hands, the firm set line of his jaw.

He felt numb.

His ears rang with the words he had dared to say.

And he hated himself for it.

But he didn't stay. He turned around and walked from the room and into their stared bedroom, where the bed was still unmade from their morning activities.

He picked up the things he needed efficiently, his body still functioning while his mind churned. Such is the way of a ninja.

He walked out of the house, into the rain, without an umbrella.

And Naruto stared at the wall the entire time.

However 10 minutes later, when he found himself cleaning the remains of his and Sasuke's dinner off the floor, the reality of what the Uchiha had actually said sank in and triggered torrents angry, confused tears. That refused to stop however hard he tried.

-End of flashback-

"So, yeah-" Naruto began, only to have Iruka cut through him completely.

"HE SAID WHAT?!"

"Iruka sensei its ok-" Iruka was now stood in front of Naruto, with an unreadable expression over his face. In fact it was quite scary and Naruto decided that he did not like the mixture of anger and worry on the older mans face.

"OK? ARE YOU JOKING?" Iruka ranted, ignoring Naruto's 'whoa there' hand gestures.

"Well ok maybe it's not ok but can you please calm down a bit?" His hand automatically moving to the back of his head, where he rubbed at blonde spikes- reminding Iruka of the little boy he had met years ago.

"I need to talk to you. I don't know how t-to", Naruto's voice shook, "handle it."

He couldn't look at Iruka, knowing that the sympathetic expression on his face would make it extremely difficult not to cry.

Iruka looked at Naruto as he in turn looked at his feet while rubbing his eyes.

"Did you sleep last night?"

"No. I couldn't. I didn't really want to go to bed and when I did I just thought if him so I stayed up."

Iruka nodded in understanding.

"I don't have a mission for a few days so I can catch up on the sleep tonight I guess."

"Is the mission with Sasuke?"

Naruto sighed heavily, "Who knows. We've had quite a few together recently so I might get lucky and be able to go alone."

"Do you want to go alone?"

Naruto pressed both heels of his palm in to his eyes and murmured a quiet "I don't know."

Only the noise of the children broke the silence between the two for a while. Both trapped with their own thoughts.

"How am I supposed to react to this?" The blonde questioned. "Is this something I should forgive easily?"

"That depends entirely on how you feel."

"What if," Naruto cleared his throat, "What if I don't want to forgive him?" He continued slowly, looking pleadingly at Iruka. Was it too much to ask for someone to just tell him what to do, for someone to want to look after him enough to sort it out for him?

Iruka looked pained for a second before turning to look out over the students. "Honestly?"

Naruto nodded silently.

"I don't think that will ever be an option with you and Sasuke."

Naruto looked at the floor.

"Maybe it should be." He mumbled.

Iruka turned and squeezed the arm of his favourite blonde shinobi. "Maybe Naruto. But think about it ok? And you need to let the anger out too. Don't make this easy on him."

Naruto laughed, a true proper laugh, that sadly just made the tears in Naruto's eyes glisten.

"I think Gaara will make it difficult enough for him."

Iruka grinned, "And then you need to talk about it," Naruto stiffened instantly, "Only when you're ready of course. I'm not naïve enough to think that you didn't provoke his bad mood," Iruka continued, raising his hands in mock surrender when Naruto opened his mouth to argue. "But what he said undermines the trust that a relationship should be build on. It wasn't fair of him to use, such a volatile topic as a reason to get rid of some pent up frustration."

Naruto nodded solemnly. Scolding himself mentally when all of his instincts demanded that he defend Sasuke's honour.

"Thanks, I really needed to hear that." He clapped his hands together, trying to dispel the bad mood.. "Soooooooo what can I help you with now?"

Iruka smiled fondly again, "Well, you could try and teach some of the more advanced kids how to use the Shadow Clone Jutsu. There's one boy who may even have enough chakra to rival you."

Naruto grinned at Iruka. "Pffffft. As if Iruka-Sensei!"

And with that he was off, interacting with the students, chasing them, making then laugh and firmly convincing them that this generation would not hate or fear him in any way.

Unless they did something to his ramen.

Then, of course, they could fear his wrath all they liked.

-The Argument-

School had finished for then day and tiredly Naruto tidied the classroom, while Iruka did some marking at his desk. He'd been silent for a while now but the teacher was happy to wait for Naruto to tell him what was on his mind.

Sasuke had visibly knocked the blonde's confidence and for that Iruka would never forgive him.

The brunette looked up to find Naruto hovering at the side of his desk and smiled reassuringly.

A few seconds passed before the inevitable happened and Naruto blurted out what was bothering him.

"Will I ever become Hokage?"

Iruka blinked and looked back to his paperwork. "Honestly?" He asked for the second time that day.

"Y-yes."

"Of course. In fact I now believe in you even more than I did before."

Instead of smiling Naruto simply looked puzzled.

"Why?"

Iruka put down his pen and sorted the children's tests into a pile before looking Naruto straight in the eye, the hint of a smirk lurking under his teacherish exterior.

"Because now you have to prove the bastard Uchiha wrong."

Naruto's eyebrows rose slightly when Iruka swore.

"And we all know how far you'll go to do that."

Naruto beamed.

TBC

A/N: Ok so another delayed chapter is finished. University starts again at the end of September and I'm unsure of a) why I felt that needed to be mentioned and b) how hard it's going tot be this year :(

Anyway, I would really really really really love a review. So if you've got a second you know what to do. If not, no hard feelings, just thanks for reading x