Fifteen. Cage

Sasuke awoke on a soft bed near a window that overlooked the River Seine. This was not his hotel room. Too close to the river. Too low to the ground. His body tensed. How did he get here? He couldn't remember much—the coil, Naruto's voice, the shower-

"Don't freak out, I don't have any sedatives and I don't want to knock you out again."

Sasuke spun around at the sound of the voice, the sheet falling to his hips and he realized how exposed he was. Too exposed. The woman by the door could see him. See all of him. She could see the filth, the damage. Before his mind could spiral out of control, she tossed some clothes and a phone on the end of the bed.

"Call him," she said as she left. "Then come out for lunch."

He scrambled over to the clothes, ignoring the pull of bandages on his stomach, and quickly put them on. They were his. His pants. His shirt. His gloves. He felt better once dressed, the coil had calmed slightly, but it was still there, ready to burst through his chest at any moment.

Once dressed, he grabbed the mobile phone off of the bed. It didn't look like the cheep burner phone he had been given before leaving Konoha. This phone looked expensive and when the screen lit up, what Sasuke saw—he didn't know how to interpret it, what he felt, but he found himself smiling.

It was an old image. Naruto looked so young, his hair long and shaggy around his face. His eyes were clear, less tired, more hopeful, happy. There were no exhausted lines or shadows, like the Naruto he knew. This Naruto was cocky and arrogant, sure, but his big, fox-like grin was innocent, unhampered by whatever plagued him now. In the image, Naruto was shirtless, his body still made up of tight muscle, but he was leaner, less broad, and in his strong arms he held a tiny bundle with gigantic blue eyes and a tuff of blonde hair.

Sasuke found the coil disappearing as he looked down at the picture of a young Naruto and his newborn son. They were such a little family. Just by looking at the image, Sasuke could see how much Naruto loved his son and the sight warmed him in a way he didn't fully understand, but it also gave him a deep sense of longing. Could he ever have that again? A family? Or was he too damaged, too tainted to ever be loved?

"The brat was right, you are strong."

Sasuke jumped at the sound of the voice, never having heard the door open. The woman was back and this time Sasuke wasn't too startled to get a good look at her. She was older, at least as old as his parents, and was physically a straight man's wet dream. Regardless of his sexuality, Sasuke wasn't an idiot. He understood female beauty even if he didn't want to shag it, and this woman was definitely beautiful by any standards.

"Who are you?" Sasuke asked. "Where am I?"

"Your boyfriend's grandmother. You can call me Tsunade."

Sasuke will himself not to blush at the word 'boyfriend'—he highly doubted one weekend of fucking really made them a couple—but he found himself secretly giddy at the term. He had never been someone's boyfriend, not in the normal, everyday-average-person sense. It was… nice.

"Where am I?" Sasuke asked again, trying to ignore what he was feeling. He needed to know what was going on before he could let himself relax.

"Don't worry, you're not kidnapped. You can leave whenever you'd like," Tsunade reassured. "Though, I think you should call your lover boy first. I came back to tell you that he's listed as 'the Brat.'"

Sasuke looked back down to the phone in his hand, the image reappearing as he touched the screen, then he looked back at Naruto's grandmother. "Something happened, didn't it? To Naruto and Boruto?" he asked. "They don't look this way anymore."

Tsunade's eyes saddened and she nodded. "Yeah." She cleared her throat. "Call him."

She again left the room. Sasuke listened to her fading footsteps before sitting on the corner of the bed and calling Naruto. It nearly rang through before a rushed, groggy voice spoke, "Granny? What's wrong? Is Sasuke okay?"

The evident worry made Sasuke smile. He whispered, "Still here."

He heard Naruto sigh in relief and a silence spread between them, but it didn't make Sasuke feel awkward, it didn't make the coil stir. Just knowing the other man was on the other side of the phone was comforting, even if neither of them spoke.

"I'm sorry-" Sasuke started after a time, but Naruto quickly cut him off.

"Don't, Sasuke. Don't apologize for being human." Naruto's tone was firm and so warmingly forgiving.

Sasuke closed his eyes, holding the man's words close to his heart. Why was Naruto so accepting of Sasuke, damage and filth and everything in between? Why was this man, who had certainly done terrible things in the name of his mafia—Sasuke wasn't fool enough to not realize that the Kyūbi would certainly have blood on his hands—so much more accepting than anyone else in his life?

His parents had sold him off and then ignored the signs that he was breaking. As long as he looked and acted the part of an Uchiha in the eyes of society, they just let him crumble from within. His brother had left, only to come back, take one look at him, diagnose him, and tried to push him off on some doctor as if he had nothing to do with how damaged Sasuke was. As if some doctor could fix Sasuke with just the wave of his hand and probably a shit ton of medication.

And then there was Temari, his best friend. She too had watched Sasuke crumble. She at least had tried to help, in her own way, with the creation of Suke. But Sasuke knew that there was a wall between him and Temari. He didn't know who put it up, but she was too afraid to cross it, too afraid to loose what hold she had on him as his fiancée.

Yet, despite all these apparent family and friends, it was a fucking mafia boss who had taken one look at Sasuke, accepted him for what he was, and stood by his side. Naruto was here, right now, on the other side of the phone, worried about him even though Sasuke was a dangerous connection.

Sasuke sighed, "You really shouldn't bother with me."

"Do I really seem like the type to listen?" Naruto retorted.

Sasuke rolled his eyes at that. No, not really. Since he first met Naruto, he was very much aware that Naruto was a man who ruled his own life.

"Tell me what happened," Naruto ordered softly.

Sasuke bit his bottom lip. He didn't really want to talk about it. He didn't like being so weak as to fall apart like that. But Naruto had already been there, on the other side of the phone, he already knew that Sasuke Uchiha was not as strong as he appeared.

"Still here?" Naruto asked after a moment.

"Still here." Sasuke took a deep breath and told him about his surprise visit from Kabuto. He told Naruto about Kabuto being his old handler, about how he had a habit of shooting Sasuke up with who knows what, and about how he hadn't seen or heard from the man in years, about how he thought he was done with Orochimaru's shit, too old to be one of his 'children' anymore.

As Sasuke talked, he also found himself telling Naruto that he was scared. Kabuto had scared him. It was easier to admit than he thought. Perhaps it was because he was in an empty room, that he couldn't actually see Naruto, even though he knew the man was on the other side of the phone. But he didn't think that was it.

Since the beginning, his mantra had always been that he was fine, that he didn't have a problem. But he did. He had a lot of problems. He had so many problems that he didn't even know how to handle them all, didn't even know where to begin. But as he sat on that bed in that empty room talking to Naruto, he felt as if he was finally taking the first step to dealing with all his shit. Maybe just talking was how to begin.

"Dad?" Sasuke heard Boruto call on the other side of the phone. He looked at the clock on the side table. It had to be nearly seven in the morning in Konoha.

"Just a sec," Naruto said and then called out. "I'm up. I'm on the phone. Will you take Kurama out? I'll be down to make breakfast in a bit."

"Kay!" Boruto called out.

"Sorry about that," Naruto said, returning to the phone.

Sasuke smiled softly. "It's alright. Kind of nice hearing you sounding like a dad."

Naruto chuckled. "Maybe eventually you can see it in person."

"I'd like that," Sasuke admitted. And it was true. He wanted to see Naruto the dad, wanted to see more of that man on Tsunade's wallpaper.

Naruto was quiet for a moment, probably also thinking about what it'd be like. Sure Sasuke had briefly, accidently, met Boruto at the gallery, but Naruto hadn't known that he'd be there or that he was the show's subject. Sasuke hadn't exactly explained Temari to Naruto. But during that weekend they spent together, Boruto hadn't come back. He'd stayed with Naruto's secretary, Ino. Sasuke hadn't questioned it. He understood that Naruto was probably just being cautious, and besides, Sasuke had been a mess—was still a mess.

"I'd like it too," Naruto whispered.

Sasuke felt something inside him squeeze, but it wasn't the coil, it wasn't unpleasant.

Naruto cleared his throat. "Look, I gotta go. For all his smarts, Boruto burns anything he touches. But don't worry about Kabuto. My grandparents won't be far the rest of your trip. I've already talked to them and I'll get some security set up for you back home."

"I don't need babysitters," Sasuke said, his back straightening at the thought of a couple of old farts following him around.

He heard Naruto sigh in annoyance, but the other man didn't speak for a moment. When he did speak, there was something so hauntingly breaking about Naruto's voice. "I can't leave Konoha."

The words rung in Sasuke's mind and he immediately understood their implications. Tsunade and her husband were an extension of Naruto; they would follow Sasuke because Naruto couldn't be here. The Kyūbi could not leave Konoha, his domain, his cage.

"Okay," Sasuke agreed. "But if that's the case they might as well have dinner with me. Having a bunch of old people just following me around in the background is creepy."