Hi, my lovelies! I realize it's been a while (again) and I apologize (again). XP I was asked by a friend to draw a picture for her for her birthday last week, and then I got into a drawing kick. I've been drawing more than I've been writing. Lol. So yesterday I randomly decided that I felt like re-reading this fic (because I'm a nerd like that) and it gave me the inspiration to write more. And so I did. XP I wrote almost this entire chapter in one day. Yay me! I hope you enjoy it...oh, there's gonna be a lime and implied lemon a little later on in this.

Oh, just so you're all aware, today also just so happens to be Konan's birthday, so wish her a Happy Birthday however you feel like! A good place to start would be to read the tribute fic I posted for her in my "A Series of Birthdays"...XP I'm so bad...advertising a fanfic in a different fanfic...meh. Not like I haven't done it before. Lol. Now on with this chapter! And don't blame me for the crappiness of this battle, I know I've said before how much I suck at writing them.

Chapter 14

Kisame drew his sword and rushed straight over to Naruto, who was still kneeling on the ground. Immediately, Sasuke, Lee, Kiba, and Juugo were standing in front of Naruto to protect him. Sakura quickly rushed over and began healing the blonde.

"I'm fine, Sakura-chan," he said dismissively, getting up carefully. "Let me fight."

"Don't be stupid," she said, "you're in no condition to fight. Sit down and let me heal you."

"Yes, leave the fighting to us," Lee said, glancing back briefly at his two friends before turning his attention back to the fight at hand. The others, aside from Shikamaru and Neji, were fighting their best to keep Kisame away from Naruto.

"I heal quickly," Naruto reminded everyone. "I'll be perfectly fine in a couple minutes, you'll see."

"We don't have a couple minutes," Sakura argued. She forced him to sit, and began healing him. Naruto grumbled, but allowed it. Madara and Zetsu both stayed out of the way, letting Kisame have his own battle.

"If you give me the Jinchuuriki," Kisame said, swinging his sword at Lee who dodged at the last second, "then I'll consider sparing you all."

Kiba laughed humourlessly. "As if we'd hand Naruto over to the likes of you." He and Akamaru did their Fang Over Fang, and managed to hit Kisame with it. All three of them went crashing into a large boulder, and Zetsu's white half laughed.

"That's what you get for making such bold accusations," he remarked. Madara shook his head slowly.

"It seems you've lost your touch, Kisame," he said. "Perhaps you should let me take care of it now." In a flash, Madara was standing directly in front of the newly healed Naruto, currently being helped up by Sakura. Both shinobi froze as they saw Madara there. He chuckled a little, then got right in their faces.

"Boo," he said, then laughed as Naruto and Sakura flinched.

"Get away from them, you bastard!" Sasuke commanded, running towards Madara with a Chidori in hand. Madara stepped out of the way just in time, though Sasuke's attack gave everyone an opportunity to come over and, once again, protect Naruto.

"Guys, I'm fine now, you don't need to save me any more," Naruto said, pushing his friends aside gently.

"Hey, don't worry about it," Kiba said. "We've got your back."

"And I've got a plan," Shikamaru said, walking over to join the group finally.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto stood completely still, eyes closed, focusing intently. All his friends, as well as Juugo, stood in a protective circle around him.

"I see you have a strategy of some kind," Madara noted, "though how you think it will help is beyond me. Your chances of winning are still the same; zero."

"We have fought and survived through worse odds than that before," Lee said confidently. "We can do this, no problem!"

"For once, I have to say I agree with you, Lee," Kiba said, surprising even himself. Akamaru barked in agreement.

"Regardless of what you think, you're all still kids, and therefore have no hope of beating me." With that statement, Madara came running at them. Kisame ran at the other side of the circle, sword drawn and trailing behind him. Instantly, Kisame was frozen, caught in Shikamaru's Shadow Possession Jutsu.

"That sword is a nuisance," Shikamaru decided, and made Kisame drop it. He then used Shadow Sewing to grab the sword and throw it as far away as he could manage, which was quite far considering its weight.

"You little bastard!" Kisame announced, looking at Shikamaru in surprise. "Let go of me, right now!" Shikamaru didn't reply, just focused all his efforts on maintaining the jutsu for as long as he could.

"This part wasn't exactly thought out too well," Kiba said from the other side of the circle. They were managing to keep Madara out, but finding it very difficult not to break their formation to do so. "We're pretty much all close-range shinobi over here."

It was true, of course. On that side stood Kiba and Akamaru, Lee, Neji, and almost Sasuke. Sasuke was at the very head of the circle, directly in front of Naruto. "Well, figure something out," Shikamaru said in response. "You've all got brains, and you know your own abilities far better than I do."

Sasuke did a little half turn so that he was facing the direction Madara was attacking from. "Chidori Stream!" he called out, sending the jutsu out towards the other Uchiha. Madara just barely dodged in time.

"Quick thinking, Sasuke-kun," he said, impressed. Suddenly, he was gone. He reappeared between Sasuke and Sakura, in the gap that Sasuke had been forced to make. Sasuke's eyes widened and he turned. "But now I've gotten in. What are you going to do about it?"

"Aren't you ready yet, Naruto-kun?" Shikamaru asked. His arms and legs were trembling, and he was sweating, all from the strain of maintaining his jutsu.

"Just another minute or so," Naruto mumbled in response. Sasuke stabbed Madara in the stomach with a kunai, but the older man just dodged it.

"Nice try, but you need to be a lot faster than that to even come close to hurting me."

"How about now?" Shikamaru asked Naruto as he looked back at his friend. Naruto didn't respond right away, but then he opened his eyes, which now closely resembled those of a toad. He had the additional red outline around his eyes as well.

"Ready," he said, now fully in Sage Mode. He created two Shadow Clones at the same time as Shikamaru released his jutsu and the circle broke up. Neji went straight for Kisame, his Byakugan activated to aid him. Juugo rushed to Sasuke's side, helping in the fight against Madara. "Out of the way," Naruto commanded, releasing his clones. Sasuke and Juugo both jumped away from Madara. "Wind Style: Rasen-Shuriken!" Naruto threw the jutsu straight at Madara, whose visible eye widened.

"Impossible," he breathed as the jutsu hit. Everybody stopped what they were doing and stared in awe. Absolutely amazing, Shikamaru thought to himself. Once the Rasen-Shuriken cleared, Madara fell to the ground, on his back.

"Now, Sasuke," Shikamaru called.

"Already on it," Sasuke said, running a bit closer to where Madara lay. He shut his eyes briefly, then opened his left one, which now had his Mangekyou Sharingan. "Amaterasu," he said softly, and black flames smothered Madara. Soon after that, however, Sasuke dropped to his knees with a hand covering his eye, which was now tightly shut and bleeding.

"Sasuke!" Naruto exclaimed, rushing over to kneel beside his boyfriend.

"I'm fine," the Uchiha insisted, looking at Naruto with his right eye, which was normal. "This happens every time I use that jutsu, it's fine."

"Well, no, it's not fine," Naruto argued. "If using a jutsu hurts you like that, you shouldn't use it. If you're not careful, you won't be able to see anymore, let alone use any Sharingan."

Sasuke's open eye narrowed, and he stood up. "I said I'm fine," he repeated. He wiped the blood off his face and opened his other eye, also back to normal. I already know all that, he thought. Naruto stared at him in concern, but Sasuke looked away. "We're done here," he said to the others. "There's no need to fight these two, they're no threat to us."

"I'm the leader of this mission," Shikamaru said, "so I'll decide what's necessary and what isn't."

Sasuke shrugged. "Sure, fine. Do whatever, just don't blame me for what happens if you decide to fight them." Naruto grabbed Sasuke's shoulders and shook him a little.

"What's wrong with you?" he demanded. "Did they brainwash you or something?"

"What the hell are you going on about?" Sasuke asked calmly, pushing Naruto away. "They didn't do anything to me." He looked down.

"Then what happened? You've changed again..." Sasuke looked back up, staring straight into Naruto's eyes.

"Now is not the time to talk about anything like this," he said after a moment.

"Alright, let's go," Shikamaru announced, drawing the two boys' attention back over there. "Our mission says nothing about fighting with any Akatsuki. We were told to find where Sasuke was taken and bring him back, so let's complete the other half of that."

"Yeah, sounds good to me," Naruto said, glancing over at Sasuke.

"We have to take Juugo too," the Uchiha said, looking directly at Shikamaru. "I won't leave him here."

"Sasuke-kun, you really don't have to do that," Juugo said, though it was obvious he was happy about Sasuke's words.

"You've got nowhere else to go, Juugo," Sasuke said. "You're coming with us." Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, come on, it'll be great!" he said.

"Okay, fine, whatever you say," Shikamaru agreed. "Let's just get going before he wakes up." Here, he gestured towards Madara. The black flames of Amaterasu had been extinguished shortly after Sasuke had closed his eye. "I don't believe for a second that he's dead." The group of shinobi left without another word.

Zetsu walked over to where Madara lay. "Such strong kids," his white half remarked. "To have been able to reduce him to this? That takes talent."

"It was luck," his black half argued. "It was only because the Jinchuuriki pulled that jutsu and startled us all."

"The jutsu was still fairly strong," the white half pointed out. "Startled or not, it did a large amount of damage in a short amount of time. Add Sasuke-kun's Amaterasu on top of that, and it's no surprise that this happened."

"Let's just take him inside," the black half said, and so Zetsu picked Madara's limp body up and carried it inside the hideout. Kisame followed.

"What do we do about Sasuke and the Jinchuuriki?" he asked at Zetsu deposited Madara on the ground.

"We wait until Madara-sama wakes," both halves said in unison. "He'll decide what happens then," the black half continued. Kisame heaved a huge sigh, then sat down.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Once Naruto and the others returned to Konoha, they headed straight to the Hokage tower to inform Tsunade of what happened.

"I see," she said once they were done. "And what do you expect me to do with him?" she asked, glancing at Juugo. She then looked at Sasuke. "I assume you already know all about his reputation and everything?"

"I'm the only one who can help him control his urge to kill," Sasuke replied, his face completely expressionless. "I assure you he won't be a problem."

"It's true," Naruto confirmed. "I saw Sasuke stop Juugo a lot back when..." He didn't finish the thought, but everyone knew what he was talking about. He was referring to the time when he'd been Sasuke's captive. Tsunade sighed.

"I'll have him interrogated, to see if he has any new information on the Akatsuki, and after that he is your responsibility, Uchiha Sasuke. Naruto, since Sasuke is still your responsibility, that means you're also indirectly responsible for anything Juugo does."

Naruto blinked in surprise. "What? But why? How is that fair?"

"Does it need to be fair?" Tsunade snapped. "Those are my orders. Now everyone leave! Shizune, take Juugo to be interrogated."

"Yes, milady!" Shizune said, then did as she was told. Everybody else left as well.

"Sasuke, will you tell me what's wrong now?" Naruto asked once the two of them had returned to Sasuke's house.

"Nothing's wrong," the Uchiha replied, laying on his bed with his arms behind his head and one knee up. Naruto sat on the bed beside him, looking at him.

"You've gone back to the way you were before," he said. "Do you really expect me to believe that nothing's wrong?"

"What do you mean by that?" Sasuke asked, rolling over onto his side so he was facing Naruto.

"You seriously haven't noticed?" the blonde asked incredulously. "You've been all secretive, and haven't said much of anything. You won't answer when I try to ask you something."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I'm answering now, aren't I? And just because I haven't said much doesn't mean I've gone back to the way I was, baka. It just means I haven't felt like saying much."

"Prove it," Naruto challenged. "Prove to me that you're still the same Sasuke as you were before that bastard took you away."

In response, Sasuke smirked and pulled Naruto so he was laying down too. Sasuke then held the blonde close and kissed him passionately. Naruto hesitated for a split second, then returned the kiss just as passionately, hands reaching up to twine in Sasuke's hair. Sasuke rolled them over so that he was on top, and began kissing down Naruto's neck. Naruto tilted his head back to give his boyfriend more room, grinning as he did so.

"I...I suppose this is good enough proof," he breathed.

"Shut up," Sasuke commanded. "No talking right now." He then continued, and Naruto didn't object.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Some time later, as Naruto and Sasuke lay on the bed close together, they heard a knock on the front door of the house. Sasuke went to get up, but Naruto wouldn't let him.

"No," he mumbled sleepily, "don't go. I'm comfy like this."

Sasuke smiled and turned over so he was facing the blonde. He kissed him tenderly, then got up and began collecting his clothes. "I'll only be a moment," he assured Naruto, "don't worry." Naruto whined quietly, but said nothing more.

Sasuke left the room once he was dressed again, and went to the front door. He opened it to find Sakura and Juugo standing there.

"H-hello, Sasuke-kun," Sakura said, smiling at him and blushing. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything," she added as she took in the messiness of his hair, and the fact that his clothes looked hastily put on.

"I assume you were told to bring Juugo here?" Sasuke asked, getting right to the point and ignoring Sakura's statement.

"Oh...right. Yes, that's what I'm here for," Sakura confirmed, nodding her head. "So...ummm...yeah, here he is." She left before anyone could say anything. Sasuke sighed.

"Well, come in, Juugo," he said, moving out of the way so his friend could enter.

"Thank you so much for this, Sasuke-kun," Juugo said as he walked in. Sasuke scratched the back of his head and closed the door.

"It's not a problem, really," he said. "Now let me find a room for you to sleep in." He walked down the hall, and Juugo followed. As they passed Sasuke's room, Naruto stepped out, wearing only his pants.

"What's going on?" he asked, then noticed Juugo and smiled. "Oh, they let you out already," he noted. Juugo nodded, a small smile on his face as well.

"Yes. I'll be glad to be spending more time with you, Naruto-kun," he said. Naruto laughed.

"Really? Most of the time, people can't wait to get away from me."

"In here, Juugo," Sasuke called, and Juugo quickly went to him. "This was once the guest room," Sasuke said, gesturing to the room in front of them. "Now it'll be yours."

"Thank you," Juugo said again. He walked inside, looking all around. "I think I'll go to sleep now."

Sasuke nodded. "Go right ahead. I was thinking of doing the same." Juugo smiled.

"Goodnight, Sasuke-kun," he said, and Sasuke left, shutting the door behind him. When he got back to his room, Naruto was already in bed waiting for him.

"So why the guest room?" the blonde asked curiously. Sasuke stripped himself of his clothes once again, then climbed into bed next to Naruto.

"The only three rooms aside from this one are my parents' room, Itachi's room, and the guest room," Sasuke explained. "Juugo isn't quite close enough of a friend for me to allow him to sleep in a room previously belonging to my family, and I'm not going to make him sleep on the couch." He smirked. "Hell, I don't think I'd let even you sleep in either Itachi's or my parents' room."

Naruto frowned. "Why not? Am I not close enough either?"

"Well, you sure wouldn't be if you were over there." Sasuke pulled Naruto tight to him. Naruto smiled and rested his head on Sasuke's chest.

"Oh, I get it now," he whispered. "I thought you were dissing me or something."

"I know." Sasuke kissed Naruto's temple. "That's why I said it." The two of them lay there in content silence, and Sasuke was nearly asleep, when Naruto spoke again.

"Sasuke?" he began. "Did Madara...what did he do when he took you away?"

Sasuke was silent for a long while. "I'd really rather not talk about it," he said finally.

"Was it really that bad?"

"Who says it was bad? I just don't want to talk about it now."

"Oh, so does that mean you'll tell me later?"

Sasuke sighed in frustration. "Just drop it and go to sleep, Naruto."

"Only if you promise you'll tell me later," Naruto said stubbornly.

"Fine, I promise. Now go to sleep."

There was silence again for another moment. "I...Sasuke...I love you, Sasuke," Naruto said tentatively. Sasuke didn't answer right away, and Naruto almost thought he'd fallen asleep, when he finally spoke.

"I said, go to sleep," Sasuke said harshly. Naruto's heart sank, and he rolled over, away from the Uchiha.

"Goodnight," he mumbled brokenly, and squeezed his eyes shut. Soon enough, both boys were asleep.

Awwww...poor Naruto. The first time he tells Sasuke he loves him, and Sasuke completely disregards it. Sigh. Well, how did you like it? I'm planning on making this fanfic be at least 6 more chapters, though I'm not sure how well that will work...I know my ending already, it's just a matter of how much other stuff I can think of to put in before that happens. So review now, while there's still something to review for! XP There will definitely be two more chapters, if not the whole six I want, so you don't have to worry just yet. Anyway, please let me know what you thought, and if you have any random little ideas now that everyone's back in Konoha!