I'm back! XD And I have an announcement. I found out after a week starting uni that I have no free time to update this fic on weekdays. So this fic is most likely to be updated once a week on the weekends (unless I can steal some time during weekdays) . Would that be okay?

Standard disclaimers apply.

Chapter 25: Surprise Engagement

They took the earliest shikansen(1) back to Tokyo and when they reached the train station, Karin's butler had already waited for them. They went out for late lunch first, each discussed about their own future plan and agreed to keep in touch every once in a while.

"I thought you are not serious with that doctor, Sui?" Karin grinned.

Suigetsu shrugged, trying to be nonchalant about the whole thing. He usually got easily bored and it was mostly a short affair thing but because Sai was a doctor and the times spent with him was limited. It gave Suigetsu new challenge and routine, something foreign as well as excited for him.

"How long do you think you'll stay until you get bored of him, hmm?" Karin pressed again; bickering with Suigetsu was fun especially since she has no sister or brother to argue with. Picking up fights with Juugo was pointless as the tall blond would give her the most logical, non-argument-able answers most of the time and his poker face look made it too bored. And it's a no-no to have fights with Sasuke; he was quite easily irritable if it was not Naruto who teased and argued with him.

Besides, Sasuke would threaten her with a restraining order. That was something that Karin could never understand. Why the hell should Sasuke get a restraining order just because Karin picked a fight with him, she'd never, ever understand in her life.

"He's quite interesting; I'll stay around for quite a while," Suigetsu said, irritated at Karin's nosey questions.

"Ahh… so it is something serious, huh?" Karin's eyes sparkled and her grin broke wider as she saw Sauigetsu's slightly flushed face. "So? What is it to you, anyway? I suggest you get serious about a relationship too, seeing at you're getting older, cow…" she heard Suigetsu's sarcastic reply and her blood instantly boiled. "Why, you little-"

"That's enough," Sasuke's firm voice shut the two up. They sighed; and to think things were just getting more heated and interesting- Sasuke's just an anti-climax person!

000

Initially Juugo, Karin and Suigetsu wanted to send Sasuke into the house, just to escort him but Sasuke flat out refused their offer, saying that he wanted to do it by his own- showing to his family that he's back to normal and was ready to live as his father expected.

The three had no choice but to agree, especially when Sasuke left no room for arguments.

When Sasuke walked into the manor that early evening, his mother was the only one at home, along with other workers and maids in the manor. Sasuke was glad. He hugged his mother; her onyx eyes brightened when she saw his fuller face and the absence of the dark rings under his eyes.

"Welcome home, Sasuke…"

"I'm home, Okaasan…"

"Go and have some rest first; we'll have dinner in a couple of hours."

Sasuke went up to his room; mixed feelings were still in his heart; only now there were more emotions attached to it. He loved seeing his mother again, after all she had supported him endlessly and tirelessly for the past four years. Maybe he should show more gratitude to her, he realized.

But he also had a feeling of remorse returning to this house. It was probably because he had to face the two men he would never want to see again. But he was an adult and he had to take some lead into his own life. Sasuke didn't want to be ruled by his father or shadowed by his older brother anymore.

Naruto being alive had brought some life into him once more.

He opened the door and stood still at the frame; admiring how his mother kept everything in place and as tidy as it should be. Slowly, Sasuke walked in and lightly touched the surface of his bed, his desk and his closet; not a single dust collected on his fingers. He suddenly felt lumps in his throat; awed and touched at his mother's effort even when he was gone.

"I have to meet your family to say thanks for raising a child as kind as you." It was as though Naruto was speaking those words to him now; an affectionate smile broke on Sasuke's lips.

"Mother would love to meet you too, Naruto," Sasuke whispered, trailing his fingers on his desk, to the books that were perfectly stacked next to each other. The curtains were pushed aside, stream of evening sun poured in, lighting the room slightly.

"Mother would love to have you as her son-in-law…" he unconsciously whispered more, eyes fixed on his bed. She's been trying to make amend, be a good mom now to make loss of the years when I was younger and yet I don't know how to show gratitude…

But you… If you are here, you could show me the exact ways how I could love her back as openly as you did to me… and she would love it, to have someone as bubbly as you as a friend, as a son-in-law because she would love to tell all the tales of my childhood to you-

Sasuke's head snapped. Fuck! What had he done?! What had he done, coming back here alone and deciding that it's time to let Naruto go?!

Sasuke cursed himself- long and in different languages that he knew. How stupid could he be? Anger sipped in and his hands trembled; did he just walk away from Naruto and vowed to never meet the blond again at the thoughts that things would come in between them? What the hell was wrong with him? To toss aside someone so precious and valuable to him just like that?!

Suddenly out of the box, Sasuke could see clearly what made him decided to leave Yamaguchi today. Though he didn't say it out loud, even to himself, Sasuke knew a large part within him was ready to let Naruto go for real.

He knew his decision to return home now was partly because he realized things would go complicated soon and when that happened, he would finally, willingly let go of Naruto to keep the blond safe. Those however, were just mere excuses. Parts of the real reasons were because he thought Naruto would be better without him and that he was ready to live without the blond.

But who did he think he was to make that kind of decision without consulting Naruto- the real Naruto? He should have stayed a little while longer and try harder to make Naruto remember him. Just because people in Yamaguchi, people who were close to Naruto didn't like the fact that Sasuke loved the blond, he should bow to other people's opinion!

The reason of his father's involvement was merely an excuse. The facts -another real reasons why he left- were he was fed up with people kept on tagging him away from the blond and the slow memory recovery made the last strand of his thin hope disappeared, especially when Naruto thought of proposing to Hinata.

Sasuke's jaw clenched. He had been doing his own decisions since he was small without anyone else's damn it, and what changed this time?! Shit, he was so stupid and it was his biggest mistake! Sasuke paced on the floor, calming himself down. He needed a strategy to turn everything around; to go back to Yamaguchi and make Naruto remembered him. If before, this seemed almost impossible, especially with their circumstances, now it felt like it was the only right and best thing to do.

And since he had none of any reminders of his and Naruto's relationship prior to accident, he had to think for another way.

Maybe he could invite the blond to Tokyo? Sasuke shook his head; no, that would be too risky. His father would instantly smell something was off for real. Sasuke paced again; okay, so maybe he needed a few days to calm down and think of this carefully. Now that he's out of the box, he could think clearly and it was obvious, clear as crystals that he had made the stupidest, biggest mistake by leaving this early.

Especially after the way Naruto responded to him last night. Sasuke smirked. The blond might thought that it was just a parting joke. He might be oblivious and even tried to deny that he might be leaning towards men, but he knew Naruto couldn't deny the way his body woke with such a simple touch of lips.

Though there was nothing simple about that kiss last night.

Sasuke snickered; playing martyr was certainly not his way. He was a fighter and be damn if he had to fight Hinata too now. While in Yamaguchi, he had convinced himself that the teacher would make a good wife but what Naruto needed was not a wife.

Now when the air was clear and he was seeing things from different perspective, he knew that's not true. Naruto needed Sasuke, that's what's true.

And to think he could live without Naruto? Sasuke chuckled darkly. Life was not life if his soul is missing… The raven-haired took a big breath. He had to act that everything's normal now if he wished to make everything worked. With his family, nothing else could make this work except pretence- Pretending that he was okay, that the vacation really worked wonders on him and that he's fit to return to work now. He'd act like how he was before the accident and within weeks, he would sure to have his father's trust and his freedom to move around.

Only then could he be free to move around and to go to Naruto.

If three days prior he ultimately doubted he could go back to Naruto in less than a month, now he knew he could do it. In fact, he vowed to only take a couple of weeks, or less if possible to go back to Yamaguchi and convince Naruto the kiss wasn't a lame joke.

Sasuke's fist balled with conviction; he'd fight for Naruto, no matter what.

000

The youngest Uchiha went down for dinner, summoning up his most impassive look that bore striking similarity to his brother's and fathers. His eyes however, if one looked carefully had sparkles of determination, hope and warmth.

Suddenly in the salon he heard his mother's pleading voice and his father's raising voice. Curiosity kicked in as he stepped in, seeing the calm amusement in Itachi's face.

"Sasuke!" Fugaku barked; Sasuke's eyes instantly blank of all emotion. Inside he could feel fury blooming out. What the hell had he done now?!

"Fugaku! Please! Not so loud!" Mikoto said desperately. Sasuke had just come back and she didn't like to see him drawing in again.

"Otousama," It took a lot from the youngest Uchiha to bow like he did, but out of respect, he would do it.

"Don't you show me respect now!" Fugaku suddenly threw him some pictures. One particular picture went straight to him and grazed his ivory cheek, drawing a drop of blood. Sasuke ignored it as he kept his face straight and looked at his father in the eyes, challenging the older man silently.

"You… since that day you made yourself being thrown out of the Academy, you have endlessly causing troubles and shame into this family! Tell me Sasuke, are you trying to mar our faces with that disgusting attitude of yours?!"

Sasuke's eyes turned to slits but his face was still impassive. He noticed from the sideline, Itachi was watching him intently like a hawk and his mother had a stricken expression on her beautiful face.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Otousama," he said calmly, refusing to give into the rage.

Fugaku chuckled, disbelief and angry. "You have been seeing that whore again, didn't you?! It's all there in the pictures!"

Sasuke's black orbs looked down, some of the pictures were on the upper side, and he was able to see them clearly, if he was shock to see what was on the pictures, his face didn't betray his emotions. What he saw were pictures of him and Naruto, sitting at Ichiraku, eating ramen and talking. He refused to show fear in front of his father. Although he was feeling it, rage suddenly overlapped it as he realized his father was tailing him.

"I didn't know he was there," Sasuke said calmly, trying not to clench his jaw. "I met him accidentally when they had an Open Day and that's it."

"You're denying that you have any relationship with him?!"

"Yes." He had to applaud himself for being so calm and collected; but inwardly Sasuke was pacing with worry and fear. If his father sent someone to tail him, they must have gotten a picture of him kissing Naruto last nigh. God, please don't let it be true! And to think he had just discovered a strength of pursuing Naruto in near future.

"So how do you explain those?!" Fugaku's voice thundered, pointing to the pictures on Sasuke's feet as though they were the most disgusting things he had ever seen.

"We were just catching up. He's a teacher and he intended to marry a local girl. Nothing else has been going on."

The clan's head shook his head furiously. "You're lying, Sasuke! It must have been a set up since the beginning by those ungrateful friends of yours! Lying straight to my face and to think they're from the upper class!" Fugaku spat.

"Leave my friends out of this!" The youngest Uchiha had to restrain himself from shouting. It wouldn't work with his father with that kind of tantrum. "My friends had no idea that he was there and it was purely coincidental. They didn't even know who Naruto was. And as I said, we were just catching up and nothing more had happened- he's even planning to marry his colleague," the words that he said, he didn't quite sure how they came out as convincing as he sounded.

The moment they left his mouth, he doubted his plan to go back to Yamaguchi could ever work now that his father knew that Naruto was living there. Sasuke drew in painful breath; no, he refused to back down now. It might take longer now, but he would still proceed with his plan. He just needed to be more careful; even more careful than four years ago. It seemed like his father had a lot of resources but nothing would stand in his way now.

Are you crazy? To put Naruto in that kind of risk again? This is Fugaku we're talking about and he'd kill Naruto with his own two bare hands if he finds out what you're trying to do!

Shut up! On the surface, Sasuke was as calm as a clam, but he was having a rage conflicting battlein his mind. The small voices was seeding doubts in his mind again and truthfully, he was scared of Naruto's safety should his father knew what he wanted to do.

Fugaku paced back and forth, deciding whether to believe his youngest son or not. Sasuke had been doing a lot of things behind his back that he couldn't believe he had raised this boy. The boy didn't have any Uchiha trait at all.

"You better speak the truth, Sasuke, because I spent a fortune to the freelancer who wanted to sell these pictures to the media! You have placed this family into a great jeopardy," Fugaku started, his voice was calming down a bit.

Sasuke could only hope that there was no media tailing him last night. It would probably be the cause of his death.

And probably Naruto's too, he realized with another dread coming in.

"And because of your idiocy, I have to take some damage control action," his father spoke in a commanding manner. This brought Sasuke back into their conversation.

Damage control? What did that mean?

"I hope you're not planning to go anywhere this Saturday," Fugaku took Sasuke's silence as a cue to continue. "Because there will be an engagement party in this house," Fugaku paused.

"Your engagement with the Yamanaka's daughter."

Sasuke's heart dropped. What?! He carefully removed all the emotions that were starting to form aside and asked slowly. "What do you mean my engagement?"

Fugaku gave him a sharp look; the look where he expect no resistance from Sasuke's side. "You forced me to take this action, Sasuke. You are going to marry Yamanaka Ino, the daughter of Yamanaka Inori; a close friend of mine and a large client and contributor to us. He has a large empire and probably one day you will inherit it since Ino is his only child."

"I will not marry her. I will not be engaged to her!" Sasuke said firmly; his mask was starting to crack. It was just too much. Doubts about him getting Naruto back grew faster than any plant could have grown and at this point, Sasuke knew his chance to get Naruto back was almost non-existence now.

"Invitations to the media, family and close friends have been sent out. I will accept no for an answer and if you dare rebel against me this time, let's just say I will not make you whore's life easy," Fugaku spat and went out of the salon, leaving the stunned Sasuke.

"Foolish little brother… you should have played this game wisely if you gave more thought for your actions," Itachi whispered softly as he walked pass Sasuke.

Mikoto looked at him guilty; she wanted to comfort his youngest son, but she knew she had to go after her husband. He didn't like to wait at the dinner table.

"Sasuke… let's go for dinner…" her mother's soothing voice washed over him. Sasuke acted purely on instinct that night, his mind was still dazed at everything that his father had said.

He was trying to grab to a rope that was too high and too fast disappearing from his reach. In matter of hours, everything had turned against him. Not just his plan now had a major flaw with him would soon be engaged and married; his father had also clearly threaten to hurt Naruto. Fugaku might even make the blonde's life a living fell if he didn't obey his father this time. The hardest part was Naruto wouldn't even have any idea why his life was ruined. How could he ever have the chance to even meet with Naruto now?

At this moment, Sasuke knew he had to let go; for real, whether he wanted to fight or not, he was already loosing.

000

Sasuke had acted like nothing sour had happened on Monday night. He returned to the office the next day with an air that made people forgot he had been absent for the past four years. Now that he was older, he seemed to attract more attention to himself.

The news of the engagement of Uchiha Sasuke and Yamanaka Ino spread like wild fire, fast, uncontrolled and hot. The engagement party itself was an invitation-only dinner party which attracted the whole upper class society in Tokyo.

There was no emotion on Sasuke's face that night as he strolled down the stairs to bow in front of his soon-to-be parents-in-law and then he offered his hand politely to his fiancé; his father made the announcement early in the event, before the dinner started.

It was major news; that one of the most eligible bachelors was getting married to a long time family friend. Many mothers who had daughters cried in anguish as their dreams to be connected to one of the most upper class family was destroyed; many more girls who had hoped and dreamt had it all crushed, by one socialite named Yamanaka Ino.

Even though Sasuke was the second heir, his popularity amongst the girl exceeded Itachi simply because he showed more warmth towards them. Itachi, although looked wiser and probably rivalled Sasuke in the look and appearance department usually treated other people the same way he had treated business deals- with cold indifference and ruthless manner. But Sasuke, Sasuke had always had warmth in his eyes when he was out of the business end; unknown to many people, it was due the influence of one blond that was most definitely not Yamanaka Ino.

Sasuke was sure that Ino knew all about the arranged engagement and marriage; she herself was no fool when it came to business and reality. The girl who was a year younger than Sasuke graduated from University of Tokyo and then furthered her studies in business in Harvard University. Sasuke knew Ino was aware of everything, they had been acquaintances since childhood, but she was no more than just a family friend.

Ino gave polite, polished smile as she tucked her slender, sleeveless arm under Sasuke's, nodding her head slightly a little and thanked the people as they congratulated her. Sasuke wondered if she was okay to be a pawn in a loveless marriage like this; probably her only advantage was the 'Uchiha' name at the end of hers soon, and the fact that she could parade him as her husband, flaunting it to everyone else.

But other than that, Ino was just on her way into a meaningless marriage. Sasuke had never plan on having any child with her.

His own face was wiped off any emotion, making his features sharpened like a beautiful sculpture from the experts themselves. His onyx eyes devoid of any emotion; a trick he learned somewhere in the past from the expert himself- Itachi. Sasuke nodded politely, muttering thank you to the people who congratulated him and wished him well. But inside, Sasuke was boiling with rage and anger; he knew his father had purposely chose Ino out of the many close family friends he had- the girl had pale wintry blue eyes and pale blond hair, almost platinum.

It was a rub of salts on his wound, a reminder from his father that he could never, ever be together with Naruto.

Although there were a lot of people invited, there was no sign of his three college-mates; it showed how much Fugaku had distrust the three people who he thought had conspired against him in making Sasuke met one blond that he didn't even care to mention the name, even in his mind.

The event of the night went like a buzz in Sasuke's head, everything was done out of the instinct of survival. His own heart had been tucked away safely, though shattered and broken, it was left there for him to lick his wound once the fast pace of the reality had slowed down.

000

It was Monday morning when Sakura burst in into Sai's office, a newspaper clutched in her hands. Sai looked at his watch and then looked up to Sakura.

"Don't you have a ward round?"

"Just finished it."

"It's a bit early, don't you think?"

"I've just finished it, Sai," she dumped the paper on Sai's desk, hands on her waist. "Do you know anything about this?!" she pointed to the front page, a large picture of Sasuke with a very elegant young woman at his side. The caption below said the exclusive engagement of Uchiha Sasuke and Yamanaka Ino.

"He's getting married, so?"

"So you do know about it!"

"I read the papers too, Sakura; and much more often than you do. You didn't even realize that Sasuke is that Uchiha from that watch company did you?"

There was rosy hue on the rosette's cheeks. "But he said he'll never get married!"

"What are you so worked up on?"

"Sasuke-kun lied! And you tell that is nothing?! I've never been stood-up by a conman!"

"Maybe Sasuke didn't know he was getting engaged?" Sai offered. "Maybe it was a surprise to him just like to everybody else."

"But Naruto said he might even be gay," Sakura's face scrunched up.

"Hmmm… Maybe Naruto's right… He does have that tell-tale signs that he's a gay… Damn… I should have screwed him first before he got engaged to this pretty little thing…." Sai had an amused look; eyes sharply looked at how blank Sasuke's face was compared to when he saw the dark haired while he was here. And he had thought that expression was smartly concealed. Surely Sasuke was a master of poker face. And that 'pretty little thing' was really pretty too…

"Sai! Not helping here!" Sakura's thunderous voice brought him out of his musings.

Sai looked at Sakura interestedly, and then smile so sweetly, it was sickening. "Let it go, Sakura-sensei. Everyone else has moved on. You need to move on to. Forget him, you'll meet a more deserving guy."

Sakura pouted. "I'm never going to fall in love, ever again!" She sighed.

Sai smirked. "Look at the bright side, Sakura. At least it's not with that girl you were bitching about."

Sakura kept on pouting.

000

Naruto was stunned when Iruka brought in the paper in on Sunday. He had no idea that Sasuke was that rich. And he was also very confused. Did he get wrong signals and information a week ago? Was it just his imagination?

The thoughts disturbed him so much that he couldn't really concentrate at work. Even his class noticed the distant and confused looks that he sometimes gave off. But Naruto quickly reverted to his bubbly self and the matter was forgotten by the 8-year-old bunch.

He was having dinner by himself in Ichiraku when he noticed that Sai was there with someone else- Suigetsu.

"I thought you went back in Tokyo?" Naruto asked in surprised as he brought his bowl to their table.

"Naruto… Come and join us," Sai pulled the chair next to him for Naruto to sit.

"Suigetsu?" Naruto asked again when the man didn't answer his question.

"I did… but I still have more holidays, I didn't want to waste it." They had easy chat about general stuff. And then Naruto interrupted, he couldn't take his mind off the matters anymore.

"Did you hear about Sasuke's engagement?"

Suigetsu looked down; guilt was there along with things that Naruto couldn't identify. "Did you know anything about it?" Somehow, as weird as it was to him, there was a pang in his heart. He recognized it as hurt but he didn't know why. It only added more to his confusion.

Suigetsu shook his head. "No… I found out the same way you guys did. So did Karin and Juugo." Suigetsu had a hunch on why they weren't invited- it meant that Fugaku had found out that Sasuke met Naruto there and he thought it was their set-up for Sasuke to meet Naruto.

"What happened? I… I don't understand… He said he's never going to get married," Naruto stopped himself before blurting out that Sasuke had kissed him. As much as he wanted to be happy for Sasuke, somehow he couldn't. He couldn't bring out the happy face and happiness that Sasuke had finally chose to settle down.

It confused him greatly; because he had said he wanted to settle down with Hinata and so it was only logical that Sasuke would start his own family. But why did he feel it was all wrong? Was there something in the past between him and Sasuke that the raven-haired didn't tell him?

Now was one of the times where he was most frustrated that he had amnesia.

Suigetsu looked up, face set in reserve calm. "I don't know what Sasuke had been telling you, Naruto. But he… he's not in the same class as we are; he's in one of his own, hell even I am not qualified to be amongst his peers. I just happened to study in the same university as he was. In reality, we would never come close enough to the place where Uchiha sits."

Naruto pondered at this. Sasuke had given him subtle hints about his background and he had got the message, but he didn't think it would be this much of a gap. Was that the reason why Sasuke said they could never meet again? That it was their last encounter?

Naruto understood now. It had all made sense; they way Sasuke dressed that last night, they way he conducted his manner, the way he spoke, the way people glanced at him in awe and approval nods…

The way Sasuke's onyx eyes pierced into his azure blue…

Why must it hurt then?

(1) Shikansen is the bullet train

TBC
Next: Naruto made his mind up… he's not going to just stay there…
Spoiler/Warning: I have to warn everyone early that there's a het lemon in next chapter. Just skip it if it bothers you.

Now, make me happy people, by pushing that little button on the bottom left! XDD