Author's note: Well, since the school year is quickly bounding closer to the end of my sophomore year I am just going to go ahead and wrap this shit up as soon as I've written the last chapter (though I don't actually know when that will be…) so I can focus on homework and stuff.
I plan to take down smoke and mirrors soon and I'm going to recycle the title for some more yaoi-esque purposes, so after it's taken down and re-started ya'll should check it out. It might be better than this one. ;)
Disclaimer: I trust you know the drill by now?
Sleepless Nights
Chapter 14
Humble Pie
Why the hell would he call me out here in the middle of the day like that? And no Anbu on my tail to boot! Sasuke thought, puzzled.
That morning everything had been fine, Sasuke and Naruto both woke up normally enough and got ready for work without so much as a word about any sort of special occasion. The only thing the blonde had done different today, Sasuke remembered, was give him a kiss that was approximately one second longer than the last one.
That couldn't mean anything, could it? Sasuke thought, this had better not be another one of those fucking special dinners for my accomplishments.
Sasuke shivered and contemplated turning right back around and going back to work but he knew that Naruto would just track him down and drag him if that's what he wanted.
The dinners Sasuke'd thought of were a fabrication of Naruto's diseased mind. Every third Saturday of the month Sasuke was either taken out to dinner by or given new freedoms by the Hokage and her perspective student. The whole thing had been going on for half a year, a whole six months with Naruto coming up with inventive ways to force him out on dates.
Fucking fantastic, Sasuke thought sourly.
If only Tsunade didn't have to be there, then Sasuke wouldn't have such a problem with the celebrations, but she was. And that wasn't even the worst part! Going anywhere with Naruto and Tsunade was like going on a date with a guy and his mom!
Whenever the lady Hokage was around Naruto couldn't hold Sasuke's hand, they couldn't kiss at all, and heaven forbid they sit next to each other in a restaurant! That would be a most unforgivable travesty.
Sasuke grumbled a string of curses as he entered the building and started up the stairs, and then he noticed all the eyes on him. It was less frequently as of late, that Sasuke noticed other shinobi sizing him up as though he could be a danger to them now.
Ha! Me a danger. Yeah right, Sasuke deadpanned as he started straight ahead and kept on going, if he stopped to pick a fight with one of them he would be late to see Naruto.
Although, none of the other shinobi knew that is where he was going.
Every time Sasuke entered the building their eyes would be on him in fear and animosity but its not like he could blame them. If he'd known himself well a year ago when he was completely rogue Sasuke would probably be afraid of him as well.
"Good morning lady Hokage, Naruto." Sasuke bowed slightly when Shizune opened the great wooden doors of the office to let him in.
The woman leaned listlessly against the back of her seat with her arms crossed over her chest as she glared Sasuke down with a superior aura about her. She grunted a greeting and shifted uncomfortably to better leer at him. Naruto grinned across the room at his unofficial boyfriend and motioned for Sasuke to come in.
"You'll never guess what baa-chan's got for you today Sasuke! It's fantastic! You can go on –" lady Tsunade slapped a hand quickly over the man's mouth and Sasuke smiled softly at his bubbly blonde, whatever it was he knew now that it was good.
"why don't you let me tell him Naruto-chan?" asked lady Hokage sweetly, the gooey quality of her voice in that instant made Sasuke wonder what kind of relationship Naruto really had with his mentor. Sometimes the hag damn near acted like Naruto's mother.
She'd removed her hand after an affirmative nod from the blonde, "you tend to sugar coat things a bit."
He sugar coats things? Sasuke thought in mild amusement, you sound like you just started weaning the guy off a bottle!
Sasuke smirked at his own odd joke.
"What are you smirking at?" Tsunade shapped harshly.
"Nothing ma'am, I just remembered something funny."
This answer seemed to satisfy the woman as she sat up a bit and leaned over the mahogany desk, not bothering to move all the paperwork on it that was becoming wrinkled.
"Well then, now we can get down to business. Sasuke it's recently been brought to my attention that you have been exceptionally well behaved over the past six months. Due to multiple reports of your helpfulness in a multitude of tight situations, as you know, you were slowly regaining some of the liberties of a true Konoha shinobi. Now, in light of those reports and… other things, and, against my better judgment mind you the brat somehow persuaded me to let you use jutsu."
Sasuke's eyes widened as his breath hitched in his throat, his jutsu? Seriously? Suddenly the raven found that he was angry, not at Tsunade but at himself for being so untrustworthy. He didn't want the use of his jutsu; things were going so perfectly without it! All jutsu would do is give the other shinobi a reason to distrust him again, give Naruto a reason to doubt him.
He opened his mouth to decline but Naruto beat him to the punch.
"The only conditions baa-chan talked about were that you have to go on a few d-ranked missions with me first, and guess what? Those missions are today!" Sasuke could see the blonde bouncing excitedly in his chair like a small child on Christmas morning. This only made him dislike his new freedom even more, but nothing could be said about it because it made Naruto happy.
Sasuke sighed and nodded slowly. "I understand, may I have the mission folders to study before I go?"
"Unnecessary." Tsunade spat venomously, "Naruto already has them. You and he will head out to your first assignment immediately." She looked towards Naruto and nodded in approval as if to say, "Go on, you dug your own grave now go lie in it."
Naruto shot up and jogged across the room, linking arms with Sasuke and dragging him towards the door.
"C'mon Sasuke, you're gonna love this first one –"
"Actually, hold on a moment Naruto." Both men turned back to the Hokage whose chin rested on laced fingers. Her elbows sat lightly on the edge of her desk. To Sasuke it looked like she was teetering between two very bad outcomes and weighing her options.
"A moment Sasuke? Go on ahead Naruto; he'll meet you at the house." Naruto nodded, still grinning wildly and exited shutting the door behind him.
Naruto was gone, leaving Sasuke alone with a most likely enraged Hokage. Even if the arrangement was only for a moment Sasuke knew he wouldn't get out of this without some kind of emotional scars.
He dug the toe of his shoe into the hardwood floor nervously and coughed to try and hide the fact that he was scared stiff.
"Come here, Uchiha, sit down." Sasuke gulped and did as he was told, the silent rage radiating from the woman scaring him far more than she had when she'd shattered her previous desk. He vaguely wondered if Naruto would be angry with his mentor of she tried to poison him or something.
He calmly approached and took his seat.
"What is it that you wanted to discuss ma'am?" Sasuke asked meekly, knowing all the while that if he even slipped up one little bit she could send him to hell. Sasuke's mind was not so calm though.
Now look here woman. He scolded internally, all you could possibly do now is waste the time I could be spending with Naruto! I didn't want my jutsu back and I definitely didn't want anything to do with talking to you so wrap it up already. Get finished yelling so I can get back to Naruto before he starts worrying!
Sasuke merely folded his hands in his lap and intentionally avoided her gaze.
"You know Naruto is like a son to me," she started, "and like any good mother I want nothing more than for him to be safe and happy, but for some reason my son doesn't want safety. Yesterday he told me he wants you."
Sasuke's eyes widened, he'd only told her yester day when they'd been "dating" for six months?
"Now, I know I can't lock him up his entire life to keep him safe but I can eliminate anything that I think may pose a threat to his well being, Sasuke, that threat is you. I can honestly say that I have never loved nor admired one of my students as much as I don Naruto, and I'll have you know that if he ever comes to me injured at all, one hair on his head out of place," she paused to let it sink in a bit, "and I will exercise my full authority as Hokage of the hidden leaf to see to it that you never walk another step without my Anbu so far up your ass that you won't be able to take a god damn shower without me knowing!"
Godaime finished in a piercing yell with her face mere inches from Sasuke's as she was leaning all the way across her desk now.
Sasuke gulped again and fought to keep his entire body from shaking.
A sweet, caring smile broke across her face.
"Have I made myself clear Sasuke-kun?"
"Y-yes ma'am"
X
"That was awful." Sasuke shuddered despite the heat of the day as he and Naruto stumbled on to their final destination. "I had no idea bees could be so vicious!" Sasuke's brother had always protected him from anything even remotely harmful.
Naruto scowled and scratched the stings on his neck. "You didn't think that hitting the hive with a kunai would make the bees angry? What kind of rock have you been living under?"
Sasuke glared at his companion and Naruto suddenly realized the err of his ways and refused to meet the raven's gaze.
"Oh, right, the Uchiha one." He mumbled the very last part, assuming that since his raven was already in a bad mood he would get hit if he said anything more. "But you don't need to worry about any more of that today –"
"And why not?" Sasuke snapped, "We still have on more mission to accomplish don't we? Or are you already ditching your job?"
Naruto disregarded Sasuke's comment and smiled softly as he pointed ahead of them. "Just trust me; I come here all the time."
Instead of laying out another impressive array of witty comments Sasuke's eyes followed Naruto's finger to the decrepit structure that stood before him and gasped. The place was built into the wall surrounding the Uchiha district of the city, carved into the brick.
"When the hell did this happen?" he shrieked, not because he was angry but because he was ashamed of not knowing about this when he had already been home for half of a year.
Naruto looked away sheepishly and scratched the back of his neck. "Well, the old place burned down so I kind of forged your signature to commission them this corner. Since you weren't exactly using it I assumed you wouldn't really mind." He chuckled to try and lighten the mood as the crude doors opened before them.
"What is this place?" Sasuke asked. The shudders hung from the windows and paint splintered in the most odd of places, even the glass of the windows which was watery and stained gave the place an air of deformity and decay. He'd thought it was an old folk's home gone wrong, or perhaps a place for the homeless to go.
The blonde grinned as he was swarmed by a sea of tiny bodies in raggedy clothing. "It's an orphanage of course!"
The children, toddler and teen alike, expressed their joy at seeing their friend. Some of the younger ones were swinging from Naruto's arms as he was able to support six at one time. The ones still running out called for his attention and some of the younger ones even started crying when they couldn't get close enough to give the blonde a hug.
And Sasuke just stood off to the side, mystified.
The blonde turned my home into an orphanage? That's so… so nice of him I'm really awful compared to that. Sasuke pouted as he could feel himself being humbled by the blonde's selfless acts, weakening and becoming soft as one of the toddlers tugged at his pant leg.
"Hey, misser, what's yer name?" her tiny toothless grin and long umber pony tails melted what was left of Sasuke's cold heart and he stooped down to her height.
"I'm Sasuke, what's your name?"
Before the girl could answer the question she was batted aside by the other children who wanted to get a peak at their new guest. And soon enough Sasuke was pinned to the ground, children all speaking at once and crawling all over him.
"Go play inside children! Mr. Uchiha and Mr. Uzumaki will be in shortly!" immediately they were gone, hundreds of little feet beating the ground in a race to see who could make it to the front door first.
Sasuke rose to thank his savior who turned out to be the elderly patron of the institution. The old woman had been taking care of children in this building and the previous one for over thirty years since she could have none of her own. She thanked Sasuke profusely for the use of his home.
"No, it's not a problem at all. Actually I would rather you use an actual house than part of the wall." This launched her into a whole other round of thanks. Sasuke shot a glare at Naruto who shrugged.
"Hm, why didn't I think of that?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes as the woman showed them inside, she insisted in showing Sasuke around their makeshift home, Naruto not too far behind.
"What's our mission here Naruto?" Sasuke asked uneasily, if Naruto answered with anything along the lines of fighting the children he would quit on the hidden leaf for good this time.
"We just play with the kids until it's time for them to go to bed. I remember when I was a kid I always loved it when old man Hokage stopped by, he was always so much fun."
Sasuke suddenly stopped in his tracks, "When you were a kid?"
"Yea," Naruto shrugged again, "this is where I grew up more or less until old man Hokage took me in."
Sasuke's jaw dropped, Naruto'd grown up with a hundred other kids in someplace like this? It was unacceptable! He just couldn't believe his ears.
"Yes, Mr. Uzumaki was my little trouble maker for so many years." The old woman smiled and threw an arm around Naruto's neck, "it's just so nice to know that one of my boys has made it so far after leaving this place."
The blonde smiled and motioned to the kids who started to gather around.
"And I want the very same for all my brothers and sisters, that's why I'm here!"
Then Sasuke smiled, he definitely knew now that his brother had been right in telling him to put his past behind him and return to the village, there was nothing more he could ask for, nothing more he could find away from it. As Naruto socialized with his "siblings" Sasuke sat by and watched, captivated by the raw love radiating from his blonde's every word and action.
"You don't really seem like a toddler type of person." Sasuke started and turned to see the old woman standing behind him with a pink bundle in her arms.
Sasuke chuckled and shook his head while glancing back to Naruto who was playing leap frog with the kids.
"Not really, I usually end up covered in some foul smelling substance that's hard to get out of cloths."
The old woman smiled and extended the tiny blanket towards him, "Here, try this one, she's our newest arrival. Poor things only a few months old."
Warily Sasuke took the bundle to cradle in his arms; at first it was awkward until he figured out how to support the head with the crook of his elbow. Absentmindedly he bounced the sleeping girl as he spoke in hopes of keeping her comfortably asleep.
"What's her name?"
"We don't know," the woman admitted sorrowfully, "her parents were killed just outside of the walls, caught in the fighting, poor things. She hasn't got parents or a name…" she paused for a moment, "would you like to name her?"
Sasuke looked up shocked, moving just enough to wake the baby. She began crying in his arms and reaching out, and as soon as Sasuke was finished being shocked he offered his hand to the child to amuse herself with while he addressed her "mother."
"You want me to name her?" he asked with uncertainty.
"I don't see why not, you see she already likes you, you're a natural!"
Sasuke smiled down at the girl who sucked on his index finger and laughed to himself.
I don't deserve to be this much to… Well, anyone! Wouldn't this make me her godfather?
"How about… Mila?"
Author's note: Oh my fricking GOD! That took forever to write and I have no idea why! I am truly sorry that I am late in updating and this chapter is rushed and very mucho bad y malo, but you know what will make me write better don't you?... reviews! Please and thank you!