Chapter 3

When Naruto woke the next day, his jacket was folded neatly next to him. The fire was put out and Sasuke was eating while looking outside at the barely rising sun. He was fully dressed, but the light shone through his white linen top, making it look like he was glowing. The orange hue illuminates Sasuke's sharp features. Naruto's heart picks up and his stomach feels like it's in knots.

"Sleep okay?" Sasuke mutters, looking back slightly. His eyes looked sad as they glanced at Naruto for a quick second before fully turning back to the opening of the cave.

Naruto jumps at the sudden voice. He takes a deep breath, trying to soothe his twisted stomach. His thoughts go back to the night before, about how smooth the ravens skin felt against his fingers.

"Naruto?"

"Oh-um-Yeah? Slept fine!" His voice went high, a blush peppers his skin and he awkwardly scratches his neck.

"Better eat. We need to make up for the time we lost yesterday." Sasuke goes to stand up and Naruto nods.

Sasuke hands him his serving of food and Naruto reaches out for it. Their fingers brush for mere seconds and Naruto almost drops his food on the cave floor. Sasuke scoffs at him playfully and continues as if nothing was amiss.

Once they were done, Naruto slipped his jacket back on. It smelt like Sasuke, sweet and calm like lavender. It was faint but Naruto could still tell. He blamed the nine-tails sense of smell for noticing such a small detail, but now that he knew, he can't forget. When everything is packed up, they leave the cave and quickly head off.

The next two days went by fast. The two only stop to eat and sleep to make up for lost time. At the beginning of the third day, they make it to the town of Brashing. Sasuke and Naruto slow down and walk down the path as they approach the gates

"Small town." Naruto mutters and Sasuke nods.

Sasuke opens up his notes and pulls out the map of the town. "We need to find the blue building in the center of town. That's where the town leader is."

As they walk around looking for the building, both men notice something odd about the town. Naruto notices the women. They were wearing dresses that were on the short side and their makeup was extreme. Some even motioning for the two to get closer. Sasuke notices the abundance of taverns and gambling houses. Both men look at each other, eyebrows raised.

"Sasuke, what is this place?" Naruto loudly whispers.

"Don't be rude, Naruto."

"I'm not, just asking" Naruto knocks his shoulder into Sasuke's jokingly.

They make it to the middle of town after spotting the bright blue building. Naruto gives it a good once over, his eyes widening at the name painted above the door.

"Sasuke, why does the building say-" Sasuke whacks Naruto upside the head, earning a grumble and pout from the curious blonde. He grabs Naruto's arm to turn them around. They had to be in the wrong place.

"Leaf Ninja! Over here!"

They both stop, glance at each other then quickly turn around. A woman with very blonde hair was standing in front of the blue building, her eyes were emerald green and her shirt hung low on her chest enough to make anyone blush; which both men were ashamed of in the fact that they did.

"Hello! I'm Kawaki but everyone calls me Misstress." Her voice is low and seductive in nature. She looks Naruto up and down, biting her lip while paying no mind to Sasuke.

"M-mistress?" Naruto stutters out. A deep blush covering his cheeks. Sasuke gives him a look as Naruto nervously kicks at the ground.

"Yes, I'm the town representative. Who might you be, you sexy beast of a man?" She gets up close to him, playing with the opening of his jacket. Her fingers are long with bright red nails. They could almost be pretty if they weren't attached to her. At least that's what Sasuke was thinking. He has half the nerve to shove her away, but Naruto begins to speak before he can make a move.

"N-Naruto Uzumaki." He tries to give her eye contact to be polite as he scratches the back of his neck. A smirk appears on her red lips as she dips her finger tips inside his jacket and up his chest slowly. Naruto is frozen in place, not knowing what to do. He blushes deeper and laughs nervously at the sensation.

Sasuke scoffs loudly, causing Kawaki to stop her toying momentarily. Naruto takes the opportunity to step back, trying his best to breathe at a normal pace and not like he'd just ran a marathon.

"You should really ask permission before touching a Leaf Chinobi." Sasukes words were laced with poison. His heart rate exhilarates and his fists clench.

"Oh my." Kawaki finally acknowledges Sasuke. She looks him up and down, cocking her eyebrows. "Tall, dark, and broody? Not really my type, but I'm sure you're such a peach to be around, sweetheart" Her little pet name came off with as much sarcasm and sass that Naruto has ever heard. She could give Lady Tsunade a run for her money. Kawaki gives a hearty laugh and snaps a wicked smile towards Sasuke and then turns to Naruto and blows him a kiss. Naruto looks at her like she's crazy.

"Sasuke Ochiha." His jaw clenches so tight that even Naruto can hear it. Kawaki gives no mind to him and decides to look at Naruto instead.

"I hired you to deal with this band of thugs that keeps terrorizing our small village. Here, come with me." She grabs Naruto's hand and leads him inside. She almost closes the door on Sasuke, but he manages to get in and pushes past Naruto and Kawaki, giving Naruto a hard shove with his shoulder.

Naruto feels weird and lets go of the womans hand, placing both in his jacket pockets. He feels ashamed and guilty but why? He's done nothing wrong!

'It's this crazy old bat who keeps acting up! I don't know why Sasuke is mad at me for her!'

Kawaki just rolls her eyes as Sasuke walks by and the begins the tour of her establishment, bluntly named 'Mistresses'.

"This town is a bit odd I'm sure you noticed. We started off as just a lawless place with taverns and brothels for people to indulge in their desires." Kawaki gives Naruto a wink, making him blush deeper than he already has. Sasuke visibly rolls his eyes, "So these thugs think they can take advantage of us just because of that. Little do they know, we actually have a well working system with me as the leader. Although I didn't want the job, people always seemed to come to me looking for assistance so it just sort of happened."

"So what do these thugs do exactly?" Naruto asks, getting serious.

"Great question, Sexy", she comes closer to Naruto again and squeezes his bicep. She bites her lip and continues on, "They mug people coming in and out of town and have beaten a few of our guards. They're a rather sporadic bunch, so it's hard to say when they'll be back again but they do only attack at night. I've prepared a room for the both of you here so you can stay as long as you need." She smiles, motioning for both to follow. "My place is the best to stay. Best tatami mats and service." She winks at Naruto. Then Mistress opens room 4.

"I only have one room available so you'll have to bunk together but I'm sure you're used to it." The door opens to reveal a big clean room. Sasuke is surprised at how well it's been kept up, despite that this is probably another brothel. There is a big dresser, a little table off by the window and in the center is one mattress. Naruto and Sasuke look at the one bed and tense up. Sasuke blushes and turns away from Naruto so he won't see.

'Why am I so nervous? It's just a room...with one bed…' Naruto thinks to himself.

Kawaki gives both boys a weird look. "Get settled in and rest up. I'll come and get you when it's time." She leaves the two in the big room. They set their stuff down and Naruto decides to flop onto the bed. It was so soft he could just fall asleep right now.

"I'll sleep on the floor." Sasuke mutters, grabbing a pillow and throwing it down onto the floor. Hoping he could sleep a bit before going out.

"What?" Naruto shoots up.

"You're clearly excited about the bed. I don't mind sleeping on the ground. Besides, I'm used to it."

"But, Sasuke, you're hurt!" Naruto's voice was loud but Sasuke could hear it was laced with concern.

"I'm fine." Sasuke lays himself on the floor and closes his eyes, done with discussing the sleeping arrangement.

"You were slower today." Naruto's voice rang out in a sing song tone. Sasuke opens his eyes and looks up at him, glaring.

"I was not stop being dramatic, idiot." He proceeds to lay down on the ground hiding a wince as he does so.

"You were slower, Bastard, and you know it!" Naruto throws a pillow at Sasuke when an idea pops into his head. "I actually have a solution to your problem." Naruto sent Sasuke a knowing look and Sasuke tried his best to ignore him.

"I swear it works!" The blonde goes over to Sasuke and crouches over him, a grin on his lips. Sasuke tries to shoo the word cute from his mind as he avoids eye contact.

Seeing that Naruto refuses to leave him alone, he asks, "What would that be?"

"I know your back has been hurting you, but I just remembered that Sakura taught me how to relieve muscle pain so I could help her out after fights. Her punches actually cause her a lot of muscle ache." He mutters.

This spiked Sasukes interest. Even though he denies it, Sasuke was in pain. He felt it the most when they were traveling. Sharp pains would shoot up his spine almost causing him to fall from the trees they were leaping through. Even his jaw hurt from his teeth clenching to hide the pain.

"What exactly would you be doing?" His voice was low and unsure but he kept his head down on his pillow.

"How else do you relieve muscle pain, Sasuke." Naruto mutters. Sasuke tenses.

'Is he suggesting...'

"I know you don't like being touched, Sasuke. And I won't do it if you don't want to, but I think a massage will help." Sasuke's heart was pounding hard in his chest.

'Narutos hands touching me. His warm hands carressing...'

Sasuke shakes his head roughly, actually causing another shot of pain. He visibly winces and Naruto is quickly at his side. The concern in his blue eyes alone is enough to make any wall Sasuke built up crumble to pieces. His puppy eyes practically forcing his hand in agreeance, though deep down, Sasuke doesn't mind having Naruto touch him. Besides, he was in pain so anything was better than nothing at this point.

He gives a big sigh in defeat, "Okay."

Narutos lips quirk up with a small smile. He helps Sasuke get up, patting it and says, "Sit on the bed."

Sasuke gets settled in, a blush covering his pale cheeks as he crawls to where Naruto patted. It was a very nice bed and Sasuke took the time to appreciate how soft it was. As he got into position, he thought about how lovely it would be to sleep in it tonight. With Naruto.

Naruto scoots closer causing the man to sink further into the mattress. Naruto sits himself up against the headframe of the bed and sits himself on his knees. Sasuke can feel just how close Naruto is and a shiver wrecks through his body.

"Sasuke I don't want to push you too much. But uhh-" Sasuke gulps anticipating the question, "Canyoutakeoffyourshirt!" The words spill in a jumbled mess and Sasuke can barely make out what was said.

"Why!" Sasuke's voice cracks slightly but nothing compares to how red the blonde is.

"I can't see where the bruise is." Naruto states, trying to act as if his entire body isn't on fire, "You didn't let me see it long enough for me to just remember."

The room was so silent, both men not daring to make the next move. "I'm just afraid I'll hurt you." The words were dripping with concern. His blue eyes reflect the same concern causing Sasuke to lose all free will he once had.

'Damn those eyes' Sasuke curses to himself. They always got to him and he was certain that Naruto knew that and took advantage of him.

Sasuke sighs and slips the top off. Naruto has to hold in a gasp. It had been a few days since he had last seen the bruise. Although it was a bit better, the bruise was still a deep purple in the center of his spine. Naruto started by shifting closer, opening his knees and aligning them with Sasuke's hips. Sasuke sat himself on his knees as well, keeping his legs close together with his hands placed firmly on his legs to support him.

Naruto starts where he knows is safe; he lays both hands onto Sasuke's shoulders, trying to ignore Sasuke jumping in response to the contact. His thumbs trace his shoulder blades softly. Narutos fingers rest on his defined collar bones.

'Such smooth skin…'

Naruto can feel just how tense the man's muscles were just by his shoulders and mutters, "You need to take better care of yourself."

Sasuke goes to snap back in response but Naruto pushes his thumbs into Sasuke's shoulders soothing out a knot he found immediately. Sasuke's words catch in his throat as a groan escapes his lips.

"I'm sorry, Sas-"

"IIT"S FINE!" Sasuke barks. He realizes that may have been too harsh and softly speaks, "Um...it's ok."

Naruto starts again, being careful around Sasuke's injury. His fingers and thumbs knead through the tense muscle expertly as he works his way to Sasuke's neck, getting closer to the bruise there. The blonde nudges Sasuke's head to the left giving him access to the whole right side of his neck. He uses this time to check over his neck being he wasn't able to before. He drags his fingers down his neck feeling for anything out of the ordinary.

Naruto moves closer, his knees now aligned with Sasuke's outer thighs. Not noticing anything, he starts to knead with his finger tips. Sasuke bites his lips as Naruto works his shoulders and neck. It was painful, but it felt good.

Naruto traces his fingers down back to the raven collar bones, gently pushing some of his black hair out of the way. The way his fingers caressed his neck made Sasuke shiver, but that was immediately replaced with more pain as Naruto resumed kneading his shoulders.

"Sasuke, I'm going to work down your back now." When Naruto received no response, he figured that was the go ahead. Sasuke had been biting his lip to suppress any noise threatening to spill out. Causing the Raven to be afraid of responding.

Naruto's hands travel down Sasuke's back. His thumbs still pressed into his back. Following the toned lines of his torso and pushing a bit hard into his ribs. A hiss of pain escapes Sasuke's lips and he arches his back trying to get away from Naruto's hands. His head falling back and landing on Naruto's shoulder. His teeth pressed hard into his lips almost drawing blood.

"Fuck! Naruto!" loudly falls out of Sasuke's mouth.

"Sasuke, I'm so sorry." Naruto whispers as his hands drop from Sasuke's back.

Instinctually he pulls Sasuke closer into a hug as the guilt of causing so much pain washes over him. He wraps his arms around Sasuke, grabbing his shoulders and drawing him closer. His hips come into contact with Sasuke's back side. Naruto lets his head fall onto Sasuke's shoulder and it rolls naturally into the crook of his neck.

Sasuke's eyes widen, no longer caring about the pain he feels. He can feel Naruto's lips against his neck as he apologies over and over. His hands squeeze his shoulders and Sasuke takes one of his hands to try and loosen Naruo's grip while his other hand lands on Naruto's hips, which are tantilizingly close. He tries to push Naruto off of him when the door opens.

"I thought I'd let you boys know-oh shit!" Mistress covers her eyes. A chuckle escaping her painted lips.

Naruto and Sasuke pull apart, both turning the color of tomatoes.

"I'm sorry, boys! Just know there's food in the lobby! Ok bye don't let me ruin the mood!" She quickly leaves slamming the door behind her.

Sasuke practically threw himself on the floor covering his face in embarrassment. Naruto knew to leave him well enough so he lays back onto the bed covering his face.

'Stupid! How could I be so stupid!' Naruto face palms.

He quickly gets up and leaves the room. When Naruto closes the door, he flops his back against it and slides down so he is seated on the floor. He places his hands in his face and silently curses himself. Moments later, the door opens and Naruto falls back into the room.

Looking up he sees Sasuke. He looks down on him with such anger and he quickly steps over Naruto and heads off towards the hall. Naruto shoots up and follows Sasuke knowing it would be good to eat. The meal was quick and shared in silence before they both got up and hurried back to sleep. Not a word was spoken for the rest of the night.

Both men tried their best to sleep and to avoid the awkward conversation that was bound to come sooner than they both wanted. Naruto tossed and turned on the floor. He took the spot on the floor before Sasuke could so he could use the bed. He could feel the anger coming from Sasuke's eyes when he found out but he never said a word and just took the bed anyways.

He had no idea how Sasuke was doing, but Naruto got zero sleep. He kept thinking about the massage. How close he was to Sasuke. It was so intimate and-

There was a knock on their door. Naruto groans and gets up to answer. He looks towards Sasuke and sees that his eyes are open as well.

"Hurry, leaf ninja! The thugs are attacking someone just outside the village!" Mistress frantically states before Naruto can even get to the door. She pounds louder but Naruto assures her they are coming.

Naruto and Sasuke quickly get up and grab what they need to sprint to the front gate. When they finally get there, they see 4 men surrounding a father and his child.

"Just give us the money, asshole, or we'll hurt the kid." Naruto notices one of the 4 men grab the child placing a kunai against her neck. The child is crying, begging to be let go as the poor dad pleads for his daughter's life.

"How about you let them both go!" Naruto boldly states, landing right in front of the crowd. Sasuke right next to him with his arms crossed.

"Leaf Ninja!" One of the men yell, causing Naruto to smirk.

"Damn right! Now let them go and we'll take it easy on you." Sasuke scoffs in agreeance and Naruto devilishly smiles. He knew this would be an easy fight as soon as he laid his eyes on the rag tag team of bullies. They had nothing on him and Sasuke.

The thug with the little girl presses the kunai further into her neck, but Naruto quickly does shadow clone jutsu, surrounding the whole area. They all jump at once and Sasuke pushes through grabbing the little girl. Sasuke makes it out, placing the girl down by her father. He tells them to leave and the father thanks him before dashing off into the night.

Sasuke makes his way back quickly and pulls out his kunai. He rejoins Naruto and they stand back to back against the men, staring each other down as they do. Sasuke would agree that this fight would be easy even with his bad back.

As they all stare down eachother, one of the men strikes first, hitting one of Naruo's shadow clones. It poofs away and now the fight has begun.

Naruto lands a blow on the first thug to strike. The man crumbles to the ground groaning in pain as the blonde moves to the next one. Sasuke kicks one guy down then he uses a kunai and string to secure the man's feet. The last thug, one that was standing back the whole fight, had his sights on Naruto.

Sasuke notices the man pull out 4 black kunai. As quickly as he could, Sasuke throws a kunai of his own, knocking the four out of the air. This caused a sharp pain to shoot through his spine and he momentarily winces.

The man standing in the back notices Sasuke's slight lack of movement as he pulls out 4 more kunai and throws them directly at the Ochiah. Sasuke manages to miss all of them but barely.

'He must have known my movement is off. Damn it!' Sasuke thinks as he dodges the fast moving weapons coming his way.

A kunai sliced through the sleeve of his left arm causing Sasuke to wince. One of Naruto's clones tackles the suspicious man and gets him down.

"Are you ok?" the clone asks. Sasuke glances to his side noticing another clone and smiles slightly.

'Even his damn clones are so concerned for me. That idiot.'

"Yeah I'm fine now go help out." The clone just sighs. And heads off to restrain the four criminals.

Within seconds, the fight is over as expected. Naruto and Sasuke had taken down the bunch with little trouble. Naruto calls back his clones and walks over to Sasuke triumphantly with a huge grin.

"Easy job!" He states while throwing his arm around his shoulders.

"Watch it, idiot!" Sasuke whines as he removes Naruto's heavy arm from his still bruised and very much tender shoulders.

"Oh!" Naruto jumps back and rubs his neck nervously. "Gee, Sasuke, I'm sorry I just forgot, ya know?" He chuckles and makes a wide smile trying to lighten the mood.

Sasuke can't help but smile a bit. He knew he didn't truly mean to hurt him, and he couldn't stay too mad at his big, goofy smile. Sasuke shakes it off and is just glad that their mission is finally over.

This mission was pretty easy and they could take the trip home slow. Maybe slow enough that he'd be able to heal up a bit. Not to mention they could finally leave that god forsaken brothel and that Mistress or whatever she wants you to call her. All that was left was taking these thugs back to whatever jail cell they had here and then they could go home.

Naruto starts to rope two men together. "You take those two. I'll take these two, let's get them locked up." Sasuke nods, grabbing the arm of the man who managed to cut him roughly.

If he was being honest with himself, he felt embarrassed that this low life even got the jump on him, especially after what had happened on their last mission. Sasuke felt his blood boil and he handled the man rougher than he should have.

When he has his two men wrangled together, Sasuke instantly feels light headed. He tries to stand up straight but wobbles a bit. His breath is catching in his throat and he is starting to lose vision in his eyes.

"What the…" Sasuke grabs his head, trying to get it to stop spinning so much.

A snicker leaves the lips of the suspicious man causing Sasuke to look at him. "Careful, pretty boy. You might want to get that checked out." A guttural laugh escapes the man's mouth.

"Nar.." Sasuke could barely talk as he tried to catch himself from falling.

"Sasuke?" Naruto rushes forward the second he sees Sasuke start to sway. A few guards run up to escort the criminals away once they see the panicked look on the leaf ninjas faces.

"N-n" Sasuke grips Narutos jacket as tightly as he can. His eyes roll back and he falls forward right into Uzumaki's arms. Naruto guides them both to the ground, his hands shaking as he sees how pale Sasuke is becoming.

"Sasuke! This isn't funny! Wake up!" He shakes his shoulders but Sasuke won't open his eyes. His lips are turning a deep blue and he looks like he's not breathing anymore. Naruto desperately shakes Sasuke again as tears well in his blue eyes.

"Sasuke! Wake up, Bastard!" He pushes the raven hair away from Sasuke's cheeks in search of the onyx eyes Naruto is so fond of. He desperately searches for a pulse and can't seem to find one.

"SASUKE!"