Hey guys. Here is the next round of updates. :D

Expect Treacherous Heart to get some loving too!

Also: note: I know I said in the previous chapter that Sasuke's clan was slaughtered when he was ten.

Let's make it eight, okay? So. New truth: The clan was slaughtered when Sasuke was eight. Eiiiiiiiight.

We all on the same page? Good. Okay. Let's rock.

Promises Not Made are Promises Never Kept

Flashback Sixteen – Sex

As they walked down the tunnel, Zabuza and the she-warrior were silent, following Patzu with their charges quiet as well.

After a long while, Zabuza looked over to the woman, who wasn't quite as tall as him, but matched his stride with equal confidence.

"So…" he began nonchalantly. "What horrible things have you done to earn yourself a place in Andora?"

The woman looked at him blankly, raised an eyebrow at him.

"Is that always how you open up conversations?" She asked monotonously before turning her gaze back to the tunnel in front of them. Zabuza shrugged.

"I figured simple pleasantries wouldn't be appreciated," he replied easily. "Nobody wields a weapon like that and chats about the weather."

"It's a little cold, but I'm sure it'll warm up as soon as the rain stops," she commented pointedly before raising another eyebrow at him. He smirked at her beneath his bandages as she looked forward again. "Why do you even care?"

"I don't," Zabuza responded – too quickly, he realized after. Sasuke and Haku raised an eyebrow at each other as they followed him. "It's going to be a long and treacherous journey. Might as well fill the silence."

"By speaking mewling pleasantries?" She asked with a scowl. Zabuza returned the expression.

"That's what I was trying to avoid!" He snapped defensively. Sighing in exasperation, he looked away from her. "Never mind."

They were in silence for the rest of the way. After a few hours, they emerged in another outcropping, where there was a small hut carved into the side of the rock wall. The sun was well below the horizon now.

"This is where we'll stay for the night," Patzu informed them, turning to the group. "We'll continue at first light. There are two rooms. They're small, but they'll do."

The place was a dump. There were two beds that were closer to just a wooden frame with weak blankets covering the boards, and an ugly yellow sofa that was chewed up and missing a cushion. But it had a roof. Just no doors and no windows.

There were a couple of tables that were falling apart, but other than that and the three other pieces of 'furniture' there was nothing else in the shack except for a dingy fireplace built to hide the flames from anything roaming the mountains.

Zabuza and the two boys took one room while the she-warrior and her girl took the other. For a while, Patzu remained outside, keeping watch.

"This is psycho," Sasuke breathed softly, in fear of someone overhearing as Zabuza went through their supplies for dinner. "That Patzu guy gives me the creeps."

"We're almost there," Zabuza replied simply, handing him some wrapped jerky and a roll. "Just a few hours more of walking and we should make it to Andora."

Sasuke wanted so badly to ask Zabuza about the woman, but kept quiet. If Zabuza didn't bring it up, he didn't want to talk about it.

As they sat on the floor, light filtered through from the center room (there were no doors except for the one leading to the outside) and Zabuza looked up at the sight.

"Stay here, get comfortable," he told the boys. "Well, as comfortable as you can. Let me know if that creep tries something and I'm not already here."

Without another word, he stood and walked out. Haku and Sasuke exchanged glances, and shrugged.


Zabuza entered the center room to see the she-warrior kneeling by the fireplace, axes still strapped across her back but child unseen. Zabuza glanced over at the second room on the other side of the 'living room' and figured she had already been put to bed. After a moment, he settled onto the side of the couch that still had the cushion, and simply watched the woman as she fiddled with the fire and adjusted the logs.

There was silence for a long moment before the woman finally turned to him, her hair seeming to blaze alive in the firelight and her brown-red eyes seeming to glow orange.

"The name is Tyra," she stated simply as she looked at him. Zabuza gazed at her for a moment and nodded.

"Zabuza," he replied in response. She smirked a little.

"Ah, one of the seven," she commented, mostly to herself as she shifted to settle on the floor, the fire warm at her back. "That explains the big sword. Also explains why you're running to Andora." She mock-thought for a moment before her smirk widened. "But not why you have two young boys with you."

"I've decided to try my hand at the slave trade," Zabuza replied easily. "And Andora is the only place that it's legal, so…"

"Ah," she responded. "I see."

They were silent after that. Zabuza knew then that neither of them was much for conversation.

"What about you?" He asked her. "Why are you taking such a young girl to Andora?"

"We have business there," Tyra stated, her tone telling Zabuza that she was very much on guard. She shifted, leaning against the arm of the couch while still sitting on the floor. Reaching into a leg pocket in her pants, she pulled out a long, thin pipe that looked like a combination of dark red wood and shining white bone with a long piece of bamboo in between her other fingers. "Do you think you'll have any trouble selling the boys?"

"They're both virgins," Zabuza replied. "So no, not really."

She actually chuckled at that.

"They're not virgins," she responded, holding the bamboo in the fire until it caught at the end and then brought it to the bowl of the pipe, taking a few puffs before leaning back and releasing a long breath. She shrugged. "Well, the short one is. Not the taller one." She shrugged. "But I suppose with a blade that big a lot of girls are too scared to hang."

Zabuza blinked, digesting the comment, before his eyes narrowed as the first part registered and he looked at her.

"What are you suggesting?"

She turned her head to look at him and raised an eyebrow. The single cushion Zabuza occupied was on the opposite side that she was sitting, closer to the girls' room.

"I'm not suggesting anything," she answered. "I'm saying that you're sleeping with the tall one." Another shrug, another draw on the pipe. The smell of cinnamon, tobacco, and rosewood wafted upwards. "Though, I thought he was a girl at first myself, so I suppose you could've done worse." Looking at him, she laughed and raised an eyebrow. "Have you ever even heard of pedophilia?"

Zabuza's lips pursed and he glared at her.

"What are you talking about? I-" he blinked, shook his head and muttering bitterly after a moment, "at least it's only just the one. Fuck."

She smirked as she gazed into the fire, the pipe held loosely in the fingers of one hand.

"You don't even have the decency to deny it," she commented, shaking her head.

"If denying it was the right answer I would've done that," Zabuza replied bitterly, sarcastically, as he looked away with a scowl. Tyra's smirk widened.

"Oh?" As she spoke she turned her head to look at him. "So you decided against lying to me because you didn't think that lying would flatter me?" She gazed at him in amusement for a split second longer than necessary, and then turned back to the fire. After a moment, she spoke again, so quickly that Zabuza almost missed it as she put the pipe back to her lips. "Too bad."

Zabuza, not entirely sure if he heard her correctly or not, shot her a look.

"You weren't this chatty in the tunnel," he replied, almost angrily. She rolled her eyes.

"You're interesting," she stated expressionlessly after another draw. Zabuza's vision began to get hazy. She shrugged, continuing to not look at him. "That's the only reason I'm talking to you, actually." Rolling her shoulders, she put out the bamboo, and slipped it into her pocket as she stood. "If you weren't interesting, I wouldn't talk to you."

"Really now?" Zabuza asked incredulously. "And why am I interesting?"

"Because you're sleeping with that kid," she told him simply, turning to look at him with a thoroughly entertained smirk. "Keep doing that and you'll stay interesting." As Zabuza fought to not gawk at her, she turned to leave, took a few steps, and then turned back to look at him. "As a matter of fact," she stated, motioning to him with the pipe. "Sleep with the other one too. Then I'll be all over you like oil on water." Rolling her eyes, she vanished into the other room.

Okay. Zabuza thought immediately in determination, having been just assigned a brand new mission. No problem. He blinked. …Wait. His eyes narrowed as his lips pursed, and he struggled to process what he had just heard. Blinking after a moment, he slumped against the couch and stared at the fire dumbly. Huh. He thought incredulously. I think I just got mindfucked. He scowled.

"Bitch."


Sasuke gawked in amazement at Haku from where they both sat on the floor, and the older boy blinked at him.

"Are you ashamed?" He asked softly. Sasuke gazed at him for a long moment before pursing his lips.

"No…" he replied slowly. "Not… ashamed, I don't think. A little freaked out but… not ashamed." He shrugged. "You're older than me than everybody seems to think. You've been with Zabuza for years. He's…" the shrug was helpless this time as he explained his thinking, "a freak. And…"

"And he likes her," Haku stated with a serious expression on his face, gazing at the wall where the other two were talking on the other side.

"She's weird," Sasuke stated plainly right back, as if that dismissed the possible truth behind Haku's statement entirely. Both of them kept their voices to barely a whisper. "She looks like she goes out into the woods at the crack of dawn and snaps the throats of elk twice her size with her bare hands for breakfast. She looks like she goes into a smoldering hot tar pit ever Saturday and wrestles wild boars just for fun."

"Which is exactly what Zabuza does," Haku replied matter-of-factly, his lips pursing as he looked at Sasuke pointedly. Sasuke's own lips pursed as he realized the accuracy of Haku's statement. He blinked, and then looked at Haku in amazement.

"Holy shit."

"Don't you mess this up for him," Haku ordered Sasuke suddenly, his entire expression changing as the transformation took Sasuke by surprise. The older boy pointed accusingly at his younger companion. "Zabuza's never met a woman that he's been attracted to on a personal level. Don't do anything to screw this up!"

"Why do you think I'd be the one to screw it up?" Sasuke shot back defensively. "He can do that all by himself! You're the one who's been having sex with him! I should be saying that to you!"

Haku opened his mouth to say something, and then blinked, looking at Sasuke curiously.

"Wait. You understand it?" He asked incredulously. "Like… really? But you're eleven!"

"I was in school with Naruto for two years," Sasuke stated simply in explanation. "You know what he liked to read? You know what he liked to constantly talk about? You know what pages of what books he liked to rip out and sneak into my textbooks as a joke?" His voice, still low, got even more frantic. "Do you even know what his signature Jutsu was?!"

"Okay, I get it," Haku replied quickly, before Sasuke lost control of his voice and got too loud. Then he blinked and leaned closer to Sasuke. "Wait. What was his signature Jutsu?"

Apparently that hadn't come up in any of the discussions they had had after Sasuke had his epiphany, and as he opened his mouth to respond Zabuza came back into the room.

"-and we should go to bed," Sasuke stated quickly upon Zabuza's appearance, looking up past Haku at the older man and making Haku turn his head to gaze up at the older man. Zabuza raised an eyebrow at the two, immediately knowing they had been plotting something.

"Yes," the man stated coolly, leaving no room for question or argument or conversation. "You should."

With that, he climbed onto the sad excuse for a bed. Sasuke and Haku, still sitting on the makeshift bed they had made for themselves with the sleeping bags they had brought along, looked at each other in worry. What had expired between Zabuza and the woman while they had been too distracted talking?

I knew I should've saved my comments for after. Sasuke thought wryly. Haku looked over at him and caught his eye. Pursing his lips, he nodded silently to the younger male and with that silent statement they both decided to leave Zabuza alone and settle down together on the blankets.

For a long while, Sasuke simply gazed at Haku as they faced each other, and even though the other seemed asleep Sasuke knew he wasn't. There had been no comforting smile, no 'goodnight'; no soft squeeze of the hand. Haku's lips, always slightly curved upwards in an eternally quiet smile, seemed troubled, and were a little turned down instead. His breathing wasn't as deep as it normally was.

It was a strange, foreign concept that Sasuke had to digest. All this time, Haku had been pure, like the snow he loved so much. So kind and so gentle. With the older male being such a perfect example of how humanity should be, it never occurred to Sasuke that he could have such human desires.

Sasuke knew a lot about sex, like what was required and all the 'great' positions to do it in (thanks to Naruto, that horndog) but he didn't actually know it, and he was grown up enough to understand that. With everything else that had been happening, with the running and the fear and the letting go of his demons, he never really took the time to think about such an instinctive want. Never took the time to understand that Haku might have those wants. The same wants that Zabuza had.

Zabuza was an animal. Sasuke knew that and he understood that too. He had seen the older man slaughter countless of people without question, without regret. Pairing Zabuza with sex seemed normal. Just like if he were to be paired with violence and sadism and a superiority complex the size of his sword. But Haku…

Haku was older than Sasuke. Quite a few years older. Where Sasuke was eleven, Haku was sixteen. Five years older, and he had been with Zabuza since he was a child. Shit, Haku didn't even look five years older. Sasuke had been amazed when he found out.

It seemed obvious now. They both had needs, and he was too young to understand them.

Sasuke realized what was wrong now, as he gazed at Haku. Pursing his lips, he scooted forward, and touched Haku's side softly.

"Hey," he breathed, almost in the other's ear. At the sound, Haku's eyes flickered open. Sasuke took a breath, and drew even closer, setting his lips right next to Haku's ear as not to get Zabuza's attention.

What he said destroyed all boundaries still remaining in his heart.

"I still love you."

Haku's lips broke into a wide smile, and he leaned forward into Sasuke's embrace, wrapping his arms tightly around the younger man. Turning his neck, he planted a soft kiss at the corner of Sasuke's mouth, making the young boy fiercely blush.

"Thank you," he breathed softly.

When Haku fell asleep, there was a smile on his lips.

End Flashback Sixteen – Sex

FLUFFASAURUSREXAAAAAAAAAAAAH

I hope you guys enjoyed it. *heart*

Also, there is a sequel to Machine Gun up now, called Dead Man Walking.

Read and review if it strikes your fancy? :3

Review this story before you head off to that one? :3

Much love!

DDB