5. Newfound Obsession
Sasuke wouldn't sleep. He wouldn't eat. He'd spend an unusually long amount of time locked up in the study or the shower. Often he had bouts of passive-aggression whenever Itachi casually asked him what he was up to. And that morning he even ignored a chance at snarking at him which was, by far, the most disquieting bullet point on the list.
Itachi was starting to worry; and while worry and Sasuke were familiarly adjacent concepts in his mind. He couldn't bring himself to ask the moody man straight-up what the problem was.
So he decided for subterfuge.
First, he would call Naruto about an idea he would make up some changes they could make on the script. Then he would invite the young man over for lunch to discuss character development – something the boy was very fond of – and possibly steer the conversation to an interrogation on Sasuke's character development.
Naruto was a simple conversationalist; he didn't prepare what he was going to say beforehand. He generally steered the conversation to light to light topics.
He made everything up on the spot so as to not delve too deep, Naruto could talk for hours but never stray close to anything of telling importance.
And he did it all with a convenient air-headed look that confused even Sasuke. This behaviour took a specific amount of tact and dedication. Both things he can definitely place in his qualities-to-admire column.
Itachi found it easy to respect the boy. He had seen the mind behind those eyes. Behind those eyes of blue was a heart of blue, and an art that was so fucking blue that it gave Itachi pause for concern.
Itachi found Naruto through his art. He saw a painting on the wall at Tsunade's house. An event she had hosted then promptly got smashed at leaving the gala to be expertly handled by her secretary and business-wife Shizune. He spotted the painting of a blue butterfly climbing, tearing a struggle out of a cocoon of stark white and blackened shadows that made the cocoon look more like it was a texture more likely spun and weaved by a spider than a caterpillar.
Another thing to worry about; That boy had, on more than one occasion, lied to him. Barefaced. Actually, no. Not barefaced. With a grin.
Not the playfully cheerful one either. That horrific façade of a grin large enough to eclipse the sun – dousing all in an eclipse of mendacities – his honest eyes closed to the world. It was pretty easy to fool others, people were usually too self-absorbed to notice all the subtle shades involved in and was clearly a building conflict of epic proportion brewing behind those eyes of blue.
Not about things Itachi could call him out on, never about work or timing. Frankly, Naruto's personal life was beyond his control. In fact, it was none of his business what the twenty-year-old did in his free time. Meanwhile, his professional life was spotless. Not a single black spot in the impressive list of achievements, starting four years ago.
Of all people, though, Itachi, growing up sensitive to the wants and desires of other people, whether they wanted things from the world in general or from him, Itachi had gotten good at reading people. Just like Naruto who was sensitive to others strife.
But Itachi felt... needed. And being needed was very different from being wanted, it was more important than being wanted. He'd known after the first meeting at the coffee shop that he was needed. He moved to dig up on Naruto's past.
If for nothing, then for the safety of his cast and crew, but Kakashi had promptly cut him off. He'd taken responsibly, vouched for the kid. Even told him not to tell the boy he'd spoken in favour of him.
Just when Itachi had picked up his phone to make a call to Naruto now curious about who the boy was himself, there was a knock on his bedroom door.
"Come in." Itachi called out, putting his phone away at the sight of Sasuke standing in his doorway in a pair of navy track pants and a plain white t-shirt with a black 'X' asymmetrically spreading out, the overlapping point of the x was right over Sasuke's heart. "How can I help you, otōto dear?"
Sasuke frowned then sighed. "I'm...having a few friends over."
Itachi's eyes lit up. "Who?"
Sasuke's frown deepened. "The guys from Taka. Who else?"
"Oh. Are you going out or staying in?" Itachi stood up, his mind still lingering on the possible implications of the t-shirt, wondering if Naruto could wear it in the next scene of the show.
"With the amount they're going to be drinking, no one's going anywhere," Sasuke flipped through the pages of the book Itachi had abandoned on his dresser, face-down, still open to a page. "Well, unless you volunteer to drive us to the closest I-need-a-snack store."
"I think we should keep any and all drunken people out of my car at all costs, thank you very much," Itachi said, with a glint of amusement in his eyes and a slight curve to his lips. If Sasuke was avoiding eye-contact by feigning interest in the book Itachi had news for him. "And the closest snack stop delivers." Sasuke was fooling nobody. Not at that moment.
"That's good to know." Sasuke ran a hand through his hair, setting the copy of All My Sons down.
"You don't look keen on today's festivities." Itachi decided to prod. If Sasuke didn't want to be questioned on that, he could run his hand thoughtfully through his hair elsewhere.
Sasuke smiled. "Au contraire, Nii-san, I can't wait."
"Sounds like fun. Allow me to intrude." Itachi got up and ruffled through his wardrobe for a dark maroon sweater that would go over his simple, long sleeved, black V-neck.
"Allow you to–? You can't be serious." Sasuke suddenly looked about the room, as though looking for something to throw at Itachi as a distraction or hoping for someone to interfere but to no avail.
"If you're looking forward to this, then so am I," Itachi said, facing the inside of his wardrobe, the back of him to Sasuke now. He took the quick seconds he required to pull his sweater on to let out a smile at Sasuke's irked huffing and puffing.
Sasuke was shaking his head possibly assuming Itachi was very bored if he was using his little brother for entertainment. "You don't even know my friends that well."
"No better time to get to know them like the present." Itachi declared. "Even better, I'll call a few of my own."
Suigetsu, Karin and Juugo were already at the Uchiha's place when Naruto and Sakura pulled up to the mansion at seven p.m. Kakashi was still lost on the road of life, no surprise there, the man was late for everything. He had probably been late to his own birth too.
Sasuke had stared at them in something akin to horror as his plan to have Karin and Suigetsu spill whatever information they had on Naruto crashed and burned around him. He had been focusing so much on what he would do when he got the chance that it didn't occur to him what he would do if he didn't get the chance.
Itachi had the biggest smile Sasuke had ever seen him wear, like the time he got to eat Sasuke's ice cream when the younger of the two was eight-years-old and too sick for the orange lolly. Almost as if Itachi had known what he had been planning.
There was no way Itachi knew, Sasuke was sure nobody knew about his past encounter with the blond.
Thankfully, as Suigetsu roped Naruto into going in for three back-to-back shots as soon as he entered a new plan sprouted in the back of Sasuke's mind. Maybe he didn't have to wait and wheedle the information from anyone else. Just maybe he could get it all straight from the horse's mouth.
Sasuke took his time, holding onto his second drink for so long it felt warm in his hands, but he couldn't care because in the span of an hour Naruto had gradually gone from fully sober and dressed with three layers of tops to letting people take body shots off him. He took to standing close enough to see everything go down but far enough that he wasn't in danger of pulling Suigetsu off Naruto by his hair and dragging the blond upstairs for some private one-on-one time.
While he found the idea of everyone's lips on Naruto unappetizing, he couldn't do much else but mentally drool at, and thoroughly appreciate the toned body that showed no tan lines whatsoever. The blond had a tattoo around his navel that highlighted exactly where the shot would be taken from. The sight of the tattoo was heavily weighing on Sasuke's new bronzed-god theory. A theory he pretended wasn't his.
When Sakura toppled her shot over on Naruto's abs, Sasuke took the chance without thinking about it.
Uncaring of all else, he leant over and sucked at the dip of Naruto's belly-button and the indent above it between. Blue eyes watched him with an undisguised haunting as Sasuke approached him, licking the line of salt from his neck then stealing the slice of lime from between his teeth. With barely the brushing of lips, Sasuke felt his desire for the blond man strengthen ten-fold.
Sasuke then chased his shot with his long since fizzed-out rum and coke before leaving the shell of the lemon slice in his mouth behind in the discarded glass.
Naruto's blue eyes followed every move with a slight drop of his jaw, a dry swallow of his mouth before his blatantly surprised gaze lingered on Sasuke's lips. The look was a hazy mixture of pure and uninhibited want that lit a fire in Sasuke. A smirk stretched across his lips as the suddenly flustered blond excused himself while muttering something about needing a piss as moved to wipe his body down with the hand towel.
Sasuke attempted to back away to give him some space but Karin the stupid girl was right behind him, looking over his shoulder with a wicked twinkle in her eye and a hand on his back keeping him in place. Hence, when Naruto got off the island table they'd all congregated around he bumped into Sasuke, their noses a millimetre apart, their spirited breaths mingled for a hot moment before Sasuke leant in and pressed his hand to Naruto's forehead.
"You okay there, Naruto?" he asked, letting go of reason for the evening and, instead, taking wicked pleasure in teasing the younger man.
Naruto, to nobody's surprise and Sasuke's delight, rose to the occasion. "Why, are you going to kiss and make me better?" He asked with a grin that would probably be inappropriate in a more public setting. The calling out wasn't lost on Sasuke, his desire to kiss the blond then and there was probably palpable to both men and Naruto was effectively calling him a coward for not going in for the kiss.
Sasuke simply took a step back so he wasn't breathing in Naruto with every breath. "Only in your dreams." He let out and watched blue eyes boil with unconcealed anger and being called less than kissable.
A second, barely a momentary breath and then the fire was gone, locked away, leaving Sasuke cold where he stood as Naruto moved to the washroom. The loss he felt against his skin was nothing compared to the potent absence in his gut.
He didn't realise when his motives had moved from simply finding out more about Naruto to wanting to know him in the most intimate way possible but he couldn't deny that what he wanted was Naruto and he'd be damned if he didn't get him.
When he looked around the room most of the people were looking at him with absolute amusement, there was not hiding or running from it. So he shrugged. "What? Don't judge me because you don't have the balls to make a move on that."
While Karin, Suigetsu dispersed, unwilling to confront Sasuke about it yet. There was a temperamental huff from the pink-haired girl. "Naruto isn't a 'that'!" she griped as
"I think you're mistaken, Sakura," Itachi intervened. "My brother meant the term in a purely appreciative way, I assure you. Despite what his face allows."
Sasuke shrugged. "I don't care if she's mistaken. I know what I meant."
Sakura bristled, and then stalked toward him threateningly. The girl was eighteen, barely five feet something but she exuded an aura of sudden fury. "I'll warn you once, baby Uchiha." She spat out with a scowl on her face. "I will rearrange your face if you so much as harm a single messy strand of hair on that blond head," she paused to regard Sasuke with begrudging admiration. "Irrespective don't care how long it'll take me to get the jump on you."
One look into those pale green eyes and Sasuke didn't doubt her resolve, yet he couldn't help poking at it. "What exactly is your relationship with Naruto?" He couldn't help it, he wanted to know.
The girl flushed in a mix of embarrassment and anger, her face colouring up nicely and when he threw her a calm smirk she sprang at him. The only reason Sasuke's hair and eyes remained intact was because she was being held back by Kakashi who had only just entered. "Sakura, calm down!"
Naruto ambled back into the room with Juugo and his dog to this scene. "Hey, guys...What's going on? It looks like the aftermath of Scrabble or Monopoly in here."
Sakura shrugged Kakashi's hands off and pulled Naruto out with her. "We're leaving!" she declared.
"What? Now? I was just getting to know Juugo and Tenbin." But they had already left the room and were headed for the front door.
Sasuke's jaw dropped. Could she actually do that? Just whisk Naruto away? It irked him to no end that Naruto didn't fight her to stay, it irked him even more so that he was none the wiser of who Naruto was, only more curious.
Time for Plan B.