Fate's Garden

Part 1 - Anomalistic

Chapter 7 - Super Ferry Tag Team Assemble

"Sasuke…are you sure you're not sick?" Naruto asked on his way back up the stairs to their room.

"Hn."

Ever since that crazy talk about visions and dreams he'd been a little broody. Naruto couldn't believe what he was hearing. Gods? Gaara? Multiple Kyuubis? Had Sasuke finally lost it entirely? Just for the sake of humoring the poor avenger Naruto had held in his questions and concern until the ride had come to a full and complete stop. He even kept his hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times. But, of course, by the time the loon had finished his explanation Naruto couldn't contain himself. After the first 'are you feeling okay?' Sasuke had glared at him and rolled off the bed. The second resulted in a fist aimed for Naruto's jaw, thankfully it missed. Now, of course, Sasuke was tuning him out. Stupid, brooding little avenger, skulking about with his bruised ego. What weirded Naruto out the most was that Sasuke honestly seemed to have believed what he was saying, about those visions or whatever they were. Dinner was awkward, to say the least. Neither Naruto, nor Sasuke were really sure how to act around Minato. He was just so god damned happy.

"So, I heard from my student today that you two passed the bell test with flying colors." That had been the start of the conversation from hell.

"It was mostly dumb luck, actually."

"I find that hard to believe."

Naruto had looked to Sasuke to keep up the act of being a chatterbox. But the avenger merely glared at him, then smirked, and then remained silent. Naruto tried his best to fill the silence but noticed that Minato was glancing at Sasuke out of the corner of his eye. So, he too stopped talking and grew intent on eating his dinner as fast as possible and going back upstairs. That didn't seem to work out with Minato's plan however, because their faux-father was determined to get them talking, especially Sasuke.

"Alright, I know your mother didn't tell me to come home early from the office while she was gone for nothing. So if you're not even going to look at me…"

"Then why are you here?" Sasuke offered, gracefully placing a morsel of rice in his mouth.

Minato glared at Sasuke, "May I ask what's making you so dark and brooding today, Sasuke?"

"You may."

Naruto felt his head fall in to his hand and a sigh escape him. Sasuke was being an ass again. It was the way of the world, he should just accept-

"Alright, what's making you so dark and brooding today, Sasuke?"

Sasuke actually looked up from his plate this time. Obviously he wasn't used to anyone besides Naruto barreling through such awkward conversations, and had expected Minato to just drop it. But, he was Naruto's father after all.

"My brother over there…" Here it comes, he's going to blow our cover for the sake of his little hissy fit! Naruto thought anxiously. "…has decided lately that he shouldn't guide me back to my own bed when I sleepwalk. I guess he just likes embarrassing me."

Naruto's eyes widened. Not from the reference to their blatant cuddling, but that Sasuke hadn't been a selfish whiny bitch. Minato looked between the two of them, and then…he laughed. Not just any laugh either, but a mouth open, knee slapping, belly laugh. Sasuke stopped glaring for a moment to turn his eyes on Naruto incredulously. Naruto shrugged, and they both gazed at their father in exasperation. It took a while, but when the adult in the room finally regained composure they glared again.

"Sasuke…you know you two aren't actually blood related. It isn't exactly a sin for you two to be affectionate like that." Minato intoned gently.

"…beg pardon?" Sasuke was clenching his chopsticks rather tightly in what Naruto privately liked to call the claw.

"Well, you know….it's always been kinda obvious to your mother and I that you two were never really just brothers, or friends even…and while it was originally a bruise to my…now what did Kushina call it?" Minato stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"'Selfish, absorbed, prejudiced, fragile man-ego.'" Kyuubi supplied from his place on the floor.

"Ah, that was it." He winced, "Still hurts too."

Naruto noted that the claw was turning into the talon and that it might be a good idea to get Sasuke out of there quick. But as he was about to try and usher him out the conversation reached new awkward heights.

"…but of course we never made a fuss about it because we sorta figured it would happen eventually. That and, what's the point of stopping you from fooling around? Not like you could get Sasuke knocked up or anything."

The phrase 'so silent you could hear a pin drop' had an entirely new meaning. Sasuke's face was contorted into a mask of fury. His mouth opened and closed as he tried to come up with words to express just how enraged, embarrassed, and insulted he was by their father's statements. But his mind could not fathom anything nearly appropriate beyond flinging his chopsticks at the man and stalking out of the room and up the stairs. Minato turned to smile weakly at his son.

"…what?"

"Oh my god." Naruto turned and followed Sasuke to their room. Kyuubi trailed behind snickering in that obnoxious fox way he had. It was a mixture between panting and a strange backwards cough. Sometimes this odd laugh would get him so worked up he'd have a sneezing fit and it would be Naruto who would be laughing.

Thankfully Naruto had mastered how to enter a room that an infuriated Sasuke had just gone into. The first thing he did was duck, going into the room in a low crouch, and then he slammed the door shut and hit the deck. But instead of the usual kunai in the door or small controlled flame singeing the short hairs on his neck, there was silence. He was seething. Sasuke was laying spread eagle on his bed and he was staring at the ceiling with narrowed eyes. His hands were clenching into fists and then slowly letting go like he was squeezing some imaginary stress ball into oblivion. His breaths were also deep and exhaled in short, angry puffs.

Naruto opened his mouth but Sasuke cut him off, without even having to look at him, "Not.a.word."

His jaw shut with an audible click of his teeth. Kyuubi paced behind the closed door and eventually just phased through it so he could go back to napping in his usual corner. He had to find a way to make this better or else Sasuke would be sulking and whining in his own twisted avenger way for years. He crawled carefully over to Sasuke's bed. It was like a laughable game of red-light-green-light. Every time Sasuke turned to glare at him he stopped. Then when he looked away Naruto would crawl as fast as he could before Sasuke face him again. By the time he got over there Sasuke was mostly calmed down.

"So…Gaara's in heaven or wherever now?"

Sasuke's right cheek hit the pillow so fast Naruto could hear it. He was staring into angry avenger eyes, something he was used to so he moved right past it. "I know you think I'm crazy so just stop trying Naruto."

"No, seriously. I wanna know why you think this is so real and all."

"I actually saw it the first time, I think, after I died and before I got here. But I don't remember a lot. I just remember I saw it."

"The garden? And fat man?"

"Yeah."

"Do you think it's the afterlife or something?"

"No, just where the gods live I guess…for some reason, the tailed demons are gods there. It's…weird."

"And Gaara was his demon's…kid? And he's been through different worlds like us you said?"

"Yes, he called them lifetimes, like we're being reincarnated but we remember everything, and we come into the life a little bit later."

"Well…if I'm the kyuubi's kit or whatever, why are you coming along?"

"We're tied, remember?"

"Oh yeah, at the ankles."

Sasuke glared half-heartedly at him and turned his eyes back to the ceiling again. "Yeah."

"Hey Kyuubi?" Naruto turned towards the fox. "Do you think this is all possible? What Sasuke's going on about?"

"I'm not just any fox, kit, I think I'd know if I was a god somewhere." He closed his eyes wearily and rolled over, ignoring them again.

"Naruto just quit it. Okay, maybe you're right, maybe I'm just going crazy from, I don't know, being in a different universe?!" Sasuke shouted.

"Sasuke!" He clamped a hand over his mouth. That was loud.

He pried Naruto's hand off and moved out of his reach. "What? It's the truth. And as crazy as my whole vision sounds, it explains our situation, which might I add, is crazy to start with!"

"I know, I know, alright?"

Naruto fell back off his heels and onto his rear, hands resting behind him on the carpet. Sasuke was right. No matter what way you sliced it, the whole thing sounded nuts. They'd both died, and ended up here, feeling very much alive. Here was a reason for their weird scenario. It sounded really insane, but what other explanation did they have?

"So, what? Do they come to you randomly or…could you take me with you?"

"I don't know if I can, or if I'm supposed to."

Naruto grumbled, "Oh yeah, you said they saw you last time, right? They were pissed that you were there."

"Gaara wasn't. He was actually pretty okay with it."

"But…are you going to come with me when this is all said and done with?"

"What do you mean?" Naruto didn't like the nervous tone that had crept into Sasuke's voice.

"You know, to the garden. After our lifetimes are up or whatever. Are you going to come?"

"I don't think I can."

Naruto glowered, "Then I'm not going."

"Naruto I don't think you can-"

"I don't care if I'm not supposed to, or whatever, or if I can or can't. I'm not going without you."

Sasuke closed his mouth and settled his gaze on the sheets.

"Okay." He mumbled.

"So, the next time you go…"

"Yeah?"

"Ask them when we're gonna head on over to our next life. I'm kinda sick of this one already."

"Already? It's been two days." Sasuke chuckled, "Besides, the way Gaara sounded, I think we have to live out these lifetimes for a couple of years at the minimum."

"But I don't wanna."

"Shut up, dobe."

If Naruto thought he was sick of it after two days, he loathed it after their first month. By the time that their mother got back from her mission, Naruto and Sasuke were happy to see their father returning to his regular office hours. Though Sasuke had vowed to never forgive Minato for his insinuations that he and Naruto were a couple, he had begun to treat him respectfully again after a few days. But if Naruto had ever imagined having a father, which he had several times, he had never imagined one like Minato. In fact, Naruto had never thought that being loved, or having a father would be quite as aggravating as Minato made it seem. The yellow flash was exuberant and ruthless at the same time in whatever he did, and that included the relentless (though thoroughly good natured) teasing he put his sons through.

Once it had been brought out into the open, the thought of Sasuke and Naruto as a couple, Minato used it as the butt of every one of his jokes. If he saw them sparring in the back yard he would call out, 'Gee, all that bickering sounds like an angry cry for sex. Didn't I teach you boys to keep your shagging in the house?' Or sometimes when he woke them up from a nap he would excuse himself from the room and tell them he'd wait outside till they were done. Of course there were days where having Minato around was the lesser of two evils. They were still in the life where Sakura was the queen bitch after all. And, as fate would have it, they were still on a team with her. Attending team meetings and doing D-rank missions was more boring than frustrating. Sakura was harping on them for every little thing they did while they were doing the monotonous tasks of yard work, grocery shopping, and fetching run away cats. Though every once in a while Sasuke would fight back, ever since he'd made her cry he was a tad more restrained with his verbal assaults. Sometimes it would be like going from one hell to another or from relief to brutal mental anguish.

Their cover was nearly blown once when Naruto and Sasuke 'learned' a jutsu too fast. Kakashi had congratulated them only after he'd made sure they weren't cheating. Then they made sure to screw up a few times to compensate for their rapid skill intake. Sakura had not been pleased with them that day. It was unnerving to be treated like fresh meat again, and it was more than a little annoying to have to pace himself so much. Every once in a while he would suggest to Sasuke that they go track down a bingo book criminal and ask for a quick and painless death. Every request was shot down immediately, of course.

The first night that Kushina was home she took them out for dinner at a small restaurant near the hokage's tower called Moritake's. It was a casual sit down place with decent service and fair prices which they apparently visited often. Of course Sasuke and Naruto wouldn't know as they hadn't ever been there in their lifetime. But they smiled and nodded along just for their mother's sake. It was something they were quickly becoming masters at.

"So, how was it?"

"Was what?" Sasuke quipped as he scanned the menu.

"Holding down the fort and getting some extra time with your dad around?" Kushina added, "You know? Just guy time?"

"Don't ever leave us with him again." Sasuke replied quickly, not masking his distaste at all. Naruto coughed and elbowed Sasuke in the ribs.

"Aw, it couldn't have been that bad." Kushina looked to Naruto, "He's just being a baby, right?"

"Well…" Naruto tried to think of a way to lie that would be believable and appease Sasuke at the same time but nothing appeared. He shook his head, "Nope, he was definitely being a jerk."

"Naruto!" His mother admonished him, "You do not talk about your father that way."

"He was though, mom!" Sasuke used his whiny voice that only crept out when he was around their mother.

"What did he do that was so horrible sweetie?"

"He insinuated that Naruto and I…are…were…a couple." Sasuke grumbled, "And that I was the, er, submissive party."

Kushina rolled her bottom lip inward and started chewing on it. Her eyes clearly danced with mirth but she restrained herself from laughing. Sasuke growled and hid his face behind his menu. That's when the dam broke. Their mother laughed just as heartily as their father had, and only when the waiter arrived did she stop, and only to get her order out before she started up again. Sasuke and Naruto glibly put in their orders and then slumped back in their seat, a little less enthusiastic about their mother's return than they were before.

The worst part about the time going by was that Sasuke hadn't had any more visions. Not in dreams or anything. Naruto was beginning to wonder again if the avenger hadn't just made the whole thing up. After all, it was pretty convenient than he had a whole slew of info to tell him. But now there was nothing and Naruto was itching for more. The idea of finally getting out of this stupid life and into the heavenly garden or whatever was really starting to appeal to him. Somehow it was as if he felt trapped in his own body. Even on the coldest days he felt restless, hot, stifled as if he was in a sauna. Just as humid yet pent up with energy. When he tried to talk to Sasuke about it he would shrug him off, or give him weird looks. But as the months went by, the seasons changed and they trained and trained, the feeling only grew to greater heights. By the time it was nearly unbearable…then came the day they died. Naruto suddenly remembered that death hurt, and he really shouldn't have been so impatient.

TBC…