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 Naruto being too hot for his own good.)
Author's Note: Sorry for the long hiatus. I was abroad in Jaaaaapan. I updated Give You Back and Ultimate Uke Syndrome, so go check it out if you haven't! Without further ado, on with this story!
My E-mail: rosesareblue at ymail dot com (Write me with any comments, questions, 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 Eleven: For Itachi
"Are you just about done now, because you are kinda scaring everybody you megalomaniac little son of a bitch," Kankuro said affectionately, stroking his hot friends-with-lots-of-benefits on the back while taking a deep drag from his cigarette.
Naruto looked up from smashing Kankuro's rosewood coffee table apart with Kankuro's number one wood. The blond had met Ino afterschool. He had accepted her embrace and her shyly offered gift. He had confirmed that the present was indeed an obscure recording of his late parents from their high school days. And, not wanting to face practice with Temari and the rest of the band or home with Sasuke, he had done what any teenage boy on the brink of emotional breakdown wants to do: sought out his playboy older brother in his snazzy bachelor pad, snubbed sex with one of the beautiful women who happened to be there, became intimate with his brother's close friend Mary Jane instead, and went on a destructive rage with expensive golf clubs.
"I can hear you," Naruto barked, pausing in mid-smash. "Turn up the volume. You can barely hear my mum's fantastic guitar rift."
Kankuro shrugged and reached for the volume with his foot. Clicking the up button with his toe (for the channel and not the volume which was already on max, but the little tyke need not know that), Kankuro grinned as he watched his adopted brother scream like a banshee and stomp on the coffee table's remains. The hot friends-with-lots-of-benefits in his lap shrieked when Naruto started hurling golf balls at the Victorian vases across the room and, grabbing her discarded bra off the couch, hightailed it from the room with her equally hot friend who was sobbing in the corner (her pride having been duly hurt when Dead Last's vocal, on seeing her naked, had asked for golf clubs). But what did women know about successful psychological therapy – as this clearly was. Naruto was blowing off steam and Kankuro now had a great excuse to replace furniture that looked like Temari had picked it out – which she had. Rosemary? Victorian vases? In a bachelor pad? C'mon! If it weren't for the naked and signed-with-lipstick posters of gravure models on the walls, women would start questioning his sexual orientation… and it wasn't like Kankuro was Gaara. He couldn't get laid despite questions of gayness – or even because of those questions. Damn that little eyebrowless freak for getting the lion's share of looks in the family…
"WHY ARE THEY SO GOOD, HUH?" Naruto roared, starting at the widescreen television. Kankuro almost rose to stop him, but let it go when he realized the blond was leaving the Wii completely unharmed. Stoned as he was, Naruto apparently retained some sense.
Or not…
"THEY WEREN'T EVEN FUCKING POPULAR! AND HE SOUNDS BETTER THAN ME AUTO-TUNED! FUCK DAD! NO, FUCK ME! FUCK ME WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE I'M NOT EVEN A MUSICIAN JUST ANOTHER MOVING PHOTOSHOPPED POSTER BOY WHEN I HAVE THESE INCREDIBLE GENES WHAT THE FUCK!"
Kankuro snickered. "If you say 'fuck me' one more time, little brother, I'll actually do you – and then Gaara will smash more than my coffee table. Go straight for my balls, probably, and I value those a lot more than the Victorian vases…"
"AT LEAST GAARA IS INTERNATIONALLY HOT! ALL I'M GOOD FOR IS LOCAL LIP GLOSS ADS THAT I WOULDN'T BE DOING IF I SOUNDED LIKE MY TALENTED PARENTS WHO WERE OBVIOUSLY STINGY WITH SHARING MUSICAL BLOOD! NO WONDER TEMARI DOESN'T WANT ME!" Naruto homerun slammed the television, sending it scuttling across the living room.
"Look, I think Temari was already out of the question when you asked me to mix your vodka with apple juice." Kankuro lit another cigarette. "'Ruto, 'Ruto. So you're hot and some stupid girls notice that first. It's like how we notice their boobs before we notice whether or not they have tattoos on their inner thighs…"
"WHAT?"
"I'm just saying, let the public get to know you. Soon, they will notice that you sing some too."
"NOT LIKE THIS!" Naruto swung his club around and made a jabbing motion towards the sound system. "I DON'T SOUND LIKE THIS…! I'LL NEVER SOUND LIKE THIS! ALL I AM IS A LUCKY SON OF A BITCH WANTINGS THINGS I DON'T DESERVE WHEN I NEVER HAD ANYTHING SPECTACULAR EVER COME OUT OF MY MOUTH!"
As the Dead Last vocal finally turned towards his last prey, the sound system blasting musical genius, the track changed. The final song was a soft rock ballad. After a series of strummed, sensually contained chords, his father's voice crooned about broken dreams, cursed blood, and red eyes.
"Hmm…" Kankuro reached for the CD case. "This one's a little different…"
"…off…"
"The song's titled 'For Itachi'. Itachi? Whozzat? Someone your folks knew?"
"I SAID TURN IT OFF!" Naruto made a beastly lunge towards the stereo and smashed his hand against the eject button.
"Geez, calm down." Kankuro grabbed the remote and turned off his sound system. "Want me to get you something to drink? You coming off the high or something? Throw up in the bathroom or I'll kill you."
The blond remained crumpled amongst the broken glass and wood, his knuckles white from grasping the edge of the stereo. He muttered, over and over, "That's not for me. That song's not for me. It's meant for someone else. Someone special."
Naruto tugged his cap down to cover his ears and adjusted his dark glasses on his nose. Kankuro had finally kicked him out of his house, telling him to wander around town and cool his head until there was at least some new furniture for him to destroy. But the blond hated crowds. In them, somehow, he always felt terribly lonely – so many people, it seemed, but none of them knew him. Or, rather, acknowledged him for the things that he wanted so much to be acknowledged for.
So he was walking in the opposite direction of downtown. Naruto took out his cell phone from his jean and realized he had accumulated 273 messages in his two days of going missing. Most were from Temari, crammed with threats of what fatal crimes would happen if he didn't show up at tomorrow's photo shoot. The rest were from the band, Ino sempai, Hinata and Sakura sempai…
…and, of course, Sasuke sempai.
The blonde sighed, clutching his phone, and reading again and again the raven-haired boy's short messages: "Where are you, dobe?" "Come home already, usuratonkachi." "Look, I have miso ramen. (pic attached)"
Naruto liked Sasuke. Heck, he was kinda obsessed with Sasuke. The Uchiha could always drive him crazy with one snarky comment – and that was just too interesting, wasn't it? So Naruto had kept the raven-haired boy close, to keep things alive, real, meaningful. But now the Uchiha was too close for comfort. The sex wasn't necessarily what freaked Naruto out – they had fun physically and that sexy bastard had a sensuality no female could match, so what? Sasuke had said so himself, they were between love and hate; Naruto figured it was all fire, not a romantic involvement…
No, what bothered Naruto about Sasuke was that the bigger boy was now too close for his opinions on Dead Last music to matter, which was hands down the most important thing. The raven-haired boy's eyes, however good they were, couldn't be trusted to see the blond's real value anymore. He might as well be part of the estranged crowd that wanted him for all the wrong reasons. Although, Sasuke was indeed different in that… unlike the crowd, Naruto wanted him too.
"Look, look, look!"
"Ohmigod, I love this one!"
"That's Uzumaki Naruto, right?"
"Duh! Every time I see him I want to RIP MY HEART OUT AND BLEED LOVE!"
The vocalist flinched, thinking he'd been recognized. But what'd caused all the excitement was a Dead Last promotional video playing on the wide-screen television of an electronics store. Naruto's eyes narrowed as he recognized which pv it was. The one he detested the most. The song, like most of them, had been composed by Shikamaru and was called "Konoha." It was a gorgeous melody that the blond had believed deserved some artsy, maybe abstract footage, by smart people who knew those things.
Instead, it featured no one in the band but Naruto. Running. That was it. It was a PV of Naruto running through various scenery wearing a bunch of costumes, most of them he had to admit were kinda slutty. What baffled the vocalist to no end was that though it was virtually an imitation of an Animal Kingdom documentary, it still had been the most popular of all of the Dead Last PVs.
What the fuck. Seriously. Maybe the melody had carried it through? Come to think of it, it reminded Naruto a lot of his parents' song "For Itachi"…
The Dead Last vocal stopped short in his tracks. Itachi-san. That was it! Itachi-san, having known his parents, would be able to see Naruto for the failure he was and, finally, finally, tell it to his face. It would be such a relief, to have that true opinion out in the open, by someone who saw his value clearly…
The blond turned on his heels and ran towards the Uchiha dojo.
Naruto paced in front of Uchiha mansion, until one of the maids finally peeked out and asked shyly, intimidated by the blond's obnoxious shades, "I-if you are looking for Sasuke-sama, the young mas-mistress is at school."
The rock star shook his head furiously. "No, I…"
Suddenly, a hand dropped on the dobe's shoulder. Naruto swiveled about and found himself looking up at the red glowing eyes of one Uchiha Itachi. The blond blushed. Such pretty red eyes…
"Itachi-san!"
"Itachi-sama!" The maid nearly folded in half with her bow.
Ignoring her, Itachi gently pressed Naruto's shoulder. "Come with me."
For some reason, the older man's elegance made the blond blush darken. "S-sorry to bother you."
"You are never a bother."
After that, the kimono-clad man and the badly dressed boy made their way to Itachi's private office. Once there, Naruto felt even more awkward on noticing that one embarrassing poster that Sasuke sempai had wanted. What was it called. Meow Naruto or something?
The blond tried to laugh it off, indicating the poster. "You have some weird hobbies."
The older Uchiha was unfazed. "Why? You are beautiful, just like him."
At that acknowledgement, Naruto found himself blabbering, "Did you know my parents? Since when? How?"
Itachi offered the boy a seat, before sitting down himself under the giant poster. Instead of answering Naruto's question, he called the dojo kitchen on his desk phone, asking for refreshments. The vocalist realized, flaming bright crimson, that if he looked up at the poster from the angle he sat, he could see Itachi-san between his own thighs.
Shit.
Only when the tea and dangos came, did Itachi answer Naruto's question. "Your father and I went to the same boys' boarding school since childhood. My eyes were weak then, so I visited the Namikaze household frequently for checkups. We became friends quickly."
"That's right. Dad's pops was a doctor, I remember…"
Itachi let a gentle smile spread over his white sculpted features. "When I was little, the only thing I saw clearly was your father's voice. I was a big fan. Still am."
In the older man's piercing red-eyed stare, Naruto felt his heartbeat quicken. He knew. Itachi-san did know his parents and understood.
"This!" Naruto cleared his throat when his voice cracked and said again, "U-um, this, I wanted to give it to you. This CD has the song 'For Itachi' in it, so I thought I should… return it to you."
Itachi raised his eyebrow, exactly like Sasuke did, and flipped Naruto's precious CD over in his graceful hand. Then, to the dobe's utmost shock, the older Uchiha tossed the CD into the nearby trashcan.
Naruto saw red and felt the demon in him burst to life, screaming and raging.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" the Dead Last vocal roared, darting to retrieve his treasured CD. "THIS BELONGED TO DAD!"
Itachi, however, was very calm. "I dislike it. Actually, I hate it. Especially that song."
"TEME!" Naruto was on the desk now, fisting the front of the bigger man's kimono. "I'LL KILL YOU-"
The Uchiha shrugged. "There's no truth to it. His voice is trying too hard to please in that song. It was one of your father's few misses."
"WHAT DO YOU KNOW? IT'S GREAT – THE BEST!"
Itachi smirked. "Perhaps compared to your band's new single."
Naruto reeled back as if the other man had slapped him, though he had prepped himself that they were the words he wanted to hear. Wounded, he growled like a fox, "I, I wrote the lyrics of that song. It topped Oricon charts!"
"So I've heard…"
Itachi grabbed the boy's wrist, hard, so the other relaxed his grip with a cry, his voice ringing with surprised pain. A sensual, needy pain.
"Your voice is fantastic, Naruto. Glorious," Itachi whispered. "But you are too immature to be a composer yet."
Naruto felt something inside him snap when he heard those words. He stared at Itachi, who looked identical to a grownup version of Sasuke, and met his gorgeous crimson eyes that were just as the song described them. Cursed and filled with broken dreams. Then, the Dead Last vocal started to laugh, maniacally. He laughed and laughed and laughed until he felt tears come to his eyes. Then, Naruto doubled over on Itachi's desk, crying at the top of his lungs.
"I'm trying hard," the blond wailed. "I really am. I want to be good. I want to be great. It's just… really hard."
Itachi laid a hand on Naruto's head. "I know. I know."
It was a long time until Naruto stopped crying. When he did, he crawled off Itachi's desk and briskly tossed his parents' CD into the trashcan. Watching him, the older Uchiha's face lightened in satisfaction.
"Don't be afraid of your parents. You can overcome them. You can be greater. Give yourself time to grow as a musician."
Naruto looked up at Itachi's gorgeous crimson eyes once more and loved, for the first time, his own pained reflection glistening in them.
Never had Temari thought of Naruto as a man. From the moment the yellow ball of fire angrily stomped into her life, he had been one of her brothers. Dancing and screaming with him at a rock concert, watching him cry over the death of his parents and feeling her own heart break, scolding him and Kankuro for hiding porn in obvious places, putting a blanket over him and Gaara sleeping on the living room sofa, Temari had loved the dobe like family.
But, for the first time since knowing Uzumaki Naruto, she thought: Naruto had become a man.
He barely showed up in time for the photo shoot that day, and Temari was having a nervous breakdown – nervously breaking everything and everyone in sight. Even Shikamaru had given up on trying to calm her down, and had retreated to the makeup room to avoid her wrath. But Naruto breezed in without a word of apology, and then the whole set had changed. Makeup and costumes were done in a breeze; half the staff had half a crush on him, anyway. He had brought along a book for the waiting Kakashi, albeit NC-17, and the latest fashion magazine for Iruka. During the shoot, he was the charismatic center of every photo, his expressions poignant, his very aura commanding, and even the grumpy photographer seemed not to be able to get enough of the vocalist, apparently having forgotten that Naruto was the one late in the first place. The blond also put his teammates at ease, joking about being hung over after Kankuro's.
When he finally came over to Temari and asked for the week's schedule as though nothing was wrong, that's when she thought for a split second that, yes, Naruto had grown up.
"What's with you today?" she demanded, raising an eyebrow. "You are being awfully professional. What? Not gonna give me crap about these photos being for a girls' magazine and not some music review?"
Naruto gave her a sly wink. "What? You want me to give you crap?"
Temari folded her arms over her ample bosom and glowered. "Don't fuck with me and tell me what you are up to, Naruto."
"What? I can't be in a good mood?" The blond grinned his trademark feline grin. "I guess I'm coming to terms with the fact I have to do some tap dancing to be able to stay in this business, all right? I still have a long way to go."
"How did this awakening happen?" Temari asked, not hiding her surprise. "Being in love has this many positive side effects?"
"In love?" Naruto cracked up. "I said I was in a good mood!"
"Good mood. Change of attitude. Maturing overnight. Sounds like dictionary definition of love to me." Temari's big sister's instincts kicked in and she teased, "Neeeeee, Ino treating you okaaaaaaay?"
Naruto jerked up. "Ino sempai? Ohmigawd, I forgot all about Ino sempai!"
"What? There's someone else?" the publicity manager groaned. "Ruto, Ruto, c'mon. Go easy on me; I'm the one that has to deal with the psycho press. Well, who is it? That girl you ran off with that day? What's her name? Sasuko or whatever?"
Before Naruto could answer, Shikamaru walked over, "What's going on? Did Naruto do something again?"
His fiancé stamped her feet. "He's swapping horses in the middle of the river."
"Huh?"
Temari pouted. "I said, Naruto has a new flame. He's not telling me who."
"I am not in love, I didn't say love…"
Despite the blond's protests, they were instantly joined by Kiba, Chouji, Kakashi, and Iruka, all speaking at once with their eyes shining in curiosity.
Kiba collared a sheepishly grinning Naruto and shook him. "It better not be Hinata-san. Leave pure Hinata-san alone and stick your dick in something else, you manwhore."
"Ino lasted quite a while for you, man," Chouji put in. "Lost money to Kiba saying it'd only last a month and it's been over three months. Your all time record."
"Naruto, you can come to me anytime to ask about technique." Kakashi indicated his book. "As your sempai in life, I will not abandon you."
"I already thought up couple outfits for you and Ino to wear in your next interview." Iruka sighed. "Tell me the new girl's blonde too. Or at least that's she has the same skin tone."
"If, if this is love then I…" Naruto cocked his head to one side and said in innocent surprise, "I think I'm gay."
The stunned reception was interrupted by Temari breaking out into insane laughter and thumping her chest in maniac victory. "OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!"
Shikamaru restrained his obviously crazed fiancé as everyone took a step away from her. "Okay, why does this news make you so happy Tem?"
"I'm just relieved. And here I thought this scandal would hurt business, but Naruto being gay? Why didn't I think of it myself? It's beautiful! It means big bucks with fangirls…" Temari trailed off suddenly and paled. "Unless... is he ugly? FUGLY? Oh no! Damnit, I'll kill you if he's fugly, so spit it out truthfully!"
"Bet that really will make him want to speak truthfully," Kiba said dryly, glad it wasn't Hinata because, cough, Hinata was the girl among girls.
"Technically, aren't you bi?" Chouji said. "I mean, you seemed to like girls well enough before. In fact, you liked three girls at once that time we went to Osaka…" the drummer trailed off as Temari's paleness turned angry crimson. "And by 'like' I mean, you played checkers into the night with three girls that time in Osaka."
Naruto shook his head. "It's different now. What does sex have to do with anything? Heck, I won't have sex unless he wants to."
Even Shikamaru did a double take. "Holy shit!"
"You are an alien that infested Naruto's body!" Kiba accused. "And took over his dick!"
"Where did you put the real Naruto, alien freak?" Chouji demanded.
"What are you going to do with that rumored inhuman stamina of yours then?" Temari wondered out loud, practical as always.
"His penis will internally combust," Kakashi answered sagely, the same time Iruka said, "He will go to a temple and die."
Naruto sulked. "Look, I wasn't that much of a playboy, all right?"
That got a hooting reception.
Naruto puffed out his cheeks. "Ino's my first girlfriend since I joined, isn't she?"
"Yeah, but that just makes things worse," Chouji cracked.
"Playing checkers with a bunch of girls who aren't even your girlfriends… shame on you," Kiba agreed.
Finally, Shikamaru recovered enough from laughing to ask through gasps, "Well, who is it? Your new precious person?"
As Naruto turned bright red, Kakashi said, "All things considered, it's me since… only I'm capable of causing such a drastic change of sexual orientation. I'm afraid I am a man of many sins. Woe is my sexiness."
Iruka clucked his tongue. "Naruto has taste and good sense. So I bet it's me."
Kiba rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. "Sorry, Ruto, I like girls myself. But you can hang around if you want. We'll be good friends."
Chouji flexed his muscles. "I guess it doesn't bother me, since sex won't be part of it. C'mere, old boy."
Temari stubbornly pushed a resisting Shikamaru forward. "Idiots. Obviously, it's my fiancé because he's that hot. Is it Shikamaru, Naruto?"
The cameraman appeared behind them, saying hopefully, "Maybe it's me?"
Temari's eyes narrowed. "As long as it's not the camera guy, we are good. We'll sell lots of nice doujinshi. So… Naruto?"
Naruto shook his head and laughed. "I want him to be the first to know, in any case. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go talk things over with Ino sempai."
Watching the vocalist head out, Temari nudged a surprised Shikamaru and said, "Hey, you think it's serious this time?"
Shikamaru shrugged, a little worried.
Naruto met Ino in an abandoned park near her house. She took the news of his coming out better than most girlfriends might have: she simply punched her rock star lover in the face, kneed his jaw, finger-hooked his nostrils, tripped him, and bit his leg until he cried uncle. Then Konoha's Madonna burst into tears against her bruised and beaten ex-boyfriend, weeping girlishly, "No, don't leave me! You said you loved me, you traitor!"
For his part, the Dead Last vocalist patted her back comfortingly and said sorry over and over again. Finally, when her crying died down, he said through his thick lip, "I'm doing a terrible thing to you, sempai. I… I don't think I've really been in love before, so I didn't know what an awful thing I was doing by asking you out with… with my shitty reasons. Thinking you'd replace someone else."
Ino reached around her neck to undo Naruto's jade necklace. "I guess you want this back to give to your new beau, huh?"
"Of course not. You keep it." The look in Naruto's eyes that moment made Ino's heart skip a beat. "You rescued me from me, and for that I'll be grateful to you always."
They sat in each other's company for a long time after that. "Ne… is he… the guy… related to Sasuke-chan?"
Naruto flailed around in a way that made his answer all too obvious in Ino's eyes. "How do you know that?"
"Call it a woman's intuition," the blonde girl said dryly. "I ran into him the other day; he seemed to like you too."
The vocalist shook his head furiously. "There's no way. He sees right through me. Why would he bother with some idiot like me?"
"Wow, for a rock star, you sure have self-confidence issues." Ino sighed. "Fine, I'll settle for being your go-to person for relationship advice, so…"
She looked into Naruto's beautiful blue eyes and, for the first time, her voice shook.
"Please think of me preciously still."
At that, Naruto hugged Ino tightly. "I am sorry. I am sorry I hurt you."
The proud Ino let herself be held like a close friend and said, half-laughing, half-sobbing, "You… you should still give me front row tickets for your concerts?"
"Promise."
"For my friends too…?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, then. I guess. Okay, then."
Naruto entered his apartment for the first time in three days. The day before, he had invited Ino over to Kankuro's for a private party and drowned out his step-brother's hitting on his ex-girlfriend by sprouting his in-the-closet issues (with the help of vodka and apple juice, once again) and soundly putting them both to sleep. Then Naruto had skipped school for one more day, singing all day in a low profile karaoke shop, remembering but not regretting his parents' CD and remembering and regretting very much Itachi-san's smile. It felt different singing when your heart was breaking. And, for the first time in his life, the Dead Last vocalist's heart was breaking. He had lost his parents, and with them he had lost his ability to value himself. With them, he had lost his ability to love from the bottom of the heart and only sought the comfort of owning things and winning things.
But now Naruto had the ability to love fully, and it wasn't a happy change. It hurt, loving someone. It hurt because, for the first time, Naruto wasn't scared of what he might really be worth. He was scared he might not know the value of someone else, and hurt them too with his ignorance.
And, in his new hurt, his voice came out all pretty and strong and like his father's.
When the blond opened the door to his apartment, Sasuke was sitting on the sofa without a single light on. He didn't greet the dobe, only shutting off the stereo that had been playing Naruto's latest song, the one that the vocalist himself had composed, the one that'd topped Oricon charts and the one that Itachi-san had disliked.
"We all know you're emo, Sasuke," Naruto joked lightly, heading for the kitchen for something to drink. "You don't have to advertise it by making our apartment a creepy tomb."
"Is it our apartment, dobe?" was the resentful reply. "When you're troubled, you abandon it and don't come back home. How is it ours, then?"
"Don't lecture me." The blond came back and sat on the sofa, throwing Sasuke a beer and opening one for himself. "I have no voice for that today. Sang myself hoarse, sempai."
The raven-haired boy set the can on the coffee table. "Were you at Ino's for the past three nights?"
Naruto chugged the can and crushed it in his hand before taking up Sasuke's discarded beer. The Uchiha intercepted him, and used his hold on the dobe's arm to pull the smaller boy towards him for a kiss. Naruto averted his head.
Looking down at his lap, the blond whispered thickly, "I broke up with Ino sempai."
Uchiha Sasuke had been spitting mad at the usuratonkachi for avoiding him and had made up his mind to unleash a silent fury on Naruto once he returned (silent fury included angry sex, obviously). Only those words could have melted that anger, and the dobe had said them. I broke up with Ino sempai. I like you, so I broke up with Ino sempai…
Sasuke embraced Naruto, so close that he could feel the dobe's heartbeat against his own chest, hear the husky breathes in his ear, smell the scent of the city off the blond's hair. Sasuke's hand forced under Naruto's shirt, fingering the smooth muscles in the vocalist's back, the slick shoulder blades. And it was in that pose that the vocalist spoke, calmly despite the presence of the Uchiha's growing erection prodding his thigh, "I broke up with Ino sempai because I am in love with a guy."
Those words sealed that perfect moment. A practically giddy Sasuke, so glad after his three days of turmoil, leaned into kiss his uke, but once more Naruto averted his head.
"I am in love with a guy who isn't you, Sasuke sempai."
The two boys faced each other, one frozen in surprise that hadn't quite sunk in and the other in quiet determination. They sat that way for a long time, until finally, they were interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell. Naruto rose to answer it, leaving the Uchiha still silent in his shock.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were in – woah woah woah!"
There was a huge crash from the doorway. Sasuke rose, almost zombie like, to see what more could possibly happen in this awful nightmare of his. Because, it had to be a nightmare. After Ino, not again, not this bullshit again… But by Murphy's law, he found Naruto sprawled on the floor with a tall willowy stranger wearing a heavy black coat snoozing on top of his chest.
"Are you stoned? Get up, jackass!" The usuratonkachi, obviously familiar with him, grabbed the stranger's shoulders and shook him until the thick felt hat and dark glasses fell off, revealing red, red hair and black, black eyeliner.
The stranger fluttered his long black lashes and Sasuke saw a flash of the greenest eyes he'd ever seen.
Gaara yawned and said in a deep, ringing voice, "I am home, Naruto."
Author's Note: Remember to leave me any comments, questions, or suggestions. You can also catch me on Yahoo chat if you've emailed me there before. Like last time, way back when, I'll include a couple of reviews in my next chapter to be discussed (coughmoreliketornapartcough) by the Dead Last cast, so please leave some words!