Author's Note: Yo! How's life? Thanksgiving was nice, my eldest sister's family came over and there was much food and anime and DDR and cut-throat (I lost). Anyway, new chapter for you all, and then some! Don't expect updates to be this quick all the time, though. And chapters probably won't always be this long. -sweat- School hasn't been very busy lately, but finals are coming up soon, so time is going to be scarce for me. After that, though, I'll have winter break and updates should speed up again. In the mean time, enjoy!

Oh, and by the way, I feel compelled to tell you all, since it seems to be a common misconception... this is not a crossover. Keiichi and Belldandy will not be making any cameos in this fic, just their storyline.

Reviewer Replies: THANK YOU to everyone who has read and reviewed! All the positive feedback I got for the first chapter was wonderful! -hugs everybody-

And thanks to the new reply feature, I can reply to questions and whatnot individually outside chapters! So I also want to thank the ff admin for being so helpful and convenience-oriented.

Warnings: Shounen-ai, profanity, mild violence, and probably some plot holes... so far.

Summary, Pairings, and Disclaimer: See first chapter, 'cause I'm lazy and won't put 'em in again unless I have something new to add to them.

Ch. 2 : Your Stupid Wish

"And what's that supposed to mean? Other than that you just totalled me and my brother's dorm room!" Sasuke was on the verge of not only pulling his hair out, but pulling Naruto's out too, punching him in the face, and hurling him out the nearest window while he was at it.

"It means I'm bound to you by contract for the rest of my life! My whole stupid life!"

"What kind of contract? I never signed anything!"

"You signed it orally when you made your wish," Naruto suddenly turned to the Uchiha with a sort of bitterness on his face, as if the other boy had just committed some unspeakable crime against him. "And it's irrevocable, there's no way to undo it."

For a moment, Sasuke was taken aback by the resentment in the suddenly darkened blue eyes of the young deity. He couldn't even remember a time when someone had accosted him with such a look. Even Itachi only glared at him blankly when he was angry, or gazed at him like he was some pitiful, dirty animal. I don't believe I'm hearing this... can't we just go our separate ways and be done with it? Pretend this whole thing never happened? I mean, it's not like there's really any contract, right? He's not a god, just a stupid brat with fancy tricks!

"No, mister fix-it, we can't just split up! The contract is held up by the System Force, which'll manipulate every circumstance of your life that threatens to come between us," Naruto explained exasperatedly. "If I try to go back to heaven, the gate will be locked. If you drop me off at the train station, the train won't come. If you try to drop me off the side of some road, your car will break down before you go ten meters," the blond's voice rose with each sentence, until finally he was yelling. "And it's all because of your stupid wish!"

A fist suddenly connected to his whiskered cheek. The powerful hit threw Naruto stumbling backwards, and for a moment he was disoriented, barely able to hear the other boy's words.

"Liar! Shut the hell up!" Sasuke yelled back. "Like I'm going to let some idiot kid in a dress that I don't even know tell me how to live my life! Let's just see how powerful your 'System Force' is!" He turned and began taking stormy steps toward the door of the disastrous-looking room, only to be stopped thoroughly in his tracks by a fist to the side of his own face, courtesy of a small, tanned hand.

"So what, you'll just let your brother tell you how to live it?" Naruto yelled, standing directly in front of Sasuke so that it was immediately obvious how much taller the latter was than the former. The Uchiha's glare immediately turned to one of pure hatred and his scowl transformed into an almost feral expression only describable as a snarl. "Wake up, Uchiha! This isn't all about you and wrecking your life!"

"Shut up! You don't know what the fuck you're talking about, so don't you ever say anything about my brother and I again!" A right hook, dead on.

"Fuck you! I can only read your mind, after all!" And with incredible ferocity and unexpected strength, Naruto launched himself at Sasuke with intent to kill or at least seriously injure.

With one well-placed sweep of his foot and a well-timed jerk of the shoulders, the Uchiha was on his way to the ground, the blue-eyed boy following suit. He landed painfully, half-way on his side and lying on top of something that definitely wasn't carpet.

Maybe that third textbook, he wondered somewhere in the back of his mind before being abruptly jerked back to reality by a harsh elbow to the ribs. Naruto was shouting something unintelligible at him that probably involved curse words, but Sasuke didn't care. They scuffled around on the floor for a minute or so before the blond managed to get him on his back, his waist firmly trapped beneath the smaller boy. He vaguely noticed that the white satin part of the dress had been torn, revealing more of the blue fabric underneath it.

Hooking one of the blond's legs within his own, while at the same time blocking a few hits to his face and taking a few others and giving a few others back, he simultaneously bucked his hips upward and grabbed the arm holding his opponent up, jerking it out from under him and taking the opportunity to slam Naruto into the ground next to him, rolling with him so that their original positions were reversed. Still gripping the one small, braceleted wrist, he pulled back his free fist and prepared to slam it into the other boy's still-shocked face.

"Sasuke!"

At the sound of his elder brother's voice from the door behind him, however, the young Uchiha froze solid, eyes wide and the only thought running through his brain being that the whole scene must look very, very incriminating. The punch he'd been about to throw didn't matter anymore; how much terror was evident on his face was inconsequential; he didn't even care about the boy beneath him whose blue eyes were suddenly filled with a hint of sympathy. His whole world narrowed down to that desolate four feet between himself and his doom. Four, how he hated that number.

"Care to explain, little brother?" Itachi pronounced each word distinctly, as if to garner their effect to the fullest.

"Explain what?" That wasn't a stutter, really. Trying to free himself from the hold that his brother's words had on him, he closed his eyes and made himself breathe as normally as possible. When he opened them again, the first thing he saw was Naruto's gaze dart to the side, where Sasuke's fist was abruptly snatched from the air. Jerking his head around so quickly that his neck gave an unhealthy crack, he found himself looking up into the surprisingly dark eyes of Itachi. He hadn't even heard him walk over.

"What happened to this room? Why are you fighting with this boy? Who is he, and why is he in the dormitory?"

"He's..." The startled boy didn't know what to say, even after contemplating his options. He couldn't tell Itachi that the young blond beneath him was a god, but telling him practically anything else could get Naruto into some serious trouble, and possibly himself as well.

Itachi pulled Sasuke's wrist upward, and the rest of his younger brother's body with it to a standing position. It was obvious that he was trying to think of what he could say that would appease him, though he knew the situation was hopeless. Things were going to change because of the incident no matter what he replied. The question was whether or not he would stick up for the blue-eyed boy who still lay defenseless on the ground.

"He's... just a friend who came over to study."

Naruto, meanwhile, seemed to finally come to his senses as his brain registered the lie. "No, it's that I'm-"

"Shut up, Uzumaki," Sasuke commanded harshly, with enough force to actually silence the other boy.

The elder Uchiha took this short exchange in and processed it within the vast expanse of his brain. "I see," he began, slowly and firmly. "Little brother, while I'm pleased that you've made," he glanced back at Naruto's clothes, "diverse friends, you know that only Akatsuki members are allowed to enter the dormitory without explicit permission, and that this rule is to be strictly observed with no exceptions."

"Yes."

"And you know that I've already pushed the others by keeping you here."

"Yes..."

A new voice resounded from the shadows of the somehow suddenly dark hallway, and all present turned to face it. As usual, the man's face was barely visible, his pose vague and his aura ominous. "Itachi-kun, I'm afraid that this is unacceptable," he stated emotionlessly. "Uchiha Sasuke, you are hereby expelled from this dormitory. I must ask you to leave."

Turning back to Sasuke with an unreadable expression, Itachi let go of the pale wrist and watched it fall limply to the boy's side. "His word is law in this place. You have ten minutes, little brother, to collect your things and go."

And with those words echoing in the silence of the dormitory, the Uchiha left the room, as quietly as he'd come. As he passed the man who'd been watching from the shadows, he murmured something to be heard only by the other man's ears, "That boy is one of them."

Meanwhile, Naruto followed the man's shape with his eyes until it was completely swallowed by the darkness of the hallway, and then got to his feet slowly, almost cautiously, dusting off his battered robes. The shuffling of the satin displaced the thick silence, and for a moment, the tension lessened. Sasuke, he noted, still hadn't moved since Itachi pulled him to his feet, and his eyes were downcast and invisible behind dark strands of hair.

"Uchiha?" the blond ventured uncertainly, taking a step around to try to get a view of the boy's face.

A chuckle made its way to the deity's ears, quick and quiet with the accessory sound of fists clenching. And then, in almost a whisper, "You have no idea..."

Sasuke's mind was so... overwhelmingly dark right now. Like it was being overcrowded with things beyond the boy's power to organize. Like insanity.

"...what you've done." His voice became a bit louder, so that the other didn't have to strain to hear it. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to get out of here."

That sentence seemed to clear a few things up, but Naruto was still a little confused, and more than a little apprehensive about dealing with his new acquaintance right then. "Listen, Uchiha, that's great and all," he began carefully, attempting to filter his voice of all the cockiness he knew was often present, "but he said ten minutes. We should get going, don't you think?"

Sasuke suddenly raised his eyes, ink meeting sky in a furious clash, and Naruto couldn't help but think that the Uchiha suddenly looked like a tired child, the way his eyes were slightly widened and the way the circles beneath them somehow seemed more evident. "We...?" he asked, as if the word was a foreign concept.

"Yeah, we," the blond affirmed. "I have to go too, remember?"

Sasuke wasn't sure whether the boy was talking about the contract he'd spoke of earlier or the rule that Itachi had recited. In all honestly, he didn't care. All he cared about was that he could get out. "Fine," he tried not to let his voice tremble, "do whatever you want."

Naruto watched the dark-haired boy proceed to the corner of the room, where the finely-crafted wooden wardrobe had been pushed several feet to rest with one door flung open, and nearly off its hinges. Suddenly feeling a bit of remorse for being the one to put the room in such a disastrous state, he looked around for something that he could do to help Sasuke while he packed up his clothes. He quickly caught sight of the textbooks that had run through the other boy's mind earlier, and went to retrieve them. As he began collecting them and looking for the third one which Sasuke had been unable to spot, however, the said boy's voice drifted over to him like a cool breeze.

"You... should probably put on some different clothes if you're going to go outside." He sounded much calmer than he had the couple of minutes before, and the smaller boy managed a cheerful smile as he found the Uchiha wading through his things for something that would him.

"Thanks, but I can do it," he said confidently.

Within the time that it took for Sasuke to realize that there was something fundamentally displaced in that statement, the blue light had already begun emanating from behind him again, though much gentler this time. Turning toward Naruto, who was predictably the source of the light, he shielded his eyes and squinted, trying to see what was happening. When the brightness dissipated, however, he found himself face to face with a blond wearing not a mangled dress, but a pair of loose-fitting jeans, an orange hoodie, and tennis shoes. A grin, he noticed belatedly, was plastered on the boy's face with pride, and the two textbooks were still snugly tucked in his arms. He looked like any other college student.

"How are you doing that?" Sasuke asked skeptically. I know he can't really be a god. "Are you some kind of magician?"

"No, I really am a god," Naruto insisted. "I know that you don't believe it's possible, but you're just going to have to change your thinking. I'm here, and it looks like you're gonna be stuck with me for a while."

The Uchiha fought off an irate sigh. They'd been through this, hadn't they? "Whatever, Uzumaki. But don't do that again, not here." If the others were to see him, there's no telling what they'd do.

"Don't worry, I can handle myself," the blond tried to reassure the other boy. "Changing my clothes isn't the only thing I can do, you know." Adjusting the books in his arms, he once again began looking for the other boy's notebook and the missing textbook.

Sasuke just snorted, apparently not convinced. "I'm not worried. But even if you are a god, you wouldn't stand a chance against my brother, let alone the whole of Akatsuki."

The blue-eyed boy could practically feel his self-esteem drop a few pegs. "Gee, thanks for putting so much confidence in me, Uchiha."

"I'm not saying it to insult you, moron. It's just a fact," the boy held bluntly, stuffing the last item of clothing into his suitcase almost violently before rising to make his way around the room and collect the sundry other things strewn about the floor that belonged to him.

Naruto suddenly spotted the edge of a book peeking out from under the dissheveled bed. Giving a little chirp of victory, he made to get it. "He did seem abnormally powerful, for a human, I guess, but my senses aren't really good enough to be an accurate judge, to tell the truth," he admitted, as he brushed the textbook free of dust.

The two boys spent the next few minutes searching for what else could be taken with them, the blonde deity occasionally making a comment about something and his raven-haired "boyfriend" either grunting noncommittally or glaring half-heartedly. It took them the longest time to find the latter's notebook and pencil, both of which had somehow become lodged behind the desk. After that and one final check over the room and the large suitcase and smaller duffel bag that, together, held his things, Sasuke deemed himself ready to go. He grabbed his coat and boots from near the door while Naruto slipped the other boy's bookbag over his shoulder (complete with all textbooks, notebooks, and writing utensils), and together, they headed for the lobby.

Meanwhile, Sasuke wondered how his life had managed to take such a dramatic 180 degree turn-around in so short a time. Not even an hour ago, he'd been alone in the dormitory, looking frustratedly for food and waiting for his brother no less than angstily. Now, however, he found himself walking toward the crisp, autumn weather, down the hall which had kept him captive for years, his appetite long gone, being instead filled up to his ears with uncertainty—a state he hadn't been in for quite a long while, as far as he could remember. Not to mention that there was this irritating, blonde "god" with bright, blue eyes walking at his side, wearing his bookbag over a brightly clothed shoulder and a grin on his face, something that was entirely new to him, and evoked an entirely new feeling in him. Responsibility, perhaps. Obligation, or maybe jealousy or suspicion.

Hell, maybe this is what it feels like to have friends. Looking askance at the cause of all these abrupt changes, he noted the way the young man's eyes changed to form upturned crescents and that the grin had suddenly widened, and knew that his thoughts had been heard, however that was possible. He wasn't sure whether he was more amazed or unnerved by it.

This got him thinking suddenly on what could explain everything that the blonde boy had done so far. Sure, the lights and the mirror could've been caused by carefully scripted optical illusion, and the clothing that he was wearing now could've been hiding under that weird dress and the transformation nothing more than a flash bomb and quick-working hands. But even if he allowed all these things to be true, albeit unlikely, none of them justified telepathy.

Perhaps it was a mutation in the boy's genome, much like the Sharingan which ran in his own family's blood—the mutation which Itachi possessed and controlled to a deadly extent, yet which had been strangely absent when confronting his and Naruto's little scuffle. A scuffle that wasn't really finished yet, he noted absentmindedly.

By the time Sasuke thought to count the doors they passed, he and Naruto were already out the door, standing side-by-side beneath the yellowish glow of a street lamp.

"So where do we go now?" The blond asked in a matter-of-fact tone. There was that 'we' again.

Sasuke snorted. "What makes you think that 'we' are going anywhere from here?"

"Pfft, what makes you think you can go anywhere without me?" Naruto almost snickered. "Look, I've already told you the deal, more than once, so you're either being really stubborn or really stupid. Let's not go through this again, alright?"

With a scowl etching itself onto his face, the dark-haired boy turned his back to his companion. Why won't he just drop this act of his? We're not even inside the dormitory anymore, but he still insists that he's telling the truth. Sasuke glared at the street thoughtfully. Maybe a little test of his theory is in order, to prove that our fates aren't connected like he obviously wants me to believe.

With this in mind, Sasuke began walking. He didn't care that the Uzumaki boy still had his bookbag slung over his shoulders, or that he really had no idea where his feet would end up taking him. "We'll see about all that," he muttered, and then, with one foot in front of the other, the proud Uchiha...

...tripped. He managed to catch himself with one foot and would've remained standing, had the suitcase and duffel bag he held not been thrown off-balance, dragging him downward with enough force to bring one of his knees in contact with the rough pavement. Gaping slightly (Uchihas never trip, it's like a rule or a religious dogma or something), he automatically glanced around to find what he'd tripped on. Along the way, his eyes flickered up to the boy who still stood under the dim spotlight of the lamp, with a casually bored expression on his face.

"You didn't trip on anything, Uchiha," the blond boy actually looked like he was on the verge of yawning. In truth, he didn't need to read the other's mind to know that he would try something like this, or to know exactly what would happen. It was the System Force's way of saying 'you suck.' "But go ahead, get up and try again. Maybe you'll at least make three steps this time."

Deeply frustrated and not about to waste his time, Sasuke got back to his feet and allowed himself to consider what had just happened and the over all situation differently for the moment. "So then... you're not kidding, are you?"

"About what? You tripping over thin air?" Naruto asked, grinning despite the raven-haired boy's attitude.

"Don't be an idiot. I mean about... this, about everything."

"Nope, I haven't been kidding you at all," came the ready assurance, as the young god readjusted the weight of the bookbag he carried. "So uh, I'm gonna ask again, where do we go now?"

Sasuke decided that it would be best to believe him, for now, even if doing so required him to bend reality and fight off both spontaneous homicide and a heart attack. After all, his first priority should've been finding a place to stay for the night, anyway. "I don't know. But before we go anywhere," he pointedly commanded with as much comedy as an atomic bomb, "stop reading my mind, or whatever. You're not welcome there."

The blue-eyed boy nodded obediently for once, well able to understand the request (demand, whatever) as there were many places in his own mind where he would rather other people didn't tread. When they seemed to mutually accept this, he began thinking on the matter of where to stay again. "Well then, I guess we should start with... Do you have any relatives around here that could take us in?"

The Uchiha almost gave a bark of bitter laughter. "Not even close. After Itachi, there's nothing." And for a long time, he realized, that statement had applied in more ways than one.

"I see. Uh... Any friends?"

That time, he did laugh.

"Why am I not surprised?" Naruto sighed, gathering the quite obviously negative response. What other options did they have? "How about a hotel?"

"I have the money, but not the age."

The blond was confused for a moment. "You're old enough to be in college, but you're too young to rent a hotel room?" he asked skeptically.

"I graduated early, when I was 16. I'm still only 17," Sasuke admitted, with less pride than his companion would have expected. Not giving any unnecessary questions time to form in the atmosphere, however, the Uchiha fixed the other boy with a pointed stare and continued, "And I don't suppose you're over 18, either."

"Sadly, no. I just turned 17 a couple weeks ago, myself." Naruto let out another sigh, and this time, there was an echoing sigh from his darker counterpart, who had finally come back to lean against the thick, metal pole of the street lamp, luggage set on the pavement.

Suddenly, something struck Sasuke. "If you're a god, why can't you just create a place for us to stay?"

The answer came with so little hesitance that it nearly seemed prepared. "Because that breaks a whole bunch of rules. We're not allowed to do things that interfere with the human world to a certain degree or something, and... well... Sakura-chan could probably recite the entire stupid clause to you, but I can't remember the damn thing hardly at all." Nearly.

"Who's Sakura?" The Uchiha asked, hoping that perhaps it was someone who could help them.

Naruto, meanwhile, got some far-off look on his face that practically emanated hearts. Clasping his hands together, he gushed, "Only the smartest, prettiest, most wonderful tech goddess in heaven! We graduated in the same class. She calls me an idiot and beats up on me all the time, but I know it's just to hide her affection."

"Che, yeah right. Without even meeting her, I'd be more inclined to say that she's serious."

"Hey! Are trying to call me an idiot, bastard?"

Ignoring the blond's outburst, he tried to bring back the matter at hand. "So could this Sakura girl do anything to help us out?"

Getting back on topic as well, though still with slight irritation marring his features, the deity replied, "Nah, and even if she could pull any strings, she'll probably never talk to me again after finding out that I'm someone's boyfriend. She'll just go 'ew, now he's gay!' and leave me for dead."

And he believes this girl likes him why? "Okay, so that means we'll have to think of something else." Taking his hands out of the pockets of his leather coat, Sasuke folded his arms across his chest and tried to think of some decent solution to their problem. All they really needed for the night, he conceded, was someplace reasonably sheltered from the cold and the wind, that wasn't too far away from the campus. The campus... "If I knew where Kakashi-sensei lived, I'd ask if we could stay in the dojo," he muttered, though he didn't expect his statement to pose any significance.

"A dojo?" The blond's face, however, suddenly lit up. "Hey, there's an old, abandoned dojo a little ways to the east, isn't there? That nobody ever uses?"

Sasuke's dark eyes shot up to Naruto's, connecting with his train of thought instantly. He knew the place that the boy was talking about. Hatake Kakashi, one of the graduate students who oversaw the martial arts club, trained there when he was just a child. It was old back then, he supposed, but now it was absolutely decrepit. "Yeah, but it's falling apart. No one's even supposed to go in there for safety reasons."

"It'll last one night without falling down, though, right?" One dark blonde eyebrow quirked, and the bookbag was readjusted again.

"Hm," Dark eyes glinted under the lamp light, and pale pink lips grew into a smirk, silently agreeing to the proposition. "Maybe you are good for something, moron."

"Damn straight, bastard."

tbc...

Preview:

The dark-haired boy just snorted bemusedly. With no comment to be made in reply, he wordlessly swung a leg over the seat of the bike and got himself situated, feet firmly on the ground on either side. After pushing himself forward a bit to get off the kickstand and noting the difference in the weight already, he turned to the blond, saying simply, "Get on."

Naruto's eyes widened for a moment, having forgotten that, oh yeah, he was going to be riding that dark, glistening thing. Taking a step so he was at it's side and in position, he put his hands on the seat behind Sasuke and hoisted himself up clumsily. Pointedly ignoring the awkward position it put the two of them in, of course. "This is the first time I've ever been on a motorcycle, by the way," he informed the Uchiha.

"Obviously."

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