You're Beautiful
Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews. I hope that you enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 21
Sasuke was impressed by how quickly they arrived on the Serpentes' planet. Once they land, he stands next to Naruto. He knew that this planet was apparently inhabited by giant talking snakes. It was probably best to use the buddy system on this one.
Itachi seemed to be having similar thoughts to Sasuke. The elder human brother laces his fingers with Gaara. His now crimson red eyes scan their surroundings on alert. The engineer had figured out how to activate the Sharingan at will by now and was going to take full advantage of his newfound abilities.
"Careful. We've never had a particularly good relationship with the Serpentes." Madara warns them and Izuna nods.
"How come?" Sasuke asks warily as he looks around and notices that a massive snake was slowly slithering towards them.
The biologist suddenly wasn't so sure it had been a good idea to come here. It was a planet of enormous reptiles and the reptiles didn't like them. Yeah, maybe he should have skipped out on coming here.
He mentally slaps himself for having these thoughts. He was a warrior class. Damn it! Sasuke could handle a bunch of overgrown snakes!
"We aren't sure why. The first time that we arrived, they just attacked us unprovoked." Izuna says.
Sasuke frowns. That didn't make sense. If they were anything like their counterparts on Earth, they wouldn't lash out like that. There had to be a reason. He hoped there was a reason because that big snake had just arrived within striking distance.
"Welcome. I wish I could say that your arrival was under better circumstances, but I am glad you came. I need you to take Manda off somewhere that he can be held. I do not wish for a war to start because he is impulsive." Aoda states.
"Why would you give us warning? Your planet has not had very amiable relations with ours in the past." Gaara inquires.
Aoda sighs. He knew that was true. It was really only natural that they would be suspicious. He would have thought them stupid, if they weren't.
"While our kind do not like yours, we are not fools. Your Allied Forces would completely crush us, if we went to war. Manda wants to take over Sage because the BufoBufoians have strained their relationship with the rest of the Allies. I know this would only led to a war. While his heart is in the right place, his actions would cost tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of lives. I can not allow that." The massive snake replies.
Gaara glances at Naruto. The story did seem plausible. Still the red head clearly felt uncomfortable trusting them.
Sasuke glances behind them. He could see the impact of where a large ship had once landed. It appeared that there were memorials there? He walks over and picks up a white piece of something. It was a piece of what seemed to be a rather large egg.
That's when he looks at Izuna. His ancestor was about to sit on a very large white "rock" that matched the shell. Aoda saw this and didn't react well. He lunges at the ancient warrior. Sasuke dives over and shoves his ancestor out of the way.
"I think I know why the Serpentes don't like us much. When you landed here the first time you landed on a nest." Sasuke observes.
"…" Izuna and Madara blink.
That would explain a lot. They had felt something crunch underneath them when they landed all those years ago. It would explain the hostility…
Aoda blinks. The young "Jinchuuriki" was acting as though his people didn't know about the Hatchlings being crushed to death so many years ago. Had it been an accident?
"It seems we owe your people an apology. We had no idea those were eggs. We thought they were just rocks that we smashed when we landed." Izuna says.
"Hundreds of eggs were crushed. They were killed. We thought they were murdered. An apology is not going to bring them back, but it does make a difference to realize it was an accident." Aoda observes.
Sasuke nods and examines the truly enormous egg. It was as big as him. He gingerly touches it and blinks when he noticed a shadow. There was definitely something in it and it was moving.
"That's the largest Hatchling that my Mate and I had this year. Unfortunately, it's a dud. It's not going to hatch. There are some eggs that just never hatch for one reason or another. So we moved it here. Since the crash, this is where we bury those eggs that just don't hatch." The massive reptile explains.
"I don't think it's a dud." Sasuke says.
"What are you talking about? That egg should have hatched a month ago." Aoda asks.
"There's something moving inside it. Come see." The youngest Uchiha says and the serpent slithers over to have a look.
Sasuke points. He gestures to the shadow. There was something moving inside it. He bites his lower lip and wonders if it was similar to snakes on Earth. It was such a large egg, maybe it just wasn't warm enough. He summons some fire in his hand and holds it close to the shell, heating it.
A cracking noise is heard. Naruto's eyes widen in panic. He grabs Sasuke and pulls him away form the massive egg, just as the creature bursts out of it. The egg shell pieces go splattering everywhere.
"SON!" Aoda says and wraps his massive tail around the "baby" snake (which was the size of a fucking anaconda) protectively.
"Son? How can he tell?" Itachi whispers to Gaara.
Gaara shrugs. He honestly had no idea. But he wasn't going to argue. It was a strangely touching scene really.
"Surprised you don't have any Nurturer in you, Sasuke. You are a daddy now. Sorta." Itachi teases him.
"Oh screw you, Itachi." Sasuke grumbles and Naruto wraps his wings around Sasuke.
Aoda beams at his son. He was such a large Hatchling. He couldn't believe it. He had thought that the largest egg was a dud, but here he was strong and thriving. His Mate was going to be so happy!
"I think I shall call him Daisuke." Aoda decrees.
"Um alright then." Sasuke says awkwardly and cuddles into Naruto's arms, feeling a little freaked out that an alien snake was sorta named after him.
"I owe you a great debt. My son would have slowly starved to death in that egg if you hadn't noticed it. Now that we know it was an accident, maybe things will improve between our people." Aoda says as he nuzzles the baby snake, who appeared to be cooing.
Sasuke looks at Itachi helplessly. Itachi shrugs. He gives the universal motion for, "Just go with it." Sasuke nods and does exactly that.
Meanwhile Hinata and Hanabi's slugs give them the order to send out a force to attack the Inuzukas. The princesses fought against their parasites viciously, but neither of them were able to wrest back control. Hinata pushes the button that would tell the Hyuga battleships to set sail across space.
"Stop this!" Hinata screams at her Gastropoda.
The Hyuga woman tries desperately to shake off the slug's control of her. She couldn't let this happen. This would mean war! What if they didn't believe her when she said that the Gastropoda had forced them to do it? Kiba would never forgive her!
"Stop fighting. That is very annoying. We can make this much more painful for you, if you continue resisting." Her slug says.
"Get away from me and my sister!" Hanabi hisses at the slugs, desperately trying to yank it off of the back of her head.
It was too late for that though. The slugs were now far too deeply attached to them to be removed that easily. The feline women hiss and meow, trying to free themselves from the other aliens' control, but it was no use.
"It really is so much easier, if you just accept it. They are not your enemies. The Gastropoda are our friends. They just want to help us. They want to help all of us. You don't see it now, but you will. I promise that all will make sense to you in time." Pein assures them.
The sisters hiss at him. Their claws extend in fury. Thankfully for Pein, the slugs were able to prevent the princesses from actually attacking them. Still he decides it was best to restrain them. He was not going to take any chances. Hyuga claws were just as lethal as his people's talons.
"You won't get away with this!" Hinata yells at him.
"Yes, I will. I'm sorry. I don't like restraining the two of you, but you are being difficult. You didn't leave me with any other choice. It doesn't matter now though. The ships are on their way to the Inuzuka planet. It's all going according to plan." He says.
The sister's eyes widen in horror at that knowledge. What had they done? They had probably just started a war.
Little did they know that elsewhere in the universe, Konan had managed to break out of her cage. The female Jinchuuriki clutches her head in terrible pain. She had finally managed to defeat that slug.
Now she had to find a ship. She had to get back to Konoha and warn them. That or the nearest Allied planet. She just hoped that it wasn't too late. There was no telling what those slugs had managed to do while she was trapped.
"Please let him make it out of this alive, somehow." Konan mutters to whatever Gods and Goddesses might be listening as she finds a small ship and sets her course for Konoha.
A few hours later, all the Uchiha brothers and their Mates were back on board their ship and heading home. Gaara was with Itachi in their room. He was pretty sure that Naruto had drug Sasuke off to go provide some tender love and care to his injured Mate. The red head didn't even want to know what Madara and Izuna might be doing in their room!
"That was quite strange." Gaara muses to his lover as he kisses his cheek.
"My baby brother just played midwife to an alien snake. Strange is kinda an understatement. Still it's a good thing he did. That could have gotten ugly and fast." Itachi observes.
Gaara nods in agreement. It was nothing short of a miracle. Thank Kyubbi that Sasuke had figured out that was an egg. It could have turned into a bloodbath. He was just glad that they were all safe.
"It's amazing how these misunderstandings can happen." Gaara muses.
Itachi blinks at the word misunderstandings! Shit! That was not good. They had completely forgotten about Tsunade. He had to get in touch with her. The poor woman probably thought an alien invasion was about to happen or something! How could he be so careless?!
"Gaara, can I borrow one of those communication devices? I really need to get in touch with Tsunade. She's probably extremely worried about what happened to us." Itachi asks.
"Of course." The Kazekage says as he hands his Mate the communication device.
Itachi listens as the Kage shows him how to use the thing. It really was such a fascinating piece of technology. It could apparently be used across galaxies. He really had to ask Gaara HOW this thing worked. It was incredible really. He mouths a thank you as he calls Tsunade.
"Itachi?!" Tsunade asks when she sees the man's face in her own device.
"Yes, it's me. We are very sorry about this. It just was kinda a spur of the moment thing. We did leave a message. Still that's no excuse. It was very inconsiderate of us to take off without asking or explaining things to you." Itachi says.
Tsunade couldn't believe it. Itachi had called her. It was irritating. They had just up and run off across the space without even so much as a goodbye. The only way she knew what happened to them was because of their phone message and Sasuke calling earlier.
"I can't believe you two. You just left without even discussing it with me and then call out of the blue?!" She demands.
"You have every right to be angry. It was just…it just all happened so fast. But I assure you that we came of our own free will and that Earth is not under any type of threat." He explains.
Kabuto watches as Tsunade talks to Itachi on the phone, a few minutes later. Unbelievable. So Itachi was still alive. That meant Sasuke might still be alive as well. How had they survived all this time in deep space and with these aliens to boot?
"Well that's good at least. When are you two returning home?" She asks.
"We aren't sure. I can't speak for Sasuke, but I'm quite happy here with Gaara. Happier than I was on Earth." Itachi says.
Kabuto blinks. He could feel blood practically boil with rage at that comment. Happy with Gaara? He was romantically involved with the fucking alien?! Was Itachi completely out of his mind?!
"Itachi! Come home now. You know it's not safe. Look at what Naruto did to Sasuke. These creatures might not mean to hurt you, but they will!" The silver haired security guard tries to reason with him.
"How dare you?! Itachi is my Mate. I would never hurt him and that was an accident." Gaara growls into the communicator and his eyes flash silver.
Itachi rubs the back of his head sheepishly. There was bound to be some cultural misunderstandings while the two species got used to each other. This was all just growing pains. Though he was really glad that Gaara was not in the same room as Kabuto at the moment.
His Mate looked absolutely furious. The engineer wouldn't have been shocked if the red head attacked Kabuto. Well that probably would have happened, if they were in the same room. Once again, he thanked his lucky stars that they were not.
"You kidnapped him. He's not your Mate. He's your prisoner! You probably turned him into your sex slave by using some sort of mind control on him!" Kabuto snaps at Gaara.
"You human are rather fortunate that we are no longer in the same galaxy. If we were, I would make you regret those words. You know NOTHING of my people or our ways. Itachi is my Mate. I cherish him and he is with me of his own free will." The red head bristles.
Tsunade sighs. She could feel a giant migraine coming on. The busty blonde couldn't believe that she had to meddle in a cosmic love triangle.
When she became President, she thought she understood what she was getting into. She understood that she would be the symbol for their country. The blonde woman understood that every second of her life was going to be watched. She knew that her decisions could mean the difference between life and death. What she hadn't expected was a situation like this. This screwed up outer space love triangle.
"Despite this serious very unfortunate misunderstandings, I would like for our peoples to have good relations with each other." The blonde says with an exasperated sigh.
"I would like that too." Itachi replies with a smile.
"You expect me to believe that? Itachi and Sasuke just willingly left their fucking planet to be with two freakish aliens that they barely knew?!" Kabuto thunders at Gaara.
Itachi smacks his forehead. He really wished that Kabuto would shut up. He was making this situation a whole lot worse than it had to be. What the fuck was wrong with him?!
"Yes, we willingly went with them. It's really none of your concern. Tsunade is our President and should be briefed as a matter of security. We don't owe you any explanations, Kabuto. Now apologize to Gaara." He demands.
"I'm not apologizing to that freak!" Kabuto protests.
Tsunade sighs. She couldn't believe she was going to do this. She knocks Kabuto out. She was not going to have Earth go to war against another advanced civilization because he couldn't keep his mouth shut.
"Well thank you for calling and straightening things out. If you ever pull something like that again though, I am having your asses locked up." She says with a fake cheerfulness that made Itachi shiver.
"Got it. Good night, Tsunade." Itachi says as he turns off the "phone."
Gaara's feathers were still bristled. It was clear he was extremely agitated by what Kabuto said. Itachi sighs and caresses his cheek.
"Don't let it bother you. I'm with you because I love you. He's just jealous. Kabuto wanted me to be his Mate. He wanted Sasuke once he realized I wasn't interested as well. Actually, I think he has an Uchiha fetish quite honestly." Itachi muses.
"I can't really blame him for that. You are a very attractive family. But if he ever tries to touch you, I will shred him to ribbons with my talons." Gaara grumbles.
"You know this possessive side of you is strangely hot." Itachi muses.
"Really? I can work with that." His red head replies and Itachi smiles as he kisses his lover.
"Good. I was hoping that you would say that." Itachi informs him.
Elsewhere on the ship, Naruto was laying on the bed with Sasuke. The blonde was looking over his Mate VERY thoroughly. He was convinced that his injuries from the spat with Madara were a lot worse than they were.
"Naruto, I'm telling you that I'm fine. Why can't you just take my word for it?" Sasuke asks with a sigh.
"He hurt you." Naruto growls.
"A little. Not that much. Besides, I did hurt him too." Sasuke says.
He knew that was a bit of an exaggeration. Madara's armor had protected him. Still he figured that might calm Naruto down, as long as he was reminded Sasuke could handle himself.
"Sasuke, that's NOT the point!" Naruto protests.
Sasuke shakes his head. Oh boy. He was going to have to fight dirty. He sighs and pushes Naruto onto the bed. The human straddles his lover's waist and looks down at him.
"What are you doing?" Naruto asks in confusion.
"Naruto, I love you. But you really have to stop treating me like I'm some princess that you are supposed to save from the big bad dragon." Sasuke informs him.
Naruto tilts his head to the side. He didn't know what a dragon was. But he thought he understood the general gist of what Sasuke was trying to say.
"You're my Mate. I'm supposed to protect you." The blonde states as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I know and you do a really good job of it. But I'm a warrior class too. I'm not weak Naruto. I love you, but I'm going to have to kick your ass if you keep treating me like a damsel in distress." Sasuke taunts him and kisses his lover.
Naruto returns the kiss. He runs his fingers through Sasuke's dark spiky locks. It was a relief to be able to hold him like this. Sasuke was alright. He might have gotten roughed up by his ancestor, but was alive. He was healthy and safe with him. That's what mattered.
"You're right. You are a warrior. I just can't help worrying about you. I want to keep you safe. Is that so bad?" Naruto asks.
"It's not bad. Just don't treat me like a china doll. So what do you think is up with the Serpentes and BufoBufoians?" Sasuke asks as he glides his fingertips over Naruto's handsome wings.
"Mmm don't know. That feels nice." Naruto murmurs.
Sasuke smiles. He does it again. He really did like the feeling of Naruto's wings and well of Naruto in general. God help him, he was in love with an alien. Madly, passionately in love with an alien prince. Could his life get any more bizarre than this?
"Well I guess it's nice that Aoda likes us again at least." Sasuke observes.
"Yeah. You were amazing. Surprised you don't have any nurturer in you. You might have just saved relations between our species." The blue eyed alien observes.
"Thanks and I hope so. I don't think that whatever is going on with the BufoBufoians is an isolated incident. It doesn't make any sense. You've had the Allied Forces for centuries. You've never made another planet into a colony. So why would you start now and with them? Someone or something is messing with them." Sasuke says seriously.
Naruto sighs and nods. He would much rather go back to kissing his Mate and having his feathers stroke. Sasuke was right though. Something was going on. Something very bad was going on. They had to figure out what it was before things got worse.
"Yeah. I don't know. It makes no sense. Well at least we have Manda now. The Serpentes are on our side. You are like the fucking snake whisperer or something." Naruto says with a laugh.
"Yeah. I guess. Do you know anyone else that might have been in contact with the BufoBufoians? Someone that holds a grudge against the Allied Forces?" Sasuke questions him.
"Well there is the Gastropoda. They are a race of slugs. Wicked smart, but they're usually tiny. For a short time they can get as big as the Serpentes though. Most of the time, they attach themselves to a host. Usually it's a symbiotic relationship, but sometimes…well there are bad apples in every species." Naruto shrugs.
Sasuke shivers. A race of alien slugs that could attack themselves to you or become as big as Aoda? That sounded like a horror movie. Yuck. He tried to imagine it and felt like he was going to be sick.
"Do you think they would have done something like this though?" Sasuke asks.
"It's possible. I don't have any proof. I mean they are pretty arrogant. They think they are smarter than everyone else. They also really resent having weak bodies most of the time. I think they are jealous of warrior races like ours." The prince continues.
Sasuke considers this. Naruto's race was beautiful to put it mildly. He could understand why a race of slugs might be jealous. Still it wasn't exactly a comforting thought.
"If they infect someone, how can you tell?" Sasuke asks.
"That's the thing, you can't. That's what makes them so dangerous when they go bad. Your best friend could be infected and you might never know. It's pretty scary actually." The blonde admits.
Sasuke gulps. That was more than pretty scary. That was downright frightening. He bit his lower lip. He had a bad feeling about this. Maybe it really was the slugs who were behind everything.