Heylo! Summer holidays have begun! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay I'm so excited xD But the bad thing is that I have A LOT of homework and coursework to be getting on with before Year 11 starts in September :( But I'll get through it and start some later so I won't leave it to the last final days again - bad memories!

Please enjoy.

"..Blah.." Speech

"..Blah.." Thoughts

Betrayal 2: Danger Rising

Chapter Twelve: Sasuke's Premature Heart

-&-

Naruto yawned loudly and earned many dirty looks from passers by as he exited the big automatic doors of the hospital. The evening was starless and crisp but the air stayed quite mild so everyone wandered about without jackets. From his experience in the Leaf village, the night time was when everyone strayed outside to have a good time and when everything came alive. He stayed firmly away from the seedy looking bars and clubs in which half-dressed women and old men lingered in, and walked on by to the cheap hotel they were resided in.

"Naruto – I'll be out of here in two to three days – isn't that great?"

Remembering Sakura's happy words after her doctor's appointment earlier, his heart gave a great jolt of relief – from now on, they'd have to watch her and make sure she didn't get too worked up, but Naruto was sure that everything would work out in the end. So he, Kimoko and Sasuke decided the day before that they would lodge up in the cheapest hotel they found. Sleeping in the waiting room wasn't much fun, and the medics were growing slightly agitated with them anyway.

The small hotel room was pitch black as Naruto stumbled through the rusty stiff door. He shrugged and tossed the small key onto a nearby table.

"Yo! Sasuke, Kimoko, Shu! Anyone home?" He called but no one answered and nothing stirred. Shrugging again, he reached for some paper and a pen and helped himself to someones forgotten dumplings left out on the dining table. He sat down and happily ate his free snack, while also quickly scribbling down a note to Tsunade, informing her of their mission progress - or complete lack of it anyway.

Hearing a shuffling sound at the front door, he abandoned the note and glanced towards the noises. Sasuke entered moments later, his skin as white and Naruto's paper and a case of severely disheveled hair.

"Dude what happened? You look awful?"

The Uchiha silenced him with a major death glare. He sighed heavily and collasped into the nearest chair, a cloud of dust rose from it and caused him to choke.

"Had a hard day honey?" Naruto teased and wiggled his hips. "Want me to give you a massage-.."

"Shut up bastard!" Sasuke had ended up yelling far louder than he had first intended to. But he simply couldn't help it. Why the hell should he have to take Naruto's endless quirks all the time anyway? It was absolutely ridiculous - it made Sasuke want to die out of frustration.

Naruto's grin had long ago slipped off his face. What was Sasuke's problem? Surely he could take a joke.

"Jeez - on your period Sasuke?" Naruto's sharp words were met with Sasuke's fist slamming painfully into his jaw, until the boy sailed across the room and collided with what felt like a large plant pot. Naruto sat amist a pile of soil before leaping up and seizing Sasuke's crimson top.

"What the hell was that for?" The blonde roared as Sasuke's face began to flush with anger.

"For pissing me off all the time you fucking idiot! You and this whole fucking situation - everything!" The ex-avenger roughly shoved Naruto away and accusingly pointed a sharp finger at him. "It's all your damn fault for everything!"

Naruto had too, reached the peak of his anger and had hardly any trouble dodging every single one of Sasuke's clumsy strikes. Although Naruto knew that he could carelessly dance about out of his team mate's way all night, that didn't really register as an option. Sooner or later, Sasuke would start shooting out fireballs and Naruto didn't relish the idea of being burned to nothing, he had to find out what was going on.

He didn't block Sasuke's next right hook, but quickly moved to the side so that Sasuke struck air. Naruto seized his wrist and flicked it backwards and held on so that the bone creaked in protest. He moved behind Sasuke's back and brought the captured arm over his shoulder. Sasuke winced in pain and elbowed the blonde with his free arm. Naruto cursed under his breath and tried not to let on that he'd been winded. He bent Sasuke's wrist further back and held on tightly as the Uchiha tried to wriggle away - to no successful avail. Both of his arms had now been grasped and only his legs were left. Naruto seemed to be thinking along the same lines and hooked his foot around one of Sasuke's skinny ankles, digging his hard sandal into the soft flesh. Sasuke roared angrily and kicked back at Naruto's kneecap which was still tender from escaping the other strange dimension. Naruto growled threateningly as his hold on Sasuke was released. The Kyuubi boy jammed his elbow into Sasuke's chest and stomach and watched as he sank to his knees and fell backwards to the floor, gasping for air.

"Now," Naruto hissed and placed a foot on Sasuke's neck. "Start talking. I'll listen."

Sasuke glared up at Naruto's dark crimson coloured eyes and pointed canines, he figured there would be no point now in trying to fight back anyway - his heart just wasn't in it.

"Go on," Naruto chided, his pupils were beginning to evolve back into those of a human. "Enlighten me."

He's really pissed off, Sasuke thought. Was i really that harsh to him? I don't even remember - i was blinded by anger.

"I-I... I to-.."

"Louder! I can't hear you."

"I told her! I told Kimoko the truth about my bastard brother!"

Naruto's eyes widended. "So what did she say? Does she hate him now too?"

Sasuke paused and his eyebrows furrowed together. "That's just the thing - she hardly even batted an eyelid. It was just as if she expected it or didn't even care."

Naruto released Sasuke's throat and stared down, lost in the confusion. "What?"

"I told you," Sasuke sighed and nursed his bruised windpipe. "She started crying because she felt sorry for me having to live with the painful memories and just.. hugged me! After, she returned to the hospital to introduce herself to Sakura with the ferret."

"She hugged you? Man, I'm suprised you even let her get close - a hug must be totally alien to you or someth-.."

"Don't start." Sasuke warned. Naruto took the hint and nodded thoughtfully.

"Even so, I bet it's all a big weight off your shoulders now, right?"

Sasuke mused. "I guess, but nothing matters - I'm still going to kill Itachi when I get the chance. I'll hunt him down to the ends of the earth if I have too!" He clambered off the floor and tightened his knuckles and closed his eyes in annoyance. "Kimoko didn't have me fooled for a second! She didn't want to show it - but now she's really hurting inside! She's hurting because of him!"

Naruto held up his hands as if to fend off the raven-haired boy's anger. "Woah Sasuke," he said carefully. "Aren't you becoming a bit too involved in this?"

"Too involved?" Sasuke spat in venom. "An beautiful innocent woman is a victim here because of my brother - who also killed my entire family might I add. Why? Don't you care?"

"But," Naruto placed a hand on his friend's shoulders. "Hundreds of other people have also been affected by him. We should know - we've met loads on our missions. Why do you care so much for one person?"

Sasuke gulped. "Because... That's what happens when you fall in love."

Naruto felt his hand slip from Sasuke as a strange expression appeared on his face. A mixture of humor, confusion and extreme sarcasm. He felt the breath catch unhelpfully in his throat and his mind wiped blank. Sasuke stared on, his heart secretly straining to thump right out of his chest. The room seemed to grow more hotter.

"W-W-Wha.. Bu.. - eh?" Even Naruto's words were failing pathetically. He suddenly marched away and returned with a glass of water moments later and gulped in down quickly. Sasuke had not trusted himself to move during this time and stood rooted to his spot, watching his companion carefully.

"I-I know this is a shock-.."

"Sh-Shock!" Naruto threw his empty glass to the side and it smashed against the near wall. "What the hell do you think this is? God - you're screwed up - totally fucking out of your tiny mind! You love Kimoko? You sick bastard, what's wrong with you? No wait.. What's right with you?!"

"I can't help it. I love her."

Naruto swore loudly and began to pace about like a starving predator. "Do you have any idea what your saying Sasuke? Your in love with your brother's old lover - your nephew's mother!"

"Of course I know that," Sasuke snapped, he was now growing tired of Naruto's 'I know what's best for you' act. It was becoming increasingly annoying. "Do you really think I'm happy about this outcome too?"

Naruto's mouth formed an 'O' shape. "God, that's what you and Kimoko were doing earlier when we saw you from the window! So tell me Sasuke, what did Mrs. Uchiha-To-Be say when you said you wanted to screw her?"

"WHAT! Mother fuc-.."

"No no no. Technically to Ashi's point of view - you'll be the mother fucker.. Oh god, you've gotten her pregnant already haven't you? Sick bastard."

"Shut up!" Sasuke screamed. "You have no idea what's it's like to wake up everyday and wonder what's it's like to share a girlfriend and a child with your murderer brother! You don't know that every second of every minute, of every hour - I'm always beating myself up for coming out as the 'bad guy' and loving her! I actually wanna pull out my heart and rip out my hair in pure agony and frustration - that my damn brother got to her first!" He ground his teeth together and kicked the nearest chair, sending it flying across the room. Naruto calmed himself down first and stopped walking about. He lazily scratched the nape of his neck and exhaled.

"Sorry," he admitted. "I'm just really shocked, that's all. Of all the girls and women in the world, why Kimoko?"

Sasuke shrugged and relaxed against the wall behind him. "I could ask you the same question with Sakura. But my answer is that I simply love Kimoko and everything about her. I'll take the good things with the bad - no matter how awful and painful."

"But do you realise how dangerous and complicated this could all get?"

"Yes," Sasuke said at once. "I know, I'll work through it. And also," he added. "When you saw us, we were talking about Itachi alright? Seeing the both of you didn't make my words jump out any faster - gee thanks for that."

Naruto laughed quietly. "Yeah, Sakura said we shouldn't spy. You know, on some level, I think she's already worked out your whole situation despite not being totally conscious for most of the time."

"She probably does," Sasuke agreed. "That reminds me," he dug into his pockets and pulled out a crumpled bit of paper and handed it to Naruto. The blonde opened it fully to recognise it as a small brightly coloured leaflet.

"What's this?"

"It's advertising the Grass village annual festival which starts tomorrow night. It's like ours back in Konoha and runs on for a full two days, no one can enter or exit the village during that time which also gives Sakura some time to heal. So since we're stranded here until after the festival, I was thinking of asking Kimoko if she wanted to come with me tomorrow night, and then somehow try and confess my feelings to her later on."

Naruto's eyebrows raised. "Congratulations Sasuke, you've now successfully made the transformation into becoming a girl."

"Would you stop making stupid jokes for one minute and please tell me what you think?" Since Sasuke looked so desperate and lost, Naruto supposed that he should just shut up and support his friend for once - that's what Sakura knowingly would want him to do anyway.

"It's a good idea," Naruto murmered. "I'm not going to pretend that I'm alright with this whole situation with you and Kimoko - but I'll sit back and watch from the sidelines. Anyway, this also means I can take Sakura too so she can get a break from the hospital. I'm sure the staff will let her out for the start of the festival."

Sasuke nodded. "So it's agreed then? We're going tomorrow night?"

"Yeah, I suppose you want me to go and ask Kimoko for you then?" Sasuke nodded again so fast that Naruto could visualize his head snapping clean off that skinny pale neck.

"Right," Naruto sighed and picked up his note to Tsunade. "I'll just take this to the post building so they can deliver this to Konoha, then I'll go over to the hospital to see them."

"Ok. I guess I better go out and see if there are any good festival clothes shops around here. I'm sure we can spend a bit more of our budget." Naruto smirked as Sasuke said goodbye and walked through the front door. The blonde darted out into the hotel hallway.

"Lock up your mothers, kids! Sasuke's on the prowl!" He shouted to the Uchiha's retreating back and then ran in the other direction as fast as he could before a fireball could shoot his way.

-&-

There we go, read and review pleeease! I'm also thinking of leaving this fic for a while so I can work on some others that I have lined up. Needless to say, I will DEFINETLY return to this fic since I love it so much :P But I don't know what I should do .. Lol. I don't know if i've mentioned this before since I can't remember, but I'm now taking requests for fics and such :) To request a fic, please go to my homepage and there should be a link or something under the 'CONTACT ME' bit. I'm using my own email because PM's don't seem to want to reach me. Anyway, thanks for reading and have a cool day :)