Byakuya
Chapter 20
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Sasuke was looking at the house before him in bewilderment.
Is this where dobe lives? Sasuke wondered to himself with his eyes slightly wide with mute horror. He was standing outside the house that Naruto by his memory lived in. He hadn't actually been at Naruto's place; he had always seen the blonde outside the house when it often was dark. Even though Naruto's apartment was near the centre of the village and near both the academy and the Hokage tower, the house itself; a three story building, looked awful. The whole house was made of grey stone and some parts of the walls and the balconies were made of cold steel, giving the building an almost hospital-like unfriendly air. The walls were covered in graffiti, as was what Sasuke could see of the strange contradiction of the roof. There was a small tower of sorts there, with a pair of loose stairs leading to the top.
Sasuke gave a small suspicious glare at the landlady that was brushing the sidewalk and headed inside. After walking up the grand wooden stairs, noting to himself that the place looked a lot nicer inside, Sasuke finally arrived to a door that obliviously belonged to Naruto. The door was bright orange, with a red blue spiral on it with the text 'Uzumaki'.
Sasuke knocked and waited.
And waited.
And waited some more, before patiently knocking to the door louder, almost banging cracks on the poor wooden door. How dare the dobe make him wait like this, leaving him to feel ridiculously stupid, standing in the hallway waiting for him?
Finally losing his patience and frowning at the fact that Naruto was late of their meeting, he took a shuriken from his shuriken holder and was just about to push it between the locking mechanism and the doorway when he froze.
Even though Naruto was eccentric, a bit aloof, and generally oblivious blonde, he was still a ninja. And no good ninja left their door unguarded. Even Sasuke's own innocent looking door launched several shuriken traps if someone tried to sneak in. Sasuke's brow twitched slightly.
Well the dobe is oblivious. He probably hasn't taken any other precautions than the simplest ones.
Forming the seal for ram, Sasuke was relieved to see the door glow blue. He then slipped the shuriken between the door and the doorframe, pushing the lock mechanism out of the way so that he could slip the bright orange door open.
Whatever Sasuke had waited from Naruto's apartment, it wasn't this. As he opened the door, he stepped right into the living room; which Sasuke found a bit strange, having been used to all the long hallways of the Uchiha mansion. Next to the outer door was a shelf for shoes and jackets, but otherwise the space was quite open. The ceiling was high and the dark parquet with the cream walls made the living room quite comfy.
Sliding along the dark parquet silently Sasuke was intrigued by the wall. He stepped closer and took a closer look at what appeared to be pictures –and felt his breath catch in his throat. The first picture was of Naruto. The blonde was wearing the tightest and shortest leather short's Sasuke had seen, and the brunette shyly blushed, feeling a shiver ran along his back.
He'd accepted the fact he was attracted to Naruto a few days ago only, and he couldn't stop some part of himself screaming him to stop thinking like that, because Naruto was a boy.
Sasuke's blood turned cold in his veins however, when he looked at the next picture; there was Naruto, without a shirt, smiling with unreal happiness, the sunshine making his blonde hair glow... with Gaara. Sasuke's eyes darkened and he felt a sudden urge of unjust rage against the redhead.
God damn it! Stop thinking like that! It isn't as if Naruto is yours! Sasuke yelled at himself, trying to calm his breathing. Sasuke clenched his fists and swore he could feel his heart stop when he heard a voice from behind him.
"S-s-Sasuke?" Naruto stammered his voice very low and exhausted sounding, as he spoke from the floor next to the kotatsu. Sasuke gulped, silently, and closed his eyes briefly, before turning to Naruto. The blonde was pale and shaky, his forehead and shirt covered in sweat, his blue, and most grey now, blue eyes looking at him, but not quite seeing him. Sasuke sensed a twang of worry hit his heart, swift is if he had been hit by an arrow of worry.
Sasuke hurried beside Naruto, his eyes confused. He couldn't quite react to anything right now, still confused of his own emotions, of the reason Naruto was on the floor. Sasuke slipped an arm under Naruto's arm, and another under his knees, surprised by how lithe the boy was, even though he was only a half a head shorter than Sasuke. Sasuke lifted Naruto easily up before setting him down onto the lush red couch. He could feel Naruto trembled as he set the blonde down on the sofa, slightly hesitant to let Naruto know, but knowing that he didn't have an excuse to hold onto him.
"Naruto? What happened?" Sasuke asked as he covered Naruto with a blanket he had found from the other end of the sofa. The blanket, of course, was a bright shade of orange.
What is it with him and orange?
"Get me water…and mix with…powder…paper on the second drawer in kitchen…" Naruto tried to say, his breaths desperate as he tried to get more air into his lungs, when all he could think of that he could not let panic take over. Naruto shivered.
Sasuke looked at the blonde worried before almost running into the kitchen, which to his surprise, was completely spotless. He didn't know why, but he had kind of expected to find the apartment full of old ramen bowls and dirty clothes. He took a glass from one of the cabins before starting to rummage through the second drawer. His eyebrows rose slightly as he blushed. The drawer was full of every little this and that, which also consisted of several suspicious things.
Pushing the condoms and the lube to the side, Sasuke started to rummage through the envelopes at the bottom of the drawer, assuming that the powder that Naruto talked about was inside a folded paper, as the medic-nins always put them. His confusion grew however, as he skimmed through the letters, somehow feeling he had intruded on Naruto's privacy, and not because of the condoms or the lube, but because there seemed to be something personal about these letters.
His fingers caught a particular envelope.
"To Uzumaki Naruto; from the link-pin of east." Sasuke murmured to himself. He knew what a link pin was; fire country had four of them after all, protectors of the country that each had a vote that one could use to overthrow the Hokage out of his/her office, or for the Hokage to overthrow the council respectively. The link-pin honorific was something that travelled from father to son or father to daughter inside one family for hundreds of years, and the clans that had link-pins almost never visited Konoha because of their different beliefs in how to deal with politics.
"Now why would Naruto have a letter from the link-pin of the east?" Sasuke murmured to himself before he was distracted by the painful moan Naruto made in the living room. Remembering the state of his team-mate, he finally found the clear white folded note with some powder in it. He filled the tall glass with water before hurrying to Naruto. The blonde was shaking even more profusely, his moist clothes clinging onto his skin.
Sasuke put the medicine and the glass on top of the kotatsu before kneeling next to Naruto, shaking the other's shoulder slightly to get him to open his eyes. Naruto didn't open his eyes though, but let out a soft whimper. Sasuke's eyes widened before stress finally got to him. He wasn't a bloody medic-nin! He wasn't trained to deal with shit like this! Sasuke cursed before shaking Naruto harder, and this time the boy did open his eyes, even though only slightly.
"Naruto! Wake up god damn it!" Sasuke snapped flinching after the hurtful words left his mouth. Naruto's eyes sharpened though, and apparently he was slightly more aware of where he was.
"Half…of…it…hurry" Naruto whispered, his breathing erratic. Sasuke did as instructed before helping Naruto up so that he could drink the greenish water up. Naruto spluttered slightly but did manage to force all of the drink down. Naruto let out a single shiver before leaning back against the back of the sofa and frapped his arms around his knees.
After a moment his breathing returned to normal and Naruto raised a shaky hand to rub his eyes and to push his pangs to the side.
"Shit." Naruto said, while trying to convince himself that he did not just look weak in front of Sasuke. Naruto frowned slightly, trying to remember what had happened. He remembered finding a hallway filled with doors, presumably in his mind. He had gone door through door through door, and found nothing but memories. Finally he had arrived to an orange door. He had stepped inside, without hesitation, knowing nothing could hurt him inside his boy except for the nine tails. He had been shocked to find that the orange door was full of chakra.
The chakra had caught him completely off guard, and he still couldn't shake the feeling there was something special about the chakra. It wasn't the Kyuubi's chakra, nor was it his own. And he had never seen orange chakra before. It looked a bit like Kyuubi's chakra, and felt…mutating, but it hadn't been evil in the sense Kyuubi's was.
Naruto sighted before turning to look at Sasuke who was looking at his expectantly, waiting for him to explain what had happened. Naruto was a bit surprised by the emotions, seeing as the Uchiha never showed if he was interested in something, wanted something, or tried to accomplish something.
"Well?" Sasuke finally asked, and in effort to take off some of the harshness of his tone, reached out to pull the blanket more securely around Naruto who was still shaking. Naruto's eyes widened, before he smiled slightly; not the big grin he often wore, but a small, understanding smile.
Sasuke decided he quite liked it.
"I was trying to make something work. This ability of sorts, and I must've exhausted my chakra reserves or something, because I passed out." Naruto said thoughtfully, while cursing not coming up with a better lie. Sure, being always a little honest in lying made holding the lie easier, but the way he had just done it, it was going to make Sasuke ask questions. Inwardly, Naruto cursed.
"Ability?"
"Hum…Can't really tell you that much about it, it's kind of classified." It wasn't a lie per say. Tsunade had never said anything about telling his friends about it, but the council probably wanted to see it first if he ever got it working properly.
"Exhausted your chakra? Dobe, your stamina is inhuman—…" Sasuke began, not noticing how Naruto flinched at the word 'inhuman'. Oh how right you are, Sasuke, Naruto thought. "—what kind of ability is this thing really? Because killing yourself is good for no one." Sasuke ended, and even the brunette couldn't hide the slight tint of concern slipping into his voice. Naruto couldn't help the slight curving of the lips.
"Ano sa… Sasuke-teme…does this mean you're worried about me?" Naruto asked, while leaning closer to Sasuke who was still on his knees beside the sofa. Naruto ignored the way the muscles in his back and arms trembled as he moved, his blue eyes sparkling inquiringly. Then Sasuke did the last thing Naruto expected.
Sasuke blushed.
Seeing the slightest tint of red on the brunettes' cheeks, Naruto felt a blush start to rise on his own cheeks.
'What am I doing? This isn't like that innocent flirting between me and Drake, or the slight teasing between me and Gaara! They are… Sasuke is… What is Sasuke to me? He's… Sasuke.' Naruto rambled. Naruto had planned to tease Sasuke a bit before kissing him and acting like nothing happened, turning it into a game where Sasuke would for once be the one who was frustrated, the one who didn't know what was going on.
But then Sasuke blushed. Blushed. For him, Uzumaki Naruto, THE dobe. And Naruto suddenly felt incredibly shy. Naruto opened him lips slightly, breathing in through his mouth, feeling how the cool air seemed suddenly very dry. Naruto was still leaning in, and their faces were closed than ever.
And then, Naruto kissed him.
The kiss was soft, placed just over Sasuke's left brow, where a twitch had started to form. Naruto was so painfully aware of Sasuke's breathing against his jaw, and hesitantly leaned back, avoiding Sasuke's eyes.
"You shouldn't frown. It gives you wrinkles." Naruto said cheerily, just the faintest tint of false cheer mixed in. Then he sobered. "But thank you. Thank you." And Naruto realized that he really was grateful. He had needed this. Had needed someone outside the Coven show his concern. Someone who had seen him at his worst and still cared enough to worry.
Sasuke was looking at him, his eyes unnaturally wide, his expression full of utter bewilderment and confusion. Naruto gave a small smile, before throwing a look at the clock.
11:14
The world stopped, before spinning wildly anticlockwise. Naruto let out a small squeak.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAH! It's almost noon already? I have that meeting at twelve! Damn it, Sasuke-bastard, why didn't you get me sooner!" Naruto raged, and feeling already energized by the heavy medication he had taken, jumped up from the sofa.
Too bad he was still tangled in the orange blanket and that Sasuke was kneeling in front of him. Naruto's feet got stuck and he was sent into a heap with Sasuke. Naruto waited for the painful impact to come and closed his eyes.
"Itai…!" Naruto whined before opening his eyes and coming eye to eye with an embarrassed Uchiha Sasuke, though the only thing that showed Sasuke was embarrassed was the still slight blush. Naruto fought the urge to blush too, before realizing the position they were in. Sasuke was lying on the ground on his back, with his elbows holding him up, and with one of his knees between Naruto's legs. Naruto was lying on his knees on top of Sasuke, both of his hands by Sasuke's ribs.
And their groins were pushing against each other.
Fighting the automatic reflex to rub their groins together Naruto jumped up from Sasuke as soon as he could. He rubbed his neck in embarrassment.
"Look, I have this thing to go to at noon, so we'll have to spar later. I'll look you up, okay? You know where the door is." Naruto rambled, before skipping towards the bathroom. When he was just about to open the door, he heard Sasuke speak.
"Naruto?"
"Yes?" Naruto's voice trembled slightly.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Sasuke asked, and Naruto froze in place before turning around and smiling towards Sasuke, his foxy grin in place.
"Of course, Sasuke-bastard. Don't worry about me; I'll kick your ass later." Naruto laughed and opened the bathroom door and closed it firmly behind him. Leaning his head against the door he sighted, just as he heard Sasuke's customary 'hn' from the living room.
Naruto didn't mention the slight shaking of his arms, the way his sight seemed a bit hazy, or the fact that he couldn't tell out Sasuke's features completely because he looked more like a blue blob of chakra.
I'm fine. Naruto said to himself, trying to convince himself.
But he couldn't help but to frown the whole time he stood in the shower.
Right?
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A/N: So, here's chapter 20! Sorry about not updating yesterday even though I said I would… I just wasn't in the mood so to say. And I'm afraid I won't be able to update as fast as I've been recently. I mean, yes, I'll strive for 3 chapters/week, but that is only because I'll be trying to make a bit longer chapters.
And as it is weekend I may update tomorrow. But no promises.
I loved though how everyone protested when I forgot to update yesterday…hah.
And I love dragging the whole Sasuke/Naruto thing. Because, their relationship isn't about sex, it's about love, so there. T-T
Oh, and do review. I really need to know your coins and hates about this chapter and the whole Naruto Sasuke interaction. I wasn't completely satisfied with it myself, so I'll need you to tell be what struck you odd, unexplained, etc.
Otherwise, thanks for reading this…
--Dark
