Chapter 12: Defying Gravity

Parings: Naru/Sasu...duh.

Rating: K-T (first) M-NC-17 (later)

Disclaimer: I do not own the sheer genius "Naruto"; Shippuden of other. The honours go to Masashi Kishimoto and his genius brain that created this masterpiece.

Summary: Remember the summer camp you went to; that quaint place out in the woods, by a lake, sitting around a campfire telling ghost stories and eating s'mores? Well this summer school, sure as hell, isn't that. Three months, Sasuke, teenage delinquents, illegal alcohol, prescription drugs, annoying shrinks, escape plans, a Shitzu from hell, and new relationships; welcome to camp. NaruSasuNaru.

A/N: To answer everybody's main question, no; they're not going to fall in bed immediately.

A/N2: Many of ya'll are wondering what's Madara's role in here... I bet nobody has heard the term of; 'Mafia-fairy-godfather', have you?

A/N3: PLEASE DON'T KILL ME; 'WILD CARD' IS COMING SOON!

The gates were reached, through hazy vision Sasuke marched, spine straight, over to Gai and the assembled faculty. Naruto beside him; step by step.

Both, each one with one hand on each end of the case handed the box to a Gai and a smirking Kakashi.

"Well done."

Sasuke breathed deeply and collapsed.

(*)(*)(*)

It was dim but he still heard them talking;

"...amazing...beat death by an inch...immune system extraordinary...110 mg of venom in his system...how did it...adrenaline counteraction of the venom, but still..."

And then this: "...Uzumaki, tested positive for venom but not as much as..."

Naruto...

He faded away again.

****dream sequence***

Fire was scorching though his body. The snake's vampiric (1) amber eyes seemed everywhere as he could literally feel the stinging liquid poison coursing through his pulsing veins. The scream that came out of his mouth seemed to be coming from an eternity ago; a mental scream of years of pain, echoing through both his mind and body.

His vision field darkened to pitch black; he kneeled there in the darkness clutching his bleeding hand, harsh soundless sobs quaking his chest.

"Sasuke..." a voice whispered eternally from the darkness. Through the scorching pain he hazarded a glance, black eyes widened... it was his mother; clothed in her shining white wedding kimono; holding out her hand to him, "...be strong."

He gasped. That was the promise he had made to her when he was five, after he saw her battered... beaten... on his parent's bed.

"...be strong, Sasuke...promise me... always be strong."

He watched as his crying five year old self materialized in front of him, clutching at Mikoto's' hand, he silently mouthed the words that his smaller self was now saying, the words echoing from seemingly a lifetime ago;, "Y..yes, Ka-san...I w..will."

She grasped his smaller self's hand and they both faded out into cold gloom; the pain flared up again and he doubled over screaming; at that spilt moment a huge glaring orange light cut through the darkness, in the middle of the light was...Naruto; blue eyes wide with fright. He grabbed Sasuke's injured hand, brought it up to his mouth and started to suck. In the dream, just like the reality, he was struck completely speechless; he just watched and literally felt the poison leaving his system.

He's going to bind my hand now, he thought; and indeed he did; but not with cloth.

Naruto reached up with the knife and cut off a lock of his hair and bound the wound with shimmering blond. The dream shifted then; Naruto lifted his bound hand to rest on his face and kissed it once, sapphire eyes brimming.

A whisper, "...be strong."

Black rimmed eyelids flittered over even blacker eyes. Sasuke was unmeasurably getting sick and tired of staring at the white walls of the infirmary ceiling.

Strength.

Strength...his promise... the one he had put on himself at age five; strength to never fail, strength to never lose, strength to never be anything but perfect, strength to never show emotions, strength to never break down...strength to be the flawless Uchiha. And the worse thing was... he had never broken that promise.

Strength... he snorted...strength, the complete fibre of his being and his damn curse.

The door opened; "You're such a lucky bastard," Tsunade said brashly while smiling slightly, "do you know how many mgs of venom were in your system?"

'Tense' didn't even do his muscles justice but he still shifted his head to look at her; "I assume enough to instantly kill me."

She shook her head, "Instantly kill you, oh no, no Uchiha...instead try neurological failure, artery rupture, cardiovascular failure, respiratory system breakdown, lungs collapsing, en-"

Enough. He cut in curtly, "Who else won?"

Tsunade paused for a quick moment, then shook herself and answered, "Shikamaru and Chouji, and surprisingly Tuschi Kin and Yamanaka Ino...about half an hour after you won."

A black eyebrow shot up at the last words, Kin he could understand...but Ino? He snorted; obviously that prom queen had made Kin do all the work. "...Fine."

"Gai is suspending the trip until you've fully recovered," she added shoving her hands into the pockets of her white coat "... I can tell you Uchiha; you nearly gave us a scare."

He sat up slowly to lean on the bedhead, closing his eyes a second to squash down the vertigo. Whatever...he survived... big frikkin' deal. He had one thing in mind now.

"Is he alright?" he asked hoarsely, eyes slightly open. "Naruto...is he okay?"

Her lips twitched, "Aside from minimal venom ingestion and a two hours of slight fever, he's fine. Naruto is so unnaturally healthy he can swim in the Hogake River in December with ice blocks tied to his chest and not contract a sniffle."

Sasuke relaxed then, the worry fled from him in seconds, "...I'm...glad."

"Rest." she ordered and left.

Sasuke's gaze strayed to the wall for a time before he raised his gauze wrapped left hand and started to slowly remove the bandage. Little by little the white cloth slipped of his hand and then he was staring at the healed over snake bites, only noticeable by the dark red indentions in his palm.

Blond hair...he sealed my wounds with his hair.

Sasuke stared at them for an infinite moment. "You saved my life." He whispered. Even with all his faults there was nothing Sasuke didn't honour more than a debt; and this was a life one. He clenched his fist tightly, "You saved my life..." he repeated, "I swear... however I can... I will repay you... Uzumaki Naruto."

"What do you want?" Sasuke asked irritated at Kakashi's silent form that had been lurking in the shadows of his infirmary room for the last fifteen minutes.

The silver haired man stepped into the dim light smiling, "Just to tell you that you've permanently cemented your name in everyone's mind... and I mean everyone." he said, perching on the edge of his bed.

Sasuke looked at him, eyes narrowed, "You mean-"

"That you're even more famous than before gaki(2)." Kakashi said, immensely pleased to turn one of Sasuke's tactics on him. "...you and the Uzumaki."

Sasuke snorted then his face shifted to a grave expression, "Naruto... I owe him."

Silver head nodded sagely, "Yes...you do... after you collapsed it was him who, single-handedly, carried you to the infirmary... he refused anyone else to touch you..." A salacious smile crossed Kakashi's face, "I swear, it was the most beautiful bridal crossing-of-the-threshold, I've ever seen."

The level of glare that Sasuke gave then was laced with vicious decapitating murder but Kakashi still went on, "I swore I heard 'here-comes-the-bride,' in the air."

"Shut up." He growled, "I'm no one's bitch."

"Nobody said you were." He returned calmly, "Speaking of the...what exactly are your prefer-"

Hell no; he wasn't up for that discussion. "I know you can't legally do this," the raven cut in, "But can you tell me what exactly did Naruto do to be prisoned here?"

A sigh, "Sasuke...if I do tell you, this cannot be repeated or I'll lose my licence." He said gravely. Sasuke nodded.

"Fine..." Kakashi said shifting over more on the bed, "He was in Arabia when his guardian Kyuubi attacked his girlfriend, Aaliyah...he..."

The mess hall went quiet as soon as they stepped into the room.

Graveyard quiet.

"God, man...what the fuck..." Naruto's right eyebrow skyrocketed, "...You've think they'd never seen us before or something."

Unbidden Sasuke had the wildest urge to laugh at the sight of the gaping mouths of the gormless idiots staring at them. A smirk crossed his face as his still bound hand through his hair. "Ignore them."

A lone clap cut through the air, Sasuke shifted in time to see the clapper get a vicious head cuff by the person next to him. The blond snorted and flopped down on his seat, head buried into his arms, after about ten seconds he announced with a mumble; "Your Hyuuga stalker is staring at you again."

Sasuke glanced up while flexing his bandaged hand; Neji was indeed staring at him but this time his expression was...soft.

Black eyebrows narrowed. Was Neji feeling...remorse? Was he thinking about the fact that he had almost died and was regretting his abominable behaviour? He pondered it for a second but then snorted; he had proved long ago that Neji didn't have feelings.

Turning back to Naruto he faced him dead in the eye. Calmly they both stared at each other until Sasuke broke. "Arigato gozaimasu."

Blond eyebrow shot into dull gold hair at the formal phrase, then a toothy grin baring a pronounced canine cut across his tan face, "Meh...it's nothing."

'Not to me, it isn't.' Sasuke thought but didn't phrase the words.

"Head's up." Naruto said, "Gai is coming over."

Sasuke swivelled in his chair to watch Gai, Morino, Kakashi and Iruka walking over to them, Gai, Kakashi and Iruka were beaming, but the look Morino had on his face could curdle fresh milk. The other three hung back as Gai approached them.

"Congratulations Team 7." Gai said grinning his face off.

'Wait,' Sasuke thought '...they had a team number...since when?'

"Absolute, perfect performance,an invigorating show of youth, teamwork, bonding and complete trust." Gai said, "I advise you to keep this up. The trip will commence this weekend. Great work!"

As they left Kakashi leaned down and whispered into Sasuke's ear, a phrase that made him want to punch the silver haired shrink but the glare he gave him was enough to send Kakashi off chuckling.

He turned to meet confused blue eyes. "What was that?"

"Nothing." Sasuke growled, his mind trying to erase the words Kakashi said, 'Here comes the bride.', "He was just being an ass."

"You sure?" he was asked, the shed keeper squinting at him, "I've never encountered a rock that massive."

"Well," Sasuke said squinted as he examined the percentage of the chemicals. The phosphoric acid was 25% and the copper sulphate, 33%, damn it, not much to work with. He was hoping for a stronger concentration, like 50% or over. "It's not that dense but it is big... I just need some...leverage."

The man shrugged, "Fine," and took out a book, scribbled out the chemicals he was requesting and marked an 'X' on the line under them, "Sign here."

With a flourish Sasuke signed his name and took up the two reinforced plastic tubes; and made his way out of the shed to the garden. There was an actual stone he needed removed but the majority of the remainder of the chemicals were for dissolving the wall that prisoned Pein.

Crouching down and popping open the caps of the tubes he squeezed a small amount on the rock and watched as the mixture bubbled and frothed as the chemicals reacted with each other. Switching on the watch he carefully observed the deterioration of the stone.

In five minutes a relative sized hole was carved out of the centre of the rock. He had used less than two ounces and the hole was four inches deep. Considering the wall prisoning Pein in was about two feet thick and the amount of chemicals he had presently were six ounces each, the wall should be deteriorated within six days, depending on gathering the chemicals; and that was a challenge. Someone was sure to notice if significant amounts of the chemicals disappeared at once.

It needed to be spaced out and done little by little. Who knew, maybe Pein had something to help it along.

A ring sliced through the air. Class time again.

Shit.

(*)(*)(*)

"Uchiha, hold up." The call halted his exit from the class. He paused and turned around. Mizuki was looking at him holding up a sheet of paper that then proved to be his previous exam.

"Yes?" he asked, completely facing the smiling math teacher.

The teacher perched lightly on the desk's edge, "Uchiha, you have consistently scored above the 90 percentile of everyone here."

Sasuke shifted his knapsack on his shoulder and arched an eyebrow, "Yeah, so?"

"I'm making the recommendation for you to take calculus." He smiled wider, "You need a stronger challenge and I believe your mind will excel, I can tell."

He paused for a second then tilted his head once, "Thank you."

Mizuki took up the eraser and started to clean the white board, "Go...your next class might be starting."

He left, and fell into step with Kin who was leaning on the wall, arms crossed and drumming her fingers on her arm.

"How's things?" she asked plainly.

"As in?" he returned stepping into the sunlight.

She stopped him in the next step and held out her hand, "May I?"

He took a second to fathom what she was asking then, in a stroke of clairvoyance, held out his hand. She gingerly took the still banded hand and gently loosed the gauze. He didn't blink when she took in the fully healed over bite marks.

She smiled at his blank face, "...A debt owed, right?" she said gently holding his hand in her palm.

His fist clenched, "He saved my life."

"Yes," she said idly while re-banding his hand. "You know...there isn't much honour among assassins but when the syndicate wrote down the rules, one that is fully agreed on is that we honour our debts."

Sasuke paused, "You mean to tell me...there is an Assassin's code book?"

She smiled mysteriously her hazel eyes dancing, "A codex, yes.", with a flip of her hair she continued, "In the Bakumastu Era, unknown to the Shogunate and the Ishin Shishi an syndicate of Hitokiri formed and laid down the law for assassins...there is a full codex, most laws are forgotten but there are five main rules that still abide and cover situations like leaving the primary mark's family alone, no harming females whatsoever and so on... but the one most of us stand by is the 'Tamashi no ketsugo(6)...'the soul bond'; it basically envelopes life debts."

Through it all the only real thing Sasuke was paying attention to was the fact that there was actually a real thing called 'honour-among-thieves'.

He shifted uncomfortably, "Is that so." It wasn't a question; he just needed some thinking space.

"Absolutely." She confirmed walking away, "Do everything in you power to settle it."

'I plan to.' was the thought that ran through him as walked to his next class.

Why didn't he expect this? Sasuke swore as he heard the click of the door behind him. Soft footsteps approached him; there was one person he knew who walked like that. Neji. The Hyuuga had the common sense to stop two metric feet away from his person.

"We need to talk."

Placing the stack of books on the table, Sasuke slowly turned around to face Neji. "About what?"

Pale grey eyes lowered for a second then shot back up to his face, "About the division between us."

Sasuke's eyes widened before he burst into sardonic laughter, "You mean about your betrayal, don't you."

"Sasuke," Neji grated, "I never meant to sleep with her and you know it. My uncle needed leverage with her clan and I was the tool he used then disposed of."

His pale form leaned on wall behind him and obsidian eyes dissected the Hyuuga before him, "So that's why you were trying to blackmail your uncle, right?"

Grey eyes widened for a second before returning to their normal size and Neji stepped one foot closer to him, "I'm not even going to ask you how you got that information," he murmured hand reaching up in a motion to touch Sasuke's face, "You still have your ways, Sasuke, I never meant to lose you."

The hand was an inch from his face as Sasuke ducked and pivoted out of Neji's reach, "Save your bullshit, Neji." He hissed, "You lost me a long time ago. I trusted you! You know the state I was in after you declared you 'loved' me and then went and fucked it up." He snorted, "I guess that's what you get for being fifteen and stupid."

"You were never stupid. Sasuke..." Neji snapped drawing back his hand, "I had my own problems too. You were there; you know the futile tasks I had to do every-goddamn-day to prove my worth in the clan while my pampered, hopeless cousin Hinata just coasts on being descended from the firstborn. Don't blame me for having to put my future before my desires!"

"And where is your future now, Neji?" he asked quietly hand on the door, "Stop fooling yourself, your uncle is going to ignore you even more after this."

He twisted the knob but promptly met the door itself with Neji breathing down on him, "Sasuke... Koi-"

And that was where Sasuke had enough.

"Get the FUCK OFF me Hyuuga!" Sasuke growled, "I'm not your 'koi', you sycophantic bastard! I want nothing to do with you! I suggest you forget my name cause I HATE EVEN THE AIR YOU BREATHE!" he pushed off, "Go back to your whore Karin, and leave me alone!"

He staked away from the room mindless fury wracking every bone in his body. The nerve of that traitorous bastard.

"Pein," Sasuke said, rapping on the wall between them.

"Yes." The man answered.

"Do you have any tools inside with you?" he asked scanning the fissured wall between them seeking a wide enough crack.

A shuffle, "I have a modified metal rod beaten into a spade..." he answered, "Why?"

Crouching down to the widest crack he saw about an inch above the ground he replied, "I'm going to release some chemicals that are going to erode the rock," he paused rubbing his fingertips over the wall, "This is basalt and concrete...so it's going to take time...when it starts coming through to your side, dig."

Silence, then; "Let me guess, phosphoric acid and copper sulphate, right?"

"Yes." Sasuke said slipping the tubes, each one filled with a separate chemical, out of the pockets of his sweatshirt and sneezing into the fissure, "They aren't that high in acidity percentage so, with the seldom times I will be able to steal the small amounts of these chemicals, I've calculated this will take about two weeks... max..." he paused, the mixture was starting to bubble and eat away of the wall, "...the coefficient of expansion(3) will start the work...you do the rest."

Another pause, "...Whoever you are, you are way too smart to be in here." Pein said soundly, "If I do get out, with my recommendation I know the C.I.A will offer you a post with them...they will not let minds like yours go to waste...will you accept?"

Sasuke stood still completely stymied. Two offers, each the polar opposite of each other...a crime syndicate or a legal authority.

"...I'll think about it." he blurted. "Just concentrate on your freedom, all right."

"Sure."

Flipping the hood back over his head he slipped out.

"You know," Sasuke grunted, eyes squinting so hard they looked closed, "This amount of pressure can cause your eyes to erupt."

Blue eyes rolled, "The Bananaeira(4) doesn't put that much pressure on you..." He snorted flipping the page of the sociology book while glancing at the inverted Uchiha braced on the wall, "...try the Ponte (5), the first time I did that I was dizzy for the whole day."

Sasuke shifted and grit his teeth. His arms were quivering with the weight of his body braced on his flat palms. "Great...how long had it been?"

Naruto glanced idly at the stopwatch; "...seven minutes...three more."

Sasuke centred himself, using a technique he had modified over the year; the 'displacement technique' that required the patient to dissociate themselves with their present dismal predicament and place themselves into an ideal, 'happy' place. The problem with that was after they came out of their 'happy place' they immediately returned to the problems so Sasuke had remodelled the technique to imagine he was in the worst place imaginable; surprisingly it pushed him to conjure every way to reflect on the positive he may have overlooked.

"Time." Naruto called dully.

Groaning Sasuke carefully shifted and bent to release the tension in his arms. His camouflage legs met the ground with a small thump and he sighed, breathing to displace the amassed lactic acid in his muscles.

"Hey Uchiha," Naruto asked, "What the reason for America invading Iraq again?"

Sasuke tilted his head up a fraction to look ridiculously at the blond. "Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously." He frowned.

He snorted, "I'm not going to answer that." He said pushing off the floor to sit against the wall.

"Why?" he was asked.

Too easy; way too damn easy. "Because I really don't to contact your stupidity by osmosis."

Blue eyes narrowed, "Get up." He ordered while pushing himself up also.

Black brows furrowed, "Why?"

A quick check on the watch, Naruto answered, "The gym is still open. We have more space there."

Oh. Shrugging on his hoodie he grabbed a towel and his knapsack and followed the blond out of the room.

(*)(*)(*)

"I don't bend that way." Sasuke snarled.

The look on Naruto's face was akin to fairy lights and Christmas morning, "How do you bend, anyways?"

Sasuke's slap was deftly dodged by the chuckling blond, "Calm down man; I don't give a damn if you're...whatever...you are. Let's get back to the Ponte."

"Are you deaf or something," Sasuke sniffed pacing the small square they were on; "I can't bend backwards."

Naruto thought for a minute his eyebrows furrowed. Sasuke patently waited for whatever idea he was conjuring to materialize.

"How about this..." Naruto offered getting on his knees, holding out his arms palms up on the floor, "Lay down."

Gingerly Sasuke did feeling the press of large hands in the middle of his back. "Arms up and over your head," Sasuke complied, "when I lift you have to compensate, alright. Each inch up you have to shift your feet and hands to the correct position. Ready?"

He nodded.

Slowly, inch by inch, Naruto lifted his body up into the inverted 'U'. Sasuke concentrated and shifted with each movement until his was completely bent, his arms over his head. He could feel the blood rushing into his head but it drowned under the feel of the blonde's impossibly hot hands still bracing his back.

"Good." Naruto exclaimed, "...I'm going to let go now...try to keep it as long as possible, okay?"

Hands released and Sasuke after a squashing down the bereft feeling of the loss of those hand held the position while timing himself mentally.

One second...two...three...four...five... he had almost reached fifteen until his arms failed and he slipped; in that split second he knew his head was going to connect painfully with the floor and braced himself for it but as his body met the floor his head was met by a large palm. Sasuke squinted up under clenched eyes to find Naruto grinning at him.

"Whoa there Uchiha... don't go getting a concussion on me."

He was silent, then, "Sasuke." He said quietly, "...call me Sasuke."

(*)(*)(*)

And it begins. Muahhahhahahhhahaaa.

(*)(*)(*)

A/N; (1) 'vampiric'; No, it is not a word in the English dictionary...sue me.

(2) 'Gaki'; not a direct translation but it roughly means 'kid', 'punk' or 'troublemaker'

(3) 'The coefficient of expansion'; is a physics terms that means 'the fractional change in the length or area or volume per unit change in temperature at a given constant pressure'. And anyone who knows physics knows I'm totally corrupting this law.

(4) Bananaeira; is a capoeira move which is simply a handstand.

(5) Ponte; this is a backward arch. Like an inverted U.

(6) 'Tamashi no ketsugo'...mangled translation of 'the soul bond'

(*)(*)(*)

I have a request for any artist out there who can PLEAZZZEEEE draw me a picture of Naruto's back, the scars and the tattoo included, pro bono a.k.a Free? I can't draw fo' s***.

(*)(*)(*)

****Black Prodigy****