Despite the obvious setbacks, living outside the Uchiha compound definitely had its perks. Or at least Sasuke thought so. The uptight clan left no time for fun. They strongly believed that there were two kinds of people in the world; Those who were the best, and those who were (unfortunately) not Uchiha. Average meant failure, but now, Sasuke saw "failure" as freedom. And freedom meant making music with kitchenware.

    Sakura and Sasuke were currently bashing saucepans with silverware. Both trying to outdo the other by making the loudest noise possible. In retrospect, Sakura probably shouldn't have suggested doing this at 10:30 pm in the red light district. But so far, all the windows and doors were intact, and nobody had come knocking to tell them to shut up yet, so Sakura decided that it was ok for now.

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    Naruto groaned and covered his ears with his pillow, before sighing in irritation and putting the cushion back under his head when it became evident that it was doing nothing to stop the incessant noises coming from next door. Naruto originally assumed that someone was breaking into the room next to him, and although that was a bit frightening, from experience the blonde knew that if he stayed extremely quiet, they wouldn't bother him. 

But as the loud banging noise continued, it sounded more like someone was playing whack-a-mole with a sledgehammer... and decided to beat those poor little rodents into the ground.

 That honestly scared him even more. What kind of sick person would do that? Oh wait, this is Konoha, the place where they shun children for things they have no control over. That makes much more sense now.

After a few more minutes, the noises still hadn't let up, but nobody seemed to be screaming or begging for mercy, and there were no pained squeaks from moles, so he concluded that it would be safe to knock on their door and tell them to shut up....without giving them incentive to beat him up of course, it was too late at night for that anyway.

What Naruto didn't expect was for a small pink haired girl to answer the door. He also didn't expect her to welcome him in with a bright smile. And he also didn't expect to see another boy inside, hitting a pot with a spoon with reckless abandon. So naturally, he didn't expect it when he heard himself suggest to play tag outside.

The words were out of his mouth before he could process what he was saying. And the black haired boy and the pink haired girl exchanged grins before dragging him outside and onto the brightly lit streets.

"Ha! Tag! You're it..." The pink haired girl trailed off, realizing she didn't know his name.

"Naruto, my name is Naruto," Naruto replied

"Nice to meet you Naruto! I'm Sakura and the guy with the weird hair is Sasuke,"

"Hey! It's not weird, it's stylish!" The boy, Sasuke protested. Sakura only rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, keep telling yourself that." Naruto laughed at that. There was a warm feeling in his chest, and the blonde wasn't sure what it was exactly, but he knew he didn't want it to go away.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, Sasuke, let's go back, I'm tired," Naruto said, yawning.

"Okay! Naruto-Kun, wanna have a sleepover with me and Sasuke-Kun, he's living with me anyway so it doesn't make a difference but it'll be more fun if you come too!" Sakura said while the trio walked towards their home.

"Okay Sakura-chan, I'll be there soon," Naruto said as he went into his apartment. Sakura led Sasuke into her apartment with a happy smile on her face, with Naruto arriving shortly after.

The trio talked the night away, playing games and getting to know each other. All of them knowing that tomorrow would bring a new day, with new opportunities and friendships. And as Sakura and Sasuke fell asleep beside him, Naruto stared up at the ceiling smiled to himself.

Maybe these mole-killers weren't so bad after all.