AN: Thanks a million, trillion times to those who reviewed. You guys are awesome. Sorry for the cliffhanger. I hope you guys are okay. I promise not to make you wait too long. I wouldn't want to be responsible for anyone sulking themselves to death. ;) Keep reviewing, it only gets creative juices flowing and the words out quicker.

'Bla' gets DBS's honourable mention for the best use of cut and paste. There is no room for intolerance and censorship in art, regardless of its form; writing (fanfiction), painting, photography, etc. Being intolerant only makes me feel sorry for you.

Disclaimer: Don't own it! Don't sue!

Warning: Bit of poetic license abuse.


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"He who has a thousand friends
Has not a friend to spare,
While he who has one enemy
Shall meet him everywhere."
-
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Chapter Two

I slipped out of the apartment at dusk. My eyes felt gritty, an indication that I hadn't had enough sleep. I pushed away my grogginess and donned my mask and cape. Away from the comforts of roads, buildings and the everyday things that people take for granted, there wasn't much for one to think about. I concentrated as best I could on the task at hand. From earlier reports, there had been a band of missing-nin in the area, harassing the caravans that came and went from Konoha. Maybe that would distract me.

It didn't. I had polished off three of them and the other two in my squad had finished the rest off. We kept going into the outlying woods, farther away from Konoha. Sasuke's words sat like a heavy rock in the back of my mind as I sliced my way through bandits. It was just a regular hunting task, nothing of serious note. Since the Akatsuki and Orochimaru had been scattered, there hadn't been much of an internal threat; just the regulars from Rock and the missing-nin. It was like a rat cull, we killed them just to keep the population down but there were always others to take their place.

"We are done." The leader said who I knew was Shikamaru but never would acknowledge it. We all nodded in unison. "Scatter and be back here tomorrow."

Gathering by the shadows, I could tell it was late afternoon. I would have time for a shower before I would have to go play office assistant for Old Lady Tsunade. She called it my apprenticeship. I called it bullshit.

I chose to shower at the Hokage's dojo after stashing my mask and cloak in the satchel I usually carried on me. It was shocking how secretive the ANBU was. Outside of your own three teammates, you didn't know who was who. It was all cloak and dagger. So impersonal. When ANBU died no one knew the specifics, not even other ANBU. Family members were told that they were killed on a mission, but there was never any details.

Old Lady Tsunade was busy, as usual. I had to copy down a million names and descriptions which I have to admit helped my handwriting improve considerably. I wrote until my back creaked and my fingers were getting cramped. Finally, when dusk had settled and my stomach was making too much noise for me to go on, I begged off and stopped by Ichiraku's for food.

Iruka was there. He was always there at this time of the evening. Maybe because our schedules had synced that way or because he wanted to see me, either way I was glad to see my old sensei. He was precious to me. I would gladly die for him, he knew this and I had proved it just as he had proven his own promises to me.

"So how are things?" He asked between noisy slurps of noodle.

"Things are going." I nodded, my mind slipped to Sasuke who I knew was waiting in my apartment for me. Waiting for an answer to his request.

"Something bothering you, Naruto?" He asked, his chopsticks poised over his half-empty bowl.

I smiled at him, "Nothing. Work is getting to me, though." I held out my ink stained hands. Iruka was the only one who got the most truth out of me. I couldn't stand lying to him. He knew that I was ANBU but had never once brought it up after his discovery. I remember the only thing he had said after finding out my true occupation was, 'Just be careful.' That was one of the things that I loved about him.

"Liar." He grunted, eyeing me as he picked up his bowl and drank the salty broth.

When my own bowl was put in front of me, I said my thanks and dived in eagerly. At least eating had delayed my answer to his question. "We'll talk later." I said between bites of noodle, eyeing Shikamaru and Chouji who slid into seats beside me.

"Hey." The shadow ninja muttered before ordering a bowl of spicy ramen.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Wife kicked me out." Shikamaru grunted, "So damn troublesome. You are lucky not to have one, Naruto."

"No, I'm just lucky I haven't fallen in love with a woman like Temari." I snickered before polishing off my bowl and ordering another.

"She's so damn scary." The brilliant tactician and fearless ANBU captain admitted as he ate his noodles. "Especially when she's pregnant."

A usual night at Ichiraku's was just like this. We'd talk, laugh and gorge ourselves on delicious ramen before someone's wife came by to drag away a reluctant husband by the ear. It was usually Temari, who really was scary when she was pregnant. They were the only couple that I knew of that could make exchanges of slaps and curses seem like endearments and tough love. I paused over my second bowl, realizing who that reminded me of. I shuddered inwardly at the thought of Sasuke and myself on the porch, smacking each other around like Temari did to Shikamaru.

I finished the rest of my noodles and stood, "I'm out of here." I announced to the group before leaving, Iruka followed suit.

"So, what's up Naruto?"

"It's Sasuke."

"What about him?"

I filled him in on the events that followed after Sasuke showed up on my doorstep, including (and rather painfully, I might add) his proposition. Iruka sat on the bench we had stopped at and listened as I rattled on. I eventually couldn't find anything else to fill in the silence and just sat, staring off into the distance, letting my demons plague me.

"So, are you going to take him up on it?" Iruka asked.

What could I say? I wanted to say 'Yes' because the chance to have Sakura without Sasuke interrupting was almost too much to resist. If I said 'No', it would mean that I would never have her and it would prove that I wouldn't do everything to have her.

"You are honestly contemplating this, Naruto?" Iruka asked, looking shocked.

My guilty silence lived on as I gnawed on my lip, internally weighing my gains and losses. I was never good at this. "I'm not sure! I mean, I always said that I would do anything for Sakura."

"Anything for her, yes but not anything to have her. There's no guarantee that she'll come to you if you... do this thing, Naruto." Iruka pointed out.

"That's another thing that I've been weighing in my mind. But... it's a chance that I'll take. I think."

"This is insane, Naruto! I know that you love her but man, just let it go! There are some battles that you'll never win."

His words were ones that I had said to myself over and over again but it seemed impossible. Giving up wasn't a part of my nature and I wasn't about to start. "You know I can't do that." I said, feeling somewhat sad with that admonishment. If I was capable of giving up, I probably wouldn't have gone through half the grief that I had been through. But then, I wouldn't have ever gotten the chance to become a ninja, either.

"And plus, what if you do this and you don't like it?"

I shrugged, "Well, it'll suck won't it?"

"And... what if you do like it?"

I shrugged again, "Then it'll be all the more easy for me to do."

Iruka stared at me. I was hoping that he wouldn't think less of me, but if he did I'd understand Although it would hurt like hell. He broke the tension by smiling and as soon as it broke, I let out the breath that I hadn't realized I was holding. "You are incorrigible, Naruto."

"That's me." I nodded, still too afraid to go back to my apartment. "Uhm..."

"You don't want to go back there, do you?"

"Not yet, no." I muttered.

Iruka glanced at his watch. "Well, I've got to get going. It's nine and Hana is probably waiting for me." Hana being Kiba's sister. A surprising hook-up but one that was cute to watch, I'd have to admit. He didn't say anything else because he knew how much I had begun to detest parting wisdom. Or maybe because he knew that my mind was already made up.

"I've always wondered, Iruka... if one of her dogs licks you on the butt while you two are doing it, is it considered a threesome?"

He blinked and I could see him working my words over in his mind. I grinned like a fool as it donned on him and he blushed. "Naruto!" Iruka looked a bit harried and despaired, which only added to my delight.

I leapt up from the bench and took off towards my apartment, waving at my stunned friend. "You said it yourself, Iruka. I'm incorrigible." I cackled before leaping to the nearest rooftop.

I found myself circling the block a few times before stopping in front of my apartment. The lights weren't on but somehow, I could sense that he was waiting inside. I didn't want to go up there and be forced to make a decision.

I couldn't help but recall, as I found a spot on swing in the park in front of my apartment, something that Jiraiya had said to me. It was shortly after the old man had taken me to a brothel to pick out my first woman on my 16th birthday. He felt it necessary to inaugurate me into manhood and I don't know why but neither did I bother to ask. After I had spent three hours picking out a woman, and he wouldn't let me make a hasty decision... no I had to sit on a couch and let them parade themselves. It was probably the most embarrassing things I had ever experienced. But Jiraiya had sat me down afterwards and had said, "You can't make a hasty decision, son. You must learn to appreciate beauty in all its shapes and sizes. What you just went through, that's just a glimpse of the variety of colours that you have to dip your brush in." Poetic yes, and absolutely filthy. "Try them all. Find out what colours you like but don't just paint in those colours. You gotta add a bit of variety to offset those colours you know you love. Make you realize how much you appreciate them."

I didn't really understand what he had said back then, and I didn't quite know if he had this particular type of situation in mind but I think I was beginning to understand. I was running with this analogy of Jiraiya's by saying that what I was about to do was like taking charcoal and adding it to an oil painting.

The apartment was dark but not empty. Without even bothering to try, I sensed him sitting on the couch. He was still in the customary jounin uniform; flak vest, hitai-ate, dark blue pants, black shirt. His eyes were already locked on mine, I could see them flashing in the dark. Some people didn't realize this but Sasuke's eyes, because of the Sharingan, had a tendency to glimmer like a cat's did. Especially when his dander was up, like I knew it was right now. I knew what he was thinking that fuelled his anger; No one makes a Uchiha wait. Well, bully for him.

I flicked on the light, choosing not to acknowledge his presence after meeting his eyes in the dark. I needed a drink of water, the salty broth from the ramen was making my thirsty. After getting a drink, I walked into my bedroom and gathered clean clothes for a shower. I made sure to lock the door to the bathroom and let the water run over me until it was frigid. I knew that the door wasn't going to keep him out if he was so inclined, but I also knew he was too proud to knock down a door to get what he wanted.

I had years of experience in handling the last Uchiha and in that time, I got really good at pushing all of his buttons. Sasuke wouldn't reach for the bait dangling in front of his nose because it would prove that he was impatient to have what he wanted. This warped sense of pride came from always getting what he wanted the moment he wanted it. Why was I baiting the lion? Because I could, mainly, and probably because he had dangled bait in front of my nose, too and he knew that it was too much for me to resist.

I came out of the bathroom, standing there in the doorway and feeling the steam billow against my back. I wore pyjama pants and a black undershirt. The towel was hanging around my neck, soaking my shirt slightly.

Sasuke was standing at the end of the hallway with his arms folded across his chest. He had shed his flak vest sometime during his wait and wore only his black shirt, white forearm covers and customary fishnet undershirt. I could see the muscles flexing underneath the tight fabric of his shirt. The necklace with the tip of the kunai he had used to kill his brother hanging around his neck and his usual dark blue pants, shin bandages that wrapped over the arches of his feet as well.

"Have you decided?" His voice grated in the warm summer's air like a sudden gust of cold wind. I had to admit, he was scary when he was impatient.

I shrugged because I was too nervous to do anything else. I grabbed the ends of the towel around my neck and felt the terrycloth rub against my slightly sunburnt neck. "I have."

"And?" He bit out between his clenched teeth.

Again, I chose to shrug and I watched beneath my bangs as he took a step forward. Why did I press his buttons? Because I could. "And what?"

"Your decision!" Sasuke barked, stalking towards me like a lion on an unsuspecting deer. "You've been pressing my buttons for long enough, Naruto."

"Yeah I know. Did I ever mention that you look beautiful when you're angry?" Again because I could, I taunted him further. I learned another trick when dealing with Sasuke; when wanting to throw him off, a compliment just after an insult was the shortest route through his defences.

His hands came out and he pinned me against the wall with a strength that always managed to shock me. "You think you know everything about me?" He bit off, his face just inches away from mine.

"I know enough, Sasuke." I said. I kept my grin pasted on my face because I refused to show him that I was actually scared shitless.

"So tell me your decision, Naruto." He said.

"Are you begging?" I asked abruptly.

A hand wrapped around my neck but it never tightened. It just stayed there as if he was contemplating whether or not to squeeze. I stayed perfectly still and held his gaze. He leaned in closer, letting his cheek brush against mine. His breath fanned across my ear as he spoke, "The last person who heard me beg, I killed."

"Threat, Uchiha?" I let my blue irises bleed away to red. It was something that I had learned to gain control of. Another pearl of wisdom Jiraiya had taught me was intimidation tactics. This was one of the many that I wielded.

His dark inky eyes flashed scarlet with that same eerie opacity I had seen earlier. "Promise."

I abolished the scant inches between us and let my lips brush against his. If I was about to do this thing, I'd be damned if he'd be the one to start. I had a vague idea what two men did together and somehow, I thought that kissing one would be completely different from kissing a woman. The differences were far too subtle for me to recognize at that moment. Later on, when I was calmed down enough to figure it out, I'd be able to pick out what those differences were.

My anger fed into my lust and propelled our kiss further. Our tongues clashed in an angry bid for dominance. Teeth clacked and nipped, lips grew puffy and tender as we increased our pace. He tore away first and stared down at my mouth, "I hate you."

"Mutual." I breathed, desperately grappling for that still, silent spot in my brain.

TBC!1!11!