Children of Men

Hm. Hm. Hm. I've read the reviews and there was only one reviewer that gave me reasons as to why I should end my story a certain. While reasonable, I believe I'll just stick with the ending I came up with while all of this was going down. Nevertheless, I appreciate everyone's opinions and hopes for this story.

Naruto licked his lips as he stared at his board before him. "This makes no sense." He told Sasuke.

The raven just nodded absentmindedly as he continued filling out paperwork for Itachi's big appointment later on. It would determine whether or not his brother was suitable for surgery and what surgery they'd provide.

"It's Chaos Theory." Naruto continued as he erased his large equation and began again. "It's a branch of mathematics focused on the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions. 'Chaos' is an interdisciplinary theory stating that within the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems, there are underlying patterns, constant feedback loops, repetition, self-similarity, fractals, self-organization, and reliance on programming at the initial point known as sensitive dependence on initial conditions."

Sasuke nodded once more, biting his lip as he looked up toward the door, where Itachi liked measuring his height. "Yeah, babe. Chaos is good."

"But not here, Sas. My math doesn't represent the Butterfly effect."

"How so?" Sasuke questioned, staring at part of the application where it asked 'How has applicant shown signs of improvement?

"The effect describes how a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. However, my mathematical solution is too perfect. It's not wrong and therefore does not express chaos theory."

"Uh huh. Yeah, Naruto. I know."

Naruto growled as he once again created a perfect solution. "Damnit. I can't get this wrong."

"And you want to?"

"Yes. I'll know it when I see it. When the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future. That's when I know my math is wrong."

"Maybe you shouldn't use math, love."

"But I need to, Sasuke." Ignoring Sasuke's interruption of 'done' as the raven finally looked to him. "I'm a mathematician. And Mathematicians can do everything. Mathematicians won the war. Mathematicians broke the Iwagakure codes…. and built the bombs. Mathematicians... like me."

Sasuke looked toward the elegant solution on the board and squinted at all the variables. "What were you talking about again?"

Naruto sighed in exasperation before looking toward the Uchiha. "You're doing this on purpose. You're trying to play innocent so that I can get turned on and have sexual intercourse with you."

"I tried." Sasuke muttered, walking over as Naruto grabbed his waist.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke. I'm just trying to understand this equation so that I will have the perfect amount of pages for my book. You know it's going to be released next week. I only have three days to make copies too. And Jiraiya-san's employer is very anxious."

"I know."

"When are you and Itachi going to his appointment?"

"In about four hours." Sasuke breathed out as Naruto lapped his tongue over his collarbone. "Will you make it?"

"Of course. I'm just going to show Deidara how to drive know he's been taking the train and walking too much?"

"He never learned to drive?" Sasuke asked, incredulous.

Naruto smiled sadly as Sasuke shifted so that his back was upon the the blond's chest. "Well….sometimes life doesn't work out. And everything that should be important is put to the side."

Sasuke smiled, unworried about his lover. Now that Naruto fully understood what love was, he wanted to keep passing it on. There was a different love he held for everyone, mainly Kakashi, Sasuke, Itachi, and Deidara.

"You love him, don't you? Just like you love Itachi."

Naruto laughed. "Yeah."

Sasuke laughed too. "You got attached, Naruto. Deidara was just supposed to be a patient, but you made him a friend. Your best friend, I'd suppose. And that's why you're still trying to protect him. You know perfectly well Sasori can teach him, but you still insist on helping him with everything."

Naruto laughed. "You always seem to catch me. Even in my mathematical reasoning."

Sasuke turned once more, his obsidian eyes making Naruto blush. He thought he'd get over the beauty of Sasuke Uchiha one day, but it never came. The man was too perfect. His smile was soft with a hint of femininity, his strong bone structure was all male. Naruto let his eyes linger for just a fraction longer than was customary, his usual "test." Sure enough, Sasuke gazed back, unguarded and calm.

"Naruto. Sometimes, you don't need reasoning and numbers for life's lessons. You think so much, babe. That you're whole life has been based on equations."

"I enjoy reasoning."

Sasuke laughed loudly then, letting Naruto watch him. When the Uchiha calmed down, Naruto moved his head closer so their foreheads rested against one another. They closed their eyes, both their breaths shaking. "Thank you," Naruto muttered in barely more than a whisper.

"For what?" He replies, his voice low and husky.

"For being you." The genius' voice wavered, exhilarated from the tension between them.

Naruto's phone buzzed and he leaned in giving Sasuke a long kiss. "I have to go now. Tousan is coming to the appointment with you. I'll be there, believe it. Love you."

"Love you too."

With that, Naruto was gone. Sasuke sighed in content and walked upstairs, ready to wake his brother for breakfast and then get him washed for his appointment.

The bathroom light was on however and Sasuke opened it slowly. His eyes widened. "Tachi!"

In the movies, drowning was loud and splashy, someone yelled and waved their arms, dipped below the waves and came up in dramatic fashion while those on shore scrambled to rescue them.

Sasuke had more common sense to believe that. He believed drowning was quiet, their movements are subtle, they rarely make any noise at all. One minute their head was bobbing above the water and then it was gone.

Itachi lay in the water, his eyes wide, his mouth opening and closing. Sasuke grabbed his brother and yanked him out. The naked man fll over him, shaking and weeping.

His head was pounding, every cell in his body screaming for oxygen. Itachi kept fighting until he feel like his head was about to explode. He had to take a breath. So he did as Sasuke squeezed him tight, more tears leaving his eyes than Itachi's.

"I thought I could be a big boy. I thought I could take a bath and not worry you, brother." He breathed out as Sasuke grabbed a towel, wrapping around it around the older man, still holding him as if he'd lose him. "I couldn't sit up, Sasuke. I coulda drownded. Did you hear me? I coulda drownded."

Sasuke held his brother tighter. "Don't you ever try something like that again. I could have lost you, Tachi." his tears were heavy and the Uchiha had no idea why. Maybe he was afraid. Could he have lost Itachi? Or could he lose this Itachi after surgery?

"Why you crying, Sasuke?" Itachi asked, confused.

Sasuke laughed, bitter, happy, relieved, sad. "I love you. You hear me, crazy? I love you. You're my favorite thing in the whole world."

"Holy shit." Naruto muttered, clutching his seatbelt tight as Deidara lurched forward in the driver's seat. "Slow and steady, Dara."

Deidara looked toward his surrogate brother with concern. "Alright."

"Please remember that a force is any interaction that, when unopposed, will change the motion of an object. A force can cause an object with mass to change its velocity. Force can also be described intuitively as a push or a pull. So remember that the larger the force, the larger the speed and acceleration."

Sasori crossed his arms in the backseat. "Your reasoning isn't helping much smartass." He teased.

"Shut up, Sasori." Deidara scolded protectively, as if Naruto were a baby brother to protect.

"I was joking, love." Sasori smiled softly, knowing well that Deidara would defend Naruto, maybe until his dying breath.

"Don't tease him. There's nothing wrong with giving words of wisdom."

"Sorry." The redhead mumbled. But he knew the long haired man wouldn't stay mad at him for long.

"And put your seatbelt on." Deidara told him.

"Of course. I don't want you to kill me, babe."

"Saso-" Deidara cut himself off with a hug blush and an even bigger laugh. "You two are killing me." He breathed out. It made Naruto smile, glad that the man was living. And Sasori, having been told by Deidara about the past himself, smiled too.

Kakashi shook Tsunade's hands with poise when he met her. "I hear that you've been taking care of my client." The woman stated.

Kakashi nearly laughed. "No. My son merely befriended him."

Naruto smiled softly as Kisame bumped shoulders with him.

Tsunade nodded. "Alright. Let's get started. There's much to discuss."

Itachi was nervous. That much was obvious as he bit his fingers and thought, looking around constantly. Obito smiled softly and grabbed the man's shoulder. "Hey, buddy. You want something to eat?"

Itachi nodded.

"Come on then."

Sasuke sighed in relief when Itachi let himself be pulled away. "Tsunade-san, I was wondering if you researched any possible solutions, for lack of a better word, for Itachi's condition."

The medic nodded. "I did. But, I want to know why now, Sasuke? I asked you before because Itachi wasn't, and still isn't, so bad in his condition. But you refused."

"He's grown. I didn't request this. Itachi did."

Tsunade nodded with hidden pride. "I always knew he would. Anyway, after observing and going through his files, Itachi is capable of a brain transplant."

"A brain transplant?" Naruto asked, now interested. "Those are rare."

"Please explain." Sasuke requested.

Tsunade stood, handing the raven a book. "It's a procedure in which the brain of one organism is transplanted into the body of another. However, in Itachi's case, we can do a partial transplant. Theoretically, a person with advanced organ failure could be given a new and functional body while keeping their own personality, memories, and consciousness through such a procedure. And all we need to do is transplant brain cells."

Sasuke shook his head. "Are there complications?"

"One of the most significant barriers to the procedure is the inability of nerve tissue to heal properly; scarred nerve tissue doesn't transmit signals well."

"So, why would I put Itachi at risk?"

"Hashirama Senju wasn't my grandfather for nothing, Sasuke. I know things other medics know nothing about."

Sasuke nodded. "So you said a partial brain transplant? Where's the transplant coming from?"

Tsunade bit her lip. "And there it is That's the problem. We don't have any donor's in Konoha and it'll take maybe months to find a deceased person willing to give to a mentally disabled man."

Naruto grit his teeth as Sasuke looked hopeful. He hated that, but it was real. Sasuke was Itachi's hero. He didn't have to be a hero everyone knew, and everyone talked about. He didn't need any supernatural power or a costume, and He didn't need to fight bad guys. All he had to do was be himself, fight the fear in Itachi, and he was a hero. Because the hero was always in him, and it scared Naruto.

"I'll do it." He spoke without bravery and fear.

"No." Naruto hissed instantly.

Sasuke turned and the two stared at one another for some time. "That isn't your decision to make, Naruto."

"It's not yours either There is nothing wrong with Itachi."

"You can't tell me that!" Sasuke hissed "You can't tell me how to raise my brother! If Itachi wants to be normal, then I-"

"Damnit, Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, making the Uchiha jump. "I can't lose you!"

Naruto calmed down. "Kami. I just got happy, Sasuke. I've been helping everyone, Sasuke. But you, you can't leave Sasuke. You'll be brain dead, Sasuke. You'll be brain dead and I won't have you. These feelings I have for you can't end until my body ceases to function and my soul is released for whatever comes after. Even on my dark days my love for you rides underneath it all, keeping my mind from sinking into the mire that claimed me in the past. I know that however deep I fear I've fallen, you'll be there like solid ground steady me, giving me time to climb back into positivity.

I can't lose you, Sasuke. I can't. Please."

"I'll do it for him. I'll do it." Kisame muttered.

Just going to let you all think about this. I'm sorry it's so short and unedited. I've been busy and I was rushing on this.