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Chapter Two…

Eight hours in a day never seemed so significant…

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Every now and then I wondered what my life used to be, but I'm usually so busy I hardly ever get to think about it all that much and when I finally do get to sit down and lay out the pieces that I have in front of me…

The door slammed.

…Something comes up ever so suddenly.

Did anyone else but me realize just how much dramatic timing everybody actually had in the world? 'Did you hear? Jeff slept with Janet right next to his wife's suit!' and then suddenly said Janet drops her glass of wine with a stunned look on her face then holds her chest and collapses or the accused Jeff walks in with a gun to shoot whoever said that just then.
Now it may never play out so dramatically, but rest assured that someone overheard the housemaid talking to the butler or whomever and word was either going to get around or hit the mentioned people directly in the face.
Reality never whispered. Gods no! Reality sadly loves to get in ones face and roar.
Soap operas get pretty close to life but they exaggerate too much.
It's more like whenever you were a kid and you're just staring at the yummy looking piece of cake your parents just told you that you couldn't have and just when you summon the courage to reach for it with your tiny but greedy hands-the door opens and the plan ruins itself by allowing your parents to see your outstretched hands; you get scolded afterwards but it's never long before something similar happens again.
With my case, it is and never will be me wanting to sneak a snack of cake, but me wanting to unravel my past and just when I'm about ready to get down to it- maybe even barely think over it all- something happens. The something being either someone distracting me or something simply getting in the way of that.

Example A: The white haired man that just walked in and slammed the door loud enough to startle me from my thoughts.

I was looking at him now, by no will of mine; had he not pushed the door closed so forcibly he'd be no concern of mine. He hadn't noticed me yet, sitting by my lonely self at the base of the steps waiting for something fun to do. No, he was looking around at the top of the building, scanning the railings up top for the owner of the household, no doubt.

He was fairly tall. Taller than me by far. Wild white hair fell down in a funny display, but what had my attention was the brief case he was setting down.

It was put down with a thump at the edge of a wall and he made his way to where I guessed the kitchen or dining room was; I unfortunately wasn't given a tour so I had no idea. But, once he was out of sight and I could no longer hear him, I dashed for the case and thrust the thing open to see what possibly dirty dealings this Sasuke might be handling.

I felt my eyes widen as I read one of the labels to the bottled liquids.

Tranquilizers…

I licked my lips and sat the case down, ready to dig in to the items, all the while listening to see if the man was coming back.

I picked up some papers next. They were notes. Like a therapist wrote 'em. Observations.

"Believed his parents to be living until seventeen…" I squinted at the papers, not understanding. I scanned through the rest. Apparently he had a violent history. Repeatedly attacking his older brother under the assumption that the older sibling had killed his parents. Psychopathic tendencies…

I snickered.

I could handle that.

"What's so funny?"

I froze up, my head shooting up to meet the eyes of the white haired man, but I stayed cool and collected like I had been doing nothing wrong.

"So Sasuke's crazy?" I asked in a voice that implied that I had known all along.

It had me wondering if this Naruto person ever existed though.

The man frowned for a moment as he looked me over then cracked a smile when I stood up and handed him his things over with a small smirk itching to be let loose on my face.

"My name's Kyuubi." I introduced.

"Jiraiya." He said holding out his free hand for me to shake, which I did. I nodded and smiled a little. It was sometimes a nice thing to meet a new face.

"So is he crazy or not?" I asked keeping the mood light.

"No. Not entirely. Just stubborn." Jiraiya said with a smooth chuckle.

"Enough to need to be tranquilized apparently." I laughed. "But maybe that's something I shouldn't know." I knew I appeared almost smug when those words left my lips, but I never was good at fixing my own facial expressions to appear innocent when I wasn't.

"Sasuke went upstairs about thirty minutes ago. He hasn't come down yet so my guess would be that he's napping." I said, trying my best to keep it simple enough to where I could pass as the college friend or something.

"So, Kyuubi," he began and I kept my attention on him. "I didn't think Sasuke got out enough to make any friends. Where'd you two meet?" he asked. Just then I heard a door open from upstairs. I thought of the first thing that came to my mind as soon as I heard the steps coming closer.

"At a café." I answered, feeling a weird churn in my stomach at the words, but I felt a need to continue what I was saying even though I could end it right there. I knew I could stop right there…but I… "My favorite one." I explained. "He would just…always be there and we started talking one day and that was it."

I felt sick to my stomach. And for some reason Sasuke had stopped in his tracks at the top of the stairs.

"Sounds like a good romance novel." Jiraiya commented. "I could easily write something like that."

"You write?" I asked.

He nodded proudly and I smiled. "It's good you're doing something you obviously enjoy doing." I said despite my queasiness.

I looked up at where Sasuke was standing, stock still, staring at me like I was the devil but somehow not as bad.

Jiraiya followed my gaze and the tension was cut.

I wasn't sure what I had said that had earned such a look from him but well oh well.

It was like I said about the whole dramatic timing bit. I didn't lie.

I sighed when all attention went to Sasuke and away from me. I sat back down at the bottom steps and waited for something interesting to take my mind off things. The twisting in my stomach that I had felt just moments before eventually began to slowly fade away and I gave a mental sigh of relief.

--

"I told you not to talk to anyone." Sasuke snapped immediately after he shut the door on his doctor, which I assumed the white haired man was.

"He spoke to me first." I said in my own defense.

"Hn."

"I'm beginning to wonder if your jaw locks on occasion or something because that's all I hear from time to time." I mused.

All it did was earn me a glare meant for a man on death row.

Oops?

"My jaw doesn't lock." He said after a couple of seconds and I repressed a laugh.

"Oh?" My tone questioned the statement. "Then I suppose you were just ignoring me earlier and groaned just a moment ago."

He glared again but growled this time.

"So what do you need a therapist for? I knew rich folk were lonely and some need to vent issues but you don't seem the type to open up. I mean," I snickered again and crossed my arms as he faced me. "with your locking jaw and all."

He grit his teeth.

"I'd feel a little embarrassed talking to one. Like what would happen? Is there some random pause in the middle of a sob story that he has to wait through?" I laughed at this.

He however…

Well he found my humor to be in bad taste at this point in time. It wasn't long before I was pushed up against the nearest wall with his hands at my throat.

"Look," he spat. "I don't want you here. I don't need you here. You're nothing but a worthless, disgusting piece of shit and all I want right now is for you to shut the fuck up and stay out of my fucking business."

"Wow." I mocked. "Three complete sentences."

He snarled and threw me to the ground.

It didn't hurt. Not that much…

And I didn't give him the satisfaction of seeing me with a cut down pride.

He stood very still and I pushed myself off the ground with a smirk.

"Alright, Uchiha." I said. "Rules say that I can't fight back with a paying customer. But since you're not…" I cracked my knuckles and stood up straight. "Don't think I don't have a history either."

I took a step, ready to crouch like an animal about to pounce but just then- right when my muscles screamed to be let go- I stopped and an image of a rotting corpse with its eye hanging from its socket threw itself in my mind's eye and I stumbled back like an idiot.
I was capable of ripping this man apart with my bare hands if I wanted to but… The next image was that of the crying boy.
The boy had stopped me and stayed my hand.
His mouth formed a name…I mirrored the action.

"What?"

I snapped out of it.

"What do you want?" Sasuke asked.

I blinked… I was…still on the ground? But I had…

"You just said my name- what do you want?"

No. I hadn't… Right?

I shook my head and pushed myself off the ground slowly.

What happened?

"Sorry." I said barely above a whisper. "Sorry."

I sat on my knees for a while and looked up at him with earnest eyes. "I'm sorry." But I didn't know why.

There was a silence and I knew he was probably questioning my apology as well. I looked away and fiddled with my fingers.

"I know you don't have a locking jaw…"

And the tension was cut, but my confusion was thicker than ever.

--

"So were you and Naruto like…really close friends or something?" I asked sitting on the edge of his bed, holding my feet together in a sitting position similar to the butterfly stretch. He was seated a good distance away on the same bed just the opposite corner.

I was only up here because he didn't want to risk anyone else he knew seeing me now.

Wasn't that special?

He looked off to the side. "No."

I was surprised he was going to talk to me, but hey it was a start.

"We were more like…potential lovers."

"Oh." I nodded then grinned. "What happened? He didn't want to part his legs for you?"

He glared at me for a moment before looking back to the ground and sighing a little. "He disappeared."

I quieted. "My brother took him away from me and sold him to Madara two years ago. I didn't find out until two weeks ago when my brother found out I even knew the boy." He explained and suddenly I felt bad for the raven.

"We never had anybody by the name of Naruto where I work." I said, knowing I'd be killing any sort of hope he had. "And the only blonde we've got is Deidei and I highly doubt it's him you're after. He's only got one eye, you know and no one's ever bought him for more than a week."

"I don't care about anyone else." Sasuke said, basically telling me he didn't want to hear about my life style.

I sighed. "Madara could have sold him off to someone, you know? Two years is enough to get that done over night."

He stayed quiet. Listening maybe, but definitely thinking. "And sometimes we get name changes." I offered. "Madara-san'll change appearances too if he feels it'll help the sells more."

I watched Sasuke's hands ball into fists.

He didn't want to hear what we did. Didn't want to know what might've happened to his Naruto; hearing that strangers got to fill his golden boy up with themselves a hundred times over until he screamed… Didn't need to know…just needed to save him from it all. How lucky…

"I wish there was someone like you out there looking for me." I said quietly but I could tell he heard me from the way he so quickly turned to look at me just then.

"I mean you seem extremely determined to find him."

"I promised I'd save him." Sasuke answered and I shut myself up.

I didn't have anyone out there looking for me. I was desired…but not in the way I wanted or needed. Just the way I deserved to be.

We both fell into a silence similar to that of sleeping people.

"I bet he's got a lot of faith in you." I muttered.

I'd put mine in him anyway.

"You think…maybe…" I nibbled on my bottom lip. "If you can't find him…you can settle for saving me instead?"

He looked at me as I looked at him for a long and hard five minutes.

He didn't answer me.

I didn't and couldn't blame him for that.

--

After my little episode, I wasn't sure if I was actually saying or doing the things I thought I was so every so often…I'd check.

I touched the light bulb of a lamp that had been on for several hours with my wrist, burned myself and said ouch… then checked if the burn was still there five minutes afterwards…then went and asked Sasuke if he could see it, which he could so I walked off. When he came back I asked if it was still there and he had this weird but confused face and simply said, "Yes, Kyuubi, you've still proven you're an idiot by burning yourself."

I tired the 'Hn' but I didn't like the feel of it.

It sounded more like a groan anyway so I settled for that instead.

Later (about twenty minutes or so) I told Sasuke that I never got to watch t.v. much and asked if he could take me to the movies, and then he told me no.
So I made sure that I even asked about four more times and by the fifth try he yelled that he wasn't ever going to the theatre again because of a bad experience with the popcorn and some pervert next to him.
I blinked and then proceeded to laugh… And just kept reminding him about it later.

Quite frankly, it was plain to see that the man was getting rather upset with me.

So I stopped with my experimenting, but that didn't mean I wasn't worried about it.

"Sasuke," I started to say but he quickly cut me off.

"For the umpteenth time! Yes, I see the burn! No, we're not going to the movies! And don't you bring up that old man again!"

I scoffed. "I just wanted to know the time."

"We still have five hours." Sasuke answered but I smirked and he quirked an eyebrow at me.

"That's not what I was asking." I chuckled. "But it's nice to know that you care enough to dread the last hours with me."

Though I knew very well that's not why he was keeping the time. He was just waiting to get rid of me.

--

"Why'd you say that we met at a café?" Sasuke asked me nearly out of the blue.

Really, I was just flipping through some old magazines I found in one of the back rooms. Most had been porn's but what did I care? I didn't need to see any one of those so I settled for grabbing the lot to look at 'em all later. Haha!

I glanced up from my current zine and thought back on what he was talking about. When it struck me, I shrugged.

"First thing I thought of. Why?" I asked curious.

"Naruto and I met that way…sort of." He said and I felt that churn in my stomach begin once more.

"Oh." I managed. "Well that's pretty neat. Talk about hitting the nail on the head. Sorry though. I didn't know." I went back to my viewing.

"That one in the corner is him."

"Hm?" I looked back up at him and he leaned over the back of the couch where I was sitting and placed a pale, cold finger on the picture on the contents page of a blonde haired boy about sixteen with blue eyes.

I turned my head a tiny smidge to get the angle of his face.

He wasn't bad looking but I didn't find him to be in my taste.

"He used to be a porn star?" I asked, interested.

He nodded and brought his hand back to him.

This news brought some hope to me. Because if he could fall for someone who was in a category close to mine then he could certainly swing in my direction.

"Do you work for the police station here?" I asked, looking over my shoulder and folding the magazine in my lap. He shook his head and his eyes looked distant for second.

"My father used to."

My mouth formed an 'o' but that was it. I didn't know what to say.

"So you've got connections." I concluded and he didn't dignify my guess with an answer so I just assumed my assumption correct. "What were the papers?"

"Naruto's history." He stated simply. I nodded at this, not sure what I could say, but me and my mouth always found something to do. But it didn't have to this time. "Madara has to know something about him. He was in Naruto's life before. Worked the same business that you're in right now. So he has to. He just has to."

The raven's determination matched mine and so I smiled when I turned away from his view. It was too bad for Naruto that I now wanted this love struck raven all to myself. God, truly forsake me the day I can't win him over. I had eight days to complete my self governed mission and only eight precious hours to get it done… Eight hours never did appear so significant.

Like…Damn.

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End Chapter Two!

Ugh! Took forever…. Please review. Let me know I'm doing okay here yo