Disclaimer: I don't own nor have I contributed to Naruto in any way! Nope! None!
2nd Disclaimer: I don't own any songs mentioned in this fic!
Sky-eyed Kitsune: Woot! Exams are over =D Excuse the long wait, I had writer's block for this story for a while. X( I would stop and start and stop and start a lot .
Reviwer Questions:
Jingy5: Haha, you caught it!! ^^ Woot! You're the first person to catch that about Anko, smart you, haha. You deserve a special mention for that =D Yes, that's very important and will come into play in a future chapter. Good job!
Chapter Thirteen: Thin Ice
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Naruto muffled his face further into the pillow under him, reveling in the warmth that it held. It melted into his body, meandering down his arms to his fingertips, tickling his neck and cooling back down in his abdomen.
He groaned a little as he lifted his frazzled blond mess of hair, blowing a piece out of his face as his eyes tried to locate what had woken him up.
After Naruto's revelation of the fact that he had run to the raven's house in only his boxers, Sasuke grabbed him some clothes to borrow, which said blond wore now. The outfit consisted of a navy tank top one size too big and loose black drawstring pants. Afterwards Sasuke had given him some medicine for his hangover before leaving to drop off some documents at his work while the blond rested.
Naruto finally located the source of the noise; he had left the TV on while he drifted off, set to the music channel where Jason Mraz's newest music video was playing.
"But I won't hesitate no more, no more. It cannot wait, I'm yours."
Naruto smiled as he sat up.
His hangover was gone and the upbeat song fit the refreshed mood flooding through him.
He tapped his foot to the beat, and not ten seconds later was dancing to the feathery rhythm.
He was too wrapped up in his dance, singing along with the tune to notice Sasuke remove his shoes and enter through the front door.
He smiled as he watched Naruto, happy to see him up from his hangover. He walked over quietly to the table and dropped his keys there as soundlessly as possible, and padded his way over to the blond.
As Naruto turned Sasuke placed a hand on his waist and pulled him close, taking the other tan hand in his own free one.
"Where did you come from?" Naruto said, a little ruffled from surprise.
"The door dobe, where else?" Sasuke said. He led Naruto as they swayed to the music together smoothly. Their bodies aligned like the puzzle pieces of a sky where two matching blue pieces were always so hard to find.
"Maybe you should be a ninja," Naruto chuckled, his body becoming warmer against Sasuke's.
"Assassins are better," the raven said smugly.
"So I won't hesitate no more, no more. It cannot wait I'm sure. There's no need to complicate, our time is short. This is our fate, I'm yours."
Naruto looked down, watching their feet as he moved with his newly found boyfriend.
"I didn't know you could dance," he said, looking back up at Sasuke.
"My father forced me. Something about Uchiha pride and crap."
Naruto laughed a little.
"Jiraiya made me learn too. I'm not sure why, I think he just liked torturing me for some reason."
"Do you want to come on, scoot a schooch on closer dear, and I will nibble your ear."
Sasuke gave Naruto's neck a quick nuzzle before moving up to the tan shell of his ear bestowing a nip, followed by a quick lick.
"Bastard," Narutp mumbled, a light dusty blush making its way across the bridge of his nose.
Sasuke smirked; he would make sure that blush would show itself more often.
He turned Naruto's head back with a hand on the blond's chin, and connected their lips.
The swaying motion ceased and Naruto released a soft groan as he gripped the front of the raven's shirt. He felt Sasuke's lips turn upward in a smirk, and he requested entrance to the blond's mouth, swiping the pink lips with his tongue.
Naruto opened his mouth, albeit a little shyly, and Sasuke slid in. He got a feel for the blond's mouth, mapping out the fairly new territory before giving Naruto's tongue an experimental rub.
Naruto moaned as the muscles in their mouthes glided together, wrapping around each other as if embracing.
Sasuke retreated back into his mouth, encouraging his boyfriend to follow.
Naruto played the game of tag cautiously still, as if debating what would be too bold. Sasuke helped him let go of those thoughts, letting the blond know he couldn't make a wrong move as they entered the moist cavern of his own mouth and exchanged soft touches.
Naruto grew braver and pushed closer to the raven, thus pressing his tongue more against Sasuke's and trying to induce a battle.
Sasuke smirked.
Naruto gasped a little as a pale hand positioned on his neck and tilted it back more while the opponent tongue pushed his own backward into his mouth.
Sasuke took a breath in through his nose as he shoved his tongue as far down Naruto's throat as he could possibly reach.
Naruto knew he had lost the battle already, but he didn't give in so easily.
He pressed his head forward, burying his hands in Sasuke's dark locks and pulling them impossibly closer together, waging war with the other in his mouth.
Sasuke stepped forward and Naruto took one back, backing them up until the back of the blond's legs hit the couch. He fell back and Sasuke followed, the connection of their mouths breaking briefly. They used that opportunity to gather a breath of air before continuing their battle.
Hands caressed, skin brushed, and tongues clashed as they continued until Naruto finally conceded and let Sasuke usurp his mouth for a victory.
Said raven pulled away from the mouth he had acclaimed, a string of saliva connecting between their lips before breaking swiftly.
He smirked as Naruto panted to catch his breath.
"I win," he said, and Naruto rolled his eyes.
"Yea, this time. But if you think you're getting a complacent little uke, then you're sadly mistaken teme!"
Sasuke kissed the swollen lips beneath his own.
"I wouldn't want it any other way."
Naruto felt the blush on his face increase tenfold and he looked away from the pale porcelain face above him.
"Never pinned you as the hopeless romantic type teme," he mumbled.
"I have my moments, dobe."
The tap of Jiraiya's left suede shoe against the meeting table played in sync with the ticking of the clock hanging above the doorway.
Gaara stretched out his arm, hiking up the sleeve of his black business suit and took a glance at the silver watch that seemed to constantly cling to his wrist.
"He has one minute."
His light emerald eyes flitted over to Jiraiya's dark brown ones, relaying the silent message.
Shikamaru sat on the end of the table, as far away from Gaara as possible. He would let himself steal a gaze every now and then, before turning his head away and berating himself for wanting something he could never possess.
Chouji sat beside him, drumming his fingers impatiently on the surface of the table in place of munching on food. (Food, which to his terror, was not allowed in the Sabaku Modeling Studios' break room.)
"He's aware of this meeting, isn't he Jiraiya-san?" Gaara said from across the table. To the normal bystander his tone would have seemed level-headed and tolerant, but Jiraiya had known Gaara for too long to be deceived. The redhead's eyes were sharp and critical with an icy backbite.
"Yes, he knows," Jiraiya said firmly. "When he left this morning he said that he was going to go over some problems with the script for Crimson Eyes with Deidara."
Gaara shifted slightly in his seat.
"Thirty seconds."
As what little time remained before Naruto was deemed late ticked by, a light haze of discomfort settled over the enclosed room, only to be shattered by the loud slam of the two wide doors to the meeting room opening.
"Ita-san, s-stop!" Deidara laughed, shoving Itachi half-heartedly in the ribs as the raven tickled his tongue against the blond's pulse.
"No PDA in my building," Gaara snapped, his eyes narrowed at the blatant display.
"Gomen, gomen un!" Deidara said, quickly straightening up.
"Hn," Itachi said, releasing his blond. He winced as Deidara stomped on his foot. "Gomen nasai," he corrected himself. He and the blond rounded the table and sat side-by-side, molding into the uneasy quiet of the room.
"Where is Naruto?" Jiraiya asked shakily, anger and anxiety boiling beneath the surface of his tone.
"I haven't seen Naruto-sama since yesterday, un," Deidara said, his nose scrunching a little in confusion.
"Really? Because this morning before he left he spouted something about running lines with you."
Deidara froze for a moment, his face blank before the ripples of panic began to ebb over his tan face.
"Oh, that!" he said hurriedly, waving a hand back and forth. "I-I mean we did! I must've forgotten! He said that he was tired so he went home to take a nap before the meeting."
"Naruto doesn't take naps," Jiraiya deadpanned.
"Oh…" Deidara wriggled in his seat uncomfortably. "I uh…"
The blond was spared the trouble of fishing out another excuse when the doors to the meeting room opened, and the raucous laughter of a certain whiskered superstar bounced off the uncomfortable space in the meeting room.
Jiraiya's eyes burned and he gnashed his teeth when he saw a pale hand on Naruto's hip, connected to a slightly smiling Uchiha.
Naruto's laughter ceased when he faced his friends and employers at the table, all staring at him with blank faces. He flicked his eyes to his father, who looked like he was about to pounce over the table and bitch slap Sasuke into oblivion.
"Am I late?" Naruto asked cautiously, the silence of the room unnerving him.
"You cut it close," Gaara said. "But still made it. Let's get down to business then."
To say that the meeting had been uncomfortable would have been an understatement by leaps and bounds.
Through the entire conference Jiraiya hadn't taken his burning eyes off of Sasuke, while Gaara seemed to be burning a hole through the blond's head. Deidara was looking down at his hands folded in his lap, even when he spoke, for fear of catching someone's fiery gaze.
An hour later when the meeting had adjourned, Naruto felt like he could finally breath again under the crushing atmosphere.
"Let's get outta here," Naruto murmured quickly to Sasuke, his chair scuffing against the floor as he stood quickly, only to have his collar yanked backward.
"Ouch! What th-"
"I want to have a talk with you, Naruto," Jiraiya gritted out before taking Naruto back into the lounge and locking the door.
"That's very well, since I'd also like a word with you, Uchiha-san," Gaara said as he approached Sasuke, calm as ever.
"Hn. You're not going to lock me in a room, are you?" Sasuke asked, and Gaara shook his head.
"This is fine. Everyone has already left anyways. I don't blame them after that tense meeting. I thought Deidara-san was going to burst into tears."
"So what is it you want?" Sasuke asked, sitting back down into one of the comfortable chairs set around the table.
"I would like to speak to you about Naruto," Gaara said, remaining standing. "Sabaku Modeling Studios is, in a word, my life. Naruto is my most popular and successful model. He has never missed a shoot, or been late for a conference a day in his life. I made it very clear to him in his requirements when I hired him that these were the two golden rules he would follow always. But today he almost broke one of those rules, and the cause is you, Uchiha-san."
"How am I to blame?" Sasuke asked, slightly miffed.
"It is none of my business what Naruto does in his personal life, but I do not need you distracting him from his work. I simply request that you do not hinder his performance."
"Hn," Sasuke said. "Fine."
"Oh, and one more thing. All formality aside, Naruto is a very close friend of mine, and if you hurt him I will rip your balls through your ass."
Sasuke watched as Gaara left the room, as calmly as he had come.
For some reason Sasuke had a feeling that the redhead was far from joking.
Naruto let out an "oof" as Jiraiya plunked him down onto the couch in the lounge.
"Where the hell were you!?" he hissed. "You were almost late, and you know that Gaara doesn't tolerate that kind of crap!"
"I'm sorry, I lost track of time with…" Naruto stopped himself from continuing, scratching the back of his head.
"With the Uchiha brat?" Jiraiya filled in, crossing his arms.
"He has a name, Dad," Naruto snapped back.
"I really couldn't care less, since you're not seeing him again!"
"You can't do that!" Naruto shouted, standing. "I'm twenty-two not twelve! Even if you are my manager, you don't have the right to interfere with my social life!"
"I do when it affects your work!"
"It's not! This isn't going to happen again, I know."
"Yea, sure it won't. You're going to keep getting 'caught up' as long as you're still with that Uchiha!"
"I'm not a kid, I don't say what I don't mean; you above all people should know that."
Jiraiya furrowed his eyebrows.
When had Naruto become so bold? So confident and defiant?
"And I'm not going to stop seeing Sasuke. He's my lover now, and you have no say in it. You can control my life to only a certain extent, Jiraiya-san."
Jiraiya watched blankly as Naruto unlocked the door to the lounge and strode out.
Naruto had only called Jiraiya "Jiraiya-san" when he had first learned to speak. He thought that he shouldn't call Jiraiya "Dad" because they hadn't been a family long enough, no matter how hard Jiraiya had tried to convince him that it was ok to call him his dad.
Nowadays Naruto called him Jiraiya-san when he was extremely angry. When Naruto became angry, he didn't scream and throw things or stomp around in a mad rage. He acted exactly as he did normally, and didn't say a word to Jiraiya. Jiraiya could deal with a blond that seemed to be on a PMSing rage, but a silent Naruto reminded him of when the blond had been mute in the orphanage.
It chipped at the fabric of his heart, undoing the threads day by day until Jiraiya finally conceded, just so he could hear Naruto's voice again.
Well not this time. Jiraiya was not going down with his ship without one hell of a fight.
Naruto's ruffled mood was immediately doused as he saw Sasuke waiting for him when he walked out of the lounge, and he smiled softly.
"You didn't tell me Gaara-san was prone to death threats," the raven said, linking his hand with Naruto's as they made their way out of the building.
"He did that huh? He makes good on those, so I'd be careful," Naruto chuckled.
"What else have you got to do today?"
"Rehearsal with Deidara, that's it. Why, have something planned?"
Sasuke grinned slightly as he approached his motorcycle.
Naruto's smile soon became a full blown grin, and then so wide a smile that his eyes shut.
"Sasuke! How did you do this?"
Naruto was staring at an enormous ice skating center, completely empty. Not even an employee was on the scene. Naruto had always wanted to learn to ice skate, but as a child was too frightened, and as an adult he would be recognized and horded by the paparazzi to easily.
"I know the manager," Sasuke shrugged, heading behind the front counter to grab two pairs of skates.
"And you got him to shut the place down to everyone except us?" Naruto gaped, catching the pair of skates Sasuke tossed him.
"With some persuasion and good old blackmail. He was a pretty crazy club hopper at one point."
Naruto laughed as he sat down to lace up his skates.
"Do those fit alright?" Sasuke asked, dealing with his own.
"Yea, they're great! Hey Sasuke, how'd you know I wanted to do this?"
"I didn't. It just seems like something you would enjoy."
Naruto smiled softly as he watched Sasuke's milky white fingers finish up the laces on his skates.
"You really know me well then," Naruto said quietly. Sasuke looked up.
"Hn," he said, smiling gently, just for Naruto.
The two of them approached the ice and Sasuke slid on it immediately, not even pausing.
Naruto couldn't believe how graceful Sasuke looked. He defined the phrase "poetry in motion". The carves he made in the ice were smooth but sharp, and his precision was unmatched.
"How'd you get so good?" Naruto asked in awe.
"Practice," Sasuke replied. "I like cold places, so I came here a lot as a kid."
"Wish I could've done that."
"Why didn't you then?"
"I was scared of…well, people in general when I was a kid."
Sasuke skid to a halt in front of Naruto.
"Not scared anymore, right?" he said, holding out his hand to Naruto.
Naruto smiled so brightly that Sasuke swore the lights would blow from the energy.
"Not regular people at least," he said, taking Sasuke's hand into his own and wobbling onto the ice, Sasuke there to catch him if he fell.
Oh mai, Sasuke's got Jiraiya AND Gaara on his ass now. And Naruto is growing bolder? But what about Shika and Gaara? Tell me your thoughts! ^^
Sky-eyed Kitsune
Translated by Gomi-kun