Title: Arabic Numerals
Genre: AU, romance, ummm is gayness a genre?
Pairings: SasuNaru and some other weird ones
Warnings: weirdness
This chapter is a bit longer than the others because I never found a good cutoff point. Not that my cutoff now is too good or anything, but it's manageable.
"Come on, Naruto, we're leaving," he said firmly, his eyes cold like a poor child in shorts sitting out in the freezing snow, a child waiting hopelessly for his late father to return from a war. Sasuke grumbled as he shot a glance over his shoulder at his taller older brother, "We're not needed here."
Hastily, he grabbed his long brown coat in his hand and instantly ripped the door open with a force that left me feeling relieved I had not foolishly stepped in the door's way. Sasuke paused for a moment, allowing me to retrieve the heavy forest green coat and hat and walk through he door ahead of him. Almost instantaneously, the door was slammed shut behind me. The dead old lamp above the door clattered and rattled the frozen dew like a wind chime.
It was very cold this morning. There was an icy wind blowing as one could only hold their coat tightly to it. But I was used to the cold from the prison of the castle. Looking over at Sasuke, it seemed he was used to sitting beside a warm fireplace tightly hugging a mug of le chocolat chaud to his lips at treacherous times like these.
The Uchiha nervously looked side to side as though totally and completely lost and abandoned. Taking the lead, he sped his way across the front yard and towards the steps which led to the main road, his fine black shoes tapping loudly upon the conglomerate walkway with every pace.
I had no idea why we were out here-- I had simply been awaken from my slumber and told to dress immediately. I'm assuming Uchiha had had some sort of quarrel with his brother and had been forced to leave. Rich people were truly strange at times, I thought. Why would anyone leave such a place?
"What..." I began quietly, gathering obnoxious courage, "was that about?"
Sasuke scoffed angrily, heavily plopping his rump upon the marble step and looking away.
"...Nothing."
"What do you mean 'nothing'?" I retorted. "You have just stormed out of what I think is the biggest and most comfortable house I've ever been in-- and dragged me along, too!!"
"If you think that way, then you can go back inside," Sasuke snapped back, his intense glare always towards the road in front of him instead of me. I wished I had never seen Sasuke like this.
"No! I won't!" I said. "Because that would be deserting you!"
"Well, it's not like everyone else hasn't deserted me already!"
His voice cracked severely on the last word.
"First my parents, then my colleagues, my servants, then my own brother-- everyone!!"
"I'm not everyone-- I'm not anyone, apparently!"
"...Wh--" Sasuke took in a deep breath, and then spoke slowly and painfully clearly. "...Why are you still here?" he said.
I held my tongue then, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
"Is it because you have nowhere else to go? My brother would gladly take you into his home. He loves you." His voice grew in blossoming insanity. "Or maybe you just feel pity for me, and you would feel guilty if you left?"
I made a face at that. "Hmph!" Pity him? I plopped myself right next to him on the step, my legs stretched out in front of me. Sasuke turned to me, and I got to see an expression of raw emotion strike his once perfect mask. "I don't pity you. You're living a blessed life, so there's nothing to pity."
The Uchiha had expected me to pity him and sympathize, and he probably wanted that pity.
That was all he ever knew in kindness.
"I'm just following you around because that's what I've always been doing-- ever since I got out of the castle. And because I have nowhere else to go. And don't even mention your brother--" I shook my head in an affirmative action. "I'm speaking of people who won't rape me in my sleep..."
Sasuke was staring at me. I became nervous. Please, I thought, any reaction would be fine. Nothing was worse than the silence I was receiving at that moment.
"As in... without my permission..." I continued hesitantly, gesturing with my hands. My previously squinted eyes slowly cracked themselves open. I blinked confusedly at the Uchiha. I believe I must have taken on the stupidest face possible. Why wasn't he reacting--
And then Sasuke smiled, leaning in until his gentle lips were brushing my earlobe. His voice was low and husky.
"Does that mean I have your permission, Naruto...?"
Maybe he simply enjoyed making fun of my blatant virgin soul.
"Why in hell did I decide to follow you?"
"Because you're a complete idiot."
"Bastard," I said.
"Dumbass," he replied.
It had grown only grown colder as we wandered around the cobblestone walkways of town, and Sasuke still refused to reveal his destination-- if he even had one. I had not decided to question him because I wanted to be surprised! It was always fun to play a little game with life in its dreariest times! And so we marched as though making our way through a treacherous blizzard, the cloudy sky only discouraging our morale and wetting the soles of our shoes with light drizzling rain.
I think I stepped on a slug.
That was it. I was not going to wander in the dark any longer! "Sasuke, where the hell are we going?!" I demanded, sounding a little less pleased than I intended to. Not that I cared with Mr. High and Mighty beside me.
At this point, it began to rain harder, and Sasuke's hatless head was drenched with now water, dark ebony locks plastered to his face, making him look more pathetic than before. He seemed to be battling an answer in his head, and when he was finally able to reply, his voice was almost nonexistent.
"...I don't know where," he muttered, his breath drowned out by the pitter patter of rain around us.
Meanwhile, we continued to wander around town with no apparent destination on our mind. It was strange because, having known myself, I probably would have been putting up much more of a fight against being lost, but, in this case, I felt absolutely mellow. I didn't care where the road of life would take me.
Remember those memories of a peaceful peasant life? I couldn't remember them any longer. It was as though I was slowly waking from a dream.
There was red.
Fire.
And a raging monster throwing its head back and screaming to the sky, bloody wine dripping from its lips, running a stream from its grim crooked teeth. More screams, wails, cries, explosions, alarms, and a rumbling through my appendix as a tight iron trap closed upon my heel-- lightly at first, then tighter, tighter, tighter, tighter... Was it about to crack? And then I realized the blood was my own and the wails were from the monster as I was the monster and the monster was I, and Armageddon closed in slowly upon us in one swift blow...
And then I heard the ringing of a bell.
"Sell your soul!" called a weighty man from behind a beaten counter, his one hand waving a bell high in the air. "Sell your soul to the devil!" he said. "Any wish you might want-- consider it granted! Sell your soul to the devil!"
Maybe I should have noticed the puppet strings connected to the back of the man's head.
Sasuke rolled his eyes, sauntering casually over to the rundown man in his rundown stand. "How long have you been here?" he asked the dirtied male.
"Since time began, my lord," the man replied quickly.
Get out of there.
I whipped my head around to look behind me. My vision wobbled for a moment before Sasuke asked what the hell I was looking at. Looking angrily back at him, I yelled, "I thought I heard someone, okay?" Sasuke grunted in response.
"Sell you soul to the devil?" interrupted the old man, holding the bell as though it was all the power in the world. "No refunds, I'm afraid," he said, his eyes curving into barely visible half-moons and flashing with the essence that seemed to pull like the puppet strings.
"No," Sasuke replied.
"I'd like to try, sir!" I said.
"You idiot," the Uchiha hissed. "He's probably just trying to steal your money."
"One wish, please!"
I grinned as I slammed my fist upon the counter in confirmation. I stuck my tongue out at Sasuke. That Uchiha really needed to brighten up. It was just a little soul-selling stand! Honestly! It really sparked my curiosity.
The fleshy man smiled back at me, his eyes crinkled in delightful mirth.
"I'm sorry, good sir, but I'm afraid I cannot do you business." He spoke in a low baritone.
I blinked. "...Why not?"
A crooked grin. A misplaced jaw. His pale pupils regarded me joyfully. My vision blurred for a moment and I felt like I was being flung backwards. My feet stayed rooted to the ground, and it was as though I had no control over any part of me.
"I'm afraid you do not have a soul," said the old man.
The hell? "Of course I have a soul!" I yelled back. "How could I be standing here if I didn't have a soul?!"
"I do not know," he said ominously, never once letting the smile fade from his face, "but I am one hundred percent sure that your body is not running on a soul."
"How would you know?!"
"It says right here in my records..."
Then from under the counter, the meaty man pulled a large dusty book which glowed at the edges with an unsettling aura of unpleasant nastiness. And then, by some sort of black magic, he flipped his wrist and opened the book to--
"Page 8031. You've already sold your soul once, I'm afraid."
Sasuke's eyes widened. "How did you do that?"
"Do what, my lord?" said the man.
"Open the book without using your hands?"
"Of course I used my hands, my lord. You saw it yourself."
"I mean-- without touching the book?" Something told me I should have been questioning that as well, but I could only stay rooted to the spot, asking questions I knew I wouldn't receive an answer to.
"I'm afraid I do not know what you're talking about." And then the man turned back to the book, his plump features mocking me in every possible way. He traced a finger down the page and stopped on the only visible name on the page. "January first, six years ago-- Kyuubi no Youko."
Tighter, and tighter, and tighter. Make it stop, please, God, let it end.
Sasuke lifted an eyebrow and looked questioningly at me. "Kyuubi no Youko?"
I quickly shook my head. "...And old nickname. It's nothing."
"...So you don't remember."
"So you've come here before, then."
"Yes."
"Didn't they wipe your memory clear?"
"No. I still remember everything."
"Uchiha, could you please take me to the castle?"
"What for?"
And suddenly, he was behind me. He was inside me. He was speaking to me, through me. His breath hissing across my ears without actually being there, and Sasuke didn't seem to notice at all. No one else could hear it but me. And as I alone asked him the question to which I desired the answer, he could only admonish me coldly.
"Don't try to remember."
"And so Gaara wasn't there, and he escaped or something and everyone was freaked out-- I don't know why they were freaked out. I mean, he... wasn't scary at all! Then we were wandering around for a while and then I finally reminded Sasuke-bastard here that he was supposed to meet with his wife today!! So he led us here and-- Gee, it was really nice of you to let us in, Miss Hinata!!"
"She's married to me, you moron. It's Mrs.."
"But Miss Hinata is cuter!"
My peripheral vision caught a dash of red on the woman's cheeks when she heard me say that. "S-so that's what happened..." said the gentle mistress as she hid her face behind a cup of tea. Politely, she sipped at the tea, afraid to put the thing down and reveal her pale features to anyone.
Let me rewind the story a little bit.
"I thought no one was supposed to escape from the castle!"
"Well, obviously, they keep the lunatics imprisoned for a reason, but this is Gaara of the Desert we're talking about, so it's all around possible."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow, bending over the table and glaring the secretary in the eye. "And no one is out to stop him? This is Gaara of the Desert we're talking about, isn't it? Slaughtered a hundred million people--"
"Are there even that many people in this country?"
"Said it was because he was hungry--"
"He's not a goddamn cannibal."
The front deskman, a feminine-looking man with the complexion of a dirtied old dishrag, who was casually twirling the feathered pen between his fingers, rolled his eyes tiredly, thrusting his arm and pointing his finger towards the exit of the castle. "You can go out there and look for him. He disappeared just this morning. He can't have gotten far."
"Excuse me, sir. This is Gaara of the Desert we're talking about."
"Oh. Right," the man said (as though he had just remembered his own name). "Well, if you were wanting to visit him, you're too late. He's gone. But you could always wait for him to kill someone and look for him that way."
I threw my hands up in the air and growled loudly in exasperation. "Thanks, anyway," Sasuke muttered, turning to leave. I shot one last glare at the dried up front deskman and followed him. The Uchiha was already holding the door open for me. As I walked through the exit, subconsciously aware of the Uchiha's eyes on me, I suddenly thought of something.
"Hey, Sasuke. Aren't we supposed to be meeting your wife?"
Sasuke's face blanketed over with an unreadable expression.
"Shit." I guess he might have done well to remember that before he ran away from home.
"Where were you supposed to meet her?" I asked, pulling my hat over my head as I walked into the drizzling rain.
My shoes splashed rainwater about my clothes as I gloomily held my trousers up with my calloused hands. I squinted to prevent the raindrops from dripping into my eyes.
Sasuke sighed heavily, walking beside me, resting his head on my left shoulder and wrapping his arm around my waist. I found myself blushing from the pleasant warmth radiating from the other boy.
"The plan was for her to come to my house. She probably went home after she couldn't find me."
I groaned. "Where should we go now?"
Sasuke hugged me closer.
"Hey, hey-- Let's go to a pub or something."
Sasuke's eyes lifted curiously to regard my face. "Are you old enough to drink?"
"No..."
Sasuke glared at me. "Moron."
"Bastard..."
There was a short silence after that.
Suddenly, I found myself stretching my arms above my head and yawning, the sleeves of my massive coat slinking down to expose my arms. Sasuke stepped away as I did this. At that moment, the rain decided to pour down in heavy sheets of water, and I was instantly soaked down my arms and lower.
"She lives a couple miles from here, if you're still interested in meeting her."
"Huh? Who?"
"...Idiot."
Hinata-- a weird girl. I definitely wouldn't have guessed she was Sasuke's wife had I just seen her walking down the street. She was much too nice for a bastard like Sasuke. Miss Hinata seemed so shy when she opened the door to greet us and as she sat in front of us now. Most people rich enough for servants would never answer the door themselves. And yet Miss Hinata humbly let us inside her mansion (which was decidedly even more grand than the Uchiha's domain), and she even invited us to live with her.
"W-we have plenty of g-guest rooms..." she stuttered, gesturing towards a hallway that seemed to go on to heaven and forever. Identical doors paired off all the way down as well. My jaw dropped and hung open on a broken hinge.
Sasuke interrupted his wife. "It's all right. Naruto and I will sleep in the same bedroom."
I tried to protest. "Wha--"
"I don't think your cousin would want an ex-prisoner like Naruto in one of his beds."
"Wha--?!"
Hinata tried to protest, too. "B-but I'm sure he'd be all right with it if I-I just ask--"
"I don't want you troubling yourself like that, Hinata. And you know as well as I do that Neji will do his best to make Naruto's stay here absolutely miserable if he hears of you defending someone from the castle. He'll think Naruto's trying to court you for your money, won't he?"
"N-no, not at all-- I'm worried if N-Naruto will be fine sharing a room with you?"
"No need to worry. We've slept together several times."
Okay. Perhaps "slept together" didn't have a sexual connotation for rich people. Either way, mental images sprung up, and I found myself glowing red with anger. Did that jerk really have to place himself on a throne by rubbing me in the dirt over and over again?! My hands balled up into fists as I began shouting brashly, "I've only slept with you once at your house!"
Sasuke smirked and shifted behind me, grabbing my shoulders and pressing his warm chest against my back, and I was then fully aware of how much taller he was compared to me. "And I'm sure you enjoyed that one night tremendously." I could feel his heartbeat against my own.
"Bastard! All I did was sleep with you!" I yelled. Judging by the alarming shade of pink on Miss Hinata's face, it seemed I needed to clarify my choice of words. Sasuke was going to do nothing but take advantage of the situation. So I turned to her, waving my hands frantically in defense. "Nothing happened between us! We just slept in the same room!"
"In the same bed..." Sasuke added, wrapping his hands around my waist and pressing our hips together.
Instinctively, I tore myself from the Uchiha's arms and spun around to yell at him again. "What the hell is your problem?! Don't you have any decency?! Your wife is right here in front of you!" It sounded a bit ironic for someone like me to be talking about decency.
"I-it's all right, N-Naruto... Uchiha sleeps with l-lots of people--"
"No! It's not all right!" I said, my eyes glued to the Uchiha in front of me. "She's your wife! You're supposed to be bound to her and only her! You're always acting like you're so cool, you bastard! You're just a jerk who doesn't care about anyone but yourself!" My fists tightened and my knuckles grew white. My eyebrows furrowed and my bottom lip quivered. "You have no feelings, do you?!"
Sasuke glared at me-- a glare that would have scared the panties off me had I not been one gallant and handsome protagonist Uzumaki Naruto. The entire room seemed to hang heavy and dark from the Uchiha's anger, but I would never let that scare me. Not ever! Sasuke was being way too selfish and inconsiderate of Hinata's feelings. And Hinata was such a nice person!
"...Sorry."
Yeah, you'd better be sorry, you bastard--
Wait.
...What?
"What's with that stupid look, you idiot? I said I'm sorry."
"...Um."
I should have been offended by the insult, should have ground my teeth together and pounded that stuck-up loser's face in, but all my anger at him washed away with the spilling of those words from his lips. This was not the Sasuke I barely knew and utterly despised! It couldn't be the same man, for no one could possibly have a third dimension to their personality!
I searched my mind for the word-- flabbergasted. Utterly flabbergasted, I opened my mouth an inch to speak, then closed it, then opened it again-- like opening and closing a duck's bill. And after looking like I had to vomit for another few moments, the only thing I could quack out was, "If you're really sorry, you'll stop..." I paused. "... Okay?" Dammit, I didn't have anything to say! That asshole!
"Hn," Sasuke answered. Arrogant bastard. "Whatever. You'll still sleep in my room. You don't want Neji watching you at gunpoint because he suspects you're hitting on my dearest wife." And with that, he turned on his heel and said, "I'm going to bed," softly closing the door behind him and his billowing coattails.
For a long moment, I stood gaping dumbly at the door.
Did that...
Did he just...
That...
That Uchiha really pissed me off!
When I woke up the next morning, I rolled to find an empty half of the bed beside me. Absentmindedly, I wondered why it seemed so natural to sleep in the same bed as Sasuke as compared to the time the warden allowed (forced) prisoners to share prison cells in the castle. I sighed as I threw my legs over the side of the bed and scratched my armpits good morning.
"Good morning," I muttered to no one in particular (or just my armpits), a habit I picked up while I was at the castle.
Still rubbing at my tired eyes and smacking my lips together, I made my way out of the room and into the bedroom hall, my bare feet dragging themselves along the cold tiled floor. It must have been close to an hour that I wandered through the house before finally, turning the corner, I walked head first into the tuxedoed chest of a man perhaps one head taller than myself. "Ow!" I shouted, though it really didn't hurt as much as I let on. My head was a piece of stone, after all. I was more concerned about the wellbeing of the man I ran into.
Lifting my head, a pair of pale marble eyes looked down at me, and dark oily locks seemed to reach towards me like hands from the back of this man's head. His face was like a mirror, a cruel pasty-faced mirror that reflected and penetrated me like a knife through a wispy ghost left alone in a haunted mansion. A metaphor I cannot even explain.
Then, with the same penetrating knife of a voice, this man asked me, "Who in hell are you? What are you doing here?"
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto," I replied confidently. "Miss Hinata is letting me stay here." I squinted in seriousness and stood strongly to meet the man's face. "Who are you?"
The long-haired main frowned at my absolutely intimidating posture and replied, "I am Hyuuga Neji." Oh shit. "Mrs. Hinata's cousin and owner of this residence." Oops. "Are you the piece of trash the Uchiha brought here from the castle?"
I snorted angrily, trying my best not to make a total fool of myself. I failed. "And if I am?" Brilliant, Naruto. Never denying your own idiocy. Maybe I should have said something more defensive and honorable. That seemed like something the real Naruto would do. Oh well. I'm not a stuck-up loser like Sasuke or Neji.
Neji smirked, suddenly reminding me of Sasuke. Dammit, why did all these rich people find me so goddamn amusing?! Of course, when Neji smirked, he gave off a sort of freakish murderous glow from his pale white eyes, which was hypnotizing in its own creepy way. Where Sasuke's eyes were a void of blackness you could fall into forever, Neji's were a porcelain wall that deflected you in every goddamn way possible.
Why was I comparing everything to Sasuke all of a sudden?
"If you're trying to separate Sasuke and Hinata, you should stop trying."
"Eh?"
"Even if you succeed, you're nothing to either of them. You're nothing but a loser. That's how you were born. That's how you'll stay."
"Hey! Don't call me a loser!" I growled.
Neji chuckled cruelly, backing away from me with a superior expression. "You're a fool."
"And don't call me that either!"
"I can't help it if you are one." As I began seeing red, I pulled my fist back behind me, carefully aiming for the area right between those two white planes of ice he called eyes.
And then a feminine voice interrupted.
"Neji!" she said, her dainty feet tapping from running across the vast hallway. "P-please be nice to Naruto! He is a guest!" Judging by the constant stuttering, it was Miss Hinata who had come to my rescue, her pale face muddled with worry as she fretfully held her hands to her chest and her knees together in a show of feminine politeness.
Neji whipped his head around to regard his cousin in a distasteful contempt-- similar to what I had seen Sasuke radiate against his brother. And there I go with the Sasuke references again. Both Hinata and I waited for some sort of a reaction from the man. After a moment of staring at the girl, Neji planted a scowl on his face and turned away, strutting off to leave Hinata and me in the hallway.
Instinctively, I stuck my tongue out at his retreating figure, and, regrettably, before he was out of earshot, said proudly, "What a jerk!" Hinata's eyes widened for a moment as she looked past me at the taller man. "He acts like he owns the place!" Hinata started shaking her head no. "Well, he does own the place..." Hinata frantically waved her arms in front of her for me to stop. "But what a jerk!"
And then Neji was by my side again, giving off an angry aura that'd set a kitten's tail on fire.
"What did you call me?" he asked, challenging me.
Well, if I was going to be an idiot... "I called you a jerk! I mean, who gives random lectures to people he doesn't even know?!"
Neji puffed up in anger. "Well, you're quite the smart-mouthed idiot, aren't you?"
"Hmph! Well, how can I be an idiot if my mouth is smart?"
In my peripheral vision, I could see Hinata hold a hand to her mouth and giggle slightly. This encouraged me somewhat, though I don't know how. Maybe I was doomed to the lonely life as a jester, feeding only off others' laughter, as dog-boy once said to me. Someone who cannot receive acknowledgement for anything other than being a fool. Unfortunately, Neji didn't seem to be enjoying my wisecracks, for he was snarling at me about ready to wring my little neck till the bones cracked beneath his fingers.
"N-Naruto, you must be hungry. Would y-you like breakfast?"
My eyes flickered open in surprise as my hand moved down to gently pat my stomach, which was flat as a pine wood table. "Ah-- yes, please! I'm starved!" I replied cheerfully.
Hinata shyly smiled back and took the sides of her skirt into her fingers. "Th-then please follow me. Uchiha is waiting for you in the dining room." Grinning, I put my hands behind my head and followed after her.
"We're going to eat breakfast in the dining room, huh?" I chattered. "Back at the castle, we'd just eat whatever bread they threw at us in the morning. This is going to be exciting! Thank you so much for letting me stay here, Miss Hinata!"
Hinata blushed. "I-I'm glad to be of help. It must h-have been difficult to live at the c-castle for so long..."
Naruto laughed nervously. "Well, I don't really know how long I've been there... I can't remember anything past two weeks ago! But this place is amazing! Did you get all this money from inheritance? I know I could never make this much money if I tried!"
"Since they inherited the Hyuuga business as well as the fortune, it's a combination of inheritance of their own work."
"Eh? Miss Hinata? Your voice got lower."
"That was me, you idiot."
And as Hinata stepped aside, I reached the end of the hallway and walked into a magnificent dining hall large enough for a cathedral. On the table was satiny fabric tablecloth rimmed with a glittering gold. On the walls hung dozens of paintings and portraits that seemed to gaze down upon me like huntsmen. A massive crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling and light glimmered brightly throughout the entire room like rays of light from heaven.
And at the third seat from the end of the table on the right side was Uchiha Sasuke, casually resting his chin on his hand and his elbow on the table, looking straight at me. Wasn't that supposed to be bad manners?
Unconsciously, my mouth formed the word "wow" as I looked up and down the long table and ignored the stare of the Uchiha in front of me. It was then a dreadful question struck me. Where the hell was I supposed to sit? I helplessly looked to Hinata to see if she would direct me any further, but she had already left my side and apparently gone to help in the kitchen.
So it was just Sasuke and me.
"Are you going to sit down or do I have to carry you?"
"Hmph!"
And so I stood in place with Sasuke practically ogling me for another three minutes or so. I-- looking around for any sign of Hinata returning. Even Neji could've come in right now to relieve me of torture. But no one came. I just stood there like a complete moron until--
"Uh..." I started, fiddling with the edge of my pajama shirt and looking around helplessly, "Wh-where..."
Sasuke raised a fine eyebrow, urging me to continue.
My face burned with embarrassment. "Where do I... uh... sit?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper as I lifted my head to give a nervous glare at the Uchiha.
SORRY FOR MAKING ALL MY REVIEWERS WAIT SO LONG! You guys do not know how important it is to me to receive your reviews. It's what keeps me alive, lovers. So keep reviewing and I'll continue because it is my ninja way!!
Genre: AU, romance, ummm is gayness a genre?
Pairings: SasuNaru and some other weird ones
Warnings: weirdness
This chapter is a bit longer than the others because I never found a good cutoff point. Not that my cutoff now is too good or anything, but it's manageable.
"Come on, Naruto, we're leaving," he said firmly, his eyes cold like a poor child in shorts sitting out in the freezing snow, a child waiting hopelessly for his late father to return from a war. Sasuke grumbled as he shot a glance over his shoulder at his taller older brother, "We're not needed here."
Hastily, he grabbed his long brown coat in his hand and instantly ripped the door open with a force that left me feeling relieved I had not foolishly stepped in the door's way. Sasuke paused for a moment, allowing me to retrieve the heavy forest green coat and hat and walk through he door ahead of him. Almost instantaneously, the door was slammed shut behind me. The dead old lamp above the door clattered and rattled the frozen dew like a wind chime.
It was very cold this morning. There was an icy wind blowing as one could only hold their coat tightly to it. But I was used to the cold from the prison of the castle. Looking over at Sasuke, it seemed he was used to sitting beside a warm fireplace tightly hugging a mug of le chocolat chaud to his lips at treacherous times like these.
The Uchiha nervously looked side to side as though totally and completely lost and abandoned. Taking the lead, he sped his way across the front yard and towards the steps which led to the main road, his fine black shoes tapping loudly upon the conglomerate walkway with every pace.
I had no idea why we were out here-- I had simply been awaken from my slumber and told to dress immediately. I'm assuming Uchiha had had some sort of quarrel with his brother and had been forced to leave. Rich people were truly strange at times, I thought. Why would anyone leave such a place?
"What..." I began quietly, gathering obnoxious courage, "was that about?"
Sasuke scoffed angrily, heavily plopping his rump upon the marble step and looking away.
"...Nothing."
"What do you mean 'nothing'?" I retorted. "You have just stormed out of what I think is the biggest and most comfortable house I've ever been in-- and dragged me along, too!!"
"If you think that way, then you can go back inside," Sasuke snapped back, his intense glare always towards the road in front of him instead of me. I wished I had never seen Sasuke like this.
"No! I won't!" I said. "Because that would be deserting you!"
"Well, it's not like everyone else hasn't deserted me already!"
His voice cracked severely on the last word.
"First my parents, then my colleagues, my servants, then my own brother-- everyone!!"
"I'm not everyone-- I'm not anyone, apparently!"
"...Wh--" Sasuke took in a deep breath, and then spoke slowly and painfully clearly. "...Why are you still here?" he said.
I held my tongue then, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
"Is it because you have nowhere else to go? My brother would gladly take you into his home. He loves you." His voice grew in blossoming insanity. "Or maybe you just feel pity for me, and you would feel guilty if you left?"
I made a face at that. "Hmph!" Pity him? I plopped myself right next to him on the step, my legs stretched out in front of me. Sasuke turned to me, and I got to see an expression of raw emotion strike his once perfect mask. "I don't pity you. You're living a blessed life, so there's nothing to pity."
The Uchiha had expected me to pity him and sympathize, and he probably wanted that pity.
That was all he ever knew in kindness.
"I'm just following you around because that's what I've always been doing-- ever since I got out of the castle. And because I have nowhere else to go. And don't even mention your brother--" I shook my head in an affirmative action. "I'm speaking of people who won't rape me in my sleep..."
Sasuke was staring at me. I became nervous. Please, I thought, any reaction would be fine. Nothing was worse than the silence I was receiving at that moment.
"As in... without my permission..." I continued hesitantly, gesturing with my hands. My previously squinted eyes slowly cracked themselves open. I blinked confusedly at the Uchiha. I believe I must have taken on the stupidest face possible. Why wasn't he reacting--
And then Sasuke smiled, leaning in until his gentle lips were brushing my earlobe. His voice was low and husky.
"Does that mean I have your permission, Naruto...?"
Maybe he simply enjoyed making fun of my blatant virgin soul.
"Why in hell did I decide to follow you?"
"Because you're a complete idiot."
"Bastard," I said.
"Dumbass," he replied.
It had grown only grown colder as we wandered around the cobblestone walkways of town, and Sasuke still refused to reveal his destination-- if he even had one. I had not decided to question him because I wanted to be surprised! It was always fun to play a little game with life in its dreariest times! And so we marched as though making our way through a treacherous blizzard, the cloudy sky only discouraging our morale and wetting the soles of our shoes with light drizzling rain.
I think I stepped on a slug.
That was it. I was not going to wander in the dark any longer! "Sasuke, where the hell are we going?!" I demanded, sounding a little less pleased than I intended to. Not that I cared with Mr. High and Mighty beside me.
At this point, it began to rain harder, and Sasuke's hatless head was drenched with now water, dark ebony locks plastered to his face, making him look more pathetic than before. He seemed to be battling an answer in his head, and when he was finally able to reply, his voice was almost nonexistent.
"...I don't know where," he muttered, his breath drowned out by the pitter patter of rain around us.
Meanwhile, we continued to wander around town with no apparent destination on our mind. It was strange because, having known myself, I probably would have been putting up much more of a fight against being lost, but, in this case, I felt absolutely mellow. I didn't care where the road of life would take me.
Remember those memories of a peaceful peasant life? I couldn't remember them any longer. It was as though I was slowly waking from a dream.
There was red.
Fire.
And a raging monster throwing its head back and screaming to the sky, bloody wine dripping from its lips, running a stream from its grim crooked teeth. More screams, wails, cries, explosions, alarms, and a rumbling through my appendix as a tight iron trap closed upon my heel-- lightly at first, then tighter, tighter, tighter, tighter... Was it about to crack? And then I realized the blood was my own and the wails were from the monster as I was the monster and the monster was I, and Armageddon closed in slowly upon us in one swift blow...
And then I heard the ringing of a bell.
"Sell your soul!" called a weighty man from behind a beaten counter, his one hand waving a bell high in the air. "Sell your soul to the devil!" he said. "Any wish you might want-- consider it granted! Sell your soul to the devil!"
Maybe I should have noticed the puppet strings connected to the back of the man's head.
Sasuke rolled his eyes, sauntering casually over to the rundown man in his rundown stand. "How long have you been here?" he asked the dirtied male.
"Since time began, my lord," the man replied quickly.
Get out of there.
I whipped my head around to look behind me. My vision wobbled for a moment before Sasuke asked what the hell I was looking at. Looking angrily back at him, I yelled, "I thought I heard someone, okay?" Sasuke grunted in response.
"Sell you soul to the devil?" interrupted the old man, holding the bell as though it was all the power in the world. "No refunds, I'm afraid," he said, his eyes curving into barely visible half-moons and flashing with the essence that seemed to pull like the puppet strings.
"No," Sasuke replied.
"I'd like to try, sir!" I said.
"You idiot," the Uchiha hissed. "He's probably just trying to steal your money."
"One wish, please!"
I grinned as I slammed my fist upon the counter in confirmation. I stuck my tongue out at Sasuke. That Uchiha really needed to brighten up. It was just a little soul-selling stand! Honestly! It really sparked my curiosity.
The fleshy man smiled back at me, his eyes crinkled in delightful mirth.
"I'm sorry, good sir, but I'm afraid I cannot do you business." He spoke in a low baritone.
I blinked. "...Why not?"
A crooked grin. A misplaced jaw. His pale pupils regarded me joyfully. My vision blurred for a moment and I felt like I was being flung backwards. My feet stayed rooted to the ground, and it was as though I had no control over any part of me.
"I'm afraid you do not have a soul," said the old man.
The hell? "Of course I have a soul!" I yelled back. "How could I be standing here if I didn't have a soul?!"
"I do not know," he said ominously, never once letting the smile fade from his face, "but I am one hundred percent sure that your body is not running on a soul."
"How would you know?!"
"It says right here in my records..."
Then from under the counter, the meaty man pulled a large dusty book which glowed at the edges with an unsettling aura of unpleasant nastiness. And then, by some sort of black magic, he flipped his wrist and opened the book to--
"Page 8031. You've already sold your soul once, I'm afraid."
Sasuke's eyes widened. "How did you do that?"
"Do what, my lord?" said the man.
"Open the book without using your hands?"
"Of course I used my hands, my lord. You saw it yourself."
"I mean-- without touching the book?" Something told me I should have been questioning that as well, but I could only stay rooted to the spot, asking questions I knew I wouldn't receive an answer to.
"I'm afraid I do not know what you're talking about." And then the man turned back to the book, his plump features mocking me in every possible way. He traced a finger down the page and stopped on the only visible name on the page. "January first, six years ago-- Kyuubi no Youko."
Tighter, and tighter, and tighter. Make it stop, please, God, let it end.
Sasuke lifted an eyebrow and looked questioningly at me. "Kyuubi no Youko?"
I quickly shook my head. "...And old nickname. It's nothing."
"...So you don't remember."
"So you've come here before, then."
"Yes."
"Didn't they wipe your memory clear?"
"No. I still remember everything."
"Uchiha, could you please take me to the castle?"
"What for?"
And suddenly, he was behind me. He was inside me. He was speaking to me, through me. His breath hissing across my ears without actually being there, and Sasuke didn't seem to notice at all. No one else could hear it but me. And as I alone asked him the question to which I desired the answer, he could only admonish me coldly.
"Don't try to remember."
"And so Gaara wasn't there, and he escaped or something and everyone was freaked out-- I don't know why they were freaked out. I mean, he... wasn't scary at all! Then we were wandering around for a while and then I finally reminded Sasuke-bastard here that he was supposed to meet with his wife today!! So he led us here and-- Gee, it was really nice of you to let us in, Miss Hinata!!"
"She's married to me, you moron. It's Mrs.."
"But Miss Hinata is cuter!"
My peripheral vision caught a dash of red on the woman's cheeks when she heard me say that. "S-so that's what happened..." said the gentle mistress as she hid her face behind a cup of tea. Politely, she sipped at the tea, afraid to put the thing down and reveal her pale features to anyone.
Let me rewind the story a little bit.
"I thought no one was supposed to escape from the castle!"
"Well, obviously, they keep the lunatics imprisoned for a reason, but this is Gaara of the Desert we're talking about, so it's all around possible."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow, bending over the table and glaring the secretary in the eye. "And no one is out to stop him? This is Gaara of the Desert we're talking about, isn't it? Slaughtered a hundred million people--"
"Are there even that many people in this country?"
"Said it was because he was hungry--"
"He's not a goddamn cannibal."
The front deskman, a feminine-looking man with the complexion of a dirtied old dishrag, who was casually twirling the feathered pen between his fingers, rolled his eyes tiredly, thrusting his arm and pointing his finger towards the exit of the castle. "You can go out there and look for him. He disappeared just this morning. He can't have gotten far."
"Excuse me, sir. This is Gaara of the Desert we're talking about."
"Oh. Right," the man said (as though he had just remembered his own name). "Well, if you were wanting to visit him, you're too late. He's gone. But you could always wait for him to kill someone and look for him that way."
I threw my hands up in the air and growled loudly in exasperation. "Thanks, anyway," Sasuke muttered, turning to leave. I shot one last glare at the dried up front deskman and followed him. The Uchiha was already holding the door open for me. As I walked through the exit, subconsciously aware of the Uchiha's eyes on me, I suddenly thought of something.
"Hey, Sasuke. Aren't we supposed to be meeting your wife?"
Sasuke's face blanketed over with an unreadable expression.
"Shit." I guess he might have done well to remember that before he ran away from home.
"Where were you supposed to meet her?" I asked, pulling my hat over my head as I walked into the drizzling rain.
My shoes splashed rainwater about my clothes as I gloomily held my trousers up with my calloused hands. I squinted to prevent the raindrops from dripping into my eyes.
Sasuke sighed heavily, walking beside me, resting his head on my left shoulder and wrapping his arm around my waist. I found myself blushing from the pleasant warmth radiating from the other boy.
"The plan was for her to come to my house. She probably went home after she couldn't find me."
I groaned. "Where should we go now?"
Sasuke hugged me closer.
"Hey, hey-- Let's go to a pub or something."
Sasuke's eyes lifted curiously to regard my face. "Are you old enough to drink?"
"No..."
Sasuke glared at me. "Moron."
"Bastard..."
There was a short silence after that.
Suddenly, I found myself stretching my arms above my head and yawning, the sleeves of my massive coat slinking down to expose my arms. Sasuke stepped away as I did this. At that moment, the rain decided to pour down in heavy sheets of water, and I was instantly soaked down my arms and lower.
"She lives a couple miles from here, if you're still interested in meeting her."
"Huh? Who?"
"...Idiot."
Hinata-- a weird girl. I definitely wouldn't have guessed she was Sasuke's wife had I just seen her walking down the street. She was much too nice for a bastard like Sasuke. Miss Hinata seemed so shy when she opened the door to greet us and as she sat in front of us now. Most people rich enough for servants would never answer the door themselves. And yet Miss Hinata humbly let us inside her mansion (which was decidedly even more grand than the Uchiha's domain), and she even invited us to live with her.
"W-we have plenty of g-guest rooms..." she stuttered, gesturing towards a hallway that seemed to go on to heaven and forever. Identical doors paired off all the way down as well. My jaw dropped and hung open on a broken hinge.
Sasuke interrupted his wife. "It's all right. Naruto and I will sleep in the same bedroom."
I tried to protest. "Wha--"
"I don't think your cousin would want an ex-prisoner like Naruto in one of his beds."
"Wha--?!"
Hinata tried to protest, too. "B-but I'm sure he'd be all right with it if I-I just ask--"
"I don't want you troubling yourself like that, Hinata. And you know as well as I do that Neji will do his best to make Naruto's stay here absolutely miserable if he hears of you defending someone from the castle. He'll think Naruto's trying to court you for your money, won't he?"
"N-no, not at all-- I'm worried if N-Naruto will be fine sharing a room with you?"
"No need to worry. We've slept together several times."
Okay. Perhaps "slept together" didn't have a sexual connotation for rich people. Either way, mental images sprung up, and I found myself glowing red with anger. Did that jerk really have to place himself on a throne by rubbing me in the dirt over and over again?! My hands balled up into fists as I began shouting brashly, "I've only slept with you once at your house!"
Sasuke smirked and shifted behind me, grabbing my shoulders and pressing his warm chest against my back, and I was then fully aware of how much taller he was compared to me. "And I'm sure you enjoyed that one night tremendously." I could feel his heartbeat against my own.
"Bastard! All I did was sleep with you!" I yelled. Judging by the alarming shade of pink on Miss Hinata's face, it seemed I needed to clarify my choice of words. Sasuke was going to do nothing but take advantage of the situation. So I turned to her, waving my hands frantically in defense. "Nothing happened between us! We just slept in the same room!"
"In the same bed..." Sasuke added, wrapping his hands around my waist and pressing our hips together.
Instinctively, I tore myself from the Uchiha's arms and spun around to yell at him again. "What the hell is your problem?! Don't you have any decency?! Your wife is right here in front of you!" It sounded a bit ironic for someone like me to be talking about decency.
"I-it's all right, N-Naruto... Uchiha sleeps with l-lots of people--"
"No! It's not all right!" I said, my eyes glued to the Uchiha in front of me. "She's your wife! You're supposed to be bound to her and only her! You're always acting like you're so cool, you bastard! You're just a jerk who doesn't care about anyone but yourself!" My fists tightened and my knuckles grew white. My eyebrows furrowed and my bottom lip quivered. "You have no feelings, do you?!"
Sasuke glared at me-- a glare that would have scared the panties off me had I not been one gallant and handsome protagonist Uzumaki Naruto. The entire room seemed to hang heavy and dark from the Uchiha's anger, but I would never let that scare me. Not ever! Sasuke was being way too selfish and inconsiderate of Hinata's feelings. And Hinata was such a nice person!
"...Sorry."
Yeah, you'd better be sorry, you bastard--
Wait.
...What?
"What's with that stupid look, you idiot? I said I'm sorry."
"...Um."
I should have been offended by the insult, should have ground my teeth together and pounded that stuck-up loser's face in, but all my anger at him washed away with the spilling of those words from his lips. This was not the Sasuke I barely knew and utterly despised! It couldn't be the same man, for no one could possibly have a third dimension to their personality!
I searched my mind for the word-- flabbergasted. Utterly flabbergasted, I opened my mouth an inch to speak, then closed it, then opened it again-- like opening and closing a duck's bill. And after looking like I had to vomit for another few moments, the only thing I could quack out was, "If you're really sorry, you'll stop..." I paused. "... Okay?" Dammit, I didn't have anything to say! That asshole!
"Hn," Sasuke answered. Arrogant bastard. "Whatever. You'll still sleep in my room. You don't want Neji watching you at gunpoint because he suspects you're hitting on my dearest wife." And with that, he turned on his heel and said, "I'm going to bed," softly closing the door behind him and his billowing coattails.
For a long moment, I stood gaping dumbly at the door.
Did that...
Did he just...
That...
That Uchiha really pissed me off!
When I woke up the next morning, I rolled to find an empty half of the bed beside me. Absentmindedly, I wondered why it seemed so natural to sleep in the same bed as Sasuke as compared to the time the warden allowed (forced) prisoners to share prison cells in the castle. I sighed as I threw my legs over the side of the bed and scratched my armpits good morning.
"Good morning," I muttered to no one in particular (or just my armpits), a habit I picked up while I was at the castle.
Still rubbing at my tired eyes and smacking my lips together, I made my way out of the room and into the bedroom hall, my bare feet dragging themselves along the cold tiled floor. It must have been close to an hour that I wandered through the house before finally, turning the corner, I walked head first into the tuxedoed chest of a man perhaps one head taller than myself. "Ow!" I shouted, though it really didn't hurt as much as I let on. My head was a piece of stone, after all. I was more concerned about the wellbeing of the man I ran into.
Lifting my head, a pair of pale marble eyes looked down at me, and dark oily locks seemed to reach towards me like hands from the back of this man's head. His face was like a mirror, a cruel pasty-faced mirror that reflected and penetrated me like a knife through a wispy ghost left alone in a haunted mansion. A metaphor I cannot even explain.
Then, with the same penetrating knife of a voice, this man asked me, "Who in hell are you? What are you doing here?"
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto," I replied confidently. "Miss Hinata is letting me stay here." I squinted in seriousness and stood strongly to meet the man's face. "Who are you?"
The long-haired main frowned at my absolutely intimidating posture and replied, "I am Hyuuga Neji." Oh shit. "Mrs. Hinata's cousin and owner of this residence." Oops. "Are you the piece of trash the Uchiha brought here from the castle?"
I snorted angrily, trying my best not to make a total fool of myself. I failed. "And if I am?" Brilliant, Naruto. Never denying your own idiocy. Maybe I should have said something more defensive and honorable. That seemed like something the real Naruto would do. Oh well. I'm not a stuck-up loser like Sasuke or Neji.
Neji smirked, suddenly reminding me of Sasuke. Dammit, why did all these rich people find me so goddamn amusing?! Of course, when Neji smirked, he gave off a sort of freakish murderous glow from his pale white eyes, which was hypnotizing in its own creepy way. Where Sasuke's eyes were a void of blackness you could fall into forever, Neji's were a porcelain wall that deflected you in every goddamn way possible.
Why was I comparing everything to Sasuke all of a sudden?
"If you're trying to separate Sasuke and Hinata, you should stop trying."
"Eh?"
"Even if you succeed, you're nothing to either of them. You're nothing but a loser. That's how you were born. That's how you'll stay."
"Hey! Don't call me a loser!" I growled.
Neji chuckled cruelly, backing away from me with a superior expression. "You're a fool."
"And don't call me that either!"
"I can't help it if you are one." As I began seeing red, I pulled my fist back behind me, carefully aiming for the area right between those two white planes of ice he called eyes.
And then a feminine voice interrupted.
"Neji!" she said, her dainty feet tapping from running across the vast hallway. "P-please be nice to Naruto! He is a guest!" Judging by the constant stuttering, it was Miss Hinata who had come to my rescue, her pale face muddled with worry as she fretfully held her hands to her chest and her knees together in a show of feminine politeness.
Neji whipped his head around to regard his cousin in a distasteful contempt-- similar to what I had seen Sasuke radiate against his brother. And there I go with the Sasuke references again. Both Hinata and I waited for some sort of a reaction from the man. After a moment of staring at the girl, Neji planted a scowl on his face and turned away, strutting off to leave Hinata and me in the hallway.
Instinctively, I stuck my tongue out at his retreating figure, and, regrettably, before he was out of earshot, said proudly, "What a jerk!" Hinata's eyes widened for a moment as she looked past me at the taller man. "He acts like he owns the place!" Hinata started shaking her head no. "Well, he does own the place..." Hinata frantically waved her arms in front of her for me to stop. "But what a jerk!"
And then Neji was by my side again, giving off an angry aura that'd set a kitten's tail on fire.
"What did you call me?" he asked, challenging me.
Well, if I was going to be an idiot... "I called you a jerk! I mean, who gives random lectures to people he doesn't even know?!"
Neji puffed up in anger. "Well, you're quite the smart-mouthed idiot, aren't you?"
"Hmph! Well, how can I be an idiot if my mouth is smart?"
In my peripheral vision, I could see Hinata hold a hand to her mouth and giggle slightly. This encouraged me somewhat, though I don't know how. Maybe I was doomed to the lonely life as a jester, feeding only off others' laughter, as dog-boy once said to me. Someone who cannot receive acknowledgement for anything other than being a fool. Unfortunately, Neji didn't seem to be enjoying my wisecracks, for he was snarling at me about ready to wring my little neck till the bones cracked beneath his fingers.
"N-Naruto, you must be hungry. Would y-you like breakfast?"
My eyes flickered open in surprise as my hand moved down to gently pat my stomach, which was flat as a pine wood table. "Ah-- yes, please! I'm starved!" I replied cheerfully.
Hinata shyly smiled back and took the sides of her skirt into her fingers. "Th-then please follow me. Uchiha is waiting for you in the dining room." Grinning, I put my hands behind my head and followed after her.
"We're going to eat breakfast in the dining room, huh?" I chattered. "Back at the castle, we'd just eat whatever bread they threw at us in the morning. This is going to be exciting! Thank you so much for letting me stay here, Miss Hinata!"
Hinata blushed. "I-I'm glad to be of help. It must h-have been difficult to live at the c-castle for so long..."
Naruto laughed nervously. "Well, I don't really know how long I've been there... I can't remember anything past two weeks ago! But this place is amazing! Did you get all this money from inheritance? I know I could never make this much money if I tried!"
"Since they inherited the Hyuuga business as well as the fortune, it's a combination of inheritance of their own work."
"Eh? Miss Hinata? Your voice got lower."
"That was me, you idiot."
And as Hinata stepped aside, I reached the end of the hallway and walked into a magnificent dining hall large enough for a cathedral. On the table was satiny fabric tablecloth rimmed with a glittering gold. On the walls hung dozens of paintings and portraits that seemed to gaze down upon me like huntsmen. A massive crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling and light glimmered brightly throughout the entire room like rays of light from heaven.
And at the third seat from the end of the table on the right side was Uchiha Sasuke, casually resting his chin on his hand and his elbow on the table, looking straight at me. Wasn't that supposed to be bad manners?
Unconsciously, my mouth formed the word "wow" as I looked up and down the long table and ignored the stare of the Uchiha in front of me. It was then a dreadful question struck me. Where the hell was I supposed to sit? I helplessly looked to Hinata to see if she would direct me any further, but she had already left my side and apparently gone to help in the kitchen.
So it was just Sasuke and me.
"Are you going to sit down or do I have to carry you?"
"Hmph!"
And so I stood in place with Sasuke practically ogling me for another three minutes or so. I-- looking around for any sign of Hinata returning. Even Neji could've come in right now to relieve me of torture. But no one came. I just stood there like a complete moron until--
"Uh..." I started, fiddling with the edge of my pajama shirt and looking around helplessly, "Wh-where..."
Sasuke raised a fine eyebrow, urging me to continue.
My face burned with embarrassment. "Where do I... uh... sit?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper as I lifted my head to give a nervous glare at the Uchiha.
SORRY FOR MAKING ALL MY REVIEWERS WAIT SO LONG! You guys do not know how important it is to me to receive your reviews. It's what keeps me alive, lovers. So keep reviewing and I'll continue because it is my ninja way!!