A/N: Soooo I know I haven't updated these last few weeks, but school has been weird. I originally was going to add this to the last chapter but… I need sleep and signed up for advanced literature. In fact I love sleep. Necessary to my existence. Thanks for all the support! Au Revoir!
"It's nothing personal, Jack… Just good business."-Lord Cutler Beckett, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Naruto stirred slightly as he felt something poking his chest. He felt the fingernails poke into his shirt harder. He huffed and snuggled deeper into the warm presence in his arms. The presence squirmed trying the wake him up. Naruto murmured in response before tightening his arms. The presence groaned,
"Okaa-san, I'm not a stuffed animal." Naruto didn't respond and moved the warmth to bury his face in its hair.
"Okaa-san!" Naruto peeked an eye open as Ryuuji used his head to rub Naruto's chin, much like a fox kit. Naruto simply looked at Ryuuji and Ryuuji tapped Naruto's arms. Naruto responded,
"Why are you being so loud, lady bug?" Ryuuji huffed.
"You need to get up. You promised I could pick out your suit." Naruto groaned in response to remembering about his business meeting. He released Ryuuji and rolled on his stomach, smothering his face in the red silk, feather pillow. Ryuuji frowned as he saw his mother rolled over on his stomach. He also frowned because he hated the leopard print shirt his mother was wearing. He decided to try to wake up his okaa-san once more. He hopped on his back and kneeled. He leaned down and butted his head against Naruto's shoulder blades, mussing up the rich brown locks. When Naruto still didn't respond. He rubbed his head in and made a high pitched hum, a bit like a whine. Naruto sighed into the pillow as Ryuuji kept rubbing. He reached behind him carefully and patted Ryuuji's thigh. He murmured into the pillow,
"Alright. Alright. I'm getting up."
"Hmmmmm." Naruto puffed out air as he turned his head to the side.
"Come on. I promise." Ryuuji got off of his back and looked at him with a soul-searching gaze.
"Go pick out my outfit, while I'm in the shower." Naruto grabbed Ryuuji gently by the arm and sat up. Ryuuji scooted closer to Naruto. Naruto then rubbed his nose into Ryuuji's left shoulder, skimmed across his shirt clad chest to the other shoulder divot. And in an unprecedented move lifted up Ryuuji's shirt and gave him a raspberry on his stomach. A happy giggle escaped Ryuuji and Naruto smiled.
"You don't need a shower." He patted Ryuuji's head.
"Now go on, lady bug, I have to get the blanket." Ryuuji had a grinned a small grin as he ran off into Naruto's larger bedroom. Naruto laughed inwardly as he folded up the rabbit fur blanket and walked across the hall into his larger bedroom. He walked in saw Ryuuji bouncing on the balls of his feet. Naruto hummed,
"So what have you got in store for me this time?" Ryuuji's smile just went a little wider and made his eyes crinkle in happiness. Naruto shooed off Ryuuji to his room and started inspecting the clothing, and fur coat Ryuuji had fished out of the closet for him. I'll give him this; he's a clever little snot. Naruto inspected the clothing laid out. A white silk suit jacket and slacks, a white cotton button down, a light, grey wool vest, a shiny grey silk tie were sitting innocently enough on the bed next to a pair of white leather dress shoes, a white belt, and a large black fur coat. Naruto groaned as he thought he was going to look like someone out of TV show. He sighed as he turned to his lock box to see the jewelry his son had laid out for him. A pair of rose gold studs, a pair of diamonds, a sakura blossom made of pink and red diamonds as a tie pin and platinum rounds for cuff links. He shook his head and reminded himself that it was for his son.
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Naruto had put the studs higher up his ears than the diamonds and was patiently awaiting his son's appearance as he leaned against the wall by the front door on the bottom floor, sometimes he cursed the security he had in his house. He hummed waiting for the boy to get down the stairs. A blur came crashing into his side. He unstuck Ryuuji from his side and looked him over. He smiled and asked,
"You ready to go, ladybug?" Ryuuji nodded with a small white and orange zig-zag striped toboggan hat and its strings bouncing. Naruto re-evaluated Ryuuji's outfit. A tawny fur coat covered up a green kimono embroidered with teal and cerulean and sapphire silk dragonflies. Red All-Star high tops with beautifully hand painted Monarch butterflies on the ankles. And pink glass hear studs in his ears.
"You sure? We are going to walk down the stairs but I won't carry you unless it's absolutely necessary." Ryuuji nodded, elated anyway. Naruto was worried as Ryuuji had always had weak muscles, especially in his legs, since birth. Naruto smiled and held out his hand for the little boy.
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Naruto felt the tug on his hand and he looked down. Ryuuji looked up at him with a silent plea; Naruto looked down at Ryuuji's legs. They couldn't have been shaking more if there was an earthquake. Naruto gently picked up Ryuuji and placed him on his shoulders to make it easier instead if Ryuuji's usual side-saddle-like version of being carried. Ryuuji got a gentle grip on Naruto's hair as Ryuuji leaned forward to gain warmth from the frigid air. Naruto gently rubbed his finger pads into Ryuuji's calves to relieve some of the tightness that was bound to be in the muscles. He couldn't be prouder though.
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They had entered the office building and talked briefly with Hinata before heading up to the COO's office. Naruto hoped for no more interruptions from the younger Uchiha. He had personal plans for him. Naruto burst into Itachi's office, unnoticed by Itachi's ever absent secretary. Naruto barely looked up as Naruto barreled in with Ryuuji stalking in close behind him.
"Itachi-san, still up for discussion today?" Naruto asked smugly.
"Always for you and Ryuuji." Itachi said. Naruto smirked maliciously. Ryuuji occupied himself by touching the array of vinyl record albums Itachi kept.
"That's expected." Itachi looked down at his paperwork, most likely to roll his eyes at his current company. Ryuuji piped up at his mother's playing,
"Itachi-san you should get better music." Itachi scowled at that and said,
"Don't you simply mean more modern?" Ryuuji hummed before flipping the album to peer at the song list, not looking up at Itachi. Itachi on the other hand nearly had a vein pop in his forehead if not for his natural deadpan expression. The boy was so much like his 'mother'. It frustrated Itachi to no end. But it was an affectionate frustration like he had when Sasuke was small and cute-ish. Then he looked at Naruto in his gaudy clothing and felt true annoyance when he saw the absolutely smug and ecstatic expression. The Itachi coughed into a black handkerchief. Naruto waved over Ryuuji and talked to him softly.
"Go along and investigate. You know to meet me at Hinata right? Then we'll go see about those kimonos?" Ryuuji nodded and bound away like a spring rabbit in eccentric clothing. The door clicked softly before Naruto snatched the handkerchief from Itachi's hand and breathed out a sigh of relief to find no blood.
"You are alright, then?" Naruto's face was still grave.
"As fine as I'll ever be with this dreaded disease." Naruto could not recall the name of the disease that was slowly destroying the alveoli in Itachi's lungs; but it did not bode well for a long lifespan.
"And what of Kisame, is he doing any better?"
"He just went in for another treatment for the Cystic Fibrosis." Naruto frowned as he thought of the two lovers destined for a slow and early death. The tsundere Itachi, and the brown-haired shark obsessed, yandere by the name of Kisame. Naruto frowned at Itachi's desolate look. He sat on the side of Itachi's death and smoothed out a portion of the black-haired man's ponytail before he smiled sadly,
"Do you know what I was doing when I found my little Ryuuji?" Itachi was still frowned but looked up at Naruto.
"It was at a bar, I had just ordered my men to beat the owner to death. I myself was swinging the steel bat, but I stopped not wanting to get blood on my clothes." He glanced back at Itachi, seeing his rapt attention he looked off and continued,
"It was a simple thing really. I had gone into the alleyway for a smoke." Naruto laughed amused,
"To this day I still remember how fucking bitterly cold it was, just like another day." A tear drop perched along the edge of Naruto's eye.
"That's when I heard it. A child's cry and with some sort of sadistic curiosity I moved toward the sound." A tear fell down Naruto's cheek. He looked down at Itachi's curious red eyes,
"To this day I don't know what he saw. Disdain. Anger. Coldness. Cruelty. But when I saw those arms reach out to anything to save it from this madness I went to go see." Naruto chuckled to cover a sob,
"But the thing is when those emerald eyes met mine… It was like the entire fucking world shifted." Two more tears crawled down Naruto's cheeks. At Itachi's open look he asked,
"But you get that don't you?" Itachi nodded.
"I went crazy trying to find someone to tell me how to take care of him. It was Tsunade who finally ordered me around to get everything done." Naruto wiped his eyes and looke back at Itachi.
"Now back to business…" Itachi nodded, took out a legal pad, and directed his gaze to Naruto.
"I'm going to take back Sound tonight…"
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Ryuuji sniffed around curiously. He had talked to a Gaara, the red head, which Ryuuji had met at one of the parties Okaa-san had taken him too. He was on his way to meet a 'Neji' whom the younger Hyuuga had mentioned before. Ryuuji had soon gotten bored so had went into the elevator and pressed all the button's to see where it would take him. Ryuuji had sit cross-legged in the middle of the elevator before exiting it on the 50th floor. It seemed a good enough number.
"I swear to God! How could you let something like this happen?!"
Ryuuji saw from his short vantage point a duck-butt haired man yelling at an almost dead older man. He was using the colorful language that Naruto-okaa-san had scowled at hearing Ryuuji repeat them verbatim. Ryuuji padded up quietly behind the man before climbing up the bookshelf behind his back. The man reminded Ryuuji of a puffed up tomcat. When Ryuuji was in range of the livid man he yanked as hard as he could with his little hands.
"What the f-!" The dark red-black eyed man faltered on the final word as he looked at Ryuuji. Ryuuji narrowed his eyes in response before slammed the heel of his hand into the man's forehead.
"Okaa-san says you're supposed to respect your elders and not say words like those." The pale man's anger seemed to dissipate even as his lips thinned. He wordlessly held out his arms to Ryuuji. Ryuuji took the offer as the man sat him down and kneeled in front of the thin brown haired boy.
"Is your mother here?" Ryuuji hummed in response before saying,
"Meeting someone." Sasuke sighed in exasperation.
"What's your name?"
"Ryuuji." Sasuke frowned.
"Mine's Sasuke. You don't talk much." Ryuuji hummed.
"Last name?" Sasuke asked. Ryuuji hummed again.
"Fine, how about I feed you and we forget I was yelling?" Ryuuji nodded. But frowned as Sasuke held out a hand.
"What's wrong?" Ryuuji looked down at the shadow filled tiles,
"Legs." Sasuke looked down and saw that, indeed, the strangely dressed boy's legs were trembling. Sasuke frowned but let out a resigned sigh as Ryuuji held out his arms.
"Alright. Alright." He stood up and put his arms around the boy and took him down for food.
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Naruto came down to the bottom floor. He smiled when he saw Ryuuji sitting on the top of round stone front desk swinging his legs. Hinata working on the computer below him. He helped Ryuuji down and noticed his legs weren't giving him any trouble.
"Alright so you survived the exploration of this evil building. How about we walk to go get our kimono's done for tonight?" Ryuuji nodded with a child's grin on his face, exposing his longer than average canines before taking Naruto's hand and they both walked out of the spinning glass doors.
