Sealed
XVII

Author: Ms. Trick

Note: Reviews make my life. No seriously.

Chapter 17

Alone in his tiny apartment, Naruto gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, curbing the impulse to punch a hole in his fridge. He balefully eyed the bars of golden evening light that poured in from the window, mentally running through the entire alphabet of bad names while cursing his grandmother figure.

"I have to marry Sasuke or I can't become Hokage? WHAT GIVES?!" He screeched loudly to the empty apartment for the umpteenth time. "What the HELL is baachan thinking?"

It had been almost exactly twenty-four hours since Tsunade had unceremoniously informed him of his engagement. Naruto hadn't stopped fuming since he had been booted out of her office.

He had wanted to marry properly when he was older. Find some nice girl that could cook ramen or something like that. Though to be honest, Naruto hardly ever contemplated his future home life. Any mention of the future immediately set his mind into a frenzy about becoming Hokage. But he at least knew that he had wanted to make this choice, the choice to marry someone, himself.

Naruto scowled and slumped to the floor, until he was lying sprawled on the highly scuffed floorboards. He tucked his hands behind his head and fixed his narrowed eyes on the innocent ceiling. Despite his agitation, his energy seemed to melt into the floor and a yawn escaped him.

Sasuke was one of his most precious people, it was true. But that didn't mean he wanted to marry him.

Regardless, he planned to ignore the bastard for as long as possible. Sleepily, he imagined coming home to Sasuke wearing an apron and shaking a ladle at him angrily.

"Worst wife EVER," Naruto concluded, his eyes drifting shut. "He's such a bastard, he'd probably throw a raging fireball at me if I came home late or something."

Half-asleep, he barely mumbled out his last sentence before conking out.

"Even if he is pretty."

The dream faded like mist and as Naruto woke, smirking at the memory. That week of ignoring one another had been downright comical until its sudden end, when Sakura had found out about the engagement.

His brain had yet to open his eyes but under the blue hospital blanket that was scratchy against his bare chest, his fingertips grazed over the bandaging around his midsection. He gingerly pressed in several places. A combination of Kyuubi's chakra and Sakura's medical prowess were nearly flawless damage control, and so Naruto breathed easily, the wounds on the verge of being gone without a trace.

He finally cracked open his eyelids, taking a minute to let the shapes in the room de-blur themselves. There was another bed adjacent to his, barely three feet away and next to the window. In it, Sasuke was sitting with his hands on his knees, watching him.

TenTen sat completely rigid in a creaky chair that had been dragged in from the hospital's clean corridor. She stared unblinkingly at the still form of Neji, torn between the stoic acceptance of a ninja and the worry of a wife. Unable to decide which course of action felt more correct, she just ended up staring a hole into her sleeping spouse.

Which created a rather awkward space for Neji, who could see her through his closed eyelids. He blinked open his eyes slowly and she breathed a sigh of relief. Then she leaned over him and set a soft kiss on his dry lips.

Neji lightly kissed her back, unsure if there was something else he was supposed to do.

Shikamaru tried in vain to shut down his sense of hearing without having to resort to clapping his hands over his ears. He would hate to aggravate his recently splinted and bandaged finger, but that sound was starting to grate.

He held in a sigh and glanced at the cheery blue sky, which hung cloudless outside the corridor's window. He suddenly remembered the pursuit mission after Sasuke--there had been no clouds to get lost in then either. Plus the mission had turned out to be completely fruitless as Sasuke had left like Hinata, in the middle of the night. He had vanished unhindered and it had taken a full day to even discover his absence.

By the time Shikamaru had been sent out with a pursuit team, it had been far too late. And he and his team had returned empty handed and uninjured, and he had ended up comforting a weeping, devastated Sakura.

The sigh he'd been restraining finally escaped him when Koori's bawling hit another high note.

"Shh, I'm sure he's fine. Trust me, he's actually fine," Ino comforted through gritted teeth.

She was straddling the line between sympathetic and vexed.

Chouji's injuries consisted more of stress and exhaustion than anything life-threatening, and Shikamaru had said as much. But the mere fact that Chouji had to remain in the hospital for the next few days immediately sent Koori's lip quivering.

More noisy, wracking sobs escaped from behind the hands clamped over her eyes and Ino gave Shikamaru a mildly amused look. Done with trying to convince the other kunoichi of the obvious, she opted to just pat her back soothingly.

Shikamaru smiled at the blonde girl, a hint of sadness playing around his eyes and lips.

"Ino..." He started quietly.

She looked at him as Koori cried on, oblivious and loud.

"I've been...seeing Temari."

Calm, Ino kept her pale blue eyes on his and absently continued to rub Koori's back. Then, after a pause, she admitted forlornly, "I know. I'm surprised you told me."

Surprise shook him but then he reproached himself. Ino's observation skills weren't as sharp as his, but she was still a ninja after all. She broke their eye contact and concentrated on her calming ministrations.

Shikamaru's gaze roved again to the sky outside the window. He watched a cloud crawl into the frame of sight and thought hopelessly of the simple life plans he had sketched for himself as a 12-year-old.

He had decided he was going have normal, steady-paying job as a ninja. He was going to marry a woman neither ugly nor beautiful and have two children. The first one was going to be a girl, and the next would be a boy. He'd retire from being a ninja after his daughter got married and his son got a job. Then he'd while away the rest of his days playing shogi, free from worldly cares. And he'd die from old age before his wife.

That was the kind of life he wanted. And yet...he thought as he looked around him. This was the kind of life he'd managed to obtain for himself regardless.

His job was quickly becoming one that decided life-or-death strategies which concerned a lot of lives. He had married a feisty girl who was growing beautifully into a courageous woman. And then he had fallen in love with a rough kunoichi from the Hidden Village of Sand. How had a simple, lazy guy like him found himself truly devoted to two women? Not to mention a job where hordes of people depended on him.

Troublesome.

Shikamaru looked away from the cloud and settled his gaze once more on Ino. He'd never seen her act so adult.

A tall nurse meandered down the hallway in their direction, squinty eyes glued to a clipboard. When she noticed the trio, she paused and glanced back to the clipboard, then glanced at the door nearest them.

"You waiting to see Akimichi?"

Koori's watery eyes immediately fixed on the nurse and her bawling dwindled to dramatic, rather gross-sounding sniffles. The nurse spared a momentary look out the window.

"You know you've been able to see him for the last fifteen minutes," she said, shuffling her feet.

With a shriek of joy that easily broke the sound barrier, Koori sped past the bored nurse and into the room containing a--as stated repeatedly before--perfectly fine if a little worse for wear Chouji.

From inside the little room, they heard Koori squeal, "Oh my gawd! You're OKAY!"

Unable to help it, Ino and Shikamaru both rolled their eyes. Then all at once, the weight of an urgent and unmade decision settled over them like a lead veil.

"So what do we do?" Shikamaru finally asked, fitting his hands awkwardly into his pockets and then taking them out again.

Ino blandly wet her lips and clasped her hands behind her back. "I...don't know. I'm going to have to think about it."

"Alright."

"Yeah."

Chouji looked over Koori's affectionate blanket tucking and noted the gloom of his two team mates. A concerned frown bloomed on the kind-hearted ninja's face and with one last glance at Shikamaru, Ino strode into the room.

Absolutely beaming at Chouji, she immediately began making nearly as much a fuss as Koori.

A few seconds later, Shikamaru followed her inside.

"Where is she? Where's Hinata?"

"If you don't lie back down, I swear to god, Inuzuka, I'll sit on you," Shizune snapped, trying to push him back to a horizontal position on the hospital bed.

"Get off!" He snarled, pushing back at her.

She warily eyed the bandages that were beginning to unravel from around his torso.

"Sit DOWN, Kiba," a voice commanded from across the room.

Shizune and Kiba both looked over to see the imposing form of the Godaime standing in the doorway.

Kiba's fangs showed but he remained sitting on the thin hospital bed's mattress. The blankets had been kicked completely off in the minor scuffle. Giving him a scolding look, Shizune began redressing his wounds. Sure enough, the gouges on his torso had reopened. The half-formed scabs were already broken and beginning to bleed.

"Hinata's fine," Tsunade provided, entering the room in an unruffled manner that juxtaposed the tense atmosphere.

"Where is she?"

"In a guarded room here at the hospital."

"Guarded?!" Kiba hollered, trying not to wince at Shizune's attentions.

Tsunade's eyes hardened. "She tried to defect from the village, Kiba."

"Because the restrictions you put on her were crushing her spirit!"

"I don't seem to recall you coming to me about this before she did something drastic," Tsunade said coolly.

Kiba grit his teeth and glanced at the sheets, prongs of guilt stabbing him deeply. Tsunade sighed.

"Hinata should have talked to someone about these restrictions. There was no reason for her to go as far as defect."

"The seal," Kiba suddenly interjected. "The seal made her see things wrongly and so she did something stupid."

"And you want me to loosen the restrictions on her because of this? Your argument is less than compelling," Tsunade responded with a raised eyebrow.

Kiba nearly growled in anger. But then the Hokage suddenly said:

"But...I'll see what can be arranged."

Sakura took some steady breaths as she absently supplied injury details to the bored nurse with a clipboard. Her voice dwindled until her only responses were nods.

"Get a cup of coffee, Sakura," the nurse said, scratching her ankle with the other foot.

Her limbs tired and heavy, Sakura moved down the hallway like a zombie, seeing and hearing nothing. She trailed her fingers over a brass handle and pulled open the door to an empty hospital room flooded with afternoon sunlight. Stepping in, she closed the door behind her and collapsed into it.

She gulped once or twice to try and stifle the tears, knocking her head back against the door in frustration.

How could this hurt so much?

She stumbled to the hospital bed placed in the middle of the room and sat down heavily, gripping the mattress's edge hard before burying her face in her arms and letting the tears stream out.

God, she hated crying.

The door behind her opened and her crying juddered into a surprised hiccup. She didn't turn around to see who it was but swiped at her wet face, embarrassed. There was the sound of the door closing and then footsteps padding towards her.

Sakura looked up to find Ino squatting next to her, surprisingly close. The blonde met her green eyes with a scrutinizing stare.

Sakura inwardly winced at letting her rival catch her in such a vulnerable state and glanced to the side. Ino stood and held out a hand. Sakura took it reluctantly and let herself get pulled to her feet. Suddenly, Ino smirked.

"Hit me."

"What?" Sakura mumbled, caught off-guard.

"Hit me," Ino instructed adamantly.

"I'm not going to hit you..."

"Well, it's either that or you're gonna keep crying and then I'll probably start too. So. Hit. Me."

A punch flew through the air and Ino's slender hand caught the fist with a sound of flesh slapping flesh. Thankfully, Sakura was too drained to put any monster strength into the punch.

Ino's eyes flashed.

"Better."

Naruto hadn't seen Sasuke look this dishevelled since their brief visit to the Forest of Death during the Chuunin Exams. His dark hair was a mess and purple bags hung under his eyes. But his wintry complexion was a healthy colour, as opposed to the deathly pale he had been when Orochimaru had bitten him.

He ran his eyes over the thick gauze capping Sasuke's shoulder while the dark-haired teen stared blankly out the window next to his bed. For a few moments, nothing was said or done. Then a loud, jaw-cracking yawn split Naruto's face and Sasuke glanced over at him.

"Even after all that, you can't sleep? You ever thought about getting Granny Tsunade to help you with that?" Naruto advised through another yawn.

Sasuke gave him a mild stare. "With what?"

"Your, wassa word, insomnia?"

"Surprised you noticed."

"I do sleep in your bed."

"You do, you sleep."

"Among other things," Naruto said with a grin.

A small smile graced Sasuke's face and he quickly returned his attention to the window to hide it. The shuffling of bedcovers reached his ears and then he felt the edge of his thin mattress dip. Before he could fully turn and warn Naruto away, a dry pair of lips skimmed over the side of his neck.

Sasuke gave a small swallow as the supple sensation of Naruto's mouth became his entire universe. He felt a warm palm travel up his bare back in an arch, coming to tangle in the messy hair at the base of his head. He barely registered being gently pushed back into a laying position. Naruto finished climbing onto the bed and manoeuvred himself until he was hovering above his husband on all his hands and knees.

Deep kisses and slow strokes of the tongue were lavished onto the pale throat exposed for him. At the feel of another's teeth so near his jugular, Sasuke's breathing picked up and his hands started reaching for anything they could find: Naruto's elbows, Naruto's upper arms, Naruto's smooth chest.

To his vexation, Sasuke found mobility on his injured shoulder was less than standard. So he kept the hand on that arm busy caressing Naruto's hip, and then used the other to get a firm handful of blond hair.

When that hand then dragged his head up, Naruto was just short of yelping angrily, but then a mouth slammed into his. He gasped harshly and sank into the kiss with relish, half biting Sasuke's bottom lip as he did so.

Sasuke kicked the thin blankets away so that none of Naruto's body was barred from him. They grabbed at each other hungrily as their mouths ravaged one another's with such force that Sasuke's head was tilting backwards off the pillow and Naruto's scalp was sore from the insistent grip in his hair.

In need of oxygen, they abruptly broke away, their lips swollen and their breathing laboured.

"Get off my leg," Sasuke rasped.

"So watch my stomach," Naruto commanded back in an equally lusty voice.

"Tch. The wounds are already gone, I bet."

Even as he shifted his weight away from Sasuke' injured thigh, Naruto bared his teeth close to Sasuke's lips, which parted instinctively.

"It's still tender," he got out before the dark-haired teen arched, bringing their mouths together again.

Their bodies fitted together gingerly even as their kiss roughened. Sasuke's knees parted and Naruto groaned loudly as their new position brought their groins into firm contact through their sweatpants. Sasuke pushed his hips into a slow upwards grind as he kept a hand possessively on the back of Naruto's head.

Naruto melted, breaking the kiss in favour of urgently inhaling air into his lungs. It didn't help that another hand was sliding over his ass, pulling him down harder, closer into the charged embrace. He buried his face in the soft junction between Sasuke's neck and the uninjured shoulder. Sasuke curled into the unexpected contact.

"Ngh..." Was all Naruto could articulate. "I want..."

"Naruto," Sasuke interjected.

The blonde was about start whining but then he looked up and caught the gleam in his lover's dark eyes.

"Every hospital room has to have some lubricant in a drawer along with the other medical supplies," he stated succinctly, though his pulse was racing with the possibility that he was pushing things too far. "Want to look for it?"

Sasuke's fear of rejection dissipated as a trademark mischievous grin blossomed on the face in from of him. The dark-haired teen's stomach flipped unexpectedly at the keen look in Naruto's eyes.

The two shinobi reluctantly pulled apart and Naruto hurried to the bedside table while Sasuke dashed to the cabinet near the door. There was a flurry of drawers being yanked open, having their contents forcefully rearranged, and then slammed closed.

"Got it," Naruto heard behind him.

He about-faced to see Sasuke wetting his lips and dangling a clear tube of gel from his fingers. Naruto's eyes were glued to the glimpses of pink tongue. Sasuke suddenly curled it behind his teeth and the blonde felt his groin and then his entire body heat up like a furnace.

"Are you blushing?" Sasuke asked with a smirk.

Naruto ground his teeth, fully aware that his face was dusted with pink. "Give it here," he demanded instead, holding out his hand.

Sasuke raised a fine black eyebrow. "You can't be top; you'll mutilate your tender stomach."

"Well, you can't possibly be top if you've got a busted shoulder and thigh," Naruto snapped back, eying the bandaging on said limbs.

Frustrated, Sasuke sank into thought for a minute. Then black eyes met blue smugly. He took four steps and was back in Naruto's personal space, grazing his calloused fingertips across the blonde's throat and down his tan chest. When they trailed around the hem of Naruto's sweatpants (in which there was a notable tent), he paused.

"I've got an idea," he said huskily, walking Naruto backwards the two steps to his bed.

Naruto swallowed, unsure how long he could fight off desire if Sasuke really insisted on being top. When those fingers snaked under the elastic waistband of his orange sweatpants and his boxers, settling right over his hipbone, Naruto knew any resolve would melt in seconds, like it always did in the face of his husband's fiery wants. He really would do almost anything for him.

Sasuke flattened his hand again the feverish skin and his fingertips brushed Naruto's mid-thigh. That mere contact was seductive enough to make Naruto's eyelids twice as heavy as they were a second ago.

Sasuke dragged the sweatpants and underwear down with the hand not holding the precious tube of lubricant and Naruto grabbed purchase of the other pant leg. Together they divested his tan body completely of any sartorial barrier.

Naruto gently caught Sasuke's face in his hands and pulled him in for another kiss. Then they got to work on baring Sasuke's skin too. He dragged the black cloth down as Sasuke's tongue caressed and surged against his. Then both pairs of sweatpants were abandoned and forgotten on the floor, and they clambered back onto the bed, their mouths still pressed desperately to each other's and their hearts banging hotly against their ribs.

"I'm going to top, but I'll be on the bottom," Sasuke murmured against Naruto's pliant lips.

"What?" Naruto mumbled.

Suddenly a hot mouth was by his ear.

"Ride me," was whispered.

It scorched Naruto from head to toe. He groaned at the images swarming his mind and vaguely heard the sound of a cap popping open. The tip of a wet tongue traced his ear lobe and Naruto suddenly found himself boneless as he lay pressed to Sasuke's side. He wanted to close his eyes and get lost in the pure sensation of the attention being lavished on his sensitive ear, but he forced his eyes to remain open.

Sasuke was sliding his hand over his cock slowly, making sure to coat it with lube as completely as possible. He found a pair of blue eyes burning into him and his sac contracted in an unexpected wave of arousal. It took all his willpower not to squeeze himself tightly and stroke in earnest.

"Now who's blushing?" Naruto said breathlessly, crawling over the pale muscled body until he was hovering over it on all fours again.

Sasuke looked up

"Naruto..." escaped from lips that were then invaded very deliberately by a hot tongue.

Nothing was touching except for their mouths, but then Naruto felt slippery, warm fingers lightly playing over the opening in his rear. He tensed automatically but he made sure his consent could be felt in their kiss. Sasuke slid two very well-coated fingers inside and felt the muscles constrict and release around them. His cock pulsed at the sensation. He was concentrating so hard on keeping a temperate, even pace that when a warm hand wrapped around his own manhood, a gasp escaped him unchecked.

His fingers slipped out of the opening and he felt the tip of his dick being directed to it. He clutched Naruto's arms and his legs involuntarily spread further. And then he was being swallowed whole.

Naruto breathed slowly and steadily, trying not to grimace as he slowly tilted himself down and impaled himself. His knees shifted until they were nearly aligned with Sasuke's ribcage and the dark-haired teen took full advantage of the opportunity to clutch the muscular thighs.

There was a long pause after Naruto was filled completely. Sasuke's breaths were shallow as he felt himself utterly surrounded. His head fell back in a gesture of yearning and rapture. Naruto watched with awe and leaned forward, splaying his ninja's hands on Sasuke's broad chest.

He was so aware of the feeling of Sasuke inside him, of his own thighs sliding intimately against and squeezing the warm, pale hips underneath him. He tried rocking forward leisurely, noting he could feel the sides of Sasuke's hipbones against the sensitive skin of his thighs and the tight, hot feeling of Sasuke inside him. God, Sasuke was so hard.

Sasuke felt like his cheeks were on fire. He couldn't keep the air in his lungs and his breath kept coming in unrestrained pants. Naruto's body was so hot. He felt like he was buried to the hilt inside an inferno. He thought he could die like this.

When the blonde rocked forward again, Sasuke experimentally thrust his hips up to meet the motion and a bolt of white hot bliss lanced through his body. Naruto grunted in surprise as something suddenly felt extraordinarily good.

As though scripted, they began moving again simultaneously and both let out startled sounds of pleasure. They bucked and pressed into one another, and Sasuke felt a pair of calloused hands cosseting his nipples. He arched and thrusted, wanting nothing more than to drown in the heat trapped within the body above him. Naruto lifted his hips slowly up and then quickly down, re-impaling himself with a slick intent that had the shinobi beneath him squirming.

"More," Sasuke growled out, his hands splaying across Naruto's hips and thighs and pulling.

Naruto felt Sasuke's cock plunge, if possible, deeper up into him and it stroked the rough bundle of nerves, sending shockwaves through his system.

"Ungh...harder?" The blonde managed to get out, his head falling forward in ecstasy.

"Faster," came the husky reply.

"Both," Naruto breathed in confirmation.

He felt a pair of strong hands gripping his upper arms, and Naruto opted to use Sasuke's chest as support as he raised himself again. And then slammed back down, hard and fast. His knees slid intimately against Sasuke's sides as he repeated the motion, drawing delicious noises of pleasure out of the dark-haired teen.

The movements took on a more frantic pace as they writhed into each other, the contact sending volts through them. Sasuke bucked ardently and Naruto's head tipped forward as his hips moved and their bodies strained in unison to reach climax.

Naruto ground their bodies together, now slick with sweat and the beads of moisture escaping from the head of Naruto's cock. Sasuke wrapped his fingers around the hard manhood sliding and scraping against his lower abs and began pumping Naruto in time to their almost erratic thrusting.

He heard Naruto groan hoarsely and a moment later, Naruto's body clamped tightly around him. His back arched as he came, spilling himself across the flat plane of Sasuke's pale stomach.

The muscles on Sasuke's abdomen and thighs tensed at the sudden burning pressure surrounding his cock on all sides. He shoved himself deep and panted open mouthed as he came hard, shooting thick spurts up into Naruto's body.

Their faces and bodies were now flushed thoroughly and sweaty, but neither budged an inch for a few seconds. They just relished in the pleasant aftershocks soaring through their blood streams and keeping them lightheaded.

As they cooled, Sasuke thought of how easy it would be for him to not have this. How easily he could have chosen a thousand other paths that would lead him away from the blonde resting completely spent on his middle.

But right then, he couldn't think of a single path that wouldn't in some way re-latch his fate to Naruto's. Wiped out, he smiled and, this time, made no attempt to hide it.

Author's Note:

I was so surprised at the amount of people who told me they loved every minute of last chapter. I was so sure the lack of active SasuNaru would make it one of the less-loved ones.

Anyway, college is crazy fun but it does take a chunk out of my writing time. However, I did manage to make some corrections to chapter 4 while I was at it.

As always, thanks to my AMAZING reviewers: joni.doesnt.know, KunochiDreamer,

derawr, Lady Silverhawk, Clemen, Luna!, Mistress of Sadikus, shadows rayne, KaiPhoenix, SakuraKissy, BitterSweet27, Kai'sgrl, dustori, CherryShadowZ, Nikotehfox, Ahh-Chew, pixiegirl100, FREAKSHOW1, arisa0, NekoAnime, fullofmisery, and Gonrie

HeavenCobra – Thanks so much for taking the time to review all those chapters!

Adi1 – Thanks so much for that review! Your perspective gave me a few ideas. ;)

Alley-Oop – You are so sweet and I swear I don't deserve any of it. Thanks so much for the compliment on the battle scenes as I always sweat over those the most. Your reviews always always always make my day!

Jen – Don't worry, I've got ideas for at least two other long fics in my head and also a possible Sealed sequel (and I just started Akatsuki's Brats). Now to find the time to write them all... Sigh. Thanks for reviewing!

-Ms Trick