Author's Note: Hi, loves. Sorry this is late. The holidays came so suddenly, my schedule was unexpectedly thrown off and I hadn't the time to write up the next installment. Hope the slightly longer chapter makes up for it a little. I'm working on the next chapter as we speak (err, read), so we should be resuming the normal upload schedule (every Saturday).
This chapter got me a bit teary-eyed toward the end, and I hope you're able to feel the anguish the way our brunet and blond doves do!
When Naruto's wakeup alarm sounded on his phone at six-thirty, he let out a long groan and reached over to the device on his night stand to dismiss it. He was exhausted; after Sasuke's unannounced visit the previous night, Naruto still had to shower and get ready for bed. By the time he rolled into his covers, it was nearing two in the morning.
He certainly didn't regret the conversation he had with Sasuke, but...he definitely wished the timing had been a little more convenient. The whole week he hadn't had a decent night's sleep, awake into the wee hours thinking about Sasuke, so his bad sleeping schedule caught up to him in full force. If he'd stayed up any other night, Naruto probably wouldn't be dreading the thought of waking up, but since he was going to be chaperoning for a good part of the day, he was going to need more than his usual cup of coffee. At least one more cup than usual. Or two. God, he was tired.
Naruto forced himself out of bed and grabbed the outfit he laid out for himself on his chair the night before, opting for a more casual outfit for the day with a maroon sweater and dark blue jeans. As he dressed himself with his eyes nearly closed, Naruto tiredly thought back on the conversation he'd had with Sasuke. He'd done most of the talking last night, which felt like he was explaining himself, as if he owed Sasuke something, but he couldn't lie to himself that it'd felt liberating to tell someone about how ridiculous his situation was (even if that someone was Sasuke). Naruto hadn't even gone into the full scope of his past year even with Iruka, not wanting to unintentionally place him into any danger by knowing too much.
But with Sasuke, it was different. It wasn't that Naruto wanted to endanger the man (Sasuke was more than capable of taking care of himself), but he felt...safe with sharing all that information with Sasuke. And he felt inexplicably better after seeing that flicker of understanding in Sasuke's eyes.
Naruto shook that thought from his mind as he dressed and readied breakfast of toast with almond butter, a banana, and a mug of black coffee. He was ready to leave his apartment by six-fifty, which gave him more than enough time to hop into his car and drive over to the Shimura household by five after seven.
He unlocked the door to the house, and the blond loudly stomped his way to Konohamaru's bedroom as a warning that he was coming. When he knocked on the kid's room, Naruto barely gave it two seconds before he barged in.
"Field trip today!" Naruto yelled, rousing the bundle of blankets from slumber.
Konohamaru was always difficult to wake in the morning, even on days that involved field trips. The kid let out an unintelligible sound from under his blankets, acknowledging Naruto's announcement and indicating he was on his way to waking.
But the normal Konohamaru "wake up process" was far too slow for a day like today. Naruto cupped his hands around his mouth, creating a makeshift megaphone.
"It's time to get up, Kono. We're going to see the elephants, the lions, the penguins! Aren't you excited?"
Naruto grabbed one end of the blanket and pulled it off Konohamaru in one strong move. In reaction, the brown-haired kid groaned and reached around him for the blanket blindly, eyes still closed. Konohamaru opened his eyes and half-glared at Naruto, his hair all a mess.
"Okay, I got it. I'm awake. I'm getting ready."
Once Konohamaru swung his legs over the edge of his bed to get up, Naruto told him to find him in the kitchen. The kid simply groaned and shuffled into his bathroom to wash up.
The blond made his way through the large house and into the kitchen. It was a particularly nice kitchen with the latest appliances in steel finish and sleek-looking grey concrete countertops. He rummaged through the drawers for a proper-sized pot and started up some oatmeal for Konohamaru and Danzo. Some mornings he would cook a whole breakfast of eggs, bacon, and sometimes waffles or pancakes, but this was not one of those mornings. Naruto started up the coffee maker as well, already feeling like he was going to need a second cup.
When Danzo came into the kitchen, still in his forest green robes and dark blue pajamas, Naruto greeted him and served him up a bowl of oatmeal, setting some brown sugar, granola, dried cranberries, and walnuts as choices for toppings. Danzo simply spooned a bit of brown sugar into his portion. After Danzo spooned his first bite, Naruto set down a mug of black coffee for him.
The blond usually didn't interact all that much with Danzo in the mornings, or ever, really, even if he did make the man breakfast every weekday. He was glad that the routine hadn't changed, especially after Danzo had not-so-subtly threatened him the other day. Naruto wordlessly poured himself some coffee, opting for some milk and sugar. He sipped at it as he leaned on the island counter, perpendicular to Danzo's seat, quietly looking through his phone for texts from his friends They wanted to plan a get-together sometime soon in Konoha, to which Naruto responded "abso-fucking-lutely" to.
After what felt like an eternity of Danzo silently eating breakfast while Naruto focused on his phone, Konohamaru finally emerged. Normally, he'd dress in his school uniform but since it was a field trip, the kids were allowed a little more freedom. The kid had decided on khaki shorts, a yellow t-shirt, a blue scarf, and…a pair of goggles?
"What are the goggles for?" Naruto asked, glancing over at Danzo who didn't seem to care about the boy's interesting outfit.
Konohamaru grinned, jabbing his thumb at his chest proudly, "I'm going to go swimming with the dolphins!"
Naruto had to fight the grin that threatened to pull his lips upward and put his hands on his hips.
"And if security stops you?" Naruto asked.
Without faltering, the kid replied, "They won't even notice me! I'll be slick—like a ninja!"
To their surprise, Danzo let out a laugh through his oatmeal. Konohamaru whipped his head over to his dad, large grin in place as he puffed his chest out. Meanwhile, Naruto nearly choked on his spit; he'd never even heard Danzo speak happily, so the joyous sound coming from the man was both terrifying and...warming?
But despite Naruto's obvious start, Danzo spoke direct to Konohamaru, playful glint still in his eye, "Don't get any ideas, Kono. You give Naruto enough trouble as it is."
Then Danzo paused, looking thoughtful, and reached into his robe to hand over a few bills to Konohamaru.
"For souvenirs. Bring something home for me, okay?"
Konohamaru all but snatched the bills from his father's hand and stuffed it into his cargo pocket by his left knee, snapping it shut.
"Got it, pops. Naruto! Let's go swimming with the dolphins!"
Naruto tilted his head, hands still on his hips and raising his eyebrow in silent admonishment. Konohamaru sheepishly rubbed the back of his head and turned to his father.
"Thanks, pops. I'll make sure to bring you something cool."
Danzo simply ruffled Konohamaru's hair and watched as the kid flashed him one last smile and bounded out the kitchen. Naruto sighed, running his fingers through his hair.
"You have a good handle on him, Naruto," Danzo said.
In the year he'd worked for Danzo, other than the first time he'd met the man, Naruto never received any compliment on his work. Danzo seemed relatively at ease this morning.
"Well, I won't lie—Konohamaru's hard to handle sometimes, but he reminds me of myself," Naruto admitted with a smile.
Before either could further the conversation, Konohamaru popped his head back into the kitchen.
"Narutooooo," Konohamaru whined, "we're gonna be late! Stop flirting with my old man and let's go!"
At that, Naruto let out an indignant, "flirting?!", while Danzo gruffed out, "old man?" The blond was absolutely pink with embarrassment; he was certainly not flirting with his boss! Danzo was more than twice his age, which was OLD, and—and—
"He's right. You should head out," Danzo said, cutting through Naruto's panic and waving his hand to send them off.
Naruto nodded, quickly getting over his embarrassment and focusing himself. Clearly, Danzo hadn't taken Konohamaru's comment seriously at all.
"All right, brat, let's go," Naruto said, herding Konohamaru out the house and to his car.
. . . . .
As Danzo watched the blond leave with his adoptive son, he leaned forward in his seat, propping his elbows onto the counter and lacing his fingers in thought. He appreciated Naruto's energy and ability to wrangle Konohamaru, but that wasn't why he'd been in a good mood.
The man had woken at five o'clock to a call from one of his men who'd successfully re-routed a ballistics shipment that was for the Uchihas. Despite the early call, he was delighted to hear that it had worked. It was more of a test to see how distracted Sasuke was, how sloppy he'd get if given the right distraction.
And Naruto was proving to be a very useful distraction.
Danzo wasn't stupid; when Sasuke was completely focused, he was a man to be reckoned with. However, he realized—you take that focus away, and Sasuke's just a man. Because Sasuke was so preoccupied with other aspects of his life, he overlooked the quality of the men assigned to oversee the shipment. Sasuke was not as infallible as many others thought him to be, which meant that Danzo just needed to play his cards right to get what he wanted.
The prospect of taking over the Uchiha family and essentially forcing his way into the Akatsuki syndicate sent delightful shivers through Danzo.
oooOOooo
"Fuuuuuck," Naruto said under his breath as he ran past the elephants exhibit.
The blond was in some deep shit; after what was mostly a smooth field trip to the zoo, just as the kids were rounding up in the gift shop and heading to the buses, Naruto discovered Konohamaru was missing from the group of what was supposed to be twenty-two kids.
Mr. Daikoku Funeno, the class's teacher, insisted Naruto head off in search of the missing kid while he and Natsushi Takano, the mother of Moegi Takano and the other chaperone, herded the kids to the bus. Naruto gave Daikoku his thanks before rushing off to retrace their steps; he had no other leads as to where Konohamaru might've gone.
Of course, Naruto had first tried Konohamaru's cellphone, but much to his dismay his call had been immediately redirected to voicemail. He had also tried checking the bathrooms by the gift shop as well, finding no one there except a man who Naruto startled when the blond called out Konohamaru's name.
Naruto grit his teeth as he ran past the gorillas, stopping at the nearby intersection to look down each road, hoping to spot that familiar yellow shirt and khakis.
But there was no sign of him.
"Come on, Kono," Naruto said quietly but tensely after he tried to call Konohamaru's phone again.
As Naruto started off his search again, his mind raced to the worst case scenario. What if Konohamaru wasn't just lost? He was the kid of a mob boss; if any rival family wanted to screw with Danzo, all they had to do was dig for some information and find an easy time and place to grab Konohamaru.
Naruto felt his heartbeat speed up again at the thought, his breathing becoming shallow. The image of Konohamaru being hauled off by some thugs made him feel sick. He was just a kid. Did any of the mafia have any honor? If they would stoop low enough to kidnap kids, what was stopping them from harming them? The blond's stomach churned.
It was all his fault that Konohamaru was in trouble; if only Naruto had been paying attention to the doors in the gift shop, he would've noticed the boisterous, brown-haired kid leaving the shop. Even if he was only stepping outside for a moment, at least Naruto would know where he was supposed to be.
But his lack of sleep had worn him, and Naruto had negligently rested his eyes as he leaned against the wall by one of the shop entrances. He'd failed in keeping Konohamaru safe.
"Naruuuuutooo!"
At the call of his name, Naruto snapped his head to the right and skidded mid-run to change his trajectory towards the unmistakably bright outfit and goggles. When the blond neared Konohamaru, he was breathing hard, his hands on his hips.
"Kono, what the hell?" Naruto hissed, rubbing at the side stitch forming.
Just as the blond was about to begin lecturing Konohamaru, the kid held out a lidded paper cup. Naruto paused and stared at it.
"It's for you," Konohamaru said, realizing that he was definitely in trouble.
Konohamaru pushed the cup of cold coffee into Naruto's hand and put his hands into the pockets of his cargo shorts.
"They ran out of coffee at the place by the gift shop," Konohamaru explained, "And I remembered there was another place selling coffee by the bears, so I went there but didn't realize how long it was going to take me. Then I got lost getting back and my phone ran out of battery since I was taking pictures all day. I'm sorry, Naruto. You seemed really tired all day, and I wanted to get you coffee before we left."
The earnest, remorseful expression on Konohamaru's face immediately melted away all of Naruto's resolve to reprimand him. The kid had only wandered off for Naruto's sake, and that sentiment was touching.
"Oh," was all Naruto could manage, looking at the coffee cup in his hand and back to Konohamaru.
Then Naruto recollected himself and sighed, "Okay. The others are on the bus already. Let's make our way out of here."
Naruto and Konohamaru headed back to the entrance together, and Naruto called Daikoku to inform him that he'd found Konohamaru. Daikoku sounded relieved, and when they finally made their way to the yellow bus, Daikoku was standing outside, arms crossed over his chest.
"You had us all worried, kid," Daikoku said as he ruffled Konohamaru's hair, sending his goggles out of place.
Konohamaru looked sorry, but not quite as much so as when he apologized to Naruto earlier.
"Sorry, teach. Didn't mean to scare ya."
"I know," Daikoku said, his arms still crossed and face stern, "But you walked off without permission. You broke one of the rules of the field trip, and for that, you're going to spend lunch every day for the next month with me."
If Konohamaru looked sorry before, he looked even sorrier now. But instead of arguing, the kid just nodded and accepted his fate.
"Okay. I'm sorry for breaking the rules."
Daikoku considered Konohamaru for a few moments, then the expression on his face softened and he uncrossed his arms to ruffle the kid's hair again.
"Let's get on the bus and head home. Make sure you apologize to your classmates for keeping them, okay?"
There were no other words needed for Konohamaru to climb onto the bus and greet the other kids sheepishly. Daikoku didn't make any move to climb aboard, and so Naruto waited; the teacher looked like he wanted to have a few words with him.
When Daikoku finally turned his attention to Naruto, the expression on his face was a mix of serious and reverent. Naruto wasn't sure how to hold himself under that stare, so he held his cold cup of coffee awkwardly with one hand, shoving his other hand into his pocket.
"I'm sorry, Daikoku," Naruto apologized and lifted his cup, "Konohamaru only ran off to get me this but got lost on the way back."
Silence passed between Naruto and the teacher. Naruto could offer nothing else and waited for Daikoku to say his piece.
"Before Konohamaru came to my class," Daikoku said, getting Naruto's attention, "the other teachers warned me about him. They all said he was a prankster, a disruption to class. Mrs. Shirakuno practically begged me to take him in my class instead."
Naruto tried to say something, but Daikoku held up his hand to stop him. The blond shut his mouth, though he felt annoyance eating at him; he knew the feeling of being disliked by adults all too well. But he allowed Daikoku to continue.
"I understand Konohamaru has had a difficult time dealing with the loss of his grandfather, so I was ready to do whatever I could to help him out of that. As a teacher, it's partly my responsibility. But from the first day he stepped foot into my class, Konohamaru was never the troublemaker everyone made him out to be. And after seeing the way he cares about you, it's even clearer to me now that you're the reason."
The blond rubbed the back of his head, unsure of how to Daikoku's compliment to him.
"You give me too much credit," Naruto finally replied, "If anyone did anything good, it was Konohamaru; he's the one who decided to change his behavior. I've just been me."
Daikoku nodded, a smile building on his face, "True, but I've seen the way you handled the kids today; you didn't even have to try and they loved you. Konohamaru is lucky."
Naruto smiled wordlessly, unsure of what to say. But Daikoku broke the silence and clapped him on the shoulder.
"Let's get these kids back home, huh?"
As Daikoku stepped up onto the bus, Naruto stopped him.
"What about the school? Won't you get in trouble for being late?"
"Don't worry, Natsushi called the school to let them know one of our students ran into some...issues. Made it seem like it was a minor medical emergency. So we should be okay."
With that, the teacher climbed aboard and Naruto followed behind him. As the blond took his seat, he listened to Konohamaru telling the other kids how he had found his way "into the lion's den and lived to tell the tale!" Naruto smiled, eyes trained on the window as he rested his head against the glass.
Within a few minutes, Naruto was sound asleep.
oooOOooo
Everything was fine and well with the school; they bought the story that Konohamaru had run off to the bathroom after his stomach disagreed with him. The other parents were worried, but no one was angry at the late arrival.
Even though the day went smoothly, all things considered, Naruto felt on edge as he drove Konohamaru home. Facing Danzo would be a totally different beast.
Danzo had expected Konohamaru home at four o'clock, the latest, but it was already closing in on six o'clock. Naruto had forgotten to call Danzo to update him on their timeline to arrive at the house, and it wasn't until he woke up on the bus that he did so. It was already half past four by that point, and Danzo gave no emotion away when he gave him the update.
Naruto performed poorly in keeping Konohamaru safe. He was exhausted and unfocused, leading to negligent care. The blond knew Danzo didn't take Konohamaru's safety lightly, and if Danzo knew Naruto was not putting his one-hundred percent into taking care of Konohamaru, the mafia boss would certainly make good on his threat to replace him.
For the entire ride Naruto said nothing, his nerves eating at him, and Konohamaru held his tongue as well. When they rolled up the driveway to the front of the house, Danzo was waiting outside the front door, a glass of amber liquid in his hand. The man was dressed in his suit, having likely just arrived home from work.
The pair exited the car and stood in front of Danzo side by side quietly. Despite his uncharacteristic energy in the morning, he seemed to be in no mood for pleasantries now.
"Explain to me why you're over two hours late."
Though Naruto had rehearsed in his head what he was going to say to Danzo, he froze up. He parted his lips, jaw moving but no words coming out of his mouth.
"When Naruto wasn't looking, I ran off to the bathrooms and got lost on the way back. It took them almost an hour to find me. I told you I was a ninja!" Konohamaru said energetically, then his expression became remorseful, "And I got a month of lunch detention from Mr. Funeno."
Naruto was ready to give himself in, ready to tell his employer about his negligence and face the consequences, but Konohamaru had stepped in before he could do so. The blond held his tongue, not wanting to lie but also not wanting to reveal that Konohamaru was covering for him. Besides, he could have sworn he saw Danzo's lip twitch at the ninja comment. Surely Danzo wouldn't be that mad if Konohamaru took the fall?
"What did I tell you about causing Naruto trouble?" Danzo said gruffly, frowning at his son.
"Yeah, I know. I already told him sorry," Konohamaru said, to which Naruto nodded, "And I'm sorry, pops. I, uh, got you these."
The kid reached into his pocket and pulled out a bunch of small animal figurines. He opened up Danzo's free hand and pressed the plastic menagerie into his father's hand.
"I couldn't find a dolphin one, but I hope you like the rest of 'em."
Danzo looked down at the plastic figures in his hand and gave Konohamaru a small smile before putting them into his pants pocket.
"Thanks, son."
Naruto stepped forward, sorry for interrupting their nice father-son moment. But his nerves were wearing on him and he needed to remove himself from Danzo's presence.
"Kono, let's bring you to your room. I'm sure both you and your father are tired after a long day."
The trio stepped into the house and Danzo bid Naruto good evening before he went off to his study, leaving Naruto and Konohamaru. The pair went upstairs to Konohamaru's room, and when they were safely in the kid's bedroom, Naruto shut the door behind them.
"You covered for me," Naruto stated, crossing his arms over his chest.
It wasn't that he was ungrateful—in fact, he was extremely grateful. But Konohamaru had willingly thrown himself under the bus, so to speak. Thinking back to Daikoku's words and what Konohamaru was like when he first met him, it was clear how much Konohamaru had changed.
Konohamaru walked over to his bed and threw himself down onto it, staring up at the ceiling.
"I know," he replied simply.
"Why?"
"Because," he said, staring at the ceiling and refusing to look over at Naruto, "my dad gets kind of...scary with stuff like that. I doubt you'd know, but the last few people who took care of me, when they messed up, even when it was something small, they'd...disappear."
With those last chilling words coming from Konohamaru, the kid sat up and looked at Naruto. The blond gulped, trying not to think about what would have happened to him if he had told Danzo the truth.
"Oh," was all he could manage. Yet again, Naruto was rendered speechless.
Konohamaru stood up from his bed, looking off to the side as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"I mean, it wasn't even a big deal, me running off. But you were going to make it seem like it was completely your fault, and that would have definitely made my dad mad. It's not like I lied, like the way Mr. Funeno did to the school," Konohamaru said, grinning when Naruto's face paled a little, "But anyway, I like having you around, so..."
Naruto smiled and reached forward to bring Konohamaru into a bone-crushing hug. The kid was right; Naruto was ready to make it seem like it was all his fault, but it hadn't exactly been—not completely, anyway. Sure, Naruto should be taking better care of himself and getting more sleep so he'd be more attentive, but Konohamaru was the one who ran off without a word. They were both in the wrong.
When Naruto finally let go of Konohamaru, he grinned at him.
"Thanks, Kono. You saved my ass back there."
"Yeah, well, you would've done the same for me," Konohamaru mumbled, his face turning slightly pink.
After Naruto forced Konohamaru into another reluctant hug, they wished each other goodnight and Naruto left the Shimura household to head home.
The whole way home, however, the whole barrage of thoughts entered his mind, keeping him on edge even as he changed out of his clothes and into pajamas.
How much did Konohamaru know about Danzo's dealings? His family business?
oooOOooo
"Fuck."
Sasuke threw his phone down onto the Burmese rosewood desk before rounding it to take a seat in the plush leather chair. He crossed his legs and clenched his fists, nails digging into his palms as he grit his teeth.
The day had been a nightmare; though he'd gone to bed soothed from his visit to Naruto the night prior, Sasuke had had quite a surprise when he woke to find that the ballistics shipment he'd been waiting months for had been stolen en route to their warehouse in the industrial part of Konoha. Kakashi had only been informed of the situation on the drive over, and he was the unfortunate soul who had to break the news to Sasuke.
They were on their way to Centennial Park—the industrial area of Konoha the locals nicknamed, "Centen". Sasuke was lost in thought as he stared out the window, his mind stuck on thoughts of his ex-lover. He only vaguely noticed Kakashi take a call as the man drove the black luxury sedan to the other side of town, and it wasn't until Sasuke picked up on Kakashi's tense tone that he perked his attention to his right-hand man.
"Sir," Kakashi said, turning his head ever so slightly as he ended the call on his Bluetooth earpiece, "the shipment never made it to Centen."
"What?" Sasuke snapped.
Had it been anyone else in Sasuke's employ, the man might have squirmed at his boss's sharp tone. But Kakashi was more than capable at keeping a cool head.
"The team in charge of receiving the shipment reported the truck failed to arrive at six-thirty."
"And they didn't think to inform me then?" Sasuke asked, coming closer and closer to losing his calm.
"I don't know, sir," Kakashi replied, "But they wanted to inform you that they found the bodies of the men who were supposed to be on the truck; each of the five men had been shot in the head and dragged off the side of the road twenty minutes outside Konoha."
Sasuke clenched his fist, his mind working on the details of the shipment. Five men were on that shipment, which should have been more than enough—
"Who were the five men?" Sasuke asked, fearing he already knew the reason why that team had been taken out.
"Monju, Seito, Komaza, Guruko, and Yakku, sir."
Sasuke stared out the window, letting the names sink in.
As they pulled up to the warehouse, Sasuke straightened his tie and addressed Kakashi, pulling any emotion out of his voice, "When you have a moment, please contact the men's families and see to their funeral arrangements."
"Yes, sir."
Sasuke sat back in his chair, shutting his eyes and cursing under his breath. The five men on the shipment run were all newbies, and Sasuke only vaguely remembered going over the assignments the week prior. It was clear Sasuke hadn't thought the team through, and he put them all in needless danger.
He was getting sloppy, and it was uncharacteristic of him.
If he wanted to be honest, the mafia boss was letting Naruto affect him more than he should. Sasuke didn't even want to think about what other mistakes he'd made in the past few weeks, but after having essentially killed five of his men, he needed to double-check his work from the past few weeks. He wasn't about to let another mistake happen.
On top of the funeral arrangements, Sasuke assigned Kakashi to oversee the investigation of the missing ballistics shipment. It was of the utmost importance for the Uchiha family to understand who had re-routed their supplies, to discover the pieces of shit that decided to try their luck.
Sasuke took the rest of the day to go over his work in the offices on the second floor of the Centen warehouse, identifying a few additional points in upcoming jobs that could stand to use some improvement. By the time he let himself take a break from poring over pages upon pages of job details, it was well past the end of the business day. He stood up from his desk and stretched.
Despite his men having walked into their deaths earlier in the day, Sasuke couldn't help himself and let his weary mind finally wander to thoughts about Naruto. He hoped the blond had fared well chaperoning the class trip to the zoo. Sasuke took a moment to send off a quick text to ask Naruto how the day went.
When the mafia boss left his office and stepped into the adjoining office where Kakashi was, the silver-haired man looked up from the paperwork on his desk. Sasuke didn't need to say a word as Kakashi stood and began to report his updates.
"All the families have been contacted, and funeral arrangements have been made. I've scheduled you to attend their wakes: Yakku's tomorrow morning, Monju's in the afternoon, and Komaza's in the evening. The following day will be Guruko's in the morning and Seito's in the evening.
"And in investigating the missing shipment from this morning," Kakashi said as he handed one of the manila folders from his desk over to Sasuke, "These images were pulled from one of the traffic cams just outside of Konoha by Yamanaka Station. The truck was last seen pulling into one of the parking garages there at about six-thirty this morning, but no reports of it leaving."
Sasuke opened the manila folder and inspected the grainy photos. Sure enough, it was the truck he and the ballistics supplier from Kumo inspected a few weeks back, when their deal was struck. But the photos were far too grainy for him to tell who exactly was driving the truck at the time it pulled into the parking garage.
"Thank you, Kakashi. If there's time tomorrow, we'll have to pay the Yamanaka's a visit. In the meantime, let's return to the mansion."
Kakashi gave an acknowledging nod and locked up the office, the pair of them stopping by to check up on the men in the warehouse, before they headed back back to the Uchiha household for the night.
oooOOooo
When Naruto's phone chimed at the arrival of a text, the blond roused from his prostrate position and grabbed at the device on the coffee table before sitting up on the couch.
'How was the zoo?'
Even with the innocuous question, Naruto couldn't help when his heart beat a little faster and his stomach did a little flip. For whatever reason, he was nervous to answer Sasuke's question.
Should he tell him the truth?
The thought of getting lectured by Sasuke (which happened more than a few times when they were younger), or worse yet, being pitied by the man, made Naruto queasy. He'd shared his story about Konohamaru already, so what was one more update to his fucked up story?
Even so, Naruto bit his tongue as he thought about being forthcoming with Sasuke. Though Sasuke seemed attentive during their conversation last night, the brunet also had yet to share anything from their years apart. In fact, Sasuke seemed to take special care to make no mention of his work, all for Naruto's sake.
But what did that mean for the both of them, if Sasuke was willing to be involved with Naruto's business but Naruto wasn't willing to reciprocate?
Since their reunion, Naruto had been somewhat thankful that Sasuke avoided talking about work; it would have definitely pissed off the blond if they talked about anything work-related the first one or two times they met up. But now? After Sasuke was willing to listen and learn about Naruto's own going-ons with Danzo and his kid? Naruto wasn't sure if they could realistically maintain any kind of close relationship if Sasuke always had to censor himself. It wouldn't be fair to the brunet.
Given their complicated situation, however, perhaps it would be better if they just remained acquaintances.
'Zoo was fine,' he texted back, then sent another message to be polite, 'How was your day?'
. . . . .
Sasuke was walking into the house when Naruto finally replied to his text. He sighed at the curt text, then sighed again at the follow-up text.
The mafia boss knew Naruto was trying to hold him at arm's length.
When they were younger, even on a mundane day, Naruto could go on and on about how his day went. So to receive the short, three-worded message like that, left Sasuke yearning.
He was trying his best to keep Naruto around, and the best he was getting was lukewarm acknowledgment. With how deeply he felt about the blond, it was no wonder why he was getting distracted. Naruto was vexing, and Sasuke could not easily grapple his emotions for him.
As he moved to his room to change out of his suit, Sasuke sighed the whole way. He wanted to keep Naruto around, but when the blond would ask how his day was, how was he supposed to respond without pissing him off? If Sasuke told the truth, Naruto would be mad. But if Sasuke lied, or kept things vague, they would hardly be able to call each other friends.
'Difficult day at work. Sounds like your day went much better than mine,' Sasuke texted.
Sasuke couldn't explain the knot in his stomach that formed as he stared at his message exchange with Naruto. How were they supposed to even be friends if he couldn't share with the blond his troubles? As the minutes ticked by, the mafia boss couldn't help but think about how much he'd have to keep from Naruto to avoid getting the other upset.
Perhaps it would be better if they were nothing more than friends.
. . . . .
Naruto half-scoffed and half-sighed as he stared at Sasuke's response, then he stood up from the couch and headed to the kitchen to start on dinner. Of course Sasuke couldn't say much. Other than pissing off Naruto, the blond worked for Danzo, the Uchiha family's enemy.
Danzo was definitely not a man to be trifled with. Even Konohamaru understood that, which was why he'd taken the fall for his disappearance at the zoo. And since he left the Shimura household just a few hours prior, all Naruto could think about was how much knowledge Konohamaru had about his adoptive father's business.
How much did Sasuke know when they were kids?
It wasn't until Naruto was finished draining a small pot of elbow pasta that he set his cooking aside and mustered enough courage to text Sasuke.
'How old were you when you found out about the family business?'
. . . . .
Sasuke lay in bed, stripped down to only a pair of deep maroon boxer briefs, as he stared at his phone. He couldn't fathom what line of thought Naruto was following to spur that question out of him. Something was weighing on the blond.
Instead of racking his brain to figure out the best way to word his response, Sasuke simply called Naruto.
"Hello?"
"What's on your mind?" Sasuke asked, genuinely curious.
There was a slight pause and some shuffling on the other line, and after some moments, Naruto finally answered, "Nothing really...I've just been doing a lot of thinking lately."
"Uh-oh," Sasuke joked, trying to keep the mood light as he poked a little fun at the blond.
"Hey, asshole, shut the fuck up."
Clearly, Naruto wasn't in the mood. But the tense air dissipated a little when Naruto sighed in resignation.
"We were eleven when I started to realize what my parents actually did when we were in school," Sasuke said, feeling his heart wrench at the sound of Naruto's deflation, "I didn't realize what was actually going on until we were fourteen though."
Naruto let out a "hm", as if thinking.
Sasuke continued when the blond didn't reply, "You were actually the one who opened my eyes to what my family was doing, you know. My parents, Itachi—" Sasuke swallowed hard at the thought of his family, "they always tried to keep me in the dark about it."
When the silence continued on the other line, Sasuke pulled his phone away from his ear and looked at the screen.
"Hello? Naruto?"
. . . . .
The blond's hand shook as he set the wooden spoon down on the copper spoon rest next to the stovetop. He turned off the stove and grabbed his phone before setting himself down on the couch. Naruto could feel his appetite waning as Sasuke called out to him on the other line.
So there was a possibility that Sasuke would've been kept ignorant of the infamous Uchiha family business? The thought did not sit well with the blond.
"Okay, thanks," Naruto said, half-regretting having tried to sate his curiosity and wanting to end the call before his stomach decided to empty itself completely.
"Wait," Sasuke said almost immediately, "Naruto, please, I—don't hang up."
Despite every fiber in his being pulling at Naruto to hang up already, to stop the pain and the nausea coursing through him, the blond remained on the line. He shut his eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as he tried to even his breathing.
"Sasuke, what are we doing?" Naruto said quietly when he finally calmed down.
"What do you mean?"
The confusion was evident in Sasuke's voice. But there was also...fear? Naruto kept himself from trying to identify what else he heard in the other's voice and continued.
Naruto sighed, "I mean, why are we doing this to ourselves? Why are we trying to restart something that's broken?"
A pause. The anger in Sasuke's voice was evident when he finally replied, his voice cool and controlled, "I never wanted us to break up, you know. You're the one who left, Naruto."
"You're the one who fucking lied to me, Sasuke!" the blond yelled back, clutching at the front of his shirt.
"I'm sorry I lied," Sasuke said, his voice still eerily calm, "but I never wanted you to leave me."
Naruto shot up from the couch, his fist shaking as he tried to keep his voice from carrying to his neighbors' apartments, "Bullshit! That's bullshit and you know it. If you didn't want me out of your life, you wouldn't have snuck around building another life that didn't involve me!"
"I wanted to tell you, but you were in your first semester of college, Naruto. You were doing so well at Sand Uni, and I didn't want to mess that up for you."
The blond didn't even know when he'd started to pace, but his legs carried him through the apartment, back and forth, back and forth. When he accidentally bumped into his furniture, pushing chairs out of the way and knocking himself hard against the kitchen counter, Naruto paid no mind. He was fucking livid.
It had been hard for Naruto to walk away. It wasn't that he was heartless, or that he didn't care about Sasuke; by the time they parted, the blond had been a mess. Sure, he had done well academically during his first year at Sand, but it was at the cost of forgoing socialization.
What Sasuke didn't know was that Naruto had made a total of one friend that year. The blond had been so wrought with worry over Sasuke that the only person he ever interacted with regularly was his roommate, Gaara.
Naruto didn't know if he'd ever get around to admitting all that to Sasuke, and that uncertainty pained him as much as it angered him.
It just wasn't fair.
"You keep going on as if we didn't have plans that involved each other. Sasuke, you shut me out of your life, and I'm supposed to think that you still wanted me?"
Sasuke quickly fended for himself, "I should have talked to you about taking over the family business. I should have told you what was happening instead of lying about it. But you know I would've done anything for you. I'd still do anything for you if it meant I could have you in my life."
Naruto shook his head, though he knew the other wouldn't be able to see him.
"Don't tell me that, Sasuke," the blond said as his voice broke, stopping to grip the back of the couch as tears threatened to pour from his eyes, "Don't tell me that when you were the one who pushed me away."
The voice on the other line was quiet, but it boomed through the silence of the apartment, "Why are you so vehemently against the idea that I cared about you when we were together? That I was happy with you?"
"Why?" Naruto let out a bitter laugh, "You just let me walk out of your life five years ago, Sasuke. Forget what you promised me. Despite all that big talk about 'letting the business die', you just couldn't turn away from it all. Keeping that bullshit going was more important than keeping me in your life."
"I had no choice," Sasuke choked out.
"Yes, you did," Naruto replied, the tears falling freely now, "You did, but I wasn't what you chose. It took me years to accept that fact. Even now, I realize I still haven't gotten over it."
A somber silence fell between them, and it wasn't until Sasuke started speaking, in an uncharacteristically soft, almost meek, voice, that the shittiness of it all hit Naruto.
"...I didn't want to let you go, Naruto. I love you, and I've never stopped loving you."
Again, Naruto shook his head, tears continuing to fall down his cheeks. It was like the dam keeping his emotions at bay suddenly burst, letting out all the pain, anguish, and anger he felt about the situation and towards Sasuke.
"Don't, Sasuke," Naruto said, voice shaking, trying to ignore the hot, searing pain in his chest, "Don't tell me that you still love me. We can't even have one phone call without arguing."
"No matter how many times we argue, I'll still love you. But tell me, Naruto—do you still love me? If you don't, and you want me to leave you alone, I will. But I need you to tell me the truth."
Naruto could only stand there in silence, all of a sudden hyper-aware of the fact that his breathing was coming in heavy and his phone pressed too hard to his ear. Did he still love Sasuke? The easy answer was yes. But there were many other feelings brewing in him that complicated matters. While he wanted to simply say yes, Naruto couldn't immediately give in to the other. And yet, the thought of completely shutting out Sasuke from his life again was scary and wholly unpleasant.
After he left Sasuke five years ago, Naruto forced himself to forget. He forced himself to forget about Sasuke and all the little things that cumulated his love for the brunet—that lovely, pale, smooth skin; those kissable pink lips; soft, silky, dark threads of hair; the way the corners of his eyes would crinkle during those rare moments of laughter; the gentle, yet forceful, passion the brunet expressed when they made love. Naruto forgot it all, all for the sake of self-preservation, until all the pain and all the emotions he felt about Sasuke faded away into faint memories.
It was only when he saw Sasuke in the flesh again that all those repressed feelings came rushing back again, perhaps in fuller force than before. Naruto never fully grappled with what he felt towards Sasuke, never having forgiven and only wanting to forget.
He was a mess, and he would need time to sort himself out.
"I don't know," Naruto admitted finally, his voice shaky, "but seeing you after so long—" he let out a long, shaky breath, "it brought up a lot of unsettled feelings. Both good and bad."
Naruto waited for Sasuke's response, hoping the other would understand.
"I understand, Naruto," the tenor voice on the other line said, sounding somewhat relieved but also pained, "If you need me to wait, then I'll wait."
"Thank you," Naruto responded quietly.
Then silence fell over them like a heavy blanket. It was like the fire that had sparked between them immediately extinguished into nothing more than harmless ashes. The way their argument had de-escalated so quickly both relieved and alarmed Naruto. They both remained on the line for a few minutes, neither wanting to be the first to hang up. It wasn't until Naruto heard Sasuke's steady breathing that he called out to the other.
"Sasuke?"
"Mm?"
He sounded like he was drifting off to sleep. Naruto relaxed his brows and shoulders, not realizing how tense he'd gotten. Imagining a sleepy Sasuke made the blond feel...comforted.
"You should go to bed."
"Mm," came the reply, then there was a yawn, "I suppose I should."
"Goodnight, then."
"Goodnight, Naruto."