Disclaimers: Naruto is not mine, sadly. This is purely a fanfic using someone else's characters.

Warnings: This story includes strong language, violence, sexual assault, torture, sexual content (yaoi), & angst.

It's All In Your Head

Chapter 27: Plan

--

Sasuke brought Naruto into his room and carefully deposited him on the bed. Then he grabbed a handful of medical supplies and got to work. He disinfected his hands and feet, sutured up what he could, and wrapped them. After a moment of hesitation, he removed Naruto's clothes to check for other injuries. Bruises marred his sun-kissed skin, but it was relatively mild in comparison.

As Sasuke continued to examine him, he noticed several scars that he had never seen before- stories he didn't know, pain he wasn't there to stop. He didn't like how much that bothered him.

He found himself lightly tracing a jagged line on the blonde's abdomen. This one he remembered. When Naruto jumped in front of me to stop Itachi.

He took a kunai for me.

And I left before it ever even healed.

Sasuke turned away- from the scar, the memory, the pain, the guilt. He didn't want to face it.

Any of it.

Forcing down the unwanted emotions, he moved to his connected bathroom, filled a basin, grabbed a cloth, and returned to the blonde's side. He gently washed Naruto while he was unconscious, trying not to think too much about what he was doing. He had to keep averting his gaze from the places he had once caressed.. places he had tasted.

No, he thought to himself. Naruto isn't.. he isn't that to me. He's Orochimaru's prisoner, a jinchurki, a memory.. nothing more.

Naruto just didn't affect him like that the way he used to. It didn't make Sasuke's chest tighten every time he saw him bite down on his bottom lip. Touching his smooth skin did not make his core bloom with desire, and those huge blue eyes definitely did not melt the coldest part of his heart..

Stop. There's no point of even thinking about this, Sasuke reminded himself.

He's not mine.

Not anymore.

And yet it didn't stop him from running his fingers through Naruto's hair, brushing aside blonde locks that had grown longer since the last time he had seen him. He ran his hand lightly down his cheek.

"I missed you."

Sasuke froze.

What the fuck am I doing?!

He quickly pulled his hand away, relieved that Naruto was still unconscious.

No. I'm not doing this. I won't let Naruto get in my head. I know why he's here, and it's not going to work.

I'm not going back.

His resolve reaffirmed, Sasuke grabbed fresh clothes and pulled them onto the blonde. Then reality set in. He might be able to explain why the jinchurki shouldn't be tortured, but how could he explain having him here? And taking care of him like this? He's supposed to be Orochimaru's prisoner.

Sasuke thought it over, then sent out a shadow clone. It raced out of the room for a brief moment, then returned with an armful of metal. Sasuke attached one of the shackles to Naruto's bandaged ankle, then attached the chain to one of the legs of the bed. It was bolted down to the concrete floor, likely something leftover from another one of Kabuto's repulsive experiments.

Sasuke shook the thought from his mind, then bit down hard on his thumb- drawing blood. He traced along the shackle and chain, muttering to himself. The restraints became immersed in a bright blue glow, but it only lasted for a moment. Then the light dispersed, leaving Naruto chakraless and restrained- and bound to Sasuke in more ways than one.

The Uchiha eyed the unconscious, tormented, and yet.. tempting blonde in his bed.

Christ. He roughly dragged his hands through his hair and sighed.

This was probably a bad idea.

--

Naruto jolted awake and found himself in a room he'd never been in, on a bed he didn't know. He looked down at clothes he had not been wearing before, clothes he didn't recognize, and then dropped his gaze to the thick bandages wrapped around his hands and feet.

Someone was busy while I was out of it.. he thought, not exactly pleased with the idea. While it felt good to be clean and in fresh clothing, it was alarming to know it happened without his consent or awareness.

He was especially unhappy to see that a shackle was fastened around one of his ankles again. He eyed it warily, then grabbed the thick chain linked to it with the tips of his fingers and pulled. It was long, pooling on the floor next to him. When he pulled it taut, he realized what it was attached to.

Naruto's eyes widened, and he couldn't stop the cold tendrils of fear from crawling up his spine.

They chained me to a bed..?

He looked around. But I'm definitely not in a cell. He was clearly in someone's bedroom, and he had a feeling he knew who's it was. Between the three of them, it was definitely the best-case scenario if he was right.

It was at that moment that Sasuke walked back in.

"Why am I in your room?" Naruto asked immediately.

Sasuke looked up, surprised to find him awake. He closed the door behind him, then turned back to face the blonde. "Where else was I supposed to take you?"

Naruto lifted the chain between his fingers, careful to avoid his bandaged palm. "And this?"

"You're a prisoner. That part should be obvious."

Naruto tossed the chain to the side. "I'm assuming it blocks my chakra as well?"

"It'd be pretty pointless if it didn't."

"So if your room is my new cell, where are you staying?" Naruto asked. "Does Orochimaru keep a spare for you, or do you just curl up at the foot of his bed?"

Sasuke shifted out of view, then he was right in front of him. He shoved the blonde back on the bed and kneeled over him. Naruto tried to get up, but Sasuke easily forced him back down.

"What the fuck did you just say?" he growled.

Naruto glared up at him. "I said you're Orochimaru's bitch. Nnnn!"

Sasuke grabbed a fistful of blonde hair and yanked his head back hard. He pulled a kunai from his pouch and forced it close to the blonde's throat. "What makes you think I won't hurt you?"

"Nnnn.. w-wishful thinking, I guess" he gasped as the fist in his hair tightened.

Sasuke leaned in. "Don't presume that you are anything to me, Naruto." he growled, not exactly sure if he was telling the blonde or reminding himself. "The only reason you're no longer that fucker's pin cushion is because I pity all of his experiments. Nothing more."

"You- nnnn.. you really expect me to believe that?"

"Believe what you want, jinchurki."

Pain flashed in Naruto's eyes, and guilt suddenly slammed into the raven. He pulled his kunai back, ashamed of himself for attacking the blonde after everything he's been through.

Everything he had just saved him from.

"Naruto, I-"

"Am I interrupting something, Sasuke?"

The Uchiha turned to find Orochimaru hovering in his doorway, amusement flickering in his eyes, and something else. Something unsettling, but he couldn't quite place it.

"No." Sasuke quickly moved off of Naruto and stepped away from the bed.

Orochimaru's eyes slid from the bandages around Naruto's hands and feet, to the chain around his ankle. "I see you've taken it upon yourself to move our prisoner."

"Kabuto has killed enough prisoners already" Sasuke shot back, his voice razor sharp. "I assume you wanted this one alive."

Orochimaru smiled. "For now."

Sasuke kept his face smooth, his eyes unreadable, but the snake was no fool. He knew that the raven still had an attachment to the blonde. At first he thought to destroy it himself, but he was now seeing the value in leaving that up to his vessel.

His final test.

A betrayal that would drag him into the darkest part of himself, and that would successfully break the Nine Tails host.

In fact, Orochimaru thought, it would be even better if the two got close. Sasuke's betrayal will be all the more.. devastating.

Or maybe...

He nodded to himself, pleased with the plan that was already forming in his decrepit mind. He glanced over and met Sasuke's dark, distrusting eyes. "We'll keep him here for now" he said smoothly, "but we will need to keep a close eye on this one. I'm sure you can take care of that, right Sasuke?"

The Uchiha raised an eyebrow. "You want me to stay here. With Naruto", he repeated, still not understanding what the snake was thinking.

"Precisely."

Orochimaru turned his attention to the blonde, his cold reptilian eyes glowing with excitement. "Make sure our little jinchurki stays out of trouble. We wouldn't want to lose him before we get the chance to use the Nine Tails, now would we?"

He slid his gaze back to his bewildered apprentice. "Stay close to him, Sasuke."

The Uchiha's brows furrowed as he tried to figure out what Orochimaru was up to.

Naruto, on the other hand, had a feeling that he knew exactly what the snake was doing. He just hoped he could get through to Sasuke before Orochimaru did. Before the snake's plans fell into place, and it was too late to stop him.

Before he destroys them both.

Author Note:

Sometimes when I write Sasuke being a loose cannon like that, I hear Scar's voice in my head (from The Lion King) saying to him: "Temper, temper. I wouldn't dream of challenging you.."

Does anyone else do that, or is that just me?