Note: This story is the third/last installment of the Lights Out Trilogy if you have not read Lights Out and All or Nothing then it will not make sense. This story contains heavy angst. Please read any author's notes for trigger warnings.

Chapter 1: Plans

"You know a wedding planner is the best way to go, we're both too busy and can't agree over anything," Sasuke argued as he hand Naruto stood in their kitchen. It had been a month since Naruto did his "real" proposal. It was certainly more romantic than any of his other proposals and this time he actually had a ring. He'd taken him to the rooftop of their building where he'd set up candles and a nice dinner over looking the city. He'd written out the words 'Will you marry me?' in rose petals. The blond had gotten them matching bands, saying he wanted to show off that he was engaged too. Since then they had been bickering over how they wanted their wedding to be and the only thing they could agree on was that it would be relatively small.

"I'm sure we can agree on something," Naruto was determined to plan their own wedding. It was supposed to be special, not something other people decided.

"Look, I'm not saying we can't be the ultimate decision makers, I just think having a third party help us would be a good idea," Sasuke sighed. He didn't want someone to completely take over, he just wanted someone that could help them find a middle ground. He wrapped his arms around Naruto's waist, "I don't want us to fight over this."

Naruto pouted, "But I don't want someone picking things for us."

"They won't be picking anything, they'll be suggesting and we'll be the ones to accept or reject it. I promise, no one is taking over our wedding, they're just there to talk to us and tell us we shouldn't do a black or orange wedding," he brought up the colors each of them wanted, reminding them how different it was.

"But if we compromise, we can plan a Halloween wedding and have both black and orange. Fuck all the fancy shit, everyone can dress up in costumes instead," Naruto suggested, thinking his idea was brilliant. The look on Sasuke's face told him that the other man didn't agree. "I'd be fun."

"I'm not having our wedding be a Halloween party," Sasuke shook his head. He should have known that Naruto would suggest something like that. "Knowing you, you'd want us to dress up as a corpse bride and groom and I'm sure as hell not wearing a dress," he argued, refusing to let their wedding turn into a joke.

"But you'd look so good in a dress," he teased. Sasuke glared at him in response and Naruto couldn't hold back his laugh. "Come on, why not?" he whined.

"I've already told you why and our therapist even said it'd be a good idea for us to get a wedding planner," he reminded him. Once they had told her how much they'd been bickering over the wedding planning, she suggested it.

"She always takes your side," Naruto mumbled. He knew that Sasuke was probably right, it wound't be a bad idea to have an intermediary that could help them find a middle ground.

"Yes, she certainly was taking my side when she lectured me about communication the one time I came home in a bad mood and didn't want to talk to you about my bad day," he replied sarcastically. The therapist they'd found always told both of them how it was. She wouldn't sugar coat anything, especially when it came to communication skills.

"To be fair, you took it out on me because a deal went bad and you should have just told me what happened and I would have tried to help you," he reminded him.

Sasuke sighed, "So I was told." He ran a hand through Naruto's hair as he looked him in the eyes, "Please, baby, just try a wedding planner. If we don't like them we can always fire them and try to plan it ourselves," he gave him a look that Naruto was never able to refuse. It was soft and sweet and Naruto hated how he always gave in when Sasuke looked at him like that.

"Fine," he agreed. "But if we still argue, we're going to drop the wedding planner and do this on our own, deal?"

"Deal," Sasuke compromised, though he was sure that a wedding planner would definitely help. Both of them had been unreasonable at times and having an outside perspective tell them that they were being unreasonable might actually help them finally come to an agreement on things.

"And we're finding a woman," Naruto told him. "I'm not having some man come steal you away like in 'The Wedding Planner.' Like who the hell did Mary think she is?" he scoffed. "Not that Steve was any better, I mean he was engaged."

Sasuke shook his head, "I can't believe you remember their names. How many times have you seen that movie?"

"Once," Naruto lied. He wasn't going to admit he's seen the rom com multiple times, though Sasuke already knew that he had. "Okay, maybe a few times."

"Right, a few," Sasuke chuckled.

Naruto huffed, "Everyone's allowed to have a guilty pleasure."

Sasuke kissed his fiancé, "Yes, and yours just happens to be some shitty rom com." He moved out of the blonde's arms to start making dinner. "Don't worry, I won't get swept away by some wedding planner. For some reason I love your dumb ass."

Naruto wrapped his arms around Sasuke from behind, caging him in between his body and the countertop. "You weren't calling me dumb last night," he reminded him as he started kissing down his neck.

Sasuke turned around to look at the blond as Naruto continued to kiss his neck. "Hm," he hummed in pleasure. "I guess you're not always dumb." They were interrupted by Sasuke's phone, both of them groan. Sasuke looked over to see 'asshole' lit up on his screen. "Tell your best friend that I'm not helping him win Suigetsu back," he huffed as he grabbed his phone. "What do you want?" he answered.

"Hello to you, too," Kiba responded. "I need your opinion on what Suigetsu would like more," he told him, making Sasuke roll his eyes. "I'm taking him out tonight and I have reservations at that fancy Italian place, but the more I think about it the more I think he'd rather go somewhere casual. But then I think he deserves to be spoiled and taken somewhere nice. What do you think?" he asked.

The man had been driving Sasuke crazy ever since he learned that he wasn't going to fight with Suigetsu about him giving Kiba another chance. As much as he disliked it, it wasn't his decision to make. "You're the one trying to date him, shouldn't you know the answer to this question?" he rolled his eyes.

"You're his best friend, shouldn't you want to make sure he's going on a date that'll make him happy?" Kiba retorted.

"If you like him as much as you say you do, shouldn't you know what will make him happy?" he could do this all day.

Naruto smirked as he got an idea, "Baby, if you tell him what he wants to know we can go have our own fun." He kissed Sasuke's neck, running his hands down the other man's body until they met the top of Sasuke's sweat pants.

"Ew," Kiba gagged as he heard what his best friend said, but hoped that it worked.

"Damnit," Sasuke didn't want to give in, but the way Naruto had started rubbing him through his pants was already making him hard. "Fine, take him to the Italian place. He's wanted to try it since it opened," he hung up the phone, tossing it onto the counter. "Bedroom, now," he demanded.

"Your wish is my command," Naruto picked up the other man, squeezing his butt as he carried him to the bedroom.

NS

"I'm so happy we could meet up like this," Sakura said as she sat at the table with Ino, Hinata, Tenten, and Temari. The older girl was in town with Shikamaru visiting family so they decided to catch up. It had been a while since they'd done so. While Temari may not have been in their close circle of friends when they were in college, they still considered each other good enough friends to meet for lunch whenever she came to town. "How's life going?"

"Great," Temari answered. "I just got a promotion and Shikamaru is the head of his department."

"When is that man going to propose?" Ino shook her head. She wouldn't be surprised if he waited until they were old and grey to propose. It wasn't like either one of them seemed to want children any time soon.

Temari just shrugged, "Hadn't really thought about it honestly. We're both concentrating on our careers and we want to do some traveling, I'm not sure we'll ever get married." Ever since they started a committed relationship, Temari hadn't really been worried about marriage. Really it was just a piece of paper. They were already living together and planned to stay together, it didn't really matter to her if they had a piece of paper legally binding them.

"Men suck anyway," Ino told her. "Better off being able to escape if you want to," she added. She'd been on a few dates since her and Sai broke up, but nothing really promising. "On second thought, at our age I don't suggest getting back into the dating pool. All of the good men are either taken or gay."

"You act like we're in our sixties," Sakura laughed. "You're still in your twenties, plenty of time to find a man," she assured her as she took a drink of her cocktail.

"Says the engaged woman," Ino reminded her.

Sakura just shrugged, "He still seems pretty distant."

Hinata frowned, "Just give it some time. I'm sure it'll all work out." She still felt guilty, like she was the one that destroyed the relationship. Sakura and Ino had both told her they understood why she did it, but it didn't make her feel any less guilty every time she heard about Sakura and Lee's problems.

"Back to Ino," Temari changed the subject, "I think Shikamaru might know someone you'll like."

Ino shook her head, "I'm not moving for some man I don't even know."

"I never said he lived by us. It's an old friend from his last job. I mean, if you'd prefer someone that you know, we could always see if Shino is still available," she joked.

"I think he's married to his bugs," Ino said with a disgusted look on her face. "Plus he travels for work and I couldn't handle that," she added. "Why an entomologist needs to travel, who knows?"

"To discover new bugs in other areas?" Sakura guessed. "He's not on your list of acceptable suitors, so who cares?" she didn't mean to be rude, but she was making it her mission to find Ino happiness. While Ino claimed her and Sai's relationship was already falling apart, Sakura blamed herself for it finally breaking. She had been a horrible friend and being drunk was no excuse for what had happened that night.

"I could ask Kouki if he has any nice, single friends," Hinata suggested. It felt a little weird to be the one playing match maker now after being so against Ino and Sakura trying to set her up months ago. "Or, if you're happy single, just be single for a while."

"What about Chouji," Tenten chimed in. "He's a nice guy."

"Then you date him," Ino laughed. "Don't get me wrong, he's a great guy, just not my type, you know?"

"What's he up to now?" Temari asked. They had been so far removed from all of their friends lives that it felt like she didn't know anything about anyone.

"He's working at this fancy Italian restaurant now," Sakura told her. The woman tried to keep up with all of their friends lives to some extent, whether it be from talking to them or through other friends. "I guess that's how Kiba scored a reservation there to take Suigetsu. He's really trying to impress him."

"As he should," Ino said. "I wish I had some guy trying to impress me."

"I don't think you should go for Kiba," Sakura joked, knowing she never would.

"First, ew, he's like an annoying brother to me. Second, I'd like to live and I'm pretty sure Sasuke would kill Kiba and anyone that helped break Suigetsu's heart, so no thanks."

"Why is Ino the only one getting set up here? I'm single too," Tenten sighed. She hadn't been on a proper date in far too long. After the ordeal with Neji, it was hard for her to find someone that lived up to her family's expectations. There were times they even tried to convince her to win him over, only for her to have to explain that the man is gay and very much in love with his boyfriend.

"Well, if Ino doesn't want him, I could introduce you to Shikamaru's old coworker," Temari suggested. "He's actually probably more your type than Ino's anyway," he told her. The more she thought about it, the more the quieter girl seemed like a better fit.

"Always, let's stop talking about men," Ino wouldn't admit that she wasn't really ready to move on. She may have been falling out of love with Sai already, but that didn't make it any easier to be cheated on. She needed to work on herself first. The first month after the break up she'd played 'Good as Hell' by Lizzo on replay to remind herself that no man was worth feeling bad about herself.

"Alright, no more man talk," Sakura promised. It wasn't like she really wanted to talk about her relationship problems, especially since she had no one else to blame but herself. He and Lee were doing better, but it still felt as if there were a barrier and she didn't know how to fix it.

Ino looked at her and could tell something was wrong. "You want to talk about it later?" she whispered.

Sakura shook her head, "I'm not ready yet." They turned their attention back to the conversation the girls were having, neither wanting to think about their love lives.

NS

It was a Saturday, yet Itachi once again found himself working. He'd lied to Sasuke, saying that he wouldn't work over the weekend because he knew that'd make his younger brother come in and help him rather than spending time with Naruto. If he were honest, he wanted to be away from home. He and Kisame had been having problems lately. Most of them centered around work and Kisame feeling as if he weren't a priority. The problem was that whenever they had a fight, it just made Itachi throw himself further into work.

His cell phone rang and he found himself feeling happier than he should to see Kurama's name on the screen. The two of them had gotten closer ever since Sasuke was in the hospital. The red head seemed to understand what Itachi needed to hear and was there for him. Kisame didn't seem to understand that Itachi blamed himself for not seeing the signs. He'd tell him that he was being dramatic and Sasuke was fine. Kurama seemed to understand and would tell him that it wasn't his fault. He'd remind him that no one knew what was going on with Sasuke at that time, not even Naruto.

"Hey," he answered.

"Hey, I'm heading to lunch and I know you're at the office. Do you want to join me?" Kurama asked. He was down he street from the Uchiha office building and knew that Itachi had been throwing himself into work. He figured the man could use a break and maybe someone to talk to. Maybe it was also that he was looking for someone to talk to.

There was moment of hesitation before Itachi agreed, "Sure. The usual cafe?"

"I'll see you in about ten minutes," Kurama confirmed before hanging up.

Not long after they were in the cafe, ordering the same things they always did. They had gone so often in recent months that the staff had begun to know their orders. "One of these days we'll switch it up on them," Kurama said, knowing that they probably wouldn't.

"Maybe you will, but I like tried and tested," Itachi shrugged as he took a sip from his glass. He'd stuck with water since he planned to go back to work and the cafe didn't have the greatest selection of beer available. He probably had better alcohol in his office than what they sold.

"Is that why you're still with Kisame?" Kurama couldn't help but ask. He'd seen how the relationship had gone stagnant and could tell Itachi wasn't exactly happy with the other man. "Sorry, that was rude of me to ask, or maybe I'm just projecting, I don't know," he sighed.

"I thought you and Shukaku were happy," Itachi commented, confused as to the other man's comment.

"Sexually, we're happy," the red head sighed. "Emotionally, I feel like we're drifting apart. I mean, sex is nice, but we don't really talk anymore. It seems like we've just fallen into a routine," he frowned. "Sorry, is this weird to talk about?" he was worried that he'd crossed a line. He wasn't quite sure how to define his and Itachi's friendship. Sometimes they'd talk about surface issues, but other times it'd get deep so he didn't know what the boundaries were.

"I don't think either of us really have anyone else to talk to about this stuff," Itachi replied. "I'm sure as hell not talking to my brother or Kisame about these issues," he told him. It felt weird how open he was ready to be with the other man.

"You really should talk to Kisame about it though," he pointed out. It wasn't healthy to hold back your concerns when it came to relationships.

"Are you going to talk to Shukaku?" he asked, knowing that the answer was no. When the other man didn't answer, he let out a deep breath, "That's what I thought. So I guess we're stuck with each other."

"What's going on with you and Kisame now?" Kurama asked. He knew that they were having many problems, but it seemed like something specific must have happened for them to be talking about it.

Itachi thought about it and he wasn't really sure exactly what it was, "Honestly? It's a mix of every thing. He thinks I'm dramatic when it comes to Sasuke and then is upset I work so much. It's not my fault that I run a company, I have to make that a priority."

"Do you though?" Kurama asked. "You used to make time for him," he pointed out. If someone was important enough, you were always able to find some way to make time for them. Whether that be hiring more people to help with the work load or just learning a better way to balance work and life, there was always a way if you wanted to try.

Itachi clenched his jaw, knowing the other man was right, "Is it bad that I don't want to? I feel like all we're going to do is fight and even if we don't, it just feels like the spark isn't there. We used to fuck in my office sometimes, now we hardly talk."

"I didn't need to know that," Kurama told him. "I've sat in that office, please tell me you at least sanitize after,'" he didn't want to think about the two men fucking in the same chair he'd sat in multiple times when their companies would work together on projects.

"You'll never know," Itachi smirked. He enjoyed seeing the disgusted look on his face. He didn't want to think about why he liked teasing the other man so much and wrote it off as them becoming good friends. Itachi didn't really have a lot of friends, work taking up most of his time, so he just wrote it off as normal.

They spent the rest of lunch just talking about every random thing they could think of, trying not to bring up the topic of relationships again. It felt natural to talk to each other, no periods of awkwardness that had seemed to seep into each of their respective romantic relationships. "This was nice," Kurama said as they finished eating. "Thanks for joining me."

"Thanks for getting me out of the office on a Saturday," Itachi replied. He looked at the other man and wondered if there was something more than he was willing to admit.