Now as much as I love love love Itachi to the point of no return, I have to make someone go against Sasuke in this AE and Itachi just seems like the prime candidate (I would add Orochimaru, but I don't wanna introduce any more new characters). So yes, Itachi will seem just a touch evil, and he will get a tad hurt sometime in this chapter, but please, just know that I really do love him. I love him a lot.
Chapter 33: Suspicion
The Next Day
Naruto yawned, swung his legs over his bed, forgot that his bed was a bit longer than the servant's bed back at Neji's quarters, scooted over, made another undignified attempt to swing his legs over the bed once more, miscalculated, and promptly fell off the bed like a sack of wet cement. Rubbing his eyes and muttering a stream of rather colorful vocabulary, the blond rumpled up his hair and stumbled blindly to the bathroom, cracking his nose a good one as he ran into the closed bathroom door. Cursing again and rubbing his sore appendage, he proceeded with his daily activities, mind still filled with thoughts of last night. He vaguely wondered what state Sasuke would be in; whether he'd strap on his mask and pretend everything would be all right, or whether he'd emerge looking like a total mess.
Fully dressed and awakened, the sprightly blond tripped downstairs to the breakfast room. Kabuto turned at the sound of Naruto's entrance, bid the blond a good-natured "ohayo", then turned back to preparing the morning meal, fully aware of the twin set of holes being seared into his head courtesy of Naruto's piercing blue eyes. Naruto stared once more for good measure, mentally trying to worm Sasuke's secrets from his butler's mind, but Kabuto unconsciously proved unwilling. With a sigh, Naruto collapsed into the nearest chair and fidgeted quietly, waiting for Sasuke to make his entrance.
A snap was heard, and a long, lean form emerged from the door. Naruto looked up in hopes to find Sasuke, but to his dismay, it was Itachi who entered and not his brother. The blond started in surprise as the older Uchiha gave him a long, hard stare, midnight bangs falling over his wine-hued eyes, but simply brushed it off and stared fixedly at the table, suddenly finding great interest in the silk tablecloth that was draped so finely over the mahogany piece of furniture. A few moments of silence passed, Naruto fidgeting even more and Itachi simply staring into space.
Another snap was heard, and the object of Naruto's worries finally entered the room. Contrary to Naruto's prediction, Sasuke was looking more normal than ever, eyes misted over with perpetual nonchalance, mouth set in a firm, disinterested line. Naruto could've sworn something hostile flashed over the Uchiha's obsidian orbs as he surveyed his brother, but passed if off as sibling rivalry and yet again returned to quiet fidgeting as Sasuke elegantly lowered himself into a nearby seat, eyes downcast. Kabuto skated across the marble floors, bringing the breakfast, and the meal was begun.
Breakfast was almost too formal. Everyone was silent, everyone was overly respectful, and Naruto couldn't have cut the tension in the air with a machete even if he wanted to. Still keeping his eyes rigidly fixed on the tablecloth, the blond picked at his food, fully aware that every single clink of fork and knife suddenly seemed magnified to several times its volume. Even Kabuto looked faintly uncomfortable, though the gray-haired butler masked it well.
It was then that Naruto had a strong suspicion that a pair of Uchiha eyes were emblazoning two neat, round holes in the middle of his forehead. He looked up, straight into bloodred eyes staring directly across from him. Itachi had a rather disturbing glint in his eyes, staring fixedly at Naruto's iridescent blue ones and holding them tight. Naruto gulped. Itachi had a mesmerizing quality to his eyes, so much that Naruto couldn't have pulled his gaze away even if he wanted to. Itachi's eyes seemed to beckon, to call, to seduce….
The blond shook his head, snapping his mind from its trance, quickly returning his glance down to his plate. Quietly excusing himself, he quickly disposed of his plate in the kitchen and retired to the drawing room, losing himself in a great, voluminous armchair, brows creased and eyes darkened in thought. Many a moment he sat in thought until he heard another snap as Sasuke entered the room.
Naruto rose to greet him, kissing the Uchiha lightly on the lips before staring wonderingly into his eyes. Sasuke merely lifted an elegant eyebrow to the piercing gaze, laid his lips against Naruto's forehead in reassurance, and enfolded the blond in his welcoming arms. Naruto sighed and snuggled into Sasuke's chest, resting his chin in the crook of the Uchiha's shoulder. He looked out over Sasuke's shoulder into the hallway, and his eyes lit on Itachi's figure standing a good distance away. Itachi once again had that disturbing glint in his wine-hued orbs, though now it was laced with a bit of what Naruto seriously didn't want to identify as lust. Quickly retracting his head from over Sasuke's shoulder, he mashed his face into the Uchiha's chest, thankful for the dark, indigo-blue fabric that obstructed his view of Itachi's eyes.
Sasuke smiled, albeit a little confusedly. Naruto wasn't acting normally. The blond fidgeted in his arms, giving off the intense aura of fright and nervousness. That was odd. Naruto had no reason to fear him. Unless….keeping his body absolutely still, Sasuke rotated his head and whipped his neck around at an extremely painful angle to glance behind him. Sure enough, a wisp of silky midnight hair darted casually around a nearby corner, but Itachi's shadow still lingered on the ground just out of sight. The Uchiha clenched his teeth. If Itachi had done anything to harm his Naruto….
Naruto wrapped his arms around Sasuke's thin waist, nuzzling the Uchiha's alabaster neck in reassurance. Deciding not to think about it and risk worrying his beloved, Sasuke kissed the blond a good one on the lips, then sent him off to the gardens, seeing him off before whirling around to have a word with his brother. Itachi, whatever he had done, had absolutely no right to harm Naruto whatsoever, and Sasuke would make sure he'd do everything in his power to stop his older brother from defiling what was his.
Itachi looked up as the door to his study opened none too gently. Sasuke whirled in, eyes dark and stormy as a full-blown typhoon. Slamming the door, the younger Uchiha stalked over to his brother, reached out, and roughly grabbed two fistfuls of Itachi's collar, slamming his forehead against his older brother's with the force of a wrecking ball. Itachi had to admit, it hurt like a mother, but nevertheless brushed off the childish display of violence and settled for a silky, saccharine smile, further vexing his little brother. Sasuke let out a growl that didn't sound remotely human, his eyes momentarily flashing red. Every word he spat was laced with ice, steel, and foreshadows of death.
"What. Have. You. Done. To. Naruto?" Itachi let the smile already pasted on his face widen a little more, cocking his head to the side.
"Why Otoutou, whatever do you mean?" Sasuke leaned in close, eyes positively blazing a dark, bloodred color.
"You fucking bastard, you know very well what I mean. He's not acting normally."
Itachi let out a lilting, silvery laugh that radiated pure evil and gently extracted himself from Sasuke's iron grip, meandering almost lazily to the nearest chintz armchair and unfolding his elegant form into the piece of furniture, casually crossing one impossibly long leg over the other. He surveyed the rigid, stiff form of his little brother through endlessly long lashes.
"If that isn't just like you, blaming me for everything that goes wrong in your life. I can see why Father disapproved of you." He laughed again at the look of pure belligerence that crossed his little brother's features.
"The only reason why I blame you for everything that went wrong in my life, is because it was your fault they went wrong, and well you know it." Itachi let a devastating grin cross his stone-cut countenance.
"Always so cynical, little brother?"
Sasuke exhaled in a harsh expulsion of breath, then turned abruptly and stalked arrogantly towards the door. Itachi sighed, shook his head hopelessly, leaned back, and drew one hand behind his back. Graceful fingers twitched ever so slightly, and suddenly what little color drained out of Sasuke's face and he collapsed on the floor, twitching and convulsing terribly while a horrible, guttural scream emitted from the very depths of his throat. Itachi let him spasm a while longer before his flicked his fingers again, and suddenly everything was back to normal save for Sasuke's harsh, ragged breathing. The younger Uchiha glanced murderously at his older brother, naked loathing displayed in his stone-cut eyes.
"This isn't over. Not by a long shot."
A slam was heard, and Itachi winced delicately, a mildly amused smile gracing his features. His little brother could provide entertainment of such high quality sometimes. Still….his thoughts turned towards Sasuke's new lover. The blond one wasn't so bad after all. In fact, he was intriguing. Very intriguing, that little waif was, and he stimulated Itachi to no end. The saccharine smile that had earlier smeared itself on Itachi's face widened until the Uchiha positively looked like a classic Cheshire cat. Well. He'd have to toy with Sasuke's new possession for awhile. After all, he was quite a lovely possession, with a long, lean body perfectly sculpted to beautiful proportions. This would relieve him of his boredom for a few choice days, that it would.
Naruto looked up to find Sasuke leaning by the willow tree, onyx eyes staring intensely down into his cornflower ones. Smiling, the blond tripped up and flicked his tongue across the Uchiha's bottom lip, his grin widening when Sasuke nipped gently at his mouth in return. Giggling softly, he buried his nose once more into the Uchiha's dark blue shirt, inhaling Sasuke's unique scent, the scent of musk and pine and forest.
Sasuke readily accepted Naruto's embrace, though he sensed something was terribly wrong with his blond-haired lover. Naruto was normally open and cheerful, though when he first approached him under the willow tree, the very moment Naruto spun around and caught his eyes with his, Sasuke could sense a momentary flicker of what he dreaded was fear, though it was gone the very next instant. And now….Naruto seemed tense, almost clinging to Sasuke as if he would escape his fears by clinging to the Uchiha. Elegant brows came together in deep concentration. He was sure it had something to do with Itachi. He was absolutely positive that it had something to do with Itachi, and he'd do anything in his power to stop whatever schemes his brother was plotting.
That Night
Sleep once more eluded Naruto's mind as the blond tossed and turned chaotically in his bed. Sasuke's screams were becoming more frequent, almost occurring every night now. It wasn't the screams that disturbed him; no, it was the dreaded feeling that someone was somehow watching him from inside his room. He had a cold, sinister feeling in his stomach, not unlike the cold sinister feeling he'd felt a long time ago when the villagers used to point, stare, and curse at him. This cold, sinister feeling had materialized into a monster that gnawed at his heart, and if this continued any longer, he had a vague feeling that he'd surely go insane.
Sighing in frustration, Naruto slipped out of the covers and got out of bed, padding softly over to the mirror at the end of the hallway. He checked himself briefly in the mirror, gently fingering the dark circles under his eyes. Ever since that night of Sasuke's screams, he'd become a veritable insomniac, tossing and turning over and over, always having that cold, sinister feeling of being watched.
It suddenly occurred to him that there were a lot of mirrors in his room. He had one huge one in the bathroom, this gold-framed gilded mirror he was currently looking in, and two next to the door, small-framed mirrors, but mirrors none the less. Cobalt eyes narrowed in suspicion as Naruto slowly lowered a fingernail to the surface of the mirror. Suddenly his worst fears were confirmed. Where there should've been a gap between the reflection of his nail and his real nail, there was none. The mirror was a two-way mirror, and he had a high suspicion that all the others were as well.
He tried to unhinge the mirror from its hangings, but finding he could not, shook his head and drew back his fist. He struck with all the ferocity of a caged viper, his fist easily shattering the mirror like a mace through a dry sponge. The mirror promptly shattered, transparent glass tinkling almost merrily to the floor, revealing a complex-looking device where the mirror once stood whole. Naruto scowled, then stomped angrily through the rest of the rooms, shattering mirror after mirror and impaling them on a crowbar he happened to discover under his bed. That being done, he poked out his chin in sheer defiance and huffily returned to his bed, for once during his stay at Sasuke's, feeling remotely safe.
Itachi drew back in displeasure as one by one his screens showed static. Curse it. Curse the blond brat and his skills of detecting means of unseen stealth. He stood and paced agitatedly around the floor of the room, a scowl gracing his countenance. He had to admit, it had been such fun to watch the blond brat go about his business (he was a little disappointed when the view of the shower had been obstructed by the curtain), but now that the child had ruined his fun…..oh well. He would find another way, of that, he was certain.
Over the next week or so, Naruto would become increasingly paranoid, looking warily around corners before walking. He'd twitch at the slightest sound, eyes wide and fearful, and he'd cling to Sasuke even more desperately than before. The Uchiha observed all this with a sense of desperation, his anger at his brother (the primary suspect of Naruto's abnormal behavior) and his worry for Naruto growing in leaps and bounds. Still, though he would've given the world to stop whatever nefarious scheme Itachi was plotting, he couldn't due to the restrictions placed on him courtesy of his brother. So he could only watch as Naruto grew more and more obsessed with fear, providing what comfort he could when the blond came running to him.
That Evening
Naruto sighed and let himself into Sasuke's study, hauling a large, thick book from a nearby shelf and unfolding into a squashy chintz couch, smiling as he read. Long periods of time passed by as he completely lost himself in his book. So lost was he in his thick tome that he didn't notice the silent turning of the doorknob, moving ever so slightly in its socket. The door opened noiselessly, just enough to let in a lean, lanky form. Itachi quietly closed the door, creeping silently to Naruto's side.
A shadow fell over Naruto's book and instantly he recoiled, strung higher than a loaded spring. Cerulean eyes widened in shock and fear as they met with crimson-hued orbs, and widened even more when Itachi casually sat down beside him. Neither broke their stare until Naruto snapped his head down, curling himself into a ball and mashing himself into the opposite corner of the couch as far as he could go. Itachi advanced, and placed two slender arms on either side of Naruto's body, completely cutting off his escape route. The blond whimpered and shook like a wind-tossed leaf.
"What….what do you want with me?" Itachi let a somewhat sadistic smile slide slowly over his countenance.
"Just a few little things, my dear Naruto-kun."
Impossibly long fingers found the buttons of Naruto's shirt and began to open them, slowly, one by one. Naruto sat petrified with fear, too scared to move as Itachi slowly disposed of his shirt and pants, removing his own so that both were completely naked on the couch. The sheer realization of what was being done to him suddenly registered in his mind, and Naruto thrashed wildly to no avail. Itachi kept a firm grip on each of his wrists, straddling the blond, slightly hissing in irritation.
"Goddamn brat, stay still." Naruto's only response was to struggle weakly under Itachi's iron-clad grip. The older Uchiha bent and lowered his lips to Naruto's ear, whispering in a soft, seductive whisper.
"Now, we can do one of two things: you can struggle all you want until I'm done, which will make it hurt a thousand times worse, or you can stay still like a good little boy and enjoy what I'm so graciously giving you. I give you three seconds to choose."
Naruto struggled once more, then lay still, a hopeless look crossing his features. Itachi smiled, then lowered his shaft to Naruto's entrance with a maddening slowness. At the very last moment, Naruto whipped his head around, a completely determined look in his eyes, twisted his hips, and jammed his knee neatly into the exposed part of Itachi's anatomy.
Once the Uchiha had made a fully disgusting and thoroughly humiliating spectacle of himself by letting out a high-pitched shriek and collapsing on the floor, Naruto had already gotten dressed and was now standing over Itachi in smug triumph. Itachi scowled up at him, pure spite in his eyes as he resisted the urge to cradle the portion of his anatomy that Naruto had almost destroyed. He twitched and roiled on the floor, body doubled over on itself as another fresh wave of pain rose and collided at the crown of his head with all the force of an elephant stampede. His agony was coupled with humiliation when Naruto smirked insolently down at him, feet on either side of his hips.
"Don't play if you don't know what you're up against."
With another swift kick to the groin (Itachi howled and quivered on the rug in a pitiful, groveling mess of frayed nerves), Naruto smirked again and departed.