Thanks everyone for everything so far! Have another chapter.
Thanks to my beta, NobleSp- oh, what's that? You changed your name? Okay, thanks to my beta Kizoku Seishin for shooting this back at me so quick again, also! And for throwing me the corrections well after he should have been in bed! You're wonderful.
Burning Leaves - 9
The TV rather noisily declared that the game had ended, and in the same second, an Xbox controller found itself halfway across the room, struggling not to crack at the seems. "That's bullshit, man. Quit pulling cheap shit while I'm distracted!" Suigetsu snarled, smacking Juugo in the arm before leaning back against the couch with a huff. The larger man grinned at him, handing him his controller before wandering over to pick up the abused one. "Oh no you don't, man. I have no idea what you've done to this controller, but you can't be handing it to me for any good reason. Gimme back mine!" he snorted, snatching it from Juugo's hands before he had a chance to sit down.
Juugo simply shrugged and took back his own controller, waiting as Suigetsu took full advantage of his status as first player to pick every aspect of the next round, right down to not even bothering to ask what map he wanted to use. Not that it really mattered anyway; his ass was grass regardless, despite his claims that the opposite was true.
"Life ain't fair, y'know that man?" The blond began his ranting again as the game commenced. "You're expecting me to play well while my best bud's in there, screwing that hot bitch silly. Seriously. He has no shame, I tell ya Juugo. He's more than content to make her squeal all night long, just to taunt us. I can barely stand it!" His elbow slammed the couch as he died again, only for his rant to continue as soon as he respawned.
"Seriously. That man gets fucking anything he wants, and he doesn't even know how good he's got it. He doesn't even take advantage of any of it! It's as though none of this shit even exists!"
A loud explosion signified another death, accompanied by his foot stomping the floor, momentarily flattening the carpet beneath him. "The nerve of that guy, seriously. The least he could do is act like he enjoys it all. He used to be so fucking happy, but just because his brother died, he had to go and get all serious on us. Now he doesn't party, or drink, or even play goddamned games with us anymore! He's gotta get over it sooner or later!"
"Player two wins," the game bellowed monotonously, and this time the controller separated itself from its battery pack upon impact with the floor.
"But no," he groaned, "he has to go screw that stupid fucking whore instead of hanging out with the cool kids..." he growled, barely audible over said woman's screams a room away.
"Me thinks thou doth protest too much," Juugo chuckled, retrieving the controller and sitting back down, a quiet smile on his face.
"Me thinks you talk weird, asshat," he snorted back, reaching over to crack open another can of Bud or Pepsi, whichever his hand happened to pull out of the cooler. "Seriously, don't you have anything useful to say, instead of just being all fancy and philosophical?"
"Like reminding you that we've all known each other for years, and it seems you're just jealous that he pays more attention to her, who provides several things to him, than you, who sits around and runs up his electric bill?"
"What did I just say about philosophical crap, dude? Seriously, knock it off."
Juugo chuckled, shaking his head and standing to wander back towards the back door, their conversation paused as another of Karin's scream echoed through the house. "Or maybe," he added, nodding towards the closed door, "you're jealous of him..."
"For having her? As if. The chicks I get are a million times better," he cackled, only to be met by a raised eyebrow before the sliding glass door shut behind Juugo. For a second he stared at the screen, then his controller, then out at his now-smoking friend, realizing suddenly that the erotic background noise had finally ceased. "Damn't, man, not fair to run away right when I return to full power!" he shouted, leaping to his feet and throwing back open the door.
-********-
'Damn't... Should I even bother with Tuesday's race still? The pot's only $2000... That's not good for much bet using for another bet, it won't even pay for my new engine. Is that thing even in yet? I need to call and check... Even if it's in, that damn cop's still going to be there, and I don't even know what he looks like, so I can't watch out for him. And even if I could... I still can't make it down the mountain... Damn't, I know it shouldn't bug me this much, it's been years, but I can never get in a good state of mind to race in October.'
"Ohhhh! Oh, Sasuke, yesss!!"
'I don't even know three of the guys that'll be there... Just Suigetsu and that guy with the Skyline, but I've yet to see him come in even second. Two grand isn't worth my whole afternoon, not after the Nox that race would take me. Maybe I'll just stay home... Throw Suigetsu a bone, tell him some shit about my transmission giving out. Maybe then he'll pay for something for a change.'
"Baby... Mnnn! Harder! Yeah, give it to me! Sasukeeeee!"
'Why does she have to be so loud? It's like she's purposefully advertising to the guys that we're in here screwing...' Sasuke's eyes traveled up his girlfriend, watching her breasts bounce as she bobbed up and down enthusiastically, before his thoughts consumed him again. 'No... Suigetsu wouldn't pay for anything but a pizza or two. The rest would just go to a weekend of partying. Then I'd be stuck awake at 3AM, listening to him instead, and then the girls would still be here at noon, and I'd have to chase them all out, and then there's the upholstery cleaning costs...'
His fingers sank slightly into her hips, pushing her harder, the added force causing him to gasp slightly and let his eyes shut. 'Not bad at all...' he groaned, wishing he could actually care about the situation long enough to actually enjoy the way Karin was riding him, but he was still just too frustrated. 'It's bad enough she interrupts me from working on my car when she knows I have a race this week, but then I had to listen to all her bitching about Suigetsu' – he cringed; his friend was not what he wanted to be thinking about when he was actually starting to enjoy sex – 'but on top of it, she has to be cryptic about what she's even angry about. It almost feels like she's hiding something.'
"Sasuke, Sasuke! Fuck.... Mnnn!"
He opened one eye and watched her for a moment again, his gaze focused on one piece of hair that was stuck to her lip gloss, one hand reaching up to pull it free. She took the motion as an invitation for a kiss, which he returned briefly, cutting it off when she squealed again a little too close to his ear.
'There's got to be an easier way to shut her up... I wouldn't have minded if she wanted to do this later, but she's just got no respect for my schedule.' He managed to not quite sigh, hands returning to her thighs as his thoughts found their track again.
'I guess I should stick with the race... I've got nothing to lose by going. It's not like I could lose to a bunch of cheap amateurs. And whatever they're doing that's got the police after them, that's there problem, not mine, so I'm just not going to worry about it. If they're in enough shit that someone's willing to blackmail the chief of police over it, that's their problem, not mine.'
"Yeaaaaah! Oh god, Sasuke, I'm gonna, I'm gonna-"
She let out a scream and collapsed on top of him, her breathing ragged, her damp hair scattered across his chest. Slowly she quieted, letting out a yawn as she quickly fell asleep, exhausted from her climax. Sasuke sighed, carefully rolled Karin off of his chest, and pulled a sheet over her, leaving a chaste kiss on her cheek before sitting up.
'Even if it was her idea, not mine... at least she's quiet now. All that screaming and babbling isn't even half as bad as her damn rants, but it's still too much after a while...' He shook his head and let out a quiet sigh, stroking her hair quietly. 'She looks so beautiful and peaceful now... so why does she have to be such a devil when she's awake? "Suigetsu's such an asshole!", "My customers are all assholes!", "My supervisor's am asshole!", "You're such an asshole for not picking me up today! If you cared, you wouldn't send that asshole Suigetsu to get me instead of doing it yourself, and-!" "And, and, and!"'
He groaned, rubbing his forehead and trying NOT to remember that part. Though, upon further thought, it was a valid question... 'Wait... where the hell's my cell phone?' He glared at the bedside table he normally left it on. 'Damn't... I must have left it in the kitchen again.'
Upon further thought, he realized he had indeed left the phone out in the open, and Suigetsu (the good samaritan that he was) had obviously taken it upon himself to be the redhead's chauffeur when she'd left work early. His only sign that he and Juugo had left before had been a call of, "Hey man, we're out of Bud again, be back in a bit!" accompanied by his front door threatening to fall off its hinges a moment later. 'We just bought two cases yesterday, though... Gods, he wasn't even trying to lie about it this time. He just wanted to go pick her up, probably just to annoy me. Or her. Or probably both of us.'
He stood up, seriously considering going out to have a word with his friend right then and there... But a glance down reminded him that he had moderately more important matters to attend to, like finishing what his girlfriend had started so he could get back to work. He cast a quick glance over his shoulder to be sure she was still sleeping soundly, managing a soft smile at her sleeping form, and took off for the master bathroom.
-********-
Tenten clicked another link and showed a long list of specs, only about half of which Shikamaru could really understand, but the other half he could at least guess at, so he simply nodded from his place over her shoulder and stood back up. "Yeah, that looks about right. So I can go buy that tomorrow morning, then? Or you doing it for me?" he nudged the girl with a smirk.
"You can do your own dirty work, I've had enough trouble for the week," she laughed, spinning her chair around to face him before leaning back. "I'll text you the address and some directions, but you and your little scooter get to make it there on your own."
"Yeah, yeah," he mock-sighed, stepping back to lean against the nearest workbench. "How quickly do you think you can get it spruced up once I get it in here?"
"Depends on what your definition of 'spruced up' is. Could be a couple hours, could be a few days, it just depends on how powerful you need the machine and how hard to find the parts are. The more you're willing to pay, the easier it'll be for me to get what you need."
He nodded, thinking hard about it for a moment, staring at his hands as he did the mental calculations. "This better be worth it," he muttered, licking his lips for want of a cigarette as the stress started to weigh on him. "Damn't, I wonder how long I can take before she gets angry again..."
"'She'?" Tenten interrupted, causing him to glance up and then rub his neck sheepishly as he realized he'd been thinking aloud. "Which 'she' are we talking about? The one from back-"
"Yeah, her. What other 'she' is there? All the other ones have lasted a week, tops, before they bored me half to death. They're all so frivolous..."
"So you're building this car just for her? Birthday present or something?"
He frowned, making eye contact again. "Sort of. More like an apology..."
Tenten couldn't help but chuckle, swaying her chair side to side as she got more interested in the situation. "That's a loud, expensive apology."
"You don't know the half of it..." He shook his head, looking around for something to change the subject to. "...So I shared my story, you gonna share yours?" he suddenly quipped, looking at her from the corner of his eye.
"Er... It's not something I really feel like talking about," she chuckled nervously. "Let's just say there was a blast from my past as well. Strolled into town last night and thought he could make up for being gone for three years. I taught him a lesson that'll hopefully take him at least that much time to forget again!" Her fist met her palm rather forcefully as she grinned victoriously.
"So you told me even though you didn't want to talk about it?" Shikamaru teased, smiling a bit and crossing his arms behind his head. "Yeah... three years is a long time for things to change in..."
Tenten shook her head in amusement as she rose from her seat, stretching her arms out before motioning towards the door. "Come on. As long as we're sailing in the same boat, we might as well enjoy a couple drinks to go with it." She opened the door, her keys already in hand, and waved for him to go ahead of her. "I'll drive if you'll pay, scooter boy."
"Geez," Shikamaru muttered, wandering past her to wait outside the office, sighing in dismay, "you women are all the same."
-********-
Midway through typing her yet another text message, Naruto flipped his phone shut and willed himself not to keep bothering her. He was trying not to worry about them too badly, though the temptation to go over and check up on Kiba was still there. He had no idea what his friend could have gotten himself into, but with his history, anything was a possibility. He knew, though, that if Hinata said Kiba was going to be okay, he was going to be okay, and that was enough for him right then.
Still, the night was shaping up to be pretty lonely without his lovely fiancée around. He sighed, wishing it wasn't quite so late so that it might be easier to round up a friend or two for a guy's night out, and for a moment, for lack of a better idea, he nearly wandered over to round up Konohamaru.
He thought better of it after realizing that corrupting a minor might not be the best use of his evening, however awesome and relatively legal his definition of corruption was in this case.
He traipsed down the stairs, typing a mass text message to most everyone he thought might be up (as many of them as his phone would allow, at least), and nearly tripping down the stairs as a result. "Who's up to hang out in about an hour?"
The first response came about the time he was fetching his jacket from the back of the sofa. Lee had responded, "Sorry my friend, but I'll be in bed before then. Lots of sleep is important to good health! I'd be happy to meet you for a jog in the morning, however." Naruto just shook his head and laughed, sending back a "no thanks". 'A morning jog? In October? I hope he has a gym membership,' Naruto thought with a laugh, clapping his phone shut and slipping it back in his pocket.
The only other response came just as he climbed into his car, this time from Sakura. She was working the night shift at the hospital... but she was inviting him to breakfast. "Hmm... Why not? We didn't have much of a chance to catch up yet, and I'm sure Gramps wouldn't mind if I come in late tomorrow. Just hope Hinata's home by then." He sent off a simple "sure!" reply, then double-checked his message history to make sure no one else had responded.
"Well, buddy," he sighed, patting the steering wheel before turning the ignition on his DNX, "looks like it's just you and me tonight. Not that that's a bad thing."
-********-
Sasuke strode back out of his room some time later, his hair still a bit damp from his shower, but overall he looked more crisp and collected than he had when Karin had dragged him in there over an hour earlier. His friends were out on the porch, laughing, smoking, and drinking, and for a moment he nearly wanted to join them.
But behind him, his car called to him, and instead he took the door to the garage, flipping on the lights and locking the door behind him.
"I guess you're as tuned as you'll ever be, aren't you?" he sighed, placing a hand on the hood and sighing as his eyes glazed over his car. He needed to regain his confidence somehow, though, and if working on his car wasn't going to help...
He'd have to drive up to the mountain and try again. Tonight.