AN: Another chapter out, this one a bit longer than the others, and I will try to keep it that way, please tell me what you think! Do you guys want longer chapters or just about the length as the other chapters?
~Goth~Goth~Loli~Loli~Goth~Goth~Loli~Loli~Goth~Goth~Loli~Loli~Goth~Goth~Loli~Loli~
After the lunch Naruto spend the rest of the day collecting the rose-petals he collected, separating them and put them out on a linen cloth so they could dry. It was a comfortable occupation in the cool, well-scented room, but he got too much time to let his mind wander and think. Would his parents let him go to Brighton? If they did and Sasuke was there, was it for the best to separate from him completely? And how would it be with Lord Sai? Would he still be persistent on his courting?
His mind went around, around, and was spinning too fast for his liking. He had escaped because he wanted time to think. But now when he got it, it didn't seem like he got anywhere at all in his planning over his life.
Dinnertime went without Sasuke or Mr. Gedding showing up, only a message came from Mr. Gedding that they had decided to continue to work to get the job done that day. They had sent for food from the nearest tavern, he had ensured his wife, and he thought that they would continue directly towards the jail to make sure that all the evidence would get there in proper order, so they wouldn't be home until nightfall.
~TimeSkip~
By ten o'clock Sasuke still hadn't returned and Naruto noticed that he was restless and would surely not be able to sleep at all if he went to bed. Both he and Mrs. Gedding had retreated to the saloon with the large windows that showed the garden, and the scent of fresh flowers still drifted in over the frames from the window and mixed with the faint sound of nightingales singing from outside.
"May I stay here for a while longer, ma'am?" Naruto asked when Mrs. Gedding at last stod up and announced that she was going to bed. "I'm not tired and I'm sure that Colonel Uchiha will lock the door if you want to send the servants to bed as well."
"Very well, my dear. Everything will be locked except from the main door and this window. Would you be an angel and ask Mr. Uchiha to make sure that all of the lights are put out? The decanters are over there on the chiffonier, and I'm sure that the colonel would want to have a drink when he returns." She hesitated and pulled her scarf tighter around her shoulders. "Or should we close the window right away? It's starting to get a little chilly outside."
"May I leave it open for a moment longer? I'm quite warm and it's such a beautiful evening. Or…" Naruto threw a look at the fireplace and the basket filled with wood and spruce cones. "May I lit the fireplace? It will keep the cold away."
"Well of course. The matches are on the shelf over there. Make sure that the live coal and the fire is controlled before you go to bed. God night, my dear."
Naruto found some old paper in the basket with wood after some failed attempt to just start the fire with cones, but now he managed to lit a small fire. He put on some spruce cones and enjoyed the crackling and the blue light it gave off. The fire wasn't much for the warmth, more as a companion, and he sat down on the floor and leaned his head against one of the armchair, close enough from the fire to throw in another cone or twig as they burned up.
The old grandfather watch down the hall turned eleven and then a quarter past, before he heard the sound of hoofs from the driveway. He stood up and opened the main door at the same time as he left the door to the saloon open, and he put the tray with the decanters and a glass on the little table next to the armchair. The candlelight on the shelf was nearly put out, so he quenched it out and lighted another one. The light from the fire filled the room with a soft glow and a few moths flew in through the window from the gardens.
When he heard Sasuke's footsteps he called: "Sasuke! Could you lock the main door, please? Everyone has gone to bed."
The sound of bolts that pulled over the door could be heard and then Sasuke showed up through the opening of the door. "Naruto? Are you still awake?" even in the dim light he could see that Sasuke seemed tired.
"Come, let me take your coat," he encouraged. "The decanters are here. Have a seat and take a drink. You look too tired to go directly to bed."
Sasuke obediently removed his jacket and stretched his back with a sigh. Naruto took the garment and hung it carefully over the back of a chair, while he stroked out the wrinkles with the hand he still held over the fabric, still warm from Sasuke's body heat.
When he turned around towards Sasuke, he stood with his sleeves from the shirt rolled up to his elbows and looked out through the window, where the moonlight just started to glow over him through the windowsill and brought out the blue hues in his eyes and hair in an ethereal way, that almost took Naruto's breath away.
"The nightingales really sound heart achingly beautiful, don't you think? They used to sing on the battlefields. Some of the soldiers believed in superstitions and said that they were the birds of death."
Naruto felt chills run down his spine at at the thought of it and at Sasuke's eyes that seemed far away. "Come here and sit down. Are you and the magistrate finished with everything now?"
Sasuke sank down in the armchair and lifted the decanter with cognac while he stretched out his long, muscular and booted legs in front of him. "Yes, thank god for that. I suspect that this is the end of the siblings Orochimaru and Anko." He poured some cognac into the glass and lifted it up to his lips. "By the way, what are you doing here awake at this time when everyone else has gone to sleep?"
Naruto walked and seated himself near the fire, leaned himself against the armchair and threw some more spruce cones at the fire. "I wasn't tired and it smelled and sounded so beautifully from the garden, so I stayed up."
Sasuke didn't seem to want to talk, and Naruto was happy just sitting together with him in the lights from the fire. He gradually relaxed until his head rested against the chair and after a few minutes he became aware of a light touch on his head. Sasuke seemed to caress his head gently, like he would stroke a cat that had comfortably laid down in his lap, and he realized that that he probably was unaware of that he did it.
Unlike the cat, who would have stretched and pushed itself closer his stroking hands, Naruto held himself as still as he could and hoped that he would continue.
"The smell of burning spruce cones," he said, almost to himself, in a dark and subdued voice. "It reminds me of the camp fires when we were in Spain."
"Tell me about it," he said softly, as if he spoke to someone that was falling asleep.
"The memory is a curious thing. The bad times, the nights when it rained or snowed, or when the enemy were close and no one could relax or fall asleep, the nights when we wre hungry and cold or wet, when the wolves howled and the wounded moaned – all of those nights seem to mix together into one eternal nightmare. But the good moments, the nights when it was dry and warm and nothing bad happened, those I remember clearly. It was good at the foot of the mountains since we had clean water. And there were plenty of fuel and woods to take cover among.
The men put up tents in rows, every with a fire outside of it. It was like a small village where people went back and forth and the women gossiped outside the tents where they sat in the light from the bonfires and cooked dinner or repaired some clothes to the smell of burning wood and spruce cones. Some sang and others were just tired, and some children cried."
It could be heard from his voice that Sasuke was fond of the memories. His fingers in Narutos hair had made his normally fixed straight hair messed up in different layers and colors of gold to silver, that almost fell down to his shoulders like a halo in the flacking light from the fire.
"Were those happy times?" He asked.
"Yes. They had a simplicity, a sincerity. It was like a large family. Of course there were crooks and problem-children, but it still was a knitted family with a strong sense of loyality and a common goal."
"And what did you do those nights?" his fingers went through his disheveled hair now, lifted it and let it fall again. It was hypnotically sensual and soothing. Naruto felt how his eyelids became heavy even though he didn't want to sleep.
"If I wasn't on duty I walked around in the camp and spoke to the wounded or others who wanted to speak. Sometimes I sat with some of the men, sometimes I listened to the music they would play or sing. Other times I sat outside my own tent, spoke to my servants and wrote notes in my journal or wrote letters, just being grateful of the silence and calmness. Just like what I am doing now. You are a very calm company, Naruto."
Naruto smiled, his eyes focused on the dancing blue flames. It had been one of his dreams that when they had married, he would be a calming presence for him after a long and hard day. It would never happen again, but right now he could enjoy it.
One of the spruce cones exploded with a sharp crack and landed on the carpet in a fountain of sparks. Naruto bended himself forward but Sasuke were quicker, went down on one knee and leaned forward to lift up the burning fragment with a quick motion with his long fingers. He put out the remaining sparks and turned himself around so that he was face to face with Naruto, who was lying on his knees next to the armchair.
His hair hung messily around his face and looked like a glowing halo when he retrieved his balance, and looked up at Sasuke with eyes shining like blue crystals, lips parted. Sasuke stretched out his arm and captured a golden lock between his fingers. "Is it me who did this?"
"Yes, of course. You sat and stroked my hair like if I was a cat, and it got all messed up." Naruto tried to sound lightly amused, but his chest felt tight and his heart banged under his ribs. He was so close that he could see the glow from the fire be reflected in Sasuke's dark obsidian eyes and hair, even his lashes. He smelled vaguely of his aftershave and cognac, and the undefinable, masculine scent that, to put it simply, just was Sasuke.
"You have beautiful hair." He pointed out before he leaned forward and kissed him on the lips.
His lips were warm and sensual, and for a moment Naruto stiffened, not because of fright or horror, but because from the chock. He then stretched out his hand against Sasuke's shoulder to steady himself, and tested to lean in to the kiss. Sasuke put his hand behind Naruto's neck and pulled him closer at the same time as the pressure from his lips increased and spread Naruto's lips. He tasted like cognac and his body was warm against his.
No one had ever kissed him like this, at all, and he was almost painfully aware of his ignorance and lack of experience. What should he do? What was he going to do?
The answer made him gasp when Sasuke's tongue entered his mouth and touched his own tip of the tongue with surprising intimacy. Naruto was soon pressed hard against Sasuke's muscular chest with his own lithe one, and he could feel one of the raven-haired man's hands run through his blonde hair, while the other caressed his throat and sensually glided down the shoulder to the sensitive skin under his shirt.
His lips were now determined and demanded things that Naruto's body seemed to understand partially, but didn't really know how to respond to. He felt like he had stopped breathing, and it was like he was freezing and burning up at the same time. The whole world focused around his lips against Sasuke's, and he was unaware that his fingers grabbed tightly at Sasuke's shirt.
Then, just as suddenly as he had kissed him, he stopped and let him go. Naruto opened his hands and landed on his heels with a thud, while his lungs were filled with deep and trembling breaths.
Sasuke rose hastily and violently, and stood next to the armchair against him with a grim face. "Damn it! I'm sorry, Naruto, I don't know what got into me. No, what the hell am I saying? I know very fucking well what flew into me, and I shouldn't have let it happen."
"I…" His voice seemed to have disappeared together with the strength in his legs. His skin felt unnaturally sensitive and warm, and a bothersome feeling was burning inside him.
"I'm sorry I scared you, Naruto. Of all the stupid things I can imagine, I know that the last thing you want right now is to be touched by another man. I just forgot where I was, who I was with. You look so… captivatingly different in the glow from the fire with your hair all messed up like that."
Even now in the dimness Naruto could see the tension in Sasuke's face, how he grabbed the back of the armchair until his knuckles turned white. It was amazing, unbelievable, impossible, but it seemed like the kiss had affected him as deeply as it had affected Naruto. But Sasuke didn't love him. It was like a glimpse of physical desire, it was both bothersome and enlightening.
"Sasuke…" he swallowed and tried to regain control over his voice. "You didn't scare me, I promise."
"You are too naïve to…"
"No," He interrupted sharply. "I may be inexperienced, but I understand what happened. You kissed me and that's it. We were alone, it was late, none of us focused on what was appropriate. It happened and I'm sure that I shouldn't say this, but it was very… interesting."
Sasuke emitted a sound that Naruto thought sounded like a choked chuckle.
"You see," he continued. "I have never been kissed before, not really, and I don't think that I will be that ever again, so it was interesting to know how it felt like."
That should explain why he didn't punch him in the face, yelled or done some of the other things a well-raised young debutant should do and react of being kissed suddenly. Yeah…
"Naruto, you can't just go around and let yourself be kissed just because it's interesting, you idiot! How many other experiences do you think you can try out just from curiosity? You're seriously playing with fire…"
"Don't be stupid!" Naruto stood up on shaky legs. It felt like his legs would give in any moment and he grabbed the armchair for support.
"Stupid? Naruto, I don't think for a moment that you have any idea of what danger you put yourself into when you trustfully let someone kiss you like that. And don't stand there and look at me with those big, blue eyes of yours. A man cannot resist everything."
"You're just trying to scare me for my own good," he noted. "I don't think for a moment that I was in any danger when I am with you, Sasuke. I trust you."
~*Pov change, Sasuke.*~
Sasuke observed Naruto's defiant, interesting face. His eyes were huge and glowed in the light from the fire, and the shadows floated over his lips that had become swollen from their previous kiss. His hair was messy and fell in different layers and shades of silky gold around his face and his chest rose and fell along with his quick breaths, and he insisted that he trusted him!
Sasuke took a deep breath. "Naruto, could you please go away to your room and sleep. Now."
"Very well, okay." Those who didn't know him would have missed the small tremble in his voice, but Sasuke caught it. He didn't think that he'd scared him, but he knew that he hadn't kept his cool, that he just had followed his instincts in a way that shocked him over his lack of tact. He wasn't a player, he never had been. He surely wasn't a monk either, but he'd never played with virgins, and wasn't about to start now either.
"Go now," he said again and tried to sound somewhat easygoing. "And let me think over what your mother would say if she knew what just happened."
Naruto, who had been on his way towards the door, abruptly stopped in his tracks and stared at him with wide blue eyes. "You're not going to hell her, are you?" He suddenly realized that Naruto seemed more concerned about that, than over the kiss itself.
"I should," he said in a grave tone. "But I won't if you don't want me to."
"No! She would just be so angry."
"Yes, at me, which is fully understandable, but not at you." It seemed so unbelievable that Naruto would be so afraid to make his mother unhappy. Mrs. Uzumaki had always seemed like a nice and reasonable woman.
"Well, but you don't deserve to get mad at now when you have saved me and taken care of me. You are a friend of the family and I wouldn't want to put up any obstacles for that," he finished in a formal tone and seemed to get control over his emotions. "Good night."
Sasuke noticed that he was alone, and stood and stared into the fire for a while before he shrugged, pulled himself together and put out the fire. He closed the window and put one of the candle lights out. He lifted the other lighted candle with one of his hands and grabbed his coat with the other. He then walked slowly up to his chamber while he tried to get his emotions in place.
Colonel Uchiha Sasuke wasn't a man that doubted or gave a lot of time for soul-searching. He was confident, comfortable and used having control over himself, his feelings and everyone around. If he believed that he was wrong he didn't have a problem admitting it, and when he dealt with a problem he used to use his intellect and experience to solve it, and only ask for help when it seemed appropriate.
He shut the door behind himself and threw his coat over a chair, while he impatiently opened up some buttons at his neck. There were no confusions about what he had to do in this situation. He would just make sure that he'd never relaxed together with Naruto again, that he fixed some appropriate company and make sure that Naruto got home as soon as possible.
`No´, he thought and stared at his own reflection in the mirror with a great frustration and irritation. The problem was that his usual cool and poker face was in chaos. Sasuke sat down to remove his boots. "Get yourself together and use your fucking brain," he muttered while he leaned back, his shirt opened and shoes removed.
He was aroused, damn, very aroused. It didn't really take a genius to come to that conclusion. Sasuke determinedly pushed back the need his body oozed out to him, and decided that when they got back to London, he would do his best to completely ignore them.
Naruto had come into his life in a completely unexpected way. When was the last time he had thought of his time in Spain, relieved the sounds, the scents and the feelings? A very long time, he realized. And when he'd done that before, he didn't have anyone to talk about it with. His father and Neji would understand, they had the same experiences, but it wasn't something you really discussed with other men. And yet it had been strangely comforting to do it. How had he managed to disarm him like that, make him so relaxed and unlike himself?
He had thought that he was an unhappy boy that had been hurt by another man he soon would forget, but he had been wrong. Naruto wasn't a love-struck child. He was a young man that had been through two seasons already, and really made an effort to become the perfect spouse to some insensitive douchebag, who had hurt him by rejecting his dedication and love. What did he just say a few minutes ago? `I have never been kissed before, not really, and I don't think that I will be that ever again.´
At least the jerk hadn't seduced him, and then rejected him. Sasuke frowned when he remembered how Naruto had said in a matter-of-fact voice that he didn't think that he would be kissed again. What was he thinking? To just return home and wither away as an unpaid companion for an elderly relative? Become an unmarried support for his mother? What a waste!
Sasuke tiredly stood up and began to strip off the rest of the clothes. It was when he pulled off his shirt from his shoulders that he realized that it was something more about tonight's events that bothered him like a pebble in his shoe. He tried to analyze it as he neatly folded his shirt.
Naruto had been so trusting when Sasuke had kissed him, so calm about it, even if his previous memories from the siblings should have made it an awful experience. Naruto trusted him, he said. Even Sakura trusted him. Enough to kiss him and flirt with him, flutter her eyelashes without a single thought in her head that he could push it too far, and use her and what she so charmingly offered him.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but you're losing your touch, man." Sasuke said to himself and threw a critical look over his admirable flat and muscular stomach. "That's why. You're no longer dangerous in front of the ladies and young gentlemen. Just a nice, trustworthy, safe friend to flirt with." With a dry smile over his lips he blew out the candle.
~*Pov Change, Naruto.*~
In another chamber at the other side of the hall even Naruto wrestled with his emotions. The memory of the kiss seemed to warm his whole body up and fill him with desire. He knew that he had added physical desire to Sasuke, that earlier only had been spiritual. But how could he not resist being kissed by him? How could he not have done anything else but respond? The pressure from Sasuke's lips against his own was still pulsating and fresh in his mind. Would he still feel it when he woke up the next morning, or would it be like a dream?
But no matter how wonderful the kiss had been, he also appreciated the fact that Sasuke had let him in and share his memories, his reminiscences of his daily life with the soldiers. Not the glory or the tragedies, just the scents, the music and their crude camaraderie. That was what he had always hoped for, that he as his spouse would be someone that he could talk to without any restrictions about things that were important to him, both the most great and the trivial.
Just like the kiss, Sasuke's voice that described the camp in the radiant glow from the fire opened up a door towards a world of intimacy and trust. A door that he had to shut close.
It belonged to another person, and he had to learn how to manage without either of those things.
~TimeSkip~
If Mrs. Gedding noticed that her guests was unusually quiet the next morning, she didn't show it, she just kept on talking with her usual, good mood. If she had known about Sasuke's and Naruto's different yet at the same time alike concerns, maybe she would have been concerned herself, but they both succeeded in looking like they just had trouble sleeping the previous night.
Sasuke tried to concentrate on what his plans were after he had safely escorted Naruto home again to his parents, but he discovered that the thought of spending more time with this unpredictable young man gnawed on him. He mentally slapped himself. What kind of problems could a young and inexperienced man do to an experienced officer?
He remembered that one time, when he had escorted a general's shrew of a Spanish mistress, fifty French prisoners, a whole cart with soldiers' money and six field cannons through enemy territory, and made it to their destination with every penny, gun and prisoner in safe custody. And he even had managed all that without insulting the lady, who very clearly showed that she offered to make the trip extra comfortable for him.
That part of the memory made him smirk, and Naruto, who in secrecy observed him over the edge of his cup of tea, silently gasped and held his breath. Did he remember the previous night? The sensual smirk died away from his face and Naruto was left with his thoughts.
What was he going to do? It didn't help that he didn't have a clue of what he wanted. He had to give up all hopes of Sasuke, he understood that much at least. His total refusal to bow to his father's disapproval when it came to Lady Sakura was sufficient indication of that.
Hi mother wouldn't be all too mad now when she knew that Naruto was safe, right? She had to understand that only real suffering could have driven away her son to something so extreme. Naruto hated the thought of not getting along with his parents, and felt miserable over the fact that they could feel that he had let them down and behaved badly.
`Grow some damn backbone, you coward.´ he told himself silently. `Mother will soon write and be forgiving, and then we all can go to Brighton. No one will know about my mishaps, and I will get opportunities to ponder about what I am going to do for the rest of my life when I finally get rid of that douche, Lord Sai.´
To have some sort of plan made him feel a little better, and when the maid came with the mornings mail he didn't look as gloomy.
"There's a letter for you, Naruto." Mrs. Gedding handed him the letter with a sympatric smile at the sudden flicker of fear in Naruto's eyes. "It's probably from your mother. There's one for you too Colonel, and two, no, three letters to Mr. Gedding. You both can read your letters, so will I do the same." He bowed his head, and nervously broke the seal on his letter.
He hastily rushed his eyes over the page, not being able to focus, but gradually some sentences and words popped up and felt like punch to his gut. `Your poor father… Dr. Haruka… Kyuubi is very upset… You bad, stupid boy…´
Naruto took a shaky breath, forced his hand to stop shaking and read the letter from the beginning. After the first sentences he realized in relief that it were his father's gout that had worsened, and therefore the doctor had been called for. At first he thought that his disappearance had given him some kind of stroke. Apparently Kyuubi was upset over that his brother were gone and that no one knew where he was and why. And when it came to his mother…
The words, his mother admitted, just didn't cover it. But that fact didn't stop her from writing long and well about her opinion that Naruto was a big disappointment to his parents, that he had acted in a way that were incomprehensibly bad and wayward, and that his poor mother didn't know what to do with him. The only comfort she had was that it was Colonel Uchiha that had stopped the most horrible imaginable consequences, and she hoped that Naruto was regretful and grateful.
Of course he couldn't be sent to his old relative in Bath after such behavior. Dear Tenten had asked that Naruto would come to her, and her husband, Earl Neji had ensured Mrs. Uzumaki that he would keep him under strict supervision and that he could be of use at them. The last words were underlined several times with bold and powerful strokes.
While he blinked away the upcoming tears Naruto looked up and met Sasukes eyes. He raised one of his eyebrows.
"Pissed off and seeing red, like a bull?" he asked.
"Colonel!" Mrs. Gedding called out, but didn't succeed to hide her amusement.
"Yes, my mother is quite upset and angry," Naruto agreed dignified and swallowed down the lump from his throat. He wasn't in the mood to get teased. His mother probably thought that Sasuke's actions had been exemplary through this whole process, which it also had. "She says that I have to go to Tenten, and that she has told our acquaintances, including Lord Sai, that she can't turn down my dear relative's request for company."
"Aha. She expects Neji to keep a close watch on you then?"
"Excactly," Naruto admitted with some anxiety. "She also says that she will bring father and Kyuubi to Bath to drink some well-water. My father will, I meant, not Kyuubi. She's pointing out that Kyuubi will get terribly bored over there and that it is my fault that they're not going to Brighton."
"How can it be your fault?" Sasuke wondered. "You can't be blamed for your father's gout. She writes in my letter that the reason for their trip there is the gout that is still bothering him."
"The doctors have told her that anxiety and efforts could naturally make the tendencies worse," Naruto explained and read through the letter again about the long description of his poor father's suffering, that only got worse by thinking of his disobedient and rebellious son. "She's quoting Shakespeare, something about an ungrateful child."
"King Lear," Mrs. Gedding said helpfully. "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is, to have a thankless child!" She observed Naruto's now white face. "I'm afraid that she is very upset. But don't worry, when you're finally home in safety everything will be forgiven. I'm sure of that."
"I don't know when that's going to be. If I'm going to Tenten and Neji over the summer it can go weeks before I will see her again."
"That is just as good," Saske said and sighed. "When you finally see each other again everything will be forgotten. And you will enjoy spending some time with Tenten."
"And Neji, and the new baby," Naruto said a bit bitterly. The last thing he wanted right now was to spend time with a happy, young family, especially with a baby on the way. He wanted children on his own together with Sasuke, not take care of his small relatives.
"You really have to let go of your dislike towards Neji," Sasuke said in a distant tone while he poured some more coffee into his cup. "You will have a good time when you get there."
For the first time since he got to know Sasuke, Naruto noticed that he stared at him with pure wrath bubbling in his chest. He had entrusted himself at him! He had thought that he knew what he felt. Shouldn't he then instinctively understand why he was so upset over being sent away? No, apparently not. The man he loved showed up to be human, he realized. He kissed young men he didn't love, he argued with his father, he didn't understand how Naruto felt after all that he had told him…
"Don't stare at me like that," Sasuke noted and smirked, which only made Naruto even more furious. "I have to escort you the whole way back if we can get you a respectable companion."
"I think I have the perfect solution," Mrs. Gedding announced and waved the letter she had received. "Mrs. Saito, the wife of our vicar, does no longer need her governess services now when her youngest daughter left the school bench. Miss Tayuya is going back to London to live with her sister while she searches for a new place as a governess. She would love to accompany Naruto and are ready to leave when it suits you two. Mrs. Saito writes like this…" Mrs. Gedding squinted down at the end where the vicar's wife almost ran out of paper. "It says that Miss Tayuya will arrive at eleven o'clock today to discuss the arrangement."
"What have you said to Mrs. Saito about me?" Naruto wondered anxiously.
"Only that you are stranded here because of family matters, without the companion you expected. I also referred to your father's bad health and the fact that you have a sister in Lincoln, and I'm pleased that I implied, without lying or telling anything, that your plans just fell apart.
~TimeSkip~
Mrs. Gedding maybe thought that she managed to fool her neighbor, but as soon as Naruto introduced himself to Miss Tayuya, he was convinced that the governess didn't let herself be fooled for one bit.
Miss Tayuya was a grumpy woman in her mid-thirty's, and if Naruto wanted to find an unmarried woman that were unhappy with her life and had become bitter from her experiences, he couldn't have hoped for a more depressing candidate. The governess seemed to find a certain pleasure in appearing as subdued as possible in her strict, grey woolen dress, her hair pulled back from her face and with no signs of further embellishments.
She held her hands together in her lap through the whole conversation, gave Sasuke long glances and answered Mrs. Gedding with a disrespectful voice. But the looks she gave Naruto was sharp and judging, and it could clearly be seen that she guessed that her temporary burden had been through some mishaps.
She also confirmed that she could leave the following day and didn't mind going all the way to their location as long as she could arrive at her sister's place eventually.
"It must be a goal for me to help Mrs. Gedding in any way that I can," she announced.
`I bet my sorry ass that you do!´ Naruto thought rebelliously. `Especially if it means a comfortable trip in a private carriage with a handsome, sexy gentleman that takes care of everything, and not a shaky journey with a stagecoach.´
agreement was established and Mrs.. Gedding took Miss Tayuya to the kitchen to get a recipe she had promised Mrs. Saito. Naruto, who's sight were clouded from rage, hastily rose from the chair and left the room. Sasuke caught up to him down in the garden.
"Are you crossed at something, Naruto?"
"Crossed? No, not at all. I'm trying not to cry, if you really want to know," he snapped and suddenly felt that it was totally incomprehensible that he liked Uchiha Sasuke at all, let alone loved him. "My mother has more or less repudiated me, my father is sick and furious at me, my little brother is upset, I am sent away in shame and that terrible woman with that weasel-face will be smug and act superior the whole freaking way!" he swallowed, feeling nauseous. "And I will probably soon hear all about being the unmarried relative, that is the person you should send for to take care of things and when some of my relatives don't can, or when the children are sick, or…"
"Naruto!" Sasuke laughed. That bloody man actually laughed. "Calm down, for Christ's sake! I agree that Miss Tayuya looks like a weasel and seems very grumpy. I agree on that your family is terribly furious at you right now, but all you need, you and your parent's, are a few weeks to forget the whole thing. No one has died from a broken heart so far, and the man that made you so incredibly disappointed won't be able to accomplish it either, or even destroy your life, which you seem so convinced that he has done.
I bet that you even in six months have recovered enough to be interested in the new upcoming season. This time without the impossible task of living up to some man's expectations…" He interrupted himself when he looked down at Naruto's wild and mad upturned face. "Believe me, Naruto, he isn't worth this anguish, no matter who he is."
"I have already come down with that conclusion, thank you!" Naruto hissed, turned on his heel and marched away past some bushes. Sasuke didn't put any effort in pursuing him.
~TimeSkip!~
Naruto gloomily showed up at dinner and took the opportunity to apologize to Sasuke, while Mrs. Gedding was outside of the room to meet her husband that had returned.
"I'm sorry that I snapped at you," he said stiffly. "I should thank you for everything you have done for me, and not be so ungrateful."
He looked up with a smirk. "There's nothing to thank me for, I just did what anyone would do for a lady that were so upset like your mother." He observed Naruto's downcast, heavy eyelids and added: "And you also suffered through a terrible experience, so it isn't strange that you're feeling somewhat melancholy at the moment."
`Well, that put me into place,´ Naruto thought and pressed his lips together at sasuke's sour retort. `I can't possibly think that he cares especially for me, when it's only for my mother! And I apparently also suffers from hypochondria!´
His wounded feelings got yet another blow after the meal when he returned to the dining room to retrieve his coat that he had left on the chair, when he happened to hear Mrs. Gedding's conversation with Sasuke. It immediately became obvious about what they were talking about and Naruto listened with growing indignation from behind the door.
"Miss Tayuya is apparently very sensitive," Mrs. Gedding said. "Even if I didn't tell her or Mrs. Saito anything about Naruto's awkward situation, it seems like she have already guessed that we are escorting back a fugitive to his home. I guess that several years as a teacher on a school for young debutants-to-be in Bath, have given her some experience of young debutants that over-react on emotional situations. But she ensured me that she would keep an close eye on Naruto and don't leave his side, wherever it's going to be day and night."
"I'm sure that's not necessary," Sasuke answered. "Naruto seems to have resigned to the idea of returning home, or at least going to Tenten and Neji."
"I'm sure that he realized that he done wrong," Mrs. Gedding agreed. "But Miss Tayuya says that she has several edifying scripts that are appropriate for young men and women and that she will do her best to make Naruto interested in them during your trip."
Naruto didn't wait to hear sasuke's opinion on edifying script's, he just rushed out into the sunshine and fled to the stables.
"That loathsome woman!" Naruto violently growled out. Moonstone, who had poked her head out above the half door when he approached, shrugged away and snorted. "To be dragged back home, not only in disgrace but be put together with her, forced to share the same bedroom with her and be lectured every morning, day and night as if I had eloped from school with the art teacher!"
He punched his fist against something, and realized that it was the saddle that he'd used when he rode on Moonstone. The headstall hung next to it. He slowly stroked his fingers along the hard leather, and an idea popped up in his head. Did he dare? How far was it really to Haku's house?
The magistrate's workroom was empty and Naruto soon found his map-books since one were open on the desk. He looked up Haku's address and followed the roads back to the village. They were multiple roads that went fairly straight, but they had some sharp turns every now and then when they crossed ditches and canals that watered the fields. After ten minutes of rushed writing on a piece of paper he found on the desk, and after some carefully measured distances with a ruler, Naruto came to the conclusion that it couldn't be more than 45 kilometers to Haku, even if he traveled on the smaller roads. Once he arrived the villagers surely knew how to find the way home to Haku and Zabusa.
"Strategy and tactics," He mumbled to himself. Once he finally was with Haku his mother would probably let him stay, because no one could doubt that Sir Momochi Haku were highly respectable, even if he was kind of obsessed with his husband. But with Haku he would be able to plan, and his friend wouldn't try to dissuade him from his decisions. The fact was when he thought about it, Haku had tried to persuade his husband to bring Naruto on their upcoming trip to the continent. Surely, he probably wanted a friend with him during such an adventure. And maybe when Naruto got some experience, he would find others that wanted some company on their trips and recommend them on different things to see…
Naruto's rose-sparkly daydream paled somewhat at the thought of the new worries his new escape would cause, but he knew that he would arrive at Haku and Zabusa the same day and could immediately send a letter to Mrs. Gedding and tell them that everything was fine. It was a way too short timeline for his mother or Tenten to have time to get worried. The only danger was if Sasuke caught him.
"Tactics, tactics…" he mumbled and collected a pen, ink and some paper before he went back to his room to write down the most calming and grateful letter he could come up with to Mrs. Gedding. It took a while, and when he was done he needed to fix his route description at the same time as he picked out the most important things to pack down into a small bag.
*~TimeSkip!~*
When it was time for dinner his stomach were filled with butterflies and he didn't have an apetite, but he forced himself to eat as much as possible. The following day could be very long without food.
Mr. Gedding was in a really good mood and Naruto managed to keep an appearance of normalcy with one or another comment or question while the magistrate told them all about what he wrote to the judges in London about the siblings Orochimaru & Anko and their companions, and that he was sure that they would minimum get life sentence.
After the dinner he sat and helped Mrs. Gedding with some Sunday work until the tray with tea was carried in, then he excused himself and went to bed.
"Good night, dear," Mrs. Gedding said. "It's for the best to get a good night's sleep, because the carriage is ordered to ten o'clock, and before that you must be ready and have everything packed. I hope that my husband and Mr. Uchiha don't keep you awake. I think that they are going to play some pool tonight, and when my husband finds a willing opponent he can play all night."
Naruto was happy over the news, because he hoped that after a late night, Sasuke would sleep for a little bit longer and thus giving Naruto some more time to get far away before they woke up and noticed that he were missing. He slept restlessly the whole night since he was worried to oversleep and couldn't really fall asleep completely.
At last he could hear how the big watch struck four, and he got dressed in the grey morning light, put on his boots and the gloves and grabbed his bag. He left the letter to Mrs. Gedding on his pillow.
The house was quiet and the windows in the saloon opened up with ease by his nervous hands. He shut it close and ran across the lawn to the stable. The old dog opened up one of his eyes when he passed, but was used to him and therefore didn't start to bark.
Moonstone stood patiently while he heaved up the saddle and struggled to buckle everything up. The headstall was a bit trickier, but he stepped up on a box to reach. Then he carefully removed the girth from all the other saddles in the stable and the bridle and hided them under a stack of hay in an empty box. That should stall eventual prosecutors until he put a good distance between them, and if the carriage wouldn't be there until ten o'clock, that wouldn't be able to catch up to him either.
Naruto led Moonstone out from her box and over the yard to a small ladder that he could use to reach up and get on the horse. With a last anxious look towards Sasuke's window he turned the horse and silently rode away towards the light morning mist.
TBC…
AN: Here I am, Face to face, with a situation… Hey everybody! What did you guys think? ^^ Please tell me if you think it's good, if it needs any quick-fixes etc.! Constructive criticism is more than welcome as well!
Hopefully the next chapter will be out sometime the next week, we'll wait and see! ;)