Work Text:
We're Just Friends
Once Tsunade deemed them recovered enough to leave the hospital – or perhaps she had simply grown tired from seeing them occupying her rooms – it only made sense for them to live together. After all they had spent their entire recovery time together, even sharing a room during the night. Having the other one's presence near him had done a lot for his nightmares and he had wanted his best friend back for so long, of course it was only logical for them to live together now.
"A housewarming party?" Kiba tilted his head to the side. "Didn't know you and Uchiha were together like that, but it explains a lot."
"What explains a lot?" Naruto frowned as he tried to decide just how many ramen cups he could stash away secretly before Sasuke would find out. "We're just best friends, who live together now. What's wrong with that?"
"Well, I suppose there's nothing wrong with that," Kiba said slowly, looking weirded out. "But you know, it'd be fine if you were together. If that means you can keep Uchiha from going on another rampage at least."
"Sasuke didn't go on a rampage before," Naruto denied and rolled his eyes.
"The Kage meeting begs to differ," Kiba muttered, but the blond ignored him.
"And thanks, but we're just friends like I said. Best friends, of course," Naruto continued, amending himself. "Anyways, we spent basically all our time at the hospital together, so it only makes sense that we move in together now. It's not like Sasuke has a real home left still to go back to."
"But why not simply let him stay at your apartment while he searches for a place?" Kiba asked bemused.
"What part about moving in together don't you understand, Kiba?" Naruto sighed. "And they say I'm dumb."
"Hey!"
"My apartment isn't that big and I can't have the bastard sleeping on the couch," Naruto went on and decided after fruitlessly trying to add one more cup to his overflowing basket that the basket had truly met its limit. He moved on to the next aisle. "And we can't share my bed either; it's too small, we tried."
"Why did you try sharing your bed?" Kiba asked in a strangely strangled voice.
Naruto decided to ignore his comment again, because really, Kiba wasn't making much sense right now. He was probably still too exhausted from all the fighting he had to do during the war. "So after deciding my apartment is too small, it only made sense to find something new that's a good fit for the both of us."
"Right," Kiba said blankly. "And that's why you're moving in together. As best friends."
"Of course! Who else would I move in with?" Naruto asked puzzled and shook his head. "Come on, I'm finished here. It's my turn to cook tonight and I still need to do the preparations."
"You cook for him too?" Kiba looked absolutely flabbergasted for some reason. Really, just what was wrong with him today? He was acting so strangely.
"Well, yeah, and he cooks for me too." Naruto shrugged and made his way to the cash register. "We take turns, it's nice. How else did you think we eat?"
"I didn't even know you could cook," Kiba muttered, hissing when Naruto slapped his shoulder.
"Of course I can cook," he huffed and shifted the basket from his right to his left arm. "What did you think I ate all those years?"
"Ramen?" Kiba shrugged helplessly.
"If only," Naruto sighed forlornly. "Iruka-sensei threatened he would make Ichiraku's ban me if I didn't start eating something else besides ramen. And the bastard is on my case too."
"Who's going to cook during the housewarming party?" Kiba questioned, oddly apprehensive.
"We both will; we share the work equally," Naruto said and beamed. "The bastard's a really amazing cook, wait until you taste his food!"
"Right, can't wait," Kiba muttered faintly and started frowning. "You invited Sakura too?"
"Well yeah, all of our friends," Naruto said and put the basket down on the checkout counter. "What else would be the point of a housewarming party if we don't invite all of our friends?"
"Oh, this I got to see," Kiba mumbled. "You don't think Sakura will act weirdly?"
"Why would she? She knows Sasuke and I are best friends," Naruto said confused.
Honestly, why was everyone being so weird about him and the bastard moving in together?
Why indeed, Kurama commented idly and waved some of his tails around. It's a true mystery, kit.
"I'll make sure to bring enough beer," Kiba declared. "I have a feeling we're going to need it."
"If you want," Naruto said and shrugged. "Sasuke doesn't drink beer, though."
"Oh, it's not going to be for him or you," Kiba muttered in a weirdly dark tone before walking away, leaving Naruto behind at the checkout counter.
Naruto stared at his retreating back puzzled. Why would the others be in need of beer just because he and Sasuke were throwing a housewarming party? Hopefully the others wouldn't be so weird about this as Kiba was.
"Good afternoon," the cashier smiled.
He returned his attention to his groceries and smiled back. "Good afternoon!"
Whatever, if Kiba wanted to be weird about this, let him. He had a dinner to prepare for him and Sasuke tonight.
They found the small boy abandoned in a rickety shed. After much coaxing they knew that he was named Kiyoshi and that he was only three years old. He couldn't tell them anything else besides that and they took him with them, because obviously they couldn't leave such a young boy on his own.
"Nothing?" Naruto furrowed his eyebrows, his hand holding the jigsaw puzzle piece hovering above the puzzle in question.
He had been putting puzzles together with Kiyoshi while Sasuke had gone around the town, asking if anybody recognised the boy. Dragging the boy around hadn't seemed like such a good idea, so Naruto had decided that distracting the young kid would be the best option for now.
"Nothing," Sasuke said, nodding absently at Kiyoshi when the little boy patted the puzzle excitedly, looking up at him. "Nobody seems to recognise him."
"What should we do then?" Naruto put the piece down, smiling when that made Kiyoshi grin and clap his hands. "We can't just leave him here if nobody knows him."
"We'll take him with us," Sasuke suggested and so they did.
Kiyoshi staying with them was initially a temporary solution while both Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi did their best to search for his parents. No matter how long they searched or where, though, they never had any decent leads. Kiyoshi himself didn't appear particularly bothered by the lack of his parents. He loved staying at Sasuke's and Naruto's home and he was always excited to see them when they would pick him up from the local daycare during the days when neither of them could stay home.
"Maybe we should just adopt him," Naruto suggested, only half jesting. "He seems happy here and we still haven't found anyone related to him."
He had expected Sasuke to rebuff the suggestion, declare it stupid and idiotic, but to Naruto's surprise and delight he agreed. "It's either us or him going to the orphanage," Sasuke commented and stood up when Kiyoshi cried out from upstairs. "He's been staying with us for so long, we might as well make it official."
With that decided, they went to make everything official the very next day because why wait? Except making things official wasn't as easy as Naruto had expected it to be.
"You can't file the papers for the adoption unless you're married," the extremely sour looking woman informed them unenthusiastically. "No marriage, no adoption."
"Seriously?" Naruto demanded incredulously, but the woman wouldn't budge.
"Those are the rules. Don't like them, not my problem," she stated curtly.
"Can you believe this bullshit?" Naruto started to rant the second they left the building. "What kind of crap is that even? As if we haven't been doing a good job of taking care of him without being married! Acting like a piece of paper and a ring is going to change things!"
"We could always get married," Sasuke stated calmly.
"And have you seen how she was looking – what?" Naruto cut off his rant abruptly when Sasuke's words registered in his mind. He whipped his head around and gaped at the dark haired man. "You want to get married?"
"Yes, why not? We're already living together and this way we can take care of Kiyoshi officially," Sasuke said. He smirked faintly. "If you don't mind a piece of paper and a ring, that is."
"Well hey, if you're asking!" Naruto grinned and nudged Sasuke's shoulder. "Let's get married, bastard."
"You're going to get what?!" Sakura exclaimed in shock before she abruptly fainted. She would have hit the floor if not for Shikamaru who caught her just in time and placed her on the couch.
"We're going to get married," Naruto repeated even though his friend was out cold at the moment. His grin wavered slightly when he saw all the incredulous looks of his friends. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"We would have liked to have some earlier notice that you had started dating Uchiha before telling us you're getting married," Neji said dryly. "That's usually how things are done or so I am told."
"Oh, but we're not dating," Naruto said dismissively. "We're best friends, that's all."
"Best friends who are getting married," Kiba said incredulously; his eyes nearly bugging out of their sockets. Even Akamaru was sitting next to his owner with a befuddled look.
"Well yeah." Naruto threw his hands into the air in exasperation. "If you won't even marry your best friend, are you really best friends then?"
"I'm certain that that is not how it works," Ino said, blinking rapidly. "Who even proposed?"
"Whatever, it makes sense to us and Sasuke proposed," Naruto replied and grinned, clapping his hands together. "We're going to look for rings tomorrow actually! You'll be getting official invitations soon, but consider yourself to be invited to our wedding already!"
"Your wedding with your best friend," Ino stated, looking as if she didn't understand something.
Honestly, his friends all claimed he could be stupid, but who was being the stupid one here now? Yes, he was marrying his best friend, what was so weird about that? They already lived together and took care of Kiyoshi together; of course it made sense to get married!
"Yes, with my best friend," Naruto said impatiently before he gave her a pleading look. "Ino, will you help me pick out my wedding robes? I want to look nice on our wedding day because I'm sure the bastard is going to look great no matter what he wears."
Ino shared a look with Shikamaru before glancing at Sakura, who was still unconscious. "Well, who better to help you than me, right? I'll make sure you'll look amazing."
"Thanks, Ino," he grinned and flitted towards her to grab her hands and squeeze them gently. "I knew I could count on your help!"
With that issue out of the way, he had the rest of the wedding to plan!
Of course they had to have an official kiss during their wedding. It was part of the wedding ceremony after all! It was such a nice day as well, the sun shining brightly, not a cloud to see in the sky and Kiyoshi dressed adorably, clutching some sunflowers in his chubby hands. Their friends still looked like they couldn't believe what was happening and frankly Naruto couldn't either, being in synch with them for once. He was marrying his best friend, how awesome was that?
And naturally the wedding day was followed by a really amazing wedding night, because it was all part of the wedding ceremony! Really, Naruto couldn't think of anyone better to sleep with than your own best friend, especially when that best friend turned out to be really good with his fingers and tongue …
As married best friends, it was only natural that they kissed each other during the morning, when they came home during the evening, and really whenever they wanted. If you couldn't even kiss your own best friend when you wanted, what could you do, right? Same with cuddles. Naruto loved to cuddle and as it turned out Sasuke was a great cuddler as well – it was a win-win situation all around, clearly! There was nothing better than coming home and falling into Sasuke's arm after a long day of missions after all, especially when those cuddles led to some really great kisses.
Of course they also slept together on a regular basis – and not only the passive kind. Again, they were married! What was wrong with that? Why did their friends keep acting like Naruto and Sasuke were being the weird ones here? Honestly!
And yes, of course they loved each other and told each other so regularly; the words making butterflies race through Naruto's stomach every time, no matter how many times he heard them and no matter how many years it had been since the first time Sasuke had told him he loved him.
After all, if you couldn't love your best friend, were you really best friends?
The End