A/N: I have no excuse for my extended absence aside from life. Now though, I have graduated, moved to a new state where I don't know anyone except my mother, and am jobless…so I've definitely got time on my hands :) Chapter 5 will probably be up Wednesday, if not tomorrow, and Ch 6 shortly after that! I'm always happy to answer any questions. Enjoy!

Chapter 4: Dinner with Sasuke

They walked down the street in silence, Sasuke with his eyes straight ahead and his hands in his pockets, as Kiri did her best to drink in their surroundings while trying to keep up with the brisk pace Sasuke set. After ten minutes or so Sasuke slowed and turned into a small restaurant, a barbeque place, Kiri guessed by the smell.

"Hello, welcome t- Oh! Hi Sasuke-kun! It's been awhile since you've come in to see me," the hostess exclaimed brightly as she realized who had entered the establishment. "Is Itachi-kun coming to join you as well?" she asked, looking up at him intently.

"Not today. Just a table for two, please," Sasuke bit out, clenching his fists in his pocket as the girl practically drooled on herself. Said girl's eyes flickered over to Kiri for a brief moment, giving a quick once over before dismissing her as unimportant and returning to the man before her.

"Of course, Sasuke-kun. Anything I can do for you, just ask," she toned suggestively as she grabbed two menus and swayed over to a table in the center of the dining room and in clear view of the hostess stand.

"I'd prefer one of the booths in the back room, as usual, Keiko," Sasuke demanded.

"Of course," Keiko pouted, leading the way into a more private dining room and up into a corner booth. Sasuke easily slid into the corner, his back the wall, as Kiri slid into the other side. Keiko dropped the menus off and left shrugging, used the the Uchiha attitude and knowing that perseverance was the answer.

"Do you come here often?" Kiri asked as she flipped open the menu.

"Aa. This is my favorite place. Nii-san and I usually come here."

"That girl seems to have quite the thing for you. Do you sit in the corner just to get away from her?"

"No. I like having my back to the wall and seeing all around the room. It's more secure this way. Avoiding her is just a bonus." Sasuke replied with a smirk as he fiddled with the menu in front of him, not needing to open it.

"Nice. It's good to know that you can form sentences, by the way."

"Hn."

"So, what's good here? I can kind of read the menu, but the characters are all so tiny and crowded it's really difficult," Kiri asked quietly, looking frustratingly at the menu.

Sasuke plucked the offending object from her hands and set it with his. "I'll take care of the order."

"Thanks. So, do you know where Tsunade is? And do you think that she'll come back?" Kiriyana asked after their waiter had come and taken their drink and dinner orders.

"I imagine that she is in a village somewhere in Fire Country, gambling and losing horribly. She will return gladly if you ask her to. She will never be able to fully leave now that she has already served time as our leader. Do you really want her to come back though? Wouldn't that make your placement here rather pointless?"

"We'll see. The most important thing right now is to ensure that the village can still function and prosper, and is not open to attack from any other nation. We must always appear strong and undefeatable, even if undergoing political restructuring."

"Aa. Very true. I am surprised you are so aware. I thought that people tended to develop at a slower rate on the other side of the portal."

"Are you saying that they're stupid,"

Sasuke shook his head lightly as he replied, "Not at all. We are taught that less responsibility is placed on them at earlier ages, essentially extending their childhoods, at least compared to ours. I made my first kill on a mission when I was 12, where most kids on your side still worry about what outfit to wear to school, yes?"

"Well, in America, yes. There are many countries that this is not the case, but in most countries in the other world that are comparable to your own, it is. Of course, while I was raised there, I also had a lot of separate tutoring growing up in this language and culture, as well as practical lessons in leadership and decision making. Mostly untested of course, but still. I was trained for this outcome, even if I never really expected it to happen."

"Hn." Sasuke leaned back as dinner was placed in front of him, and both parties fell silent as they began eating and thought about what the other had said.

"So what is your rank again?" Kiri asked as she and Sasuke made the walk back to the tower.

"I was recently promoted to Jounin by the council after they removed Tsunade, as were Naruto and Sakura."

"Not Sai?"

"He was already ranked as a Jounin."

"Are you going to become an ANBU?"

"I planned on it when I turned 16 this past July, but the dissent with Tsunade and the council has changed plans. I plan to test once things are more settled."

Kiri looked over to him curiously for a moment before asking, "Why did you wait so long? I would think that since you're team was sent o escort me back, you must be considered quite capable. Or they were just hoping I'd get killed off, I suppose."

"A promise I made to my brother a long time ago. Perhaps one day I will tell you more, but not today."

"Fair enough," Kiri shrugged as they reached the tower and headed up to her suite.

"So, you can have the bed if you want. I'll sleep on the couch," Kiri offered as she shut and locked the door to her apartment. Sasuke looked at her with a clear flash of disbelief before he carefully covered it with his normal emotionless façade.

"You're joking, right?"

"No. In my house, we never let a guest sleep on the couch or the floor if there's a bed available. Since, there's no guest room here, my bed's the only one available," Kiri replied calmly.

"Yes, well, in this world, there is no way a princess sleeps on a couch EVER, nor does a man allow a woman to give up her bed for him."

"Hm. We'll just have to agree to disagree on that point. Now, I have another important set of questions for you," Kiri replied after rolling her eyes at his comment. She sat down on the couch, once again tucking her feet underneath of her. Sasuke looked at the loveseat across from her before moving to sit on the other end of the couch she was occupying.

"What questions do you have now," Sasuke asked, weary of what she would want to know now.

"I need you to tell me about your brother and Kakashi. If they don't stop calling me Hime-Sama, I will make them pay no matter what, but it'll be easier if I know a bit more about them."

Sasuke smirked at her request. He always did love getting one over on his Aniki, and surely Kakashi had done a multitude of things to deserve some form of vengeance. Even better, he could get his revenge and they would never even know of his involvement. Perfect.

The Following Morning….

Kiriyana woke to a rapid and loud knocking on her door. "Go away!" she called out before pulling her blanket over the bottom of her face and snuggling deeper into her bed. Another knock and a call for her to get up were also ignored. A period of quiet followed and Kiri had just started to believe that she was actually going to be left alone when she suddenly found herself quite cold.

She looked over her shoulder to see Sasuke looking at her blankly, her comforter gripped lightly in his hands, before pushing her face back into the pillows.

"Aren't you supposed to be all super respectful or something? Ya know, bowing and scraping and following my every command?"

"Hn."

"I'm fairly certain I could have you killed for this. Trying to assassinate your princess through hypothermia. Certainly worthy of the death penalty," she threatened, her voice muffled by the pillow.

Sasuke didn't even respond, merely rolled his eyes before dropping the comforter and ripping the pillow out from under the girl's head. She obviously didn't want to be treated special, judging by her reactions to the title 'Hime-Sama' alone, and he certainly felt no inclination to give her respect based on her title if she didn't want it.

Sasuke watched for a moment as the girl pulled a pillow from across the bed and continued to ignore him. He shook his head at her actions while silently debated what step to take next. If it were Naruto, he would deliver several chakra enhanced hits to her head, but this wasn't his blonde teammate, and chakra enhancements may not be entirely fair.

Sasuke thought for a moment more before coming to a decision that would serve to both wake the girl up, as well as test the boundaries of her relaxed behavior. Everyone had their limits in what they would take, and a lot could be learned about a person based on those limits.

So, Saskue stuck his finger in his mouth and sucked for about 10 seconds before removing it and promptly sticking said wet finger into her exposed ear. It was something his brother had done to him as a child – when their father wasn't around of course – and while it was rather disgusting, Sasuke knew it was the perfect experiment in testing the girl's boundaries.

His finger had much less of an effect than he expected. There was no jerking away or shrieking or yelling as he would have expected of a person when a stranger stuck a saliva-slicked finger in their ear and wiggled.

Kiri merely rolled over onto her back and glared up at Sasuke. "Did you seriously just do that to me?"

"Aa."

"I really can't figure you out at all. I mean seriously. Yesterday you sat on the floor by your brother rather than sit next to me on the loveseat and today your wiping your spit in my ear?" Kiri complained as she discretely reached down for the covers.

"Take it as a compliment that I talk to you at all. It's a rare occurrence."

"And to what do I owe such an honor?"

Sasuke merely shrugged and shoved the covers further out of her reach. "Everyone will be here soon with breakfast. Get up and ready," Sasuke commanded as he turned to exit the room. His retreat was interrupted as he felt thin arms unexpectedly wrap around his waist and pull him backwards until he was laying face up on top of KJ, ass on the bed between her legs and upper body sprawled on top of hers.

"If you get to put your nasty spit in my ear I get to use you as a blanket," Kiri explained as she kept a tight grip around his chest, though she knew he could easily escape.

"Let go of me know or I will break both of you arms off and beat you to death with them. I will then resuscitate you and burn you slowly until you die yet another painful death," Sasuke spoke, his voice low and even, his body tense and nearly trembling with restraint.

Kiri slowly released her grip and lay still until Sasuke was up and away from the bed, back still to her. "Not quite friends enough for random tackling and hugging, huh?" she asked sheepishly, trying to lighten the mood some.

"Not nearly. You can get killed doing that to people around here."

Kiri scoffed at this as she finally rose from the bed, "You wouldn't have killed me. Could you have? Yes. But I trust that you have better control than that. In all honesty, I really expected for you to move and me to face-plant on the ground in my attempt. Aren't you supposed to be all stealthy and untouchable?"

"Hn." Sasuke's muscles relaxed minutely as his adrenaline from being ambushed from behind dissipated. "I suppose the threat level was too low for my senses to be at their highest. I'll be more vigilant of your random attacks next time."

"Will you be my friend again if I promise not to tell anyone that I got the drop on you?" Kiri asked with a smile.

"I didn't realize I was your friend to begin with," Sasuke commented as he turned around to face her again, arms crossed along his chest.

He watched with mild surprise at how her face fell at his words. Clearly she had little experience in masking her emotions, another thing they would have to work on if she were to survive here.

'And just why do I keep noting these things she needs to work on like I'm going to be the one to help? Oh yeah…Aniki practically ordered me to be her friend and make sure that she didn't have any problems and that she wasn't left all lonely like. Not that I would actually befriend someone just because he told me to. It just…helped me open my mind to the idea. She seems much more fun than we thought she'd be. She's more tolerable than Naruto and Sakura at least'

Sasuke was pulled out of his thoughts to hear her stuttering out what sounded maybe like an apology. Really, she sounded way to much like Hinata when she was younger – and occasionally still to this day – for him to try and make much sense of it, so he decided to spare himself the agony.

"Relax, I was just kidding. Consider it payback for practically molesting me."

His statement was promptly met with a pillow in his face, which he could have avoided, but decided not to expend the energy.

"I would like it if you kept my lapse of attention between us," he continued after the pillow was on the floor.

"I wouldn't have told anyways. Unless you start calling me Hime-Sama or being otherwise obnoxious, it will remain our secret," she assured him as she finally got out of bed.

"Good. Now, get ready. They are coming up the stairs now."

"How can you know that?"

"Chakra. Awareness of surroundings. Plus, I always know when Itachi is close by."

"Cool. I'll be out in a minute."

Sasuke nodded and exited to the front door which he swung open right as his brother and the rest of his cell – minus his old sensei- crested the stairs.

"Good morning, Aniki," Sasuke greeted his brother as the taller man approached him. The man reached out and flicked his brother lightly in the center of his forehead as he stood before him and replied, "Good morning, Otouto. Did everything go well last night?"

"Aa. No problems. She's very different then we assumed."

"Good boy." Itachi ran his hand through Sasuke's hair and down to rest of his neck as he led Sasuke outside, allowing the others to enter around them before shutting the door.

"Why are we outside the apartment, Aniki?"

"I had a conversation with father last night when I stopped by to inform them you would not be home and to pick up some of your things. He was quite angry. Apparently you missed a meeting you were scheduled to attend before leaving to escort the princess."

"Hn. I'm aware I missed the meeting."

"Why didn't you tell me father was trying to arrange a marriage between you and Ms. Hyuuga?"

"He's not trying to arrange a marriage, he succeeded. I told him I wasn't signing until I returned from this mission. It's not my fault he didn't listen and tried to get me to sign before."

"Why did you agree to such an arrangement, Sasuke?"

"It's my business, Itachi. Leave it alone," Sasuke growled as he tried to push past him and back into the room, only to find himself slammed harshly back into the wall.

"Is this a marriage you want?"

"Of course not," Sasuke scoffed, replying automatically.

"Then why. And why wasn't I informed? Why was all this going on why I was out on a mission and not shared with me when I was back in the village?"

"Nii-san, just leave it."

"Tell me know, Sasuke."

"It's either you or me. You have Sakura and you're very happy with her. Father and Hiashi have been negotiating an alliance between clans for a while, as you know. They finally reached an agreement, and Clan elders on both sides demanded a head family marriage. They want to see our bloodlines crossed. As next family head, Hinata can't marry a man from such a prominent clan, which means that Hanabi must marry into ours. Father was going to make the contract for you and her, but I convinced him that she was much too young for you. He's always pushing you to procreate and I noted to him that Hanabi will not be having children for a while. He still wasn't sure so I told him that having this experimental genetic crossing with the Head of the family could have consequences, he finally agreed to allow me to enter in the contract."

"You really are quite foolish sometimes, Otouto," Itachi practically whispered as he pulled his brother into an increasingly rare show of affection. "That man sometimes make me wish I had gone ahead and slaughtered everyone, save you."

Sasuke rolled his eyes as his brother pulled back from the hug to look down at him again. "I'll be fine, Aniki. Father has agreed to stay out of your own love life as long as I go through with this and you still take place as Clan head."

"You're not supposed to save me, I'm supposed to do things like this for you. I can't let you do this."

At these words Sasuke quickly switched their positions so that he was pushing his brother roughly into the wall.

"Shut up you stupid ass! All my life you've been doing things for me, so that I'll be happy and safe and not end up entirely socially inept like you! Despite Father's whining and meddling, I'd say you've succeeded so far. We both know that with the training you've given me I could've been an ANBU a long time ago. But I stayed with my cell and refused testing for higher rankings to stay with my general age level, so that I could make friends and succeed at things you couldn't until recently.

We could've been on the same ANBU cell by now, but you wanted me to wait to keep me from alienating people like you when you were younger. I'll admit, you were probably right and I'm glad I told Father no when he pushed for me to take early Chuunin and Jounin testing. This though, this I'm doing for you for your good, not mine. So, unless you've learned some rare form of magic or something equally unbelievable to make all this better, deal with it. I don't need you to always take care of me."

"You would prefer if I kept to myself now then. Stay out of your life. Fine," Itachi replied monotonously, pushing his brother away.

"I said I don't need you to always take of me, not that I don't want you to take care of me….sometimes."

"Hn. We will talk more of this later, Otouto," Itachi intoned as he reopened the apartment door and went to join the others in the living room, arm slung around Sasuke's shoulders.