Welp, we've broken the 300 review barrier c: Special thanks to Bishie Hunter! You were my 300th reviewer c: And also many, many thanks to everyone who has reviewed, READ, faved, and added this to their alerts (: I've never gotten so much feedback from a story before so.. it means a lot. Haha :D
Warning: I just can't make things simple, now can I?
Disclaimer: It kills me just typing this... GAAAAAAAAAAH -half dies-
Enjoy my lovelies c:!
Chapter Fifteen: The Eleventh Promise
+I Promised I'd Protect You, and I Will+
Crimson Dreams
Sometimes, the ghosts of our pasts just don't know when to let go...
Tonight, Naruto's dark subconscious was out for the kill. It was a terrifying force holding on to its sole intention to tear the blond down both mentally and physically.
The dream started off nicely—a warning that the ending would be a gruesome one from the beginning.
It was just Naruto and Sasuke in the world of bright green fields, eternally blue skies, and an endless yellow sun. Their naked bodies clung together like magnets. Sweat clung to their skin. Ragged pants rose up into the air in the form of ghostly smoke. Naruto could feel everything that was Sasuke, and in return the raven could feel everything that was his blond. Their bodies were connected so deeply that the two had become synchronized.
A perfect unity under the sky.
Naruto clawed at the raven's back, rising up on tired haunches to whisper into the raven's ear.
"Love you..." it was sweet. The words caressed the raven's ear and jump started shivers all across his body.
Sasuke leaned forward so their lips were a mere inch away. A small smirk curled on his lips, and a dark chuckled floated all around.
"Dumbass. What ever made you think that I'd love someone. Like. You?"
And then the whole world fell from around them. Naruto was sucked into the hideous darkness, skeletal hands and ogre claws clawing at him, scratching at him... tearing into him. His screams were swallowed up by the laughter. The laughter that was mocking him. The laughter that was coming from Sasuke...
When the seemingly endless falling finally stopped, Naruto was strapped to a table. He couldn't see anything around him, but he could hear and feel everything. There was someone looming over him and as the vision came into focus he no longer saw midnight locks or entrancing onyx eyes. He saw blood red...
Blood red hair that traveled and waved down to the man's waist. Blood red eyes that showed the world just how cruel this human being—who really couldn't be called human—could be. His smile was sinister. The man's entire being just screamed horror...
Naruto's heart painfully constricted until the blond couldn't even breathe. He was sure tears were haphazardly falling from his eyes. Struggling and struggling against whatever invisible binds were holding him down, the resistance was futile.
They were face-to-face now. Crimson clashed violently with scared blue eyes. The voice that traveled down his ear left a path of ice in its wake.
"Thought you could forget about me, huh?" the man chuckled. The laughter was drenched with acid. "Hm, I suppose a game of Punishment would do good..." he opened his mouth wide to show of a proud set of sharpened razor teeth. Naruto's whole body was shaking with earthquake after earthquake of paranoia, down right fear. He screamed. Screamed for the man of his nightmares to go away. Screamed for Sasuke to come save him. Screamed for the horrible dream to end. But it didn't end. Not yet anyways. It didn't end until the man had ripped off Naruto's ear with his mouth.
Blood dripped everywhere. Naruto had screamed so much that his voice turned raw. Blue eyes were widened with frozen shock.
"You never could take pain, you whiny little bitch. Don't think I'm done with you yet..."
Thank God Naruto woke up at that moment, though there were tears in his eyes and his heart had flown out of his throat.
First impulse: Call Sasuke.
"If you're listening to this then I missed your call. Sorry, I guess. Leave a message after the beep."
'Everytime I listen to that Iwant to hurt him...badly.' Naruto sighed and waited a beat for the beep to come before he relayed his message. "I need you; badly. Call me back, okay?" he stared at his phone, watching the seconds pass by indicating how long the conversation has been going on for. He felt like he needed to say something—say three words to be exact. And he really wanted to, but he didn't want to say them first. Pride worked in strange ways. With another sigh he tapped the red END button and set his phone on his stomach.
His heart was still hammering loudly against his ribcage. Images still swam through his mind as he stared at the ceiling before him. His body shook—fingers trembling and tremors dancing along his spine. Naruto rubbed at his face, counted to ten, and willed the dark thoughts to just disappear...
"I'm stronger than this," Naruto whispered into the shadows around him. "He's gone. My past is buried. He can't affect me anymore..." he gulped, "I've moved on."
Try as he may that night, Naruto just couldn't go to sleep. So he stared at his cell phone all night, waiting and praying that Sasuke would call him back. He was up all night. And not once did he get a call back.
+I Promise: The Next Morning+
Every step Naruto took down the stairs felt like someone had slipped two tons of lead into his shoes. It was a miracle at all that he was able to make it down at all without tripping and injuring himself. When he finally reached his destination—the beautiful oasis called the dinner table—Naruto flopped down and slammed his face against the table.
"Well then..." Iruka looked over his shoulder with a teasing smirk, "Good morning to you too."
"Mwronin'." Naruto was having a lovely conversation with the table top right now...
"English, Naruto. Do you speak it?" Iruka was all jokes today as he sat down across his ward, setting two steaming plates of eggs and bacon on the table, until he saw Naruto's eyes. Rimmed with red and swollen. His happy demeanor melted instantly. "Naruto..." he leaned forward and cupped Naruto's face, gently rubbing the scarred cheeks, "did something happen? Bad dream?"
Naruto nodded slowly... "The dream," his voice was hoarse from all the sobbing.
Iruka dropped everything then. He pulled Naruto into the living room and sat him down on the couch. They sat across from each other, Indian style, with their hands linked so Iruka could see every expression on Naruto's face. "Tell me everything from beginning to end. And don't you dare leave one little detail out, okay?"
Everything seemed to pour out of Naruto by then. The painful images, the calloused words, the heat and the blood and the torment—he spilled them out in words that left his voice small, shaken, and raw. Even though it was highly embarrassing, he even added in the bits about him and Sasuke being in the field... naked... exposed. Iruka sat there and took it all. His eyes grew a little moister and warmer. His face grew a little longer. And every time he sighed, Naruto could see a bit of life escape with the puffs.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Iruka finally said after the gap of silence became too long to bear. "Why didn't you wake me up immediately? Your eyes are bloodshot."
"I wasn't up that long..." that was a lie. He'd been awake since two o'clock. Now it was eight o'clock on a Wednesday morning. "Besides... I didn't want to bother you."
"Didn't want to bother me? Naruto, that's ridiculous! You know you can come to me for anything—especially something so severe as this!" Iruka frowned, "I'm hurt knowing that you wouldn't come to me."
Naruto, regretfully, made connection with Iruka's eyes. He saw all the hurt and worry shining brightly in those orbs. It made pity claw at his chest and tighten his heart. "I'm sorry," he mumbled with a sigh. "I thought I could handle it by myself... and then I called Sasuke because that was the first person who came to my mind."
"Did he answer?"
"... No."
The answer made a heavy dent in the morbid air.
"Look," Iruka gathered up some courage and rolled his shoulders back. He needed to be strong now. 'Because Naruto's breaking.' it was in small chunks, but Iruka could see it in the way Naruto sat slumped and dejected. The dream had taken a lot out of him. "He'll call you back. But right now I want you to go upstairs and get some sleep. You've had a long night."
"But what about school?" Naruto had to ask, though the thought of skipping school to sleep was too nice to pass up.
Iruka scoffed and rolled his eyes. "I know very well you don't really mind missing school. I'll wake you up so you can go in for your third period class. I'll even call Gaara and Kiba for you. Now get upstairs and sleep! That's an order."
Really, who was Naruto to argue against the commands of his guardian? He bounded up the stairs two at a time and disappeared into his room without a sound. After Naruto was gone, Iruka threw his face into the palms of his hands and exhaled a heavy breath.
"I really hope the sickness in the pit of my stomach is just indigestion... and not some sign of tough times to come."
+I Promise+
"Just three more hours..." Sasuke looked out the window watching the humongous land of clouds float by. He was getting impatient, nervousness gripping at his insides and twisting his stomach into knots. Something was off, he just couldn't pin-point what it was though. 'I wonder how Naruto is.' he glanced to the side where his father was sitting calmly, clicking away at his laptop as if he didn't just randomly kidnap his youngest son for a "business trip".
"I see you staring, Sasuke."
"Good. Do you feel my hatred?"
His father frowned slightly and lowered his laptop screen halfway. "I'm doing this for yourbenefit. I have never seen such an ungrateful child in my lifetime."
Sasuke held back the urge to his maim his father. 'He's old. He'll die in a few years. And then I can stomp on his grave.' "Has the business world taught you to lie with such a poker face, Father? We both know very well that the reason for this trip wasn't for my own 'benefit'." he really wasn't in a good mood if you hadn't noticed. More times than Sasuke could count, the thought of his blond came and went and stayed and engraved in his mind numerous times on this trip. And each time the feeling came with a joyous spark that died down and became drenched with horrible foreboding...
'I would feel so much calmer if Father hadn't taken my cell.' He could see it poking out casually in his father's pocket, and he had every intention to just leap out and grab it. His father was a tricky one, though. And wouldn't give it up without a long, tedious fight.
"Everything I do is to help you and Itachi out in the long run." he raised up his laptop screen and returned back to his work.
Sasuke scoffed, "More like for our destruction..." he muttered under his breath. "Once we get home I'm eloping with Naruto and leaving."
"You shouldn't make jokes, Sasuke. You're not very funny."
The raven rested his head against the window. 'Just a few more hours in Hell... just a few more hours.'
+I Promise: It's Haunting+
"Will you be okay?"
"Don't worry, Iruka." Naruto managed to paste on a smile as he exited the car, "I'm a trooper. Besides, the dream doesn't bother me anymore. See?" he jumped around a few times. Shook out his limbs. Did a couple of stretches to extend his aching limbs and then flashed Iruka a bright smile. "I'm not shaking anymore and that nap was really refreshing! I feel like a new man."
The brunet looked rather skeptical. Iruka stared his ward down, searching for any fraying strands of sanity and foundation slipping. He found nothing—and that scared him. Naruto wouldn't say anything, though. He'd deny it all because he just wasn't the type of person to rely on others so easily... Iruka bit back a sigh and slipped on a small smile instead.
"Call me if anything happens, okay?"
"You got it!" Naruto promised. He kept on waving until he saw Iruka's car disappear out of sight. It was then when his mask slipped a little. He really wasn't in the mood for school, but Gaara and Kiba had flooded his inbox with threats that if he didn't come to school they would deny knowing him for the next month. If that wasn't true love and friendship, Naruto didn't know what was.
His stomach was still twisting into knots as he entered the school, taking the memorized path up to his locker. When he opened his locker a flowery mess of red was perched on top of his books, along with a note scribbled in the handwriting Naruto knew by heart.
I missed you.
Naruto's heart did a little twirl reading over the note. 'Why is he so damn cute..? No! I'm mad at him! I can't be swayed by his pretty flowers and his cute notes...' he had decided to ignore the raven all day today since he ignored his call. Yes, he knew he was being childish. No, he didn't care at the moment.
A pair of arms that had become so familiar to him in the past months snaked around his waist, pulling him flush against the body he knew and loved. And somehow... any intentions of ignoring Sasuke slipped down the drain.
Granted Naruto was still a little pissed but eh... what can you do?
"You're here late today," Sasuke muttered. He spun Naruto around so he could get a kiss but his lips met with a rose instead. A small frown scarred his lips. "So I don't even get a kiss? You know I had a long week."
"Well isn't that a shame," why yes, Naruto did enjoy being a cheeky bastard. How did you know?
His frown grew a little deeper, "Hey, I didn't mean to leave without any notice. After you left my dad randomly sprung some business trip and thought it would be the best thing if I came along with him." Sasuke shook his head at all the ludicrous things his father had put him through the passed three days. "He even tried to introduce me to the most ridiculous girls imaginable while we were there. I swear that man's in denial."
Once again, Sasuke had some strange way of making Naruto lose the fact that he was supposed to be mad at him and not laughing at his father's crazy antics. "Aww, poor you." Naruto pouted playfully. "You better have stayed faithful, Uchiha, or I'll shove this rose so far up it'll come out your nose. Oh! I just rhymed!"
"Naruto, that's not even possible." Sasuke smiled softly, "And the threat isn't that intimidating when it rhymes." he tried for another kiss and once again he was deflected. 'Whattheheck?'"Naruto, let me kiss you."
"No," Naruto shot back.
"Why not?"
"Because I'm mad at you."
"Oh... wait... why?"
Naruto huffed and folded his arms across his chest, "I don't have to explain myself to you, Teme."
Sasuke sighed. He felt the tell-tale sign of a headache ready to attack him and it was not pretty. "What in the world did I do to you, Naruto? I already told you I didn't hook up with any of those ridiculous girls my father tried to group me with."
"I could care less about them. You... you never answered your phone." he mumbled the last part quietly, mostly because he felt really, really little.
A little light dawned in the raven's eyes. 'Sometimes...' Sasuke had begun to pick up the little changes in Naruto's demeanor whenever something was truly bothering him. Like the way his blue eyes looked slightly paler and darker, or how his smile would strain a little at the corners making his whiskers droop a little. Something was bothering his blond, and Sasuke was going to find out what it was even if it killed him.
"Sorry, my dad was in complete possession of my phone. If I even tried to make a move at it he'd wipe out its memory card and dump it into the ocean." he wasn't bluffing. His father was a seriously scary man when threatened. Sasuke held Naruto a little tighter. "The whole flight back I had this sick feeling in my stomach and you came up in my mind so many times... Did something happen?"
"Uhhh... describe 'something'."
"Naruto! Don't be so damn difficult. You had something to tell me, so tell me. Hiding it from me won't get anything fixed."
"Fine! Alright! But not here." Naruto grabbed Sasuke by the arm and pulled him down towards the library. It seemed like Naruto was going to miss third period after all. Surprisingly enough, he was good friends with the librarian from so many afternoon detentions so he was able to slip in without any questions asked. He pulled Sasuke towards the more isolated part of the library (the encyclopedia section) and plopped down on the ground, tugging Sasuke around with him.
The raven looked all around. Books engulfed them. Mighty, towering shelves gave off the allusion of complete privacy and secrecy. "Out of all the places you could have taken me... it had to be a library."
Naruto shrugged and leaned back against a bookcase, "Hey. I like this place. It's quiet and no one bothers you here." the perfect place to unveil a deep secret and a painful dream...
"So... tell me," Sasuke pushed gently, though his curiosity was making him highly impatient.
Naruto sighed and stared at the blue carpet, twiddling his thumbs. "Well... I had this dream, right? It started off really nice. You and I were in this field sort of... kind of..."
"Spit it out..."
A horribly adorable blush scarred Naruto's cheeks. "We were in our birthday suits, okay?"
"I'm not seeing what's so bad about this dream," Sasuke smirked and dragged his finger down Naruto's shirt towards the blond's zipper. His finger was effectively slapped off.
"I'm getting to it! Okay, so we were basking in the afterglow and that's when things started going... scary. I... I saw this guy. A guy I thought I had forgotten already. He said some things and then bit off my ear... afterward I woke up nearly dead. I called you but you didn't answer so I just stared at my ceiling waiting for sleep to take over." Naruto smiled wryly, "I didn't get any sleep back."
Sasuke was taking the words thrown at him and digesting them, breaking them up bit by bit. He knew he was getting the condensed story of Naruto's dream, but from this amount of information he was able to pick up some key details. "This guy... who is he to you?"
"He's the one who gave me this tattoo," Naruto lifted his shirt up slightly. His skin still tingled and burned and lurched.
"Old lover?" his eyes narrowed towards the mark. The fact that someone before him had the audacity to mark up his blond in such a possessive and cruel way made his insides burn and furious jealousy pump through his veins.
Naruto shook his head slowly. Sasuke had inched closer and closer to him until they were sitting side by side against the bookcase with their hands clasped and fingers intertwined. "Not mine, my mother's. My mom always dated the psychotic ones. His name was Kyuubi. He was a part of some gang or something and my mom always had to date the 'wild spirits and bad boys'." he rolled his eyes at his mother's insanity. She was really one of a kind that Naruto had to put up with for years.
"Did he ever touch you?" Sasuke's free hand was comfortably placed on Naruto's stomach, touching and caressing the skin beneath the fabric.
The few seconds of silence spoke many volumes. Sasuke gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on Naruto's hand. "If I ever find that man... I'll kill him. I'll fucking kill him."
"Wow... that's pretty intense," though Naruto couldn't deny the fact that his heart did skip a beat or two. "But you don't have to. He didn't go far as actual rape. All he did was like... grope me and shit. Oh, and the tattoo also..." he added in nonchalantly. Pretending like this was just another day, another explanation, another jump made things a lot easier to handle and digest.
Sasuke brought the blond into his arms in one, clean swoop. He buried his face into the crook of Naruto's neck and kissed the skin below. "Why are do you sound so unperturbed about this? Wouldn't the normal reaction to this be a little more... I don't know—unstable?"
Naruto shrugged against the warmth his body had started to unconsciously yearn for and wrapped his arms loosely around Sasuke's waist. "Dunno. I guess my earlier freak out this morning kind of blew the rest of the shock out of my system. Can't say I'm complaining though." he knew Sasuke wasn't buying it. He could tell without even having to look at him. And in all honesty... Naruto wasn't buying it either, but someone had to stay firm right? Naruto grabbed Sasuke by his cheeks and forced their eyes to connect. "Listen, I'm fine okay? Kyuubi's never coming back because of some rival gang shit and he would be stupid if he came back here. So I'll be fine. Now smiiile," he pulled at Sasuke's lips to form an awkward smile and laughed when the raven's cheeks turned pale pink.
The raven slapped Naruto away but still kept him close. He didn't want to break the separation at all. 'I'll believe him, for now. But I still have my suspicions.' Besides, arguing with Naruto was rather tiresome because the blond would keep the argument going even when he knew he was flat out wrong. For a brief second Sasuke's eyes landed on Naruto's stomach. He inwardly grimaced, but kept it all bottled up inside...
Naruto said things were going to be okay, so things would be okay.
"I still feel uneasy," Sasuke announced.
Naruto was caught up in playing with Sasuke's locks, "I know. But you shouldn't be. I haven't seen him for a year and a half now. Don't you think he would have come back by now if he really wanted me?"
"You can never know, Naruto. What if he does come back and tries to hurt you again? I won't let him take you away from me."
To say Naruto's heart didn't constrict a little, or that his mind wasn't racing with endless possibilities would be a lie. Naruto was just rather good at hiding his apprehension... or so he thought. "Well, if that does happen... you'll be there to protect me, right?" he added with a cheeky grin.
Sasuke scoffed, "Do you even have to ask?"
"I thought it would be the polite thing to do."
Rolling his eyes, though Sasuke couldn't say he hated Naruto's cute stupidity, the raven leaned in for a passionate kiss that sealed the deal. "I promise to protect you. There. Happy now?"
"Mhm!" Naruto's eyes sparkled like sunlight reflecting off a crystal lake. "Now I'm just waiting for you to pull a rose out of nowhere like a magician."
'Why do I feel like he's mocking me?' Shaking that thought out of his mind, Sasuke pointed towards the forgotten rose sitting proudly on a stack of their books. "You already got your rose, Dobe."
"Yeah, but that was because you missed me! Don't be a prick and hold out on me, Teme."
"You get what you get, baka." Sasuke smirked, enjoying they way Naruto puffed out his cheeks when he was fuming. It was extremely adorable. "I guess we should start heading back to class then."
This time it was Naruto's turn to scoff. He wrapped his arms around Sasuke's neck and started to play with the back of his hair. "It's not like we'd be going back to much. We blew off more than half of third period. Also..." Naruto leaned in so that their lips were merely teasing one another now, "I really, really want to kiss you again."
Sometimes Naruto could say just the right words that got Sasuke's heart beating ten times faster than normal—or considered healthy. His hands slithered all the way to Naruto's ass and groped him, pulling their bodies flush together. Their lips met in a frenzy. Tongues touched and moans were swallowed by the passion. They didn't care if they were caught. They didn't care if they got in trouble. Everything washed away in a bleeding mess of hot emotions.
All that mattered, was the beating heart hammering against their ribcage. The hearts that were trying desperately to break free and connect. Nothing else was a problem. No problems from the past, or insecurities. All that mattered was the here and the now.
But the past doesn't like to back down without one serious fight.
+I Promise: Red and Dangerous+
"Oi, Blondie! Mind taking the bag of balls back to the equipment room?" Suigetsu asked. Soccer practice again was no walk in the park and Naruto wondered how in the world he was able to get back home without collapsing all the time.
"Yeah, sure! I'll just crawl there with my broken legs! No big deal." Naruto hollered back.
Suigetsu smiled widely, "Thanks a bunch, bro! Catch ya later!"
Obviously Suigetsu wasn't big on catching onto sarcasm. That or... he really didn't care. Kiba had left early along with Gaara because they had a group project to work on, but it wasn't like Naruto didn't have another ride home. Though Sasuke would be late because their was a meeting he had to attend with his Chemistry teacher before leaving, so Naruto was pretty much by himself tugging up the ball bags back into the equipment room.
"And... there! Phew, I'm finally done!" Naruto wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, feeling mighty accomplished with himself. Carrying all those bags was a lot of work. Closing the door behind him, Naruto started the long trudge back to the soccer field to get his back and wait for Sasuke at the main gate.
When he crossed over the hill he spotted a familiar shade of red leaning against the goal post. A line of smoke was clawing up, and up, and up into the autumn sky. Naruto nearly lost his footing and fell forward. He knew that red. He could pick it out anywhere.
"No..." he willed his feet to turn around and move. Run. Run as far away as humanly possible. He was too slow, though. Red eyes landed right on him. Fire erupted in those eyes—the same fire that always had Naruto trapped. His arms immediately fell to his stomach. 'Move! Fucking move!'
It was like his feet were covered in spikes of ice, refusing to move.
The distance between them grew smaller and smaller until the red-haired giant was towering above him. Naruto felt incredibly tiny and helpless at this point.
"Ay there. Yer looking pretty sick." he smirked and blew a puff of smoke right into Naruto's face. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say yer scared of me."
Blue eyes screamed in heavy volumes. Naruto worked his mouth, trying to string together words and syllables and phrases but nothing would come out. The redhead chuckled and took one step closer.
"Shocked, eh? Well I can't blame you. Took me a while to find you."
"H-How...?"
He smirked, "Don't yah ever doubt the power of a gang member, Kit."
Something snapped inside of Naruto after hearing that word—the pet name. The word he used to love being called as when it wasn't tied to anything sexual or emotionally scarring. His eyes narrowed dangerously and his hands balled into fists. "You... Why the fuck are you back, huh? It couldn't possibly be because of Mom! She ditched your sorry ass and told you to never come back!"
Kyuubi narrowed his eyes in boredom and took another drag of his cigarette. "Do yah honestly think I would risk my ass coming back for that bitch?" he scoffed and blew yet another cloud into Naruto's face, just to bring the kid down a couple of steps. "All she was to me was a good lay... a really good lay. I never wanted her like I wanted you." he purred dangerously low in the blond's ears.
That's when he noticed they were a lot closer than his mind or heart could physically handle. Naruto attempted to push the bigger man back, but Kyuubi was a lot stronger and sturdier than he could handle.
"You're sick!"
"Nah, Kit. I've just come back to claim what is rightfully mind." quicker than lightning Kyuubi had lifted up Naruto's shirt and was staring admirably at his handy work. "What a beaut it is. So clean and nice. It makes yer stomach look so sexy."
Naruto was frozen. His stomach was exposed to man who scarred him in more ways than one. The same man who touched him and lied to him and made him feel tainted to the world. His body trembled. The cold wind whistled and teased his naked stomach.
'Sasuke,' his mind cried. Naruto took a huge gulp. "I... I'm not yours, Kyuubi!" he somehow managed to find the strength to pull himself out of Kyuubi's grip. "And I never was or will be! Got that?"
There was a dangerous spark in Kyuubi's eyes. He folded his arms across his chest and raised a perfectly arched eyebrow. "Yah really have no idea who yer talkin to, do yah? Well let me remind yah then..." he snuffed out his cigarette and then dropped it to the ground. Grabbing Naruto by the collar, he slammed their lips together in a rough kiss. Naruto's mouth was open by surprise, so Kyuubi took that as means to slip his tongue in from some fun.
'His...his tongue! Gross!' he chomped down on the offending appendage, feeling the disgusting taste of metallic blood fill his mouth. It got Kyuubi to stop kissing him, though.
Kyuubi looked rather amused than offended. He licked his lips seductively, loving the taste of his own blood mixed with Naruto's spit. "I really did miss that spunky attitude. It's such a turn on."
"Get out of here!" Naruto hissed. His heart was protesting loudly and images from the past flashed through his mind like a blurring subway train.
"Kit, I don't think yer getting my message so let me spell it out for yah loud and clear." he pointed towards Naruto's stomach, "That... means I own yah. Yer mine, Kit. No one else can take a step in my property. And this," he fished into his back pocket and pulled out a bundle of red that Naruto recognized instantly.
The rose.
Naruto made a grab for it but failed. His anger and anxiety was steadily rising to dangerous peaks. "Where did you get that?" he managed to spit out.
"Oh this?" Kyuubi twirled the rose around his thumb and index finger, "Found it on top your duffle bag. I wonder where it came from..." he narrowed his eyes.
"That's none of your business! Now give me that back and leave me the hell alone!"
"Okay, now yer pissing me off." he snarled and pulled Naruto by the scruff of his collar until their faces were mere inches away from each other. "Yah don't talk to me like that, got it? I could snap yer pretty little neck in half I wanted to. But I don't like to kill off pretty property. Now... tell the little bitch who's sending you flowers that you're taken." he pushed Naruto back, causing the blond to stumble and land hard on his back. Kyuubi snorted and stared at the offending flower for the longest time before letting it drop from the sky.
It landed perfectly next to Naruto's body.
The blond made a move to grab it.
It was crushed by Kyuubi's heavy boot before he could even get to it.
"I hate roses," Kyuubi said with a devious smirk. Pure evil glittered in his eyes. "They're obnoxious and ugly. Aw, don't look so sad, Kit. I'll come back for yah and bring you real flowers if yah really want." he leaned forward and patted Naruto's head, "Don't forget about me again or else I don't know what I'd do... Doctors say I'm a little crazy when upset." he shrugged with an easygoing smile on his face as he got up, flashed a wave, and walked away from the blond. On his way back a certain raven brushed by him. Onyx and crimson clashed for a brief second...
"Ay there," Kyuubi smirked and walked off.
Sasuke's eyes never left him until the man was out of sight. His stomach twisted into terrible nights. Then he found Naruto on the ground bent over something and was right by his side. "Hey," he placed a hand on the small of Naruto's back, "what's wrong? And who was that guy I just passed...?"
Naruto sniffled back. 'I'm so pathetic.' Somewhere along the lines tears started to pool at the corner of his eyes. He felt like Kyuubi had just come in and knocked down all his walls with just a few simple words. He felt weak. He felt pathetic. And honestly... he felt so... empty.
"The rose," he managed to choke out. The petals were all crumpled and torn and ripped and the stem was bent in half. The life was stomped out of it. "He... he killed it."
"Who killed it...?" Sasuke knew deep down he was going to regret asking this.
Naruto hiccuped and squeezed the lifeless flower in his hands, "Kyuubi..."
Onyx and crimson clashed together...
Sasuke face palmed and inwardly cursed at himself over and over again for being so... blind. "Fuck...!"
Fuck indeed... (; Baby pandas love you all, as do I! :D Now, I hope I can make this the twenty chapters as I hoped it to be but we've moved through th major points I wanted to hit pretty quickly, and well, but I'll do my best to extend this a little further :D!