Standard disclaimers apply.

This fic is:

1. SasuNaru, yaoi, OOC and unbeta-read.

2. co-written by XKunoichiofthePaintbrushX so give her some love.

And to those anonymous reviewers, please leave your e-mail address so we can personally reply to your reviews. Yoroshiku ne.

When he was allowed to be with reality again, the blonde found himself on the floor, the blanket spread open to reveal his naked frame. And his lover? The man was above him, half-covering him while laying siege on his body with a hunger that overwhelmed him.

The blonde grabbed a fistful of dark hair and pulled to grab some attention. He stared into smoky eyes and asked, "Are you mad?" He was worried that he had provoked his love with his statement thinking that he didn't trust him enough.

The other male snorted, "Don't be an idiot. Why should I?" And he resumed his pleasurable attack and this time, his hunger was mirrored by the man beautifully writhing beneath him.

The Uchiha licked his dry lips as he stared at his lover's puckered hole. It was still a little bit swollen and his inner thighs were still sticky from their activity late last night.

"Where are you looking?" the blonde asked in an irritated but husky voice.

The other male just arched a fine eyebrow and let his hands glide on his smooth inner thighs. He leaned forward, chuckling and said, "I don't have to answer that." And he traced the swollen skin before he inserted two fingers making the blonde arched his body and let out a

gasp followed by a strangled plea.

There were no words just actions of fervent need… actions of desperation and longing as if they could only have each other now. The blonde pressed closer, his body tensing waiting for that moment when everything that he was would merge with his lover. He waited with abated breath, his eyes locked with obsidian ones forever burning with blatant passion and desire for him. All for him. With his lungs starved and chest rising and falling, he managed to make a strangle plea, "Please."

The dark-haired man held his hips and thrust powerfully into him. His eyes fluttered close at the feeling of his blonde… hot, needing, open… so damned open and very vulnerable. He filled him to the brim just as he filled his mouth with his tongue savagely looking for his. He started moving with a tempo so untamed as he led them towards the fire and in there they danced wantonly.

"Your mobile is ringing," the blonde said between gasps and moans. The ringing was so incessant that it penetrated through the haze he was in.

The dark-haired man grunted and reached for his mobile unit but he didn't stop pistoning in and out from the heat that completely sheathed him. He got a glimpse on the caller ID before he turned his mobile unit off. "A nobody," he said. Technically, it wasn't nobody. It was one of his group mates but he saw no reason to answer his call. He wasn't late of their agreed meeting time... yet. Even if he was which he knew he would, they could go ahead of him for all he care.

The blonde wrapped his arms around pale shoulders and pulled himself up. He laved one earlobe before he whispered in a voice that made the other man shiver and moan, "Liar." And he was back on his back, one firm leg over a pale shoulder as they increased their pace, plunging each other into the insanity that was their mutual passion.

The dark-haired man grunted as he drove into his lover's tight heat harder. It wasn't enough. The power of his thrusts wasn't enough to touch his partner's heart- something which he wanted to do.

"Love me," he heard the blonde whisper wantonly. "Love me deeper... Love me harder... Love me faster." Those phrases with aphrodisiac power were mumbled over and over again with his name being mixed once in a while until it became a chant... a chant to egg him on and it drove him wild. He continued moving, he continued retaliating and they continued dancing.

Spinning and whirling around and around like merry-go-round except that there was more colors... And they were more vivid and beautiful than reality. Few more thrusts and it slammed over and swept them away into a perfect bliss. All thoughts ceased as white light flooded into their minds.

Chapter 11: The cold hands of disaster

Sasuke softly pat Kyuubi's head when the cat looked at him with pleading eyes.

Don't leave me here again, her eyes said. She didn't want to spend few nights in the clinic and she especially didn't want to be poke with those silver things. Why couldn't her young owner and his friends understand that she was just getting weaker and weaker but not because of some illness as they assumed?

Sasuke nodded his head as soon as the veterinarian approached. Even though the forty-something man and Kyuubi had met too many times to count, the cat never like the gentle man.

"Huh? Gaara-kun and Naruto-kun aren't with you?"

"Gaara's practice got extended and Naruto had some appointment," the teen explained.

The older male nodded then turned to Kyuubi. "She doesn't look healthy. Did Naruto follow my instructions?"

"To the letter. The medicine doesn't work."

The doctor rubbed his chin in thoughtfulness then looked down at the pet who was trying to bury herself behind the pale arms cradling her safely.

"We'll run some more tests. Come for her two days later."

Sasuke winced and growled when Kyuubi clung unto him with her very sharp nails. He plucked and dumped her on the table. The two glared at each other with neither of them willing to look away. That was until the pet looked at Sasuke with big, pleading eyes. The teen sighed and caressed her back. "C'mon, Kyuubi, it will be over before you know it and we'll see each other again."

The cat meowed and tilted her head back as a pale pointer finger tapped her nose. She licked the limb before strutting towards the smiling doctor.

"Please take good care of her," he said politely and bowed.

-SasuNaru is love-

"I see," Naruto said softly as Sasuke told him the details about Kyuubi over the phone. "I wonder if she'll go back to the way she was almost a year ago."

"Dobe, me and Gaara are thinking optimistically which is very rare especially for that tanuki. You should too."

The blonde let out a chuckle. "You better get back to studying or your dad will burst a vein." He heard his friend sighed before letting an affirmative growl. "Sasuke?" he murmured before he could stop himself.

"Hmm?"

"Nothing."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Idiot." Then he hung up.

-SasuNaru is love-

"Sakura-chan," Naruto shouted as he spotted his pink-haired friend across the street. He bounded to her and gave her a very chirpy morning greeting.

Sakura sighed. "You're too chirpy for me today."

"What's wrong?"

The girl waved her hand dismissively. "Nothing's wrong except-"

"Morning," someone greeted from their side.

"Morning, Ino," the two chorused.

The blonde girl did a double take on her close friend then exclaimed, "Ew... that's big!"

"Shut up!"

"Eh? What's big?" a clueless Naruto asked as he stared at Sakura's face.

"Don't be an idiot! Don't you see she has-" Sakura none-too-gently hit the other girl as an attempt to stop her from announcing to the world about her face. "/She has a big pimple on her forehead."

"Eh?" the male teen uttered eloquently. "Is that the reason why you have some bangs today? It doesn't matter. You're still pretty."

Sakura tapped his head with a book. "I don't want to hear that from you."

The other students within earshot chuckled seemingly amused of the blonde's poor attempt in wining Sakura's heart. Naruto's crush was no secret from the student body except that it wasn't true. The rumor had started when few students had heard say that in his opinion, Sakura was the epitome of a perfect girlfriend and that perhaps in the future he would ask her out on a date. From that day onwards, they were being teased and paired much to Sakura's irritation. Everybody would read the male teen's actions more than they should and once in awhile would assume that Sakura was the reason why Naruto and Sasuke were fighting and they would sigh and shake their head at the fact that a girl could strain such friendship. But none of that seemed to matter to the blonde, who if he felt like it, would amuse the student body by asking Sakura on a date or acting like a besotted fool.

-SasuNaru is love-

"I've got to admit," Gaara started as he looked at one of Sasuke's answers to their Math homework, "your approach to the problem is more efficient than mine."

"Yeah but longer compared to yours," Sasuke replied.

"Teacher won't mind as long as the answer is correct though," Shikamaru said between yawns. "I'm sure she won't mind either if I didn't write few lines. Too troublesome."

The two other teens gaped at his sheet which only showed variables, the first line of solution, followed by vertical ellipses and the last line of solution.

"She might flunk you," Gaara quipped in his usual apathetic voice.

"I'll try to be diligent next time."

The three paused from their discussion when the door slid open with a bang and Naruto followed by Kiba, Ino and Sakura greeted everyone in thunderous voice.

Shikamaru buried his head deeper into his arms.

"Did you make your homework?" Gaara asked as the blonde settled beside his table. As a reply, Naruto pulled his sheet and showed it to the redhead who reviewed his answers.

Sasuke who had been staring at Naruto, looked away when the latter turned to his direction. "Morning, bastard."

"You still do your tie sloppily," Sasuke remarked before he reached over Gaara's desk and righted the tie.

"Ohayou, Sasuke-kun," Sakura said.

"Hn."

"Ohayou, Sasuke-kun," Ino greeted while looking at Sakura with a challenging look.

Sasuke's reply was similar making the pink-haired snicker and the other girl pout. And deep down, both girls wished that their crush would give them even a quarter of the attention he was giving to Naruto.

Won't you even look at my way?

From his seat, the ever quiet Shino looked at his four friends, his glasses glinting under the ray of sunlight spilling through the window near him. "A storm is brewing," he said.

And Kiba who heard him frowned. "But the weather forecast said that this week will be sunny."

-SasuNaru is love-

Like a veil, silence covered the archery field the moment Gaara released his arrow and as it sailed through the air, everyone in the field saw nothing but perfection.

The archery club of Konoha high carried a reputation of having good archers and the current captain see no reason for the redhead not to join the club's rooster. He excused himself from his vice-captain and called Gaara and in an unprecedented move, he said, "I expect you to

participate in all tournaments."

"What?" the club's ace who was privy with hierarchy matters said, "he's a freshman. He can't-"

"He's the best among us," the other senior argued in a cool voice before he dismissed the team.

Gaara looked down at the bow being held against his abdomen. "What now, senpai?"

"We're going to have a competition. Just the two of us."

"Harada is issuing a challenge," the vice-captain told his captain while they gathered their personal belongings. "Aren't you going to stop-"

"Harada needs to learn his lesson. It is his arrogance that stops him from being the best just as it prevented him from being the team captain."

The redhead looked at Harada coolly. The former understood the reason behind the challenge. Harada was labeled as the Robin hood in the district and he was scared that the title would be taken away. As if he-Gaara had a time for such superfluous title. "I have no time for this. You can keep the Robin Hood title for all I care." He sidestepped the bow and started walking away until he heard the upperclassman said, "Sissy."

Gaara just smirked.

-SasuNaru is love-

"You're late," Kiba stated when Gaara joined them in the gang's hangout near the soccer field bleachers.

"I had a business with Harada-senpai," was his calm reply accompanied by a cool smirk. He sat beside Chouji who offered him a bag of chips which he gratefully partook.

"Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun aren't here yet," Hinata said. It was already ten minutes after their agreed time.

"They should be here soon. Sasuke's mail said so," Shino told them.

They all looked at the window of their classroom facing to their direction. Knowing how volatile those two were with each other, half of them expected for a body flying through the window.

"I wonder if they're fine," Chouji said.

Contrary to what their friends were expecting, Sasuke and Naruto were fine together, quietly performing classroom duties. However, how long would such calmness last when the blonde was honest to a fault and his friend, a bastard through and through?

"You're extremely happy today," Sasuke said as hurriedly yet neatly wrote on their class' report.

The blonde paused from his humming and looked over his shoulder. "Because it's been awhile since we got paired in classroom duties and," he glanced away and looked down at the blackboard erasers on his hands, "it's been ages since you joined the gang's gimmicks."

Sasuke paused from his writing and stared at his friend's back when warmth simmered within him at those words. Was his happiness that shallow? Or...

"Ne, Naruto, are you in love with me?" he asked casually as he cradled his chin on a hand.

Such inquiry was so sudden and took the other teen off guard that he dropped one eraser. Luckily, he had already dusted them off so there was faint chalk dust on where they landed. But that wasn't what concerned him. With his face flushed, he glared at his smirking friend and said, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Calm down, dobe. I was just kidding."

"Why would I be in love with a bastard like you?" he continued almost in panic. "I just said as a friend who..." he trailed off but they both knew that Sasuke knew the remaining words.

misses you...

Sasuke understood that feeling because he too missed the gang even though he won't admit it out loud. He had been so busy with other stuffs that he had no time to spend with them. "I'm happy too," he confessed as he picked the erasers and placed them back.

The blonde quietly looked at his friend with his heart beating a bit too quickly. Just to get back, he asked just as casually, "Does that mean you're in love with me?"

The pale teen snorted. "In your dreams." The blonde grinned at him. "You better hurry up, dobe. They might make us pay for the cinema admission fee," he added while arranging the chairs and tables.

"If that happens, take care of it. Besides, it was your meeting that got extended."

"Only for five minutes and I wasn't the one who decided to empty the two cabinets so I can clean them."

The blonde akimboed. "If you weren't late-"

"Whatever." Sasuke smirked when he heard his friend growled.

It had been eight minutes later did the two show-up and by then, their friends were already irritated. All the way to the cinema plaza, most of them were grumbling at their tardiness.

"Sasuke..." Gaara started as he walked beside the teen who was walking a step behind the rest.

"..."

"I hope you're ready to face the consequences of your action." Although he sounded apathetic, he was worried for his friend. He knew they would be coming home late and for Sasuke, it meant having a fight with his dad.

Sasuke snorted and casually inserted his hands in his sidepockets. "I'll come up with something else."

The redhead scoffed at his confidence that bordered near carelessness. But instead of calling him on that, he remained quiet. There was nothing he could do... nothing but make a call.

-SasuNaru is love-

After watching a movie, they headed straight to the nearest burger joint and pigged out. Even Sakura, Ino and Hinata had no qualms consuming one large french fries after another. But then again they were in the middle of gossips so their consumption went unnoticed. As for the lads, they were no different from their female friends except for the topics of their discussion. But they eat more rather than talked. However, either way all of them were enjoying the moment like any teenager would.

Awareness of time and thoughts of going home didn't cross their minds until Hinata received a call from her father. That single call alone shattered their bubble completely and sent them crashing back to reality where obligations and responsibilities await them.

-SasuNaru is love-

It was already past ten in the evening when Sasuke had arrived home and he knew what was coming when he met his father at the hallway.

"I'm home," he said automatically.

"How did your advance study go today, Sasuke?" the older Uchiha asked.

The teen's face remained impassive but his eyes showed total confusion but before he could say something, another voice said. "Don't be standoffish, Sasuke."

The lad looked up to see Itachi at the second floor stair landing. "An acquaintance who is working there told me about your frequent visit at the prep business school. I told otousan about tonight when you didn't come home past eight-thirty."

"If you want to, I can send you to an excellent prep school," Fugaku offered.

Understanding the look Itachi was giving him, he replied, "I'm fine. It's just a trial month anyway."

"Itachi mentioned that too. If you want to continue, tell me so I can make arrangements."

"I will," he replied before climbing the stairs. When he passed by his brother, he intentionally let their hands discretely brushed against each other. He could have thanked him but it was so hard to do so to someone like Itachi who could make their father believed in his lies.

That power... I want that.

Itachi stared at Sasuke's back until it disappeared behind his door before he went to his room. He sat on bed and with eyes that were always filled with unfathomable sadness, he looked at his mobile phone then called someone.

"..." came the other line making the older male snort.

"He just came home. Things went smoothly."

"As expected from you."

"..."

"..."

"Gaara-kun?"

"Hm?"

"If he's going to be late because of your outings, inform me." It wasn't a request but an order and the younger male knew it.

"Roger. Until then."

Itachi hung up and made his way to his computer table to resume his work.

-SasuNaru is love-

If Kyuubi was a human, she would have tapped her fingers against the table as she impatiently waited for her master to pick her up. He better remember that today was the day of her discharge because she couldn't spend another night in this place. She wanted to sleep on her own mattress rather than on something that smelled funny and way too clean; she wanted to drink and eat what her master provided rather than from this place.

She tapped her tail and was close to whining as she continued looking at the door, wishing that when it opens, it would be her master.

After few more taps, the door opened much to the cat's delight. She meowed expecting to see her blonde but saw her master's close friends.

"If it isn't Kyuubi," Gaara said as he touched her head.

"Did they treat you well?" Sasuke asked as he gave her pat.

Kyuubi was happy to see them but she wanted her master- She paused as a familiar scent wafted to her nose. Out of happiness, she leapt into the air and straight into the arms of Naruto who had just came in.

"I miss you too, Kyuubi," he said between chuckles caused by ticklish licks. He pulled back and rubbed their noses together. "Let's go home after I talk with your doctor."

The cat nodded enthusiastically.

Fifteen minutes later, the four of them left the clinic. Even if her master was grinning like an idiot, she could feel the trickle of disappointment and worry coming from him. It didn't take for a cat to figure out the reason behind it- the negative results of her medical examination. And at that moment she wished she could speak the human language so she could tell them her condition.

TBC