Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the songs used.
iMove In
Author's note: Thank you all reviewers! ^_^ Old and new. I've enjoyed reading your comments, and I must say: I ADORE YOU ALL! (ahems) Well. About this particular chapter now… I decided to let you take a little glimpse into Sasuke's life since I've done it mostly about Sakura. Now you get a background check on Sasuke. ;) Italics are Sasuke's memories.
-xxx-
Sakura awoke to a dulled pain on her back that immediately put her on edge. It wasn't extremely intense, but it was still enough to irritate her. 'What…what happened?' the rosette thought as she lay there. Struggling to sit up, she arched her back… and instantly felt a throbbing, burning sensation run through the center of her back. The pink-haired girl hissed before she slowly lowered herself back down. "What the hell happened…?" she murmured to herself.
She tried to recount yesterday's happening… and with the brokenness of an old VCR tape, she remembered. The cold, the class… the acid burn. She shuddered when she remembered the sick way the acid ate away at her skin, clutching the sheets tighter. But that was when she remembered a major detail: 'If I fainted in the classroom, what the hell am I doing here?'
Sakura let her senses overtake her, letting the surroundings soak in. She was in a bed, a translucent white canopy draped over oak shielding her from the outside. Her hands ran across the bedding. Nice, silky dark blue sheets.
She felt panic slowly rising in her. 'Deep breaths, Sakura, deep breaths,' she told herself. Yeah. Like those help. Knowing that she was unable to get out of bed without falling flat on her face, the rosette knew there was only one option left for her. Taking in a deep breath of air, Sakura let out an ear-piercing shriek.
-xxx-
There were only three words that described Sasuke that morning: fucking dead tired. It practically took the entire night to pack up Sakura's things and shift them over to his gigantic mansion. Even after he was done, he had to wait in the hospital so that he could get directions from the doctors about what to do and what kinds of medicine he was to expect. Right, right: why doesn't he just go to a regular doctor for pain meds and go to a regular pharmacy to pick them up and let the regular campus nurse take care of Sakura? Psh! Please—Uchiha Sasuke was anything but regular. Say that he was regular to his face and I'm sure you'd expect a bloody nose the next millisecond. Besides, no one can trust the campus nurse with those homicidal fangirls roaming around. Who knows what would happen next? (i.e. "accidental" tossing of syringes, overdose on pain meds, wrong fluid infusion, etc.)
So yeah. Sasuke was officially dead. Up until he heard the most frightening noise of his life. Something that oddly sounded a lot like Sakura's screaming. Jolting out of bed, he dashed down the hall to the guest room he had put her in and yanked open the door. "Sakura?" he called as he rushed towards the bed. Jeez, even when he's worried he's monotonous.
The raven-haired man pulled open the canopy. Sakura lay in the middle of the bed, her pink hair fanned out across her cyan pillow and matching sheets, green eyes wide open. She jerked her head in his direction and, as if she was injected with a depressive, visibly relaxed.
"Oh, Sasuke-kun," she breathed, "it's you."
Sasuke ignored her hello and moved closer towards her shaking body. "What's wrong? Why'd you scream?" he asked bluntly. He gave her a cursory look to see if her conditioned had gotten any better. From the looks of things, the scar hadn't gotten any better (judging by the look on her face), but it seemed like she was managing about it. Her face looked flushed and warm, her cheeks rosy pink from (possibly) the fright she had gotten when she woke up in a different surrounding.
He watched as the rosette took a deep breath, admiring the way the silk of her nightgown moved with her chest.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun," she murmured, pulling the dark blue sheets toward her. "I didn't know I was in your house." She gave him a small, sheepish smile. "I've never actually seen your rooms, so…"
Sasuke sat himself down beside her on the bed and scowled. "Hn," he breathed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "You should be sorry, little girl." Another scowl. "Waking me up is a crime."
Sakura let a smirk of her own play on her lips. "Oh really?" she pursued playfully. "And how do you expect me to pay it off, Uchiha-sama?"
"Hn. That's Sasuke-kun to you," said the raven-haired man as he leaned in closer toward her, placing his lips right next to the girl's ear. "And I'm going to show you how you'll pay for your crime, Sa-ku-ra."
He felt her shudder and gave a smirk, pulling himself away from her ear and roughly planting a kiss on the girl's rosy lips. With her permission, Sasuke slipped his tongue into her mouth, exploring every crevice. They did so hungrily, passionately as if nothing else in the world mattered but each other. It wasn't until Sakura pulled her head away that they realized they were having trouble breathing. With the feel of Sakura's lips away from his own, Sasuke decided to explore the rest of her, breathing in her scent and marking the skin on her neck with love bites. He chuckled when he heard the way her breath hitched when his lips made their way to a sensitive spot on her neck. Testing the waters, the raven-haired man clamped his lips down on it. She moaned, the sound resonating in his ears. Sasuke clenched his jaw when he felt his pants grow tighter. God, the things she did to him. And she didn't even have a clue. He made his way down to the valley of her chest, smirking when he felt her shudder and grip his hair in anticipation.
But then she realized something, bringing back the talk she had with Karin and Ino just a day or two ago. She could almost hear the conversation again:
"Have you and Sasuke done it yet?"
"Hey! Isn't that a little personal? And besides… what if I'm not, you know… ready yet?"
And that was just it: she wasn't ready. She couldn't do this yet. Not yet.
As gently as she could, Sakura placed two hands at his chest and pushed him away, giving him a small smile when she saw his confused face. "Um, Sasuke-kun, can we go downstairs and have a bite to eat or something? I'm kind of hungry."
With a nod (even though he seemed kind of annoyed), the raven-haired man pushed himself off the bed, pulled away the canopy, and walked over to the closet where he had put all of her clothes in last night.
Sakura sighed before she dragged herself out of bed, feeling that uncomfortable twinge in her back. She glanced over to where Sasuke stood, over at the closet picking out some clothes that looked strangely a lot like hers.
"Uh, Sasuke?"
The raven-haired man, not bothering to look up, gave a grunt.
Sakura stared at the purple shirt that Sasuke held in his hand. It was a blouse with shoulders that poofed out a little and little fluffs of fabric that decorated the chest. Definitely not one of Sasuke's shirts. Actually, it looked a lot like one of Sakura's own purple shirts. The rosette pointed a finger at the shirt, hoping very much that the shirt was not Sasuke's. "Is that your shirt?"
Please, please, please, please don't say 'yes'!
Sakura watched as her boyfriend shifted his eyes towards the purple shirt. "It's your shirt." He eyed the pink-haired girl. "Why?"
Realizing her mistake, Sakura stood there in the uncomfortable silence and shifted her weight onto one leg before replying, "I… thought it was your shirt."
Sasuke raised his eyebrows. Very slightly. He pressed his lips together. This was the first time in a long time that he wanted to laugh. "You thought it was… my shirt," he repeated slowly, trying to make sense of what the hell went on in the girl's brain.
"Wait a sec, what's my shirt doing in your closet?" Sakura asked, advancing toward the closet. She yanked the doors open. All of her clothes from the dorm were neatly hung up, wrinkle-free. At a loss for words, Sakura looked to her boyfriend for an explanation, eyes wide in disbelief.
Sasuke gazed back at her with the same intensity before he shrugged and handed her the purple shirt and a pair of jeans. "You're living with me now. I moved all of your stuff in last night when after you took your pain meds at the hospital." He pointed to a nearby bedside drawer. "And if you're wondering, your iPod's on that nightstand." He walked over to the door. Before he was about to walk out of the room, Sakura stopped him with a "Wait!"
The rosette looked toward his figure. "Why'd you just move me in? I mean, isn't this a little too soon?"
For a moment, he didn't move. Then, he turned to look over his shoulder. Only pure seriousness painted his face. "Actually"—his eyes seem to take on a new gleam—"I think it was too late." He turned away. "Seeing you with that scar on your back"—he paused, thinking of ways to not sound like he cared, like he was weak—"it's made me think that I haven't been keeping my eye on you enough. They hurt you." The next words nearly made Sakura's heart stop. "And I don't want to see you like that again."
With a mumble of "I'm going to get changed," the raven-haired man departed, leaving the rosette all alone.
Sakura listened to his footfalls while she soaked in the new information. "He moved me in…" she whispered, walking over the nightstand and picking up her iPod. "He moved me in…all in one night." She held the iPod to her chest, squeezing it with both her hands. Oh, God… it must have been that bad. I mean, she was just joking at first about homicidal fangirls, but… just seeing and feeling the maliciousness was enough to make her freak. "She meant to kill me…" she whispered. "She wanted to kill me." She squeezed her iPod tighter. And Sasuke… the notorious Uchiha who was infamously known to never have cared for anyone or shown any sort of emotion…
He had done this all for her. "Sasuke-kun," she murmured, "do you love me?"
Psh. Girl, why don't you ask him yourself?
'Wait a sec, girl,' Inner Sakura spoke up, 'Sasuke-kun's never said he loved you! So why the hell would he start now, ne?'
Way to ruin it, Inner.
Outer Sakura frowned. 'But he's played songs for me that practically tell me he loves me…'
She swore she heard her inner self scoff. 'Yeah, but he actually has to say those three words, moron.'
Touché.
"Aw, shut up, me," she told her Inner as she walked to her bathroom. After a run through of her daily routine and a nice change of clothes, Sakura slipped on a jacket and carefully walked toward the stairs. If she sped-walked or ran, her acid-burned back tissue would stretch. And hurt. Sakura grabbed her pink earphones and slipped them in her ears, thumbing through the list of songs before one caught her eye.
Existentialism on Prom Night
By Starlight Run
Huh. She remembered this song so well. In fact, she probably still knew the lyrics. A small smile crossed her face. She pressed the center button, tucked the iPod away, and listened as sad piano music filled her head and soul.
When the sun came up, we were sleeping in
Sunk inside our blankets, sprawled across the bed
And we were dreaming…
When Sakura got to the kitchen, she looked around. Huh. No Sasuke, here. He was probably still upstairs getting ready. 'Well, might as get familiar with the kitchen.' The rosette raided the fridge and found some eggs and bacon. Guess the boy doesn't just eat tomatoes, ne? She got out some pans and started the stove fire, already cooking the breakfast. She listened to the song as she cooked, humming along to the tune she knew so well before she just decided to burst out singing.
And so she did.
Sing like you think no one's listening
You would kill for this, just a little bit
Just a little bit, you would, you would
Piano music invaded once more after the last two words, drumming up emotion. Sakura danced gracefully across the kitchen, butter in hand. Lighting up the fire on the stove, the rosette picked up where she had left up on her sing-along.
Sing me something soft, sad and delicate,
Or loud and out of key, sing me anything!
She sang, sang like the song told her to while she flipped the bacon, like she thought that not a single person was listening. Well, or so she thought.
"Having fun?"
Startled, the rosette turned toward the kitchen door. Leaned up against the frame of the door, Sasuke stood with a small smirk on his lips. He looked… nice in the morning. His hair looked fresh from the morning shower—curious though how it always seemed to defy gravity—and his face brighter than usual. His usual clothing wasn't that unusual, consisting just of a simple black polo that had his family's fan displayed proudly on his back and a nice pair of faded jeans.
Sakura watched as he pushed himself off the door frame and approached her before she gave a sigh. "So much for singing like no one's listening…"
Smirk. "You should do it when no one's listening."
The pink-haired girl gave an angry hrumph! "Asshole," Sakura mumbled, scooping out the eggs out on to some nearby plates. She let the bacon to fry a little more, teasing it the same way her mother had taught her.
He watched her as she pouted, his eyes practically gleaming in amusement as he admired the way her face was adorned with faint tints of pink when she was embarrassed or angry. 'Hn,' he thought as he leaned against the door frame, 'when did she get so… sexy when she's frustrated at me?'
Pushing himself off of the door frame, Sasuke sauntered over to his pink-haired girlfriend and gave her a kiss on the neck. "Hn. Of course I'm your asshole." When he saw the color on Sakura's face flare, he smirked, knowing he had done his job right, and went to set up the table.
Sakura tried to shake off the feeling she got with Sasuke's advances. "It's nothing," she muttered to herself, now ignoring the song on her iPod. "It's nothing…" She brought the plates to the table and sat, lost in her thoughts as she ate.
Semi-lost in thoughts, that was. If only the pain in her back would just go to hell…
They ate wordlessly, only giving each other the occasional fleeting gaze. It was all silence until Sasuke said, "Is the burn bothering you?"
Sakura swallowed her bacon. "Not really. Only if I stretch the scar tissue. If I keep taking the pain meds and not bother it, I'll be fine." She grinned.
He nodded. "Good. Don't do anything that'll irritate it further." Stuffing the last pieces of bacon down his throat, he got up, went down the hall, and grabbed an elegant-looking overcoat that seemed to say You will respect my authoritah!. Or something like that.
Sakura looked up from her breakfast, her eyes following the young man. "Sasuke-kun, where are you going?"
"Getting ready to go to work," he answered back from the halls, his toneless voice echoing off the walls.
Abandoning her breakfast, she followed him in to the halls. "Work?" she repeated. "I didn't know that you actually held down a job."
"Hn," Sasuke snorted as he came out of the halls with a shiny black suitcase. "How do you think I manage to support this estate of mine?"
Touché.
"But wait, Sasuke-kun," Sakura continued despite his biting remark, "if you have a job already, why do you keep going to college?"
Sasuke shrugged. "My uncle employs me."
"Eh?"
He sighed. This might take a while to explain to her. Taking a glance at the clock and seeing that it read a good forty-five minutes before he actually needed to head off to work. Sasuke took Sakura by the arm, led her into the kitchen and seated her down. "Sakura, do you remember anyone from my family?"
Cocking her head to one side, she thought a moment and nodded. "Yeah… there was your older brother. And your mom and dad." Then she frowned. "But I've never known that you've had an uncle."
That was right—Sakura never knew that he'd ever had an uncle. In every single aspect of their childhood together, Sakura remembered seeing Sasuke's family a few times. She remembered Sasuke's family being head of a company. Because of it, the Uchihas never really had time to socialize, but when they did, they were normally over at her house due to parties her parents always seemed to throw, and because of those parties, she met the Uchiha family: Fugaku, the father of the household; Mikoto, the kind, caring mother who Sasuke seemed more attached with when they were little (she could still remember); and Sasuke's older brother Itachi, mysterious, aloof, but always loving of his younger brother. Those were the only family members of the Uchiha family that Sakura knew existed. But hey: who could blame her? Usually Sasuke was at her house. It was never the other way around.
Sasuke nodded. "Yeah. Itachi and my mother and father. You remember what my father was?"
"Uh-huh. Head of a really huge business," Sakura responded, the memories as crystal clear as day. She watched as Sasuke's eyes went glassy. It almost seemed as if he were looking at something far away and out of his reach.
"Aa. Father was the head of the business industry. He was a brilliant business man. Did everything. Everything in our lives was perfect: our house"—he gestured towards the ceiling—"our jobs, our clothes—everything. And then…" He remembered. Oh, God, he could remember the fear, the loneliness, the denial he felt…
"I-It's okay, Mom, it's okay—I know you're just sleeping. You're just sleeping. Please stop scaring me."
Sakura saw the look on his face, the look that a child would make if he was lost and alone. She spoke her next words carefully. "And then what happened, Sasuke-kun?" she asked quietly.
His mouth felt dry, his next words came out almost as a whisper. "They died."
The people from the morgue watched as the raven-haired boy tried to bring back the bloody bodies to life. "C'mon," said the fourteen-year-old as he frantically shook his mother's body, "C'mon, Mom, this isn't funny—I-I know you're just sleeping. A minute after you'll wake up a-and the joke'll be on me, right, Mom?" His eyes, wide and naïve, searched for any signs of life.
His mother didn't reply. She was quiet, looking like she was almost smiling as if she had died a peaceful death. Tears streamed down the sides of Sasuke's face, blurring his vision and his sense of reality. Seeing how his mother didn't reply, he gently let his mother down and, trembling, turned to his father.
Despite his tears, he cracked a smile and tried to laugh. "Dad," as he shook his father's shoulders, "Dad, don't play along with her." His voice faltered and broke. "Please, this isn't funny." Sasuke shook his shoulders. "C-C'mon, Dad!"
Shook them again a little harder. "Dad, this isn't funny!"
No. No. He wouldn't believe it. He couldn't believe it. This was all a dream, a dream… he'd wake up soon and his parents would be there, happy and alive like they were hours ago. But… it all seemed so real.
By now, Sasuke was basically thrashing his father about; the sobs were wracking his throat to pieces. "Goddammit, Dad, don't fuck with me!"
Sasuke raised a hand to smack his father's blood-deprived cheek—and was stopped by a smack to his own. The raven-haired boy dropped to his knees and held his cheek, trembling with shock by the fact that he'd been stricken. "Get up. You're acting weak," said a voice next to him. "They're dead, Sasuke." The fourteen-year-old looked up and saw his brother, almost a mirror image of himself except for the clear five year difference, standing beside him, tall and emotionless: Uchiha Itachi.
"…What?" The word was said softly in disbelief.
Sakura's voice drew him back to reality. Sasuke gazed at her, still able to hear the remnants of the past playing over and over in his head. He mentally scolded himself for losing himself like that.
"They died," he repeated, this time a little more grounded to reality. "A car accident. Died on impact." He swallowed to wet his parched throat. "They never wrote a will, so my uncle Madara took over the company for us because Itachi was still a college student without a major and I was just starting high school."
Her eyes softened. "Fourteen-years-old…" That was around the time that the Trio (you know, including Naruto in their little coupliness makes three) were just in high school. She lowered her eyes. "I'm sorry. I never knew."
Sasuke smiled bitterly. "There were a lot of things you never knew about me."
At those words, Sakura felt a twinge, and not one that she would get from the acid burn on her back. She pressed her lips together, trying to make it so that the words she so wanted to say wouldn't come out. Of course she wouldn't know; Sasuke would never tell her things like that. He wouldn't trust her to become a part of his life. "I'm sorry," she whispered once more.
"Hn. You don't have to be," the young man replied before shifting his gaze elsewhere. "A few years later after the accident, Itachi—he'd gone out this one day—never came back. It was just me"—his hands visibly clenched on his overcoat—"and Madara-oji-san. I don't live with my uncle, so he employs me so we can still keep in touch."
Sakura kept her eyes on her boyfriend, thinking of ways she could try and break into his thoughts. "What happened to Itachi-nii-san?"
No answer at first. But after a drawling sigh from Sasuke, he answered, leaning back in his chair and running a hand through his hair. "I don't know exactly."
Sakura stared at him, watching in astonishment as Sasuke's face took a questioning turn: he was in doubt. His face, usually totally devoid of emotion, looked now as if he had reverted twenty years back into the past when he was merely four and had lost his way home. His eyes, usually obsidian-black and soulless, were shining with uncertainty. It was a total transformation. And Sakura was scared. "Sasuke-kun?"
In that moment that she spoke his name, all of that disappeared: his frightful face, his shining eyes both returned to normal. "Hn…" he said, knowing that he had shed more than an iota of emotion.
"What exactly happened?" she asked again quietly, her green eyes shining.
Sasuke looked into them, those green, gorgeous orbs, and found himself thinking about the last time he saw his brother. Tearing his gaze from her face, he looked out of the nearby window. He didn't know… was he really ready to open up to someone else about his family life…? Family had always been a touchy subject with him…
(Flashback)
A raven-haired young man sat at a desk in a semi-lighted room, studying for an exam. He ran a hand through his rebelliously spiked hair. His face seemed to say that he was a few years younger than he really was—perhaps about sixteen. He stared at the blank sheet in front of him and sighed, pushing away the paper of logarithms and exponential functions and scratching his head.
"Dammit," he muttered, looking over the paper once more before he erased his work. Turning around in his swivel chair, he called out to the halls, "Itachi-nii-san!"
The older Uchiha came in from the halls, a towel draped over his long black hair that he normally kept tied back in a loose ponytail. Apparently he was in the middle of changing when Sasuke had called for him; only a pair of fitting jeans was on him. His chest, firm and slightly muscular, gleamed with droplets of water. "Nani, Sasuke?" he asked from the door as he wiped his forehead with the towel.
"Itachi-nii, can you help me with my math homework?" Sasuke asked shamelessly. Normally, an Uchiha would bite themselves before they asked for another's help, but he had asked so many times for his brother's help (Itachi was a genius, after all), he didn't even have to suck up his pride every time anymore.
Of course, even though Sasuke asked every time, that didn't mean that Itachi would always help him.
From the doorway, the older Uchiha sibling gave a sad smile before walking over towards his little brother. "Sorry, Sasuke," he said, poking his brother in the forehead with his index finger like he usually did. "I have a big test tomorrow that I have to get ready for. Maybe next time."
As Itachi walked back towards the hallway, his back facing Sasuke, Sasuke glared at his back. Then, his eyes softened and he turned back to his desk, fists clenching. "It's always 'next time.'" His voice sounded broken, too weary for a sixteen-year-old. "Why do you always do that and walk away?"
For a prolonged moment of time, Itachi stared at him with his tired black eyes. He pivoted on his heel and walked towards the door. Just before he walked out, he stopped at the door frame and, without looking over his shoulder, left Sasuke with the last words he'd ever heard from him: "Gomenasai." With that, he walked out of the room and, although Sasuke didn't know it until afterwards, out of his brother's life.
(End flashback)
It was after that Sasuke never saw him again. His brother never came back that night. His uncle came by that evening, already having signed a guardian contract, took him to his house. Sasuke could still remember seeing his brother's stuff still in the house and hear the cryptic words that his brother left him with.
"Gomenasai."
I'm sorry…
'Sorry?' Sasuke thought, his brow furrowing. 'Sorry for what?' Maybe his brother was telling him that he was sorry he slapped him when their parents died, or that he was sorry he couldn't help him with his homework that day. Or maybe… maybe it wasn't that at all. Maybe his brother was sorry for what he was going to do: walk out on his brother because he (probably) couldn't care for him anymore. The last thought made Sasuke's blood boil. He clutched at his coat tighter. God, if his coat could scream, it would probably be choking to death by now.
"Sasuke-kun?" The ethereal voice brought him back to reality once again.
"Aa," he replied, giving himself a good shake. "Gomen. I was just… thinking."
Sasuke watched as Sakura's face brightened a little. "Ah! Well, that's okay," she said semi-cheerfully, probably glad to know that her boyfriend actually thought now and then. Then, her eyes snapped open and flew to Sasuke. She bit her lip. "Ah, Sasuke-kun?"
Sasuke gave a grunt to show that he was listening.
Sakura gave a cheeky smile. "Don't you have to go to work?"
His eyes widened all the way. "Shit!" He jumped out of his seat and unbundled his coat, drawing it on before grabbing his suitcase. Just before he ran out the door, Sakura called to him. Stopping in place, Sasuke looked over his shoulder towards his girlfriend, clutching the doorknob. "Nani?" he asked, turning around to face her and crossing his arms across his chest.
Ignoring his impatience, the rosette handed him his keys. "You forgot these," she said, smiling up at him in a way that radiated so much innocence that Sasuke actually lost his working train of thought. Her eyes shone so bright green and her smile was so dazzling… it made her look so… so…
Irresistible.
Moving swiftly, he bent down to capture her lips in a chaste kiss. He heard her muffled gasp and relenting moan as he pressed his lips against hers a little harder, drawing his tongue out to lick her lips a little. Feeling Sakura lean in for a little more, he pulled away and smirked when he saw his effects on her, her green eyes now hazy and her lips now tinted pinker. He raised her head with a finger. "We'll continue this after I'm done with work," he said hoarsely, his breathing just as ragged as hers. Giving her one last quick kiss to her forehead, he dashed out of the house, into his car, and, trying hard not to notice the glowing look his girlfriend was giving him, he drove away.
-xxx-
Sasuke shifted his car into parking gear and, with a sigh, got out, brushing off his coat. It was an especially cold day, the freezing temperature fogging up his breath and pinching his cheeks. It made his hair stand out even more than usual. Walking briskly into the building and ignoring the fangirlish squeals of his coworkers, Sasuke slipped into the elevator. He checked his watch.
'Not bad,' he thought to himself with a smirk. After that little… episode with Sakura, he wasn't late. In fact, he was ten minutes early.
Ding!
The raven-haired man stepped out of the elevator and strode over to his VP desk, clunking down his things and brushing his bangs back from his face before taking his seat and scraping through the forms on his desk. Immediately after getting comfy in his office, Sasuke got to work, so absorbed that he didn't notice a figure slip into his room until he heard someone speak.
"Good morning, Sasuke."
Sasuke tensed when he heard the voice and looked up from his form signing. "Aa," he replied, trying to look indifferent by returning his eyes to his work, "Good morning, Oji-san." Finishing a little letter, he put his pen down and looked up to stare his uncle in the eye. "What brings you to my office this morning?"
His uncle—who also eerily looked like Sasuke—chuckled and sat himself down. He leveled his red-brown eyes at Sasuke. "Ah, Sasuke, I just came by to talk about your recent sporadic absences these past months."
Sasuke racked through his brain. Oh. Right. The past months that were spent with Sakura the majority of the time. Gotcha. Clearing his throat, Sasuke met his uncle's eyes again. "Aa. Of course. I was just spending them off due to some personal happenings." A shrug. "Nothing much."
Even though Sasuke managed to say stuff like this without a break of sweat, inside he was pouring puddles from his sweat glands. Uchihas, of course though, never showed emotions under stress. Psh, they were practically masters of the stoic-ness. That was how pro they were. But of course, with the mastery of emotions also came the master to see through the masking of emotions, a trait that older Uchihas were gifted with to see right through the younger Uchihas. So…
"Nothing much? Doesn't sound like it."
Insert tensing from Sasuke.
…Sasuke was basically screwed.
"Hn. Madara-oji, you're overexaggerating my personal life. I assure you, it was nothing important." The younger Uchiha inwardly flinched when he saw Madara smirk the trademark Uchiha smirk and hoped that he wasn't going to be screwed over.
"Hmm… I see then," the older Uchiha replied, not exactly fully believing his nephew, but still letting it pass. "So then. How are things at school?"
Twitch. "Oji-san, it's a university. Not some random middle school."
His uncle gave a small, ambiguous smile. "Ah. My mistake." Madara stood up and walked around the office. Heel, toe, heel, toe. Stopping in front of the desk, the older man placed his hands down and narrowed his eyes, his eyes seeming to glow more red than brown. "Sasuke," he said, his voice suddenly ice cold, "You are still taking classes, ne?"
Sasuke felt his spine freeze over. "Hai, uncle," he responded quickly, almost eager to get away from his uncle's death stare. "Of course. You paid for my education."
Apparently satisfied with his answer, Madara slowly pushed himself off the desk and, with another ambiguous smile, said, "Ah. Good, then," and slipped out of the room.
Sasuke, after waiting a few moments while listening to his uncle's dissipating footsteps, relaxed in his seat and sighed, massaging his temples. There always was something strange with Madara-oji since the beginning. Always. Ever since his uncle had taken over the family business, he was always sending Sasuke to all sorts of schools to study for degrees. First it was for a degree in business (which was the really essential one); then it was a degree in physics. Now it was a degree in math and psychology.
And it was all Madara's doing. His uncle, reasoning that his nephew should be a jack-of-all-trades until Sasuke found an industry that was really to his own liking, sent him off to different colleges of the world. Strange, strange man. But of course, over the years, Sasuke had managed to cope with his uncle's eccentricity and go along with whatever he said—with respect, of course.
After all these years, though, Sasuke still couldn't find a reason behind his uncle's biddings.
'Probably just turning into a senile old man,' the young man reasoned. Shrugging it off as just that, Sasuke returned to his paperwork.
-xxx-
Madara looked out of his window, eyeing the other buildings of the Uchiha business with some pride. Of course, he wasn't entirely absorbed with how wonderful the buildings looked with their new coat of paint. Instead, he was focused on the phone he had held up to his ear—namely the conversation. His face was morphed into a cruel smirk as if he was mocking the person speaking on the other line.
"So you've finally called, ne? So glad to hear from you again. How have you been?" The old Uchiha pivoted on his heel and walked around his grand office. Heel, toe, heel, toe, heel, toe.
The voice on the other line was tangibly audible. "Cut the formalities, Madara. I don't have the time."
A smirk. "My, my, what a temper you've developed. Fine, then," said the business owner with an airy tone, "I'll cut my formalities as long as you have some respect for your elders, little ingrate." He rooted down to a tile. "What business do you have calling me, ne?"
A tangible smirk could be heard from the other side of the conversation. "You should know, tono." The surname was sarcastically drawled out, more so caustic in an emotionless tone.
The Uchiha business owner hn-ed. "Actually, I'd like you to enlighten me. Go ahead"—Madara's eyes seemed to glow a dark red—"Itachi."
Author's Note: Whoo! Yeah, this was kind of short, but since Sasuke's life is getting a little complicated, I felt like it was better to end here. Nice, ne? Sakura's problem and Sasuke's problems will eventually intertwine at some point. ;) Actually, can anyone guess what Madara's done and is presently doing? :D Hint: it involves the family business. If you guess, I'll give you some spoilers… and a cookie. ^_^ Thanks you guys for all your reviews!