KiraKchan, this chapter is again dedicated to you. I think you're this story's muse. ^_~

More angsty-ish stuff ahead.

Monumental Effort

After one day of tutoring, Sasuke was seriously doubting himself about Naruto. The blonde was an idiot, and he had the attention span of a gnat. It took a matter of seconds for him to lose interest and start goofing off, and having Kiba around only made it worse. Sasuke lost his temper by the minute, which resulted in the two Controllers ganging up on him and calling him a tyrant. Sasuke literally threw Kiba out of the room.

After that, Naruto buckled down and tried harder.

After three days, Sasuke grudgingly admitted (only to himself) that maybe he'd been too quick to judge. Naruto showed he could at least learn. To motivate the other teen, he refused to let Naruto kiss him until his next test scores were at least one grade-point higher.

This threat made Naruto get really serious.

After five days, Sasuke found his equilibrium again. He and Naruto settled into a rhythm. The blonde proved an able student when he applied himself, and Sasuke was actually surprised by how smart he was. He kept this tidbit locked firmly behind his teeth.

Then Naruto brought his latest score for Physics back to Sasuke and had gone from a low D to a high B. It was more improvement than Sasuke had expected. Naruto spent most of the night making out with him, and the next morning Sasuke almost gave him a black eye when he saw the bruises all over his neck.

He settled for punching him in the gut.

Through these five days, however, one thing was never far from Sasuke's mind. Naruto's third form. His curiosity grew daily, especially when he monitored the scores showing Naruto's rapidly improving chakra control. He knew the blonde Controller was still practicing with Tsunade, and it secretly pleased him how hard Naruto was working to improve.

Sasuke kept partnering up with other Controllers, just to keep Naruto working hard. but the one thing he seemed to want more than anything was to partner with Naruto and use that third form. It would strike him at odd moments during the day,

I haven't thought of Itachi once today.

There was a time when that probably would have bothered him.

On the sixth day, Sasuke made his way down to the sparring arena after regular classes. This would be the first day when he attempted to actually spar using two Controllers instead of one. Gaara had already agreed to be his opponent, green eyes showing his curiosity over the suggestion. No one except his Controller partners and Kakashi had seen Sasuke link up this way yet.

When he got there, all activity instantly ceased. Sasuke barely managed not to roll his eyes. I have a feeling Suigetsu opened his big mouth about this. As he walked to the mat, the gathered students made way for him and then completely surrounded the mat to watch. The excitement in the air was palpable.

It almost made Sasuke smile. Good thing I'm not naturally shy.

Gaara met him with his chosen partner, Temari. Sasuke silently approved the choice. She was the top Controller of this year, and she wouldn't go easy. As Sasuke made his way to the center, his own two partners silently flanked him. His eyes flicked around the crowd, and he felt a moment of disappointment that he couldn't see Naruto.

He'll be mad he missed this.

He could see Neji watching, standing beside their friend Jugo. Sasuke hadn't seen much of him in the last few weeks, but he knew the second years had busier schedules. Gaara gave Sasuke a nod, his expression saying clear as crystal he did not intend to go easy.

Well, that was why Sasuke had chosen Kiba and Sakura. He worked with them quite well by now, having spent the most time with the pair of them. Sakura had completely lost her blushing shyness around him, transforming her into a confident girl who easily assumed control.

The two Controllers each took one of Sasuke's hands. It felt like the gathered students collectively drew in a deep breath and held it. He went down to one knee, and Kiba and Sakura clasped their two remaining hands together across his chest. He saw Gaara beginning the link with Temari and opened himself.

It didn't happen as fast as Gaara's link, but it took only half a second longer. Half the students audibly gasped. Sasuke now held a pair of sleek swords, and Kiba's glowing wolf form rose up behind him. It still took Sasuke a few seconds to stabilize the three of them, but Gaara waited patiently.

"C'mon, Sasuke!" Kiba said, gleeful as usual.

"Kiba," Sakura took charge as always, "you focus on offense. Attack Gaara directly with Sasuke. I'll focus on defense and make sure Temari doesn't tag us. I'll target her."

Perfectly comfortable with their familiar patterns, Sasuke spun the blades in a quick arc and leaped straight up into the air. Sakura didn't wait for an attack to form her glowing chakra shield, and the shimmery pink surrounded Sasuke. Kiba remained outside it, the wolf-face of his weapon form gaping its grinning jaws.

Gaara didn't move, arms folded. Temari's large fan hovered open behind him, and Sasuke saw her chakra as she began. Her most basic attack, blades of rapidly moving air, came slashing toward them.

Sasuke completely ignored them, lunging down at Gaara. Sakura didn't even bother with a counter attack, simply letting the blades deflect off her shield. As Sasuke drove down toward Gaara, Kiba's form grew another two heads and lengthened, each snapping out as Sasuke slashed the two blades forward.

Quick as a snake, Gaara's hands began forming the seal for his persistent sand jutsu. Kiba reacted at once, the glowing wolf head lashing out. Its jaws clamped around Gaara's wrist and wrenched, a predator shaking its prey. Gaara wasn't unseated so easily, he let himself be pushed to the side. His other hand grabbed the huge fan and closed it with a snap. He swung it like a staff toward the wolf head.

Kiba released him and retreated, but Gaara was fast. The fan snapped open, and by now he had enough momentum. Temari's wind attack sent a powerful gust scything toward him.

Sakura kept up her end of their partnership. She changed the shape of her sphere and made a shield in front of Kiba. The wind scattered, making the other students duck. Sasuke ignored them, channeling some chakra into the soles of his feet to power his lunge forward. Sakura also powered her blades so they glowed pink, but this was only the base of a new ability.

Sasuke changed his trajectory to straight up, flinging one of the two swords down at Gaara. He then quickly formed the hand seal for fireball, but the last one he altered a little. He made a wide arcing motion with his hand, and a long whip of pure fire formed. It raced down to Sakura's blade, combining with her own chakra and forming long spikes. All three of Kiba's wolf heads followed the sword's progress, eyes glowing red.

All of this took less time than the space between two heartbeats.

Gaara flung the fan and leaped onto it, but Sasuke immediately changed course to keep pace. It still gave Gaara enough time to for his hand seal, and sand came pouring out of his gourd.

"Kiba, you're more than a match for that jutsu," Sakura said. "Deal with it. Sasuke, you stay focused on Gaara. Fire isn't a good match against Temari, so let's try our new jutsu."

Sasuke tapped down on the mat and immediately began forming the seals. Gaara swept the fan back and forth a few times to send a few gusts, but Sakura deflected them. Sasuke estimated he could keep this up for maybe another ninety seconds before the strain proved too much. Actual sparring was a lot more difficult than just practicing moves.

Kiba kept snapping at the fists of sand, tearing them apart. Gaara seemed to realize Sasuke was trying a new jutsu, and he abruptly grabbed the fan and swept it up. In the blink of an eye he vanished. Sasuke felt a bolt of panic.

"Stay focused," Sakura counseled, voice soothing. "He can't get past me."

Indeed, a microsecond later when Gaara reappeared right behind him and his glowing fist struck down in a blow too fast to avoid, Sakura's shield cracked but held. Sasuke dove forward into a roll as he completed his seal, and the air around his hands began to crackle in high pitched sounds.

Lightning burst, blue-white, up his arms. He plunged the two swords into the mat with all his strength, and like a wave of pure energy the lightning swept toward Gaara with blinding speed. Sand, only fractionally quicker than the lightning jutsu, formed a ball around the redhead.

Sasuke's attack tore right through it, and for the first time since beginning to spar with Gaara many years ago, the redhead wasn't quite fast enough to entirely avoid it. His chakra-powered roll prevented anything but being lightly clipped, but Sasuke still felt a burst of satisfaction. He'd never come close to winning against his best friend.

His satisfaction was short-lived. The powerful jutsu he'd learned from Kakashi proved too much strain. With a grunt he went down to one knee and lost the link. Sakura and Kiba transformed, and Sasuke fought to breathe normally and not do something embarrassing like faint or puke. Or take a crack at doing both at once.

He could hear the other students clamoring and exclaiming, impressed and excited by what they'd seen. Sasuke focused enough to see Gaara, Neji, Suigetsu, and Jugo surrounding him, and Neji helped him get to his feet.

"That was awesome, Uchiha!" someone called out.

"Fucking insane!" someone else agreed.

Sasuke's lips twitched. "I lost," he murmured to Neji. "Glad my audience is so forgiving."

Neji snorted. "But you still did something no one else has done."

"Got enough left to give it another go?" Suigetsu asked, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet. "I want to have a crack at you!"

Rolling his shoulders, Sasuke shook off Neji's hands. "Sure."

~o0o~

Two hours later, Sasuke made his way back to the dorms. Though not exhausted, he didn't have the strength to keep sparring. He palmed the lock and closed the door behind him with a sigh. To his surprise, Naruto was at the desk, apparently working on homework.

He glanced up at Sasuke and beamed him a smile. "Hey! You ready to help me with some of this shit? I left the hard stuff for when you got back."

Sasuke contemplated him for several long moments. He knew with a more powerful Controller, he'd be able to maintain a double bond longer. With his raw ability, Naruto was technically the perfect candidate. Apparently his staring made Naruto shifty. The blonde teen hopped up from his chair.

"Lemme check your monitor."

Blinking and dragging himself back to the present, Sasuke pulled off the two arm covers of his uniform and obediently held out his arm. The skin had healed around the thing, so he didn't even feel it anymore. Naruto cupped his elbow and massaged his arm around the monitor, just like he always did.

It felt kind of nice.

Naruto frowned. "Your blood pressure is a little low. And so is your plasma count."

Sasuke shrugged. "It always happens after a transfusion. Tomorrow morning I have another treatment."

Those sky-blue eyes regarded him with a measure of concern. "How many times have you had to go through this?"

"I don't know. Maybe a dozen." Sasuke eased his arm free and sat down on the edge of Naruto's bed. "I'm used to it."

The other teen sat down beside him. "I don't know why you were even allowed to come to the Academy. I read about the varying degrees of your disease, and yours is so severe you shouldn't be here."

Sasuke gave him a mild glare. "I don't have a disease. It's a blood disorder. And it's under control. And I'm an Uchiha." He huffed a sigh and flopped backward onto the bed. "Basically, the Hokage told Tsunade to look the other way and just make sure there were no complications when I became a student here."

He started a little when Naruto took his hand. The blonde cradled it in his own, rubbing his thumbs over the back. "I read that stress can make the disorder worse," he said softly.

His tone surprised Sasuke a little. He turned his head to peer into those blue, blue eyes. "You really went to a lot of trouble."

"I worry about you," Naruto murmured. Then quickly added, "Just a little. You're really damn strong, I know that. But I just can't help it."

Sasuke wanted to snap at him he didn't need pity. He wanted to be annoyed. Neither of those happened. Instead of felt a small rush of pleasure at being cared for to this degree. Reaching up with the hand not captured in Naruto's, he lightly smacked his cheek.

"Don't worry, idiot. Medical Shinobi who know way more than you have said I'm in really good health, considering. Especially since you helped me . . ." He looked down, suddenly inexplicably shy. "You know. Stop using Poison."

Naruto leaned down and pressed his lips to Sasuke's forehead. "I'm so glad you did, Sasu~ke. You really have no idea how glad I am."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I can guess."

Silence fell for a few moments. Then, "Tsunade says I'm ready to practice with you in my third form," Naruto said. "She said my control has gotten a lot better. But she did say either she or Kakashi will be there, just in case."

That effectively changed the mood. Sasuke sat up, pulling his hand free. "What's your third form like? I mean, does it have good offensive and defensive capabilities?"

A balanced Controller was of utmost importance to him.

By the knowing gleam in Naruto's eye, he knew that. "Yes," he replied. "Better than my gun form. You know, it's kind of weird, but ever since I started really working on the meditation and control exercises, I've sorta . . . become aware of the Kyuubi. Before, I just had this knowledge that it was there. Now, I can kinda feel it. It has a definite presence inside me."

That, Sasuke thought as he stared at the other teen, was probably the most unnerving thing he'd ever heard. "Can it . . . do the same?" he asked.

Naruto shrugged, lackadaisical as always. "Dunno. But wouldn't it be cool if it could? I'd be the first guy to have a conversation with the demon sealed inside him!"

Sasuke simultaneously wanted to belt the idiot and be inside his head to know what it was like. "This is the creature responsible for killing your parents."

For some reason, Naruto glared at him. It wasn't a wounded glare. It was an angry one. Almost as unnerving as the earlier statement. "No, it isn't. That bastard rogue Shinobi is the responsible one. The Kyuubi just panicked. Nothing bad would have happened if that asshole hadn't been there to fuck shit up."

The defensiveness in his tone startled Sasuke. "You don't blame the Kyuubi?"

"Why the hell would I?" Naruto snapped.

Sasuke snorted. "Because without it, this conversation would be moot."

Naruto surged up off the bed. "You're beginning to sound like all those judgmental bastards back home, you know that?"

Instantly irritated, Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "In what way? I'm only asking questions."

"You're blaming the demon instead of the fucker who woke the demon," Naruto practically growled.

To see red flare in those eyes pissed Sasuke off. He stood up. "I am not. I asked if you did. Don't fucking put words in my mouth. Usuratonkachi."

Apparently too riled up to back down, Naruto's glare didn't soften. "Fine. You just want to know what it's like. I'll tell you. Everyone thinks you're some fucking time bomb always waiting to go off. Everyone thinks you're some kind of freak. Everyone thinks you're way too fucking dangerous because you can use such a destructive chakra without being killed by it. Everyone thinks -"

Sasuke took two strides forward and poked Naruto in the middle of the forehead. "You aren't any of those things. What you are is a huge fucking moron."

The red fizzled right out of Naruto's eyes. Reaching up, he rubbed his forehead with an absent expression. "You really don't care, do you?"

If anything, Sasuke was now insanely curious. He realized he was nibbling on his lower lip and made himself stop. "I want to partner with you. Right now. I don't want to wait."

Naruto appeared to deflate. "Sasu~ke, I can't. Tsunade would kill me. We made it through one week. Can't we make it one more?"

"No."

For several seconds, Sasuke thought Naruto would cave. He could tell the blonde wanted to. "I don't wanna get in trouble," he said weakly.

Sasuke gave him a long, appraising look. "The monitoring equipment is only in the campus halls," he said presently. "If we go outside, far enough away from the buildings, no one will even know."

Which, of course, was absolutely against the rules and would elicit severe punishment if caught.

A slow grin crawled over Naruto's lips. "All right, Sasuke. Let's go wake the sleeping demon."