Back Again.

A Parting Whisper.

          "Your form is off. Here." Ryota watched as Kakashi helped Sakura adjust her stance. He had found himself bringing Team Seven lunch again while they had one of their longer training sessions.

          It had been two weeks since Kakashi had confronted him and asked for something not so casual to happen between the two of them.

          Two weeks since Ryota had accepted. For a week they just danced around one another, stumbling like two blind men in an unfamiliar territory.

          Surprisingly enough, it was Sasuke who had finally pushed the two of them together. The young Uchiha had noticed something had been off about their 'Ryota-Senpai.' It was the day after a particularly rough night for him and it seemed Sasuke picked up on his weariness almost instantly.

          He had just stared at the two Jounin for a while before telling Kakashi to stop being a coward and to take care of Ryota. It had made both himself and Kakashi pause. Surely they hadn't been obvious enough that Sasuke would notice?

          Of course before either of them got to try and deny anything, Sakura had gone over wall about the dropped hint at their, very slowly, budding relationship. So, that following night Kakashi found himself at Ryota's again. Then the pattern continued, leaving the copy-cat nin to show up at Ryota's place every night or so.

          Being so close to someone while asleep seemed to chase his nightmares away, so instead of closing up and asking to Kakashi to leave he found himself giving the man an extra key to his apartment.

          "Ne... Ryota-Senpai?" He paused his thoughts for a moment and looked down towards Naruto. The boys were taking a break, eating their bento boxes along side of each other.

          "Hai?" He replied softly, smiling slightly at his younger counter part.

          "Ah... Would you... Would you mind if I stayed at your apartment for a couple of nights?" Ryota paused at Naruto's question, eyebrows drawing together in confusion before it hit him. This was Naruto's birthday week, which meant drunken villagers would be hanging around the younger jinjuriki's apartment to try trash it. Or even worse.

          Feeling stupid for forgetting something so important, Ryota internally scolded himself while outwardly smiling as encouragingly as he could.

          "Of course you can Naru-chan. Actually, let's see if we can get the entire team together for a sleepover. Hm?" He watched as Naruto brightened instantly and turned to his dark haired teammate with a pleading look. The two of them had started getting along better, with assistance of course. Sakura seemed to realize that she'd never gain Sasuke's respect if she was so weak and stopped favoring the Uchiha. Which in turn evened out the tension between Sasuke and Naruto.

          "Yosh! Thanks Sasuke!" He sent an amused look towards the blonde as he cheered before running towards Sakura and Kakashi to convince them about the sleepover.

          "Why does the idiot want this so much?" He glanced away from the rest of Team Seven and glanced down at Sasuke.

          "Maa... It's Naruto's birthday week. I guess after spending all his birthdays alone he wants to spend some time with the people he cares about." That made Sasuke tense, looking away with emotion heavy eyes.

          "Don't worry Sasuke-Chan! We can do the same for your birthday." He watched as the boys cheeks flushed as he turned his head away a muttered something to try dismiss the idea that he'd ever want something that babyish done.

          But Ryota knew different and took the dark haired boy's response in stride, smiling softly. His Sasuke had always had a soft spot for celebrations and this younger version didn't seem to be any different.