Chapter 15: Toy Soldiers

Parings: Naru/Sasu….duh.

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

Disclaimer: I do not own the sheer genius "Sasuke"; Shippuden of other. The honors 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: #slaps self extremely hard. Thank you 'TaeKaiyMile' for pointing out that the word isn't 'Vellum' but 'Bellum' #grumbles. Stupid typo.

FYI: Some of you readers must have inferred by now that I'm not particularly sympathetic to Ino.

A/N2: I've made some minor adjustments to this chapter and re-posted it.

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"Bit by bit...torn apart...step by step...we all fall down...like toy soldiers."- Eminem, 'Toy Soldiers'

The crowd around the notice board was noticeable enough to draw Sasuke's attention as he passed by on his way to the mess hall. He paused and asked, "What's going on?"

"They're making us do a survival run the end of next month." Renjii said quietly as he turned away from the printed notice, "It's a prior assessment that adds to our grades for the last exams."

He hummed as he walked into the mess hall, "I can't believe I've been here for almost three weeks...feels like a fucking decade."

"I'm not surprised," Renjii said banding back his loose locks with and hair tie, "If I went through what you went through I would be itching to get out of here."

Black eyes squinted, "Why are you here?"

Renjii turned to look at him with his hazel eyes. Sasuke stopped; what the hell kind of mutations had ravaged that family to produce all those contrasting features; tanned skin, thick hair, and those eyes; blue and hazel.

"Smuggling." He replied evenly, "contraband performance drugs... I take it you've heard of Momochi Zabuza and his ban from the International Aikido Tournament."

Wait... "Oh yes... his drug screening results showed the illegal presence of enhancement drug erythropoietin ineffectively masked by gonadotropins..." he paused, "... so you were..."

"His supplier." The younger Mizu answered grimly; grabbing a bottle of water and an egg sandwich.

The words were said evenly, Renjii's eyes never shifted, his body language didn't change, his tone didn't alter and his breathing didn't accelerate, he spoke without any of the tell-tale signs of lying but still, Sasuke didn't buy a damn word of it. He marveled silently; all the same, it wasn't any of his business.

He shrugged and took up a bowl of oatmeal. "Your brother...Kisame right... how did he cope with you being a criminal and all what with him having a doctorate in engineering?"

A smirk flittered across Renjii's face, "I might ask you the same question, have you considered that fact that we're more similar than you might think." He said walking crossing the hall to join his roommate.

Sasuke paused for a second then snorted and he went over to a tense Naruto. "Something bugging you, baka?"

The blond shifted to stare hard at him, his blue eyes like sapphire chips, "What the hell is wrong with you and stalkers?" he groused, "Is it some kind of kinetic force that draws them to you or are you just that much stalker bait?"

"What the hell are you talking about..." he asked, then, "...and how the hell do you know the word 'kinetic'... have you been reading the dictionary again?"

Blue eyes rolled, "Man; screw you." He huffed jerking his head to the right, "I can't believe that after three weeks and in this place completely surrounded by criminals, the majority who have taken an abnormal fascination with you I might add, you still haven't developed any kind of sense for your surroundings."

Sasuke glanced up and his black orbs instantly met the narrowed blue-green eyes of Ino trying to glare craters into his head. His lips quirked if she was trying to emit a death glare; she failing ...pitifully.

"Don't mind her...she is a-"

"Stuck up, prima-donna, holier-than-thou, conceited, cannon fodder, beeey-yatch?" Naruto filled in for him.

"Exactly." He agreed, spooning the oatmeal, "So I heard you got an 87% on the History quiz."

Blond brows contracted, "How the hell do you keep 'hearing' things?"

His query was met with a blank stare and empty obsidian eyes. The blond head fell into orange-clad arms, "Whatever... you should know that after our...spar...I was chewed out to hell and back by Iruka-sensei."

"Did you explain it was platonic?" he asked, glancing down into the bowl.

Naruto grinned, "I did and guess what...he basically gave us permission to continue doing it...something about 'turning a blind eye' or 'bonding' or something."

That was surprising, "Really now."

"That was my exact reaction," he replied with a shrug, "...that man acts like a mother hen, he worries to damn much about everything except his life where he doesn't see that Kakashi-sensei is trying to get into his pants."

Sasuke slammed a hand over his mouth to stop shower of oatmeal Naruto was sure to get after that titbit of information. He swallowed, "So you've seen it too, huh?"

Naruto snorted, "Can anything be less painfully obvious?"

"You know," Sasuke admitted softly, "I really should give you more credit."

He glanced down at the Sociology essay question he received, "Discuss the effects of the age of American Imperialism drawing upon the objectives of the Manifest Destiny, as described by John Fiske and John O'Suillivan."

He sighed, stifling the pressing urge to bang his head against the desk. Buddha; what was it with the people and these simple questions? Sighing again as he grabbed his pen and started to write:

"Manifest Destiny is understood and defined as the policy of human imperialism rationalized as inevitable, as decreed by a higher power or divinity or the impetus of the majority of the populace, as the divine gift to overspread and possess the entire co..."

"Fertilizer," Sasuke repeated for the umpteenth time a strong tick growing in the left eye with each passing second.

The shed keeper looked at him again and sighed, waving him into the shed, idly flipping the Playboy magazine on his lap with a directive, "Get whatever you need, kid."

Sasuke slipped into the room and with a quick survey of the chemicals, he grabbed a spray can and took up the aqueous solution of Phosphoric Acid and the Copper Sulphate and poured them in the can. Glancing up he took up a pack of red mulch, the can and after sighing the ledger he walked out to the plowed tomato plot. Splitting the pack of mulch he spaded the additive on the soil and facing the link fence he took up the can and sprayed a section of the fence for ten seconds.

He paused bending down to examine the sprayed spot. The slight sizzling sound he heard coming up from the corroding iron made him smile.

"You know," a snide voice said behind him, "I never took you for the...nurturing kind."

"Just like I didn't take you for the kind to get dirty," he replied without even turning around, "Don't judge the book by the cover, Yamanka." He said straitening up.

She sniffed. It was obvious that she didn't completely understand him so he took the opportunity to rile her up again, "...you don't read much...do you?"

"I can read you," she shot back; "You're a bastard."

"Oh Ino," he sighed, "Don't go besmirching the sanctity of my parents' bond, the last person who did that is in a coma."

Her eyes widened and then narrowed, "You're lying."

"Trust me, I wish I was," he replied easily patting down the mulch, bristling at the stare he could literally feel crawling up his neck. Getting up he spun around and faced her blankly for a moment before gathering his equipment and walking away.

"You're not going to get any from nerd-girl, you know." She said to his turned back, "You would have better luck with your hand."

He resisted the urges to grin, "And I assume you have amazing proficiency with your hand, don't you." He turned around lips twitching, "Thank you Ino, but I'd rather have my dick cut off and boiled in tar than allow you to touch me, but hey...keep trying...I bet you can score with someone stupid enough to contract genital herpes from you...Inuzuka for instance."

He left counting the seconds before, "Asshole!"

"Twat." He replied instantly.

He slowly lifted his head from his arms to face Itachi. Dimly he took in the lack of ingrained stress lines in his big brother's face, the slight release of the tense line of his shoulders and the slight smile he had on his face.

One plus one equals;

"So is he good?" he asked dully, returning his head back into his arms grinning at the surprised squawk Itachi made.

"W...what the hell are you talking about?" Itachi asked clearly flustered.

"The guy you're seeing..." he returned directly, "...based on the riveting red flush on your cheeks he's an animal." He yawned, "Save the details, Aniki, I could care less."

That was an actually bald-faced lie, Sasuke was pleased that Itachi had found someone. "It's Renjii's brother...isn't it?"

"I thought you didn't want details." Itachi returned teasingly.

"Not on the astounding amount of sex you're having." he parried, "That image I could really do without...It is him... isn't it?"

The red-eyed man nodded while pulling out a file he handed over to Sasuke. "This is everything I found on Orochimaru Sannin."

Sasuke calmly accepted the file and asked, "Itachi...do you remember anything about Father talking about a Hatake Kakashi?"

Black eyebrows furrowed for a second then the eyes flew open, "Yes...I actually do...he was Father's star student."

Pale lips twitched, "That's rich...He's the main psychoanalyst here."

Conflicting emotions played over Itachi's face for a moment, "...Does he..." he trailed off.

"He knows..." he assured, "...as a matter of fact...lately he's become...a...friend." Red eyes lit up at the last word.

The older Uchiha sighed. "I'm glad," he murmured, "Sasuke...about Neji..."

A pale hand waved him off, "I've gotten over it...over him Nii-san...after all first loves never last, right?"

Itachi smiled softly, "No..." he agreed, "They don't."

In an effort to shake off the melancholy air that had just descended on him Sasuke literally shook himself and stood up with the folder in hand. Leaning down into Itachi's space he said, "Itachi..." he said, "...he's good for you...don't you dare lose him." And left.

He couldn't do it. Not for a lack of desire, his head just wasn't in the right place at all. Sighing he himself away from a confused Gaara.

"Something wrong Sasuke?" he asked quietly.

"Yes," he said softly, leaning back on the cold tile, eyes closed as his mind reflected on the surge of volcanic electricity that had wracked his body when his lips had met Naruto's. He knew it was wrong...masochistic...of him to want to feel that kind of fire but he still wanted it.

"Yes..." he said, resignedly "something is."

"A group session," Sasuke asked Iruka snidely, "...you have got be kidding me."

"No, I'm not," Iruka trilled pushing the door open to the small room where ten chairs were placed in the middle of the room. Six people were already assembled and it didn't look like anyone else was happy about it either: Suigetsu and Renjii looked fairly cross and temperamental; Neji had his usual patent arrogant/distant/bored expression and wrist brace clad Jokai was leaning on the window gazing blankly out to the landscape. The fact that Kin was there and trailed by haughty Ino just made Sasuke's previously raised hackles immediately skyrocket.

"Please," Iruka said calmly, "Take your seats."

The door behind him opened again to admit Naruto who was trailed by a clearly grumpy Kiba and his pathetic gangster imitating partner Himura something.

"The aim of this exercise is to familiarize yourself with everyone in this room." Iruka said taking his own seat, "It's a guided discussion; the topics we have chosen are topical, and so feel free to talk about everything that comes to your mind."

Sasuke snorted. Iruka glanced up at him, "Something wrong Uchiha-kun?"

"Actually yes," the raven replied, "Do you really expect a Free Association(1) discussion with a room of hardened juvenile delinquents?"

"Yes," he replied easily.

Oh, this poor, stupid soul. Sasuke leaned forward, "Iruka-sensei, with all respect I'm going to tell you what is going to happen in the next forty-five minutes, after your first topic, which I suspect is going to be along the line of 'describe your family' please expect mind-numbing silence for about fifteen to twenty minutes in which we are all going to be staring at each other suspiciously. Then, in the next five minutes, someone is going to blurt out an expletive and try to walk out, and after you use some calming words the discussion is going to proceed haltingly with you prodding an answer out of us every two minutes, then in the last ten minutes someone is going to explode with grief about the fact that they have no family to return to and then to the stimulating effect of depressing everybody in here, you are going to advise us to talk with our roommate in private to get the 'demons' out of our system while making your job to get into our brains that much easier..." he leaned back and smiled grimly, "...I can tell you, under all those good astoundingly noble intentions...it's not going to work."

What came after that diatribe defined the word 'silence'.

A low whistle came from Naruto, "Damn Sasuke...way to destroy a mood huh."

"Actually," Iruka said still smiling; (even though the edges of the smile were a little brittle if you looked too hard) "He's not wrong."

A snort came from Neji, "Trust me sensei...Uchiha Sasuke is never wrong."

Sasuke spun around like a seething panther and under a microsecond, his expression changed to a poisonously sweet one, "This coming from a narcissistic, egotistic, obsequious, conceited, sycophantic ass like you, why Neji, honey, I'm flattered." He replied batting his eyelashes like a love-struck pre-pubescent girl or an epileptic.

The majority of the room dissolved into laughter.

"Oh my god." Ino snipped flipping her hair, "You don't know shit about flattery."

That was the epic example of a wrong damn suicidal move. He struck out like a ravenous wolf.

"Okay," Sasuke snarled, "let me see if I'm in the right ballpark here Ino; after your mother died when you were two you instantly became the apple of you dear daddy's eye so at five your father placed you in beauty pageants to develop your self-esteem and to give him some breathing room from caring to your every whim, but he miscalculated and you grew up into a self-centred bitch while keeping people you term 'ugly'... people like your friend Haruno Sakura, around to just feed your ego and femme fatale narcissism. In middle school after realizing you couldn't even multiply seven to two to save your life, you started giving out hand jobs and head to your teachers in exchange for higher grades; it got old very fast. Then; at fifteen after your father was temporarily laid off his job; you started turning tricks to gain pocket money, screwing everybody from the quarterback to the janitor; while Sakura is faithfully doing your homework for you so you can pass just barely above average."

Her aquamarine eyes were getting wider with every word he spoke. Iruka tried to intervene but was shut his mouth instantly at the level of multiple glares he was receiving. Ignoring his efforts, Sasuke continued mercilessly.

"And then at seventeen you realize that since your grades are lower than shit and that you have no chance whatsoever of being admitted to any sensible college at all, your locus of identity was so infinitesimal that you start modelling in a desperate hope to make something of yourself while in the back of your mind you know that by the time you're thirty you will be used up, slack like a fishbowl, abused by the pimp you're fucking and hooked on cocaine...am I right Ino?" he asked evenly.

Every jaw dropped.

"...and you can't even understand half of the words I'm saying, can you?" he finished flatly.

Ino's eyes scrunched up, fists clenched at her side, her shoulders shaking. Nobody moved, in that moment she slapped a hand over her mouth, pushed up off the chair and fled the room crying.

"Ino wait! Uchiha, shame on you!" Iruka shot a quick furtive look at Sasuke just as he rushed out of the room after the hysterical girl.

Silence.

The heavy soundless air was blasted apart from a loud mirthful snicker. Sasuke shifted to look. Kin was doubled over grabbing at her belly as she laughed so hard tears were streaming down her face. She grabbed onto a window sill, "A...a...about fucking time!" she hollered.

A low whistled came from over his shoulder, Sasuke didn't even have to turn to see Naruto, "Damn dude...that was brutal..." his lips twitched, "...my compliments."

The iron in the Uchiha's spine slowly gave out, "She deserved it."

"Whoa Uchiha..." Renjii said, "It would have been easier if you had disembowelled her with a rusty knife."

"Or made her do it herself." someone pitched in.

"...wait," Jokai said, "Isn't that seppuku(2)?"

"That my friend," Suigetsu said soberly like a sage; "Would have been immensely more merciful."

A pause, then everyone broke out into another rift of laughter.

"No," Sasuke replied to Pein's question from his place on the floor or the basement, "The five years I went through wasn't easy...but it was worth it."

"How?"

"I got to understand how messed up the human mind is," Sasuke answered flicking another pebble on the opposite wall, "...Life it a masterful game of chess...we grow up, play our part then we die."

"That's...a very dismal way of looking at it." Pein replied, "...like toy soldiers at the hand of some invisible force."

"Now, you're getting at it." Sasuke replied getting up. He snorted internally; how was it he had more meaningful connections with an imprisoned man more than the shrinks upstairs, "Just like that. Anyways...I've got somewhere to be."

"..Chidori.."

"Yes?"

"Have some faith."

He left pondering those words.

The spars had become something of an entertainment factor for the camp. Half of the populace gathered at the basketball court every night just to watch Naruto and Sasuke throw down. It even attracted the likes of Baki and Anko once.

Sasuke wasn't going to lie, it was marvellous fun. He had long mastered the art of ignoring the eyes trained on him to concentrate on perfecting the technique. The bar for winning had increased every night by two points, so tonight the bar was sixteen hits.

The score was currently even at fifteen. He wiped sweat off his face again and plucked at the soaked shirt. One more hit...one more...

An idea sprung into his mind, what if he incorporated one of the Hyuuga's signature moves to throw Naruto off balance...but no...aside from the fact that he had exorcised Neji out of his life, he wasn't going to cheat.

Snapping back to the present he paused scanning the court. Wait a damn minute...where the hell was Naruto?

"Behind you." A smoky voice whispered in his left ear, accompanied by a tap to his lower back, "You gaze too much Uchiha."

Sasuke couldn't move; it seemed like rigor mortis had bound his body. He was way too aware of the heat radiating off the blonde's body, the musk of skin and sweat and the slightly moist breath in his ear.

Unable to deal with it he reacted. Dropping down he swept Naruto's feet under him and imprisoned his arms over his head, "Don't get cocky, I was just giving you a chance to keep up."

"Yeah right," Naruto shifted, "tell that to some other idiots." A blond brow quirked, "...are you going to get off me anytime soon...your stalkers are staring."

He snorted and acquiesced. "You won...again." he grunted peevishly. "I hate you."

"Yeah...comes with the territory."

He shot up in the bed like lightning.

Not again. Sasuke cursed trying to regulate his breathing; his mind furiously trying to obliterate the flashes of gold hair and blue eyes. The dreams hadn't evolved to the point of making him come but they left the most unbearable yearning in the pit of his stomach. He needed air.

Glancing out of the window at the dark sky he grimaced, it couldn't past three am yet. Still he needed air. Silently donning the oversized hoodie and grabbing his boots in one hand he carefully crept pass a silently sleeping Naruto and into the corridor and out the maze like building until he reached the basketball court. Hunkering under the stands in a shadowed corner he drew his legs up to his chin and blanked his mind, the only thing he perceived was the freezing cold of the dark air.

"It's nothing..." he whispered to himself, "Nothing at all."

Keep telling yourself that Uchiha.

(1) 'Free Association'; is a Freudian technique where the patient is made to relax and talk about anything that comes to their mind. It's geared to access the subconscious.

(2) 'Seppuku'; suicide.

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