Chapter 4

This time, when Sasuke walked in the door –struggling with several large shopping bags- Itachi was waiting for him. He ambushed him in the hall and leaned into his grill. "So," he hissed. He didn't want his voice carrying to Naruto. "You gave me the bare minimum on the way here, but how about you fill me in on your sudden change of heart?"

"Get out of my face."

"How'd you end up agreeing to the community service?" Itachi pressed. "How come you're practicing again? Who is this kid that he's important enough for you to want him clothed and–"

An elbow was thrown at Itachi, but Itachi saw it coming and slipped back. He followed on Sasuke's heels as his brother stalked toward his room. "What's happening to you, Sasuke?"

Sasuke slammed his door on the question, and leaned on it for good measure. He didn't relax until he heard Itachi go back to studying.

There was an understanding that existed between him and his brother. One that let him go about his business without interference, despite the fact that his brother knew full well most of what he did. Itachi didn't bug him unless he himself was bugged by someone on his brother's behalf. As was the case with Sarutobi. In return, Sasuke more or less obeyed the lax rules of the house…if one could call it obeying. The point was that he and Itachi existed under the same roof without actually interacting with each other. And that was the way he liked it. He kept his activities outside the house to make sure his brother would have no reason to get in his face. They exchanged a dozen words at most a year. For years.

So he couldn't fault Itachi for interrogating him. Well he could, but he understood where it was coming from; he'd gone and fucked up their dynamic. First by agreeing to the damned community service, and now by appearing to actually care about someone other than himself.

He stared at where Naruto lay sprawled in his bed. There was a cooling bowl of soup on the nightstand, and the half-empty IV bottle hanging from the lamp. When he'd first gotten him home, while Naruto had still been unconscious, he'd gone through his closets and drawers, dragging out clothes he never wore. He intended to give them to Naruto, along with the stuff he'd just bought, but why? Why did he care if some asshole had clothes on his back?

What was wrong with him? Itachi had asked what was happening to him. He'd run from the question, from the plaintive and wondering sound of his brother's voice. From the feelings the question called up and the things it implied. But now he was shut in his room with the same things. He didn't know Naruto, didn't want to know him, and couldn't care less what happened to him, he told himself. So why was the ass in his bed, wearing his T-shirt, and causing him grief?

For several heart-stopping moments, Sasuke couldn't breathe. He felt guilt. Crushing, debilitating guilt and shame. And then he was over it, and moving to his bed.

Fingers snapping sharply above his nose brought Naruto around from the doze he'd fallen into. He'd scarcely opened his eyes before an ice-cold stethoscope slid beneath his shirt. Sasuke was hovering over him, lips in a tight line. Naruto pushed himself up straighter, but said nothing. He let Sasuke work, and sat silently as he timed his pulse, checked his temperature, and looked in his eyes. The stethoscope was thrown on the floor. The bowl of soup Itachi must have brought while he'd been out was thrust into his hands. "Eat." Sasuke ordered.

While he did, Sasuke left the room and came back with his black hoodie and the jeans he'd been wearing. They were clean and folded, he saw.

The soup was good. He wouldn't have minded another bowl, seeing as it was the only food he'd had all day, but he didn't dare ask. Sasuke looked ready to do murder.

"Take off my shit," Sasuke said. "Put back on your own clothes. And hurry up, I don't have all night. It's almost ten now. Iruka's probably having puppies."

Naruto reluctantly took off the clothes he'd been lent and donned his own.

-oOo-

Sasuke took his brother's car and drove them to the home. Once there, Naruto stood in disbelief as Sasuke informed Iruka that he wouldn't be coming back. He turned and was back in the car and driving away before either of them could respond.

Iruka looked at Naruto. "What happened?"

Naruto, who was watching the taillights dwindle down the street, said, "He saved my life today."

"What-!"

But Naruto moved around him and went to his tree house. He didn't like people seeing him cry.

The next day was Saturday. Sasuke spent the weekend out of the house, but when Monday rolled around, he was waiting outside principal Sarutobi's office before the old man showed up.

Sarutobi eyed him with a beady stare as he unlocked his office. "And to what do I owe this pleasure?" he said drily.

"I want off that community service."

Sarutobi took his time shuffling around his musty office. "I'm afraid that would necessitate me contacting the juvenile detention center."

"Only if I don't pass this year."

"I don't see how you can possibly hope to do that. You have failed or nearly failed every class, every year, of both high school and middle school. Rightfully, you belong in a special needs school. I have told your brother time and again to get a tutor for you, or to sign you up for the tutoring programs the school has after classes, but he insisted that you didn't need one. Sasuke," he said kindly, his face softening. "You have a severe learning disability, as all your teachers have said. There's no shame in asking for help. Next year, when you-"

Sasuke really thought he would have an aneurysm right then and there. That, or some kind of cardiac event. Granted, he'd expended no small amount of energy to ensure that he appeared to be mentally deficient, but to hear this dinosaur actually say that he had a learning disability was enough to choke him with rage. He listened to as much of Sarutobi's rambling assurances that even the most challenged person could rise above his shortcomings, before he decided enough was enough. "When are finals?"

"I beg your pardon?" Sarutobi hunted around for his tobacco, pipe in hand.

"Final exams. When are they?"

"Well now, let me see what you signed up for this year. Ah yes, here is your schedule. English, Social Studies, Computer Science…Physical Education is today. You have Creative Writing and Biology Essentials tomorrow. The others are spread throughout the rest of the week, but Math is two weeks from now, along with Science. I believe you're taking Genetics?"

Sasuke thought quickly. He was going to fail P.E and Math, that much he knew. "I can pass with two failed classes."

"That you can, but you're hardly likely to pass your other classes, not when you haven't done a single assignment all year, and have demonstrated that you know nothing of the work. Even if you did pass your finals, it's only part of your grade. You would need to attend summer school for all your classes, the entire summer, and then sit your finals in order to pass."

"I can pass my finals, old man. Give them to me right now and I'll pass them. I'm not doing summer school."

"Then you won't pass this year."

"I can't do summer school. Give me an alternative. Any alternative."

Sarutobi sat back in his chair and studied him. "Where is all this sudden concern for your well-being coming from?"

"From my ass you son of a…just give me an alternative!"

"There is no alternative. Summer school, where you will be given all the assignments you missed this year. Condensed, of course, which is to say the workload will be nothing short of excruciating."

Sasuke fumed. Weighed the prospect of having another year of school forced down his throat against two months of summer school. "If I sign up for summer school, I'm off community service?"

"Yes."

"No juvie?"

"No."

"Sign me up."

Sarutobi had his secretary do it. He heard the old man call out to him that he had classes to get to, but Sasuke left the school.

Itachi walked in the apartment after his own classes to find the table in the kitchen nook occupied by Sasuke, who was poring over a textbook. His face was screwed up in a frown of straining concentration.

He had trouble masking his shock.

Years. He'd watched his brother slipping away from him for years, seen the pain and anguish he lived with. He couldn't help him. He knew that and accepted it by now, but this...to see Sasuke making an effort after so long... Itachi stood frozen for several moments, not quite daring to hope.

Under the guise of getting a glass of water, he was able to pass by Sasuke and peek at the textbook. Algebra. Beginning algebra, at that. Itachi briefly debated asking his brother what in hell was going on. He was afraid to. Afraid the changes he saw taking place would stop if he called attention to them. He'd been praying for his brother to come back for ten long years. Now that it seemed like he was, he would do nothing to jeopardize that.

Without a word, he went to the coffee table and took out his own books.

-oOo-

At the end of the week, Itachi received a call from the school saying that by some miracle, Sasuke had passed several final exams. Not only passed, but passed without a single wrong answer. Sarutobi went on to say that the teachers suspected Sasuke of cheating, but they went to the trouble of drawing up secondary exams, covering the same material and a little extra- which Sasuke also completed with unprecedented scores. He then told how Sasuke had signed himself up for summer school, and was set to begin the following Monday. "He'll be let off for two days in a couple of weeks in order to take his Math and Science finals," the old man enthused, "but should he complete summer school with the same outstanding grades he received on his finals, he will pass high school without the slightest problem."

Itachi had only just hung up with him when a knock sounded at the door. He glanced at where Sasuke was cursing under his breath at his math book, before going to see who it was.

It was some man with a scar across the bridge of his nose and a hip ponytail. Itachi looked him up and down. "Yeah?"

"Is this the Uchiha residence?"

"Who wants to know?"

"I'm Umino Iruka." A brown hand was extended, which Itachi didn't touch. "With Happy Time Home?"

Oh. "Yeah, my brother got out of that."

"I know. I was wondering if I could speak to him anyway? If he's home?"

Itachi didn't want anyone meddling in their lives, but something had caused the change he saw in Sasuke, and it could have been the home. He looked over his shoulder in question. Sasuke was looking at him. He gave a shrug and went back to his algebra; Itachi opened the door wider.

Iruka led with a smile that Sasuke ignored. "I'm not on community service anymore," he said without looking up from his book.

"I know." The kitchen nook opened onto the tiny living room. Iruka perched on the back of the couch, looking at Sasuke's bent head. "Naruto sent me to ask if you'd consider coming back."

Sasuke's pencil stopped moving in his notebook, though his head remained bent. "He okay?"

"Why wouldn't he be?"

"Whatever. And no."

"He misses you."

"He said that?"

"I can tell. He doesn't come out of the tree house often, and he was very excited to be chosen by you. Now he only comes out when Neji comes….over…" Sasuke's head had jerked up at Neji's name. He met the black eyes with a bland look of his own and took a shot in the dark. "In fact he's there now. Neji. Personally, I think Neji's a lot healthier for Naruto than you are, but this was a special request. Naruto never asks for anything, so here I am."

Sasuke bent back to his notebook. "You can see yourself out."

"I see. And Naruto's request?"

"You know where you can stick it."

Iruka got off the couch, but turned back to Sasuke before leaving. "I don't know what happened the day you took him out, or what he sees in you, but he was really counting on you being his first friend. I said you might surprise him, but clearly my first instincts about you were correct." He looked at the scribbling on Sasuke's notebook a moment. "Naruto's a whiz at math."

Itachi had the door open before Iruka reached it, and shut it firmly behind him once he'd gone. A few minutes passed, with him leaning on the doorknob. "Want me to help you with the math?" he ventured.

Sasuke chucked both the textbook and the notebook across the kitchen and into the trashcan. "Fuck it."

Itachi opened the door again, as Sasuke snatched his jacket off the hook and barged out. Knew I shouldn't have let that asshole in, he thought.

Naruto was waiting in the main room when Iruka came back. He went up to him anxiously. "Well? What'd he say?"

"Pretty much what I told you he'd say," Iruka said. He put a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Naruto, but it's probably best you forget him. There are other friends." He cast a meaningful glance at where Neji stood a few feet away.

Forget Sasuke? Naruto didn't think that was possible. Sasuke was an ass, but he couldn't stop thinking about the way that same ass had panicked when he'd gotten heat stroke and treated him behind a dumpster. He could remember the feel of Sasuke's tough palm against his cheek, and the way he'd rested a hand on his chest when his heart had been racing. Sasuke had chosen him, and had cared enough about him to want him to change his clothes…even if that meant stealing new ones. He'd worried about him, and had called his brother for help, when that couldn't have been easy for him.

He didn't know what he'd done to make Sasuke change his mind, but he intended to find out. I'll never forget him.

-oOo-

Neji came up behind him. "Want to go for a walk?"

He didn't. "Okay."

Neji came over to the home every day, and every evening they went for these walks.

Hinata had been ecstatic at seeing her cousin take an interest in the home at long last. Apparently she'd been trying to get him interested for years. Iruka had likewise been pleased, until it became obvious that Neji's only interest was Naruto. He brought a T-shirt for Naruto that first day, and took him to play ball again. When they weren't at the park, Neji was with him at the home, where he talked his ear off about how he intended to enlist in the Academy. All he ever talked about was the Academy, serving in the Academy, and how much martial arts he already knew.

And when he wasn't talking about how great he was at martial arts, he was making it known just what his interest in Naruto was. "I mean, I only have until September before I enlist," he would say. "I'd like to make the most of my last days of freedom."

Under normal circumstances, Naruto might have been flattered…if he was sure he was into boys. He wasn't sure. He'd never been romantically involved with anyone, nor had a lot of prospects come his way over the years. He demurred as best he could, but sometimes Neji got insistent, and it was usually on these nighttime walks.

Naruto hated the walks.

They came to the park, as usual. Naruto wondered if Neji knew of any other location in the city. This late, the park was empty of children; only a few couples walked hand in hand. He turned automatically for the footpath they usually took. Unlike previous times, though, Naruto saw Neji spray his mouth with breath freshener.

Naruto stopped. "Neji, look…"

"I know it's your first time," Neji said. His smile was assured. Confidant. "You don't have to worry. I'll go slowly."

Naruto blinked in shock. Dude didn't even ask me if I wanted his dick, he thought in wonder. He wasn't quite sure what to say. "I-"

"I got protection," Neji said quickly. He brought a condom out of his pocket. "The men's room should be empty. No kids around."

The fuck? "Okay, you know what? I first laid eyes on you a week ago. I know nothing about you besides the fact that you're hard up for the Academy, and you know even less than that about me. I'm not into you. I've tried every polite way I can think of to let you know that, but now I'm saying it straight out. I'm. Not. Interested. And if I was, I wouldn't want my first time, or any time, to be in the piss-stained bathroom of the local park. God." Naruto turned away from Neji's stunned face, then swung back. "Are you so fucking insensitive? Trolling for lays before you head to the Academy, like someone carbing up before a marathon? The fuck's wrong with you? I don't know anything about anything, and even I know that's sick."

Neji slowly put the condom back in his pocket. "It's not like I have time to cultivate a relationship…not that I want one. I'm 18 for fuck's sake. I'm just being real. What, you'd rather I led you on with false hope of a relationship?"

Naruto threw his hands in the air. "How about simple friendship? That cross your mind?"

"Not really. I mean, you live at the home-" Neji stopped himself, but it was too late.

"Oh." Naruto's face was suddenly smooth and blank. "I get it. I'm not worth friendship. Just a quick fuck."

"No," Neji protested, face red. "I mean I like you, you're hot, but…you know I'm not so big into the friendship scene. Academy, remember? Won't really have contact with civilians, so…" he looked down at his sneakers.

Naruto looked at him and wondered how someone so good-looking, who was generally a nice enough person most of the time, could turn out to be so one-dimensional. An idea came to him. "Maybe we can come to an arrangement."

Neji perked up at once. "I like that. An arrangement, yes. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. What do you need?"

Not what do I want. What do I need. Naruto looked at Neji's pale eyes and knew –knew- that the Academy would be receiving a shark. Maybe even a natural killer. Neji was someone who probably never did friendship or relationships, not just now before he was set to enlist. He used people to get what he wanted, and so understood the basic principles of manipulation. Neji probably wasn't even aware of any lack within himself. Naruto was barely aware of it…it came to him in vague notions. A gut feeling, some base understanding of the guy in front of him that had nothing to do with psychology, and everything to do with instinct.

He didn't think Neji was a bad person, not yet, but he definitely had the potential to be very dangerous.

Sasuke had to have seen him on the court that day. Neji was only and inch or two taller than him, but Sasuke had chosen the redhead. Naruto now knew that particular redhead to be a quiet sort of person. Which meant Sasuke had probably known who would put up a fight and who wouldn't; he known Neji was dangerous too.

"I need you to find someone for me."

"And if I do?" Neji said. "We'll dance?"

"I'll…consider it. Depends on if you find him, and if you can get me to see him."

Neji gave a slow, wolfish smile.

Sasuke took the bus to Oto, which was a few towns over from Konoha. Konoha wasn't great, but Otogakure was the butt crack of the entire province. Whenever he left home, this was where he came.

Jobs were virtually nonexistent in Oto. Just about the entire city was on welfare, or some other form of government assistance. This was where drug trafficking and prostitution reigned, where every other person on the street was packing heat, and where bars covered all the windows. This is where there were more liquor stores than grocery stores, and where meth kids ran half naked in the streets.

This was where Sasuke felt at home. Where he could release the paper-thin veneer of civility he wore in Konoha and just be himself.

With the hood of his sleeveless sweatshirt covering his face, and his dark jeans, he blended right in. He wasn't interested in drugs or skanks, though he'd sampled his fair share of twinks. He had no use for liquor. All he wanted was cash. The quick, easy, fat rolls of cash certain men carried whenever their weasels dropped off loot.

He happened to know that Sunday was payday for quite a few dealers. One of those dealers was slow. Soft. Sasuke had never made his acquaintance, which was only to say he'd never targeted him. So far, he'd only hit weasels. This would be the first dealer he hit, but he needed more cash than usual. Once he finished summer school, he was getting out of Konoha for good. Once summer school started, he'd be too busy busting his ass to finish the work load to come out here and cruise. This had to be now.

-oOo-

His mark was up the block, outside a strip club. This was another popular business in Oto. He was leaning against his car, some fancy black thing that hugged the ground. His mark was surrounded by his weasels. Nine of them, all apparently shaking his hand and bumping shoulders in greeting, but Sasuke saw the exchange of bills.

He knew the routine. His mark would stand there awhile, make idle chit chat with his weasels, then shake their hands again in parting, this time with product being exchanged instead of money. Off the weasels would go, and his mark, instead of getting into his car, would go into the strip club for an hour or two. Come out shitfaced, and then get in his car.

Sasuke didn't know cars, but he knew the Internet. Ten minutes of research had shown him what he needed to know; that car wouldn't be starting up anytime soon. So he waited, tucked beneath the dark overhang of doorway. A cigarette in his hand, taking fake puffs now and then, head down low. Watching.

Winos came and went, shuffling aimlessly. A shadow or two ghosted up to him and asked if he was looking to score some blow. His silence discouraged most. A single glance took care of the rest. He knew what they saw on his face. It was the emptiness, the soullessness that he'd lived with for the past ten years.

In Konoha, he had to pretend. He didn't try too hard, given the relationship he had with his brother and the way he'd flunked school, but his life in Konoha was still bright. Still had…humanity in it. His brother. People. Things. He had to reign himself in, keep just how dark he was confined to the times he was alone. He didn't do his shit in Konoha. Too easy to get caught. But he practically lived in Oto, with its dark streets and desperate denizens. Here, where pain and suffering were the daily food and drink, this was where he could be himself. Itachi didn't understand. No one did.

For a moment he thought he heard Naruto's voice. His face popped up in Sasuke's mind, all bright blond hair, and moody blue eyes. For a second, just a second, he'd let himself be taken in by the prospect of sharing himself with Naruto. He'd thought Naruto was like him. Dark like him. That they could run together. He'd almost brought him here, to Oto. Stupid visions of them hitting the streets. But Naruto had proven to be nothing like him. He would have gotten him killed. The thought left him breathless again, the way he'd been when seeing Naruto laid up in his bed. His bowels cramped painfully a moment, remembering Iruka's visit, but he firmly put Naruto out of his mind. His mark was coming out of the club.

He waited through the song and dance with the car. Waited while his mark finally realized it wouldn't start, and slammed out of it. Waited while the man scratched drunkenly at his head. And began following when his mark left the car behind and started weaving down the street.

Sasuke wondered how the man hadn't been jacked before now. His routine was easy to learn, and he was laughably vulnerable every Sunday. Once or twice he'd followed his mark into the club, just to make sure he wasn't dropping off the money in there. He wasn't. Those rolls of cash were tucked into the worn leather jacket he wore. There were no bodyguards, no gun-wielding escorts, so how was it this man managed to go unmolested every week?

He didn't know or care. The man's route would take him through a filthy park, that was nonetheless pitch black. Sasuke picked up his pace. He would make his move there.

-oOo-

It never occurred to him that he was wrong. He was never wrong.

So when the man turned and caught his downward swing, twisting the blade out of his hand, he was more surprised than scared. He never got scared.

He wasn't a fighter. Wasn't athletic. He knew how to use his knife, and had more brains than most. Those were his weapons. When he heard a gun cock, and felt the hard barrel of it pressed beneath his chin, he just went still. Let it happen. Just let it happen fast, he thought. All things considered, it would be a relief.

But a roar shattered the night, one that was human instead of mechanical, and something crashed into him and his mark both. The gun went off. He felt something burning hot sizzle past his right temple, heard the gun fall to the ground, then the sound of fists making contact with flesh. By chance, when he fell to the ground, he rolled right over his blade. He snatched it up and got shakily to his feet.

Someone was engaging his mark in hand to hand, and losing. His mark got an arm around the guy's neck, and the dark hood was pulled back enough to reveal Naruto, who twisted free and landed a kick to the guy's sternum. Sasuke waded in without thinking, and aimed his blade high. He put all his weight behind it, deaf and blind to anything but his all-consuming, ever-present, constant need to hurt someone.

His mark went down, and he went down with him, blade driving into him again and again and again.

No one stopped him. No one told him to stop. He only stopped when his hand became so slicked with blood that the blade turned and cut him instead of his mark. His mark was nearly dead.

Sasuke folded his dripping blade and put it in his pocket. Pulled the halves of his mark's leather jacket aside and reached past all the blood. Five fat rolls of cash. Seven. And some banded bills. Several grand. He was in business.

For a minute or two he just sat there, holding the money. Then he brought his knapsack off his back and shoved the money in there. Some of the rolls were bloody, but it would wash. When he stood up, he saw Naruto standing a few feet away, staring at him with wide, frightened eyes.

He stared back, completely uncomprehending.

Naruto turned and ran.

Sasuke frowned after him. Looked down at his cooling mark. All at once understanding crashed through him. He was present once more, aware of how this looked and what Naruto had seen him do. Swinging his bag onto his back, he ran after him.