Chapter 24: BOOTS!!

A cherry blossom tree caught fading orange light as it streamed into the garden terrace, breaking its beams into a dappled pattern of light and shade which gradually moved up the wall as the sun set.

An old man sat on a bench under the overhanging leaves, his bare feet in the grass. A sword was balanced against his leg as he sharpened it – making a rhythmic scraping which echoed softly off the walls. The man frowned and gave a quick glance to the upper reaches of the palace that stretched above him into the sky.

From one of these windows, a silhouette looked down at this old man, just watching while slowly turning a vial over and over between long fingers.

xXx

In the attic above the female servants' dormitory, Naruto sat in his section of the room and breathed a great, heavy, sigh. 'Sasuke's engaged,' he said dejectedly. It had been his first thought on waking. He was not used to having thoughts – beyond those of ramen or wondering whether his growing wall of noodle boxes would finally fall on him – that early in the morning.

A few feet away, Jiraiya took another sip of sake and exclaimed, 'Tsunade hit me again! And my book isn't doing well!'

The last person in the room appeared to be more of a blanket-covered round-ish shape than a human. It smelt damp. Kiba's voice emerged from inside. 'I've triple-booked myself for this evening . . . What the hell am I going to do?!'

As one, Naruto and Jiraiya shot level looks in his direction. 'I'm sure you'll manage something . . .' the old man said dryly, filling another cup with sake.

Naruto gave him an evil grin and said, 'Try sending Akamaru off with one of them and split yourself between the other two. Anyway, I'm off to training . . . with Sasuke . . .'

As he left he heard Kiba mutter, 'Akamaru? That's so wrong, that's just so wrong. When did this idiot develop a so-called sense of humour?'

xXx

Minutes later, the blond boy stepped out into the imperial compound training hall. He took off his jacket and let it fall to the floor, tanned arms revealed in all their goldenness by the light shot through high clerestory windows.

Ahead of him, in the shadows against the wall, Sasuke stood with arms crossed, his hair swept across one eye elegantly, perfectly, his delicate features showing disdain.

Without so much as a greeting, the young Prince began, 'First of all, Naruto, what the fuck has happened to your fighting style?'

Naruto laughed disarmingly, scratching the back of his head, ruffling blond spikes of hair. 'Nothing, it's just that that poncy git noble was getting on my nerves, and I wanted to see how low I could bring him.' He grinned in spite of his black eye and stitched forehead, 'Pretty damn low, eh? I know some pirates who wouldn't fight like that - did you see him drop his weapons and just try to scratch me?'

'He managed to, evidently.'

'It was still worth it,' Naruto said, stepping closer all the while. When he was within arms' reach of the Prince, Sasuke brought a sword up to his chest.

'Stop there, baka. This is a training session, nothing else. All I'm going to teach you is duel etiquette, whether you like it or not.' (1)

'I prefer it when you teach me other things.' Naruto chuckled, then he dropped his hand from his neck and looked around the hall. 'You picked a fairly secluded place for this 'training', I see.'

The prince acknowledged that comment with only a slight narrowing of his eyes. 'The imperial trainer was supposed to meet us here, but he's obviously been detained.'

'Ah. Detained? Did you tell him the wrong room?' Naruto walked his fingers up the naked blade that was still against his chest, while saying in a sing-song voice, 'How long do you think we have before he finds us?'

The sword vanished and before Naruto could blink, his hand was cut and the point rested at his throat, an uncomfortable pressure that was about to pierce the skin.

'None of that,' Sasuke said levelly. He pinched the bridge of his nose while keeping the sword in place. 'This is serious, Naruto. You managed to arrange a duel with Neji. Hyuuga Neji. Possibly the best swordsman in the capital. You caught him when he was unbalanced and angry, but trust me, next time he will not be so. You are going to need every bit of help you can get. And you are going to need every ounce of restraint you can muster-'

Naruto waved his hand in the air as if he was in class, 'I'm not too strong on the restraint side of things.'

Sasuke continued as if there had been no interruption, punctuating his words by applying more pressure to the sword point, so that Naruto stepped back and back as the meaning was driven home, '- in order to keep to the rules of duelling so that you don't end up in the stocks, baka.'

In the centre of the hall, the Prince withdrew and sheathed his sword. Naruto kept his eyes on it, impressed with the movement that Sasuke could whip out of that cake tester. The blond boy sucked on his hand, which was beginning to sting, 'Wha oo weee sta wih?'

Sasuke, who had reached down to pick up another sword, looked back over his shoulder with a lifted eyebrow. 'What?' he asked.

'What do we start with?'

Sasuke tossed him the sword as he stood, and Naruto bared his teeth in another grin, 'So this 'eh-teee-ket' training involves fighting, does it? Hey?' (2)

'This is for a duel, of course the training involves fighting.' He lifted his sword in front of his face. 'This is the only weapon permitted in duels. It is called a rapier. In the hands of the inexperienced, it is almost useless, but when used by someone such as Neji, it is far, far more deadly than a cutlass.'

Naruto pulled his mouth to the side with a sceptical frown.

'It is.'

Naruto shook his head, 'Nah, can't be.'

'It. Is.'

'. . . You wanna start a fight?' The sides of the blond's mouth curled up, an eager glint in his eyes.

The Prince rolled his eyes and prayed for patience. Lots of patience. 'No. Listen for once. We can't have a fight. You know where they lead. Let's take this seriously for once.'

Naruto took a step towards him, his eyes locked on Sasuke's face, his expression so serious that the Prince thought – relieved, but a little sad – that the message had finally sunk in. Calculating, very slowly, Naruto poked him in the chest with a finger.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

Naruto poked him again. 'Come on.' Another poke. 'You wanna fight.' He poked him in the side with a smirk.

Sasuke's patience officially ran out - he grabbed Naruto's wrist and with a flick of his arm had Naruto on his back on the hard floor. He had one arm stretched out, holding the boy's wrists together above his head, and the other one on his chest, fingers spread out, keeping him down. 'Stop this idiocy. Now.'

Naruto grinned, leaned up, and kissed him.

Naruto's tongue did things to Sasuke's brain, (3) and before he (4) had another thought, the blond's arms were free, and around him, and in his hair, and in the new bloody-easy-to-get-into Imperial uniform. His thoughts, he belatedly realised, were not entirely appropriate ones to have in a training session in an open hall. Something about that was trying to attract his brain's attention, but Naruto was sitting up while trailing kisses down Sasuke's chest to his stomach, pulling the prince, now on his knees over the blond, towards him.

Open. Hall.

Shit.

Sasuke pushed the boy away so hard that he slid across the floor. Without Naruto's tongue getting lower and lower he could almost think, and breathe. And reason. He sucked in an unsteady breath. In front of him, Naruto's cheeks were flushed. He had a sort of uncertain grin on his face while he cocked his head to the side, blue eyes open.

Still on his knees, Sasuke saw Naruto's gaze drop to his chest. The Prince quickly closed the front of his jacket and made a note to talk to Suigetsu. These robes were far too easy to get into. 'That is it . . . for today.'

Naruto stared at him for a moment, sitting with his knees up in front of him, and ran his hands through his hair, pressed his palms against his cheeks. 'Okay.'

Sasuke had to bite his lip with a, 'Hphm.' Fucking blonds and their fucking hair. Blue fucking eyes. Tanned fucking arms. Tanned bloody wrists. Shit.

Naruto looked up at him and gave a brief smile, 'Let's go then.'

Returning the swords to the rack against the wall, Naruto's wrist brushed Sasuke's finger. They pulled them away, but looked at each other. And then they were kissing again. At some point the swords toppled. Just as they clanged to the floor, Sasuke said, 'Stop.'

They stood there, forehead's touching, chests touching, noses just brushing. Naruto filled his chest with air slowly before he said, 'I'm not good at the restraint thing, but I'm trying . . . I think I can make it to your room.'

Sasuke shot him a look and almost smiled.

Naruto added, 'I know a short cut.'

The Prince grinned and whacked him on the back of the head. 'That's not what I meant by restraint, baka.'

'It's not as if you're good at it either.'

'Where's this short cut?'

They kissed and stumbled together on their way to the door, hands intertwined, pulling apart as they stepped out into the passageway. Sasuke wanted that hand back, but he glanced at Naruto and smiled, got a grin back and they walked around the corner.

A presence. Sasuke stopped in his tracks, the hair on the back of his neck rising.

xXx

Naruto stopped when Sasuke did, mid-step, and followed Sasuke's gaze. Ahead of them stood two men. The taller man said almost threateningly to the other, 'Sarutobi is dead.'

Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw Sasuke stiffen, frozen. What was going on? Who were these people? Why was this stranger talking to the guy who always hung around the Regent?

The man stopped speaking and turned to look at the two boys. The movement shifted black hair that collected gently on his shoulders before falling over his chest. He raised long, slender fingers and brushed strands behind an ear, revealing the sculpted, slightly sharp line of his jaw above a pale neck. Defined lips and dark eyes marred only by the shadows beneath them. (5)

Then Naruto saw his boots. His mind automatically took notes – he was going to get a pair of those made for Sasuke . . . Come hell or high water, it would be done! He'd always thought Sasuke's boots amounted to sex on legs, but Jesus. This was a whole other level. (6)

The man was watching Sasuke, his eyes unreadable. Sasuke stared back in such a way that Naruto wanted to take his hand again. Or jump in between the two with his sword drawn. He wasn't sure, and before he could decide, an impossibly tall man with orange hair – who Naruto recognised as one of Sasuke's body guards – passed Sasuke and approached the stranger with his hand on the hilt of his sword. Before anyone could breathe or think or notice the movement, the black-haired stranger was then standing with his sword against the bodyguard's throat. His voice was low and penetrating, 'I'm done here. I will take my leave now, Sasuke.'

Sasuke's eyes flicked to Naruto's for barely an instant. The Prince's nod was almost imperceptible even to Naruto, who was right next to him, but the stranger sheathed his sword. Everything about the man was menacingly graceful. He gave a small, elegant bow. When Sasuke did not react, he raised an eyebrow, his gaze falling and taking in the pink and rather ruffled appearance Sasuke had had since leaving the training hall. (7)

'I hope your manners have not deteriorated as much as your appearance has,' the stranger said. 'What would the Emperor have thought?'

The five in the passageway were silent, around them palace noises – the chatter of approaching maids, the footsteps of courtiers – seemed loud and echoing. Sasuke stood still for a moment, the knuckles on his hand white with pressure, before he inclined his head again.

The impossibly soft sound of the dark-haired man's footfalls was near mesmerizing as he walked passed Sasuke. As he drew level, the young Prince said, in a voice completely controlled, almost bursting with intensity, 'Brother.'

xXx

Foot-e-note-ees:

(1) Sasuke is, of course, doing this for Naruto's own safety – and only for Naruto's safety - was there ever any doubt that that was why he decided to get hot and sweaty and physical with the boy? None. None whatsoever. Wlkwos, no sarcasm please :P

(2) Which means, in pirate-land: 'Come back to my place, bouncy bouncy?'

(3) and indeed, his brian

(4) typo – Naruto's tongue did thins sot to Sasuke's brain

(5) Naruto goes into bishounen vision!!!

(6) of bootiness! BP: the Uchiha boys in their booties!

(7) just the way Naruto liked his Uchiha – pink and ruffled!

xXx

BP: long distance dyslexia!!!!!!!!

Yay for whiskey!!!

Typo of the day: little 'Itatichi!' so cute . . .! Itachi chibi dumpling!

As usual – thanks for the patience! And the comments! Wooo!