A/n: enjoy!

Warning(s): mature themes, yaoi boyxboy, don't like it, don't read it!

Disclaimer: Don't own.

ooo

This Year's Love

ooo

Konoha was a small commercial town hidden in exotic wilderness very hard to find to the eye of the outsider. As was typical of such smallplaces you knew a familiar friendly face everywhere you went. It was natural to run into your neighbor while grocery shopping or wave at the local school's principal while filling up the tank, maybe greet the community hospital's head doctor while at the post office. Of course, gossip was just as common. People used it as an excuse to feign they cared about their fellow neighbors. In reality it was a 24-hour activity everybody pretty much engaged in what with lack of better things to do.

Exhibit A: Naruto's lecherous grandfather Jiraiya Sanin.

Naruto huffed grumpily on the passenger seat. He couldn't believe his grandfather had just pulled an illegal u-turn in the middle of the main two-lane road that transited through the whole town in order to re-enter the supermarket's parking lot they had just exited from to gossip or, as he had rather put it 'have a little chat,' with an old friend of his!

"…I heard she was going out with him, that old fox," the evenly bronzed boy heard his old man say and rolled his azure eyes annoyed. If there was ever a movement to promote gossip around the world not only would his grandfather be at the forefront, he'd be the founder, embarrassingly enough.

"I heard that too but I guess we'll find out this Thursday, yeah?" said the man outside their pickup truck, a pretty young blonde (compared to the oldness predominant in Konoha) with sapphire eyes and hair brighter than sunshine, bangs covering one of his eyes completely.

"Same place, same time," Jiraiya's face stretched in a lighthearted grin. He couldn't wait for the town assembly set for the first Thursday of every month to which everybody was expected to assist in order to discuss monthly matters involving the town's development also in which the town's latest and juiciest gossip tended to circulate. It was heaven for the famously known nosy man. After waving his goodbyes to his blonde friend Jiraiya took off at less than 5 miles per hour dare hoping to stumble upon someone else with whom to 'chat' with. Naruto shook his head in disbelief.

"And I thought grandma was bad." Images of the blonde and voluptuous woman peeking out the windows in the mornings popped up in the boy's head.

"I'm doing research," Jiraiya fend for himself. "Thinking of writing a new novel since the old one was so successful," he explained peeking at their surroundings by almost gluing his nose against the windshield.

"You don't need gossip to write porn," Naruto pointed out as-a-matter-of-factly and Jiraiya literally deflated with a sigh.

"It's not porn. I'll have you known my novels have intriguing plots with unexpected turnovers and surprising endings. Sex is what makes them important literary pieces."

"Che," Naruto snorted obviously not buying it. He was very aware of the numerous perverts they had in town hence his so called 'writing' success. "Is there a reason we're still at the supermarket?" Jiraiya frowned at him and hesitantly pressed on the gas. Through the way he kept muttering something about not being able to take kids anywhere these days. Naruto ignored it. He was way too happy with his first day of summer to let it dampen his spirits…

.ooo.

Leaf, Konoha's townspeople-given name, was beautiful in the summers. The smell of cherry blossoms would linger in the air while the streets got covered in rosy petals that resembled cups of snow from the beautiful fully bloomed trees. Days were warm and breezy while nights were brisk and serene; it put civilians in a joyful mood similar to Christmas arrival's.

When Naruto's parents died, back when he was five years old, Naruto was sent to live with his grandparents not only because the change of scenery would be good but because they were the only other family he had willing to take him in. Naruto's middle-class grandparents had found a fairly high-class neighborhood to move in to in Leaf at an equally fair and affordable price. Though far from civilization it served its purpose. Their townhouse wasn't fancy: it was small bearing three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. The outside was made out of white wood and gray stone. It had a decked porch up front and a nice patio out the back. White picket fences separated one house from the other and a lake ran through the back of all houses through which the sun seemed to sink through at dusk and come out of at dawn. More importantly it was home and all that mattered to them.

Naruto and Jiraiya arrived at the house a good five minutes later with bags upon bags of groceries in hand. Tsunade waited on the porch with the front door wide open.

"Hurry it up brat. You still need to take out the trash," she announced her arms crossed on her chest superiorly.

"Why do I have to take it out?" Naruto immediately protested. "Grandpa's not doing anything either." Jiraiya stopped in front of Tsunade and gave her peck on the cheek making her smirk.

"Grandpa's gonna be busy doing other things," the woman explained and Naruto couldn't help rolling his eyes when Jiraiya's eyes flickered with perversion.

"Really?" the old man arched a brow suggestively. Tsunade gave him a hard stare.

"Yes really," she kissed him on the lips shortly and entered the house headed towards their bedroom. Jiraiya followed like a hungry stray dog that hadn't been fed for weeks and trampled on his feet falling face first on the floor, groceries scattering around when his wife detoured towards the kitchen. "You need to mow the lawn," she said over her shoulder. Naruto snickered.

"Pervert!" he walked past his sprawled form to leave the groceries in the kitchen. Jiraiya rubbed his forehead but sat up to gather the groceries he had dropped.

A while later Naruto emerged from the house with two extra large bags of groceries. Honestly you would think a family of twelve lived here. Well…he did eat a lot and so did Jiraiya now that he thought about it. Speaking of, he was starting to get hungry again. The idea of ramen from the nearest ramen stand in town toyed with his head. He pouted. He didn't have any money leftover from his allowance when classes were still going. His summer job, at his friend's father restaurant, didn't start for another week. He sighed miserably. Ramen would have to wait.

He got done with the trash just in time to notice a cab pull up at the entrance of the house next to them. Naruto didn't want to eavesdrop. He refused to be like his old blabbermouth of a grandfather plus he knew his neighbor, Itachi Uchiha, was way too uptight to even look at. The one time Jiraiya started conversation with his blonde…er…companion, the guy they had seen at the supermarket, the raven had come out with such a murderous look on his face it sent shivers down Naruto's spine to this day.

Naruto took the first few steps to get back to the house when the scene began to unfold beside him and the voices began loud enough for him to overhear.

"Get out," a man with robust features and a tan shade of skin demanded alongside Itachi both waiting for a second person to exit the cab. "Get the fuck out," he repeated when enough time had gone by to test his patience. Naruto threw caution and his resolve to not turn out like his grandfather out the window fully tuning into the situation with curious interest as a tall boy the same age as him with strangely styled dark hair and snowy pale skin dressed in black slipped out.

"I hate you," he death-glared at the man.

"You'll hate me more after this now get your shit." The teenager didn't budge.

"Sasuke stop being a child," Itachi intervened with a tired tone. "Get your stuff." Sasuke ignored him and the eldest of the three clicked his tongue circling the cab to pull out a long, seemingly heavy, black duffle bag from the trunk. The man dropped the thing at the teen's feet.

"Do something with him," he said to Itachi. "I can't deal with this shit anymore."

"About fucking time you got rid of me," Sasuke retorted. The man raised a hand to slap him square on the face and Sasuke didn't flinch even when he came close enough to contact before he was held back.

"Don't father," called the familiar raven Naruto knew not to mess with. The man pulled his hand from the grasp sharply and gave Sasuke a last menacing look which Sasuke didn't mind returning before he boarded the cab again.

"I'll send a check every month," with that said the cab was gone. Itachi turned to his brother.

"Your room is upstairs. We'll have dinner soon so get cleaned up," he turned on his heel and began towards his house.

"I don't want to be here--"

"You don't have a choice," Itachi didn't bother to stop. Sasuke growled to himself. He flopped down on the duffle bag he'd brought with him and let his elbows rest on his thighs with his head hung in a tired fashion. Dark bangs with hints of blue dangled loosely hiding his face. Naruto stood still. Their lives, so very similar, yet so entirely different.

Sharp obsidian eyes found their way to pure azure ones and hell and heaven collapsed. Naruto could see an old tormented soul through the windows that were those eyes, a soul tarnished and cold from abandonment, befit for a man who had left innocence in a dark past, he could almost feel the brokenness within, the shadows of a former life that wouldn't leave him be. Sasuke was seeing light for the first time, mysterious, blinding, soothing, encompassing. Those eyes as clear as the bright blue sky, untainted from sin, strength brimming at the edges of them.

"Naruto!" Naruto shook his head slightly dazed and turned towards the porch where his grandmother stood waving a hand. "Dinner's ready!" she called. Naruto nodded.

"Coming," he searched for those onyx pools again to find they were still intently on him. The guy's lips pressed closed into a line before shot to his feet, grabbed his bag and headed towards the insides of his own house. Naruto did the same distractedly scratching the back of his head. He wondered about this Sasuke guy and what he had to give…

.ooo.

Sasuke had locked himself inside his new room the moment he had arrived and hadn't bothered to come out since. Four hours had passed, Itachi and his partner Deidara, had already dined and washed the dishes and still no sign of Sasuke. Itachi guessed it was his brother's form of rebelling against their father's decision. He, of course, didn't give a shit.

"Sasuke," Itachi knocked on the door of the only up-stair room. No answer came and Itachi felt his blood boil in a second. When his father called asking him to take care of Sasuke because he was out of control back in the big city they had grown in, Sound, he never expected to find what he did the moment he forced the door open. Sasuke was sprawled on his newly-given bed, face down and buried in the pillows, wearing nothing but his boxers. Itachi let go of the doorknob soundlessly. He walked over to the bed and thought about shedding a cover over his brother's form and let him sleep when his eyes stopped at the small night table beside the bed where he found a piece of aluminum foil spread open with a small mountain of what looked like chalk-white dust and a thin straw-like tube inside.

He didn't have to guess what it was.

He already knew.

Without a second thought he picked up the foil, walked over to the bathroom within the room and flushed the contents down the toilet. He returned to the room and spotted the black duffle bag Sasuke had brought with him from home. Just what he was looking for. Walking over to the bag he inspected the contents finding, to his demise, plastic bags filled with pills of all sorts, sizes and colors along with more of the powdery dust and a packet of syringes on the side.

"Damn it Sasuke," he hung his head. In a burst of anger he messed up all clothes and grabbed all narcotics he could find then proceeded to flush them down the toilet until there was nothing more left. A strange pain kept tugging at his suddenly tightened chest as he did this. When the hell did this happen?! Sasuke used to be so innocent and carefree. Now he was like a dead man that couldn't die, a zombie of life, Itachi was livid, he was stunned, he was…disappointed. His little brother…how could he? How could his father allow something like this to happen?

It was an hour later that Itachi had cleared the whole bag. Sasuke came to consciousness and stood to go to the bathroom, his whole body protesting with queasiness, where he had heard slight noise only to find Itachi sitting at the edge of the bathtub flushing down the last of his stuff. His breath hitched.

"What are you doing?" he asked terrified and angry at the same time. His secret was a secret no more. Itachi looked up at him.

"What does it look like I'm doing Sasuke?" he ripped open the last plastic bag and let the dusty contents soar freely into the toilet water where the contents spread into billions upon billions of grains until they became a thin blurry cape on the water. Itachi flushed the toilet and both stilled for a moment nothing but the sound of water gurgling in between them.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Sasuke charged at his brother with everything he had once realization dawned on him. Itachi punched him straight in the gut leaving him no option but to bend over. He then gripped the back hairs of his head and maneuvered him around so Sasuke could look at himself in the mirror beside the toilet.

"Look at yourself," he hissed in his brother's ear. Sasuke did when he was shaken twice. His eyes were droopy and bloodshot with dark red circles underneath, his skin was sickish and disheveled showing no radiance or signs of life, his lips were dry and cracked and even his hair seemed to have lost its will at all to live. Sasuke doubled over breaking free from his brother's hold and hovered over the toilet to regurgitate the contents of the food he'd had in the past few days mixed with the chemical substances he'd inhaled earlier. Itachi brought a hand to his face to rub his eyes out of frustration. Letting out a breath he leaned in and turned on the shower with cold water. When Sasuke was done he pushed him inside boxers and all. Sasuke immediately shivered at the contact of icy streams on his bare skin and a muffled whimper escaped him. Itachi cursed inwards. He just couldn't understand. Sasuke had been strong in the past. He had been proud. Shameless shit like this would've never crossed his mind. He looked so miserable and pathetic at the moment, haunted, imprisoned. Itachi knew his brother enough that he could compare him with a hawk: always in need of freedom. But nobody was ever free no matter the freedom they self-proclaimed they had. You were free to choose what prisons you caged yourself in.

Some prisons saved your life. Some prisons claimed your life.

"I am not father," the Uchiha first-born declared coldly. "I'm not letting you die. Now get cleaned up." Itachi exited the bathroom hesitantly only to allow him privacy. When he entered his bedroom Deidara was waiting seated at the edge of their bed.

"Is everything ok?" the blonde asked but to deaf ears as Itachi entered their own bathroom to take a shower himself. Once he was done he dressed in a pair of green boxers and a gray tee. He left a room without a word to his partner and Deidara thought about reading a book to keep awake while his other half solved matters with his younger brother. He had heard their argument from his room and preferred matters such as this were discussed with him when Itachi was ready although he wanted to know now so he could provide the comfort the other needed.

When Itachi entered Sasuke's room again he found Sasuke bare-naked and asleep atop the otherwise untouched covers of his bed his chest facing the ceiling. He sighed. Walking over to the bed he pulled on the covers with enough force to free them from their confines without having to hold Sasuke up. Managing with only a little difficulty he threw the sheets over Sasuke's naked form and tucked him in tightly. He stared at his brother, how peaceful he looked, how angelic also noticing how much he had grown. He had grown old without ever being young. Perhaps he himself had been harsh earlier. A hand unconsciously landed on his mop of dark hair and tread down before it landed on top again.

"I'm here," Itachi muttered. And I'm not leaving you was the unsaid statement left hanging in the air. And although Sasuke was out of it he gave a contended sigh as if he had listened…

This years love had better last
Heaven knows it's high time
And I've been waiting on my own too long
But when you hold me like you do
It feels so right
I start to forget
How my heart gets torn
When that hurt gets thrown
Feeling like you can't go on

-David Grey

End of Ch.1. I couldn't get this idea out of my head so there, it's out. Review…? Please…?