Author's Note: Thanks to everyone for the reviews. They are greatly appreciated. Hopefully as things play out, everything will make more sense for people. Thanks again.

Warnings: Blood, demons, sex eventually.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Vice

Chapter Three

"Who is it?" Naruto shouted, not bothering to get up. Whoever it was could damn well yell, because Naruto wasn't taking his eyes off Sasuke.

"It's me," came the reply. He would have known Kakashi's voice anywhere. Naruto slumped, unsurprised. "I'd like to speak with Sasuke, if he's there."

Well, Naruto thought, matching Sasuke's eyes and hoping he understood. Your show, buddy. Do I let him in? Sasuke met his look blankly, his eyes a little too wide, a little too shiny, lips just slightly parted. He looked half wild. Then, too late to be casual, he gave Naruto half a shrug.

Naruto was silently grateful.

"Come on in then," he called. "The bastard left it unlocked."

The door creaked open and Kakashi stepped through, followed by a tentative Sakura. The girl blushed when she caught sight of Sasuke, shifting her weight guiltily.

Immediately, Sasuke's expression became strained.

"They found Fuyo-san," Kakashi said without preamble, his tone deceptively bland.

"Fuyo?" Sasuke repeated, his eyes squeezing shut. Naruto watched uneasily--there was something more than a little wrong with his friend. If he hadn't known that before, it would have been clear then. Sasuke looked nauseous. "Was that the nurse?

"Yeah," Kakashi said. His voice nearly sounded like he was smiling. "That was the nurse."

"How is she?"

"She'll be fine."

"That's good, isn't it?" Naruto asked, suddenly feeling left out. Sasuke wasn't looking at any of them.

"Oh, sure," agreed Kakashi. "Better than if she died."

There was a long paused. Their teacher let it drag. Naruto grit his teeth. The atmosphere in his apartment became stifling.

"So?" Sasuke prompted after too much time had passed.

"The Fifth would like to see you. You're not to interact with anyone ranked below chuunin on your way there."

Sasuke hugged his arms to his chest and bent forward, looking ready to curl into a ball. Naruto watched his friend as he drifted, trembling slightly, before he composed himself. It was enough to make him feel sick with sympathy. He knew how much Sasuke hated to be seen down. Slowly straightening, the Uchiha nodded his acquiesce.

Kakashi waited while Sasuke stood. His visible eye was weary.

"If it's any consolation, you didn't need to worry so much about Sakura," their teacher said. "You're a powerful ninja, but as monsters go, you aren't that scary."

Dark chakra lashed at out that, and Sasuke's shoulders squared. The short hair on the back of Naruto's arms stood on end, and he fought back a growl. Every time Sasuke did that, it put his hackles up. The chakra nipped at him, irritating.

"Shall we go?"

Noising an agreement, Sasuke walked to the door. He didn't go any closer to Sakura than absolutely necessary.

Kakashi followed him out.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto said once they were gone. "Do you know what that was about?"

The girl started, then shook her head.

Naruto stood up and went to find his shoes.

No one had told them not to follow Sasuke and Kakashi. No one invited either, either, but he and Sakura were there when Sasuke got to Tsunade's office.

If the guards let them in, then he figured they must be welcome. Sasuke was their teammate, and it seemed that whatever was wrong, it had to do with Naruto specifically.

He had every right to be there, really.

Tsunade glared at him when he entered, brown eyes sharp as they cut from Sasuke to him and back again. "Why is it," she said with a long suffering air, "that whenever something goes wrong, I can count on someone from your team being involved?"

Sakura was the only one who flinched at that question, quietly taking a place with her back to the wall. Kakashi just shrugged.

Naruto would have made a crack about her luck, but he was too busy keeping an eye on Sasuke. Sasuke, who took a seat in front of Tsunade's desk, but refused to meet her eyes, or anyone else's. Sasuke, who was still in his hospital clothes, and didn't have his shoes on. Sasuke, who twitched and jerked like a nervous rabbit at every surprise.

Sasuke, who sulked like he was twelve again and could still pull that kind of bullshit.

Crossing the office, Naruto perched on a window sill, leaving the second chair for Kakashi. The sun was warm on his back and hair. It could have been a comfortable place to sit under other circumstances.

"Alright," Tsunade said. Rolling a scroll and setting it aside definitively, signaling the beginning of the interview. "I'd like an explanation. Now."

"So would I," Sasuke growled sullenly.

A frown turned down Tsunade's mouth, and through her illusion, she still managed to look brittle with age.

"I'm not having you arrested at this point. Don't press your luck though, kid. I'm not a patient woman," the Hokage warned. "So, who does know what's happened? There's an exhausted, hysterical woman with a rather nasty bite on her neck in the hospital, and if I can't know why, then I'd still like to know how she got there."

"Kakashi said she'd be okay," Naruto said, hopefully.

Tsunade snorted. "Oh, she'll be fine with some rest and antibiotics. That doesn't change that she's there. Now, kindly, tell me what the hell happened."

After a pause, shifting quietly, Sasuke did. He explained slowly, pulling out words and sentences and weighing them carefully before he laid them out. He told Tsunade that there had been a fight on their last mission, and that he'd been hurt. He said that he didn't remember it. He told her that Naruto had used his chakra to keep him alive. It seemed to have done the trick. Then he'd woken up in the hospital.

He told her what had happened when the nurse had come to see him. He said that she hadn't been particularly helpful, but eventually, she'd made herself useful. That, Naruto hadn't heard. Tsunade's eyes narrowed at his choice of words, but Sasuke didn't seem to notice.

"I asked for some water," Sasuke said, "and when she came back, something happened. There was something in her I wanted, and I grabbed her, and pulled it out."

A tremor moved through his shoulders as Sasuke said that, and Naruto's patch of sun suddenly seemed less warm.

"And that's it?" Tsunade asked. She ran her fingers through her bangs, propping her head up on her arm.

Sasuke nodded. "That's it."

The Hokage grunted, dissatisfied. "Anyone have anything to add to that?"

Naruto closed his eyes and leaned into the sunlight. Did he have anything to add? "The Kyuubi thinks it's hilarious," he offered, remembering the demon's deep, rolling chuckles. "It's his fault, whatever it is."

"Lovely." Tsunade flopped onto both elbows and massaged her temples. "So it's a kitsune thing."

"That's what we think," Sasuke said.

"And the primary symptom seems to be draining the life and chakra out of people?"

"Yes." Sasuke's voice was low. His dark eyes looked hallow in his pale face, expressive with things Naruto didn't know how to interpret. His shoulders hunched forward, and he leaned away from the Hokage. Sasuke frowned, his mouth drawing a sullen line.

"Are there any other signs we should know about?" Tsunade asked wearily.

"I don't think so."

"You don't think so," she said, twisting his words. "Shit. Half of me wants to tell you to come directly to me if something of this nature happens again, and the other half wants to know how it could happen just once. Naruto," she looked at him, pausing and, then continued, "what the hell possessed you to share the Nine-Tail's chakra?"

Sasuke chuckled, the sound dry and nearly inaudible.

"What? This is my fault? He's the one who ate a nurse," Naruto shot back. "It's not like I had a whole lot of options. It worked didn't it?"

"Insofar as he's alive," Tsunade allowed. She sighed then, heavily. Sasuke hunched further, his normally relaxed posture subverted into something defensive and nearly animal.

Shortly, Tsunade straightened. "I suppose there's nothing to do about that part now. Fuyo might have a scar, but nothing else permanent and there was no other damage. Sasuke, I expect you to compensate her for the work she'll miss."

Sasuke nodded. No one else said anything for a long moment. The silence was uncomfortable. Naruto crossed his arms, waiting for more. There had to be more than that. At the very least, she couldn't trust Sasuke to go free. He ground his teeth, holding his tongue.

It was Sakura who finally spoke nervously. "What now?"

"Now," Tsunade said, that sardonic smile returning. "Now, I try to find someone who knows more about kitsune than I do."

"What until then?" Naruto asked. He was proud of himself; he didn't shout.

"He's your problem until then. Keep him away from people who can't defend themselves. I won't have a repeat of this morning's incident." Tsunade raked the team with her eyes. "Naruto, you stay a bit. The rest of you, take him," she indicated Sasuke with a jerk of her chin, "home."

Sakura inclined her head promptly, still so intimidated by the Hokage--Naruto almost snickered at that. Kakashi stood up with loose ease and laid a hand on Sasuke's shoulder.

Sasuke twitched, flinching away from the touch.

"We'll keep an eye on him," he said. "But that will interfere with taking missions."

"With any luck, it won't be for that long. Now," she told them, waving dismissively. "I have a few things to take care of."

Then the team left, and Naruto stayed behind. He didn't bother moving; the sun was warm on his back and in his hair, seeping through his jacket. He wished he could enjoy it more. He watched Sasuke go, noting the way he moved. So tense. So suspicious. So not Sasuke, in some other strange way that Naruto had trouble defining.

"Well?" he asked when the others had gone.

Tsunade turned to face him. "Don't scowl at me," she said sharply. "I want to check your seal."

Naruto frowned, caught himself, and consciously relaxed his face a bit. His brow was still tight. He couldn't let go of the knots there. If it wasn't good enough, that was her problem. "The seal?"

"Of course the seal," Tsunade said. "I want to make sure it hasn't weakened. If the fox can influence Sasuke..." She trailed off pointedly.

The frown came back, bunching Naruto's forehead and twisting the corners of his mouth. "It can't. The seal's still good."

"Can you blame me for wanting to be sure?" She raised one eyebrow derisively, but the words came out neutral. "Now; shirt, off."

"You could at least ask nicely," Naruto huffed, unzipping his jacket and shrugging out of it. The tee shirt came off next. Both garments ended up in a wad on the floor. Naruto leaned back, pretending to savor the sun on his bare skin--he was stalling, and he knew it.

"This is depressing. It's been so long since I had a half naked man in my office, and when I do get one, it's you."

"Please, don't follow that train of thought any further."

Tsunade's lips quirked toward a half-smile. "Don't get full of yourself, brat. You're still too young for me. Now, if you'll gather your chakra."

"I'll always be too young for you," Naruto muttered, but he did as he was told. Hands before him, he shaped a seal and concentrated. Before long, he knew that the seal on his stomach had appeared. He didn't look down until Tsunade stepped closer, though.

Her touch was professionally impersonal as she traced the spiral with her fingernail. The mark was as dark as ever, unchanged over the years, save that the body it was on had grown harder. The muscles in his stomach were rough cut under his skin, pulling and puckering the seal. He didn't think that made a difference, though; he hoped it didn't.

Tsunade flattened her palm against his belly, and Naruto felt the cool tingle of her chakra probing the seal. It tickled, sort of. Like having a scalpel waiting just against his skin might tickle.

He held his breath, waiting.

She moved her hand, spreading her fingers over the width of the seal. The tickle grew stronger until, somewhere undefined within him, the Kyuubi stirred. The fox seemed to brush against the confines of its cage while Tsunade's chakra traced the other side.

When she finally pulled away, there was a line between her finely plucked eyebrows. She tapped her lips thoughtfully. The sense of the Kyuubi moving within him faded without her there to pull it out. "I sometimes wish that the Fourth had lived just so I could ask him what he was thinking when he made this seal."

"What does that mean?" Naruto demanded. Then, as an after thought, "Can I put my clothes back on?"

Tsunade flipped a hand at him, gesturing for him to get dressed. "It means," she said while he picked up his shirt, "that there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the seal, but it's hard to be sure. I don't think the Kyuubi is influencing Sasuke directly, though, which is a relief."

"I told you it couldn't," Naruto said, shoving his arms into his tee shirt. "I'd know if it could."

She snorted, saying only, "It doesn't hurt to be sure."

Naruto finished dressing in silence. He couldn't blame her for wanting to be careful, he supposed, but that didn't stop him from resenting that she hadn't taken his word for it. It was easy to resent things with the Kyuubi so close to the surface. Between whatever Sasuke was doing and Tsunade's prodding, he was stirring more than normal. It put Naruto on edge, turning his stomach slightly.

"So you don't think the fox is affecting Sasuke directly," Naruto said, biting back his temper. "That's a good thing, right?"

"It's not a bad thing," Tsunade corrected, as though there was a difference.

"Okay." Naruto scratched his chin. "Anything else?"

Tsunade shook her head. "Keep an eye on that boy. I don't trust him on a good day, let alone on days he decides 'leech' might be a good move on his part."

Naruto bit his lip, holding back a protest. He couldn't really defend Sasuke to her, no matter how much he might want to. Under the circumstances, it didn't seem like there was much to argue.

To be continued.