[AN:] Since March 24th, I have been working on this, for my IRL bff, and FINALLY just finished it today. Thanks, girl, you're the reason I'm still here today. I decided (With her permission) to upload this, and I hope you guys enjoy this as much as we did. Giving reviews helps me in improving my work, especially since this the first yaoi I've ever written, so it would be nice if you guys could give feedback, negative or positive! Thanks! (4/18/19: I changed the first genre from drama to angst since, in this fic, Naruto talks mostly about how terrible the world is around him and how it makes it feel, which fits more than drama, even though this fanfic has references to plays lmao.)

[Author:] Lumiere de Venise

[Title:] Thorned Roses of Glamis Castle

[Fandom:] Naruto

[Genre:] Angst & Tragedy

[Prompt:] Chess AU (The chess part was my imput, that's all, the other parts were her request.) Lemon/Smut, Sasuke doms. My friend wanted it to be and angst-filled. She also wanted Sasuke to be sinister.)

[Ship:] SasuNaru (SasukexNaruto.)[1]

[Rating:] M (Due to the smut and ending.)

[Summary:] Their romance was but a chessboard, except the black king wanted to be both the ally and foe of his white counterpart.

[Word Count:] 3,351 words/7.8 pages.

[Disclaimer:] I do not own Naruto- only this fanfiction.

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"Bow down to me, Uzumaki."

The cornered king of white roses and doves did not look up, nor did he frown nor burst out in anger at the foe who requested his obedience. His throne was taken, his men maimed or vanquished.

There were no such thing as "bishops," "knights," or "rooks" on his foe's team, pawns were quickly used and disposed of, and the sole queen was not even physical. Anything born with blood as black as night has long since been dealt with by their abhorrent leader himself, which in turn made the two men the sole survivors of a one sided massacre.

It was a pitiful attempt of a "final settlement" the moment the first martyr of the white kingdom step afoot to the iniquitous, inhumane battle of the monochrome.

The white king and his brave men had not even a fraction of a chance against the malicious king with snakes of a tenuousness in inferno.

Yet, through all this, the King of the Nine Tails Chessboard did not let the pernicious, venal situation break through his facade that had an ambiance structure- after all, the shield was fit for a man who is a potentate.

The facade of emotion the barrier around Naruto scarcely expressed the black, grim swirls of pain that his white clad men worked hard to censor.

The Uzumaki bore an external face that concealed the sorrow and anger of the opposing night, covering it by flaunting the incandescent, serene rays of the white sun.

Of course, back then, the many achromatic servants of the virtuous emperor were alive. They were able to smoothly tie and link and fix the wounds of Naruto's guise. Before an enemy got to the sandy-haired monarch's staff of divinity, the invaders must get past the dozens of servile men.

With them now all either disabled or deceased, there was no galloping of pearly horses that held brave knights, nor bishops that held thimbles that symbolize peace over destruction once more, nor rookies and pawns that formed circles and circles of aegis.

Naruto Uzumaki, ruler of a land as white as it was flowery, now had his internal emotions displayed. Flowers and silk that could flaunt the outer showings of the aqua orb having male were not able to enter the blackness- no, the truth inside him.

If the nine tail owner's external self was one that his men worked in a system for the white king to function, as if they were the organ systems to his body, than without them, he would be succumbed to being thrown off his throne by his quondam associate.

In a way, the royal heir of white blood was cornered, soon to be checkmated off his already weak balancing on the chessboard of fate, without a single tile to hop over.

A king that the other ruler has aimed to check.

Unable to avoid being captured, the great Majesty Uzumaki couldn't move away in time from the caressing of his neck that the Uchiha instilled, and the losing player of the sick, sick game couldn't move said neck as he felt soft bites that turned into harsh bites that turned into vicious bites.

"You should really smile less when you answer to me. I might go too far, trying to make it a frown of pain," the Uchiha said viciously and lustfully as he moved away. Naruto wasn't able to conceal the slight tremble of fear he felt from the other male's stance.

The ebony haired male licked his lips as he saw scarlet the same shade as his own eyes drip from the bruised skin of his former companion, and let out a burst of laughter at the heaves and moans of the losing opponent to his sick little game.

A king who has lost all bishops, knights, free spaces, and even a queen who left him in hopes for the king of darker hue, just to almost be conquered by said evilness, not in pleasure, but in blood- that would soon be the tale of Naruto Uzumaki.

The blue eyed male looked at either side of him, his gaze on the monochromatic patterns of the area he was dueling in. A gray sky, a checkered floor. No buildings, no trees, no birds. An arena with nothing to it unless does splatter each other's blood unto the cold, cold floor.

Well, that and two thrones, one at the center of either end of the flooring each. A white and a black one, the white throne much behind Naruto and the black one much behind Sasuke.

Facing each other, the kings have always done, yet on opposite ends of a terrible history of two families who could never get along, who shook hands dipped in either white or black poisons from snitching doves and corrupted snakes.

Just like the king of the white sun Naruto, and king of the black moon Sasuke.

Naruto sighed, got up, and faced his rival; he slowly pushed his left hand unto the pierced part of his neck that the other monarch left upon him.

"We don't have to do this! You don't have to do this! We have to an end to-"

The incorrigible man in front of the blond interrupted him with a derisive, incurious question. "And to whom do I have a reason to either fulfill good or evil?"

The white ruler frowned and looked at the black tile his foot was on. He knew that Sasuke had him there. Nevertheless, Naruto continued his rant.

"Sasuke, you've gone too far. You went as far as to kill your...your beloved," Uzumaki cried out as he curled his left hand into a tight fist, his face with a hurt expression.

"My beloved? I never saw her as mine- no, she was simply a pathetic woman of blossoms and beauty," the snake wielder responded with a tone of sadistic mockery. He raised his left hand up in the infamous sign that he was going to move his nefarious, insidious serpents. "The queen I claim as my true love is a weapon that cuts through much and cowers to none."

"Another victim of your pain she was, Sasuke! Why, Sasuke, why? What did she do to you, to have to see such a date? What did any of my and your people do to deserve this?"

The minute the words left, Naruto shook his head at his own naivety and foolishness. He showed emotion. A king that shows any sign of frustration was as repugnant as a king who was known for arrogance.

They both know this sad truth of life, as they spent their days as allies watching, frowning, disapproving of the kingdoms of men much older than them, who wasted and destroyed lifetime bonds for a sad case of temporarily power.

It is for this reason that the good ruler is disgusted at himself, disgusted at how the former right hand man of his looked down at him, his breaking point, his shaking pieces of armor, with a smirk.

"I did nothing wrong. A chess game is the clashing between white and black armies, the two fractions each controlled by a single man and halfly by their spouses, all either the color of all combined, or the color of none combined. A pink piece is but a mistake."

Naruto groaned as his sly opponent unleashed his snakes unto his groin. They did not bite, or strangle, or his, but they softly curled around him. The blond suppressed two moans, and then let out a long and hoarse one as the black haired ruler in front of him bent over him, his crimson eyes the same shade as blood made from lechery, and rubbed his groin unto the blond one's.

"I want you as both my ally and my foe," the clad in dark male said as he slowly swirled his tongue around the bruises he left around the blue eyed male's neck earlier. "You are a piece I could never conquer without letting you checkmate me at the same time."

With that, Naruto took the cue and clawed Sasuke's back, and in turn the last of the Uchiha said, "I took my queen, who you sought over your own lamentably arranged suitor, and your response is a kiss. You may not be in the direct side of evil like me, but you are more close to the neutral ends than the good ends, Uzumaki."

Sasuke blocked out any instances for the other to counteract his claim by having a snake open their mouth and reveal a black rose with tiny but sharp thorns, and put it on the white king's unarmed tongue. Naruto did not object to it, nor did he moved when Sasuke intertwined his tongue with the blonde's own, nor when Sasuke pushed him to the white and black checkered floor.

Naruto also didn't send a bishop for his divine protection when the Uchiha rubed more quickly and harshly unto him, the two males' moans combining with the other as their members throbbed painfully against the barriers of their royal uniforms. Well, it's not like the "pure" king had any guards left, nor did he have a chastity to protect.

Instead, the blond summoned roses to heal the wounds on the clawed back of his opponent, and Sasuke pressed the thorns harder unto Naruto's tongue to cause tiny bits on both of their saliva-covered muscles.

The ebony haired king unleashed his hard member as well as the other male's, and then took off the royal pants and undergarment of the blue eyed monarch.

With a perverse chuckle, the Uchiha positioned his tool towards the entrance of the Uzumaki, and without preparation, entered him halfway. Not that it mattered if the cruel leader of black pawns wasn't at all for foreplay, of course- this was not lovemaking, but a heated moment of twisted, sadistic and masochistic sex.

This was all too familiar between the two to ever cause any complaints, even on the "angelic" ruler's part. The thrusts that Sasuke started to instill, harsh and cruel, as well as the snakes that the cruel man ordered to curl around the holder of dove's shaft, that dripped the beginnings of amazing liquid obtained by beautiful release of pleasure…

All in all, the cruel heaves the betrayer performed only unleashed a disturbing sense of self-loathing pleasure unto Uzumaki. This was something the crueler king constantly reminded the other.

"It is amazing how you succumb to my 'terrible deeds,' you fool," the ebony haired male said as he gave a certain jab to the insides of the blond, that made the submissive male scream out a wild moan. He decided to make the white clad king give out more liberated groans, by performing soft nibbles on the aroused male's soft neck.

The white king couldn't say he was cornered- no, if anything, he got himself into this predicament. He underestimated his pieces, and at the same time, was the sole reason for their failure to capture the man who was currently handling him.

With every thrust that Naruto felt, the more he felt himself close to a conquering of himself that he would want more than to overpower Sasuke. He moaned cries that were fitting for a man who chose lust over justice, pleasure of pain; the friction between the two males made the submissive one forget about the blood sacrificed for him.

The groans echoed throughout the monochromatic area, heard only by the men themselves and the snakes the dominant of the two had. When two of the black monarch's snakes slithered towards his "good foe's" neck, the good foe in question moaned and felt his member throb in arousal.

After minutes of nonstop jabs, inflicted with snakes that wrapped themselves around Naruto for only sinister intentions, the blond felt the beginning shivers of an awaited climax approach. He knew that the Uchiha was at his limit as well.

"My white king," Sasuke said before he gave out a warning moan, "it seems me and my snakes are at our limits."

Naruto moved his head forward and softly bit the right side of the Uchiha's neck, and then shifted so that the other king could enter him as wholly as possible, something that surprised the superior "lover" so much, the ebony-haired sadist wasn't able to continue on for much longer.

With a grunt, Sasuke moved his head to the tiled floor, right on the shoulders of Naruto, which shook with ecstasy, and released his seed deep into the male, and towards the end decided to take the blond in for a heated kiss. After the two let out hushed moans and quick jostles, the snake master slowly pushed out of the male, both of their eyes set on each other's pupils the whole time.

The two spend ten minutes in silence, with nothing else done but fixing up their clothes, rethinking their actions (More on Naruto's part), and had their backs facing each other, as if they were sworn enemies, who did not invoke in selfish, naive intercourse with one another.

It was a paradoxical tale between the two, Naruto always thought, as they were two pieces on two different sides of a chessboard, and they marched and marched their men into a grim future, but was it really to stop the other's ideology, or to simply get closer to each other, ironically by bloodshed? By deception? By having to sacrifice the many oblivious pawns, rooks, knights, bishops, and even their own queens?

The wars between the two kingdoms were to prevent each side's worst nightmare to be thrown into reality, and yet their rules themselves broke the barrier by blending in their sick, sick white and black morality into a deplorable yet amorous gray, which such ironic love that the servant turned, pink haired princess who twirled with blossoms, and even the born empress of violet hair and shy sunflowers, could never be able to give the same feelings the two kings had for one another.

Enough is enough.

If Naruto Uzumaki, a ruler of the kingdom filled with white roses and thorns, is cornered somehow in the middle of a chessboard, then the rules must be put back into place. The blue eyed male, bold as a fox, must remember that his right hand is a princess with lilac eyes and the fragrance of flowers, not a man that wore black and had the aura of regret.

"My dear counterpart, what is the matter?"

The blond monarch looked up, but not behind. He knew Sasuke was already fully dressed, and that male's face was either one of apathy or hypocritical abhorrence. He took a while to respond.

"Nothing, really-"

"That is a lie, fool...Are you regretting what just happened? This is neither the first or last time this has or will happen."

"...I'm not thinking about that."

Naruto got up and turned around. There was barely a few inches between him and his recent sexual partner. He breathed in and out by his nose. He could smell a slowly dying tang of coitus, that were balanced by a sweet smell of glamis castle roses.[2]

Sasuke gave a slightly confused look, and asked in an alarmed tone, "For what has come upon your soul, dear ruler?"

The king with roses was going to hesitate on an answer, but he realized that hesitation and obsessiveness were the reasons everything went bad in the first place. The blue eyed monarch looked down at his feet, to avoid the shame crawling and squeezing his heart as if they were the other leader's snakes themselves. He kept his face and mouth in a happier stance, as the Uchiha would be able to tell his actions from a mile away if the Uzumaki showed any strange change.

"We are...fanatical with each other, despite who we are- or, in your case, were bethroned to. We are both the poison and remedy for one another, no matter how we try to change it. We are different sides of a chessboard. It's pretty humorous, if you think about it? Maybe, if one of was a girl, we could've been engaged to one another!"

"...Likewise. I do not understand what is your point, however. This is how we have always don-"

The ebony haired emperor did not continue his sentence. Despite what happened to him, his body did not fall. No, the despicable thorn carrier did not even throw out grunts, although his eyes widened in disbelief.

Naruto's face was but a disguise. Internally, he sobbed and howled out like a beast, as although he knew it had to be done, killing the other half of him was terrible.

But that was not how chess went. In chess, you continue until one team is extinct, and the other is either left barely any better or with some preponderance. Chess was a boring game to most, but enough defeat in the game can highlight the game for what is truly was- a sinister, somber scheme of a game in a world portrayed as humdrum and for the pretentious.

Uzumaki knew that was false, though, as he and the Uchiha were fools that were able to win many battles despite their elation, whether it was sadistically on Sasuke's part or nostalgically for Naruto's side.

With a exasperated sigh, the blonde ruler let the tears he tried not , and his blue eyes were not able to use his rose pieces to hide tears that couldn't conquer nor suffer from a checkmate.

Before Sasuke had time to turn to one of his many free spaces, the final surprising move from the once cornered king was presented- it was not the first stabbing that took the stunned man down, but the dove that the "good" king of the two suddenly summoned, which landed to the somehow standing Uchiha, as the dove breathed out air filled with toxins specifically to end the life of the red eyed male.

"You...you got me," the stabbed male choked out between coughs that resulted in blood to spill from his pale lips. He fell to the ground backwards, with his shoulders and mouth trembling in agony. The lack of shock and emotion in the words saddened the dove whisperer. The blue eyed male moved to the left side of the dying king, and kneeled down as his tears flowed out more and more.

Uzumaki sighed, and then looked into the slowly life-drained eyes of his former companion.

"It...It is quite ironic, Sasuke. You said queens are worthless, yet it is by my queen that I had the pugio[3] to seal your fate…"

A kiss, the white tinted king gave to the lips of the the defeated monarch- the wounded male had red that dripped from the black cloth he bore. The rose-scented king gave him a few more kisses, as he knew that the poison, which ironically composed of the nightmares that Uchiha's can create for others, couldn't hurt a man of light, even if the man of light was more to tone with a gray aura.

"And it is your queen that gave me the weakness you had that not even I knew about."

The blond emperor looked down at the knife in his hand. He saw his reflection in the red that was splattered on the metal, and he looked down in disappointment in both himself and the friend- no, brother- no, lover he just betrayed. The man that probably would've killed him off anyway, though, so it was not truly a full perfidy...yet the crushing feeling in his heart continued all the same.

Long live the king of white roses and doves, Naruto Uzumaki," the mourning male said to himself as he looked up at the gray sky, his eyes and face red, his eyelid sore from the water that constantly left them, "ruler of the chessboard, conqueror of darkness, brother of none."

Checkmate.

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"Most Gods throw dice, but fate plays chess, and you don't find out till too late that he's been playing with two queens all along." -Terry Pratchett[4]

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[White wins.]

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[Ending AN:] This might be one of the best fanfics I've ever made, as I'm a sucker for descriptive, metaphorical, symbolic and poetic writing styles and stories. I feel like my lingo in the middle died off a tad, due to me originally writing the beginning and ending of the fanfic first, a bad habit of mine. Kinda funny how it took me almost a month to finish this, yet it's not even 4,000 words, LOL. I think the descriptive writing and allegory of chess made it like that.

[Cite Notes:]

1- I never realized that the first names in ships were the dominant one, until my friend I wrote this for pointed it out...I read plenty of yaoi when I was younger, so that's pretty sad I just realized this, LMAO.

2- The original title was "Kings of Roses and Thorns". I changed it because I felt the need to put a specific flower name, to balance the paragraph out. I was searching for names to use, and I saw glamis castle roses are a shout out, which had me remember that a character in MacBeth said they gave out a sweet smell. I thought Glamis would go well with the title.

3- Pugios are Roman knives...and Julius Caesar, who was betrayed by a very good friend by the name of Marcus Junius Brutus, was killed by a pugio. Nuff' said.

4- I was looking for chess quotes to help me add more angst and issues for Naruto and Sasuke in this fic and after many scrolls down, I found this one- the mention of "god," "fate," and "two queens" made me think about Naruto and Sasuke being rulers with their canon lovers (Hinata and Sakura), and I thought of a way to add Naruto's feelings for the two girls to play in. I hope I did a good job at that.

Funny how both 2 and 3 have to do with Shakesphere, whose works were full of tragedy and drama...

Anyway, if you liked this fanfic, a review on what you loved and what could be improved would be greatly appreciated- hope you guys enjoyed!

-Lumiere de Venise