A/N: Alright, so, the past few chapters have been pretty low on feedback, so I'm a little concerned that you guys are feeling some fatigue from this fic. Will discuss more in the ending note.

Opening scene is very M-rated, for subject matter and themes. Not too bad, though. I won't be pulling out all the stops till a little later lmao

Time for Chapter 55

Enjoy!


Satsuki Uchiha was not a crude person.

In terms of etiquette, unless she was truly comfortable and sure of the situation, she was polite and curt, if not quite warm. In terms of dress, while her skirts tended to be an inch or two short of modesty, she never wore anything particularly revealing. Even in terms of personal thought, her mind did not often stray away from the mundane broadly speaking. These trends had held true for the entirety of her life, and up until very recently, they had shown no signs of alteration or waver. Cracks in this wall of stoicism and monotonous propriety were to be expected, she was of age for such things, but how she felt now was a bridge further than an errant thought.

In some ways, depending on perspective, sharing a bed with a person of the opposite gender was inherently improper, but the path by which Satsuki had guided Naruto under her covers and into her grasp was pure. She had offered to share for a second time partially to motivate him and lift his spirits, but also because, no matter what flavor of denial she tried, she slept more peacefully in his arms. Her intentions had been pure. As much so as they could have been, given their individual issues. Unfortunately, her body did not agree with her mind.

Naruto had long since fallen asleep. He had knocked all the way out less than five minutes after they had settled on her mattress. He moved periodically, but he was a heavy sleeper, and they were as tightly wrapped up as they had been at the start. Satsuki, however, had still yet to find rest. She did not know exactly how long she had been laying awake, but it likely exceeded an hour, possibly two. In that time, something had become more and more apparent to her with every passing second.

She was painfully aroused.

The feeling had set in within minutes of them tangling up to sleep, and it had only grown stronger from then on. Naruto was not touching her in a sensual way. His hands were on the back of her neck and middle of her back respectively, and his grip had never been forceful. He was holding her in a way that should have inspired comfort. It made no difference. Instead of feeling sleepy and content, she felt tense and hot. No one thing was fueling her desire. It was unfocused. Everything about him was playing a role.

He was not rippling with exaggerated muscle, but he was defined, and he was strong. She could feel it through his t-shirt. He was not wearing cologne of any kind, but the way he smelled was intoxicating. He was not smooth to the touch, and she could feel patches of scar tissue along his arms, but she wanted nothing more than to rip off his shirt to get at the hot skin beneath it. Her face was pressed into his neck, and she had exercised considerable will power to not mark it with her lips .

One of her old habits was coming back to bite her as well. Since she had been very small, she had tended to wrap her legs around whatever she was clinging to. Almost always her mother's leg, on nights that nightmares took hold of her. She had done the same to Naruto as they were settling into place. She had meant it as a quiet sign of affection. A cue that she wanted to be as close to him as possible. Now, in a roundabout way, it was backfiring. By no fault of his own, Naruto's lower thigh near his knee was pressed up between her legs.

'This wasn't an issue last time. Why now?' Satsuki silently wondered as she breathed heavily into his neck. While the position in which they had slept several days earlier was largely identical to the one the Uchiha was finding so very difficult at present, a key difference was that she had fallen asleep immediately the previous time, and hadn't been awake long enough to think. It was not the first time she had caught herself indulging in more mature fantasies regarding the blonde, but she had been able to suppress them all in the past. As of now, that did not appear to be an option.

As she struggled against herself, Naruto groaned quietly in his sleep and shifted, causing his hands to move a few inches. Now, the hand that had been resting in her hair was on the side of her neck, and the hand once on her back was now pinned between the mattress and her hip. As with everything else, it was not his fault. Naruto was even less provocative than she was as a personality. He had simply twitched amid his slumber. Satsuki swallowed tensely and scooted back just enough to see his face. It proved to be a mistake.

He was still sound asleep, with a look of unwitting comfort. Unassuming as he looked, the sight of his mouth and gradually-defining jaw only made the Uchiha girl heat up further. Shakily, Satsuki drew her right hand back from his chest and grazed her fingers over his lips.

"If you only knew…what I'd let you do to me." she whispered, trailing her hand down from his face to his neck. Her legs were still locked around his thigh. Her level-headed side was begging her to release the grip, but she did not. She feared waking him, and the effect his voice would inevitably have, but in a simpler sense, she liked the feeling far too much. He was nearly touching her somewhere incredibly sensitive, without even knowing it or meaning to. Something about that fact drove her to want to walk that line until it became entirely too much.

No matter the excitement, it was frustrating. She could do nothing to relieve the stress. Not in a way that would matter. As deep into the feeling of desire as she was, she had the decency to not make a mess of her sheets while he was sleeping in them. On her own, at least. She was coiled up like a spring, and growing tighter by the minute. For better or worse, Naruto moved ninety-odd seconds later. His hands shifted back into their previous, more wholesome positions, and he pulled on her weakly. Satsuki relented and nestled back into him, nuzzling her nose on his before tucking back under his chin.

With her face buried in his chest, the Uchiha girl forced herself to ignore the wetness between her legs and close her eyes. Laying awake and dwelling on what she couldn't yet have would only serve as torture. She was, at her core, ashamed of the urges plaguing her more and more often. Naruto's gestures of affection were entirely innocent, and held great significance to her, for she knew that he struggled to express himself along such lines. All the while, Satsuki's own jumbled feelings were permeated by lust.

'He's a teenage boy. He's definitely imagined you naked.' she reasoned. Likely as it was to be true, the girl's guilt held firm. He tried his very best day in and day out. He was far from perfect, and he frustrated her plenty, but there was something intrinsically gentle to him that melted Satsuki from the inside out. Even in his vicious confrontation with Gaara, he had spent much of the battle ensuring her safety.

'He thinks about protecting you while you think about fucking him. You're so damn gross.' Satsuki mentally berated herself, clenching her jaw and tightening her renewed grip on Naruto. In a clearer headspace, she may have recognized the truth that, despite her carnal wants and needs, her care for the blonde ran far deeper than she was acknowledging, but she was a long way from such clarity. Finally finding herself exhausted, both from repression and the tears that had soaked into Naruto's shirt, Satsuki leaned into the sleep reaching out for her.

'I wish I was…more like you.' she silently projected to her dozing teammate. With eerie timing, Naruto squeezed her unconsciously.

Stuck between contentment and self-loathing, Satsuki finally fell asleep.


The incessant ringing of Naruto's clock tended to start off his days with irritation. Thankfully, things were different this morning as opposed to previous. Waking to movement rather than an alarm was a welcome change of pace. With his eyes dragging open in response to the shifting of weight right next to him, he was met by a sight much more pleasant than the bland ceiling that usually greeted him. Having risen a few moments prior from the looks of things, Satsuki was sitting up in the bed directly next to him.

The sun was streaming into the room through the half-open blinds of the window above the bed, landing right on the Uchiha. As she stretched her arms and back, Naruto watched her in silence. Illuminated by the brightness against her pale skin and dark hair, he couldn't help but stare. She was more disheveled than she usually was, understandably so, but he found her to be gorgeous nonetheless. Shaking himself from his awe, he sat up alongside her. Predictably, Satsuki turned her head to look at him.

A greeting did not come immediately. For several seconds, the Uchiha simply gazed at him, something indiscernible dancing about in her irises. The odd pause ceased quickly.

"Sleep alright?" she asked. Naruto gave an improvised thumbs-up as a yawn interrupted his attempted response.

"Like a baby, for once. I barely remember falling asleep, honestly. What about you?" he said. Satsuki's reaction was rather strange, as a rigid tension appeared to leave her frame at his words. Fiddling with the soft fabric of her nightgown, the Uchiha blew a strand of hair out of her face.

"Took me a little longer than you, but I feel rested." she replied, taking a glance up at the clock as she spoke. A light chuckle followed.

"I need to be careful letting you in here. It's half-past noon." she said humorously, throwing her legs over the side of the bed and standing up with another stretch. As with the view he'd awoken to, Naruto caught himself staring again as the girl walked over to her dresser. Something else was drawing his attention this time. The slight swing of her hips with every step she took. It was a small motion, far from exaggerated, but it was so distinctly feminine that the Jinchuuriki felt an ill-timed heat hit his cheeks.

'Quit being weird. Look somewhere else.' he thought to himself, thoroughly off-put by his own train of thought. Unfortunately for him, Satsuki looked his way a split-second before he could correct his line of sight. In turn, she saw him awkwardly jerk his head to the side. Realizing that he had been unequivocally caught, Naruto nervously turned to face her again. She did not appear upset in the least, but she looked decidedly quite smug, with a self-pleased smirk on her face.

"You're such a boy." she said, pivoting back toward the dresser and throwing her hair back over her shoulder. Having noticed it once before, her walk now stuck out like a frustratingly alluring thumb. Patting his warm cheeks, Naruto slid himself off the bed and rubbed the excess sleep from his eyes.

"Not my fault you dress skimpy at night." he muttered back. Satsuki snorted and faced him again, leaning back against the flat of the dresser, a set of clothes in hand.

"It's just a basic nightgown. You can handle some legs and collarbone." she said casually, the confident smile still strong across her lips. Naruto's left eye twitched as he fought back the urge to look her up and down. His mouth then moved before his mind could catch up.

"It's not even that. It…hugs you." he said, lamenting right away that he had been far too detailed. Satsuki took a peek down at the black dress.

"Maybe a little, but that's your fault. Wrapping me up the way you like to gets it all stuck to me." she admitted, fiddling with one of her shoulder strings. She then stepped away from the dresser and walked up to him, stopping well within his personal space.

"Not that I'm complaining. You're a great bedmate." she said suggestively. In such close quarters, Naruto was reminded of the fact that she was still an inch or two taller than he was. With little delay in between, the Uchiha gave him a kiss on the cheek just to the right of his mouth and stepped around him.

"I'm gonna take a shower. Stick around. I'll make breakfast." she offered, exiting through the door a moment later and leaving him alone in her room. Once she was gone, the Jinchuuriki released the breath he had been unknowingly holding. He felt hot all over, and his mouth was dry. Sighing, he sat back down on the end of the bed.

'She's loving this.' he grumbled within his mind. Naruto broadly disliked having his buttons pushed, but the raven-haired girl had slowly managed to condition him into tolerating her brand of bullying. Her methodology varied, but it was always the same fundamentally. She would lure him into a verbal slip up, and relentlessly pester him for it. Contrastingly, however, what had just occurred did not feel like an attempt to mock him. Provocative and teasing as she had been, every word she'd spoken had come off as genuine.

She was deeply confusing on every level. One day, self-hating and melancholic, the next, flirtatious and high-spirited. Her moods swung back and forth like an emotional pendulum. Shaking his head and popping back up to his feet again, Naruto chose to take her at her word. Leaving her room and exiting into the hallway, he set out to wait in the kitchen.

'It better not be eggs. I hate eggs.'


Satsuki flinched a bit as she dragged the brush caught on a snag in her hair. She enjoyed bathing thoroughly for the most part, but managing her hair had always been the most tedious aspect of it all. Even now, several inches shorter than usual, it was a pain to brush, and washing it had been a long process. She was grateful for the looks her mother had given her, but they came at a price. Finally breaking the tangle, she pulled the brush all the way through her hair. After several more strokes, she was satisfied.

'At least it's straight. Curly would be a nightmare.' she thought to herself as she set the brush aside. Taking a deep breath, she looked up from the bathroom counter and studied her reflection. Mirrors still made her uneasy, but she had developed a greater tolerance for them in recent times. She couldn't look for long, but she could at least evaluate her appearance for a few moments. She was satisfied with what she saw.

A few stray abrasions still remain from the leathering Gaara had put her through, as the medical staff had entirely focused on her more severe injuries, but her skin was clear, and the circles under her eyes were fading. Smoothing out a few wrinkles in her blue shirt, Satsuki smiled inwardly. She then picked up a pair of earrings she had set out before her shower and carefully put them on. It was a delicate procedure, as the tiny holes in her earlobes were not perfect. She had pierced them herself with a sewing needle several years prior.

With the small jewelry in place without incident, Satsuki turned away from the mirror and toward the door. She had no qualms about fixing a late breakfast, and having Naruto as an audience stressed her far less than it had the last time she'd cooked for them both, but she was being halted by a distinct feeling that she had overstepped several boundaries upon their awakening side-by-side.

'It's not your fault he was staring.' she thought to herself. It was true in a literal sense. She had not disliked the attention by any means, and it had been Naruto's choice to comment further, but she had nudged him along by poking at his ego. He always fired back, no matter the topic. It was who he was. He simply couldn't help himself. The give and take that had followed had not escalated far, but Satsuki had once again dabbled in a place she felt was objectifying toward her teammate.

Her ability to put on airs was finely honed, and she had clearly convinced him of her composure, but her mind had been a mess of graphic dreams and scenarios. Especially once she had stepped closer to him. In reality, she had left the room so abruptly to save her own skin from choking under the pressure she herself had created. Naruto had not been unreceptive, his body language and wandering eyes had betrayed his thoughts to some extent, but he had been even less sure of what to do about them than the Uchiha.

The predicament was not that the signals Satsuki was sending were inaccurate or misleading. They were completely honest. The issue was that she was beginning to lose her handle one when those messages were being transmitted and how. Against her better judgment, the girl stole a glimpse at the mirror. For the short-lived few seconds she studied herself, she focused on the tattoo branded into her neck. The marking had not inflicted the raw, paralyzing anguish it usually did over the past few days, but a dull ache had been eating at her since the sealing procedure had tamed it anew.

'Let's…not think that way.' she decided, deflecting the unpleasant root of paranoia sprouting up in the back of her mind. She then reached for the handle, opened the bathroom door, and stepped out into the hallway.

'Hope he likes eggs. Breakfast isn't my strong suit.'


Kakashi narrowly overcame his urge to groan as the door knob of his hospital room door began to turn. Being stuck in scratchy cotton sheets for days on end was the furthest thing from fun in general, but the visitors only made the experience worse. The vast majority had been thinly-disguised insurance brokers, and the few that weren't had little to say beyond generic condolence and thanks for his service. As the door creaked open on its hinges, Kakashi was pleasantly surprised to see Hiruzen standing on the other side of the frame.

"I would have visited sooner, but logistics have been hell on earth." the old man apologized tiredly, stepping into the room and closing the door behind him. Kakashi posted up on his elbows and slid up into a sitting position. He had managed to steal a medical mask from one of the nurses during a routine lunch, allowing him to cover his face as he always did.

"No hard feelings. Honored either way." he said as he adjusted his eyepatch. Hiruzen sat himself down in a chair on the leftmost wall. He looked completely exhausted.

"You really didn't have to do what you did. I had a plan." he said. The Copy Ninja gave the older man a knowing look.

"We still need you around. There'd be a political bloodbath if you left a vacant seat without warning." he said. Hiruzen chuckled dryly.

"That's how you view me, hm? Just a toothpick holding up the weight of a country?" he joked. The levity on his face was quickly replaced by somberness.

"It might happen sooner than you'd think. I'm old, Kakashi. Even if I didn't have this job, my body is falling apart. I can't even think as clearly as I used to. Things just…slip away from me these days." he said. Hiruzen was not unrelatable in most cases, his broad appeal among the populous was strongly rooted in his humanity, but such vulnerability was not commonplace, even for him.

"I came off wrong. Forgive me. All I'm saying is that we both know you have enemies. Enemies only you know how to deal with." Kakashi said, choosing his words carefully. The Hokage pursed his lips.

"Knowing how to deal with something and having the gumption to act are two different things. I've let too many things slide over the years. I've been too lenient. I can't say too much, but be ready when the time comes. I won't be leaving behind a clean slate." he said vaguely. The jonin raised an eyebrow.

"Are you offering me a job? I feel like you are." he asked. Hiruzen cracked a sage smile and leaned back in the stiff chair.

"Not yet, no. Maybe in a few years. For now, I still feel able enough to lead." he elucidated. Kakashi let out a slight sigh of relief. Opting not to press the subject any further for a variety of reasons, he redirected the conversation elsewhere.

"Any idea how my team is doing? I haven't seen them since it all went down." he asked. Part of him was disappointed to have not been visited, but from personal experience, he knew all too well that such combat often inspired isolation in its aftermath.

"The Nara family all came down with pneumonia, according to Shikaku, so Shikamaru won't be available for a good few days. As for Naruto and Satsuki, I think they've been keeping to themselves. Or each other. Probably a bit of both." the elderly leader said. Kakashi nodded.

"Sounds about right. I know I probably shouldn't ask, but what are you thinking for promotions?" he inquired. Hiruzen reached into the pocket of his robes and produced the pipe he often smoked.

"As much as I like him, Naruto has been ruled out. His performance against Neji Hyuga was impressive, and his actions during the invasion were admirable, but he's far too reckless and self-endangering to be left to his own devices just yet. Satsuki has a better argument, but I can't help but feel that she lacks the stability to act independently on assignments." he explained, deciding against smoking and pocketing the pipe again.

"What about Shikamaru?" Kakashi asked. The old man stroked his bearded chin, taking a fair bit longer to consider his answer than before.

"He's who I'm stuck on. His showing in the final round was resourceful and captivating, and he did good work during his time on the border patrol. Quite frankly, he'd be a shoe-in for promotion if he weren't less than three months removed from a strike on his record." he began. His concerns were valid, if a bit disappointing.

"I'm still leaning toward a conditional promotion. He's a good fit for independent work, even as inexperienced as he is." the Hokage concluded. It was good news at the face of it, but the asterisk still raised questions.

"What would the caveats be for his rank? I feel like I know what you have in mind, but I'd like to hear it ahead of time." Kakashi said. Hiruzen stood up from his chair and paced across the room.

"It's not by the book, but he'd still be under your jurisdiction for a few months. He'd still have the authority to lead small-scale missions, but his work would mostly be with you and the rest of his team. Do you have any objections to such an arrangement?" he replied. The Copy Ninja considered the information for a few moments before nodding.

"That sounds fair, I guess." he agreed. The Hokage stopped pacing and stepped back toward the door.

"I'm glad you think so. Sleep if you can. You may be needed soon." he said, opening the door and beginning to leave the room. Before he could depart, Kakashi voiced one last concern.

"Can you get them to let me out of here early? I can take it easy at home." he requested. Hiruzen cracked a humorous smile.

"I'll see what I can do."


A/N: So, to address the elephant in the room with this chapter right away:

I will not be ignoring the hormonal/sexual aspect of Naruto and Satsuki's dynamic. Anybody who's ever been a teenager/young adult knows that it's absolutely a factor, and in this case, I think it's an important thing to acknowledge and write out.

I'll be as tasteful about M-rated scenes regarding the topic as I can be, but there *will* be some rather NSFW stuff in this fic.

Mooooving on,

Are you guys feeling burnt out on this fic? It's a long story, and I'm taking a gradual pace with things, so I understand if you want a break.

I'll take some time away if the consensus is "yes"

Either way, I love you all :)

Read and Review!