Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but the storyline and situations are mine.


When Sasuke woke up late on Saturday morning to a message from Minato inviting him out to lunch, he wasn't quite sure what to make of it. His confusion only grew when he went down for breakfast and Itachi had asked him in a cautious voice, "Why would Minato want to have lunch with me?"

"You got the message too?" Sasuke frowned, sitting down at the dining table with his mug of coffee, "You think he changed his mind about letting Naruto come live with us?"

Itachi pondered that thought before shaking his head, "He strikes me as the kind of person who never makes a decision without considering all the consequences. Since he's decided to let Naruto move with us, he's not going to go back on his word." The older Uchiha took out his phone, re-reading the message, "The only thing that's clear from this is that Naruto isn't going to be joining us."

Sasuke stared down at his mug, not noticing that the beverage was going cold, "Hn."

Itachi walked over to tap his brother's forehead with two fingers, smiling down at him when Sasuke glanced up, "I'm sure blondie is fine, Sasuke. If Minato is doing this, it's probably because Naruto asked him to."

Sasuke sighed, taking a sip of coffee, "I think this has something to do with his past. I asked him about it last week, and he said he'd tell me. Maybe he asked Minato to make some excuse for him."

"Or maybe he asked Minato to tell the story for him. Perhaps he, like you, can't quite put everything into words. I was the one who told him our story, remember?" Itachi frowned slightly though, "If you're right though, I wonder why I was included in the invitation."

"Naruto felt that you had a right to know." Minato explained from across the table an hour later as they were seated in a fairly up-scale Italian restaurant. The Namikaze had got them a private booth that would allow them to speak freely without worry of being overheard or watched. Blue eyes, so like his son's yet so different at the same time, met Sasuke's gaze, "Naruto came to me earlier this week and explained that he wanted you to know everything, that it was only fair that Itachi knew as well since the story he had been told was not yours alone."

"This isn't a matter of 'you show me your scars and I'll show you mine'!" Itachi protested, frowning, "I never told Naruto with the intention of having him feel obliged to tell me about his past."

Minato chuckled, "More than a month of knowing my son, and you still don't quite understand him Itachi. Though I suppose I can't blame you, Naruto can be confounding in the best of times." He reached out to place a comforting hand on the older Uchiha's shoulder, "Naruto sees you as family; he has since day one. Sasuke has become his future, and you have become a symbol of his home. Naruto has never had someone quite like you in his life before; someone he could confide in and turn to for advice without fear of judgement or reproach. The fact that he went to you when he was troubled over Sasuke's behaviour only goes to show just how much you've come to mean to him. He trusts you implicitly, and he saw proof of your trust in the way you bore yourself to him when you told him about your past. He wants this to be his proof. Would you deny him this chance to show you how much he cares?"

Itachi blinked and swallowed around the lump in his throat, leaning back in his seat. He felt his brother's eyes on him and met Sasuke's understanding gaze. No one knew better than him how easily Naruto could overwhelm you with his love.

Letting out a shaky sigh, Itachi nodded, giving Minato the signal to continue.

"Well, in order for you to understand Naruto's past, you first need to understand the nature of my job. I'm sure you already have some idea regarding that, Itachi."

The older Uchiha nodded, "You move from nation to nation aiding politicians in their campaigns, usually with great success. You've been behind the campaigns of all five of the current Kages in the Great Nations; Raikage, Tsuchikage, Mizukage, Kazekage and Hokage."

Minato smiled, continuing where Itachi had left off, "As you can imagine, the job involves a fair bit of travelling. The duration of each job varies depending on the responsibilities I've been given. If I was only placed in charge of the election campaign, as was the case with Tsunade, I work to gain public favour for the candidate and help secure the seat for them; it takes a maximum of two years. In other cases where I've been asked to glean a wholistic outlook on how people feel about the newly elected Kage or who poses a danger to the seat, the job can drag on for several years; the maximum I've experienced is six. During this time I live in all the major cities in the nation, staying a year in each location, getting a feel for the people, the atmosphere, etc."

"Like an infiltration mission." Sasuke murmured, his mind wandering to how Naruto had helped provide a majority of their ninja props for the previous day's obstacle course. His obsession with ninjas made more sense now.

"Naruto and Kushina…they would move with you as you worked?" Itachi asked, arching a single brow.

Minato nodded, "Naruto grew up in this manner, moving from city to city, unable to make lasting connections, having to pack up, move and start over every time he managed to finally make some friends. I grew up in a similar way; Jiraiya and Tsunade loved to travel and it was exciting to meet new people and make friends in different places. My only excuse for not noticing how badly my lifestyle was affecting Naruto was that he looks and behaves so much like me sometimes that I forget to consider the fact that he's a different person with different needs, that what made me happy, might not do the same for him." The Namikaze sighed, running a weary hand over his face, "Naruto's performance at school began slipping when he was around eight and I'm ashamed to say that that was the first time Kushina and I thought to look into what Naruto's school life was like. He was always so happy, laughing and smiling, talking about all the things he did at school, complaining about his teachers…just so normal, we never thought to consider something might have been wrong. Parent-teacher meetings hadn't given us anything to worry about either, but we realised later that that was because the teachers had no idea what was going on."

"What was going on?" Sasuke asked, feeling a sense of foreboding. He knew he wasn't going to like what he was about to hear.

Minato looked down at the table surface, "Despite all the love we gave him, Naruto was starved for affection in school. Moving every time he managed to make a friend didn't help either, and it left him so eager to please, so eager to be liked, that he was vulnerable to the sheer cruelty of children."

Sasuke's fists clenched and beside him he could feel Itachi stiffen. Unbidden he remembered his first meeting with Naruto, how nervous the blond had looked, and the way he'd rushed through all the words. "We haven't officially met. I'm Naruto Namikaze. I'm seventeen, new here and would really like to be friends because I don't want to be that weird new kid everyone stares at on the first day of school."

He closed his eyes and let out a long breath, trying to ease the tension that had built up within him. When he opened his eyes once more he met Minato's knowing gaze and nodded jerkily, and the Namikaze began speaking once more.

"I'm not sure now which school it started at, but it was during that six-year stint I mentioned earlier, my last assignment before I helped Tsunade become the Hokage. The Land of Water isn't very large, so a majority of its cities were close to each other, and several families were spread out in them. Naruto was five when we moved to the first city. From what I've understood from talking to him now, his need to please, to be liked, to make friends, made other students in his class purposely avoid him. He told me that he ignored it in the first school and managed to make a few friends, but then we moved, and the process started all over again. The proximity of the cities worked against him and soon the students knew who he was before he even stepped onto the school campus. No one gave him a chance to be their friend, stating that there was no point when he'd just be gone in a year anyway." Minato's hands clenched as he let out a shaky sigh, "Kushina and I were worried about the treatment he was getting, yes, but we didn't realise just how serious it was. The point was driven home for us when Naruto was ten and we'd moved to our last city in the Land of Water. Just one more year and we'd be going somewhere new, and when I'd asked Naruto if he was okay with that he'd smiled as usual and assured me that he'd be fine and not to worry. On the first day at the new school, Naruto went missing."

"What?" Sasuke's voice was low and dangerous, "What the fuck do you mean by missing?"

"Sasuke." Itachi's tone was one of reproach, though it was strained, "Naruto is fine now. He's with us and safe, obviously, so whatever happened, he got through it alive and unharmed. Let Minato finish speaking."

"Not unharmed." Sasuke bit out raking both hands through his hair, "This…" He took a steadying breath, "This was when he got those scars, wasn't it?"

Minato looked like a man defeated as he met Sasuke's fierce gaze, "Let me get through the rest of the story, Sasuke. If I stop now, there's no guarantee I'm going to be able to start again."

Letting out a frustrated growl, Sasuke sat back, and Minato took that as his cue to continue.

"One of the clans I'd identified as a threat decided to make a power play. They didn't have any children Naruto's age, and the school had a strict policy against allowing people who weren't students or parents of students onto campus, so I wasn't worried about Naruto. Of course, I'd underestimated both their resourcefulness and the level of sheer stupidity in badly raised children." Anger bled into Minato's voice now, "Members of the clan bribed a few students in Naruto's class to lead him out into the bad side of town during the school's lunch break. Thinking it would be grand joke to play on the new kid they'd already decided not to like, the little idiots complied and lured Naruto out of school with promises of friendship and secret games. Naruto didn't have a chance; the clan caught him and threatened his classmates to keep their mouths shut about what they'd seen. They'd done such a thorough job of frightening the kids that it took us over twenty-four hours to finally find out who had taken Naruto and why. We found him pretty quickly after that, these guys weren't professionals and once we knew where to look we found their trail easily. Naruto was kept in a broom closet, in the dark, with the door shut and locked. He wasn't yelling or screaming when we found him, but his voice was hoarse suggesting that he'd done a lot of it before we showed up. He had a few bruises on him, but the most worrying injuries were the three whisker-like cuts carved into either cheek. The clan's symbol was a cat, so they thought it would be amusing to leave their mark on my son as a sign of what they'd managed to pull off. The cuts had been made soon after he'd been taken and left to bleed. In the dankness of the closed space the wound easily became infected, and I knew before we rushed him to the doctors that no amount of medicine would be able to completely heal the scars."

Minato's face became stony, and his voice cold, "Once Naruto was in the hospital, I proceeded to destroy the clan in the best way I knew how, and it ended in the clan being disbanded and their wealth being taken away from them. The ones responsible for kidnapping and harming Naruto were put to death by the Mizukage." Minato allowed a moment of silence for the information to sink in, "Naruto woke up three days later, and he behaved as if nothing had happened to him. Kushina and I wondered for a while if he'd just blocked out the memory, but it quickly became apparent that that wasn't the case. Naruto was more wary around strangers, he was more nervous about starting at a new school, he despised dark, enclosed spaces, and he would always change the subject when we tried to talk to him about the incident. His way of dealing with it was to try and pretend it had never happened, but it's affected the way he lived his life since. When he was fourteen, Kushina and I decided to see if some stability would help him, making the decision to stay in Suna even after Gaara had been made Kazekage, but Naruto talked us out of it, saying he only had a few years left of school and he didn't want me to give up a job I loved because of him. I tried to argue, but once he's taken a stand, Naruto is hard to shake. Fast forward three years, and here we are."

Silence reigned in the small booth for several minutes before Sasuke suddenly stood, pushing his chair back so hard that once his weight was no longer holding it down, it fell over with a clatter. A hush fell over the restaurant as several of the patrons looked over, but Sasuke ignored them, grabbing his jacket and phone before stalking out of the establishment. Minato watched him go with sad blue eyes, "I wouldn't blame him if he never forgave me. I don't even know how Naruto could."

"It wasn't your fault." Itachi managed in a strained voice, eyes trained on the tabletop, "None of it was your fault. Naruto is a bit of an idiot, always worrying about everyone else and never wanting people to worry about him. He's like that now, and from your story I can see he was like that then. He feels others' pain as if it were his own, and he likely felt yours at being unable to help him as well. He would never have blamed you for what happened, and when Sasuke clears his mind and thinks about it, he won't either. Before my little brother can do that though, he'll need to see Naruto."

Minato let out a short, surprised laugh, "At this point nothing about those two should surprise me."

Itachi looked up, his brows furrowing in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, when Naruto asked me to tell you both his story, he told me he couldn't be with me while I told it, but that he needed to be close by. He drove here with me, and he's waiting outside." Minato shook his head, "He must have known Sasuke would need to see him."

Outside, Naruto fidgeted nervously, leaning against his father's car, glancing at the entrance of the restaurant every-so-often. He didn't know how long he'd been standing there when he felt Sasuke step outside. He glanced over at the entrance and there he was, waving away the valet irritatedly, his expression pinched and his hands visibly shaking as he fumbled with his phone. Naruto quickly made his way across the parking lot, knowing that it was a testament to how shaken Sasuke was that the Uchiha didn't sense him approaching.

He took Sasuke's phone from him and tucked it into his back pocket, catching the shaking hands with his own and squeezing, blue eyes searching black as Sasuke's gaze whipped up in surprise. Sasuke's eyes were filled with raw emotion; pain, hurt, anger, helplessness all rolled into another all-encompassing emotion. Naruto leaned forward to rest his forehead against the Uchiha's, not caring that the valet was gaping at them or that his father and Itachi were likely on their way out as well. All that mattered was the boy in front of him, the boy who'd somehow managed to become the centre of his whole world.

"I'm right here, bastard." His words echoed those that he'd said in the Hokage's home when Sasuke had had his breakdown, "Breathe." He tilted his head to brush a kiss to trembling lips, "I'm right here with you and I'm not going anywhere."

A shuddering breath left Sasuke as he pulled his hands free from Naruto's grip and curled them around his waist, pulling the blond forward so he could tuck his face into the crook of Naruto's neck and hold him tightly. Smiling softly, Naruto lifted a hand to rest on the back of Sasuke's head, curling his other arm around his waist as he walked them backward out of the doorway and off to the side. As if on cue, the door opened and Naruto looked up to see Itachi and Minato standing at the entrance, watching Sasuke cling to him. Itachi's eyes looked as pained as Sasuke's had been, and Naruto shot him a reassuring smile, being sure to keep his arms unmoving around his bastard. He looked to his father and said quietly, "I'm going back with Sasuke and Itachi. Is it okay if I spend the night?"

Minato smiled softly, stepping forward to press a kiss to Naruto's forehead, looking fondly down at the dark head that was still pressed against his son's neck, "Of course." He made to turn and go to his car when a thought seemed to strike him, "Oh, and since our weekly family lunch didn't happen today, it's postponed to tomorrow. I expect to see you boys at home by twelve."

"Right." Itachi said with a slight smile, before turning to give the still-gaping valet his ticket. When the man didn't move to take the ticket, he arched a single brow, "I'm sorry, are you being paid to stare at my family?"

Blushing deeply, the valet immediately snapped to attention, taking the ticket and stammering out apologies before rushing away to get the Uchihas' car. Naruto chuckled, shaking his head, "That was mean."

"Sasuke, are you planning on letting go anytime soon?" Itachi asked, bemused.

"No." His voice was muffled against Naruto's skin, but the response was clear enough. Naruto and Itachi exchanged amused smiles, and the blond tightened his grip on his boyfriend, "If you're not careful bastard, I'm going to think you really like me or something." He teased lightly.

"Shut up, usuratonkachi. I'll let go when I'm ready to let go." Sasuke said firmly, his own arms tightening around Naruto as he breathed in the blond's scent, allowing it to soothe the turmoil in his heart.

Sasuke finally fell asleep while holding Naruto, both of them stretched out on the couch in the Uchihas' house with Itachi lounging on the armchair close by. Naruto leaned back just enough to be able to look down at Sasuke's face, brushing black bangs from his pale forehead, "He didn't take it too well, did he?" He mused, combing his fingers through Sasuke's hair, whether to soothe himself or the Uchiha, he wasn't sure.

"He was understandably upset." Itachi said, watching his brother sleep with a soft smile, "He loves you, Naruto."

The blond chuckled, "I know. And I love him too. I don't know if we'll ever get around to saying the actual words, but we both know how we feel." He looked at Itachi fondly, "I love you too, you know; in a totally platonic big-brother way."

Itachi laughed, "Same here, blondie; in a totally platonic little-brother way." He ruffled Naruto's hair as he usually did Sasuke's and sighed, "Those were some pretty horrible things to live through."

"The three of us have had our share of living through horrible things, definitely." Naruto met Itachi's gaze, and his smile was positively radiant, "All that means though, is that we have only the good parts of life left."

Itachi grinned, "That's certainly a nice way to look at things."

"How's the house search going?"

Itachi shrugged, "Nothing yet. We have a pretty specific idea of what we want, so it'll probably take a while."

"I want to move before Christmas." Naruto said decidedly, "We'll get a huge tree, and decorate it properly; I'll even make the bastard help. And then, we can have a big party on Christmas Eve with our friends, and call my parents over on Christmas Day for lunch! Maybe Gran can come as well. It'll be awesome!"

Sasuke grumbled, annoyed at Naruto's loud voice, making the blond chuckle and press a kiss to his forehead, "Oops. Sorry, bastard."

Itachi hummed contemplatively, "Move before Christmas, huh? Let's see."


Sasuke blinked, looking around him at all his classmates laughing and cheering. They were all wearing dark green robes, the kind the senior class usually wore when they graduated. He looked down at himself and his brows furrowed as he realised he was wearing them as well.

"Sasuke." Itachi was there beside him, smiling proudly, "Congratulations."

Sasuke smiled, "Yeah, thanks. Where's Naruto?"

Itachi's smile faltered, "What?"

Sasuke frowned, looking around, all his other friends were there talking to their parents and celebrating their graduation, but Naruto was missing. "The idiot did manage to graduate, right?"

"Sasuke." Itachi's smile was gone now, replaced by a pained, haunted look, "Don't do this today."

"Don't do what?" Sasuke scowled, "Where's Naruto, Itachi? What's going on?"

"Little brother, Naruto died." Itachi said slowly, his eyes filling with pity and heartache.

Sasuke froze, his blood rushing in his ear, "Shut up."

"Sasuke."

"No! Don't touch me! What the fuck do you mean, he died?!" Sasuke cried, slapping away Itachi's outstretched arms, "He was fine yesterday. I was holding him, and he was alive. He was fine!"

"Sasuke, calm down." Itachi's voice sounded more distant.

"He was fine." Sasuke chanted under his breath, "He was fine. He was alive. Please."

His eyes snapped open to complete darkness, his heart beating a mile a minute. Panic flooded his senses as he shot up in bed looking wildly around him. Naruto. He had to find Naruto. His usuratonkachi couldn't be dead. He had to be alive. He had to be—Sasuke's eyes fell on the sleeping boy in bed beside him and the relief he felt was profound. A dream. A fucking dream.

He reached out blindly to hold his hand out over Naruto's face, feeling his breath fan against his fingers, before running his hand down the blond's chest to rest over his beating heart. Sasuke closed his eyes, allowing the proof that Naruto truly was alive and well calm his shot nerves.

"Mmmnn." Naruto stirred, his hand reaching up to close over Sasuke's, "S'uke? What are you doing up?"

"Go back to sleep." He said softly, knowing he himself wouldn't be able to follow his advice any time soon. If those were the dreams that awaited him, he'd rather not sleep.

Naruto's eyes blinked the sleep away slowly, and his hand tightened around Sasuke's on his chest, understanding lighting those blue depths. He didn't say anything, only reached out with his free hand to brush a thumb under Sasuke's tired eyes.

"I can't lose you." Sasuke breathed finally, bowing his head, "I can't. I won't survive it, and I know that sounds pathetic and ridiculous but it's true. I won't. I wouldn't even want to."

"Sasuke, I'm not going anywhere." Naruto said softly, turning the hand he held so he could lace their fingers together, "I told you before, didn't I? I won't leave you alone."

"Don't make promises you can't keep." Sasuke said, shaking his head, he could make out the defeated tone of his voice and though he hated himself for it, he couldn't erase it. "Look at the amount of shit that's already happened in our lives. We clearly don't have much to go on by way of luck. Who's to say something horrible isn't waiting around the corner?"

"Sasuke." Naruto breathed, sitting up to face the Uchiha, "Why are you torturing yourself like this?" He pressed their foreheads together, gathering his thoughts for a moment before speaking again, "You're right, shit happens in this world and sometimes we have no control over it. Planes crash, bombs get detonated, people go on crazy shooting sprees, volcanoes erupt, earthquakes take place; and all of these things leave death and destruction in their wake. But the possibility of any of these things occurring to us is slim to none."

"Our pasts suggest—"

"Our pasts were shit not because of some uncontrollable event, bastard. Even just one decision made differently by our parents or ourselves would have changed the outcome drastically. Our pasts happened the way they did because we were too young to realise just how much we could have changed." Naruto said, blue eyes blazing as he held Sasuke's defeated gaze, "As long as I have any say in the matter, you aren't going to lose me. I will always choose to make the decision that would bring me back to you safely. Do you trust me enough to believe that?"

Sasuke looked away, his dream too fresh in his mind for him to really believe what Naruto was telling him. Being happy wasn't something he was used to, and he was terrified that it was going to slip away from him. It had before.

"Sasuke, look at me." Naruto ordered quietly, "Look at me." Black eyes turned obediently to face him, and he looked into them, waiting until they focused before speaking, "We make our own destiny, and if we decide we're going to live happily ever after, then short of our world imploding, it will bloody well happen. I will make sure it happens. If you can't trust life, then trust my words. I never go back on my word."

"Naruto." Sasuke shook his head helplessly, "Don't. You don't know what could go wrong if you make statements like that."

Naruto groaned, "God, I wish that Danzou fucker was alive just so I could kill him with my own hands for doing this to you." He sighed, "Fine, bastard. I'll let it go tonight, but consider my words a promise. We're getting our happily ever after, and you're going to see you don't have to go through life waiting for things to go wrong. Sometimes, things just go right, and all that's left for us to do is to enjoy the life we've made for ourselves."

Sasuke digested the words, still uncertain about whether to truly trust in them, but Naruto was done with talking for the night. He reached out to wrap his arms around Sasuke and pull him down beside him, curling around the Uchiha's warm body as he adjusted the sheets to cover them so they were snug and warm. Pressing his face into Sasuke's chest and inhaling his forest and rain scent, Naruto sighed contentedly, closing his eyes, "I'll ask Dad if I can sleep over here for the next week. I don't want you to be alone if you have another nightmare."

Sasuke scoffed, but it sounded weak even to his own ears, "I don't need a babysitter."

"How about a boyfriend who loves you? Do you need one of those?" Naruto asked sleepily, nuzzling Sasuke's pale skin, not noticing the way the Uchiha froze at his words. It was just for a moment though, before Sasuke bent down to press a kiss to the already sleeping blond's forehead, "I already have a pretty great one." He murmured.

He didn't know how long he stayed awake fighting sleep, before it finally won him over, thankfully though the nightmare didn't return.


Whew. Information overload. Let me know what you guys think!

In other news, I think the story is done on my side - all that's left is to put it up. I'm going to go through some major Naruto withdrawals.

~Living to Laugh and Love