Chapter 29:
Sasuke was starting to really like cooking. He'd always thought that it was a bit of a useless hobby. Something to be done mainly for sustenance, but not just out of sheer pleasure. Now, he liked the way it took his mind off of everything.
"What are you making today?" Madara asked, looking over at his nephew with dazed eyes.
"Just throwing things together right now," The boy answered truthfully. "We don't really have enough ingredients to make anything in the cookbooks, so I'm just experimenting until we get a chance to shop."
It was a bit of a ridiculous notion, waiting for the time to shop. After all, time was one thing they had in great abundance. They didn't really do anything here, locked up in this little shack together. They didn't fight, but only because they'd both long since heard what the other had to say. The passion they used to put into merely conversing with one another was gone. Madara was trapped in a level of grief that was beyond words, and Sasuke did not know how to synchronize with his silence.
"Maybe we should go out today," Madara suggested.
"That's what you said yesterday," Sasuke reminded the man.
They had tried.
Madara had managed to get both feet out of the door, but then he had stopped and stared at the spot where he had killed Konan. Neither the body nor the blood stained the cobblestones any more, but Madara's face was as if he could still see her lying there. He'd gone back inside and not spoken for the rest of the day.
"Maybe you should go out today," Madara amended, frowning with thought.
Sasuke didn't know what it was that his uncle thought about, but it seemed to bring the man a great deal of sorrow. Of course, if he tried with any good bit of effort, Sasuke could imagine what was making Madara so unhappy. However, seeing as he was unable to fix the problem regardless, he made sure to spend minimal time focusing on it.
"I'll take the car for a few hours. Pick up some groceries and laundry detergent," He looked over at their bookshelves, "Maybe some new reading material."
"You don't have your license," Madara protested, somewhat weakly.
Sasuke knew that his lover was well aware of his ability to drive, and as such, did not see fit to remind him. He also knew that despite suggesting the idea himself, Madara didn't want to be left alone. But, he ignored the part of him that wanted to stay just to satisfy Madara. After all, that little piece of himself that insisted he act on what was Madara's best interest was getting more and more confusing by the hour.
"No, I don't have my license," He agreed, offering a playful smile, and not caring that it didn't reach his eyes because Madara's never did either, "But, I trust you aren't opposed to a little criminal behavior?"
For a moment, a speck of humor flashed through Madara's expression, "Of course not," He conceded, "Drive safe."
"I always do," The boy replied cheekily. He placed a careful kiss on Madara's cheek and then set off.
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Naruto honestly couldn't tell you why he did it, only that he thought it might have brought everyone some sort of closure. He hadn't seen Sasuke Uchiha in quite a long time, and hadn't expected to run into the man any time soon, and certainly not the way that he had. Speeding. The Untouchable Child had been pulled over for speeding, and brought down to the station when they found a gun in his glove compartment that he had no license for. Truly ironic, since he also had no license to drive but that had been apparently overlooked in the police report.
And Naruto had invited him to dinner.
Now, he was waiting for a response to his invitation, because it seemed that the Uchiha was in a bit of a state of shock that he'd even been asked.
"Why on earth would I harbor any desire to dine with you and your cunt wife?"
Naruto merely smiled in response, knowing that Sasuke couldn't help but be rude – it was in his nature. "So you heard about the wedding then? This really is a small town, huh?"
"I refuse to attend."
Naruto pulled up a chair and sat at the table across from Sasuke in the interrogation room.
"Listen, Teme. Listen well. We found semen on the device that Danzo was murdered on. All I'm asking is for you to have dinner with me at my house – not for a DNA sample, which I'll remind you I am perfectly entitled to."
Sasuke shrugged, "Swab me then. It's not my DNA. You already know that, I'm sure – seeing as I was born at a hospital that gladly sells its patient records to your oh-so-righteous police department."
Naruto nodded, smiling. "The semen was a match to the semen from the rape kit we did on the Hyuuga sisters when they first returned from their stay with your family. We know it's Setsuna's, and we know that Setsuna didn't act without Madara's orders. If I recall correctly, Madara is very much alive, and probably against spending the remainder of that life imprisoned as an accomplice."
The darker haired man gave a confident smile, "If you have an issue with my uncle, I suggest you take it up with him, not me."
"He's gone off the grid. I'm offering to let him stay off the grid, and all you have to do is allow my beautiful wife to serve you a nice home cooked meal."
It had only taken another hour or so of persuasion for Sasuke to give. As usual, the promise of keeping his uncle out of danger made him more than willing to put himself in an uncomfortable situation, and Naruto was grateful for that.
He wanted a chance to observe Sasuke. To see how he went about living in a domestic environment. Admittedly, Hinata was none too pleased when he showed up with Sasuke Uchiha and sat him down at the table, but she kept silent until their guest was gone. Her impulse of being a good hostess was much stronger than her fear of Sasuke at this point. She knew how to take care of herself, and on top of that knew that with Naruto around she had nothing to worry about.
Dinner was quiet for the most part. It was served family style, and Sasuke ate only after seeing his hosts take their first bites and swallow without complication.
"Sasuke?" Hinata asked after several long moments of silence, "There's something I've been meaning to ask you…"
Naruto sighed, knowing already what it was that his wife wanted.
"What did happen to my sister? How is she?"
Naruto was afraid of the answer himself, but none of the table's other inhabitants looked worried, so he kept his mouth shut.
"She lived with us for a while," Sasuke remarked, quietly, "You were right, of course. We never killed her. Madara just wanted you to think so, because he was so angry – but even that angry, he'd never harm a child."
Naruto frowned as Hinata nodded along in agreement.
"Hanabi … helped us," The Uchiha admitted, "I know this must be hard for you to hear but she … she loved Setsuna. She was in love with him. I can't say whether it was despite what he did to you two or if that was the start of it, or if it was some sort of Stockholm syndrome – but what I know is that she loved him."
Hinata's eyes watered a little, and she dabbed at them with her napkin.
"When the massacre… When my brother killed Setsuna … She couldn't stand to live. She asked me to kill her. Pleaded with me day after day as I searched for Madara, searched for a reason why. She begged for death constantly. She didn't want a world without him in it, and I won't pretend that I was incapable of empathizing with her."
Hinata gasped, her expression open and horrified, "You didn't," She whispered.
"No, I didn't. I wouldn't. I never cared enough about your sister to kill her just because she wanted death, and unlike her sadistic lover, I see no point in murdering people who haven't particularly bothered me."
Naruto released a heavy sigh, and hoped that Sasuke was telling the truth and not just lying because he was sitting at the table with the head of the police department.
"Also," Sasuke bit his lip as if considering whether or not he should really speak on this, "I didn't feel right killing her because she was … well, pregnant. Not a pure blooded Uchiha, of course, but the thought that this child would be the last chance my family had of ever becoming more than just myself and my uncle… I couldn't stomp out such a wide open book of possibilities. The last I heard she was headed south, trying to forget everything and raise her child someplace new."
"Pregnant?" Hinata asked, half-horrified, "Pregnant with an Uchiha spawn!" She shrieked, and Sasuke frowned slightly. Naruto wondered if he was wishing that he'd chosen to lie.
"I don't know what it is with the 'good guys' that makes them so fearful of infants," He muttered, "But don't go looking for her, and don't go after that baby. She promised me that he won't turn out like I did. That he'll be normal, and kind, and good."
Naruto smiled, reassuringly, "Sasuke I'm sure neither of us are anxious to make the same mistakes our fathers did," He stated, "The idea of a baby with Uchiha blood does not worry me. I believe more in nurture than nature when it comes to that classic argument."
"Please excuse me," Hinata whispered, dabbing at her eyes again and rising from the table.
It was rather quiet after that, and Sasuke sipped delicately at his wine.
"She's not the first, you know," He mused, lightly, "Setsuna used to kill the mothers of his children. The farther along they were, the more joy he got out of it. Kagami, too. Until he fell in love with Shisui's mother. I suppose it was some sort of gift to her that he didn't kill her until Shisui was born."
"Why are you telling me all of this?" Naruto wondered out loud, "I know you don't consider me to be a friend, and I know you were raised to treat these matters as confidential."
"It's not important," Sasuke said, looking down at the table, "None of it is important, and it's taken me a long time to see it, but now that I do, it can't be unseen. Everyone's been murmuring about it for years. Teyaki, and Madara, and Itachi – this big end, this big thing that it's all leading up to. Only, I've only just today understood what it is that everyone's been waiting for, and now I know that they've been waiting on me."
"What is it?" Naruto asked, hoping to urge Sasuke into giving him more information. His push had the opposite reaction, though, and he watched, stunned, as the Uchiha closed up and turned into a statue right before his eyes.
"It's been a pleasant dinner, Naruto. But I think I need to be leaving now."
"Call a cab. I don't want you out driving without your license again."
Sasuke snorted, "I'll walk."
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Madara woke in the middle of the night, sensing some sort of disturbance. His nephew was sat at the foot of their bed, head in his hands, sobbing. Truly sobbing. Crying in a way that he had not seen Sasuke cry before, even as an infant. His shoulders shook and his throat whined and his breath hitched.
To be fair, Madara was somewhat at loss as far as what he should do. He hadn't had to deal with Sasuke's emotions in quite a while, seeing as it was Sasuke who dealt with his lately. Still, comforting his nephew came rather compulsively to him, and he sat up groggily.
"What's wrong, baby?" He asked, laying a hand on Sasuke's shoulder.
The younger Uchiha's entire body tensed up. "You're awake… I didn't mean to wake you, oh god…" He choked out another sob, and Madara was now actually curious as to why he was so upset. He knew better than to ask though. Knew that if Sasuke wanted him to know, he'd have said something.
Madara rolled out of bed and came to kneel in front of Sasuke, cupping his tear-dampened cheek with a frown.
"Make love to me," Sasuke whispered, "The way we would before, remember? When we were happy? I want you the way I had you when we were in love, when your skin on mine was heaven and hell and everything in between."
"When we were in love," Madara repeated, tasting the phrase that seemed to burn his tongue and wondering how Sasuke had eased it into a sentence without a care in the world, "Are we not in love now?"
Sasuke shook his head and sniffled, scooting back on the bed and pressing his spine against the wall so that Madara had room to climb up and sit in front of him.
"I love you, and you love me, but I'm not running through your veins the way I used to … I can feel it when you kiss me… I can feel it when you sleep beside me… I feel it in your breath, in your pulse. You're falling out of love with me. Every second of every day. Please understand – I can't let you… I can't live in a world where you don't love me anymore. You understand, don't you?" Sasuke's words were desperate, insane, his eyes darted around the room, catching sight of everything for only a fraction of a second.
He pulled Madara on top of him and buried his face in his neck. "Please … before it's too late … make love to me? The way you would when I was all you could see…" He hiccupped and shivered slightly and Madara found himself unable to deny the child. Well, he mentally was in agreement. There was nothing remotely arousing about a sobbing and snotty-nosed Sasuke, despite his devotion for the boy.
Sasuke noticed this, and looked even more devastated if it was possible. "What?" He asked, "Now you're the one who can't get a boner?"
"You haven't exactly risen to the occasion either," Madara pointed out, knowing that laying flush on top of his nephew he would have felt even the tiniest trace of an erection beginning to blossom.
"Kiss me?" Sasuke suggested, wiping away at the tears on his face. It seemed that they might have stopped falling for now, but he still looked a bit pathetic. Naturally, Madara kissed him anyway.
Their lips touched, flesh on plump flesh, and then tongues, wet and sliding. Sasuke curled his against the roof of Madara's mouth and then bit down at his bottom lip teasingly. Madara kissed him deeper for it, sighing into his mouth and feeling Sasuke inhaling his discarded breath like it was the most valuable substance in the world. Madara sucked at his lover's tongue, and felt the whimper that Sasuke released against his teeth. He hardened almost instantly, earning a genuine chime of laughter from the body under his.
"If I remember correctly, this is the part where we take our clothes off," Sasuke whispered with a casual taint of humor.
"I'm not wearing any," Madara reminded, and Sasuke ran his hands greedily down his uncle's back and gripped firmly at his ass.
"Yes, I noticed." He acknowledged, continuing to grope at the man. Madara felt goose bumps breaking out across every inch of skin that Sasuke's fingers endearingly adorned. "And while I have endless appreciation for every cell of skin you've exposed, I think that this whole fucking business works better if we're both naked. Don't you?"
Madara kissed his cheek, and sat up so that he could pull off Sasuke's boxers. The kid was definitely making a lot of fuss considering he was only wearing one article of clothing in the first place.
"I want to taste you," Madara said, wrapping his hand around Sasuke's cock and stroking it to full hardness.
"No," Sasuke protested, "I want you inside of me please, please…" He rocked his hips into Madara's hand, but at the same time tugged at his shoulders, trying to pull him back up closer.
"Shhh, easy…" Madara murmured, kissing at the younger Uchiha's stomach and chest as he made his way back towards his mouth and neck.
"Lube?" Madara asked, and Sasuke felt his breath tickling at his ear.
"No, just hurry up before I lose my nerve please."
Madara stopped. "Lose your nerve?" He shook his head and sighed, sitting all the way up and facing his nephew again.
"Sasuke, tell me what's wrong with you… please?"
Sasuke pulled Madara back down on top of him and reached towards the elder man's cock, lifting his legs and lining himself up with it. He bore down, letting his ass swallow up the large appendage and sighing out loudly. He felt a pulse in his cock and the dampness of precum oozing out and dripping onto his stomach.
This action did exactly what it was meant to do – Madara stopped asking questions and let his body work on autopilot. He moved in and out of Sasuke, kissing him all the while. It was droll, and it was quick, and in only a few minutes it was over, both of them spilling onto each other and sighing with a contentment that was purely physical.
Sasuke chuckled, and Madara realized as he pulled out of the child that there were still tears coming down his cheeks.
"I don't know why I thought you would pretend for me one last time…" Sasuke whispered, more to himself than to his lover. He sat up, and straddled Madara's legs, crying silently into Madara's shoulder.
"What are you thinking right now?" Madara asked, looking at the wall behind Sasuke's back and wondering what it was that seemed a bit off with it.
"That I wish you hadn't woken up. This would be a lot easier if you could have slept through the whole thing."
Madara took mild offense to such a suggestion. "Damn, is our sex life really that bad?"
Sasuke laughed, and Madara shivered from the warm breath on his clammy skin.
"This isn't about sex, Uncle Mada. I have no interest in fucking while you're asleep."
Madara was about to ask what the hell his nephew was talking about – but then he noticed. He saw what looked different about the wall above their headboard, and his entire body stilled. The sword art.
"The loose blade fell again … we must have knocked into the wall. Feel behind you to see if it's on the pillow, I don't want you accidentally hurting yourself," He instructed, and as the words left his mouth he saw that there was something bigger to this that perhaps he was not quite grasping.
"It didn't fall," Sasuke replied, sitting more upright as he straddled Madara, "It's not behind me, it's behind you."
He felt it then. The cold steel sword. Against his back.
"I'm holding it," Sasuke explained, blinking very quickly and taking a deep breath.
"Sasuke-"
"I love you, Madara. I really do. I always will. With every single piece of me." Sasuke said evenly, he wasn't crying anymore. He looked calm. Deathly calm. "I'm sorry…"
-End of Chapter-
