Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Warnings: Oppression, OOC, minor OC'S, jerks,
Authors Note: I've revised this chapter to make it more realistic. I am so sorry to those who read the previous version. I've made minor edits to chapters two and three also, but nothing as major as chapter one. Again, I am so sorry for changing this chapter so much on you. It still follows the basic plot line as the previous version, and changes nothing in terms of overall plot and characterization. This does not concern any readers who have stumbled upon this story for the first time.
Naruto furled his trousers between his fingers. His bottom lip had long since ebbed it's bleeding since he stopped biting it. Now, there was only a swollen bruise upon his lips. Normal for anyone in his position, expected even. But he wanted to go down as the submissive that fought back, not as the submissive that bit his lip until it bled.
"How long until we're there?" He asked. Naruto had been staying with a gnarly woman who was more than happy to teach Naruto a few lessons. But being older than the normal age for brainwashing, Naruto wasn't convinced. Still, just because he didn't appreciate those lessons didn't mean he deserved a mouthful of soap.
"So impatient. Never before have I regretted taking in a rueful child as I do now. Thank the Lord you're out of my hands soon enough."
Naruto nibbled his cheek. An immaculate glow settled over the horizon. The sun's fire dimming until darkness shrouded over. He fisted his hands into his pants. If there was anything in this world that could prevent them from taking him, he'd do it. Be it running for his life or taking another. If there was anything, anything, he could do, he'd do it.
The carriage slowed to a stop. Naruto clenched his eyes shut, clawing into his trousers as if death were upon him. He heaved a shuddery breath, preparing himself for the man that would undoubtedly open the door.
Sasuke bailed last week, and Naruto prayed for another bail. For another chance. Whatever unforgivable act he'd done to deserve this fate must've been horrible, for Naruto had never been so shamed and humiliated all in one day.
This is the normal life submissives take.
The carriage door opened slowly, as if antagonizing Naruto into thinking whoever stood on the other side wanted as little to do with Naruto as Naruto did with him. But that wasn't the case. Every dominant wanted a submissive to cook their meals and carry out their orders. It was the way the world worked. Naruto could try again and again to have his own mind, but the dominants of the world would banish him from the country and force him into a life of starvation where he'd never be accepted.
Sasuke Uchiha stood on the other side of him. Unlike Naruto, with a swollen lip, bruised eyelids, and pale skin that just screamed stress, Sasuke was standing proudly, dark eyes shrouded in mirth and skin as pale as moonlight. He was everything Naruto wasn't. Royal, proud, prepared, dominant. It was a wonder Naruto even tried to put himself together that morning.
Never before had he wanted to hide his face from the world. But in that moment, with their eyes locked together, he wanted to run in shame of what he was.
"Once you identify the body we can leave. A royal carriage will be waiting for us, so I want to rush this." Sasuke said.
Naruto straightened his spine. He may feel and look shameful and unprepared, but acting that way what not how he was raised. He never acted less than what he was, because while the world called him weak, he knew he wasn't, even if sometimes he felt as if he world crumbled down upon him, a reassurance was all it took to force those feelings down and rise like he'd never rise again.
"I'm not rushing this." Naruto said, narrowing his eyes, "this is my mother. I'm allowed to take my time."
Sasuke's brows furrowed and his mouth opened before closing again. He shook his head, as if debating whether to say something or not.
"Right." He said, "follow me."
And because Naruto didn't have much of a choice if he wanted to see his mom, he followed Sasuke into the hospital.
Herbs had never had a pleasant scent, and Naruto scrunched his nose. The hospital was tangy and citrusy. The walls white even though color might ease patient's minds. Doctors scurried past them, pushing them aside and shouted for everyone to move.
Naruto slumped his shoulders, thrusting his hands in his pockets. Sasuke was walking like the prince he was, not an ounce of hesitation in his body language. Naruto shuddered. Was this who he was to marry? A man who acted perfect in every way? And wanted to rush Naruto's visit with his mom?
Sasuke stopped in front of double doors. He turned to face Naruto, and Naruto swore there was remorse in his eyes.
"I was under the impression that we left you uninformed of your mother's condition. Is this true?"
Naruto's stomach flipped. Being in the home of a gnarly woman left little room for anyone to tell him anything. And what they did tell him gave him a small hope that there was a chance. But as time went by, that chance seemed to slip away, and he was determined to make this visit the best one his mom had received thus far.
"They said she was sick." He said.
Once you identify the body, Sasuke had said. It wasn't possible though. If his mom had died, they would have told him. And as often as sickness was fatal, his mom had never caught anything and died from it. She even managed to dodge the plague as a child. If that wasn't proof enough that sickness never caught her dead, then nothing was.
Sasuke used the wrong words earlier. His mom was waiting for him beyond those doors.
"Sick? Of course they said that." Sasuke raked his hands through his hair. "There's no easy way to say this so I'm going to be blunt. Your mom's dead."
Naruto blinked slowly, shaking his head. "That's impossible." His mom had been waiting for him. The doctors went by the house and told him she was anticipating his visitation. Until now, he'd been unable to get one. There were too many dominants blocking his path to get one earlier, but now that he was finally here… She wasn't… she couldn't be…
"You're wrong." He said. "All you dominants lie…. You want me… you want… just… you're lying. They said she was sick. She can't just be gone. That's impossible. Impossible."
"We need you to identify the body. It's important for—"
"She's not dead!"
His mom, who had been with him through thick and thin, who had been there when no one else was, who had helped him whenever he needed, who had taught him everything he needed to know about surviving as a submissive in a world of dominants, was waiting for him in some unknown room of the hospital. Sasuke, like every other dominant, wanted to see a submissive bow to them, and was willing to lie to get it.
The double doors led to the morgue, and Naruto could walk in there, check the body, and identify it as someone else. But his mouth went dry at the thought, and his breath clogged his throat as tears pricked his eyes. He didn't want to check the body, not if there was a slim chance she was in there.
"She's in another room, right? You can either tell me where she is, or I'll tear this place down searching."
"Naruto—"
"Shut up and tell me where she is."
He heaved in a breath, unable to exhale as he felt his vigor disappearing as if it were never there. He came here dreading the setting sun, because that meant his time was up, yet he'd anticipated this visit, because it had been a month since he saw his mom, and he wanted—needed—to know that she was well before he departed forever.
"I'm sorry. They should have told you."
The doctors said she was sick.
"She's not in there." Naruto said, pointing at the double doors before them. "Show me the body. It won't be her."
He'd be shuffling through a morgue. A room full of corpses. Why did he offer to check the body? His mom was somewhere in this hospital, fighting off sickness and waiting for him to visit. He needed to find her. There was no time to check a nonexistent body.
"Put the mask on and follow me. My father wants us home within the hour."
Naruto swallowed. He was confident his mom was not in there, and yet, Sasuke seemed confident she was. What if she was in there? Lying cold and dead on a table. Sasuke could be bluffing, trying to make Naruto worry. They were going to be married soon. Maybe he wanted to know how Naruto reacted when faced with trial?
If that were the case, Sasuke was a cruel, cruel bastard.
His ears were buzzing and hands shaking. It wasn't her. It wasn't her. It wasn't her. But as Sasuke pulled the sheet on one of the bodies, he saw a lock of red hair. The color was the same was his moms. The shade a deep crimson that no one else had.
He stumbled back, hands covering his mouth as Sasuke revealed the face of the body. His mom.
His mom.
"No. No. No. No. No. No. She can't be… when did she… how long… They said she was sick!"
Her face was matted black and blue. A deep laceration jutted across her forehead. Not sick, but hurt. Was there any illness at all? Or had she been killed and they decided it best to leave him uninformed?
Had she been killed?
"What happened?" He asked.
Sasuke was a dominant. Naruto was his submissive. What concerned Naruto concerned Sasuke, and by the king's law, if a dominant felt their submissive cannot handle certain news or events, then they keep their submissive ignorant until a later date.
It wasn't the doctors that lied, it was Sasuke. He knew what happened to his mom, and ordered the doctors to lie.
"How did she die?"
Sasuke never answered him, but circled around the table and wrapped his arms around Naruto. Naruto narrowed his eyes, pushing against Sasuke. But his vigor had left ages ago, and only a wretched sob escaped.
His mom was dead.
Naruto buried himself into Sasuke's chest, wanted, needing someone to comfort him. Even if it was the man who was responsible for withholding his moms' death from him. It didn't matter who it was, just as long as there was someone.
Sasuke's touch was cold, meaningless, as if he didn't want to be near him, yet felt he had to. They were getting married soon, and their first meeting consisted of death and lies. Meaningless. Sasuke was a dominant doing his job for his submissive, not a loved one trying to comfort another. There was nothing in the way Sasuke held him, and there was nothing in the way Naruto reciprocated.
If a relationship was ever to be formed between them, it died the moment Naruto saw his mother's body.