Kakashi couldn't help but stop at the spectacle in front of him, though his throat was already itching.
Millions – no, scratch that, BILLIONS – of small yellow butterflies covered the bloody ground, except for the straight, clear path he followed Sasuke in. He watched as they moved their wings lazily, sipping at the wetness in a wide ring.
Sasuke had asked him to help fetch the teens this morning. He had already told him about the new life sprouting forth, but nothing could prepare him for the sheer beauty of it, though marred somewhat by the incredible stench, similar yet unlike the one from a fresh battlefield.
"Come on, Kakashi, we have to get them and leave before you get sick." Sasuke called from ahead, coughing. He followed.
His jaw nearly hit the ground when they reached the inner circle where the teens were, two hours later.
A veritable jungle had sprouted up, and between the rocks Ishoo was propped up against, fresh water ran, forming the beginning of a rivulet that ran sideways from where she lay out cold.
Ashi was lying asleep a few feet from her, buck naked and filthy. His clan tattoos had disappeared from his face; his forehead now had the Ookami kanji branded red, as by hot irons.
"Holy shit" Kakashi whispered. Tall trees had grown around the area, and birds were nesting on them. One landed on the girl's short hair, which had gone darker and now seemed more like graphite or dark steel than the ash-blond it was before.
The air burned his airways.
"Get Ashi." Sasuke commanded, picking his daughter up, huffing with the effort to unstick her legs from the coagulated blood mess. Kakashi bent and picked up the sleeping boy, and they hurried back.
Kiba had already packed, and helped Kakashi move Ashi onto Akamaru's back.
"There's a stream back where you came from..." he started.
"The water here isn't safe, we should cross the border first." Sasuke said, making a clone to carry his bags.
They traveled quickly, and Kiba noticed Sasuke's face redden with wheezing breaths.
"Dude, are you all right? I can carry her for you." He said.
"No." There was no argument there.
Two hours into Fire Country they finally stopped. Ashi was still out cold, but Ishoo was up and she had been running ahead for the last fifteen minutes.
"BATH! BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATH TIIIIIIME! FINALYYYYYYY!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, and somersaulted off the bridge, hitting the lake under it headfirst with a loud splash.
"Could've waited until we reached an inn, or a hot spring, you know" Sasuke called, as they made their way down.
Kakashi snickered. "Like she cares, I've seen her crack frozen lakes to bathe. In that one respect she's the fussiest girl I've met."
She ran off the lake and rushed back to where Ashi was on top of Akamaru, hauling the boy (whom Kiba had dressed up somewhat, for decency's sake) and dragging him up the bridge, only to throw him into the lake and jump back in.
"GAAAHHHHRRRRRKKKK!" the boy howled as he came up. "BATH TIME, ASHI-BAKA!" Ishoo yelled and pushed his head under the water again.
"What the hell, koishii!" He wailed when she let him go.
"Uh oh." Kiba mumbled, and looked at Kakashi. He received a resigned sigh and a shrug in response, as Sasuke, who was digging for something in his backpack, froze at the boy's scream, and turned his head toward the water in slow motion.
The kids had stopped arguing and were looking at Sasuke, Ashi with a deer in the headlights look, and Ishoo blushing furiously.
Sasuke picked up the bars of soap he was looking for and stood up in a slow, deliberate motion.
Kakashi wondered if there was another natural as Ashi in this year's Academy graduates, because it seemed his team would be one Inuzuka short.
Akamaru covered his eyes with his paws, as Sasuke slowly took of his sandals and walked onto the lake.
"I told you to stop calling me that, you turd!" Ishoo muttered under her breath, as Ashi tried to huddle, and shoved him away. "Now you deal with him, idiot!" she muttered again, before diving and swimming away.
Sasuke was coming at him, and he desperately tried to huddle all by himself, remembering all the times his uncle, his mother and his grandmother had gossiped about his koishii's father's legendary homicidal tendencies when it came to his family.
'Oshitoshitoshit crazy dude killed his own brother without even stopping to think straight first… tried to kill Naruto-sama thrice… Kiba said he'd make sashimi of my wiener..." he thought; 'don't panic, dumbass, he's not gonna kill you!' he chided himself, "You just saved his daughter, the wolf-god chose YOU to guard her, you didn't do anything wrong and it's proof koishii is your pack, just like the Sage proved Sasuke and Naruto-sama were destined to be mates! Be brave and face your intended's alpha like a man!'
Sasuke narrowed his eyes as the boy took a long breath and got up on the water to face him proudly.
Kiba covered his eyes, trembling at the boy's audacity.
Ashi stretched all of his 5'6" and looked up straight at the taller man as he slowly approached.
Sasuke stopped into his personal space and growled low at him, his hands in his hips.
Ashi took a breath and looked back with a serious face, then tipped his head to the side, exposing his neck while keeping eye contact.
Kakashi and Kiba let out a breath they didn't know they were holding.
"Hn." Sasuke pulled the boy's hand and put a bar of soap in it, and pointed to the other side of the lake. The Inuzuka looked at him and ran off to bathe away from them.
Sasuke looked down at the face looking up at him. "If he does anything stupid again, I'll rip his eyebrows off." She smiled and tickled his feet, and he fell in the water with a splash.
They reached Konoha four days later.
Ishoo had threatened to hack Sasuke to pieces and carry him in a bag to the hospital if he didn't go willingly, and since he knew his daughter would easily do it (especially after Kakashi noncommittally held a large hatchet to her, to which she gleefully thanked him), they had gone in as the sun set.
Tsunade greeted them.
"Baa-chan, where's Sakura-chan?" Ishoo asked, while Tsunade examined Sasuke.
"She's home, can't have her rolling around the hospital and peeing on the floor all the time, so I sent her on early maternity leave." Tsunade said, motioning for Sasuke to open his mouth.
"She peed on the floor?" Ishoo widened her eyes and fell into a laughing fit.
"Yes, apparently her little Maito likes to jump over her bladder." She smirked. "Sasuke, you have got some extensive burns over your lungs, your throat and your eyes, nothing unexpected due to your bloodline limit and your affinity to fire jutsu, and your upper limbs as well. However, due to the nature of the burns I can't really heal you. You'll have to go without using either your limit or any ninjutsu whatsoever for at least two weeks."
Sasuke glared at her. "What?"
"The energy that burned your tissue is Ishoo's energy. Your body just doesn't want to be healed by chakra, it prefers her energy."
"Explain yourself." His glare deepened.
Tsunade sighed. "The lesions that were made by your body coming in contact with her energy are being substituted with new, stronger, more resilient tissue. Better than what you had before. Here, let me show you" she pulled a senbon from her hair and pushed it into his hand. Sasuke looked as the senbon pushed and pushed, but didn't tear his skin.
He pulled a kunai from his belt and shoved it in his hand with enough strength to rip through the other side, but all it did was leave a faint mark on his skin.
"What the hell?" He growled.
"Oh look, just like Aniki and me." Ishoo commented.
He gave his daughter an alarmed look, and faced Tsunade again. "Is this permanent?"
"No, the people we had here with a similar condition are still able to use chakra to perform jutsu, the body seems to adapt after a while. The beneficial side effects to the new tissue seem to be permanent, though." She jotted something on his chart. "It seems to be a characteristic of people from the other continent, since primal energy doesn't work through pathways, and instead is part of the atomic structure. They have a lot more of it than we do, so their atomic integrity is stronger."
"Which is why ninja have a hard time killing them. Didn't Kakashi tell you about the time we rescued Shion-sama? He tried using Chidori, took him two of them to get one of the mercenaries off him. Since there were like a hundred of them going at us, I had to take him down to pull him to safety." Ishoo told him.
Sasuke pursed his lips as he sensed a familiar chakra signature coming down the hall. "Fine. But this is classified information. And I don't want the idiot to know."
Tsunade smirked mischievously at him. "Don't worry about it, be it far from me to meddle in marital issues." She left the room as Naruto entered.
"Uh, er, I'm gonna go home see what's for dinner." Ishoo said, and kicked Naruto's leg before she left.
Naruto winced before locking the exam room's door behind him.
Sasuke was standing with his arms crossed, glaring at him and tapping his foot.
'Oh, not the tapping of the foot…' Naruto thought, dread pooling on his stomach.
On the other side of the door, Sai and Shikamaru sighed, and Sai quickly cast a soundproofing jutsu. Shikamaru pulled a small notebook and a pen out of his jacket with a flare.
"100 ryo on Naruto getting his eyebrows burned off, boys" Ino said, giving them one bill as she passed by them.
"Mark me down for 50 on asphyxiation!" Chouji called from the corner.
"250 on massive head trauma!" Tsunade almost yelled, running at them all the way from the stairs at the far end of the hallway with the money flapping on her hand.
"70 bucks on his ear being ripped out" Shizune said. "Right one."
"Anyone for severe genital damage? Severe genital damage, ladies and gentlemen! Place your bets now!" Sai called out gleefully.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke." Naruto said. "You were right, I was wrong."
"Do you really think that's all it's going to take?" Sasuke said in a dark tone.
Naruto sighed. "Please, please, please, for fuck's sake, forgive me? I admit it, I treated you horribly. I have been an asshole. I thought that when I became Hokage everything would be a breeze, I'd be automatically smarter and cooler and more powerful than anything and anyone, and everybody would recognize my awesomeness, and… it went over my head big time."
Sasuke snarled and grabbed Naruto by the neck, shoving him against the door.
"First round has begun, ladies and gentlemen! Anyone who hasn't placed their bets yet better hurry!" Sai said, as he and Shikamaru felt the thump against the door.
Naruto punched Sasuke in the gut.
"I said I was sorry, gods damn it!" he growled, as Sasuke loosened his grip just enough for him to breathe.
"You think sorry is enough? Have you got any idea how you humiliated me?" Sasuke grunted at him, his own frustration at being cut off from his chakra adding up to his rage.
"I know you're pissed, I know I was an asshole, I'm fucking sorry!" Naruto said through his teeth, panting. 'How the hell did his fucking hand get this strong?' he thought, as he tried freeing himself from Sasuke's granite grip. "You're not the only one who was publicly humiliated, bastard!"
Naruto pulled him close by his collar. "I have been pissed upon by every single motherfucking ninja in this village because of what I said to you, teme, and they don't even know the facts, only that I mistreated you because of the kids. Fucking Teuchi has banned me from getting damn ramen for a gods' damned month, dattebayo!"
Sasuke blinked. "Hold on. Ichiraku Teuchi has banned you from his shop?"
Naruto had tears in his eyes. "From ALL ramen shops in the village! And Gaara said he'll come throw rotten fruit at me at Hokage day!"
Sasuke couldn't help but snort, then inwardly snicker at the mental image.
"I didn't sleep five minutes from the time we woke up that night until Amachi-kun woke up from his coma, bastard. I was terrified for you." Naruto whispered, laying his forehead against his.
"Hn."
"And… I realized I can't do this by myself. So, um…" Naruto fidgeted, when Sasuke finally let go of his neck, and dropped his hand down to his waist. "I've named you to the Council, pleasedon'tkillme" he mumbled the last.
Sasuke slammed his other hand in the door next to his face.
"YOU WHAT?"
"Second round is officially UP, ladies and gentlemen! Place your bets!" Sai called out, as Shikamaru collected money and furiously jotted names down on his notebook. The line of gamblers now started out of the hospital, the current patients having had their bets taken first.
"I named you to the Council. I need you to balance me out, Sasuke." Naruto pleaded, giving nervous side looks to the hand half-buried in the steel door. He was absolutely sure Sasuke had used zero chakra to do that, and it irked him.
"What the fuck am I supposed to do with my job at ITR, you twat? I'm not leaving it, we actually fucking need those new weapons and devices now! I am not leaving my work just because you're a dead last idiot who acts before he thinks!"
"Um, I talked to Ibiki and the board and they conceded that you trade places with him, and Gai and Lee will help him" Naruto said quickly. "That way you can still work there but you don't have to run all the tests for the new stuff, only the last and you won't have to miss Council meetings, which are only once a month…" He was entirely grateful for whatever god had refrained Sasuke from Mangekyouing him so far.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes. No way had the usuratonkachi thought of all that by himself. Somebody must have come up with this idea, probably Shikamaru, but whoever did it, they did it for a serious reason. The dobe must have been in some really hot water for the last week, indeed.
Sasuke had already butted heads with Morino Ibiki many times, and it wasn't like Sasuke himself wasn't in better terms with the technicians and engineers than the head of the ITR since it was the Torture and Interrogation Force. Also, having Ibiki take charge of the tests would definitely put the old man on his toes and maybe, just maybe, appreciate more the effort placed in developing what he called "useless junk".
Being in the Council would also most definitely make Naruto think many times before acting out at him, and at anyone else, too. Sasuke would make sure of it.
It didn't help fuel his anger much that he had been able to hold Naruto off him single-handedly with no chakra. The Hokage had always been physically stronger, and whatever else Sasuke could feel about the damage done to him the last days, his sudden surge of brute strength actually turned him on. A lot, let it be said. He wondered what else could he do with that strength, and smirked, pressing Naruto against the door by his collarbone with one hand, and reaching for his shirt collar with the other.
Naruto widened his eyes. "Oi. Oi. Oi. Can we talk about this?" he said, raising his hands. Sasuke pulled, ripping off his top in one swift movement, and reached to his pants.
"Wa-wa-waaaaaait, dattebayo!" Naruto screamed. "I didn't bring any fresh clothes!"
"Idiot, my backpack is right here, wear mine." Sasuke said in a husky voice, ripping his pants and boxers off him.
Naruto gulped, and was flung across the room, landing on his back in a bed.
"Sa-Sasuke, wait. Waaait, waaait…" he pleaded, as Sasuke came to him slowly, shedding his clothes.
"Shut up." Sasuke stradled his waist, and bent to look attentively at him. "Your beard is too long now. I like it shorter. Bristly."
"Um, I'll bet I can find a barbershop open, if you just lemme go I'll" Naruto started, but was cut short by a harsh kiss.
Naruto gave out an agonized moan as Sasuke started to pinch his torso, leaving ugly looking bruises. Whatever the hell had happened to the bastard, it had given him some ridiculous strength, and soon Naruto hurt everywhere. He didn't complain, though, because it hurt Just. So. Damn. Good.
He thought he would come right there when Sasuke bit on his neck, it hurt that good. It felt like light acid burns lingered wherever Sasuke's hands or his mouth touched, pinched, pressed, sucked, licked or bit, together with the usual pain, and Naruto had privately admitted to being a pain slut to Sasuke's rough handling a long time ago.
He screamed as Sasuke sat on his thighs and pulled him up by his nipples, the lustful snarl on his face making him roll his eyes back in pleasure. Sasuke grabbed the hairs on his neck and pulled his head back to lick at his Adam's apple, and he shivered.
"Oh, gods, yes" He panted, as he was bit on the curve where his neck met his shoulder. "Eat me…" he whispered in Sasuke's ear.
"I thought you told me to wait." Sasuke whispered back.
"I must have been temporarily sane, those words don't count. And you're wasting my sweet juices." Naruto taunted breathlessly, feeling blood running down.
Sasuke chuckled darkly, and lapped at his collarbone. Naruto buried his nose on his hair. "Man, you smell so good" he moaned, licking from his neck to his shoulder and back, his hands pressing on the swell of Sasuke's back.
"I bet I stink, didn't have time to really bathe properly after getting back, our baby girl threatened to bring me here in pieces if I tried to go home first." Sasuke said, and nibbled at Naruto's ear.
"Yeah? Be making bathing illegal then." Naruto whispered huskily between moans.
"And here was I thinking I'm the scent pervert" Sasuke mumbled. Naruto responded by nuzzling his armpit.
He cried out in pleasure when Sasuke bit the back of his shoulder. Sasuke took it as his cue to get off the bed, push Naruto to sit up, and begin marking his back as he had done his front.
Naruto cried out again when his upper back was raked deep enough to bleed, throwing his head back on Sasuke's shoulder. Sasuke had to reach over and grip his cock hard to keep him from coming, before beginning to look around frantically.
Naruto noticed a scrap of paper being kicked under the door, and pointed at it.
Sasuke ran, grabbed it, read it, and hastily grabbed a bottle from a cabinet drawer before slipping under Naruto.
"You owe Sai a raise", he said, while coating Naruto's fingers.
"Yes, ma'am."
Sasuke fumed in anger and slapped his face, and Naruto froze.
Sasuke bit back the scathing retort he was preparing when the man turned his face at him with a lustful, half-crazed look.
"Do that again." Naruto said hungrily, slipping two lubed fingers up inside Sasuke.
Sasuke slapped him again.
"Harder" Naruto pleaded, pushing his fingers straight into Sasuke's sweet spot once more and taking them out.
Sasuke hit him on his other cheek, and screamed when Naruto filled him in one quick, hard thrust.
"Harder."
Another slap to Naruto's face, another slam up Sasuke's ass.
"Ngh… usuratonkachi, do you really want me to spoil your face so much?"
"I'll heal. Do it."
So he did.
Sasuke slammed his palm on Naruto's face as hard as the man slammed into him, and though he would never admit it, he loved it and the adrenaline that came with knowing that even though the humiliating hand marks would be healed by next morning, they would still be visible until this day was over.
He stopped, though, when Naruto's orgasmic screams drove him over the edge and made him kiss his dobe senseless.
"Told you Wifezilla would bitchslap Naruto black and blue" Sai said later at the bar, counting a huge wad of bills.
"You got lucky the hand prints were darker than the strangle bruises on his neck, tho." Shikamaru told him.
"You made the rules, most severe damage wins. Anyway, Chouji won last time and he didn't pay for the after-match booze, so here's to Sai!" Tsunade cheered.
"Hear, hear!" Kakashi raised his own sake cup.
"Oh, come on, I paid for my share, that counts!" Chouji ranted.
