A/N: Please DO NOT READ if you're NOT INTO YAOI.

Warning: Slightly OOC. It's shonen-ai, a love story between boys. Homophobics are forbidden here! They don't have ninja skills at all. They live in different era.

Pairings: SasuNaru, SaiNaru.

Disclaimer : I never own everyone in Naruto. T^T

Polling:

SasuNaru – 6

SaiNaru – 13

Hello! It's been half a year since my last update, right? LOL. Sorry, but i was really stuck with the plot. I never think the plot would be going this way. Since last chapter is about Naruto life with Sai, this chapter will be focusing more in Sasuke's side. Naruto is doing fine while Sasuke is searching for him. Let just say he lives happily with proper care from Sai.

Chapter 10: Who is the prince?

It was a silent night, with a swirling breeze and a pool of stars drawing the black-cloudless sky. Even the moon is showing itself beautifully. On such night, there's Sasuke sitting on his window, waiting for no one knows who. It was a month after he found out Naruto was gone once again. Still, he didn't have any plan to give up on Naruto. No, he didn't have any intention to let Naruto go from his life. He was stupid for letting him go the second time, but he's gonna make up for it.

"Sasuke?" He didn't bother to look at his brother, but let him into his room.

"You're still waiting for Hyuuga's reply?"

"..." He finally looked at his brother, "yeah. I need his help with this matter."

And with that short conversation, they went silent once more before Sasuke spotted Hyuuga's owl flying toward him.

Itachi left his brother's room after the said owl arrived with the letter of Sasuke's bestfriend, Hyuuga Neji. He knew Sasuke will need his support, and any other support in order to find Naruto, and he was all in to help Sasuke this time. He knew it will be difficult if it was indeed the rumoured prince who bought Naruto.

'They was silent to give Kakashi time to start what he knew about Naruto's patron. Kakashi sighed once before he opened his mouth...

"I only heard some rumours. I don't know for sure if this prince is the one who bought Naruto-kun."

"Just tell me what you know already!" Sasuke pushed.

"Okay. Okay. Like I told you, Naruto gained popularity not long after the previous oiran left the district. He basically replace the place of the number one oiran. Most of the costumers turned their eyes to Naruto, since he was the apprentince of the previous oiran."

"... The oiran.." Sasuke whispered, "someone named Kyuubi...?"

"Yeah. How came you know the name?"

"...Someone close to Naruto in the brothel said to me." He frowned.

"He was a legendary oiran, you know, with beautiful face and strong presence." He coughed, "Well... No one saw it coming. On a blink of the eye, Kyuubi was gone. He was bought from the brothel, and it was caused a little bit of a trouble for the brothel since some of the costumer kept asking for Kyuubi. Instead of Kyuubi, I heard they offered Naruto instead. Since that time, most of Kyuubi's costumers went to Naruto..."

"...and don't ask me how I know such information, Itachi." He held up his palm towards Itachi since he felt Itachi's strong stare at him.

"One time, the Suna's royal family came for a visit, and they went to the red light district to have a little fun from what I heard. That's how this rumour started. One of the prince was kinda forced to accompany his majesty to the district. The king was about to buy Naruto's service when his own son voiced out his own desire to buy Naruto for the night." He paused and looked at Sasuke's pained expression. He sighed before he continued,

"The king was satisfied to know that his son finally showed a sign of attraction towards other people so he let him had Naruto instead. But since that night, the nobles said that the prince sometimes came to Konoha just to visit Naruto on the brothel."

"... How come you're sure he's the one who bought Naruto?"

"I'm not that sure, you know, since he had a lot of nobles who interested to buy him. But since that time, it's well known that the prince favored Naruto's company. Even right after his majesty burial ceremony, he came to visit Naruto. He even asked for some advice on how to persuade Naruto to agree to his offer. He was rejected several time, I presume, but he never give up on the offering as I heard, since he still visit Naruto from time to time. What I'm not sure about is that the fact I didn't hear about his highness' visit this time around. So maybe it's not the case..." He finished his story, "What do you think, Itachi? Sasuke?"

The room was silent once again, all the occupants seems deep in thought. Sasuke had no idea at all about who it is since he was absent for too long.

"Kakashi-san, can you be more specific about the prince? As far as I know, Suna has two prince. Which one is it?" Itachi asked.

"Ah. I forgot. He's now the king of Suna dynasty."

"...The king...?" It came as a shock for Sasuke.

"Are you sure? He didn't seem to have any affection towards people, or so it seems..."

"Nah, you never know such thing, Itachi. That's why I told you that the previous king was overjoyed that his oh-so-axesual son showed some attraction towards Naruto."

"Wait a minute. Can you please enlighten me here?" He looked so confused and frustated.

"Ah, Sasuke. Calm down," Itachi began, "You might not know about this. When you're gone, the relationship between Konoha and Suna was getting better to the extend that we can travel to Suna whenever we want. Most of the time, it was Suna who came to Konoha for politics matter. If they came here, you can say they also go sightseeing."

"Yeah, and some of the higher-up knew about the king tendencies for young pretty boys, and asked if they're interested to look around the red light district. It was uncommon for a royal family to go there, but since he heard about Naruto when he was in Konoha, he decided to look for himself." Kakashi finished it up for Itachi.

"As far as I know, our majesty set up a marriage with Suna's royal family... Isn't it for the present king?"

"Tsk-tsk. No, I don't think so, Itachi. What I heard is, the present king declined the offer, so it went to his sister. I heard our majesty set some noble family into this matter, and Nara was chosen by the princess herself." Kakashi somewhat proud of his usually-unimportant information. It useful in this kind of situation.

"Suna, huh? What kind of person is the present king?" Sasuke asked.

"...I don't really know since I never meet the majesty myself." Itachi murmured.

"Well, well, well. I met him once when I visited our majesty. He has his father figure, as I recall... Hm... but he looked more scary compared to his father. He never smile and always had this serious expression on his face..." Kakashi closed his eyes and put his left hand on his chin as if he's thinking hard to remember.

"AH! He has this weird tattoo on his forehead, and he has dark circle around his eyes. You can say he seemed ruthless, ha-ha.."

"Kakashi! Don't say something rude about the majesty!"

"Ruthless?!" Sasuke cut off his brother before he scold their uncle.

"Maa-maa.. Sasuke-kun. It was his image, but I don't think he will harm Naruto since he favors Naruto to begin with."

Sasuke didn't answer. He looked deep in thought. Somehow it's not clicked. The story Iruka told him and what he heard from Kakashi didn't match.

'Is it possible that towards Naruto, he was so caring? But if he never smile like how Kakashi describe him to be, how come he always support Naruto...? Is it a different person?'

"Is there anyone I can ask around about the king of Suna?"

"Ah, fortunately, that Hyuuga kid is close with Suna's king. Maybe you can ask him." Kakashi dropped his last information, "I can only help you until this point, Sasuke. You have to find out the rest by yourself." And with that, he stood and left the room.'

From that point onwards, Sasuke had been looking for Neji, his best friend. Unfortunately, he was out to Suna a week before to take care of some business with the royal family. Even Hinata, his cousin, didn't know when Neji will come back. The only way was to send a letter to Neji. With Hinata's help, he got to send a letter to Neji, using one of Hyuuga's owls. Hinata was pretty insistent with this matter since she knew that the guard at Suna was pretty tight.

After waiting for a week, the second letter from Neji arrived safely on his hand. He was quite happy that Neji lent his hand to help Sasuke. He said in his first letter about his situation and that he need to meet the king of Suna for more information. Neji was pretty confused about the correlation between Sasuke's situation and how meeting Suna's king will help him out. But being the good friend, Neji asked Gaara's approval about Sasuke's visit. He was granted immediately. Now Sasuke was getting ready to go to Suna and face the said king.

His welcome was not grand. Not that he expected anything grand. He just expect he will see Naruto. But once again, his wish was not granted. Stood in front of him was the king himself, Neji, and some of the royal guards.

"...Welcome to Suna, Sasuke Uchiha." The red head king said softly, but in confidence.

"Thank you, your majesty." He bowed a little. He looked around, but found no Naruto. He frowned a little. He said nothing but to follow the king and his best friend to the castle.

Once he was arrived in the castle, he was brought to a grand room with a big table on the center of the room and a lot of chair surrounded the table. There, the king asked the guards to leave them behind for some privacy. Once the guards left, the king turned his body towards Sasuke, his eyes hard.

"I supposed you came here to speak about Naruto. Is that right?"

"So it's true that you know Naruto?! Where is he? Is it true that you're the one who brought him?!" Once he heard Naruto's name being mentioned, he lost all his composure.

"Calm down Sasuke!" Neji tried to calm him down.

"What? Do you think I didn't know what you did to him? What on earth do you think I will let you meet him?" Gaara glared. He was losing his cool.

"Gaara!" Neji begged, "I already told you, please talk about it calmly. I believe Sasuke have things to ask you about Naruto-kun."

"..." He only looked at Neji for a while and sighed. He didn't say anything before he sat down on one of the chairs.

"What do you want to know, Uchiha?" He spat the name with hate.

"Is it true that you're the one who bought Naruto?"

Gaara didn't say anything, just stare right through Sasuke. He didn't know if he should tell the truth, but he was sure that this man is the one who hurt his friend, Naruto.

"What you expected from me?"

"I want to know if you know where is Naruto!" He spat, "Please tell me!"

"Gaara, please help him out. I told you that he has been looking for Naruto all this time. You can see that he was sincere." Neji nudged the red head.

"...All I know that he hurted Naruto so bad, that he decided to do something reckless in his emotional self." Neji was shocked to see how angry Gaara was. He never see Gaara got this angry before.

"Even if I was the one who bought him, I wouldn't let you meet him!" He said before he left the room and left the speechless Neji behind with Sasuke.

"I'm sorry Sasuke, I never thought he will get angry," he sighed, "do you mind to tell me what's happened?"

"..." He looked at Neji for a while. Something felt odd between these two. No matter how close you're, it's not appropiate to call the royal family with such intimacy. He sighed before he told Neji the story about Naruto.

Neji didn't know how to respond to Sasuke's story. He felt bad for his best friend, but he also thought it was Sasuke's fault to begin with. No wonder Gaara was angry. He could only tell Sasuke that he will help him find Naruto.

"What I can tell you is, Naruto is not here. I arrived here from before Naruto's incident and he was always in Suna, so it's not possible. And to tell you the truth, Gaara didn't look at Naruto in romatic way, but more in family way. You can rest assured."

"...Are you sure? He didn't seem to..." He looked at his friend, "do you have something you hide from me, Neji?"

"W-wha–? No! Of course not..."

"...it doesn't seem that way..." He frowned, "the way you addressed him is way to intimate..." he trailed off... He tried to put the right word, but find it difficult. After observing Neji's reaction toward his suspicion, he finally get what's going on.

"Don't tell me, you're dating him?!"

Neji told Sasuke to shut up before nodded to confirm his best friend's suspicion.

"...That's why I can assure you he didn't buy Naruto or in love with him. It must be someone else, but I don't know who."

"...Oh shit! Now I'm back to square one. Shit!" He let his frustation out. Since it's not the king of Suna who bought his Naruto, he didn't have any clue left.

"But I think Gaara know who is it... since he still received a letter from Naruto this past week..."

"What!?" He grabbed Neji's shoulder, "Are you sure it was from Naruto?"

"Yeah, I think so. He never looked that happy when he received a letter. Ah, but he was really pissed after he read the letter... Now I know why..." He glanced at Sasuke.

He sighed. Not only he didn't find Naruto, but he also made the king of Suna, who appearantly Naruto's friend, his enemy. It wouldn't be easy. He had to find some way to convince the king to help him out...

"Neji... Can I ask you a favor?"

"...what is it?" He frowned. He didn't know if it was a wise choice to help Sasuke out anymore.

"Please help me convince your lover to spill some information about Naruto whereabout. Please!"

This is the first time Sasuke looked so desperate and not in control over his emotion. On the other hand, Gaara is not someone you can take so lightly.

He sighed, "Okay, I will try to help you... but I can't make a promise that he will reveal any information about Naruto." He looked at Sasuke seriously.

"It will take time to speak to him about it... for now, it's better if you rest in your room, Sasuke."

And with that, the conversation was ended. Now Sasuke could only wait for the king's answer...

TBC...

A/N: Hi! Thank you for all your review. I was away for a while now, I hope I still have your favor.. :D I kinda lost focus on the plot, so I decided not to continue the story for a while. Now I've decided on the ending, so please welcome me again. :D I will try to make it less complicated and end it in around 5-6 chapter or so, so please bear with me!

Yumenohime-sama