You know this 'hits' thing Fanfiction gave us authors is really peachy, actually. It doesn't really ACCURATELY tell you how many people read your story, but at least you know a general number. I KNOW YOU LOOKED AT IT! YES, I'M TALKING TO YOU!
Not a whole lot happens in this chapter, sorry.

SIDE NOTE: Join the Naruto Teenage Dirtbags in neopets. Much much fun, and the people are great. Even if you don't like neopets (like MOI). Ta, enjoy

SIDE NOTE TWO: Made a LJ for my stories. It'll tell what I'm working on, when to expect an update & possibly previews. La la la.

Well, thank you Lady of Gryffinder, Azamiko, animeperfect, and Ichigo –dattebayo for reviewing.

(x) means NOTE, which are below.

Title: White, Red, Black and Orange
Chapter: Two
Genre: Fantasy/Romance
Characters: major: Sasuke, Naruto, Kakashi, Iruka, Itachi, Kisame,Jiraiya minor: Hokage, Tsunade, Gai, Asuma, Zabuza
Relationships: SasuNaru, slight ItaKisa and some IruKaka if you squint

Notes:

1. Real life: "In Japan, there are several places named "Naruto", but only the 鳴戸 area in Tokushima is famous for its whirlpools. The kanji for the first part of that place name is pronounced na, and is combined with the Hiragana for ru to form the verb "to sound; to make a sound" (鳴る). The verb naru is often used to talk about ringing bells or alarms. (The kanji 鳴 is also used in other aural verbs; e.g., naku 鳴く, which means "birds are singing"...) Anyway, the reason the famous ocean area is named Naruto is because of the sounds you can hear there -- apparently the roaring and crashing of waves caused by the whirlpool(s) is quite loud." Sorry if the kanji don't show up. I hope you get the general gist of it.
2. These italicized phrases are from the song Don't Fade Away by Milla (Jovovich).
3. Sasuke and Naruto are now eleven-ish.
4. Ah, you thought it would be white, red, and black rocks, didn't you! Okay, probably not. Well, in the real story the witch uses silk of these color laces. "Yellow (gold) represents the soul, red (the colour of blood) represents the body and blue represents the intellect."
5. These italicized phrases are from the song If You Go Away by Emiliana Torrini.
6. Does anyone have a suggestion for another name for the Uchiha witch clan? And if you're clever, perhaps one for the Hyuga Witch Clan as well?


They didn't look at each other, these two boys. One sat on his borrowed bed, sitting on top of the messy green sheets that made him think of plants for some reason. The other swatted among the carrots and potatoes, which always made him think of supper.

Sasuke and Naruto. They talked about this and that, and their conversation could go from frivolous to angry in mere seconds. Why are you here? That was the only question they did not dare ask, as if it might get the other thinking. Perhaps the other would realize that there wasn't any reason to be there, and they'd stop coming.

Why didn't Sasuke live with his family? Why had he appeared suddenly and begun living with these seven mysterious dwarves, who had come just as abruptly themselves, years before. Sasuke answered cautiously, and vaguely, in such a way that his answer was barely an answer at all. And so Naruto knew very little about Sasuke's life before the cottage. Only that he was scared to go back—Naruto inferred this himself; Sasuke did not say this outright—and that he probably didn't have anything to return to anyway.

He felt sad for the black and white boy.

Why did Naruto live alone, surrounded only by foxes and the wild beauty of the forest? Who had created him, and then abandoned him here despite his youth? Naruto did not understand subtle, nor did he know how to be vague. He just simply did not know the answer to the inquiries. He had never known his parents, and told Sasuke as much. As for the foxes, they had practically taken him in, no matter how odd that may have sounded.

Naruto could almost taste Sasuke's envy, and he didn't dare ask why. Why would someone be envious of another's parent-less existence?

Naruto did not have to tell the other boy to not mention his visits to the dwarves. It was almost a given. Sasuke did not know the response they might have to his affair with Naruto. All he knew and understood was that he did not want to stop the daily discussions he had with the boy for anything.

While Sasuke was not sitting by the window, carefully avoiding any site of the other boy, he was training with Kakashi. The silver-haired dwarf had been decided—against Sasuke's will; he claimed to have no need for a teacher—to be the black-haired boy's instructor. Sasuke had expected to show this 'teacher' just how much he did not have any need for him, and instead ended up looking like a complete fool.

The dwarf beat him with just one hand, and an eye.

The dwarf looks down on him with obvious distain. "Well, then, little boy Uchiha isn't as great as he thinks he is, eh?" The black-haired boy throws himself at him, but the dwarf dodges the attack easily. "Ready for Lesson One, are we?"

Sasuke glares at him in response.


"No! Naruto, those are poisonous!" Iruka slaps the berries out of the blonde hands. He looks up at the brunette with sad eyes. Sorry, they say, and Iruka immediately feels guilty for making the boy feel bad.

"C'mon let's find ourselves some fruits, then," Iruka adds, placing a hand on his shoulder in a friendly gesture. The light returns to the boy's eyes, and he is suddenly jumping with excitement. "I know where to find some! Can I show you, can I, can I?"

Iruka lets out an amused laugh. This boy, he is so eager to please, it's amazing. Actually, the way he's been raised, it's not surprising. Fox's are easy to please, and there's been no one else. Well, lately, him, but he's not hard to please either.

Kakashi would say otherwise, but . . .

"Let's go."

It has been a few months now, since Iruka first caught sight of the boy. He had at first thought that he was a lost child from Konohagakure, and only followed him. After a while, though, he had realized his mistake. This boy didn't speak but in grunts and growls, like the foxes that surrounded him. He looked wild, and wore no clothes. This was no child of Konohagakure.

And so he approached the boy, carefully, as one would a wild creature. He found to his surprise the boy had always known of the seven dwarves living in the cottage, and had watched them. He even had taught himself a good bit of the language.

So he had given himself the task of teaching this boy, civilizing him like the human being he was. He gave him the name Naruto.

There was actually a story behind that. When Iruka had begun teaching him the alphabet, but Naruto had added his own letter to the list—a spiral—and announced that it was him. It reminded Iruka sharply of his homeland, where there had been a sea famous for its whirlpools called Naruto (x).

"You're Naruto, then?" The boy looked at him in confusion, and Iruka calmly explained it to him. The blue-eyed boy immediately accepted the name as his own. It was possibly one of the few things anyone had ever given the boy.

With every smile, with every friendly word, Iruka gave him more and more, without even knowing it.

Another thing he did not know was that he was not the only dwarf who had taken an interest in Naruto. Jiraiya watched curiously from his perch in the treetops. Perhaps Iruka had not noticed, but there was something off about this boy. Something old, and something dangerous, and he wasn't sure what to call it.

And so he watched the boy. Therefore, he knew of the rendezvous he was having with the black-haired menace they had allowed into their house. Jiraiya didn't understand why he should feel pity for the young Uchiha. They'd all suffered, and it was good that this boy knew the feeling now. He would now be prepared for it in the future. But of course, Tsunade and Iruka were softies with children, and no one wanted to argue with the motherly idiots.

It didn't matter now. If Sasuke even tried to escape, Zabuza would be after him so fast he wouldn't know what hit him.

He wondered offhandedly what the two boys spoke about. He doubted there was anything seedy mentioned—they were both children, after all—so he wasn't very interested. If he had been, he would have made the effort of finding out.

Eh, let them have their fun, Jiraiya thinks. They'll have little enough of it. One lost his whole family to his brother, and the other was abandoned and left to die—Jiraiya assumes whoever left him in the forest didn't expect him to live—very early on. If that is any indication of how their life is going to be like, well . . .

Good luck with that.

Time passed, as time does.

Naruto still sits outside Sasuke's window and they talk. Occasionally, though, they'll remain silent, and it seems as if they can hear the other's heartbeat, even through their distance.

Hello sunshine, please don't fade away. (x)

Although Naruto has the hair bright as the large star floating in space, for him, Sasuke is the sun, however corny he knows that sounds. The foxes raised him and Iruka taught him, but they were like his mothers and father; they could not be a friend.

Sasuke was his.

No, no. Don't fade away.

Naruto is too intense for Sasuke. Even back home in Konohagakure, before . . . what happened, he was used to less light. The clouds made the sun a creature that did not frequent the people with its presence as much as the rain did.

Now, more than ever, Sasuke wants to be in the darkness. There he can be blind and nothing seems real. There he can hide himself, and Itachi will never find him. Not in a million years.

Naruto forces the light onto him, and pulles him into the spotlight.

I'm stepping over shadows from your smile; losing myself in these rays of light.

The dwarves catch the slight changes in Sasuke. They've all managed to survive this long in the harsh world because they aren't idiots. They notice that Sasuke went from the boy who would not look at them while quietly eating his supper, to the boy who will occasionally insert his opinion in the conversation.

Tsunade is not sure what caused this change, but whatever it is, she finds herself grateful. Pathetically sad little boys do her mood no good.

Asuma keeps the boy on careful watch nonetheless. Avengers are dangerous, as most of them know from prior experience.

Iruka is not blind. He detects the changes of both boys and puts two and two together. He does not go as far as to follow the blonde, but he sees the grin that appears on his tanned face whenever the paler boy is mentioned.

Gai leaves for a good couple of months on his annual trip back home. No one ever dares to ask why, at least not until Sasuke comes along and sticks his nose where it doesn't belong. When the boy questions the man, his eyes cloud with tears, but he does not respond.

Jiraiya asks Iruka what he thinks about the fox boy's potential. Though Iruka is surprised that the white-haired man would even speak to him, though not that he knows of Naruto, Iruka responds appropriately.

Zabuza keeps to himself, same as always, and looks suspiciously to the others as if he is sulking.

Kakashi makes Sasuke's life hell in training whenever possible, but the boy with the unusual red eyes finds that his teacher is more like him than either of them would like to admit.

See our genius warp what we created.

No, don't fade away.


Looking-glass, Looking-glass, on the wall, Who in this land is the strongest of all?

Oh, Itachi, thou art strongest of all I see,
But over the hills, where the seven dwarfs dwell,
Your brother is still alive and well,
And few will be so strong as he.

Itachi stares at the looking glass blankly, his eyes slipping into red without him seeming to realize it. "Sasuke? That weak child that was not worth my time? I don't believe it." But he knows very well that the looking glass does not lie—cannot lie.

"Well, then, there is a very easy remedy for this," the man mutters to himself, slipping on his Akatsuki robes as his mind tries to wrap itself around this topic of his irritating sibling. It's been a little more than two years (x) since the massacre; how much could the boy have grown since then?

Itachi holds back a laugh at the mere thought. There's no way the boy is even vaguely near the level Itachi was at at his age, much less his strength now. But still . . . Itachi dislikes surprises. Things go as he plans, or they do not go at all.

Sasuke is not going as planned. Itachi had expected him to be killed by the wild foxes that ran feral through the forest Sasuke had scamper to, his tail between his legs, but apparently Itachi had forgotten about the conveniently placed dwarves. Yes, he knows of the seven. Quite of few of them are criminals, and all of them are escaping a painful past. Oh, it might even be fun to bring some of that back up.

But first things first, how will Itachi destroy the little nuisance?

After sitting in his large—and very comfortable—leather chair, and thinking it through carefully, he eventually decides the sly approach will do quite nicely. He'll bewitch a necklace to keep wrapping itself around his skinny little throat until his breath is all gone. He likes this idea a good bit, and wonders what kind of jewelry would appeal to his younger sibling. He has no sense of style or fashion, but he doubts that Sasuke did either.

"Kisame!" He cries, calling for the man that was probably loitering by the moat. Yes, Kisame had insisted that there be a moat around their . . . humble abode. By humble abode, Itachi means small fortress in which Kisame and Itachi both spend a good portion of their time in between evil schemes.

After a few minutes, the fish man comes in, an annoyed expression on his face. "What? Do you want me to paint your nails again?" The idea peaks a little interest for Itachi, but not enough to dissuade him from his idea.

"No! Do buy some of that purple stuff, though, won't you?" Kisame rolls his eyes, which would be unnerving for anyone but Itachi, and perhaps Kisame's mother. He waits patiently for Itachi to continue. "Well, it seems my little brother will soon grow to be a little bother, and I'd rather have him be a little corpse before then. Do you mind helping me out a bit?"

A large grin spreads up through Kisame's face, and Itachi feels like giggling inanely. Kisame smiling is very cute, in his opinion. Of course he doesn't begin giggling, because he has a good bit more pride than that.

"I'll take that as a yes. Well, Kisame, what kind of necklace do you think my brother would like? After all, I did miss his birthday this year . . . "

Kisame pauses to thinks for a second, and then digs his hand into a hidden pocket. He rummages until he finds what he is searching for. He produces three colorful stones, one yellow, one red and one blue (x). Itachi inspects each carefully before deeming them fine for his use. "One more thing, Kisame, could you please kill me an old peddler woman and bring me her clothes? I don't want to spoil the surprise for my dearest sibling, do I?"

"No, Itachi, you do not. Don't forget to cook dinner. No fish," Kisame replies, already halfway out the door.

Itachi and Kisame just work well together.


If you go away, on this summer day, then you might as well take the sun away.(x)

"Bah, Naruto, I'm going to go away someday! I've got to avenge my family and I'm gonna have to . . . well, revive the Uchiha witch clan.(x)" Sasuke finds a small blush travels up his neck at these words. He know vaguely how those things work but . . . well, he doesn't want to do those things! He doesn't know too many girls, except for his mother and Tsunade. If he's supposed to have babies with someone like his mother . . . well, that wouldn't be so bad.

But he never wants to start a clan with someone as scary as Tsunade.

And she doesn't know how to make cookies, either.

But if you stay, I'll make a day like no day has been or will be again.

"Why?" And for the first time since they'd begun talking with each other, Naruto stands up, and the black-hair boy can see his bright orange self clearly.

"W-what do you think you're doing, dobe?" Sasuke asks, desperately look around to make sure that no one has seen the boy peek his head through the window. No one's home to begin with, but . . . better safe than sorry. He also just wants an excuse to not look at Naruto.

He's so orange.

"I'm asking you why! Why do you have to leave? Can't you just forget about your brother and live here? I bet Iruka could get rid him!" The whiskered boy holds the brunette in high esteem, and Sasuke knows this. Sasuke also knows that if Iruka were foolish enough to try and defeat his brother, Itachi would eat him alive.

The white-skinned boy doesn't have the heart to tell him so.

"Look, I can't stay here. I can't revive a clan with Tsunade!" Naruto just gives him a confused look—Sasuke is now sneaking glances at him from beneath his bangs—and suddenly it's very clear.

"You don't know how babies are made, do you?"

"I . . .er . . . Iruka told me that a man plants a seed inside a woman, but without killing her. I'm guess they numb her somehow so that she doesn't feel the shovel going in her stomach. Does that mean woman are made of dirt? I would ask Iruka, but he turns red when I talk about it. And . . . so are you!" Naruto is fuming now, irritated that everyone else finds the topic of gardening so embarrassing.

"He doesn't plant that kind of seed, idiot," Sasuke mutters.

Quite abruptly, Naruto is in Sasuke's face, having jumped the windowsill in one quick bound. "What kind of seed is it, then, if you're so . . . freakin' . . . smart?" With every word he enunciated the blue-eyed boy got a little closer, until Sasuke could smell the dirt and wilderness on him.

He leans over slowly and chastely presses his lips against the other boys. He had seen his father and mother doing it, as well as many of the older generations back at home. He quickly pulls away, afraid of what he has done. What had possessed him to do that to Naruto?

"What the hell was that for?" Of course. The idiot didn't have the slightest idea what a kiss was. That was just like him. Well, then it had been no risk to Sasuke.

"It . . . I wanted to shut you up!"

The two young boys are silent for a little while. Each of them suddenly realized that they had crossed the line that had been carefully drawn for their relationship. They wouldn't see each other, and they would not touch each other. That way what they had belonged to them, and to them only.

Naruto did not know the meaning of possessions, but maybe that's why he was possessive of his Sasuke. Now that he had a clear image of him in his mind's eyes; now that he had knew what the white-skinned boy's skin felt like, it was something someone could take away.

Sasuke had always been given Itachi's leftovers. The leftover love of his parents, the leftover respect of his clan, and even the leftover clothes that didn't fit the older boy any longer. For once he had something that belonged to him first, and would not belong toItachi. Not ever. Yet as long as he only heard Naruto's voice there was the chance that the boy was only in his own head. That way, there was no way Itachi could ever have this boy.

But now Naruto was real boy, and Itachi could take anything away, just like he had taken away the lives of his clansmen away.

If you go away, as I know you will, you must tell the world to stop turning 'til you return again, if you ever do, for what good is love, without loving you?

"Sasuke . . . don't leave." Naruto doesn't sound weak, nor does he sound demanding. Sasuke doesn't know quite how to describe it, but he's looking up at the blonde in surprise.

But if you stay, I'll make you a night, like no night has been or will be again. I'll sail on your smile; I'll ride on your touch; I'll talk your eyes that I love so much.

Sasuke doesn't answer.

And then there's a knock on the door.


You thought I forgot didn't you? HAPPY BIRTHDAY UCHIHA SASUKE!