Last chapter I had Poor Naru in pain..

I hope y'all aren't mad at me for that… _;;

Enjoy!

Summary: "Take the pain away, Sasuke. Make me forget." "How?" "Show me how much you love me."

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO.

Warnings: YAOI-menxmen, angst, mature intent, language, OCC-ness, of course.. And, there ain't no plot, there's no real reason for this besides the smut-though there'll be more in the next and final chapter.

Take the Pain Away

It could have been nearing midnight by the time Naruto woke up. He couldn't tell. All he knew was that it was still dark as hell in the room he was in, his body was in agony, and he was utterly naked. And with the feeling of being sticky everywhere and crusted with dried fluids in certain areas, he was extremely uncomfortable. Ah, and he couldn't forget the soreness from his arms. They'd been handcuffed to the bed headboard for only the Gods knew how long and they ached. He could already safely assume that his wrists would be black and blue from trying to tug them free throughout the entire time he was there. He probably looked like a mess. He sure felt like it.

He'd fallen unconsciousness after the men who had raped him had gotten their fill. When he had waked up next, he found himself alone in his dark imprisonment. Still, unfortunately, locked up to the bed. His thoughts were in a flurry, unable to untangle itself from the mass of confusion, the hurt, and the pain it was running amuck on. It took him awhile to sort it all out and, since he obviously had enough time to do so, he was now able to think a bit more clearly.

So, right now, he was assessing the pain in his body and wondering when he was going to be able to take a shower to get rid of the dirtiness that covered him.

Though, he knew that, in the back of his mind, this was just calmness before the storm. His emotional state was on the brink of hysterics, crumbling ever so slowly. It was probably just the shock that was keeping him level-headed at the moment.

"Hey! You can't go in there! What do you thi-?" Thud.

Naruto slowly moved his head so that it faced the door to the room, slightly intrigued by the sudden noises outside the room. Whoever had fallen, probably the man that had been yelling just seconds before, had fallen silent. Why was that? It made him even the more curious when the doorknob was turned and the door swung open, revealing a man, a shorter one compared to the guys that had been in here earlier, standing there in the doorway. But because of the bright light outside and the darkness from within the room, Naruto could not tell a single feature of the newcomer. It made him wince and he tried to scoot away to the other side of the bed, but he could barely lift a finger, so he just laid there, trembling. He was scared, scared that he was going to be raped again, taken advantage of by this newcomer.

He watched as the shorter man walked in long strides over to the bed, flinching horribly when a feather-light touch of a cold hand was placed on his cheek. However, his eyes snapped open when the man opened his mouth and whispered his name in an extremely familiar voice.

"Naruto…"

The said blond hesitantly glanced up to where the man's face was, damning the darkness of the room for making him unable to see the newcomer's face. "G-Gaara?" He hoarsely whispered back, wincing at the soreness in his throat. He'd screamed an awful lot when the other men had used him. It reminded him of how dirty he was.

"Yeah, it's me," his friend replied, talking quietly as if not to startle the blond.

"Wh-what are you d-doing here?" Naruto asked, whimpering slightly when he tried to shift into a more comfortable position. He froze when the hand on his cheek disappeared and looked back up to where his friend's face was.

"Gods above…" The red-head whispered, shaking his head by the looks of it. "What have they done to you?"

Something like a pair of keys jingled in the air close by, then Naruto felt a pair of gentle hands come into contact with where his own were handcuffed. He winced, but, otherwise, kept completely still as his friend worked on setting his hands free. When the handcuffs were finally taken off, the blonde's hands fell lifelessly besides his head, blood finally, slowly, circulating back into them. The tingles from his arms being asleep creeped all up his limbs, causing him to squirm uncomfortably. He really hated that feeling. It bugged the crap out of him. All he wanted to do was rub the feeling away, but his arms felt too heavy to do so.

"Naruto?" Gaara's voice brought the blonde's attention back up to him, but the red-head could tell that his friend was completely out of it. He was barely responding, wasn't talking anymore. This was bad. He'd never seen the blond so… fragile, before. It was a frightening thought that maybe the blond was so traumatized that he'd hidden into himself. But it was understandable, so Gaara wasted no more time in wrapping his friend up into a sheet and picking him up. "I'm going to take you home now, Naruto… You're safe now, okay?" The red-head soothed to the blond as he carefully, yet quickly, walked out of the room.

Naruto scrunched his eyes closed at the brightness of the new room Gaara had taken them into. Then he peeked out through squinty eyes around the place recognizing it as some kind of living room with couches, old pizza boxes lying about, and a TV in one corner. It kind of stunk some, too, but Naruto kept that opinion to himself, silently wondering who the place belonged to. It was then, after looking around the room, that he saw the two guys that had used him most recently sprawled out on the floor in the middle of the room, bleeding from multiple injuries and unconscious by the looks of it.

"G-Gaara?" Naruto whispered, looking up at his friend questioningly. "Did you..?"

Minty-colored eyes glanced down to meet azure peepers, then glanced away again as the red-head continued to walk across the room towards a door. "Hn. Of course I did. Who else would have? Casper?" He sarcastically asked, though his quiet voice did not get louder even once.

Naruto took one more look at the men on the floor, then looked away and said no more. They were the two who had used him last. They deserved what they got and so much more. He didn't care what happened to them now. 'I hope they rot in hell,' were the blonde's thoughts as Gaara walked them out of the foul-smelling house and out into the dark outdoors. The stars were out and the full moon was high above their heads. Naruto looked up at Gaara's face one more time, wondering what time it was. But after opening his mouth to ask, he decided against it. Who cared what time it was? It was dark. It was nighttime. That was all he needed to know. So he closed his mouth and, instead of asking his former question, he laid his head against his friend's chest and closed his eyes. He was so tired. And his body hurt and felt heavy. Maybe it'd be okay to fall asleep…?

*w*w*w*w*w*w*w*w*w*w*w*w*w*w*w*w*w*w*w*w*w*w*

Sasuke abruptly woke up at the sound of fierce knocking at the front door. He shot up into a sitting position and groggily looked around, barely acknowledging the fact that he had fallen asleep on the couch where he had been waiting for Naruto to come home. The cat he'd adopted as an apology gift for the said blond looked up at him with a blinking gaze, curled up next to him on the cushion of the couch. It yawned at him, then rested his head back down on his front paws, clearly stating that he needed more sleep. The raven-haired man yawned himself, then looked at his watch, reading that it was 12:34am. He scowled. Who the hell would be visiting at this time of night? Seriously?

The knocking grew more incessant and Sasuke glared up at the door as he reluctantly pushed himself off the couch.

"Alright, already. Quit knocking! I'm coming." He growled in irritation, a dark cloud forming over his head as he walked towards the door. When he reached it, he opened it to find a very pissed off Gaara standing there, holding a huge bundle in his arms. "Subaku? What the hell are you doing here in the middle of the night?" Sasuke demanded, scowling darkly at the red-head as he crossed his arms against his chest.

Minty eyes glared right back at him, but somehow made his fierce look more venomous than the Uchiha's. "I should gut you right now and hang you by your testicles from the ceiling, Uchiha." He lowly growled, standing there just as still as a statue. Then the bundle in his arms shifted. Sasuke caught the movement and stared in surprise when a shock of yellow hair peeked out from the covers of the sheet.

"What the-? Subaku, is that-?" He glared up at Gaara in confusion, but not before the red-head shoved the raven out of the way and walked into the apartment. "Subaku! Fucking twit, answer me, dammit!" He cursed at the younger male as he stomped after Gaara, following him to wherever he was going. Which lead them to the bathroom situated in the master bedroom. Why they were now in there, he had no idea. If he thought about taking a shower, Sasuke swore he was going to go bat-shit crazy on his ass, Naruto's friend or not be damned.

"Answering you would mean having to waste my time and effort, Uchiha." Growled the red-head," now get out before I slit your throat."

"What the fu-!" Sasuke started to say, but then froze when he saw the sheet being pulled down after Gaara had carefully placed the person onto the counter. There, wrapped up in a flimsy sheet and looking worse for wear, was a sleeping Naruto. Wait, no, blue eyes fluttered open, so Sasuke smartly concluded that he was awake, and dull blue eyes took a slow, measured glance around the room, his eyes glazed and unseeing. What was wrong with him? He looked so out of it… Sasuke quickly made his way over and he moved his hands to cup his lover's cheeks, whispering," Naruto?"

Glassy blue eyes looked back at him, but they were distant, almost as if the blond was awake, but only barely.

Sasuke's eyes slowly trailed down his blonde's face to his chest and further down. The sheet pooled around his waist, covering up his lower body and his privates, but it didn't matter. Dried substances were all over his dobe's body and most of it was easily identified by the raven. Someone had laid a hand on Naruto and it took all his willpower not to start strangling Gaara, demanding for answers all the while. He calmly looked over at the red-head and quite evenly asked," what happened?" If his voice wavered in anger, then neither of the men bothered to mention it.

"I was out heading for home from work." Gaara stated, scowling up at the raven. He worked at a bar only a few blocks from home, so he never really bothered with driving his car, it saved gas that way. "I heard some measly lowlifes talking about nabbing a blond male from the side of the road a few hours before and they were boasting about how great a lay he was. Then they started talking about the blonde's looks-scars of whiskers on his cheeks, bluest eyes they'd ever seen, and tanned skin… Only an idiot wouldn't have known they were talking about Naruto." He scoffed, rolling his eyes. Sasuke was just slightly amazed at how much the guy was talking. He'd never heard him speak so much in one sitting. It had to be a new record, or something. "So I got them to take me to where they had him."

"How?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"I have my ways," Gaara narrowed his own.

"Fine." Sasuke shrugged. Who cared how he got there, so long as he got there the time he had. "Who did this to him?"

"Orochimaru." Gaara spat the name out like it was poison on his tongue, looking angrier at the mention of the evil man. "And some of his cronies."

"I'll fucking kill them." Sasuke growled, looking back at his semi-conscious lover.

"Unless you want to break into jail to do so and possibly go to jail yourself, then I wouldn't." Gaara's voice held a bit of pleased malice to it, his words bringing up a devious smirk on the raven's face as well.

"Good. I hope they rot there." Sasuke growled savagely. Then he looked at Naruto and his eyes softened sadly. He hugged the blond close to his body, closing his eyes. "Dammit. I wasn't there to protect him." He muttered, silently berating himself for his stupidity.

"Yeah, well, be there for him now. He's going to need it." Gaara said, concerned for his friend. "Call me tomorrow when he's awake. I want to know he's safe here. If I don't hear from you, then I'll be here later tomorrow and I won't be happy."

Sasuke merely hn'ed at the red-head, eyes still closed. So Gaara took his leave, casting one more glance at his blond friend with worry in his minty eyes. When the front door was opened and then closed, Sasuke opened his eyes and carefully leaned away from his lover, reassessing the blonde's appearance. Red briefly entered his vision from pure rage, then he shook it off and he slowly unwrapped the sheet from Naruto's body with gentle hands. Beneath the cover was worse, but Sasuke managed not to growl out loud. If he ever met this Orochimaru-bastard, he was going to fucking kill the man through a long and horrible, painful process. How dare he touch somebody else's lover? Especially Sasuke's! The nerve of that bastard!

"Mmn…" Naruto shifted in his sleep, causing the raven to freeze, his eyes trained on Naruto's face. The blond was frowning, but from what, Sasuke had no clue. "Nn… S-…S-Sasuke…" The broken whimper of his name jabbed at the raven's heart. His voice was rough, scratchy almost, from misuse. It sounded like it was painful. And it made Sasuke think… He'd caused this. Sasuke had. If he hadn't of let Naruto go, if he hadn't of accused the blond of lying, then none of this would have happened.

Sasuke bowed his head. How could he have done this? Why? He truly was a cold-hearted bastard, just as Naruto had told him earlier in the day.

'There's nothing you can do to change what has already happened…' Sasuke looked back up slowly, a look of anguish on his features. 'What you can do, however, is make sure he's comfortable. So get to it, you dumbass.' Onyx eyes slowly glanced over his blond lover's body and he tried to assess the damage so that he knew what he'd have to do to fix his injuries. His lover's cheeks and his wrists were battered up pretty bad with blooming blues and blacks of bruises. Compared to his cheeks, however, Naruto's wrists had gone through something worse by the looks of it. Had he been handcuffed at one point? Gods, it looked painful.

But, truthfully, Sasuke couldn't tell where the blood was coming from. Most of it was waist down and flecks of it were up across his torso. He had clearly been bleeding, but where was the injury? From the only place down yonder that was... out of sight? I mean, Sasuke was truly trying his best not to think of what happened-he felt like a coward for it, but he was scared.

'He needs to be washed off.' Sasuke shook his head to clear it (A/N: can you tell that I can't make up my mind? xD), then, pushing the sheets further out of the way, Sasuke gathered the blond into his arms effortlessly and turned towards the bath tub. In his arms, Naruto shifted some, whispering Sasuke's name again in his rough and scratchy voice, but he didn't wake up. Sasuke placed him into the tub, plugged it, then turned on the water, filling the tub with warm water, not too hot, but not cold, either. Just the right temperature. The water went right up to Naruto's chest before Sasuke decided to turn the water off, then he grabbed a cloth from nearby and a bar of soap from the ledge across from him. He lathered the cloth up and then began to bath his lover, keeping his ministrations soothing and gentle.

The bath water grew a light tint of red from the blood and Sasuke washed off the other body fluids along with the blood as he went. He saved his lover's pelvic area for last, hesitating on the thought of having to do it. Would he hurt his lover by bathing him down there? It didn't take a genius to know that the area there would be raw and painful.

Having to make a choice was delayed, however, when the blond in the tub shifted and then froze. Blue eyes fluttered open to reveal a dull gaze, glazed both from sleep and from something else…

"Wha-…?" He muttered in confusion, trying to sit up more, but cringing when pain shot throughout his abused body. "Fuck," he muttered under his breath, eyes squeezed shut as he stilled in the water, brows furrowed down in concentration.

Sasuke watched his lover with a deer caught in the headlights look, holding the cloth in midair and his body frozen in his crouching position. Mouth slightly parted, Sasuke lowered the cloth to the edge of the tub and gulped. "N-Naruto..?" He whispered cautiously, hoping not to scare the blond.

Blue eyes shot open at the sound of the raven's voice and Naruto stared at the older man with an oddly blank look for a moment. There was silence between the two, tension building between them, and Naruto had to look away. Confusion swept across his face as he looked at the tiled wall to his left, he was clearly thinking. He raised his hands from the water and looked down at them, blinking owlishly as red-tinted water dripped down back into the tub. He flipped his hands over, scrutinizing the bruises with a strange look of wonder. Then his eyes widened and horror filled his face.

"…!" Naruto looked back up at Sasuke with tears filling his eyes, his mouth parted and fear so plain that it hurt to see.

"It's alright, Naruto. Please don't be scared," Sasuke quickly reassured the younger man, dropping the cloth and reaching over to take hold of the blonde's hands, gripping them tightly. He looked at him with plea, his eyes scrunched up in his own fear. "You're home, you're okay now."

"S-Sasuke-! Oh my god, Sasuke! They-!" Naruto choked over a sob and he practically threw himself at his raven-haired lover, hissing at the pain coursing through his body and crying harder for what had happened to him. The water splashed at him, but Sasuke returned the embrace, wrapping his arms around the blonde's wet waist as Naruto wrapped his arms around his neck, burying his face against Sasuke's neck, sobbing like crazy. "Th-they h-hurt me and I-I-I couldn't s-st-stop them! I-I was so, so scared, Sasuke!" He whispered that last sentence through his panic-stricken and still rough from misuse voice. He pressed his body hard against Sasuke across the tub and hyperventilating horribly, though obviously trying to take heavy breathes to calm himself. It wasn't helping.

"Shh, Naruto. It's alright, you're safe now. You're home. I'm here." Sasuke whispered back, though panicking just as well. He was never really good at the comfort thing. It was so awkward. But in his current situation, Sasuke couldn't think of anything else to do. He started rubbing his frightened lover's wet back in soothing circles with his hands and he pressed the side of his head to Naruto's blond hair, staring at the wall sitting across from him where the tub was pushed up against. Was he doing this right? What should he do next?

"S-Sasuke…"

"Mhm?"

"Please… Please don't leave me…" Naruto whispered it so quietly that Sasuke nearly missed it. But he indeed caught what the blond said and it caused his chest to hurt even further.

"I'm not going to leave you." He reassured firmly, holding the blond even closer to him as if trying to meld him into him. "I'm so fucking sorry, Naruto. I'll never turn my back on you again. I'm so sorry."

Naruto remained silent after that and, for awhile, they just sat there in each other's embrace, just staring off into space, thinking about the words still ringing in their ears…

TBC

Alright. Stay in tuned for the next chapter.

Has it become lame?

Yeah, I can imagine y'all thinking exactly so.

Sorry~

Smut next chapter, freak accident leading to death to certain character, and then the end.

Whoot.