Naruto © Kishimoto Masashi
Ninja verse. Hokage!Kakashi, ANBU!Naruto, ANBU!Sasuke. They are all in Konoha.
SasuNaru, yaoi (soft smut somewhere...)
.G .R .E .E .D
"And why do you have to go around looking for him?" Orochimaru inquired. He opened a door, leading to another long corridor in the dimly lit hallway.
"I would try to sense him if I could use sage mode as freely in the open as him, Orochimaru-sama." There was an exasperation note in Kabuto's reply that almost perked Orochimaru's sense of good humor.
Orochimaru chuckled sinisterly. They rounded the left corner and stopped in front of a closed slide door. By the light and familiar incessant chatter on the other side, no one could mistake the owner of that voice miles away. Before Orochimaru's hand could reach it, the door was unceremoniously pried open with an unnecessary force by Kabuto and the gray hair male lunged his way inside.
"Naruto-kun!" Kabuto bellowed, instantly halted the joyous talking of the two occupants inside the room. Two pairs of not-so-innocent-as-they-looked eyes turned to him, any hint of surprise was absent at his sudden appearance and outburst.
"Ah!" Naruto chortled, his mouth stretched to a wider grin, his clear blue eyes brightened with mischievous at the fuming Kabuto and turned back to Karin. "He caught me."
"My apology, Naruto-kun. I tried." Orochimaru stepped into the room and took a seat on the couch across Naruto. "But I realized I need you get back to your study soon because break time was over."
"Already?" Naruto looked at Orochimaru with wide eyes. He tilted his head and peeked outside. Indeed, it was already noon. "Oh." His attention was back to his companion when the redhead beside him stood.
Karin figured she could spare Naruto an excuse for cutting their gossip section short. After all she was the one bumped into him first. "I need to get ready for my appointment with Ibiki later." She looked at Naruto in contemplation. "Juugo and Suigetsu will return from their mission today, I'm meeting up with them at the same place. You coming?"
"Uh… yeah, okay." Naruto blinked, not expecting the invitation since he usually tagged along with Sasuke. He brushed it off to ask away his curiosity. "What does Ibiki request you for?"
"He got some trouble with the guy you captured last week. Yamanaka girl has been helping him but they didn't get any work done." Karin bowed in Orochimaru's direction when she neared the entrance way, ignored Kabuto in the process, and saluted to Naruto over her shoulder. "See you later."
"Later, Karin." Naruto waved. The playfulness wiped off his face after she was out of sight and Kabuto slid the door shut. He answered Orochimaru's questioning pose with a raised of his blonde brow.
The older shinobi folded an arm across his chest, cupping his chin with the other in mocked amusement. "That doesn't look good." Orochimaru observed. "Let's say in the case where Karin didn't have the ability they needed, what they would do?"
Naruto shrugged, repositioned himself on the couch. His ankles crossed on the far armrest and he laid down on his back, one hand cushioned his head and the unoccupied one fell limply along the couch edge, his fingers nearly brushed the floor. Naruto surveyed the white and boring ceiling unseeingly. "Everyone is acknowledged in the village, so it's cool with me. They seem to blend in well."
Orochimaru hummed at his respond. "Are you done with your assignment, Naruto-kun?"
"Hmm…" Naruto hummed in thought, he closed his eyes. "Maybe?"
"Maybe as in?" Orochimaru pressed with interest.
"I'm doing it…" Naruto furrowed his brows looking for words. When his eyes opened with mirth dancing in the blue depth, he gave the older man a foxy grin. "But I am unsure when it will start the actual progress."
Kabuto glanced between Naruto and Orochimaru, both of them had this kind of smirk on their faces did nothing but screamed I-am-going-to-show-you-how-its-done. And he knew whatever Naruto was planning to do, something was going to turn ugly for the receiving end. But well, as long he had the audience seat, there was nothing he needed to worry about… But what was he doing here in the first place…?
"Naruto-kun! Please don't call me to the library after you've done wrecking the place!" Kabuto shouted, pointing an angry finger at the startled blond.
Naruto had jerked up at the outburst and looked annoyed more at being pulled out of his relaxation than the other man's tantrum. "I don't wanna clean up that place by myself!" Naruto in all his manliness screeched, determined to outdo Kabuto's volume. "You know how huge it is!"
"You ran away right when I stepped in there and the librarian just happened to come back from her lunch break conveniently at the same time?!"
"Can't help it when I sensed Karin looking for me just by then!"
"Ah Naruto-kun, you have a good sense of humor." Orochimaru quipped, his eyes gleamed in amusement.
"Really? Realy?! I know right!"
"Orochimaru-sama! Please don't encourage him!"
"Bring us the tea and ramen, Kabuto!" Naruto demanded, pointed a finger back at the other man.
"I'm not your page boy!" Kabuto hollered exasperatedly.
"Tea and snack, Kabuto." Orochimaru calmly stood and walked over to the window.
"… Yes sir."
"Ramen!" Naruto corrected insistently, but Kabuto's footsteps had already faded away.
"Let's resume your today's lesson, Naruto-kun." The older man coaxed. Unless the "lesson" word was accompanied with "training", Naruto wouldn't cooperate willingly.
"Noooooo!" The blond whined as expected, his protested was about to make a grand appearance.
However, Orochimaru easily bribed him. "You want to impress Sasuke-kun when he's back from his mission, right?" There was many Naruto switches had Sasuke's name if used right. For example at the moment, a certain blonde head was nodding in agreement enthusiastically.
"Good. Now let's stop stalling and begin."
Serious blue eyes turned attentive, Naruto concentrated in what was being said and explained to him. The young shinobi would stop the elaboration on a matter to inquire at some point. Orochimaru made a different approach while giving Naruto several solutions and made him choose which he would follow and why he wouldn't on the others, or if he had another way to solve the problem with minimum unwanted consequences.
It was well into mid-evening by the time a distraction came but Orochimaru deemed they could stop for the day at that point. He would anyway since it was impossible for Naruto to concentrate because Sasuke had come to get him out for dinner, which the blond promptly demanded Ichiraku. Even if Sasuke didn't say it out loud but he was thankful to his former teacher because Orochimaru kindly reminded Naruto that he did agree to a gathering with Karin and the others later that day.
It was a silent agreement that they were going to get Naruto eat less ramen and more vegetables. And they were succeeding.
Karin recognized Juugo and Suigetsu's chakra together with some other nins, those she didn't care, were getting closer to the West Gate of Konoha by the time she walked out from the interrogation room. She decided to stop by her home in the New Uchiha District, some blocks away from Sasuke's main house, to freshen up. That would give enough time for the other two to turn in their mission report before they met up.
There was a tea house to Sasuke's liking, owned by an old couple moved to Konoha from the Tea Country after the war because they wanted their grandchildren to be closed to their late parents' graves. The humble place soon became their usual hang out spot when they wanted some private and no one in Konoha could say no to the dangos, especially Anko.
It didn't take long until Juugo and Suigetsu arrived, and a bit later, surprisingly Kabuto also sat there, rambling about prankster, irresponsible, obnoxious, ramen addicted brat. In which he was ignored, completely.
"Huh?" Suigetsu raised a silver eyebrow. "Why did you look for him in the first place?"
"It's Sasuke's next mission!" Karin slapped her hands on the table with much suppressed force, still causing some disturbance to the tea filled cups. "I don't think his teammate is good for the job."
"Teammate?" Juugo blinked in surprise and glanced at Kabuto puzzlingly. "I was informed we usually go on missions with threemancel or more?"
"Higher rank missions don't have to go with that pattern. Depending on the risk there are solo and duo missions too. Though that was rare. Usually high risk missions Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun always took needed backups so preferably more people to come along with them, just in case." Kabuto sipped his tea, signaled the end of his input. Inwardly he narrowed his eyes. Why there was a sudden change? Neither Sasuke nor Naruto ever went on duo missions with anyone else but the other. It might look bias, but there was no better combination than those two in the entire ninja world.
"I was in the mission room this morning so I happened to see Sasuke's awaiting missions whenever he returned." Karin put her elbow on the table and cupped her chin, she looked out on the quiet street. "Sasuke is to invade some whatever code name fishy villages and find information on their underground trading routes to Konoha, and confirm if there was indeed illegal deals going on, destroy their main base and take the head guy back here for interrogation."
"And?" Kabuto probed, listened intently.
"Sakura is coming with him, just the two of them." Karin shrugged, still looking at the street with a bored expression.
"Haa?" Suigetsu loomed over her with his wide eyes surprisingly hadn't popped out of their sockets yet.
Karin waved her free hand, shooed him dismissively. "Don't ask me, I'm not knowing anything more than you at this point."
"Isn't it a bit too reckless to appoint only one medic nin accompanies him on this one?" Juugo put his empty cup on the table and refilled it. "I knew Sakura had good offensive ability and the Fifth Hokage's Byakugo to aid her in combat but still…"
"What are you worrying about?" Suigetsu stuck his pinkie to his ear and blew any dirt latched on the tip of his nail away. "The worst might happen was she slowed him down. Nothing could be too hard for him."
"Uh huh." Karin deadpanned.
"Till don't see why you needed to find Naruto though." Suigetsu reminded her, after chomping down another dango stick.
"He listened to me when I needed someone to listen to me!" Karin slammed her fists on the table in her frustration. Everything on the wooden surface jerked up with a clang before settling down, amazingly no drink got spilled.
"More like he distracted you from whatever you were going to torture his ears with." Kabuto commented, reaching out to grab another dango stick, which Juugo was faster than him and snatched it. The two males glared each other down in challenge while Kabuto took another one.
"Huh?" Karin blinked and tilted her head, her memory skimmed over the event at lunch. Indeed he did, she didn't get to talk that much. She coughed in her closed hand and looked away from the other's curious stares. "Well…! But he told me some rather interesting things when we were trapped in the tree."
"Do tell." Kabuto humored her. Getting her embarrassed was easy enough but dealing with her after was the problem.
"After he received half of the Sage of Six Path's power, he could stop the after effect of Might Guy's Eighth Gate Released." Karin sipped her tea lazily.
"Truly?" Kabuto asked in astonishment. That was unexpected she got to know something they didn't. "In some of Orochimaru-sama's earlier research information I had read, it mentioned whoever reached that stage wouldn't be able to survive under any circumstance."
Karin nodded. "Yeah, so Naruto told me he put his right hand on top of the guy's heart and suddenly that guy was out of critical danger. He said he just knew what to do…" She trailed off uncertainly. Naruto was vague when he retold the story. Not because he intended to hide anything, but he couldn't accurately explain his understanding by words. To digest what he told her about the Sage's power already took more than enough toll on her aching head. She knew the other Uzumaki was unique, but this kind of unique was just too much for anyone else.
"Wow…" Suigetsu whistled, he looked impressed.
"Come to think of it… that's not something to be surprised over." Kabuto shook his head with a sigh and grabbed the dango stick when Juugo's hand was hovering over it, he smirked at the twitched on the spiky orange hair male's eye. "After all he did restore the Hokage's eye. And it was previously supposed to be lost forever."
Huh? The other three looked at him after his input, then their mouth formed a unison "Oh".
"You know what?" Karin pointed the tip of her eaten dango stick at Kabuto's face, breaking the silence fell over them. "I don't care anymore." She dropped the safety-questionable object on the table nonchalantly and sipped her tea, grabbed another dango stick and started eating after.
"Hey!" Suigetsu exclaimed right in the red head's ear. That got Karin threw her newly finished dango stick at his face in her shock, it flew through his head with a splash and landed on the floor behind him in a heap of whitish water. He made a face at her. "Gross!"
"Stop scaring me!" Karin snapped, she put a hand over her heart in attempt to calm the rapid beating down.
"Anyway," Suigetsu glared back, "Aren't you two related?"
Karin squinted at him warily. "So?"
"Well, since you are a weirdo healing people by letting them bite you, it's not really surprising if he can heal—" There was another splash under the table and Kabuto escaped his seat at the same time a rush of water hit where he sat a moment ago. The water flew back to reform Suigetsu's shin when he clicked his tongue in annoyance, glowered darkly at the red head ignoring him.
"Restore." Kabuto corrected after he sat back down. "As far as Orochimaru-sama's research in this matter regarding Naruto-kun's ability, began from the Uzumaki clan on his mother's side to other possible additions after he received his new power from the Sage of Six Path, he concluded Naruto-kun is not capable of producing something that was not meant to be." He raised his hand, effectively cut off the others' opened mouths to demand more details. "That means he can restore what was there before whatever event caused it to be lost. The special part was, it extended to the point of ignoring how long the damage was done as long the person was still alive."
"So that originally thanks to his mother's side?" Juugo asked, seeing Karin's frown indicated she already knew where this was going without further talking.
"Most likely." Kabuto nodded and grabbed another dango stick.
"Hey." Suigetsu added his finished dango stick to the growing pile on their table, "Then Naruto was the best healer to be on par with the First Hokage? You know, Orochimaru-sama told me the old man was capable of healing without forming hand seals?"
"Actually," Kabuto began, "The Uzumaki clan and the Senju clan of the First Hokage are distance blood relatives. So it was safe to assume Naruto-kun and Karin, both being part of the Uzumaki clan are somewhat related to the First."
"I don't know if I should feel good or bad about this." Karin rolled her eyes and sipped her tea.
"Based on the first time I encountered the Fifth Hokage, who was granddaughter of the First," Kabuto's expression turned sour, "She adored him like one of her blood, which was in fact not so far from the truth."
"Blech, so scary!" Suigetsui stuck his tongue out, showing his white point teeth mockingly. "He is related to the First and Second, favorite of the Third, son of the Fourth, adored by the Fifth, remembrance to the Sixth's dear late teammate, soon to be the Seventh Hokage, not to mention Konoha's Hero, savior of the world. Am I missing something?"
"He is single." Karin announced with an air of final.
"I am not sure about that." Kabuto glanced at her oddly, not seeing the point why she made that false statement.
It was then they noticed Karin's eyes slightly narrowed. Her gaze darted sharply to the corner somewhere behind her back, the thick tension in the air went on for less than ten seconds and it was gone when she shrugged and proceeded to grab another dango stick.
The other three looked at her and among themselves confusedly. At length they ignored it all together and resumed eating their own dango share.
The silence was interrupted when a familiar noisy argument hit their ears. Four pairs of eyes peeked outside the tea house at the unmistakable forms of two males walked toward their direction.
"I told you we could just stop at Ichiraku and order take away!" The blonde one grumbled sulkily, his hands folded behind his head, looking the other way from the dark hair male walked beside him.
"Usuratonkachi, we are going to have nabe tonight and you want to eat ramen before it?" The Uchiha glared at Naruto from the corner of his eye. His face didn't show much of his disdain but his tone made up for it. Unlike Naruto, Sasuke's hands leisurely dangled at his sides with each step he took.
"What? I can eat both of them, you know?!" Naruto insisted moodily, showing his fists in the air to prove his point.
The more this pair got near, the more people's eardrums were assaulted by obnoxious yelling of Naruto and monotone snappy replies of Sasuke.
"I am surprised you have not yet looked like a pig with the way you are eating." Chirped Sasuke and threw a sneer at Naruto for unnecessary provoking effect because he could.
"Are you saying I'm fat?! You bastard!" Naruto squalled, he pointed a furious finger at the Uchiha's bored face meant to be translated as "moron".
"You should thank those sodium you have consumed, usuratonkachi, that's what help your loudmouth disturbing the neighborhood all the time." Before Naruto could open his mouth for a super extremely smart retort contained the word "bastard" five times in one breath, Sasuke quipped, "I am thankful for that too. There are too many scandals keeping people away from the Uchiha Compound. And they knew no one could sleep at night."
Naruto was red, fuming red, raging red, tomato red. He stuck his tongue out at Sasuke and stormed the remaining distance to the tea house without further not-so-witty retort. Before he was completely out of earshot, he heard Sasuke whispered softly enough for only him to hear, "That's not the proper way to use your tongue, usuratonkachi." In which Naruto's redness converted to another kind, but the others didn't need to know it!
Sasuke witnessed the sight in front of him with cold detachment. He glanced down at the stilling body he had dragged away from the massacred estate and threw it beside his feet. His activated Sharingan flickered to the comatose form, he sneered cruelly at the man. The foe's dirty yukata was covered in blood. Of course, Sasuke didn't kill or injure the man in that matter however, same things wasn't applied to whoever in same place with him tonight.
Sasuke swept Kusanagi at the man's face to rid of any dripping warm blood on the blade, effectively woke his victim when he sheathed his sword to its usual place on his lower back. His elbow leisurely propped on the hilt while he watched the miserable excuse of an adversary.
...
The man groaned when last string of unconsciousness left him, he slowly opened his eyelids and wished he hadn't. This nightmare should not be real, it wasn't even supposed to be real! This… this thing was not even human! What with that crimson color and different irises? Was that even an iris at all?! The corner of his eye caught a familiar red tattoo on its upper left arm. No one had informed him about this thing! That was supposed to be a rebuilding village! It had been destroyed not only once! How could this happen to him?! How could they even afford to have such monster!
"H—how… how much did t—they hire you?" He asked shakily, willing himself to calm down. If he made any sudden move to escape, this thing might change its mind and kill him! "I—I can pay you more than them! Work for me! You will have anything you want!" Right, if he had such monster on his beck and call, who needed the rest of those useless mercenaries and rogue ninjas. He could resume his plan in no time!
To his relief, it removed its hand from the sword and crouched down at his eyes level. However, dread came knocking at the back of his mind relentlessly when chiller than ice fingers snaked around his throat and cut off the sole route of air rushed in and out of his windpipes. He thrashed wildly and his foot kicked at nothing, it was the moment realization hit him that his self had no purchase on the ground anymore. His tongue stuck out while saliva trickled down from the corner of his mouth to his chin, his vision slowly rolled upward. If it was possible for him to look at his face, he would have seen the color was leaving until only a sickly white remained. His hands weakly clawed at its wrist while it kept squeezing harder as time passed to further deprive him of air.
When he thought his neck bone was about to crack, precious air filled his lungs, maintained his blackened mind in between reality and hallucination. The grip went lax little by little until his butt dropped unceremoniously on the ground. Unconsciousness had never been a more welcoming thing than this instant, hoping beyond hope he would wake up from this so real nightmare. He caught the sight of another figure standing behind it at a last moment before the world dissolved into darkness.
...
"I told you not to come." Sasuke whispered, put one of his bloody palm over the arms wrapped around his upper torso from behind. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back to feel more of those hot breaths on the exposed skin of his neck where nose buried in his nape.
"You looked like you were going to kill him." There was no accusing in that statement, only hands tightened around him. "I…" A hesitant hush murmured against his skin. "What if they..." Sasuke could feel how his partner trembled ever so slightly from how they pressed together chest to back, words struggled to get out from lips melted onto the back of his neck. "... You..." The muffled words gave him more than enough hint to understand the broken version of vocalizing fear. "... From me..."
Sasuke turned around to face the other, fast enough to cut off any further tremor words and still retained the embrace. "Hold on." He mouthed softly on his partner's forehead and nudged his nose against whisker-like cheek. Sasuke stepped back when the arms unwillingly loosened until they released him. Before temptation got the better of him, Sasuke turned away from the other and quickly summoned two small snakes, let them slither down the almost forgotten target's throat and ordered them to stay still in that man's stomach and waited for instruction. Sasuke's fingers were a blur when he formed hand signs, as soon as he stopped at the last seal, the unmoving body teleported away in a poof of dust.
His motionless companion watched in silent while he worked. All were done, Sasuke walked back to the other and led them away from the dead estate. When they stood a good distance away from the main entrance, he turned back and did his clan's trademark hand signs.
Fire Release, Great Fireball Technique!
A giant fireball shot out from his mouth and bathed the entire area inside the thick brick wall in flame, leaving nothing but ashes survived. Unlike earlier, before his partner could stay any longer to see into it, Sasuke had swiped them away with none other than the Fourth Hokage's famous Flying Thunder God technique.
Sasuke sat on one of the large ancient root emerged over the forest soil of the tree and lean on its lumpy bark. They decided to stop and rested for the night when they were well-hidden in the heart of a woods on their way back. The other was inspecting dry blood painted several places on his skin to be sure none of them was his. Sasuke had long given up persuade the moron that he was as good as when they left the village. Finally, said moron nodded, appeared to be pleased with the result. Sasuke felt like rolling his eyes. 'Where was the meekly one seconds ago?'
"Shaddap, you bastard. What's wrong with wanting to be sure your Uchiha ass wasn't deformed in some way?!" The moron snapped at him.
This time, Sasuke did roll his eyes. "Last time I checked, I haven't said anything. And I already told you I'm fine. But no," He drawled, lifted his chin higher and blinked pleasantly at the twitching blue eyes. "You can't just keep your hands to yourself." Sasuke couldn't help his genetic bastardy smirk forming. The way Naruto swallowed and wet his own lips could never escape these Uchiha's eyes.
Naruto might have been obvious but by all means, he was not innocent. Aaah, too many intentional puns.
Before Naruto had any chance to surface from the daze he was drowned in, Sasuke pressed a thumb and forefinger on the back of his neck and guided his flushed face closer until their lips touched innocently. They kept eyes contact until Naruto's lids unconsciously fell, made absent the ocean amidst a timberland.
Sasuke was content with how this felt. There was no need to push or pull or lick or nip. The equanimity, the harmony, the tranquility, the serenity in this gesture enveloped him in the solace he once denied himself.
Naruto was first to draw back. He pressed their foreheads together, freed of their protectors pronounced them as ninja of Konoha. Blue eyes searched for something in the bottomless midnight orbs flickered on and off of Sharingan while Sasuke tried to reign his emotions. A soft chuckle broke out from the younger of the two and Naruto nuzzled Sasuke's shoulder. They didn't mind and didn't even bother the fact that somewhere along the line Naruto had ended up in Sasuke's lap. Sasuke closed his eyes and placed his chin on top of the blonde head with tiny hint of a smile on his lips. Sasuke's right hand wrapped around Naruto's back and Naruto had his left hand on Sasuke's hip. Their other hands, once upon a time bore half of an ultimate sealing technique each, fingers entwined, laying on the forest floor.
Naruto's eyes shined with fondness of the memory, mesmerized by how they fitted. Naruto breathed inaudibly.
Rikudo Chibaku Tensei.
Sasuke heard anyway and a foreign noise bubbled in his chest. Naruto turned his eyes back to the Uchiha and puffed his pink tinted cheeks.
"What are you trying to seal this time? A forest elf?" Sasuke inquired teasingly. His face didn't express much of how amused he felt but the gleam in his black orbs spoke enough for two.
Naruto huffed and lifted his chin in the air haughtily, in doing so, hid his expressive eyes from Sasuke. Only to shut them tightly and shivered at the way Sasuke's hand on his back took the path of his spine and trailed up until pale fingers weaved their ways in between his blonde locks and situated his head. His breathing was noticeably uneven and his lips parted slightly. "Well?" He felt Sasuke blew in his ear and a stinging sensation hit the same appendage where Sasuke bit it. Something caught in his throat.
His eyes opened against his will. The intensity of how Sasuke observing him froze him on the spot and eradicated his defense mechanism. It was impossible now to abuse profanities, using empty threats and nonsense wording as usual to counter dangerous zones. How could a simple reminiscing lead into the dreadful confession of love when the wounds were still fresh a jolt could reopen and turned even uglier.
Despite the way his lips quivered, his voice steady with each words. He feared the upcoming changes but his mind was not clouded with doubt. Naruto was confused and got himself lost before but he had never been uncertain about what he wanted.
"I am sealing Sasuke with me."
Even they were motionless, a lone leaf didn't dare to fall off its branch for fearing of getting cut in pieces by the impenetrable barrier, crafted from numerous shimmering lines of sharp wires meant to eliminate life of every approaching attempt of anything that moved.
"Huh?" Kabuto blinked in surprise when he brought the usual tea and snack into the room. A certain person was missing and the air was oddity off. "It's rare for Naruto-kun to skip his lesson."
Not looking up from the scroll captured his interest, Orochimaru replied uncaringly, "He finished his lesson early so I gave him some time off. They would return whenever they want."
"They?" Kabuto inquired while he set the tray of food down on the table and stood to the side of Orochimaru. The older shinobi closed his scroll and reached for a steaming tea cup.
"Naruto-kun went with Sasuke-kun on his mission last night." Orochimaru sipped his tea, tittered low in his throat.
Kabuto looked puzzle from the scroll to Orochimaru. "I thought Karin said Haruno Sakura was appointed to be on that mission with Sasuke-kun?"
"And how did Karin get to know about Sasuke-kun's mission?" Orochimaru questioned without a glance in Kabuto's direction.
Something clicked.
"Haruno Sakura had made a grave mistake in her last mission, even if it was successful. Her action was against the original plan of their squad leader. She prioritized the wrong matter within her medic ninja's status. She endangered her teammates' safety by acting on her own and disregarded orders." Orochimaru elaborated, set the empty cup down and Kabuto immediately refilled it for him. "I am not interested in what she wanted to prove but that was the reason our dear Hokage removed her from Sasuke-kun's mission. Apparently he decided she was unfitted to accompany him if she acted the way she did. She tried to argue with the Hokage but Sasuke-kun told them he preferred doing it alone. And I happened to ask Naruto-kun deliver something unimportant there at that same time."
"Somehow… coincident was not just happened after all." Kabuto readjusted his glasses, a smirk appeared under the shadow of his palm and disappeared by the time he removed his hand from his face.
"There is only things looked like coincident in this world." Orochimaru's shoulders shook with his cackle, he leaned back on the couch and raised the tea cup high in the air. "Naruto-kun, you passed."
.
.
.
"The conception was simple. You are to have an understanding on how their psyche works, that way you will control over all possible feelings might lead to the kind of reaction you want to bring out from that person under the right pressure."
"So that's how to provoke someone and just like that they are easily to be effected by outside inputs or they just couldn't think the way they usually do and prompt to make mistakes without you actually participate in?" Naruto's wide eyes showed his astonishment, mouth agape.
"Isn't it how Uchiha Obito fell under Uchiha Madara's manipulation that you want to know more about?" Orochimaru eyed the younger shinobi with a knowing glint in his slit golden pupils. "Having knowledge of how it happened and how to do it do help when something of the same caliber happened to you. One of the many necessary things you would need to know to become a Hokage when the time comes."
"Urg…" Naruto looked outside and muttered darkly under his breath. "That old hag always drank sake whenever I walked in on her. Did she do that to rile others up so they would lose their mind and got drunk with her?"
A loud bang snapped his head back and Naruto was face to face with Orochimaru's head floating in front of his face connected with the body by a long neck, color drained off his complexion at the sight. A long red tongue moved with each word Orochimaru said. The frightened blond nodded his head repeatedly agreeing to whatever Orochimaru was saying about no drinking before eighteen until the neck retracted to normal length.
"Sasuke… how did you survive this hentai-hebi all that time…" Naruto dragged his cheek on the table top and whined out loud. The head once again floated back at his face. Before Orochimaru could say anything to scare the blond more, Naruto passed out on the couch.
"Now I wish you were Sakura." Sasuke raised an eyebrow, how he did the act elegantly was beyond Naruto's understanding. Could be in Uchiha's gene.
Naruto didn't look away. There was too much sarcastic. Not in Sasuke's voice, not in his face, not in his eyes because they didn't betray what the Uchiha felt when he said that. It was the mention of Sakura.
By all means, Sakura was not a taboo topic. The different ways they felt about her that mattered. Sasuke had little to none patient when it came to her. Naruto would endanger his own life for her as it was in his nature to do just that for his friends. The special spot she had in his life and his heart was shared equally with their friends. But the place Sasuke stayed in Naruto's heart was a different topic. And this one was a taboo. The same went with Sasuke when it came to him.
"What do you want me to do about it?" Sasuke sneered one fleeting moment and he narrowed his eyes at Naruto the next. "That would be what I said. It was easy to deal with her. Unlike you."
"You have to be so mean." Naruto said with a smile didn't reach his eyes.
"The sooner she woke up from her delusion," Sasuke's hand emerged from the sea of blonde hair and slid down to Naruto's cheek, his thumb brushed over the whisker-like birthmarks, "The better off her life would be."
"She already knew your answer." Naruto informed him. "It was not her fault to hope for a chance of difference."
Sasuke nodded. "It was my fault for being born in the same era as you."
Naruto snorted, he leaned into the fingers caressing his face like a feline. "Please." His tongue darted out and gave a quick lick when the tip of a thumb was close to the corner of his mouth and turned a little so his lips kissed the underside of Sasuke's palm. "Someone must stop you from taking over the world."
"I will succeed. Do it with me." Sasuke deadpanned.
"You are even worse than Madara." Naruto snipped, his bottom lip jutted out in vexation.
"Complaining already, are you?" Sasuke pinched and pulled on the whisker cheek almost painfully.
Naruto's eye twitched. His position didn't give him a good aim to swat Sasuke's hand off his face unless he detangled their joining hands, and he wouldn't. "Haaaateeee yoooouuuuu!" Naruto emphasized instead.
"Only a girl would say something so contradict to what they felt." Sasuke squeezed his hand, their fingers gripped tighter on each other.
"You are one to talk." Naruto stuck his tongue out at the Uchiha.
"True." Sasuke raised his brow again. "I said things to Sakura because I love her with all of my none-existence heart."
"Wonderful." Naruto rolled his eyes.
"I am deeply sorry a moron ran away with my equally idiotic heart." Sasuke shook his head in feigned dismay.
"That's what he said!" Naruto gasped. His hand wriggled between their bodies and slapped over his heart in mocked bewilderment.
Sasuke grunted and turned his head away from Naruto, but he only exposed his pinkish ear to hide the soft blush on his cheeks. Butterflies flapped their wings madly in his stomach and Naruto felt strangely… happy. The happy happy kind made a person giddy and couldn't stop smiling like an idiot that even Naruto was not an exception.
Yike, so cheesy. When did the air turn pink?
And wasn't this where someone usually got a kiss?
Uchiha would not be kissed, they initiated it, even if they unknowingly followed the script of a cheap opera. Control returned to him, Sasuke gazed back at Naruto and lowered his head.
"But Sasuke… I was supposed to take Karin to Ichiraku that morning!" Naruto whined, he pouted mournfully for his missed ramen treat. "Why did you have to ask someone else to switch schedule with her anyway?!"
"So that you can't eat ramen for breakfast?" Sasuke growled. The pink aura was blown away like it got hit by a storm and dark clouds were gathering over Sasuke's head with lightning to boost.
"Why do you have to be such a bastard?!" Naruto screeched, some of the words were muffled by Sasuke's hand pushed his face away. The last Uchiha in the world was still too young to be deaf by volume poisoning.
Finally opera-freed. Now, a familiar headache took over the stage. Sasuke vowed to raid Hokage tower like the terrorist he had made himself become not long ago and eradicate the word "ramen" in human history! It was by sheer luck Naruto didn't taste like ramen!
"Too much sodium is not good for your health." Sasuke asserted with disdain. "Now you don't even have to live the way you did before." He raised his voice. "Why are you still acting like I, or you, or we, can't afford to give you anything better than that?"
"It's not what I—" Naruto was about to say more but he was cut off.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "And what's wrong with me wanting to make sure you are eating properly?"
"H—hey! That was how I've been all the time!" Naruto snapped. "You didn't even care before!"
"You think it's alright to assume I don't care now?" Sasuke snarled back. "Or you did it to rile me up so we can have this conversation?! Are you satisfy now?"
"I didn't mean it that way…" Naruto trailed off, angled his head down to avoid Sasuke's harsh glare. He felt like a misbehavior child being scolded for having a snack before dinner.
Sasuke's eyes softened, he lifted Naruto's chin, raised the downcast blonde head up to look at him. "You always had my attention, doesn't matter what you do."
"I know…" Naruto admitted in a small voice, his words mixed with apprehensive Sasuke couldn't interpret. "I just…" Naruto closed his eyes and shook his head. "… Feeling stupid."
"You always are an usuratonkachi." Sasuke smirked. At the remark, Naruto jutted his bottom lip and puffed his cheeks, tried his best to glare deadly at the expert-of-glaring-art Uchiha, and failed miserably.
"Well," Naruto shot. "You always are an Uchiha bastard, teme!"
"You need to update your dictionary." Sasuke drawled, snuggled Naruto tighter in his lap. "I know mine and Itachi's father and mother, and your parents did know my parents. Your theory of me being a bastard was always invalid then, and now."
Naruto fumed and stuck his tongue at Sasuke's smug expression. Before the appendage could escape back to its warm cavern however, it was captured by a pair of pale pink lips and sucked into another warm cavern, entwined with another familiar appendage. Sasuke's cold fingers stroked the skin on his back. So lost in too many sensations, Naruto was unaware of how his clothes was leaving him one by one until his bare back was on Sasuke's own discarded ANBU undershirt.
Naruto hated and loved it when Sasuke left bite marks everywhere the Uchiha's devious mouth was moving on his body, at the same time ground their hips together, cut off Naruto's incoming protests about possessive Uchiha bastard and pulled moans and groans of pleasure out of his mouth instead.
Naruto hated and loved it when Sasuke prepared him as best as he could. Naruto needed the immense pain despite not a masochist himself, to know this was real, they were real. Sasuke was long done with wanting him hurt. His cry was swallowed at the penetration by long kisses took his mind away from the burning sensation felt like something was ripping him from inside out.
Naruto hated and loved it when Sasuke purposely missed or only grazed his prostate just so the smug bastard could hear him beg for more but, before he could say the full word "please", it was snapped in half when he screamed into the silent forest at the borderline brutal force hammered his over-sensitive hidden spot relentlessly.
Naruto hated and loved it when he felt like half an eternity had passed to be washed away in white rapture, at the same time like a blink of the eyes it ended so suddenly that he missed the rapid motions of Sasuke moving in and out of him almost immediately.
Naruto was going to hate it when he woke up in Sasuke's arms covered with dried sweat and some questionable stickiness fluid others later.
At this moment, Naruto loved it when Sasuke had not pulled out of him yet. Sasuke simply stayed where he last found his own euphoria, pulsing inside Naruto the way his heartbeat slowly calmed down after their passion. Sasuke didn't whisper some sweet nothings in Naruto's ears until the blond completely fell asleep. He held Naruto instead, let his moron know he was there and stayed awake until the usuratonkachi woke up.
"Why did you not let me go with Sasuke-kun as you previously assigned Hokage-sama!" Sakura persisted in frustration for the umpteenth times and frankly, she knew she was getting on her Hokage's nerves.
"I don't see any point in talking further. Why can't you just drop it?" Kakashi asked her. He tentatively massaged his aching temple, he never thought Sakura was a nagging type.
"But I was supposed to be going with him on this mission! You can't just replace me with Naruto because he suddenly appeared in the room and heard about it!" Sakura slammed her hands on his table to make her point, more like letting him know she was unhappy with his decision.
"Did I not repeatedly tell you the reason was because of your recent episode in not following orders and acted outside of what you were assigned of?" The Hokage raised his voice a bit, still trying to suppress his irritation at her incessant to hang on this pointless argument like her life depended on it.
"Because he was unable to understand what I can do aside from being the team's medic ninja. I could be in the front line and—"
"Was that why you left Hinata's injuries unattended because you thought you could do it instead of her?" Anger started leaking out, a memory of Obito and that fateful day flashed in Kakashi's mind eyes. He thought better of her!
"And I did! I even healed her right back after I finished her unfinished job!" Sakura claimed, almost fiercely.
"Sakura," Kakashi addressed her. He looked at her straight in the eyes with narrowed gaze, "Is there any particular reason that you wanted to be alone with Uchiha Sasuke on a mission?"
His question predictably caught her off-guard judging by how she flinched and averted her eyes from him.
Kakashi needed no further question in this matter. "Do you think this is a date?" He demanded in a statement tone. "This mission has a very high risk, even one wrong move could mean treason in both countries. That's why there couldn't be a possibility to allow many to know let alone do it. All you could think was your personal issues with Sasuke?" There was a disappointed sigh at the end of his words. Kakashi shook his head and turned his back to her. "Take a rest Sakura. And use that time to think. It's not like you to act this way." The door to his office closed and Kakashi left her alone inside. He might end up saying something he would regret later if she said any more than she had, since the moment Sasuke didn't say anything to protest when Naruto passed by, conveniently heard, and conveniently followed the flow, suggested he could go with Sasuke in her stead.
"Besides, you have always been fighting a lost battle." Kakashi whispered to himself before teleporting away to reappear at Uchiha Cemetery's entrance. He stopped in front of Uchiha Obito's grave stone. Regarding the name written on it for a while, he looked up and noticed the breaking dawn.
"He's doing well, Obito. However, he's fighting for what belongs to him with a bit of Uchiha's malice now." Kakashi chuckled humorlessly. He let out a long sigh. "I guess facing the fear of losing Sasuke several times did more damage to him than any of us could heal, except the cause himself. Well, as long no more fool planned to threaten Sasuke inside Konoha I guess Naruto still have a chance to be cured if he wants to…" Kakashi contemplated, he added, "Which I guess not."
'Isn't it irony? He saved each and every of us but the only one who could save him was none of us but Sasuke.'
End chapter.
Author's note:
If you have read this before, I am really sorry for the alert. I am on my way to rewrite the whole thing. Hopefully I can get the remaining chapters up soon before I grab my gun and shot myself.