Disclaimer: Naruto is drawn and written by a fantastically splendid, wonderfully cute, and very talented manga artist: the Masashi Kishimoto. (And Kishimoto-san, if you are, by the slimmest chance, reading this and somehow understanding the English, please elope with me; I will bring the bags of onigiri.)
Chapter Rating: R (for explicit language, situation, and a certain Uchiha's fantasizing)
Author's Note: Just some logistics before we get on with it. Um, folks, I do know that in the manga Itachi is Sasuke's brother. It's kind of a big part of the canon… Despite very much noticing this, I made Itachi Sasuke's father in this fic because Naruto isn't normally a rock star and Sasuke also isn't a high school drag queen and this is one of those things fanfiction authors do called WRITING AU WHERE I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT MUHAHAHAHAW! SUCK ON THAT! HUZZAH! (is shot with tranquilizer and restrained) It's just that I always feel awkward when I read some really polite review: "Um, ro-rosesareblue-san, Itachi is, well, he is Sasuke's brother in the real thing so, uh, maybe this is a typo?" I know, dear. Thanks.
Other than that, thank you sooooo much for reviewing! This wasn't on my list of priorities at all (I was thinking of doing a Halloween special or something), then I realized I had many reviews for the last chapter and decided I MUST update since I love you people the best! I really do! (gives bunch of cookies) Group hug! Group hug! (smooshes cookies in embrace)
Oh! And some blatant advertising: If you read and comment on One-Shot-Naruko, I will heart you and reply to your reviews adoringly (any greetings or questions, however unrelated, are welcome). Now, ooooon with the story.
My E-mail: rosesareblue at ymail dot com (Write me with any comments or suggestions. Remember, there's nothing like feedback that improves an author's moral/writing and keeps the chapters coming.)
/ D E A D / L A S T /
By Rosesareblue
Chapter Nine: Innocent Kiss
"We met before. Before you started dressing in drag, Sasuke sempai."
The Uchiha felt like someone had clubbed his head off his shoulders with a baseball bat. Dislocation. Confusion. Shock. More than anything, total shock.
At last, the raven-haired boy managed a quiet, "…when?"
Naruto scrunched up his nose, oblivious to the Uchiha's panic raging only skin-deep. After a bit, the vocalist guessed, "It was over two years ago, I think? After I left school for a year to pursue music… heh, I don't know if I mentioned this before but I'm actually the same age as you are, Sasuke sempai!"
He chirped the last bit – as if it were even remotely awe-inspiring compared to the revelation that he knew Sasuke's deepest, darkest secret.
"Anyway," the blond went on, "that day, Temari-chan had just met Shikamaru and the others and was in ga-ga mode again. It seemed like the countless other times she'd gotten worked up about a band and yet… somehow I knew it wasn't."
Naruto paused to force out a raspy laugh, before plowing on, "I thought I'd go insane – snap, if I had to see the end I'd long dreaded actually play out. So I just split. Stole a wad of cash from Kankuro's pocket – he never notices the difference, anyway – and took the shinkansen to the furthest stop I could afford. And, uh…"
The blond looked up to grin ruefully at Sasuke. "You were there."
A firework of memories rudely went off in the Uchiha's head: a bright mop of hair rushing at him, a painful collision of shoulders, the hard concrete scrapping against delicate skin as they rolled down half a flight of stairs, the weight of a stranger's thin gasping body sprawled on his own heaving chest…
"First time we spoke, we got in a huge argument for some reason or other." Naruto chuckled, caught up in the remembrance and swinging his legs like a kid on a float. "This was outside the station where it was dark, so I couldn't really see your face quite then. You were this shadow; you could have been anyone – or everyone. Maybe that's why I felt it was safe being so honest. That or I'd just cracked, probably the latter..."
Sasuke summoned up images of balled up pair of fists pounding his chest, the heaving of thinly clad shoulders, the clutching hands that gripped his collar, the shrill yell of a voice thick with hysteria, desire, and loneliness… God, so much loneliness…
"Anyway," The vocalist continued, "I think I even started ranting about my dead parents and how fucked up my childhood was. And that's when you said, 'What the hell? Is that all? You were always alone – we all are. You only just realized it now because you are either retarded or blessed.' I swear, Sasuke sempai, at that moment I was so angry at you I had trouble breathing. I was seriously considering dragging you with me in front of an oncoming train when you added: 'At least you figured it out before it's too late, dead last–'"
"'–so now you can actually start doing something about it.''" The Uchiha finished for him and the blond broke out into a wide, happy grin.
"I dunno why," The smaller boy confessed, "but I totally fell for that line. Fell hard, too. I named the band after it, didn't I? Anyway, I was so pissed off and so fucking inspired at the same time that I joined Shikamaru and them peeps the very next day. And the rest is history or however else that saying goes."
Having finished talking, Naruto sank into the leathery folds of the sofa and let out a loud dejected sigh, his electric blue eyes mischievous.
"Mou! I can't believe you really forgot our meeting, Sasuke sempai! And all this time, I thought you just weren't saying anything to be hardcore and intense and shit."
"You annoyed me into lending you money for your fare back, dobe…" Sasuke said stiffly, feeling that his throat was parched dry as he spoke almost mechanically of a brief moment of past contact that had changed the course of his life – their lives – irreversibly. Is this what people called destiny? Or just some really fucked up shit that'd betray him a little more down the road?
"Hey, hey, so you do remember it well!" The vocalist crowed, licking his lips cutely. "Then stop being so cool and mysterious already, huh?"
"Of course I remember the meeting," The raven-haired boy shook his still reeling head, glad even in the midst of all that confusion that his dumbstruck came across to others, especially to the dobe, as cool and mysterious. "But I didn't see you. I never saw you then. It was pitch black, usuratonkachi. How did you even know it was me?"
"Oh, uh, I caught a glimpse of your face when you walked up the stairs into the lit station." Naruto shrugged lazily, ruffling up his own hair and letting his hand fall to the cushion with a plop. "To be honest, I didn't recognize you quite when we first met, sempai, but I'd say it was soon after that. Heh, you impressed?"
The Uchiha muttered, for lack of anything else to say, "You… you owe me fifty-eight thousand and three hundred yen, dobe."
All the while, Sasuke's mind was racing: What did this mean, Naruto's knowing? If the blond had known all along and had managed to hold his tongue, even to Sasuke himself, Itachi's finding out wouldn't be a problem. So, what did it mean in the context of their relationship thus far? Did that change the nuance to yaoi goodness or just brotherly comradeship? But it wasn't a bad sign – Naruto's saying that he'd been "so pissed off and so fucking inspired at the same time," right? Naruto had become that Uzumaki Naruto because of him – which made the dobe that much more his, right? Which also meant that Sasuke most definitely deserved to be the se– no, no, let's not get ahead of ourselves, Uchiha. One button at a time. One pants button at a time…
"It's fifty-eight thousand two hundred and fifty-seven yen, you jerk. I kept the receipt too, because I knew you were this kind of person…" The blond grumbled, interrupting the Uchiha's first full-fledged, over-deep analysis. (If said Uchiha had known he'd taken one solid step towards the estrogen side, he… well, he would probably have been too distracted at the present moment to care. B-but, later he would have been embarrassed? Maybe?)
Sasuke smirked, snaking his fingers around Naruto's hand that lay between them – tellingly closer to the Uchiha's side.
"I round up, Naruto. You owe me." The raven-haired boy whispered, his voice low and ringing with a barely suppressed maniac glee.
Because, inwardly, our resident tensai was on the six billionth button by now – which went something like this in true fangirl fashion: Naruto-his-destined-to-be-uke must have blazed the cherished memory in his mind and had subsequently become a rock star to find again the mysterious first love that had so thoroughly inspired him – so that all the little dobe ever thought about was having Sasuke's dick all hot and tight up his ass, day and night. Not able to hold it in much longer, the blond had already indirectly confessed his undying love and subservient lust to said object of his fantasies bare moments ago (though it seems much longer than that because it was in the previous chapter and rosesareblue sucks about updating) and claimed that Sasuke was indeed his "number one priority" and "only real fan." Hence, it would be just plain rude of the Uchiha to pass up a prepared meal and not eat up the dobe's virginity on this couch – at this very moment – substituting spit for lube and ramming it hard no matter what Naruto was whining at the top of his far gone voice…
"Oi, usuratonkachi…" The raven-haired boy's eyelids were already at half-mast as he stared at his own pale fingers gripping the blond's tanned hand. "Since you are on such a roll explaining, why don't you tell me how you figured out I was your only real fan…? Hnn?"
At that, the prettiest blush spread across Naruto's cheeks. Squirming just a little, the vocalist turned his hand over so that their palms touched and their fingers intertwined. Holding on tightly, the smaller boy leaned in so that Sasuke could smell the scent of soap on Naruto's eyelids, his marked cheeks, those dewy lips…
"I know because," The blond's voice was throaty and full, weighing each word. And Sasuke couldn't help but notice the flutter of yellow lashes, the dart of crimson tongue, the gentle slope his Adam's apple moving up and down as Naruto all but crooned, "I know because we are like brothers."
Sasuke was still closing the gap between their heads, when he stopped short. "Wait, wait – what?"
Naruto pulled their clasped hands up, fisting Sasuke's other free hand as well and pumping it up and down empathically. "Because we are like brothers and I know you don't think of me sexually at all!"
Not noticing that the Uchiha was slowly turning into sand, the blond kept uttering jarringly false statements: "Sasuke sempai doesn't want my body. You don't come to my concerts because you think I'm hot. You don't ever search for photoshopped pictures of me in the nude on the internet. You just like my singing, ne?"
The raven-haired boy yanked his hand out of the vocalist's grip, his eyes becoming near slits in sheer, flabbergasted annoyance: "How are you so sure I don't?"
"Don't what?" Naruto blinked.
"How are you so sure that I don't want you for unending, flaming sex, usuratonkachi?"
Silence.
Finally, Naruto burst out laughing, "You are so silly, Sasuke sempai. We can't have sex because we are both guys! Did you learn nothing in health class – honestly, I heard that you were good at school but I guess that was a load of bull-shit, huh?"
Oblivious to the sounds of the Uchiha's detailed fantasy cracking into tiny, tiny pieces, the vocalist sprang to his feet.
"So, what should we do for the rest of the night – since I've canceled everything else to hang out with yooou. Doncha feel special, huh? I mean, fuck practicing if Temari's going to get so high and mighty. She seriously doesn't understand – "
A desperate hand shot out and grabbed the blond's wrist before he pranced away. Naruto turned slowly, curiously, to stare down at the raven-haired boy. The long black strands of his girl's wig were falling all around him like rain, tumbling down against his white neck, the sharp angle of his shoulder, his clothed back… Despite his female appearance, Sasuke was staring at Naruto with a man's midnight eyes – black, bright in their blackness, asserting, demanding, yet lonely, lonely, lonely…
"Sa-sasuke sempai…?" The blond found himself being drawn in and asking those gorgeous eyes.
"If that's all we are, why did you kiss me on the forehead at the concert back then? Why did you give me the key to your apartment?" The Uchiha spoke as much with his piercing gaze as his husky voice. "Why did you pick me out of everyone else in the crowd with your eyes? Naa, dobe?"
"I – I…" For the second time that day, Sasuke saw the vocalist falter – those electric eyes fill with alarm, doubt, something akin to fear… Then, it was gone in a flash and Naruto was smiling shyly, almost apologetically, "B-but, that's what brothers do, isn't it?"
"Haa?"
The blond shrugged a shoulder. "Ne, don't you have any brothers, sempai?"
Sasuke paused for a second before replying, "Somehow I sense some huge dramatic irony as I say this but – no, Naruto. I don't. But what the fuck does that have to do with anything? What kind of brothers do that anyway?"
"What do you mean?" Naruto was genuinely confused this time, scratching his head. "I don't have blood brothers, but I might as well be with Kankuro and Gaara – and we kiss all the time. Well, not so much with Kankuro when he isn't drunk… but definitely loads of times with Gaara. Oh, Gaara's this kid our age, sempai. He's usually around too, but he's in Luxemburg this year doing some photo shoot with a big shot photographer. Anyway, I learned all my tongue action from him and girls just dig – "
"Usuratonkachi." The Uchiha all but gritted out, a throbbing vein visible now on the ivory temple. "You make out with your brothers – With Tongue – and you ask me how boys can have sex with each other? Dobe, your family's completely gay!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" The blond snapped, glaring. "Just because my family is a tad more touchy-feely than your family, doesn't give you the right to call us unwarranted names, sempai! And why are you so angry at me, anyway? All I wanted was for us to hang out tonight and you are getting your boxers in a knot over nothing."
"Hang out? Hang out?" Sasuke hissed, his eyes reddening in unadulterated anger. "Like brothers, huh, Naruto?"
"Yeah. Like brothers." Naruto hissed right back, his hands on his hips.
And in the next second, the blond was being dragged over the coffee table and slammed back on the sofa. His squeak of pain was effectively cut off by Sasuke's teeth-clattering kiss. The raven-haired boy's tongue was forcing its way into the blond's mouth, filling the hot cavern so fully that Naruto choked a little – trying to shove the bigger boy off. The Uchiha pinned the pushing hand down on the sofa and shifted his entire weight down on the vocalist's lean body.
And, in spite of his anger, in spite of knowing that other lips had contaminated his dobe's probably countless times before, Sasuke couldn't help silently moaning at the feel of their first kiss. The softness of Naruto's tender lips, the heady taste of his saliva, his heaving chest against Sasuke's own, the thrill that shot through him whenever the blond gasped into his own mouth like a dream…
But it was a dream. Kissing his idol was a dream that he could now feel with every part of his body that touched the warm, writhing one beneath him.
When the Uchiha finally relented Naruto's lips to nibble on his chiseled jaw, lick the curve of his Adam's apple, and kiss again and again the now sweaty neck, the blond yelled in between jagged breaths, "N-ne, Sasuke sempai! I think you are, ow! You are seriously abusing your brotherly privileges right now! This isn't exactly what I meant when I said we should – "
" – but dobe," Sasuke snickered, pushing down the neckline of Naruto's shirt to leave a series of hickies along that wonderfully slick collarbone. "This is how we do it Uchiha style. Are you making fun of my family now?"
"You are such a liar!" The blond panicked as the tongue started massaging lower and lower. "You just said you didn't have any!"
"No wonder I have so much pent up energy." Sasuke smirked, his hand traveling up and under the fabric and brushing against that smooth abdomen.
Fine. If Naruto was going to cockblock him with his warped sexual education, the Uchiha had other ideas. Even if it was quite a detour from his master mission plan, Sasuke would succeed using his newfound tools (though he seriously disliked the fact that they'd partly been made available by this Gaara guy – gah, the world was so chockfull of hidden enemies): "brotherly privileges" mixed with "living in Naruto's apartment from now on." If the dobe's mind was too obtuse to realize, the raven-haired boy would get through to him bodily – coaxing physical reactions so strong that Naruto had to see that he was better off milking Sasuke's dick…
"Gaaah! Sasuke sempai, you are twisting my nipple. Stop – stop dattebayo!"
Naruto sat an arm's length from Sasuke in the taxi, glaring at him seethingly. The blue light of the vocalist's eyes were blurred by the cheap plastic frames of the dark glasses he wore as a disguise, along with a hideous beanie, an ill-fitting pair of pants, and a putrid orange turtleneck… though the latter was more to cover the string of hickies in the shape of the Uchiha crest that one raven-haired boy had left. Sasuke had gone as far as to straddle Naruto and dry hump him, celebrating the fact that one, the dobe had been groaning full out, his voice loud and charged, and that two, the raven-haired boy no longer had to hide the presence of his penis from said dobe.
At last, though, the vocalist had managed to shove the other boy off – red-facedly demanding they engage in other forms of hanging out. That was why the two of them were back in a taxi (the same one, actually, because the driver had been left pitifully crying in the parking lot only to become further distressed when the crazy blond and scary brunet had gotten back onto the backseat again and demanded he chauffer them). The two were racing over to the Uchiha dojo because Sasuke wanted to move in with Naruto that very day.
"Look, Sasuke sempai." The blond finally snapped, turning towards him with a full-fledged pout contorting the sensual features. "Is, is all that stuff really normal in your family? That is, Gaara came on pretty strong sometimes too, but even he never, um, he never…"
With pink cheeks, Naruto said quietly, "Sucked on my nipples…"
The driver choked. Instantly, two crimson eyes were boring into the back of his head. Wisely, said driver decided to hum off-key and turn off his mind, just focusing on steering.
"Hnn," The Uchiha flipped the hair of his wig over his shoulder (it had been such a bitch trying to get the tangles out after wrestling with a certain dobe) and smoothly lied without blinking an eye, "My family has Italian roots. I'm one eighth Sicilian on my father's side and well…"
"Yeah, yeah. I've seen Godfather too, okay." Naruto huffed. "But, but still, this is Japan, so… so you should try to tone it down a bit here. Okay? Just normal stuff from now on. Only things like sleeping and bathing together, ne?"
Sasuke didn't know whether he should be excited (being in the same tub as a naked Naruto, ohboyohboyohboy…) or incensed (that sonuvabitch Gaara, his entire family was just so in the way). In a voice tight with a mixture of both emotions, the Uchiha replied, "I'll keep that in mind, usuratonkachi."
From then on, the ride was completely silent save a moment in between when the raven-haired boy reached out to take up Naruto's hand, this time in a gentle grasp. The dobe, though making a begrudging snort, responded with a soft squeeze back.
Furtively stealing a peek over his shoulder, the driver saw that the two, though looking out the window in opposite directions, were wearing identical, almost invisible, smiles.
Sasuke made Naruto stay in the car once they reached the dojo. No way in hell he was going to let the dobe enter the same building possibly containing his freak of a father, who enjoyed such perverted posters – and the first one who says hypocrite gets defenestrated, got that?
In less than five minutes, the Uchiha heir had pushed through the welcoming servants and collected his pre-packed luggage, which consisted of mostly Dead Last merchandise anyway. However, as he was leaving his room now in its pre-Naruto-phase again, he stopped his rushed pace and briefly entertained whether or not he should take the Neko Naruto poster with him. No. The raven-haired boy would soon be living in the blond's very apartment. Let the likes of Itachi yearn while staring pathetically at the tainted poster. Sasuke would have Naruto in flesh – in all the blond's warm glory.
But as Sasuke made his way out the wide, wooden front doors, he saw a sight that made his skin crawl.
There, wrapped in the red glow of the now setting sun, was Naruto. Leaning against the trunk of the taxi, he was fanning himself with his discarded beanie with the ugly sunglasses pushed up into the tangle of glowing golden locks. Of course he was gorgeous, though the bulky clothes tried in vain to hide it, but he also seemed so vulnerable at that moment, standing under the dark shadow of the one Uchiha Itachi. Even his father's simple stance was graceful and provocative somehow, the crimson sunlight glazing the glossy black hair that scattered on pale, pale shoulders visible beneath the sliding hem of the kimono he was wearing.
Sasuke stood as if bolted to the spot, he couldn't move as an unreasonable dread took over him. He watched, mesmerized, as an almost serene expression danced on his father's painfully handsome features as he said something to Naruto in an inaudible voice. In reply, the cute blond flushed with a foreign expression of his own. Wearing the relieved face of a traveler finally coming home, the vocalist fumbled as he patted down his pockets.
When Itachi reached into his robes for something, it was almost enough for Sasuke to lunge forward – but all the older man did was withdraw a ballpoint pen and a sheet of blank paper. Naruto accepted it graciously, using the car trunk as a table to scrawl a note and laughing inanely all through it.
Sasuke couldn't believe it: he was, indeed, witnessing that Itachi – evil, emotionless, epitome of perfection Itachi – ask Naruto, dobe extraordinare, for an autograph.
When Naruto handed back the leaf of paper, their fingertips touched and it was this offensive contact that brought Sasuke crashing back into reality. Reaching forward, the Uchiha heir spoke in an urgent voice not his, "Oi! Usuratonkachi!"
The vocalist jumped at that, whirling about, and it was this almost guilty reaction that tore at Sasuke's heartstrings more than anything else. Completely cured of his previous immobility, the Uchiha was between the two at once.
"Well, father." Sasuke gritted out like a threat, eyeing the older man. "We will be off now."
Itachi raised his eyebrows in mild admonishment, as if he was surprised at the hostility. "I was enjoying meeting one of your very talented friends, daughter, whose father I also have the pleasure of knowing." With that, he nodded in a welcoming way to Naruto. "You are a fine son. Your father would be proud."
His last words, of course, had a hidden, dual meaning: A vengeful rage sheered through the raven-haired boy, though Sasuke didn't show it save a flicker of reddening eyes. The blond, on the other hand, let out an awkward cross between an embarrassed giggle and a flattered chuckle and stuck out his hand for a shake.
"It was great meeting you too, Uchiha-san! I didn't know my dad had any friends in this area – ne, ne, you should come to my next gig, if you can manage to fit it into your busy schedule that is…" Naruto bubbled, then, catching Sasuke's loaded glare, hesitated. After a while of fidgeting, sudden understanding fleeted across the golden-brown features. In the next second, the vocalist darted forth to plant a loving kiss on Itachi's cheek.
"Sorry, Italian, right?" Naruto laughed, oblivious to the fact that both Uchihas were accordingly turning into stone at his number one surprising behavior. "I meant, uh, ciao?"
A/N: IT'S ANOTHER CLIFFIE! Muhahaha~~~! (now totally used to it, lithely evades onslaught of sharp stuff) I'm sorry gang. It's just so easy to do it in this fic, for some reason.
For future updates, please, please review – I know I'm bad about uploading promptly, but the reviews, even just a few words of reaction, really help me get in the mood to write more. If it wasn't for some of the really solid reviews I get, I'd otherwise never move my butt on this site.
Oh, and again, please check out the awesome fanarts if you want to know how Naruto might look like in this story – the pic is hot!
