A/N: Okay I feel the need to explain my summary since I am getting tired of people saying stupid things about it: I am fully aware of what I wrote in the summary. It may sound 'ridiculous' to you but I wrote it the way I did for a reason. I hated seeing yaoi/yuri fics being bashed simply because they are yaoi/yuri fics. If you're gonna insult some one for what they write on then criticize their writing, not the couple they choose to ship. I wrote the summary the way I did to be a smart ass, as I usually am. So please if you wanna tell me how to improve my writing, I'll listen. But if you wanna tell me that my pairings/summary/whatever is crap then I'll tell you where you can shove it.

Thank you.

Disclaimer: ... Okay don't rub it in...I don't own it. I don't even get a chapter from onemanga this week! -sob-

The Story So Far: The council sentences Sasuke to death, despite the fact that he has become a reformed citizen. The news of this sends Tsunade into a downward spiral until the oddest inspiration hits her. She demands that Kakashi and Shikamaru meet with her, but for what reason?

Warnings: -blushes- Dude...HEAVY Yaoi...(SasukexNaruto) eh mild violence nothing too horribly gorry though, swearing (yeah...-shifty eyes-)

Chapter 17

Shikamaru stood before the Hokage, the sleek fabric of the ANBU uniform allowing his skin the pleasure of breathing. Slowly he lifted his hand to the bird shaped mask and slid it off of his face. He moved the mask to his side and bowed deeply to Tsunade.

"Oh cut the formalities Nara," Tsunade griped from the seat behind the desk. "We don't have time for that."

The male eyed the leader up curiously but sat down lazily in the moaning seat provided for him. After a frantic secretary came into the lobby of Hokage Tower (where Shikamaru happened to be passing through after a long day of work) shouting something about Nara and Hatake Shikamaru turned and walked up to the old woman's office. Really, this day was getting too long. Already it was nearly nine at night and the Hokage decided now was a good time for a meeting. Shikamaru sighed why would anyone want to be here this late at night?

Tsunade leaned back slightly and took a small sip of hot tea, "Shikamaru as you know Naruto and Sasuke are in jail right now."

Shikamaru assumed the tea was for the sake headache she was no doubt suffering from right now, "Yeah." His response was lazy and drawled like most other responses he offered in his life.

"Well the elders have decided to execute Sasuke," Tsunade explained hoping to get a more emotional response from such a strange man.

Shikamaru spurred himself forward to meet the Hokage's statement, "What? Why?"

Now she had his attention, this was very good but her head still begged to be smashed against a hard surface, "They say that since he was attacked by the Loyalists he is a liability to this village." Tsunade sighed out a fraction of her fury.

"They're going to kill Sasuke…because he was attacked…?" Shikamaru restated with the most puzzled face Tsunade had ever seen. "Is it just me or is that a little backwards?"

Had her head not been throbbing at every little sound she made Tsunade might have chuckled darkly at Shikamaru's question, "They wouldn't listen to me when I told them that." She pressed a finger to the light jewel on her forehead, "So I decided that it was up to me to make sure that Sasuke didn't meet his death this way."

The normally unenthusiastic ninja rested his elbows on his knees, "What did you have in mind?"

Tsunade smiled to herself. If she could get Shikamaru interested in this off the papers mission then she knew that she had chosen the right people for the job. She leaned closer to Shikamaru unintentionally heightening the tension in the room.

"You and Kakashi are going to break Sasuke and Naruto out of jail," she began in a hushed tone. In the Hokage's office you never knew who was going to burst through the door at any given time of day. "And they are going to run away from Konoha."

For the first time since they'd seen each other in the Akatsuki's headquarters, a long strained silence stretched between Sasuke and Naruto. Naruto laid on his side facing the wall, the steady in out breathing of Sasuke was felt across his back but he couldn't pay less attention to his surroundings if he tried. Sasuke was facing the wall furthest from their impossibly small cot, the world had seemingly tipped and thrown all that he'd worked for off balance and this time it wasn't by his own selfish doing it was because others wanted him dead. Neither knew what to say to make this situation any less constricting. The only thing they knew to do was to keep their mouths shut to prevent the event of saying something to worsen it.

Sasuke didn't want to die. He finally had what he wanted, finally felt what it was like to be forgiven and now he was going to lose it all. This had to be some cosmic joke. There was some God laughing at him so manically for being an invalid who thought he was worthy of a life like what he had. Sasuke rolled over to face the ceiling, effectively taking up most of the space.

Half of Naruto's body rolled onto Sasuke's on accident. Sasuke almost forgot that Naruto was in there with him in that dark and dreary cell. Naruto tried to roll over as he mumbled half hearted apologies to his best friend. Sasuke rolled onto his side to face Naruto before the boy completely rolled over. He pulled Naruto's face closer to him and kissed his chapped and dry lips tenderly, considering he had no future now (no matter what Tsunade had said).

"So how exactly are we going to pull this off?" the chunin/ANBU asked as the wheels in his head turned at hyper speed in order to formulate the perfect plan to save his friend.

Tsunade felt the tea starting to take effect in her veins. The room seemed much more stationary now and her head didn't throb in rebellion every time her lips uttered a sound. There was still a dull pain behind her eyes but if she didn't focus on it then it wasn't there. It wasn't there.

"I will handle the time schedules of the ANBU and such. I want you and Kakashi to figure out a way to get those two out of the village fast or undetected," she explained while she looked over the time table for the prison guards.

"When will I be able to plan with Kakashi-sensei?" Shikamaru asked rubbing his chin in contemplation. This wasn't going to be easy if they wanted to keep the elders completely in the dark about the whole operation. "Won't you have to keep the elders busy while we get Sasuke and Naruto out of here?"

"Hm?" Tsunade asked a little dazed from steadily flying down from her sake buzz. "Oh yeah. I'll call some false meeting or something to keep them out of the way."

Shikamaru nodded, "So when is Kakashi due to arrive?" Sine Tsunade had only answered one of his questions he took the liberty of reminding her of the other.

"Normally a trip from our village to Sound is about a one day run. He'll know that something is wrong pretty much as soon as he receives the orders to return home he will probably cut that time in half." Tsunade thought about this time frame in order to better inform one of her rebels. "He should be here about midday tomorrow, I'll set up the ANBU guard duty to switch out as soon as he arrives, then I'll call a meeting in order to help you guys out."

The Hokage was silent for a moment, the crestfallen faces of Naruto and Sasuke flashing through her mind. Now that her brain was not sucking up the depressants in her sake she could feel the full effect of the way they stared up at her. Tsunade felt a rush of guilt collapse on her chest.

"Should I come here around twelve then?" Shikamaru asked pulling the woman out of her self pity moment as soon as he saw it coming on.

She snapped out of the stupor and faced him, "No I'll send a hawk out when Kakashi arrives. Oh and make sure you wear your uniform."

Naruto closed his eyes, trying to remain strong. But, oh, the way Sasuke was kissing him. The way that made him shake with intensity, made his mind melt from the passion, the way Sasuke held him so gently and so strongly at once. Naruto's head spun, this couldn't be the end, he had faith in Tsunade, but, oh, the way Sasuke was kissing him was like a sentence from fate instead of a slurred promise.

Tsunade drank strong black tea (no sugar, that only slows you down!) to make it through most of the night of planning. Shikamaru had left a few hours ago to rest up for the secret mission, as he should've. He would need to be on top of his game in order to get Sasuke and Naruto out of this village. While Shikamaru slept, not so peacefully, Tsunade was organizing the time charts that the prison rotated on in order to get Kakashi and Shikamaru in there at a time where the guards would be switching out on both sides, in order to have the minimal amount of witnesses. She swallowed down half a cup full of bitter tea and got back to work.

She scratched out names and wrote down inspiration with the ragged scritch scratch of her pen. In order for this work out just right, it had to be planned perfectly, and hey she wasn't a Sannin because she was a half-wit!

Sasuke's back faced the jail cell door with his knee between Naruto's firm thighs. He admired Naruto's face with graceful touches, heartbreaking kisses and feather light glances. If he was to be killed for helping this face then he had every right to memorize it and worship it while he was waiting. He felt Naruto's breath stifle as Sasuke slipped his thumb across Naruto's bottom lip. Sasuke coaxed Naruto's mouth open with the thumb that sat there so innocently.

He placed an achingly sweet kiss on Naruto's lips after slipping his thumb across the scars on his cheeks. Sasuke pulled back when he realized that he brushed something cold and wet with his digit. He studied Naruto's face, knowing that it would be stupid and pointless to ask him what as wrong. So Sasuke kissed away the few tears that trailed and framed Naruto's cheeks.

"I'm still here Naruto," Sasuke whispered to the boy's face, wishing so badly that he didn't have to leave his side. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Shizune!" Tsunade bellowed from her office after waking up from a fitful sleep.

The assistant walked in second later in a mess of little sleep and tired limbs, "What is it Tsunade?" she asked in worry not insolence.

"Can you give this change of schedule to the ANBU prison guards?" the woman asked in a tone raspy from too bitter tea.

"No problem my lady," Shizune smiled at her lightly.

The woman was by no means stupid, she suspected something when Nara and Hatake were sent for but Tsunade had not spoke a word of her operations to Shizune thus far. Though it made her feel sneaky and distrustful, she knew that Shizune would understand when all was said and done.

Shizune dutifully took the plans and delivered them the ANBU in charge of the desk at this barely-classified-as-day hour. He had looked at her curiously, but said nothing to discredit this information. Shizune walked out of the office and up a couple of flights of stairs to get back to Tsunade, who was sound asleep on a couple of important looking documents.

Shikamaru nervously drummed his fingers against the window sill in his room. He'd slept a few hours but because of the mission he was too jittery to get some decent sleep. That was okay though. He was more edgy when he was deprived of the essentials, food, sleep, sex, whatever. The sun was nearly fully taking over the horizon and Shikamaru already felt like kicking in a few doors and bustin' Sasuke and Naruto out of jail.

He hit his face to his palm. Oh God, he was starting to sound like Kiba…Never a good sign. Outside his door he heard his father come in from feeding the deer and then heard his mother's nagging voice. He rolled his eyes and continued to scan the skyline for any signs of a hawk. Nothing yet.

An aggressive knock at his door and then the separation between the hallway and his privacy was breeched. Shikamaru's mother told him to get up and get ready for the day. Today he had to train with Ino and Chouji.

The Nara had worn his ANBU uniform under his regular attire, so he was plenty warm with two layers of clothes on. The only downside to this was that he felt no need to wear a cloak and ended up looking like the idiot who didn't want to be warm in the middle of January. He walked up to Ino and Chouji at one of the millions of training grounds open to the ninja population. Ino raised a sarcastic eyebrow to him. Great, she was about to make a smart ass comment.

"Felt like showing off Nara?" Ino jabbed with a smart alec smile as she pointed at the bird like ANBU mask that rested on his hip.

"Tch, too troublesome to answer," he replied with more words than what was normal of him.

"Careful," Ino mock-warned. "Don't want you choking on a full sentence there."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes at her and scanned the sky inconspicuously. Ino suggested that they get started just as a black-brown hawk flew over the bare winter trees. Shikamaru told them that he just received a mission and had to skip out on them. Needless to say Ino was none too thrilled but accepted this half truth. He'd tell them later anyway, so there was no sense in arguing right now.

The boy flew through the trees, the wind whipping at his face relentlessly, to make it to Hokage Tower as fast as he could. The more time he had to plan with Kakashi the better their chances at getting those two troublesome boys out were.

Kakashi gave Tsunade a look of pure confusion when he knocked on her window and she was ordering Shizune to go set up a meeting with the elders right now! He could hear her through the glass obviously. She swung the window open to allow the third key member into the room. Kakashi knew there was something up since she had not even bothered to greet him with sarcastic and scathing banter. What sent Kakashi's head into a spiral was when Shikamaru came into the room only a matter of minutes later while Tsunade was explaining what was going on with his students.

Naruto laid on his side, staring into the deep pools of ebony that were presented to him. It felt like those eyes went on forever, but all Naruto could see was how apologetic they looked. It was as if they were trying to say that they were the source to all of Naruto's misfortunes, that they were the core that had erupted leaving only the scattered debris of Naruto's life. Sasuke kissed Naruto's nose and didn't close those heart wrenching eyes. Naruto just took the kiss and lifted his hand to stroke the soft strands of hair that laid flat against the soft spot on the side of Sasuke's head.

The blond moved his mouth forward and bit down on Sasuke's bottom lip. The wound from before reopened and the blood touched Naruto's lips and Sasuke understood what he meant. Sasuke placed his hand at the base of Naruto's neck and felt tremors run up the boy's spine as he pulled him close and licked the blood off of his lips.

Sasuke was sure that they wouldn't be so somber right now if it hadn't been for that stupid elder who came by. Sasuke had gotten Naruto to the stage where he wasn't thinking about it, he insisted that it would take a while for the village to process the elders request for execution, that they had time to spend together, then that bastard of a man had to come by. He quickly informed the two about Sasuke's limited time. He had said that the lower authorities had authorized it to happen as soon as possible, probably within the next four days (he was making the village unsafe, priorities people). He also looked at them in utter disgust when Naruto had curled his fingers around Sasuke's.

But now the amount of time they had with one another had a time bomb on it. The thought of death loomed over their every action. So Sasuke turned the simple cleaning of Naruto's lips into a kiss. He tried not to think about his execution as he ran his tongue against Naruto's. Sasuke attempted to push the thought of leaving Naruto out his mind as he moved his hand against the waistband of Naruto's shorts and underwear at once.

Naruto gasped when Sasuke's hand moved under his clothing so slowly and deliberately. He rubbed at Naruto's inner thigh while giving a well timed kiss to his mouth. Naruto moaned, oh god, as Sasuke's hand traced a line from the heated skin at Naruto's thigh to the toned 'V' muscle that outlined his hips. Sasuke moved his other hand from the back of Naruto's neck to unzip Naruto's loud orange pants languidly to give himself more room, to make things a bit more comfortable. Naruto knew that with how purposeful Sasuke's movements were, that Sasuke might have considered this the last time they'd be together like this.

Sasuke broke away from the kiss and looked Naruto in the eye again, "I'm sorry."

Sasuke didn't stop his movements, it seemed as thought his hands were memorizing every inch of flesh they could touch. Naruto didn't mind but he felt like he was going to be crushed with sorrow once this was all over. He moved to kiss Sasuke hard on the lips, breaking the fragile skin that had began to heal over the constantly reopened wound, tasting more blood on his tongue as he kissed the man.

"This," he let out an airy breath. "Isn't your," Naruto moaned as Sasuke's hand brushed his swollen shaft for a second. "Fault," Naruto finally got out after so many interruptions.

The expressions that Naruto made as Sasuke touched every inch he was allotted were mesmerizing. His eyebrows furrowed together as his mouth split to make the most erotic sound Sasuke had heard. It had to be the emotion Sasuke was pouring into his hands and lips as he moved to please Naruto. But it was about so much more than pleasure. Sasuke didn't want Naruto to feel like he was alone (even if in a physical sense he would very much be alone) because Sasuke knew that he couldn't and wouldn't cross over into the afterlife until Naruto was by his side.

Sasuke wanted Naruto to know that even if, for the rest of his natural life, Naruto had never found some one else who could love him this way, that would give him the world and the stars if he ever asked for it, that Sasuke had loved him and would always love him no matter what boundaries stood between them. But Sasuke seriously doubted that there would be no one willing to look passed the noisy, scarred face to find a passionate, beautiful, kind man. It might have been wishful thinking on his part that Naruto would never find some one like that again, but it was selfish and Sasuke tried hard to throw those thoughts aside as his hand moved to grasp Naruto's all too sensitive member.

A sweet sound, "Oh God," was sighed out in a higher pitch than usual from Naruto's lips.

Sasuke began to move his hand; up down, in a steady rhythm, kissing Naruto's face and lips every so often to show him that he was still there. But those sounds that Naruto made were far too tempting, they pretty much begged him to go faster and all Sasuke wanted to do was made Naruto happy if he couldn't be with him for the rest of his life. Naruto opened his eyes and attempted to focus all of this energy in waiting on Sasuke. He wanted so much from Sasuke, selfishly so but he didn't care. He wanted Sasuke to be by his side forever, he wanted Sasuke to hold him through the hard times, he wanted Sasuke to be honest, he wanted Sasuke to kiss him again and again until he was dizzy from it.

Then Sasuke kissed Naruto, his pace picking up and becoming more frantic and less structured. Naruto moaned deeply into the kiss and buried his fingers deep in the jet black tangles of Sasuke's hair. He tried so hard to bring his lips closer than they already were, so hard. Sasuke wanted to lose control and just strip Naruto down to nothing and have him right there, slow and lovingly (the phrase 'as if he was dying' was far too ironic and cruel to use) but he abstained from it since he hadn't even relieved Naruto from the slow torture he was putting him through right now. He could feel that the nearly desperate movements were putting Naruto right the edge of insanity and climax.

Sasuke would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy the fact that Naruto was melting at his fingertips but it would seem out of place to admit it as Naruto let out an even cry of release when Sasuke's hand moved just right to grant him his lingering moments of intense joy.

Naruto kissed him deeply before he felt the groggy boneless feeling settle in. It was as if all his bones had upped and left him to fend for himself. Sasuke kissed the beads of sweat that fell gracelessly to the scratchy cot below him.

Carefully he observed Naruto's satiated face and all at once the words came tumbling out before he could stop them.

"I love you," he whispered before receiving the response, "I love you too," from the exhausted male beneath him.

The ANBU guard at the door scoffed, "Tch, troublesome." Even though he'd heard nothing of the confessions and the two boys had heard nothing of the guards changing while they were caught up in their own little world they both knew that something was going to happen just because of the voice the ANBU had used.

"Sasuke! Naruto!" Kakashi called out in a harsh tone while still whispering somehow.

Naruto's head lazily moved to meet his name, it took him a second but he caught on. Sasuke was zipping up Naruto's pants and cleaning his hand on the stiff blanket under Naruto. For some reason Sasuke doubted that Kakashi would guard their prison cell because he had time off. That was just a hunch though.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto wondered as he and Sasuke made their way over to the barred doors.

The man's face was covered with a wolf-ish mask but the voice was unmistakable. Kakashi began to do a series of hand seals, and then the sound of a jutsu dispelling was heard. Shikamaru was doing a few signs as well, this time the seal on the jail cell door pealed itself from the metal. Sasuke observed the other guards, either they were too bored to pay attention or they were really that unobservant. They stood like they were strong and a force to be reckoned with but Sasuke wouldn't be surprised if most of them were asleep.

"What are you guys doing here?" Naruto asked as Shikamaru opened the door to their cell.

"Are you serious?" Shikamaru replied in disbelief.

"Tsunade sent us to get you out of the village before the elders could execute Sasuke," Kakashi explained as he grabbed Naruto roughly by the arm. If they didn't hurry their window of time would shrink and things would have to get messy in order to get them out.

Naruto made an 'o' with his mouth before the whole thing settled in. Shikamaru held out a few protein and energy pills out to Naruto. When you're on Chouji's team you learn to be prepared for any event. Naruto swallowed them with a faint blush, it he was giving him these pills he obviously knew why he needed them. Shikamaru and Kakashi walked at a steady pace, trying to make it look like they were escorting a few prisoners to a hearing or something or another.

The other guards had no way of knowing, and they way that Kakashi and Shikamaru held onto their arms made the four of them look more like guard and prisoner pairs rather than close friends. Kakashi nodded to a few of the other guards they passed, inwardly thanking God for the small fact that Sasuke and Naruto were housed in the first level of the prison. The tricky thing was getting passed the security guards but Shikamaru had that covered, a quick genjutsu made them appear invisible while the illusion of them walked into the parole office off to the left. For a second Shikamaru wondered why they didn't have a barrier against that in a prison. Then he remembered that when ninja prisoners are housed here their chakra is sealed off and they are put into specially designed cells.

"We're almost there," Shikamaru muttered.

He apparently muttered it all too soon. From behind them a loud voice called out, "Hey where do you think you're going?" Then a guard was pursuing them, he appeared to be civilian (he didn't bother dispelling the genjutsu or using a transportation jutsu to head them off) but Kakashi wasn't taking any chances. He let go of Naruto for a second to knock the man out by physical means, he wasn't sure if ninjutsu would set off any alarms. The man sunk against the wall after Kakashi hit a vital point on his body.

There was this sound, almost like bells, and then a series of shouted commands. Some one had disarmed their genjutsu and now all the guards could see them, nearly at the exit, helping two prisoners escape.

"Run," Kakashi ordered a split second before the whole team started through the door at break neck speed.

Now obviously the guards couldn't all up and leave the prison to pursue a few ninja, but they did send a good few. Shikamaru managed to stall them with a few tricks he'd picked up on the ANBU missions he was assigned to earlier that year. Then Kakashi took a pretty risky move, not knowing how the guards would react in the slightest. He turned into the Konoha market. The jounin led the three younger ones, one still throwing tricks and traps, over and under various curtains and farmer's stands.

The loud ruckus that emanated from their escape was heard damn near across town, but the team continued to move through the over crowded shoppers. Shikamaru noticed that the guards slowed down considerably, obviously not wanting to harm any civilians, lest they get caught and fired for something like that. It was one of the riskiest moves Kakashi had taken but it paid off so Shikamaru couldn't only metaphorically applaud him. Kakashi veered off of the main streets of Konoha, noticing that the guards had slowed down to nearly a walking pace in the bustling market of the Sunday Shoppers, and got everyone into the shadows of the back alleyways. Cliché, a little, but it was useful and that was all that mattered.

They began to stealthily walk in the wet, dirty alley, careful not to step on the glass and metal fragments that littered the cold cobblestone. Sasuke and Naruto were still just as confused as they had been when they set out on this escape but they knew that Kakashi and Shikamaru wouldn't steer them wrong so for now all they had to do was trust them and catch their breath. Naruto reached out in the darkness and took a hold of the end of Sasuke's shirt, Yup, still there. Sasuke had jumped a little but settled when he realized that it was Naruto.

The darkness of the alleyway seemed to stretch on into forever. Naruto chalked it up to the fact that they were moving so slow to avoid making a clatter and attracting attention. Kakashi took a sharp left. He knew his way out of the village from any given point and he was positive that there were only a few more apartment complexes and then they would be out of Konoha. The jounin treaded carefully, he hadn't seen hind or hair of the guards but that didn't mean that they hadn't seen them.

Finally the light pierced through the bleak alleyway and bathed the four in light. Already the marketplace was way behind them, nothing but a speck at this point. Naruto looked back at the village he'd grown up in and felt nostalgia and guilt pile up on his chest. There was this sensation that felt very much like his heart caving in and his ribs collapsing on him. He knew that it would be a very long time before he'd be able to go back to this cozy village, but when he looked at Sasuke he knew that running away was something he had to do in order to move forward in every other aspect.

Shikamaru gave Sasuke a forceful push, much to the proud man's displeasure, and urged the pair forward, closer to the gates that symbolized that Sasuke had cheated death (again). Sasuke grabbed Naruto's hand and began to move forward at a swift pace, leaving Kakashi, Shikamaru and their beloved village behind.

End of Spent

A/N: OMGEEEEE!! lol! So...OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GIVE ME FEEDBACK on Sasuke's and Narut's -cough- "Scene"...If I get negative feedback I will recall this chapter and rewrite it to make it flow smoother with the rest of the fic. It was a risky move putting that in but I thought I'd gauge your (the reader's) reaction this way.

Preview of Next Chapter: "Ugh!" Naruto grunted out as he rolled over on the rock hard dirt of the clearing Sasuke had chosen for them that night. The poor Uchiha really had no sense in picking sleeping places, this ground was going to break their backs before they had a chance to enter REM sleep. Sasuke poked Naruto's side with his foot, "Stop being so damn picky it's not like we can afford to sleep out in the open."