Chapter 4: The Devil

Naruto couldn't explain it, but a few weeks into the school semester he had found himself feeling an odd sense of jealousy with the friendship that seemed to be blossoming between Sasuke and Suigetsu. Over the past few months Naruto and Sasuke had gotten closer, forming an odd friendship that he couldn't quite explain.

His friendship with Sasuke wasn't like his friendship with the rest of his group of friends. While he was always protective of his friends, he found his protectiveness was significantly increased with Sasuke. Shortly after the school semester had started, Naruto had found that that Kiba was spreading rumors about Sasuke and Sasuke's family. It had almost destroyed their friendship when Naruto had overheard Kiba's conversation with another student. The blond had forced him to choose between their friendship or his petty, one-sided fight with the Uchiha family. In the end, Kiba chose to stop and it became something they never talked about again. It was a known, but forbidden topic among their group of friends.

As Naruto and Sasuke became friends, he also integrated the young Uchiha into his friends group. For Sasuke's comfort, he also invited Suigetsu to hang out with them. It seemed that, aside from Naruto, Sasuke felt most comfortable talking to Hinata and Suigetsu. What confused Naruto the most was his irrational jealousy over Sasuke and Suigetsu's friendship, even over the smallest of things. He was annoyed when he found out that Sasuke and Suigetsu had classes together, having coincidentally picked the same times and classes to take. This led to a couple days a week where Sasuke and Suigetsu would be working together while Naruto was in class and Naruto working with their other coworkers while the two were in class together. For some reason it upset him that even though they took a couple of the same courses, they were at different times and with different professors.

On Mondays and Wednesdays the their schedule did happen to line up for when they had chosen to take their lunch break. They both had decided on later lunches, each having a class that started at 11:30 a.m. and ended at 12:45 p.m. and then not having their next class until 2:30 p.m. They would often have lunch together on those days and then both end up working the late shift at the diner. Unfortunately, Suigetsu also often joined them for lunch since one of his two classes with Sasuke was the 11:30 a.m. class, despite the fact it was his last class since he'd taken 9:00 a.m. class before that and the rest of his classes were on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Some days Naruto couldn't help but check Sasuke out when he came to meet up with him. He effortlessly looked good each time, even though most of the time he was just wearing a plain t-shirt and black skinny jeans, finished off with his old black converse. His hair had gotten fairly long, making him more often than not have it pulled back. He'd talked about cutting it, but Naruto secretly hoped that he wouldn't. He wouldn't say that he was attracted to him, but he knew how to appreciate a good looking person.

"Where's Suigetsu?" Naruto asked when he realized Sasuke was alone one Wednesday. He thought he was a little happier than he should be for Sasuke to show up alone.

"Your dad asked him to work an earlier shift. I guess someone called out," Sasuke shrugged as he put his backpack in one of the open chairs and sat in the chair across from Naruto. He pulled his salad out of his backpack, being weirdly paranoid about buying food on campus. It was like he thought one of the workers were poison him if he were the one to order.

"Who called out?" he asked, feeling like he should thank whoever it was for giving him the alone time with Sasuke. He quickly banished that thought and wondered what even made him think of it in the first place.

"Didn't ask," Sasuke admitted, not particularly caring about their other coworkers. None of them were openly hostile, but he could feel the tension from them even after months of working together. If they weren't going to make an effort to get to know him, he wasn't going to even bother learning their names. "I think it was the blonde bitch, you know how much she loves to call out. Not sure why your dad even keeps her around at this point."

"Her name is Sara," Naruto shook his head. "Honestly, I don't know why she still has a job either."

"Hn," Sasuke grunted as he ate. He wondered if the woman knew something about Naruto's father and was holding it over his head, or maybe Sasuke was just paranoid.

Having a mafia leader as a father would make most people at least a little paranoid of everyone's intentions. Despite Minato being nothing but kind to him over the past few months, he still questioned the older man's reasons for being so nice. His father had once told him that the nicest people are the ones you should be most suspicious of because they probably want something from you that they know you won't give easily. It didn't help that he felt like someone was watching him. It was more than just the looks of distrust and belittlement that he'd received ever since his father was arrested. It felt like someone was monitoring his every movement.

"You work tonight, right?" Naruto asked, hoping that they'd be working together.

"I actually asked for it off, I have something I need to do," he told him, not going into any further details.

"Oh," Naruto was a little disappointed and a lot curious. "What are you doing?" he asked.

Sasuke looked at him as if he were debating whether or not he was going to tell him. "I'm meeting up with an old acquaintance," he vaguely answered, clearly having made hi decision not to tell him much. "He wants to talk about my brother," it wasn't a complete lie, but it also wasn't the whole truth.

"Do you think he knows where he is?" Naruto asked, wondering how much he could ask before Sasuke would get upset and tell him he was crossing a line.

"I don't think he'd be talking to me if he did," Sasuke shrugged. He knew he was probably being far too nonchalant about the whole thing, but he didn't want Naruto asking too many questions. "Don't worry about it, I'm just going to tell him I don't know where he is so he can stop bothering me."

Before Naruto could argue that it wasn't a good idea, they were interrupted by what appeared to be a group of jocks. Their school didn't have any good sports teams, so he didn't keep up with the programs enough to know who any of the men could be. "Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in," the man that seems to be their leader said. He looked like the stereotypical jock who was far too cocky for his own good.

"What do you want?" Sasuke sighed. He was used to people coming up to him, most of them were all bark and no bite. They acted tough, said some rude words, but at the end of the day didn't really do anything to him.

The man seemed offended by the way Sasuke talked to him. He huffed as he pushed what was left of Sasuke's lunch off the table, making it scatter on the floor. "Looks like you dropped your lunch, you should probably clean that up."

Naruto glared at the man, "Since you put it there, maybe you should pick it up."

The man's attention turned to Naruto, "Who are you? His bodyguard?" He said it in such a demeaning way that Naruto was ready to punch the guy.

He clenched his jaw, "Don't start something you can't finish."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, he could see exactly where this was going. "That's enough, Naruto," he told him, not wanting the blond to do something stupid that would result in both of them getting expelled. Nothing would happen to the jock, they'd find a way to make it all Sasuke's fault. "He's not worth the time."

"Is little Sasuke scared?" the man taunted.

Sasuke smirked, a dark glimmer in his eyes. "You know, you're all pretty dumb. If I'm the monster you seem to think I am, then you probably shouldn't be acting like this."

"Is that a threat?" the man huffed, crossing his arms uncomfortably.

He stood up and grabbed the container his lunch was in off the ground before looking the man in the eyes, "Just a friendly reminder to think before you speak. You wouldn't want to talk that way to the wrong person."

Naruto looked at Sasuke, his eyes wide. It made him question what the man actually knew about his father's empire and what he was capable of. He had said he wasn't part of it, but there were some red flags he had seen since he'd met him. He wasn't sure if he was portraying the role everyone had written for him, or if there was some truth. What he did know was that there was something scarily sexy about his demeanor when he got like that.

"It sounds more like a threat," the man's voice sounded far less confident this time and his friends seemed a little less willing to back him up.

"Take it as what you want, just know I don't need a bodyguard against someone like you," he told him as he picked up the little bit of food that had fallen on the ground before walking away to throw it in the trash.

The man looked at Naruto, as if he were asking a silent question. The blond just shrugged, also not sure what to think of Sasuke's words. The group was clearly pissed off that their actions didn't even seem to bother Sasuke in the slightest. They stormed away in the direction that they'd came, still trying to act tough.

It was silent for a moment when Sasuke returned to his spot across from Naruto. The blond wasn't quite sure what to say. He decided to act as if Sasuke hadn't just basically threatened the men, "Are they stuck in high school?"

Sasuke shook his head, "No, it's just because it's me." He leaned back in his chair, "They have a preconceived notion of what I am. If I play into it they tend to get scared and leave me alone."

"So, you weren't threatening them?" he asked cautiously.

"I mean, I could kick his ass if I wanted to, but no, I wasn't actually threatening them. I was just getting them to go away," he told him.

Naruto was still unsure exactly what to believe, but he didn't push it any further. He wanted to trust Sasuke, even if it was foolish of him to do so. He didn't have any proof that Sasuke knew about his father's business or was ever a part of it. He said a few questionable things, but it was possible that it was just an act to make people leave him alone. "I don't know how you deal with it."

Sasuke frowned, "Wallowing in my sorrows isn't going to make anything better. If anything, letting them make me miserable will just make me end up like my mother." He could grow a garden of misery in his mind if he wanted to, but it wouldn't grow any sympathy for him. It would be toxic and make him depressed. He wouldn't follow in his mother's footsteps.

"I'm sure it was a very difficult decision for your mother," Naruto responded, not sure what else to say to that.

"Hard?" Sasuke scoffed. "Dying is easy, living is harder. She took the easy way out. She didn't think of me or what it might do to my mental health. She decided she was done and took her life to escape it."

"That's a harsh way to look at it," Naruto frowned. "I'm sure she didn't want to leave you alone. Sometimes life is too much for a person to handle. Not everyone can survive what you guys went through."

"Then she never should have allowed herself to get into the life my father dragged her into," he responded coldly. "She wasn't born into it. There are plenty of things she could have done when she found out what he was. She chose to marry the man and have two children with him."

"Isn't that simplifying it? I mean, she was probably terrified at what would happen to her if she tried to walk away or not do what he wanted," Naruto argued.

"I wish I could have that same kind of belief in people," Sasuke admitted. "Your ability to believe people have good intentions is nice, but a little naive."

"I just think you've haven't been around enough of the right people," Naruto retorted. He wished he could find a way to make Sasuke more trusting. He understood why Sasuke had his doubts about everyone he met.

Sasuke just gave him a small smile, "If you say so." They decided not to talk about it the rest of lunch, instead switching the topic to their classes and Naruto's desire to do something with their friends. Sasuke was quick to correct him that they were Naruto's friends, not his, but the blond just shook his head and said that, for the most part, they were Sasuke's friends now too.

"They tolerate me at best," Sasuke told him.

"Hinata likes you and other than Kiba the rest have warmed up to you," Naruto argued. His friend group had shrunk since college started, but he liked to believe that the ones that were left did somewhat like Sasuke. He wasn't sure he could ever make Kiba and Sasuke more than tolerate each other, but it was something.

"If you say so," Sasuke decided not to argue.

After lunch the two went their separate ways. Sasuke tried not to let it show that he was a little nervous for that night, but he could tell that Naruto knew something was up when he had told him to be careful before leaving.

That night Sasuke found himself in an office he never thought he'd see again. "Sasuke, so good to see you," the older man grinned as Sasuke was escorted into the office by two guards. "I have to say, I wasn't expecting you to contact me."

"I didn't want to," Sasuke told him. Orochimaru was an old, silent business partner of his father's. He was pretty sure that since he wasn't exposed, his brother did't know they'd worked together. Sasuke had been dragged along to meetings with the older man, though the two didn't explicitly say at that time what they were truly talking about. They always used code words, making it sound like they were just talking business.

"I see," the older man seemed as if he were trying to figure out what Sasuke was thinking. "What changed your mind?" he asked. He had asked Sasuke to join him when his father was arrested. He was ready to take him under his wing and train him to one day be his successor. Sasuke had declined, not wanting to be a part of the world after knowing what kind of business he was truly in.

"I think someone is watching me," he told him. "Is it one of your guys?" he asked, wondering if the man was planning something. He knew he hadn't been happy when Sasuke had trued him down years ago.

Orochimaru looked surprised, "No, it's not me." He leaned back, looking at the other man. "But you already knew that, didn't you? Who are you suspecting? I know you have better instincts than that. You may not have officially been in the family business, but he was at least teaching you enough to keep your guard up if you noticed someone is watching you. I wonder what else he taught you."

Sasuke felt vulnerable knowing that he was probably in over his head. Orochimaru was a big time player in the criminal world. After Sasuke first met the older man, his father had given him a flash drive and told him if anything ever happened to him, to keep it safe and use it if necessary. Once his father was arrested, he looked on the flash drive and found out it was Orochimaru's file. It was the one file Itachi didn't know about.

"I've narrowed it down to two people," he told him. "My brother and whoever Minato Namikaze is working for," he said, knowing Orochimaru wasn't going to help him without some sort of information.

"And what exactly do you need from me?" Orochimaru asked, curious as to where it was going. "And more importantly, what do I get out of any deal we make?"

"I need protection," he told him, though he wasn't quite sure from who yet. His strongest suspicion was that it had something to do with Minato. "As for what you get, potentially my brother and definitely my silence," he told him.

"Silence?" he raised an eyebrow, amused at the thought of Sasuke having something over him.

"Do you think my father doesn't have a file on you, too?" he asked. "The reason you haven't been found out is because I have the file, not my brother. My father gave it to me as an insurance policy of sorts," he explained, causing Orochimaru's eyes to widen. "My father is a smart man, I had no idea what he was giving to me at that time. Now I understand why he gave it to me."

"Nothing like some good old blackmail," he nodded. "And if I just kill you right now the secrets go with you to the grave. My men will find that file before any police investigation even starts."

"Are you sure enough about that to take the chance?" he asked, as if daring him. "Will you find every copy, or just the one I want you to find?" he smirked.

"You seem pretty confident for someone that isn't trained," Orochimaru told him. He didn't like how the tables seemed to be turning.

"How sure are you that I wasn't?" he asked. "How sure are you that I have no other connections that were loyal to my father that you don't know about?" His father was a very secretive man, there was always a possibility that he had people he worked with that neither Orochimaru or Itachi were aware of.

Orochimaru couldn't tell if he were bluffing. He wondered if Fugaku had suspected Itachi would do something and was training Sasuke more than anyone realized. If he were introducing him to people and keeping things from the oldest Uchiha heir. He hated that he couldn't tell if Sasuke was lying or not. "Fine," Orochimaru agreed. "I'll assign some of my men to you, but you're on your own figuring out whoever is behind all of this."

"That works for me," Sasuke agreed, knowing he was making deal with the devil. He couldn't trust Orochimaru to keep his word that he wouldn't do anything to betray him. All he could do was hope that the ruthless man would hold up his end of the bargain and at the end they could peacefully go their separate ways.

"A word of advice, don't trust Minato. He may be nice, but his friends aren't friends of your family," Orochimaru warned him. "Your father is actually the one that taught me not to bother making deals with the people he's involved with. They always want more just to get the bare minimum of what was already agreed upon. I do hope you bring them down, I would love to watch them go up in flames," he added with a sadistic smile.

Sasuke nodded, not sure if he should trust the man, "I should get going." He was a little annoyed that Orochimaru wouldn't just say who he was dealing with, but he kind of expected that even if the older man knew he wasn't going to tell him without Sasuke agreeing to join him. Sasuke didn't want to be a part of that world, he just wanted some temporary back up while he figured out how he could live a normal life. He still wasn't quite sure what that he would have to do to achieve even a somewhat normal life.

"Just so you know, my men did take out two men that were trying to follow you here. Keep following your instincts," he told him.

"I will," he assured him as he left, a feeling of discomfort in the pit of his stomach at the thought that there could have been men following him. He thought there were, but that might just be Orochimaru messing with his head. He just hoped he didn't make a huge mistake coming to the man for help.