Hello my pets! A wee bit damp this morning but we all get over it lol. Enjoy the chapter keep the reviews coming! It feeds my SOUL! XDD
Kyo~
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto! I swears! ):
Chapter six: We all fall down.
Why is his third in command sulking? It was a strange day when he walked into the Hyuuga's office to ask for the mission reports on squad four, and found one Neji Hyuuga sitting at his desk looking like his dog had been killed by his best friend and then his best friend had died of rabies and then his parents had told him both his dog and friend were never real. ( O.o what? Itachi has issues.)
He had never seen the Hyuuga look so... tragic before. What had happened now?
" Should I come back later?" Itachi asked leaning his black clad hip against the doorway of the Hyuuga's, just big enough, office. Just big enough for the mountain of paperwork and desk that is.
The Hyuuga looked up surprised, obviously not paying attention to anything in the real world, caught up in his own thoughts. He hadn't even felt Itachi walk up the hall, let alone stand staring at him for five minutes? It must be a woman, and in which he meant, it must be Sakura. Considering they were in a relationship.
" No, what do you need Captain?" Neji asked straightening his spine. Was that a wince he saw? Itachi sighed mentally. When had he become someone who cared to talk let alone be consoling? Yet he had to ask, because Neji was his third and he needed him in top shape, and Sakura interested him. So yes, he was forced to ask.
" What happened?" Itachi asked walking into the clustered room of mountain-ed paperwork and a small desk that the Hyuuga barely could get around let alone sit at. Neji looked surprised for a moment then he sighed and looked out over the mountains of paper as if looking at scenery. Well Itachi supposed his Sensei had been Might Gai. Of course Neji would pick up some of his sensei's dramatics.
" Is it about Sakura then?" Itachi asked sighing himself.
Neji flinched. In which Itachi took that as a: 'Yes my Superior Uchiha Captain-sama it is about Sakura Haruno let me do the rest of your paperwork and let you get on with you damn life.'
" She left you I take it?" Itachi asked. Neji flinched all over again and turned his eyes back to his captain looking as he had just stepped in something bad. Itachi frowned. Wow he didn't think he was right, why did Sakura do something like that?
" I don't know why she did it, but she did. She ended it." Neji said obviously seeing Itachi's confusion. Itachi must be tired enough to show any emotion at all. He had been doing paperwork none stop for most of the day. He wished he had been doing anything else, he had hoped to find out who else her lovers are. It would be curious to see if she acted different with them. He hated to do this but he was curious and he figured why not ask. Maybe not the best time when Neji had just been ditched by the woman but he was curious and tired enough not to show any pity. Besides the Hyuuga should have known better then to fall in love with Sakura.
" You were her only lover then?" He asked. Neji's silver eyes opened - when had he closed them?- and stared at Itachi for a long moment. Neji looked to be calculating something, before he sighed again. He had been doing that often and it was as contagious as a yawn.
" No. I had it in mind that I wasn't her only lover. I had a feeling she was seeing someone else. Her bed sometimes smelt different, more musky like Ash." Itachi's eyes widened. He had never smelt that scent from her bed before. That meant two things to Itachi. One, that Sakura had not three male lovers but four, or at least had that many, and two, her fourth lover, or third however you wanted to look at it in this light, was none other then one of his clan. She had an Uchiha lover after all.
XxxXxxXxxX
Sakura's eye twitched when she opened her door at three in the morning after a particularly difficult hospital shift, and being woken several times for emergencies, and also the storm outside, to find Sasuke Uchiha dripping wet on her door step. She gazed down his soaked body from the top of his drenched hair laying flat against his neck and face, down his frosted lips almost blue, to his black clan shirt soaked down to the thread holding it together, over well muscled abs, down black nin pants that were not only soaked but muddy, and then down his legs to his feet. He wasn't even injured slightly.
" Alright...what do you want?" Sakura asked obviously figuring out he did not come to her because he was wounded. So obviously something had happened, he wouldn't be soaked and miserable looking on her door step at three am for no reason.
His black eyes were deep as they looked into her jade. She sighed. Of course it would have to do with his clan, or his father, so she stepped aside and allowed him to walk in trailing a mix of water and mud through her house as he walked up her steps, she shut the door with a sigh.
Damn that Uchiha clan, always getting on her last nerve. If it wasn't for Mikoto she would have hated them all, except of course Itachi and Shisui and the somewhat exception of Fugaku who still got on her last nerve most days.
She walked her steps ignoring the way her carpet was stained by the mud now as she would deal with it later, she finished up the steps and walked to her room. There had been more people in this room then any other place she owned. It was sad really. People just liked her bedroom it seemed. Sasuke, who had rarely ever came to her house, made himself at home in her shower. She pushed open the half opened bathroom door with her foot and walked in. She sat on her sink and faced the shower. It was a glass shower so she could see perfectly well that he was letting the water run down his back his head resting against the wall, hands as well. Eyes closed as warm water pelted him. She sighed.
" Do you want to talk about it or would you rather not?" She asked crossing her legs. Sasuke was difficult sometimes. Though much like Itachi so she could figure him out with some trying. She hadn't spent years as his teammate for nothing. She just had to tread carefully. He could act many different ways when he wanted to.
He stayed silent obviously not wanting to talk about it just yet. He stayed in position letting the mud wash away from his body, but he wasn't going to get clean just standing there.
" If you stand there your never going to get clean and the waters going to go cold." She said standing knowing he wouldn't care. She opened the shower door and reached around him to pull her shampoo into hand and she didn't mind that the water was getting on her floor or her with the shower door opened. She could change out of the shirt she had tossed on after her own shower anyway.
She lathered a good amount of soap in hand and then went to his hair. He made a sound, but didn't open his eyes. She washed his hair and soap ran down his face in little bubbles as the water rinsed it out. She applied the conditioner and then shut the shower door to grab a wash cloth and lathered it with soap.
" Sasuke don't make me wash you, you know I will." He didn't move just sighed softly letting the things she had applied to his hair rinse out as he kept his eyes closed and kept his position slightly relaxed and tensed at the same time. She sighed.
" Don't blame me if you start getting an erection then." He stiffened at the words and the cloth on his arms. He then started to relax he even opened his eyes to watch her with Sharingan activated as she washed his arm. His muscles flexed under the cloth and her washing. She ignored it.
He didn't move only watched, didn't speak at all just stared at her with those familiar scarlet eyes.
She had gotten him washed from head to chest before she went to her knees to reach the rest of him, her shirt was more then just damp from the water, that was turning cold now, and the cloth was starting to stick to her skin, but he was slowly relaxing, easing all that tension away from his body.
He had never relaxed at her touch, but it seemed he was growing comfortable with it not to tense up, maybe he even enjoyed it. She was his teammate and friend after all. He talked to her when he needed to and they laughed together as a family. As friends. As Teammates. He trusted her. Which was not something he could say he did for most, if any, people short of her, some of his family, Kakashi, and Naruto.
He had closed his eyes again. She didn't see Sasuke with his Sharingan on very often. Itachi rather keep it on, but Sasuke didn't very often like to keep it active.
She kept the cloth she was washing him with, and her hand, firm yet gentle as she ran the cloth up his legs one by one around his hips and over his abs. She washed his back and his rear soothing the cloth over him. She waited when he didn't tense or move she huffed at him. She wasn't one to feel up her teammates or sexually harass them for that matter, but he wasn't leaving her much choice. She supposed she could just say he was clean enough with out pushing it too far like she was about to. But his silence and his unmoving state was getting on her nerves and one way surely to get someone to take action was to sexually harass them so with out warning she took the cloth to his crotch.
He stiffened, in more ways the one, under the cloth and her hand, but he didn't make a sound or even open his eyes. She made a sound low in her throat in annoyance, now he was just trying to make her angry.
" Sasuke." She said with real threat. He opened Sharingan eyes. His heart had at least picked up under that slight rubbing cleansing and he had started to react, at least his body, but his eyes were just as dark, regardless of the Sharingan. She sighed.
" Come on Sasuke." She stood and allowed him to stand there while she dropped the cloth in the hamper and grabbed a towel. She returned and shut off the water she wrapped the towel around him and pulled his arm, he let himself be pulled away and followed her back to her bedroom. She pushed him onto the bed and he sat, still wet as she knelt with her wet clothes on she knelt in front of him on the balls of her feet and placed her hands on his thighs.
" Now. Spit it out." She said through with this silence. She was starting to worry. What had happened with his clan that had affected him to this level? Something they asked of him? Were they making him do something? At a young age they had tried to get him to quit team seven and train with more advanced teams but her and Naruto, along with Kakashi, had argued that and not let him leave their team.
Sakura didn't like when the clan forced Itachi or Sasuke into things like that, and she certainly wouldn't hesitate to kick anyone of that clans ass if she needed to. She was well trained against Uchiha. She could hold her own. She hadn't trained with the best for nothing after all and she didn't just have an two Uchiha teammates old and new, or a sensei with the Sharingan, for nothing, she also was the clan medic and she knew everything there was to know about the Sharingan and the Kekkei genkai. She could easily disable the Kekkei genkai with out much hassle just with a simple input of her own chakra into the eyes and brain. The Uchiha clan would do well not to test her anger.
He sighed. But instead of speaking he pushed himself forward and pressed his mouth to her slightly parted – in surprise- lips. He had never kissed her before, not even that time he had too much Sake and was hitting on the lamp. ( O.o really?)
His mouth was warm. Warmer then she would have thought. He tasted fresh like the rain and almost like fresh tomatoes. His mouth knew how to mend perfectly against hers and she wondered where he had learned to kiss. He certainly had never been taught by an girl she had ever met, and she knew a lot of people. Perhaps he and Naruto got together one night to er...practice? She blushed at the thought entirely inappropriate as it was, more so in this moment.
His tongue darted out to lick her lips and she sighed. He wasn't going to talk about his problems, and it wasn't the first time someone had tried to distract her like this, or at least used her to vent their troubles. It however, was the first time Sasuke and a teammate had done it. She was startled to say the least, she wasn't sure if it was startled in a good way or a bad way. Maybe just in a slightly curious way.
Sasuke had rejected her when they were younger and so she had backed off, she had gotten stronger to try to win his approval, but not just because he had rejected her, but because he had been right. She was weak. Over the years she had treated him as a friend, a close friend like Naruto, and a teammate, and family. Never had she touched him more then she had to, and never had she crossed any line with him like she had all in the hour he had been here.
She wasn't sure why it startled her for him to kiss her. Maybe because he had made it clear that he didn't find her attractive, that he didn't love her, and he didn't want her, or maybe because she had so clearly only seen him as a friend and brother for so long that suddenly having something like this jump into their relationship she was a bit thrown from the loop.
He broke away from her mouth. His chest heaving and hers rising like his to catch breath. He didn't kiss her again he simply let himself fall backward on her bed arms out and eyes closed. She licked her lips savoring the fresh taste. She wouldn't get another taste she knew. It would be inappropriate for her to even think about that kiss as anything other then to distract her. Sakura knew her place, she had been put in it enough times, reminded it enough, to know where it was.
She stood and ignored him, as he wanted. She walked to her closet and pulled another skirt out, and shorts this time. He wouldn't dress, because he hadn't even washed himself properly, and she wasn't fussing with him just to dress him, so she would simply put shorts on. It would be indecent to sleep in next to him with nothing but a shirt on so she pulled on a pair of her black shorts that were hidden under the large cotton shirt. She shut the light out and crawled to the top of her bed she used one arm and chakra to pull him into place at the top of the bed and his towel didn't last the trip but she grabbed it and dried his hair, before she flung it across the room to the hamper, she didn't miss but it didn't quite go in. Finally she flung her black blanket over his nude, and probably cold, body and curled under the blanket herself.
" There's Sake in the cabinet located in the pantry." She said to Sasuke and then ignored him and closed her eyes.
XxxXxxXxxXxxX
Itachi frowned. He peered into her window. There was a conveniently located tree next to her window after all. Her window was conveniently not closed, and the curtains conveniently not blocking his view of the bed. So he could clearly see Sakura curled in the black blankets of her bed. Her eyes closed as she lay on her back sleeping. She at least wore a shirt to bed, but he wondered if she usually did when she had a lover over.
The male in bed with her was sitting up in bed, back against the headboard one hand in her hair, the other holding a glass of what didn't look like water, to his lips. Sake no doubt. His face was flushed, and there was a bottle of Sake on the bedside table at his side, half empty. His leg was bent but didn't hide the fact that he was naked and sitting on top of the blanket for all to see his nudity.
Itachi had found out she had an Uchiha lover, but he had not thought it was his little brother. He sat puzzled. He was almost positive that his little brother was not her lover, he would have known that. Sasuke wasn't hard to read when he was concerned, and so he knew his brother, knew that if he was having sex with anyone, let alone Sakura, he would know about it, or at least find some clues. Besides Sakura went out of her way not to touch his brother at all, unless necessary, so he highly doubted that what he was seeing was what it looked like.
Besides Sakura was dressed after all. If they had just been intimate she wouldn't be dressed. So instead of wondering who her Uchiha lover could be now, he wondered why Sasuke was upset enough to go to Sakura, ending up naked and drunk in her bed. Where were his clothes anyway?
Itachi was concerned now. He was always worried about Sasuke in some way or another, but this was different. Now he was concerned because something had obviously happened, and the only reason Sasuke would get upset enough to go to his female teammate and not his male one was because of the clan.
Instead of going into her house, her bed room, and confronting his little brother about the matter he turned and left. Sakura would take care of him, and he would find out what had upset him to begin with.
XxxXXxXxxXxxX
Sakura woke to knocking, and then footsteps. She sighed. Why did people always just walk into her house. She didn't have the heart to set traps for them to get hurt with, but yet she was slowly thinking it might be worth doing just to maybe get them to understand her frustrations.
She was tired. She had been thinking for a long time last night about what it could be the clan had done to upset Sasuke, then how to deal with it, and then why the heck he felt the need to distract her with a kiss of all things. He couldn't have just ignored her like he always did when he didn't want to talk? But no with a kiss, he decided to mess with her.
She closed her eyes after opening them a crack. Too bright. Why had she kept the curtains open? Dang it. She felt breathing along her neck, which wasn't something she bothered with. She was use to waking up with someone breathing on her and holding her tight against a warm chest, bare chest at that, but it wasn't strange to wake up to. What was strange was waking up to Sasuke's familiar scent. It wasn't strange outside of the village on missions.
She knew Sasuke liked to cuddle to things, her on missions, and whatever else when not. But she had never had him sleep with her inside the village, thus it was slightly disorienting to say the least, though slightly comforting. Sasuke was one person she didn't have to lie to. One person whom she was laying here with and had no alternative motive for. It was strange. Very strange.
She knew he found her Sake with just the scent of his breath, that and the fact that she knew he would.
She had all but forgotten the sound of footsteps or her intruder until the last second and she noticed who it was. She was slow this morning. Her heart leap out of her chest and she panicked. Sonofabitch what the hell was she doing here?
" Oh my god!" She hissed and did the only thing time would allow her to do she shoved Sasuke off her and tossed the covers over him. He was too drunk, obviously he drank the rest of her Sake, and was unconscious enough to not even wake at her rough treatment. She had barely covered him in time before a hesitant knock and then Mikoto Uchiha walked in.
" Mikoto-san whats wrong?" Sakura asked sitting up in bed. The woman rarely left the Uchiha district and even rarer then that came to see her in her house, and never had she let herself in. Obviously she was worried. Plus she looked upset. She didn't even bother to hide her worry to Sakura.
" Sakura I'm afraid Fugaku upset Sasuke last night, and I haven't seen him for so long. The Hokage hasn't sent him on a mission, and his brother is gone and even Naruto doesn't know where he is...I'm worried that he's gone and left the village..." She paused and her eyes suddenly went to the bulge at Sakura's side. Her eyed went wide then filled with hope.
" Sakura is that Sasuke?" She asked instead of whatever she was going to say to finish her sentence and worry. Her eyes were lit with hope that her son was safe but how the heck would she explain Sasuke sleeping with her naked of all things and drunk off his ass? She couldn't and knowing Fugaku if he found out she would be roped into the Uchiha clan through this and forced to marry Sasuke. She would risk it all in hopes Mikoto would not mention this.
Sakura was looking at the woman in hopes that she understood what she was risking to tell her if it was her son or not. Mikoto looked as if she did understand but Sakura couldn't be sure if she would keep it to herself or not. Mikoto after all wanted Sakura in their clan as much as the rest of the clan did.
" Yes." Sakura said on a sigh. Mikoto let out her own sigh almost falling in her relief.
" Is he alright?" She asked looking around the room, for whatever reason and seeing the empty Sake bottle. She tensed but didn't say anything about it.
" Upset." Sakura said softly. Mikoto looked sad at that but nodded.
" May I ask why he came to me at three am? What is this about Mikoto-san?" Sakura asked knowing she was pushing it asking about clan matters. Mikoto may or may not tell her. Mikoto sighed and walked into the room fully before sinking gracefully into Sakura's over stuffed reading chair beside her scroll buried shelf.
She looked tired, which aged her quite a bit, but Mikoto had always been beautiful. Sakura could see beauty and she knew that even aging as she was, Mikoto still would always look beautiful.
" Fugaku is getting impatient with Itachi, and the clan is getting impatient with my husband." Sakura narrowed her eyes as she rolled into a more comfortable sitting position facing the woman. She covered Sasuke more. No need to let Mikoto know Sasuke was naked, and certainly no need to scare the woman to death by flashing her sons nudity at her.
" Itachi, as you know, refused to get married to someone chosen for him. Frankly Itachi has never shown interest in women, even curiosity like he has in everything else. I'm sure he knows about those things, but as far as I know he has never indulged in them like his cousin so likes to." Mikoto said sighing. Obviously she meant Shisui and his enjoyment of women.
" Itachi has never been interested in any one, and he tolerates people. Fugaku knows the clan can not force Itachi to marry, and they also know it maybe a lost cause to even try to wait for him to find someone to marry if he ever does." Mikoto sighed running a hand over her face. She looked so tired. Sakura could tell she was not only concerned, and frustrated, but also stressed out no doubt from the clan politics.
" Fugaku has the clan elders breathing down his neck for Itachi to take his place as heir and head of the clan, but Itachi can not become head until he has his first child, or Fugaku were to, kami forbid, die." Sakura nodded, Itachi had told her such a while ago.
" With that and the uncertainly that Itachi will ever marry or have children, the clan has now turned to Sasuke." Mikoto's eyes shifted to the breathing lump under the blanket next to Sakura, as is feeling his mothers gaze he shifted under the blanket and obviously was confused as to either, why he couldn't see under the blanket, or where she was, because he shifted around before he found her hip and curled himself around her settling his head on her lap and arms around her waist and thighs.
" He has always been like that." Sakura looked up to Mikoto who smiled softly at her.
" Sasuke has always craved touch, though you wouldn't think it. He was never allowed it, his father was forced to push him away to protect him from the clans advances like they had with Itachi. Sasuke though seeks that comfort in his sleep I know. It's funny how two siblings can be so different. Itachi has always preferred to do things alone and never did he seek comfort or touch." Mikoto smiled to herself thinking on her sons.
" Are you saying they want Sasuke as clan head, or simply that they want him to be married to give an example to Itachi?" Sakura asked curiously. Mikoto smiled at her as if pleased that she was so clever to ask, or maybe just smiled because she could. Mikoto was a sweet woman but Sakura knew with out a doubt she was more then she appeared. Itachi had to get his cunning from someone, and the clan wouldn't have given her to the head of the clan with out some strengths of her own to contribute to the clan. Mikoto was a hidden wonder and no doubt very powerful.
" The clan wants Fugaku to either give Sasuke the headship, or force Itachi to marry. So Fugaku with no other choice has tried his best and given no choice decided that if he couldn't force Itachi and didn't want that pressure of the clan on Sasuke would through the clan off a little and set up a marriage for Sasuke." Sakura frowned.
" For what purpose? To get Itachi to respond to it? If Fugaku-san does not want Sasuke to be clan head, what will having him married off do except push the clan toward him further?" Mikoto nodded as if she had explained the same thing to her husband.
" Exactly, my husband shamed to say it as he is, panicked. He was pushed into a corner and decided to do this before he even told me. Sasuke, my baby, reacted like he would have been known to leaving in a rage. Of course with his apparent dislike of women it should come to no surprise." Sakura sighed.
" An arranged marriage?" She asked. Mikoto nodded.
" Fugaku won't go back on his word, he was slightly shocked that Sasuke would refuse a command from him like that, but he can't go back on what he said. I'll try my best to get him out of it, but Sasuke will have to do most of it on his own." Mikoto sighed again.
" He'll be angry for a few days. I trust you'll let him bother you for a few nights Sakura-chan?" Sakura nodded. Mikoto smiled. She then frowned.
" I know you know this Sakura, but the clan has their eye on you as well. It won't be long before they are done being side tracked by this arranged marriage and start to bother you about coming into the clan. If they have their way Itachi and you will be married with in the year, but I'll do my best to stop that from happening, but be it Itachi, Sasuke, or heaven forbid Shisui, Sakura you will become an Uchiha by marriage one way or another." Some people would be threatened by those words, some would be honored, and some would be afraid. Others, like Sakura, would simply nod. She knew it after all. She knew from the moment she had fallen in love with Sasuke all those years ago that she would become and Uchiha one way or another.
Fate had it's sights set after all on that outcome.
Mikoto stood and smiled at her and then sent a gentle smile to Sasuke. She walked to the door and then paused with out turning around she spoke.
" I hope you know I won't allow you to tease my sons. You'll have to pick one. Sasuke is fragile, and Itachi is difficult, but they both love you in their own ways. I hope you care enough about them to not play between the two." Sakura ran her hand through Sasuke's hair.
" Don't take me for a fool Mikoto-san, I know very well what I can and can not do. Or rather what I shouldn't do." Sakura said. Mikoto looked back at Sakura with a cunning in her eyes, then left.
XxxxXxxXxxxXxxX
Chapter end:
Did you see SasuXSaku? Yes you did! You did see SasuXSaku! XDDD
A summary of the entire chapter XDDD
Neji has a broken heart! (1)
Sakura gets whiplash! (2)
Sasuke gets drunk!(3)
Itachi is more puzzled! (5)
Mikoto puts her foot down! (6) :D lol
Any questions? Comments? Complaints? 'WTF's? If so review! In not review anyway! ( -Sadly people ask if I copy paste this sentence from the other chapters to save time, no...no I don't! So read it because I was forced to type it out! You would think I'm smarter then a fifth grader and would copy paste from other chapters to save myself having to write the entire sentence out, but no...no I'm not smarter then a fifth grader. In my defense... they're bloody smart!)
Kyo~