Chapter 13

Norry's ship had sailed away by the time Naruto released Sasuke long enough for them to swim back to Whirlwind. Gaara had already climbed up. Once Sasuke and Naruto were on board, Naruto hugged him properly, squeezing him tightly. Sasuke responded in kind, though he was very aware of the staring men. He pulled back slightly to get Naruto's attention.

"Gaara saved me," he said between kisses Naruto persisted in pressing to his eyes. The watching men drew closer to listen. "There was trouble, and it's a long story, but Gaara saved my life. He wouldn't rest until he'd gotten me back to you, was even willing to sacrifice himself. Naruto…he killed for me."

Naruto finally stopped kissing Sasuke's face. He looked to where Gaara was also being enthusiastically welcomed by his brother and sister. Gaara's eyes met his, but just then Sasuke got his attention again.

"My brother, Naruto." Sasuke voice was more serious than he'd ever heard it. "He's in grave danger…and you knew about it."

Riotous though his joy was at seeing Sasuke again, these feelings nevertheless took a sharp turn into fear at this statement. His first impulse was to lie, but Naruto shook his head. "I...I didn't have details," he stuttered quickly. "I swear to you. Neji only said yakuza was trying to force your brother into something and that you were a bargaining chip. Told me to keep you safe-"

"You should have told me," Sasuke said evenly. The way Naruto had screamed for him and jumped ship was all the confirmation he needed to know that Naruto had thought him dead. This and the panic in he saw in those blue eyes now softened his anger somewhat, but he intended to be heard. "After what happened the last time you kept news of my brother secret, I'd have thought you'd know better than to keep anything regarding him away from me. Just who in hell do you think you are to decide what knowledge of my brother reaches me and what doesn't?"

Naruto's face was a study in wide-eyed contrition. There was wariness too, at what Sasuke might say or do next. "I-"

"You will get me to New York with all possible haste," Sasuke finished for him. "Only then will I be willing to listen to anything you have to say on the matter."

Naruto sagged, dropping his forehead to Sasuke's. Unspeakably relieved that Sasuke wasn't leaving him, Naruto swallowed and nodded at once. "Kakashi, turn us around."

To soften the harshness of his words and anger, Sasuke tilted his face and quickly kissed Naruto's sad mouth. "Thank you-"

"Now, wait a min't," Ei grouched. "I understand about yo' brotha, Sass-key-"

"Sasuke," Sasuke said.

Ei tried again to pronounce the name and gave up when he couldn't. "I understand, I do, but I's got bidness in Hawaii. Tha's in t'other direction. I been paid to bring back some girl, and I'ma see it done. This Mad'ra is responsible for me losin' my baby, so if taking this girl back hurts Mad'ra, well ain't no 'splosion gon' stop me. 'Sides, I was paid, like I said. I ain't no thievin' nigger."

Sasuke frowned. "Ino. Yes, my brother mentioned her abduction in his letter." And he'd specifically told Sasuke to stay away from New York, but Sasuke chose not to dwell on that. "Where does that leave us, then?"

"I think we should know a little more," Kakashi said. "You mentioned that there was trouble after the explosion at the offices. What trouble?"

By the time the entire tale came out, both Sasuke's and Gaara's, as well as Naruto's, Chouji had Gaara's ankle securely bandaged and Sasuke's wounds treated. Sasuke was dismayed in the extreme to learn that there'd been a simultaneous attack on Lightning, with Naruto on board. He turned to the head injury he'd only glanced at before and was all fawning apologies for the sharp way he'd spoken earlier, stroking Naruto's head as if it were still bleeding. He wasn't quiet until Naruto assured him several times that he was fine. Sasuke glued himself to Naruto's side.

Chouji was the one who stood and spoke into the ensuing silence. "This man Madara killed my mother," he said. "If Itachi needs his brother to help defeat him, then I say go for it. Let Sasuke go to him."

"We'd need two ships," Naruto said. "One to head to New York, one to get this hag, Ino."

"The captain who brought me here," Sasuke ventured. "He can't have gone too far, can he? Perhaps we can use his ship again?"

Looking out over the water, Naruto saw that the ships that had been near them were all gone. They bobbed alone in their stretch of ocean. Then he recalled that Norry had nearly killed Sasuke and almost raped Gaara, and his eyes went down to slits. At the same time, his lips curled up at the corners in a way that had nothing to do with amusement. "That," he said in a deceptively mild voice, "would be piracy." He looked around at his crew and Ei's, and found his sentiments mirrored on their faces.

"It's for a good cause," Lee said piously. His face did not look virtuous in the slightest.

"My brother's honor has been compromised," Kankurou threw in incongruously. "I'll need to speak with this Norry."

"And Norry gave the order to have Sasuke killed," Naruto purred. "That can't go unchallenged." His eyes nearly glowed in the moonlight.

"And I need to sail sum'thin since my baby been burned," Ei added. "Least till I can get her rebuilt."

Sasuke looked around at them all, thoroughly alarmed at the violence he sensed coming from them. There wasn't one pair of eyes that didn't have murder in them. "But… I handled that situation," he said in a small voice. "I-"

Naruto went to him and drew him into a protective embrace that effectively choked off all speech. "Hush now, Sasuke. You've been through a terrible ordeal and shouldn't have to worry about anything else. Let us handle things from here on."

"But-"

Naruto turned away, though he kept an arm around Sasuke's shoulders, and began barking orders. His crew disappeared, along with Ei's, to carry them out. Whirlwind banked sharply in the water, heading after Norry.

-oOo-

Gaara hobbled over to Sasuke. "Sir, I'm coming with you."

Sasuke responded at once, pulling out of Naruto's grasp. "No, Gaara-"

"But sir!"

"-You must stay here. You can barely stand, much less walk, and Chouji says you might have done your ankle permanent injury by using it in that condition. I can't have anything happen to you, not after everything you've done for me."

Gaara fought to keep his composure, but he didn't give up. "I'm supposed to keep you safe, sir. Please."

Sasuke cupped his face. "And what kind of master would I be if I didn't keep you safe?"

"But…but…" Gaara's face cracked, yet he continued to hold the tears at bay. "I've never been away from you, not since you took me on. Except for when those bastards had you, I've always been by your side. No matter what. I can't leave you now."

Sasuke only smiled sadly, hating to hurt the boy this way. He was also hurting at the impending separation, especially after recently thinking Gaara gone, but he remembered clearly the lengths Gaara would go to in order to see his duty carried out. He'd never forgive himself in anything happened to him. "You must mind me," he said softly.

"At least let me stay on the ship when you go ashore in New York? I'd be with you for the voyage-"

And would no doubt find a way to follow me once we landed. "I'm sorry. But you have to stay."

Gaara's head lowered to hide his tears, and Sasuke drew him in for a long, comforting hug. "I will have Ei bring you back to me as soon as he's done," Sasuke said. He looked over Gaara's head to Ei, who nodded in agreement. "I will leave you in his hands, and trust that you will keep yourself out of harm's way until we see each other again. All right?" He lifted Gaara's head to look into his watery eyes. The boy wasn't much shorter than he was.

"All right," Gaara said. His voice was hoarse.

Sasuke gave him a last past on the shoulder, before going to see about a change of clothes.

Naruto, who'd seen the entire exchanged, walked over to Gaara now. The boy looked up at him with eyes swimming in hurt. "Guess this makes you happy," Gaara accused. "You never did like me."

"No, I didn't," Naruto nodded. "But what you did, I won't forget. You kept him safe, brought him back to me…I won't forget it." He said again. "Ever. And it's hard to dislike someone you admire and are indebted to." Holding the grave green gaze with his own unblinking stare, Naruto slowly extended his hand in a truce to their long-standing animosity.

Gaara looked at the hand for a long time. Then, cracking a small half-smile, he reached out and shook it.

Naruto suddenly dragged him in and clamped a beefy arm around his head in a hard hug. "Thank you," he said gruffly into the red hair. "Thank you."

Gaara nodded against the meaty shoulder, swallowing the lump in his throat. "Just keep him safe, please."

"He won't leave my sight," Naruto swore. And this time, by God, he meant it. This Madara would pay in blood for what he'd done.

Some three hours later, Norry watched in horror and outraged as Skulker was boarded by Naruto, two enormous Negroes, and a host of other dark men and women. His smaller vessel had been corralled into a tiny bay near Portobelo by the larger Whirlwind. His crew were all ushered into a tight knot, their hands raised in deference to the many weapons pointing at them. Naruto walked forward. At his side walked two white men, one of whom Norry recognized as the bastard who'd held him at gunpoint earlier.

"Norry," Naruto smiled pleasantly. "I believe you're acquainted with my…friend?" he tipped his head at the man Norry recognized.

Friend. So that was the way of it, Norry thought frantically. "I-I didn't know who he was, he never gave a name-"

"You never asked," Sasuke snapped.

"-and in any case, I brought him where he wanted to go." Norry licked his lips feverishly. He, along with most captains in Colón, knew of Naruto's reputation as someone not to be trifled with. "There's no call to be pirating my ship like this."

The other white man stepped forward and jerked his head at where Whirlwind's hull was practically touching Skulker's. There, amidst the line of crewmen on Whirlwind's deck holding an assortment of guns aimed at Skulker's crew below, stood a familiar redhead. "That's my brother," the other white man said.

Shit.

Norry looked around at Naruto and his companions, calculating his odds. "Ship's yours," he said in a shaking voice.

Naruto nodded, his smile widening. "Knew you'd see things clearly. However, I won't be the one sailing this pile of driftwood. Ei here will, him and his brother. Your crew can swim to shore, but I thought you and I, and Kankurou here, should have a nice little chat in your cabin below."

-oOo-

While Naruto dragged a screaming and pleading Norry out of sight, and the Skulker's crew dived overboard as directed, Bee had his men make an inventory of the hold. "She's got enough to outfit us and Whirlwind too," he announced happily when this was done. "More than enough to see us halfway to Hawaii, and Naruto to New York."

Ei grunted in approval. Naruto and Kankurou came back on deck, their hands bloody. "He dead?" Ei asked.

"No, but he'll wish he was when he wakes," Naruto answered. "Do what you like with him when he does."

The transference of supplies from one ship to another took another two hours. Gaara left Whirlwind to board Skulker and say his goodbyes to Sasuke and Naruto. Sasuke then left with Naruto to board Whirlwind once the provisions had been divvied up accordingly. By then the night was nearly gone, but the two ships resolutely parted company, each intent on their separate missions.

There were two narrow, lumpy beds in the room Neji had rented, each pushed to the wall opposite each other. A scarred and battered nightstand stood between the head of each bed. There was a rusty lantern on the nightstand, but it was unlit.

Itachi had gone out looking for Neji shortly after the door had slammed behind him. The town, if it could be called that, hardly seemed large enough to hide anyone, but Neji was nowhere to be seen. Itachi had come back to the flophouse. Now he sat stiffly on the bed to the left of the room's door, hands clasped tightly together and pressed between his equally rigid knees. He did not move from this position during all the hours that Neji was gone, too livid to do anything but stare with hot eyes at the faint light of the moon on the far wall.

His mind flitted here and there like a restless hound on a variety of thoughts, but what seemed to echo over and over again were Neji's last words. Even now, as Itachi sat there, Neji was touching some other man…kissing him and… Itachi tried to use the word Neji so often did for the act and couldn't. Neji was bedding some other man, and had been at it for the past four hours, since he most certainly was not back yet.

Just then he could find no love for Neji in his heart. Neji was a blackguard, nine kinds of a scoundrel, but he most definitely was not worthy of love, he told himself. Looking back on this morning, he thought he'd likely felt the emotion as a result of the night he'd spent in Neji's arms. This thought held sway for all of five minutes, before the truth crushed it for the flimsy lie it was. He was angry, plain and simple, and wanted the solace of feeling it without the hurt squeezing his insides mixed in.

He knew perfectly well that he had no right to be this angry. That didn't change the killing sense of betrayal he felt. It did, however, put a few things into perspective for him. These were the things his mind flitted at as the minutes and hours rolled by, but it didn't lessen his anger at all. Not one whit. And the longer Neji was gone, the tighter Itachi's anger wound itself, until when he did finally hear footsteps in the hall, he was literally vibrating with the effort to remain still. His jaw ached from clenching it for so long, but a dingy room in the smallest town he'd ever seen was not the place to lose control of his temper.

The door wasn't locked. The key for it dangled on Itachi's side when Neji turned the knob and entered a moment later. He watched as Neji shut the door softly and twisted the key home.

-oOo-

Neji let his head rest against the door a moment. He shouldn't have had that ale. It had only been one, taken outside the town and into the woods, where he'd nursed it for several hours. He didn't drink if he could help it. And right now, as much as he wanted the comfort of a drunken stupor, he needed to be at his most alert. All the ale had done was give him a headache.

He could sense Itachi across the room. The man was probably sleeping. Good. He couldn't take any bullshit right now.

"Was he that good?"

Neji nearly had a heart attack, whirling around at this snapped question. "What? Itachi, you scared the shi-"

"He must have been very good for you to need four and a half hours with him. You look exhausted, leaning your head against the door in that manner. Was he good?"

Neji slowly came away from the door, blinking in confusion. "What? Who?"

"Whatever lice-ridden piece of arse you 'slaked your lust' on, that's who."

Close enough now to see the rage on Itachi's face as well as hear it, Neji stared. "I…what?"

"I left the room for a short time, you know. Checked this miserable town from one end to the other. There is no whorehouse here. Did the man invite you back to his own room, or did you use an alley? Or maybe the stables?"

Understanding was a few more seconds in coming, thanks to the ale. When it did arrive, Neji's tension receded a bit. Oh, this was rich. He nearly laughed but was truthfully too filled with his own sudden anger to manage it. "Now that you mention it," he drawled, "I did receive a bit of satisfaction in an alley tonight."

Itachi's face twisted into something ugly. "I hope he was worth the money, seeing as I'm currently dependent on those same funds for basic needs."

"Didn't spend a cent."

Itachi thought he would surely faint at the surge his wrath took. His head pounded with it. "I see. You were so skilled that the savage was happy to service you for free. No doubt that kind of skill takes years to acquire." He himself had enjoyed that same skill only last night, a fact that threatened to choke him where he sat. "How many whores have you fucked?" The word came easily now.

Fascinated and disgusted by Itachi's behavior, Neji replied honestly. "I've lost count over the years."

"Where did you find him? Who was he? Name him."

A completely new thought lanced its way brightly through the red fog of anger in Neji's brain. His face went slack. "Wait…are you jealous?"

Finally losing control, Itachi surged up from the bed and shouted. "Of course I'm jealous! How do you expect me to feel?"

Blinking in numb shock, Neji said, "I don't know. I didn't know you felt anything."

Itachi reigned himself in with difficulty and dropped back to the bed. He put his head in his hands. Neji edged over to his bed and sat across from him, watching him carefully.

"I don't know what I'm doing," Itachi muttered without raising his head. Neji leaned forward to hear better. "I don't know what the next day or week will bring. I don't know how I'll manage to repair the mess I've made, or if I'll even be alive a month from now to do so. I don't know if my brother is alive, or…or anything. I don't know anything." He lifted his head so that he could clasp his hands together once more, but didn't look up at Neji. He stared at the floor. "What I do know is that the thought of you with another man kills me. And that I don't want you to leave."

Neji, mouth dry from leaving it open, closed it now and swallowed with difficulty. "I don't want to leave. And it's all right not to know what you're doing…at least we're communicating now."

Itachi shook his head. "I always know what I'm doing. This…" he looked aside at the filthy window over the nightstand, then finally looked at Neji. "I don't know what I feel for you, if it's love or not-" this wasn't precisely true, but he hardly felt like confessing his feelings when he was so conflicted about everything else, "-but you're in my blood. I know that much. And that I can't stop thinking of you, or wanting you in my presence at all times."

"Well that's more than enough to work with," Neji said around a sudden blistering blush. "We can go from there."

Itachi stared at him for a long time. "I know my ways don't agree with you," he said at length. "But I don't know how to be any other way. It's how I was raised, how my parents behaved, how everyone I've ever known treated me and expected me to behave. I can't cast all that aside after a single night of…of…well, after a single night. Contrary to Sasuke, whom I'm sure you compare me to, I like my life and my position in it. I was never discontent with anything but my father's methods. I never sought to rebel against society, or felt anything but peace and accord at my place in it. I won't abandon that, Neji. I want to be with you, but I won't give up my lifestyle to do so, or change who I am."

Neji nodded thoughtfully. "I understand. But neither will I behave as if I'm inferior when I'm not. I worked for you at first because I had nowhere else to go…but then because I wanted to be near you. It was a job, not who I was. You don't know who I really am."

"No, I don't," Itachi admitted sadly. "But I want to."

"Really?" Neji said. A small smile of pleasure lit his face.

"Yes. Really."

Neji got up and came to sit beside him. They each held their hands between their knees now, staring at the floor. "You've never tried to get to know me before," Neji said seriously. "You've always seen me as just some person who worked for you."

"Perhaps a bit more than that," Itachi said. "You had my confidences, after all, and I trusted you with my most intimate business details. And I-" No. Not now, not yet. "As I said before, I never saw you as my hound."

Neji caught the slip, but left it alone. "I see. Well, if you want to know me, perhaps the first thing you should know is that I value loyalty."

"As do I. Which made your betrayal tonight so painful. I must know who it was, Neji. Give me his name."

"There was no other man tonight."

Itachi looked over at him, and found Neji looking at him in turn. Something in his heart twisted, making it pound. "There wasn't?"

"No."

"You said-"

"I've used my hand often this past year. Do you think I could touch another man when I'm so in- when I have feelings for you?"

There was that word again. Itachi felt almost oppressed by it, and by his own feelings. Already they were interfering with his judgment. "But then where were you?"

"Off drinking. I'm not a very good drunkard, I'm afraid."

Itachi couldn't bear that grey gaze, how it crept inside him and squeezed the breath out of him. He tried to speak and couldn't. He ended up lowering his eyes to the scant inch of space separating them. "Oh. I see." It was an oddly pleasant feeling to know that he'd driven Neji to drink. Comforting. And there'd been no other man.

"Were you really jealous?" Neji whispered after awhile.

Itachi made a noncommittal sound.

Neji translated this to mean yes. He moved closer to Itachi, captivated by the man's lowered lashes and his faint tremors. I think you know exactly how you feel about me. The knowledge, or suspicion of it anyway, made his blood heat sharply, driving away his headache. He felt positively bold, staring at those lowered lashes when he asked, "Why?"

Itachi managed to raise his eyes, but only made it as far as Neji's lips, which were only inches from his face. His throat and chest were tight with emotion; memories of being naked with Neji, of the things they'd done and how it had felt, assaulted him. The idea of anyone else receiving those touches, receiving what was his, was intolerable. He stared at Neji's mouth, trying to find words for the confusing stew of emotions he was unable to make sense of. "Your kisses are mine."

Neji had wondered if anything would be said at all. Itachi stared at his mouth for so long that his lips stung and burned with the clear longing in the black eyes. And then for him to say that, of all things… Neji's heart really stopped then. There was such possessiveness in the statement, such need, that he was already lunging toward the man when Itachi reached up and grabbed his face.

Itachi kissed Neji with all the wretchedness he felt, a feeling that was only dwarfed by the sheer hunger and desire that was mixed with it. He moaned aloud at the strong feel of Neji's hand behind his neck, of the arms around him, and the mouth on his. Those lips. Those firm, commanding, devouring lips. His, his, his! No one else's. They were his and he claimed them now with all the skill he'd learned the previous night.

-oOo-

This time when they came together, there was more fevered urgency and intent craving. Less time spent on idle touching. This time there was a mutual surrendering, an even give and take –and take they did- with both their minds in the same place. They both quaked with the need to feel the other's hands on them, to be reassured that each was well and truly wanted by the other. Clothes were soon gone, to leave skin pressed to skin, and each man groaning at the feel.

"Don't push me away again," Neji gasped as he covered Itachi's body with his own. "I can't take it. Push me away again and I'll stay gone, I swear to God…"

"I won't. On my life…Neji," Itachi breathed as Neji entered him hard and fast. The pleasure of that first, stinging thrust bordered on pain. He arched, mouth working soundlessly as he sucked in air. Neji drew back and rammed home again, and Itachi prepared to yell. Neji covered his mouth as gently as he could with one hand.

Thankfully, there was no headboard. The mattress was an old-fashioned thing, stuffed with wool and covered by ticking, so there was no squeaking to give them away. Even so, the harsh exhalations of air they each gave were brutally choked off.

Neji pumped furiously, baring his teeth at the skin Itachi scoured from his back, and the strength of the legs around his waist. Once or twice Itachi used those powerful thighs to push Neji back whenever a thrust was too deep, but Neji couldn't hold back, not this time. And after a while, Itachi didn't want him to. He held him tighter during the gloriously hot, blazing ecstasy of their movements, as if he never intended to let Neji go.

They loved desperately, breathing in shallow, opened-mouthed pants, and with Itachi's eyes glazed by fierce pleasure. Neji gazed into them, feeling his climax begin to roar out of him, unable to hold it back though he tried. He almost said it, right then when Itachi bucked in his own release, he almost said the words. Instead, he shoved himself in as far as he would go at the moment of his crisis. He poured the emotion into Itachi's body, willing it to fill him and find whatever barrier lurked in the man that prevented him from saying the words himself. Find it and melt it down, so that Itachi would finally be released from his hesitance the way he released his passions whenever Neji touched him. Until he had the words, he would keep his own feelings to himself.

This time, he stayed lodged in Itachi's body after the last shudder had passed. He held him in turn with no intention of giving him up as sleep found them both.

Itachi felt a distinct sense of déjà vu when he opened his eyes the following morning. Light was streaming in through the window, as it had done in the mine yesterday morning wen he'd woken, and he'd spent the previous hours in a haze of mind-numbing sex, just as he had the night before he'd woken in the mine.

The feeling was dispelled at finding no breakfast waiting for him, and at feeling his body surrounded by the arms and legs of another. Holding still, Itachi examined this development.

A bed was a private thing, shared by one occupant. Much like underwear, or the toilet. A man and wife shared a bed for the duration of intercourse, but otherwise they used the thing separately. To wake and find that he was sharing his bed with Neji left a very unnerving feeling of vulnerability and… Itachi cast about for some word that would fit. Intimacy. That was the word. Despite the physical things he and Neji had done, somehow simply sleeping together was more intimate. And the way his legs were tangled with Neji's warm ones, and how one of Neji's arms was beneath his head, and the other flung across his stomach…why, there was no privacy at all. None.

There was a noise. Itachi turned his head to find Neji staring at him with sleepy grey eyes. "G'morning," Neji said.

Itachi tried to smile. "Good morning."

Neji, who'd been studying Itachi for many minutes before he'd made his wakefulness known, held back a grin at the look of discomfort on his face. "Something wrong?"

Itachi remained still, but he indicated the problem with a thrust of his chin at Neji. "You're in my bed."

"Why, so I am." He continued to smile…until he remembered that highborn people didn't share their beds. He backed away immediately. "Sorry. I can go to my own bed-"

"No." Itachi regretted the loss of heat at once, but said nothing else. In retrospect, he'd rather liked Neji's body against his, without lust to necessitate it, but thought it would be too embarrassing to ask that Neji resume his former position.

"So…" Neji drawled when the silence stretched between them. He propped his head on a hand.

"Yes?"

"About last night."

Itachi went red.

"Not that," Neji chuckled. "Before that. Did you mean what you said about wanting to be with me and get to know me?"

"I did."

"And how will that work?"

"I don't know. I do know that I don't like the idea of you treating me as your wife."

Neji digested that. "If you mean outside of bed, I suppose I won't really ask you to defer to me. But in bed, I'm in charge. There's simply no way around that."

"So you've made abundantly clear. I will…concede to you in that area," Itachi said after giving it some thought. "And I will try not to order you around anymore."

Neji could see the effort of that statement. "Why, thank you, Itachi. That's most accommodating of you."

"Yes, it was, wasn't it?"

Neji laughed, forgetting himself enough to bury his face in Itachi's neck. "I will never get tired of your prissy ways, they're so entertaining."

"I'm not prissy," he sniffed, insulted.

"Yes, you are." Neji calmed down and propped his head on his hand again to see Itachi properly. "And I love it. When you're not making me contemplate murder, I love your outraged sensibilities. How you get downright fussy when something displeases you. It's hilarious. And your anger excites the hell out of me."

Itachi tilted his head to see Neji better, enthralled by this speech. "Does it really? Most people try to avoid my anger."

"I'm only sorry your rage had fled by the time I got around to fucking you last night. Ah, well there's always next time." Neji smacked his lips in anticipation.

Itachi shook his head in wonder. "You, ah…seem to have a large appetite for sex," he noted. He wasn't sure if the lip-smacking was for a future rage or more sex, but both prospects intrigued him.

"You think so?" Neji grinned wolfishly.

"More than anyone I know." He'd never known anyone who hungered for sex or to see someone angry. He had another thought. "Have you ever been with a woman?"

"Once. No, twice. One was a virgin. A watchmaker's daughter. The other was a widow."

"Oh. And?"

"I was pretty young. Wanted to make sure I wasn't missing out on anything, but there was nothing spectacular about either encounter. I don't like women," Neji wrinkled his nose. "Too soft and easily frightened. Not like men. Or you. You I can sink my teeth into without fear you'll scream the house down."

Itachi fingered the teeth marks he had on one arm. Neji had done many things that night in the mine that he'd been unable to explain. "And…my person incites you to such madness?"

Neji studied the wide eyes. Then he laughed. "What. No one's ever told you how beautiful you are?"

Fascinated and enthralled now, Itachi mimicked Neji's position, propping his head up. "Why would anyone tell me such a thing?"

"Well, let me think…possibly because it's true?"

"That compliment is reserved for women. Men aren't beautiful."

"You're right, you aren't beautiful," Neji agreed, looking at Itachi's long lashes and chiseled features. "You're absolutely ravishing. Especially when you're upset. And when you're prissy. In fact, you're ravishing at all times of the day, no matter what you're doing."

Had he no shame? Itachi thought around his own. "I- No, I'm not."

"I know men," Neji said seriously. "And I know ravishing when I see it."

Keenly interested despite his embarrassment, Itachi said, "So…you think other men like you would find me attractive?"

"Without a doubt. And what do you mean, like me? Don't you mean like us?"

"I am not interested in men." This led to another thought. "Do you suppose anyone I know is like you?"

Unsure of what to make of Itachi's continued assertion that he wasn't interested in men, Neji gave it some thought. "I can name at least three off the top of my head."

"Good heavens, who?" Itachi moved closer in his raging curiosity to know who amongst his acquaintances was a sodomite.

"That butler at the gentleman's club you frequent. What's his name, Vanders? The way he bends over backward each time you put a toe in the door, I just know he's longing to bend over another way for you in one of the back rooms."

Itachi brought up the man in question in his mind. Vanders was a somewhat short, thin, balding man of thirty-five, who always managed to serve Itachi impeccably and to the exclusion of many other patrons whenever he visited the club. "My God," he breathed. "And here I thought he was merely-"

"Treating you with the deference due your station?" Neji supplied.

"Well, yes. You really believe he lusts after me?"

"Not just him. The Wilkins' son on the neighboring property. I never met him, but I heard from their gardener that the boy was sent away to boarding school in Europe because of his perverted fixation on you. Parents found poems, I heard. In his room."

Itachi hadn't seen Jared Wilkins in two years…now he knew why. "I had no idea…"

"There have been others."

"Do you mean such men are common?"

"Common enough. If you know what to look for."

Itachi thought about that. "And you? Are you considered desirable to these men?"

"Why, Itachi. I'm hurt. Don't you find me good looking at all?"

"Uncommonly so," he said without reservation. "Most handsome. But I want to know if other men do as well."

"Why?"

"Humor me." It wouldn't do for there to be competition for Neji's favors.

Neji shrugged one shoulder. "I suppose. They're most attracted to my hair, if they're like me. Or my height, if they're the receiving type. There was this one Spaniard, I remember…Christ, but he was obsessed with me. "

"Spaniard?" Itachi said smoothly.

Neji's didn't notice the cool tone. His eyes were far away, remembering. "Tall as Naruto. Blackest hair. Bluest eyes in Christendom. Widest pair of shoulders you ever saw, and a cock the size of a bull's. Took it into his mind that I was to be his and wouldn't hear otherwise. Loved my hair."

"And did you bed him?"

"Only man I ever fucked who wasn't a whore. Besides you, of course. He was like me, not the receiving kind, but he wanted me so badly that he allowed me to lead. He showered me with gifts, offered to buy me a ship from his own fleet –he's a wealthy owner of a dozen merchant and cargo vessels, has offices down in Manhattan, and houses in Spain and here. Lord, that man loved me. Obsessed, I tell you."

"What happened?"

"Happened? Nothing. I got tired of his love poems, and his guitar playing, and his singing to me."

"You left him? Have you ever seen him since?"

"I stick to whores now, but I saw him just the other week. He's in and out of the port of New York often."

"What is his name?"

"Captain Chale Mendoza." Neji pronounced the first name as chah-lay. "His ship, the Duquesa, is said to be the fastest of his fleet, certainly faster than anything else coming or going on the Hudson. Chale still pleads with me to take him back whenever we cross paths. It's funny, really."

"You are never to see him again," Itachi said stiffly.

Neji finally looked up and saw the frigid disapproval on Itachi's face. "I thought you weren't going to order me around anymore?"

"Never, Neji. I won't allow it. No more whores, either."

"Jealous again?" He nuzzled Itachi's jaw.

Itachi was unapologetic. "Yes."

"Relax. You're all I want."

Itachi sniffed and turned his head away.

Neji gave him a minute, glowing at the lingering jealousy, then said, "So this arrangement we're in. Does that mean sex at night, no sex during the day?"

"More or less," came the sullen reply.

"Because it seems to me that a body could have a little fun if it was day and say…they were alone with someone. Not in public."

Itachi's head turned toward him fractionally. "Go on…"

"I know you think I'm some sex-crazed beast, what with my appetites, but it is going to be hard to wait till tonight to claim you again."

Itachi managed to lift his chin, even lying down as he was. "A capital amendment to the original agreement. I concur." Then, when Neji only continued to lie there, he looked at the far wall and added, "It seems I've been awake for over an hour now, without being claimed."

Neji moved closer. "How remiss of me," he murmured.

"Quite. I imagine you'll want to correct that oversight."

"At once."

Itachi turned to him, alert and a few moments their eyes held, as a sizzling awareness and anticipation settled in them.

He would not have believed it possible to have sex so often or want it so keenly, but when Neji rained soft, slow kisses on his body he made no protest. He wondered if he would do to Neji what he'd done in the mine. He didn't think he would, not unless that madness was upon him again… but the way Neji touched him, and how he felt laying in the sunlight and having the coverlet pulled away from his nudity, a different sort of madness overtook him. One whose grip was more dream-like. It smoldered, instead of burned, and made his heart pound fearfully whenever Neji's lips touched his skin.

It wasn't until that evening that either of them finally left the room, driven by hunger pains. They found a tiny inn run by a husband and wife, and their two daughters. Itachi wanted to sit in the inn's one private dining room and have the very best the establishment had to offer…before recalling that his funds were nonexistent, and Neji's were far from plentiful.

"I'm certainly no pauper," Neji snorted when Itachi rescinded his order of pot roast dinner. "We'll take the pot roast dinner," he told the innkeeper. "And anything else you're serving tonight." The innkeeper said there'd be a wait. Neji aid that was fine. Itachi wanted to remain in the dining room, but Neji had other plans.

After they'd gone outside, Neji said, "I didn't want to leave you alone in there. I need to check the telegram office, and I don't want you out of my sight."

Itachi looked around the sleepy town skeptically. "There must be a hundred souls in this place, if that. You think Madara's spies are even here?"

"You never know," Neji lowered his voice to say. "But that's not what I meant. That innkeeper thinks you're quite attractive. I'd hate to come back and find you'd tossed me over for him."

Itachi craned his neck to see the receding inn. "You cannot be serious? He was married!" he said in shock.

Neji threw back his head and laughed loudly. Itachi understood that he wasn't serious, and suppressed his own laugh.

Amazingly, he was happy. Happier than he could recall being in the past few weeks. His mind kept returning to the languid hours they'd just spent. The gentleness Neji had shown left a queer, unsettled feeling in his gut, as if they'd never really finished their love-making. Probably because there'd been no penetration this time, he thought. He'd climaxed, certainly, but…even now his body simmered with heat and all the attention Neji had spent touching him. Hours. He had to lower his head now at remembering the sheer amount of time his manhood had spent in Neji's mouth, all the many ways that tongue had been used on him-

His preoccupation left completely at spotting a horse tied up outside the telegram office. The stallion was large, black, with a flowing silver mane and tail. There was no other horse like it in all of New York; Itachi would know, since his father had bought it for him from somewhere in the Appalachian mountains on the day he'd inherited, his twenty-fifth birthday. "That's Tsukuyomi," he said. "That's my horse."

Neji looked where Itachi was pointing and frowned. He'd worked in the Uchiha stables often enough to know that animal and its distinctive coloring. He held Itachi back by a hand on his shoulder, eyes scanning the street and store fronts. They moved toward the telegram office cautiously.

-oOo-

At the office, they found a frantic young boy Itachi recognized hopping up and down and demanding from the proprietor of the establishment to know where Hyuuga Neji was.

"And I told you I don't know no Neji," the man said in exasperation to the boy.

"You have to know him!" the boy shrieked. "He sent a telegram from this office and told us to contact him here, and I rode my horse damn near to death getting here as fast as I could, and I'm not supposed to kill, but if you don't tell me where he is, I will, I swear to-"

Itachi had looked at his horse again at mention it being ridden hard, saw now that the animal was lathered from nose to rump in foamy sweat. His head swung back around at the threat to kill. "Mo?" he stepped forward and said cautiously.

Neji put an arm in front of him to stop him, eying the child warily, but Itachi pushed the arm down.

Mo turned around and nearly wept at seeing them. She marched right up to Neji, who suddenly had both hands free and ready to use. Clearly, he had no compunctions about hurting a child. "Who are you?" Neji bit out.

"Neji, stop. This is Mo. He came to the manor, and-" Itachi suddenly caught sight of a wisp of red hair beneath Mo's cap, and realized that this was the same girl who'd fought with him and saved is life. "I believe she's an ally."

"She?" Neji looked more closely, before his brow cleared slightly. "Spider?" he asked her quietly.

Mo nodded. "Hinata-sama sent me," she said gratefully. "She said her reply was too long to put in a telegram, and that her words for you're your eyes alone anyway. And she had stuff to send besides her message. Said if I didn't get here as quickly as-" Here Mo took a deep breath and forcibly composed herself. She thrust out a package wrapped in leather and smelling foul. Neji took it.

Back at the inn, Neji requested that the entire dinner he ordered be sent to the flophouse they were staying in. He paid extra for this service. There was more than enough gravy-soaked pot roast, new potatoes, corn swimming in butter, fresh milk, fresh rolls, baked chicken, and spinach pies to stuff both men and the famished Mo several times over. Not to mention an entire loaf of crusty onion bread, more creamy butter for that, and a jug of wine. The wine was vinegary, though, and quickly set aside after the first gagging mouthful. They requested more milk be sent over, and that it be flavored with cinnamon and honey.

Only when they'd wiped all the dishes clean with the last of the bread, and Mo had sucked her fingers clean, did Neji take up the smelly package and move to sit by the nightstand, where the lantern was. Recognizing the smell for what it was, he said to Itachi, "You might want to turn away, seeing as you've just eaten. This won't be a sight for anyone who doesn't have a strong stomach."

Itachi moved to sit across from him on his bed. "Open it."

Neji undid the twine binding the parcel, and out poured several dozen severed fingers. They fell on Neji's legs, and rolled to the floor. Itachi covered his mouth. Neji only looked at the fingers a moment, before quietly telling Mo to lock the door. It wouldn't do for the innkeeper or one of his daughters to walk in just then to take their dishes.

There was more in the parcel. Eight rings bound together by another length of twine tinkled into Neji's palm, all silver, all with a kanji embedded in them. "Madara wore such a ring," Neji mused.

Itachi eyed the fingers. "There are no rings on those, and far more fingers than the rings you are holding."

"These wouldn't have been given to just anyone," Neji said. "I seem to recall Hinata mentioning that a select few men in Akatsuki were given a ring to signify their status in the organization."

"What do the kanji say?"

Neji handed the rings over so that Itachi could read them himself as he dipped his fingers into the parcel once more and came up with a letter wrapped and protected by one of Hinata's small silken scarves.

Itachi read the words on the eight rings. "Gyoku, Nan, Shu, San, Bya, Hoku, Gai, Kuu." He looked up. "Hinata killed all eight of the men who'd worn these?"

Mo came over, having drained the last of the milk. "She and her spiders killed all those men," she corrected, pointing at the pile of fingers. "Forty-nine. Some of them were wearing those rings. I think you and I got a few too, though, remember?"

Itachi spluttered in shock at the women killing all the men who'd attacked the manor, but Neji was reading from the letter he'd unfolded out loud.

"Dearest Cousin,

I am relived to know you and Itachi-san are well. Please inform Itachi-san that his house is secure, and we found two Chinese servants hiding in the cellar, who are even now putting it to rights.

Regrettably, Mikoto-san is dead."

Itachi tightened his jaw at hearing that, but said nothing as Neji read on. The letter went on and on for a while about the repairs being made to his house, and how the weather was changing around the manor and the affect the thaw was having. Early buds were on the trees, Hinata rhapsodized.

"Why would she find it necessary to write about that?" Itachi asked.

Neji shrugged. "She's more into our roots than I am, but she's probably trying to comfort you over your mother and brother. Showing you how life follows death, and everything."

"I see. Please skip any further reference to the trees and grass."

Neji nodded and continued, skipping several paragraphs.

"Inoichi-san was also captured by the enemy and taken to Madara, but I myself went to retrieve him, along with Shikaku and Shibi. He was in the process of being tortured, but at my arrival, Madara fled with one man. We did not give chase, as Inoichi-san's condition was critical. He is safe at Uchiha Manor now, and under my care. He will recover.

I have troubling news. Inoichi-san says Madara extracted information from him. A location in Plattsburg. It is almost certain that Madara will go there. Please do not go there yourself until I can join you or send my spiders; Madara is without men now, save the one, but a cornered dog is at its most vicious and he was crazed when he saw how he'd been beaten. Aside from which, he has taken Hanabi and our father. I want my share of his flesh.

I am sending this with Moegi, along with Itachi's horse and clothes for him. Tell him that Inoichi-san will see that his mother is buried accordingly and that her death was quick."

Neji looked up gravely at that, remembering that he'd neglected to offer his condolences. "Itachi, I'm so sor-"

Itachi wasn't listening. "Plattsburg." He stood up and began to pace. "Mo, when did Hinata see Madara?"

"Umm…Wednesday night? Or…I think it was early Thursday morning."

"The night of the attack, then."

"Yes. She got Neji's telegram Friday morning, yesterday, and sent me right out. I'm sorry I rode your horse so hard."

Itachi waved the apology away. "Madara will want to get there by the fastest route if he believes, as Inoichi and I did, that the legacy is in this Plattsburgh. Railroad, most likely. He's probably already on one. Except," Itachi turned with a gleam in his eyes to regard Neji and Mo. "The legacy isn't in Plattsburgh. It's in Clinton. Inoichi might have forgotten, or else he might have tried to hold that detail back deliberately, but in any case it means we have a little time to get there ourselves before Madara does. Mo, are you sure Inoichi told Madara Plattsburgh only?"

"He said that's the only word he gave him. Nothing about any Clinton."

Neji held up both hands. "Wait, wait, wait. You know what the legacy is? For God's sake, what is it!"

"I don't know. I only know where it likely is," Itachi said. He explained about the letter he'd received the day Neji had left the manor, before the attack. "In truth, I'd forgotten all about it until now, but we must leave at once. I can't wait for your cousin. It will take Madara three or four days to reach Plattsburgh, and we must be there before him. Mo, where are the clothes Hinata sent?"

Mo picked up a large satchel she'd had over her shoulder and handed it to him. Neji was scribbling a reply on the back of Hinata's letter. He handed it to Mo and told her to take it back to Hinata quickly, and to take one of the horses he and Itachi had ridden into town on. Mo slipped from the room a moment later, the letter clutched in her fist.

Alone now, Neji spoke as he bent to sweep all the fingers into Hinata's scarf. "If Madara gets there before us, he'll be waiting for you."

Itachi began undressing, removing first the ring of keys that had managed to stay with him despite all that had happened. He started to respond, but the words died in his throat as he slowly brought the keys closer to his face. "Oh my God."

"What is it?" Neji came over to him at once.

"This." Itachi selected one key and held the entire ring up by it, turning it toward the light. "There was a mark on that letter from Plattsburgh, one I was sure I'd seen someplace…and here it is!"

Neji took the key and held it directly beneath the lantern light, studying it closely. He saw a small mark, like a stylized box of some kind, etched into the ruddy metal. "What does it mean?"

Itachi felt a surge of excitement. "It must mean that this key opens whatever strong box or safe houses the legacy. My God, my father told me not to let those keys out of my sight for any reason, and he himself always kept the keys on his person…I would never have known what that key was for if that letter hadn't come, do you realize that?"

"Then you still want to go through with this?"

"Neji, I must. If I can put this matter to rest once and for all, I must take the chance that Madara is there ahead of me. The man has ruined my life, killed my parents, and may have killed Sasuke. He's not getting his hands on that legacy, not as long as I have breath."

"We don't even know what it is," Neji said as Itachi began changing his clothes. He resisted the urge to help.

"No, but we'll find out soon enough. Here, there are clothes for you a well. Quickly, I want to be on a train as soon as possible."

Setting the scarf full of fingers aside, and trying to quell his sudden misgivings, Neji began undoing his shirt.