If: Woo! I started this chapter thinking "maybe I'll figure out how I want to do this" and suddenly I couldn't stop! How wonderful! Anyway, this is the Aftermath. Only one more chapter and maybe an epilogue left! The tension is getting high!! I would like to that the readers and reviewers. I had worried that I had killed this story by having such a huge break between chapters, but you all are still reading and that's awesome! So THANK YOU!

Warnings: Sasuke POV, swearing, some gore, some drama and a heck of a lot of ANGST!

Vocab: Mon Dieu- My God in French

Usurper- Person who seizes another's place, authority, or possession wrongfully.

Review Replies: Shinimegami7- Yes, no one important died. And Naruto is going to have quite the time trying to cope with everything thrown at him. Poor Naruto, I torture him so. He he he... Sasuke does seem to be the wrench in the works, doesn't he? He just makes everything worse. Heh. Yes to the quickness of updating. I'm determined to finish this sucker! And woot pie! Much thanks for the review and virtual pie!

"Naruto…"

Upon hearing that name slip through those perfect pale lips, the usurper known as Uchiha Sasuke cautiously peeked over the love seat to watch as the events unfolded. It seemed as though this was where the proverbial shit hit the fan for Gaara. The look on the blond's face was absolutely priceless. Sasuke almost felt like an ass to think that, but he really didn't care. According to the world of Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto was the usurper, not he. Before Naruto had come barging into Gaara's already hectic life, there had been Sasuke and Sasuke knew that Gaara still cared about it, his actions practically shouted "I still love you!" Plus, if Naruto's look was anything to go by, this marriage wasn't going to last. Gaara would be coming back to him and they could live as they should have.

The blond was backing away from the vision of beauty that was Gaara. Covered in blood and sporting a cut on his left arm from a bullet grazing him, the red head couldn't have been more attractive. This was how he was supposed to be, a cold hearted killer who held no remorse for his own actions, this was the way that Sasuke loved him.

Standing up from behind the love seat, Sasuke surveyed the room. All of the men that had attacked him earlier were dead. Gaara was nothing if precise. It was almost disconcerting the way the red head was able to kill almost all of the men with one well aimed shot. He glanced over to the bedroom door, it was open but both the blond and red head seemed to have gone inside. Sasuke sauntered towards the door, mindful of his own injury and peeked inside. Gaara was standing in front of a clearly disturbed Naruto, who had sat on the bed. Sasuke nearly scoffed at the sight. As incredulous as their relationship had been to him, this was by far the most incredulous thing by far. To think that Gaara had never told Naruto about him being the Sandman, though Naruto wouldn't be able to gather that Gaara was the Sandman from this… or would he? Sasuke wouldn't know. It had been so long since he had last interacted with the blond that he wasn't sure if Naruto really was as smart as he was pretty. Sasuke couldn't deny that the boy was pretty, he always had been, and that was why he could understand Gaara's choice of partners.

But really, had the red head truly thought that this odd pairing could work? He was a fugitive, a highly sought after serial murderer. Naruto was a man of the law, an FBI agent sworn to uphold the law and track down the Sandman. There was no way that Naruto could not turn Gaara in, just as there was no way that Sasuke could stop loving the red head. Gaara should have known this. He had to have known it. The Sandman was no fool, and Sasuke thought that Gaara himself was no fool as well.

"I should have told you," was what Gaara finally said and Sasuke rolled his eyes internally. The Uchiha slid down the wall and sat on the floor just inside the doorway. Naruto looked up at the red head in front of him.

"Told me what? That you are a murderer?" Naruto asked, his voice taking on a slightly crazed tone. Sasuke almost smiled.

"You know that if you would have told him that he would have shipped you off to the big house and you would have never seen him again," Sasuke interjected. Gaara turned to glare heatedly at him.

"You stay out of this!" Gaara growled. Naruto stood from the bed and looked over to Sasuke who just looked at the two of them dispassionately.

"No, I want to know what he has to do with anything. And I want to know the truth Gaara, I think I deserve that much," Naruto said heatedly. Gaara turned towards the blond and his face softened into a mask of indifference, his eyes belying the sorrow within his heart.

"I can tell you what I have to do with everything," Sasuke said haughtily. Gaara snarled at him and Sasuke just shrugged. "Fine, but I'm correcting you when you fuck me over."

"Just shut the hell up!" Gaara almost bellowed. Turning towards Naruto he frowned. "I will tell you, but we can't do this now. The police will be here soon, and we really can't be here when they do."

"Of course we can't. We wouldn't want to be caught red handed in the murders of six people, now would we?" Naruto nearly spat. Gaara's face fell for a split second before he caught himself and turned towards the Uchiha.

"Get the bleach from the bathroom and start spreading it around in there. Get all the surfaces. I'll grab the second bottle from the closet, when you're done in there help me in the front room," Gaara commanded and Sasuke nodded. Standing from his position on the floor Sasuke glanced back at the unhappy pair and almost let out a triumphant yell, there would be no Gaara and Naruto after this, especially after Gaara finally let the cat out of the bag as to his other life.

Moving quickly to the bathroom, Sasuke grimaced as he came face to face with the body of one of the men. He was laid in the tub with part of the top of his head missing, a smashed in nose and a bullet wound to the chest. Sasuke swallowed a bit of bile and dug around in the cabinets for the bottle of bleach. Having found the bottle he plugged a sink, filled it with bleach and soaked a towel. Then he wiped down all the surfaces in the bathroom covered in blood and then doused them in bleach. Taking one final look at the man in the tub, Sasuke dashed out of the bathroom to help Gaara take care of the next room.

Together they doused the entire hotel room in bleach. Gaara commanded Sasuke to gather up all of his and Naruto's belongs and the Uchiha scowled, but followed the red head's orders. Packing everything away into the suitcases took almost longer than Sasuke thought possible, but he did it as quick as he could. Gaara meanwhile, had started to spray everything in the hotel suite with a mixture of bleach and ammonia, trying to kill every bit of DNA evidence he could. Together Sasuke and Gaara grabbed the luggage and the blond and made their way down the fire escape just as the police made their way into the suite.

"Mon Dieu!" was all Sasuke heard as he and Gaara dragged Naruto and several bags of luggage off the fire escape, and down the back alleys of Paris.

The three men finally came to a stop in the seedy underbelly of the romantic capital of the world. Rats scuttled down the streets which were filled with some vile stinking substance. The buildings were worn down and Sasuke noted that there were burlesques, whorehouses and even what looked to be opium dens lining the streets. Gaara pulled them into a very disreputable looking building and Sasuke was amazed that the red head even knew where they were. Half naked women and men were all over the foyer and the three men headed towards the greasy counter.

"We need a room," Gaara told the clerk. The man behind the desk eyeballed the three of them and then smirked.

"Sure thing sweetheart," he said in broken English before turning and grabbing a key. "You pay when you leave."

Gaara nodded and dragged the other two away. They went up a tiny staircase and down a crowded hallway before coming to their door. Sasuke just looked around the place like it was going to give him an infectious disease. He entered the room, dropped the bags he had been carrying and sat on the floor, trying not to touch anything.

"God this place is disgusting," he muttered and instantly Gaara's death gaze was upon him. Slowly the red head advanced upon him and Sasuke found himself fighting to not cower in fear.

"Would you rather we go to some upscale joint and get caught?" Gaara hissed. Sasuke quickly shook his head. "I thought so. Now keep your god damned mouth shut!"

Sasuke cowered under the full brunt of Gaara's wrath before Naruto spoke.

"Could you please explain this all now?" the blond asked in a tired voice. It seemed to Sasuke that the very energy that was Naruto had been sucked out through the unfolding events. While Sasuke felt a pang of guilt somewhere in the recesses of his heart, he was more concerned with the fact that he would be the one in Gaara's bed and then heart after this. Gaara was looking steadily at the blond and seemed to have picked up the same things Sasuke had. He gestured for Naruto to sit down.

"This could take a while," Gaara warned the blond. Naruto let out a mirthless laugh.

"I don't think that matters right now," was the blond's reply. Gaara nodded and started pacing in the room.

"Do you remember how I told you that I killed my uncle when I was six?" Gaara asked and Naruto nodded. "And I told you I went to a mental facility?" Naruto nodded again. "That's not entirely true."

"Wow, he certainly didn't see that coming," Sasuke muttered sarcastically under his breath. Gaara glared at him again and Sasuke shut his mouth.

"After I had accidentally killed my uncle, my father did ship me away, but he sent me to a man named Shukaku," Gaara said, clearly not liking what he was remembering as he paced the floor quicker. "Shukaku was well known in the underworld for training world class hitmen and assassins. Apparently, my father had wanted me to kill my uncle. It seemed that he had grand plans for me. He wanted me to become something he could loathe completely; he wanted me to truly be the monster he envisioned me as: the Sandman. So he sent me away to Shukaku. I was trained for six years and gradually perfected my way of killing. I killed who I was told and was given air tight excuses as to my whereabouts. When I turned sixteen I killed Shukaku and started to do things my way. My father had died three years earlier in a freak accident; apparently someone had poisoned his wine.

"When I took over my own fate it seemed as though I couldn't stop killing. As much as it killed me to be doing what my father had forced upon me, I found that I rather liked taking the lives of other people. It made me feel as if I was someone, that I mattered. So I decided to kill the people in this world that deserve to die. I started to kill those that took advantage of those less privileged than themselves, those who killed innocents, and those who abused the people they should be helping. In my own way I was trying to be the father that I never had. I wanted to help people, since no one had helped me," Gaara explained. He looked over at Naruto and saw the blond nod his head.

"I see," was all that the blond said in response. He then pointed a finger at Sasuke, who gave him an offended look. "What about him?"

Gaara looked at Sasuke and Sasuke swore he saw affection cross those pools of emerald green before they hardened and Gaara looked away. Sasuke just looked at the red head, knowing that this was going to be harder for him than his own past had been to reveal.

Taking a deep breath, Sasuke watched as Gaara revealed his secret. "Sasuke was that boyfriend I told you about."

"You mean the bastard who left you for selfish reasons and then raped you?" Naruto asked, giving Sasuke a cold stare. Sasuke snarled.

"I didn't rape him you little idiot," Sasuke snarled. "How could I? I'm the one who got fucked!"

Silence echoed in the room and it seemed as if someone had sucked all the air out of the room. Sasuke was panting with fury, tired of being slandered thusly, Naruto was shell shocked from the information he had just received and Gaara stood stock still, looking anywhere but the blond.

"Is this true?" Naruto asked after a few moments silence, tears shimmered in his eyes but he refused to let them fall. The blond looked at Gaara's stiff back, but received no answer.

"Of course it's true, why the hell would I lie?" Sasuke snapped. Naruto turned furious tear filled eyes to the Uchiha, who for the first time in his life feared what Naruto would do.

"Because you're a son of a bitch, that's why Sasuke. You don't fucking care about anything unless it gets you what you want. You're obsessed with him!" Naruto shouted. Sasuke growled.

"I love him! I'd do anything to have him back. You're the little bitch who's throwing him away! I'm merely going to pick up the pieces!" Sasuke shouted back.

"You're fucking lying! You'd do anything to get your hooks into my HUSBAND you fucking whore!" Naruto shouted back, pissed off by Sasuke's gall.

"I'm not a fucking whore you cock sucker! And I don't need to lie! It's the fucking truth!" Sasuke shouted, getting into Naruto's face.

"Of course you're lying to fudge packer! You'd never bend over for anyone!" Naruto shouted, pushing Sasuke's chest, causing him to stumble back a step.

"I bent over for him! I'd do anything for him you slut!" Sasuke shouted back, pushing Naruto back onto the bed. The blond glared up at the Uchiha before Gaara put a hand on their shoulders.

"Naruto calm down, Sasuke sit back down and let me finish," Gaara said deadly calm. Sasuke pouted but did as he was told and Naruto just glared at him, his malice for the Uchiha unbridled.

"My past with Sasuke is almost the most complicated thing I've ever dealt with in my life," Gaara started, looking at Sasuke as his eyes saw far into the past. "I met him on a job in Germany. Through a bizarre set of circumstances we ended up locked in a small closet together with no option but to deal with one another and work together to get free. It was a tense encounter and the stakes were high, if we didn't get out then we'd both be killed or caught. In no time we were free and leaving the building in a flaming inferno. We split up and then ran into one another three weeks later in Belfast.

"In Belfast we talked. He talked about his family and hate for his brother, and I talked about my situation. As the night wore on, and we both were more than a little tipsy, he kissed me and then passed out. The morning wasn't awkward, for when I woke he was already gone. It was a month before our next encounter, and when we did meet sparks flew. I dragged him away from the party we had run into each other at, took him to my hotel room and then ravished him until morning. What Sasuke said about bottoming to me was true; I've never bent over for anyone, even him.

"As time wore on and we kept meeting, our affair grew quite heated. I was inadvertently warming up to him and he had no leads on his brother and thusly was open to an emotional connection. We agreed to meet in Hong Kong exactly one year ago, but Sasuke never showed up. When next I saw him it was a complete accident. I asked him why he didn't come and he simply said that he was close to finding Itachi and didn't have time to deal with me and my attachment. Of course I was broken hearted. I had been prepared to give him anything and he didn't even care. So I left and hunted down the one person who I know would help me get revenge. You said it yourself Naruto, Itachi was easier to find than Sasuke."

Both Sasuke and Naruto looked at Gaara in astonishment, but it was Naruto who spoke. "What did you do Gaara?"

"I talked to him," Gaara said and moved away from the blond and Uchiha. "Itachi knew that Sasuke would get to him eventually, and he wanted to do something about it. I told him I had some connections to some very good assassins, but he just shook his head.

"'Sasuke's going to kill me with a passion,' was what he said. I only nodded. 'He hates me after all. So I want him to die the same way.'

"He looked right at me and I couldn't turn away. 'He's hurt you deeply, and you want to get back at him, don't you?'

"I could only nod. 'Then when I die by Sasuke's hand, I want you to hunt him down and kill him. It's only fair that he dies the same way that I will, by a passionate killer.'"

Sasuke jumped up at pointed a finger at Gaara, his hand shaking. "You! You're the one who told me about the assassin! But what about those guys back there? Is there someone else after me?"

Gaara shook his head. "No. I hired them. For as much as I hate you Sasuke, I can't deny that I can't kill you anymore. But I'm afraid you either have to die, or look like I'm attempting to kill you, or I have to pay the price. You're brother was a smart man. I didn't read the stipulations of the contract with him until well after I signed them."

Sasuke collapsed to the floor, his head down. He couldn't believe it. The man he loved was the man hired by his brother to kill him. The world worked in ironic ways.

"Jesus Christ," Naruto whispered before addressing the other two occupants in the room. "This is so fucked up. I mean, you two were involved, Gaara's been hired to kill you Sasuke, I'm married to the fucking Sandman, and Sasuke's trying to steal my husband away from me."

Sasuke and Gaara just watched as the blond ran his hands through his hair and rubbed the back of his neck. Sasuke wondered what was running through that blond head of his. Naruto turned to look at Gaara.

"I need some time to think," he said. "Meet me in three hours at the Seine by the Concorde."

Then the blond left the seedy room. Gaara collapsed on the bed and lay there, face buried in the soiled sheets. Sasuke could only look at the red head.

"Now what?" the Uchiha asked.

"Now we wait," Gaara replied, turning his head to the side so that Sasuke could understand him.

"Yeah, but what will happen to us?" Sasuke asked. Gaara sighed.

"If Naruto still wants to turn us both in we're running for it. I'll divorce him, change my name, my face, fingerprints, the works, and together we can go someplace quiet and unobtrusive and settle down," Gaara said. "But, if Naruto decides that he's willing to look past all my faults and stay with me and keep my secret, I can't vouch for your safety Sasuke."

Silently Sasuke prayed that Naruto would choose the first option.