Scared Stiff | By : Ljiljana Category: Naruto AU/AR > General Views: 1239 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story. |
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The chair was very comfortable. That was its purpose. Itachi wanted everyone who came into his office to feel relaxed. He had a theory that when people felt comfortable, they lowered most of their defenses.
Sasuke thought that that depended on character; He himself had always felt especially twitchy in that chair. It felt like sitting on a dentist’s chair, with the exception that Itachi was far more likely to poke you through the brain instead of the mouth.
But then again, Sasuke was the only one who knew about Itachi’s theory; Maybe that was what made it different for him.
Sasuke sat in that chair, waiting for his brother to finish his telephone conversation and tell Sasuke why he had been called into his brother's office. That was not his day for “tests”, and his painted message had (surprisingly) come off last night. It was possible that Itachi was mad about the thing Sasuke had written, but that was unlikely…
He was sure he would know if Itachi was angry. His brother never bothered to hide his feelings, when he actually had them.If this was a family matter, Kakashi would be here. Since there was no trace of porn in sight, Sasuke's godfather was obviously not around.
So it must be the events that had happened over breakfast.
Itachi finally put the phone down, and turned to stare levelly at Sasuke. “What happened this morning?” His question confirmed Sasuke's suspicions.
“I don’t know.” That was the half-true, after all.
“You were there.” That was not a question by any means. Surveillance cameras were all over this place. They were one of the reasons Sasuke wanted out.
“I still don’t know. You tell me.”
Itachi leaned back in his seat. It was unreasonable, Sasuke knew, for him to act like this.
Itachi was asking Sasuke for information he knew Sasuke had. Sasuke had been sitting at the same table as Naruto, after all. He stayed quiet, out of spite. They had been fighting for months now over what Sasuke would do once he came of age.
“I know we don’t always agree on things Sasuke, but do you actually want Kabuto to get more votes in the next meeting and take over this place instead of me?”
Sasuke didn’t care much. He wouldn't be here for much longer. But he kept quiet. It would not be good for him if Itachi became suspicious now.
Kabuto was a mutant himself, same as Itachi.
He was also a freak under the protection of one of the founders of this place, Orochimaru. They were both power hungry, and not nearly as considerate as Itachi was.
Itachi continued, “Because I doubt he will let you kids get away with running around at night, or stealing Tsunade’s vodka.”
“…No, I don’t want him to get the votes.”
“Then tell me what happened.”
“I really have no idea. Naruto went a little…odd. What do you want to know?”
“I’ve got complaints that he was threatening people. My team spent three days with Kiba and he in a hotel and his psychological tests were fine; Nothing suggested he’d be violent.”
“Not even the fact that he's killed before?”
“That was an accident.”
“How can snapping someone’s neck be an accident?” Sasuke was actually curious if that was the truth, or if Naruto just wanted to make sure everyone knew he was not open for that particular discussion.
It was strange.
No one who lived in this building was exactly harmless. Everyone, from that maniac Gaara who had been a serial killer before he was locked in, to Hinata, a telepath who had never in her life used her talent on someone without consent, was dangerous. The outer world was terrified of all of them.
Before Itachi and Sasuke came, The Institute had been survival of the fittest. It still was, but in a more subtle way. Now it was more about what you could do, then what you would do on the slightest provocation. The people here were still tough and on the edge.
But when Naruto’s eyes had turned red and he had started talking about snapping necks, everyone had become uneasy, if not scared.
Maybe that Starski thing was giving him credibility, but there was something... some quality in the way he had held himself that was … promising.
Sasuke shivered. Promising in more ways than one.
Itachi was quiet for a while, looking through a window.
“I was there, you know. You were safe at home with our parents, but I was locked in the Institution long before Naruto killed Dr. Starski. He was a sick man and he had been sexually molesting and hurting kids for years.”
Sasuke knew that, as it was a common story in here. It was the first argument in why everyone stayed and let experiments be done on them. The doctors and nurses were nice here; Kabuto was the only one nobody liked. Everyone got painkillers whenever there was a need for them, and the rooms and food were good.
Since Itachi had become supervisor, there was also sex. He firmly believed that sex was crucial for the health of teenagers, and turned a blind eye on midnight trysts. Everyone was reasonably happy and no one tried to escape.
Sasuke was just a special case.
“I really believe Naruto killed Dr. Starski in self-defense. But if he was threatening others…”
“He didn’t.” Sasuke said. Even if it wasn’t in self-defense, that man had deserved to be killed. Sakura and Sai deserved whatever they got, too. “He just told Sakura off for asking about Starski. Kiba was mad, too. Apparently, they aren't very fond of the subject.”
He didn’t really want Naruto to get into trouble, but this was a good opportunity for Sasuke to find out more about him. Just in case.
“Naruto was not exactly threatening, but he changed a bit after Sai tried to pick up where Sakura left off.”
“He did?” Itachi looked interested. “How?”
“His eyes turned red. But that was the only physical difference I noticed. Is that transformation also part of his… talent?”
“It is. It seems Naruto has to be mad to do that.”
“You couldn’t copy it?”
“No. And you?”
“I never tried. Why would I want to be a weird fox? Or violent all over?”
Itachi smirked.
“According to his file from the Institution, he is very strong when he does that other transformation. He can also heal himself instantly from almost anything, and fire can’t hurt him. It sounds good to me.”
“It would. You are a collector.”
“So are you, Sasuke. It’s in our nature. Have you ever missed the opportunity to copy a talent?”
Sasuke decide he wasn't going to answer, because that would just lead into yet another fight on the subject.
But it wasn't the same. Sasuke was just copying because he could. Mutants were all around him.
Itachi, on the other hand, was actively looking for new kids with fresh possibilities. His plan was to find everyone he could and cure them, in order to make himself even more special.
Orochimaru, and to some extent, Kabuto, were trying to find a way in the lab to steal talents. It was a public secret that Orochimaru was insanely jealous of the Uchiha brothers.
“So he wasn’t threatening anyone, he just responded on provocation?”
“Yes.”
“It’s interesting to see you defending anyone, Sasuke. It is very unlike you.”
“I just told you the truth.” Why would he defend that idiot? He was hot, but he had come here at the wrong time. Not to mention that he was also naïve and extremely stupid.
Itachi picked up the phone again, and asked his secretary to connect him with someone whose name Sasuke failed to hear.
“So you don’t like him? And I really thought he was your type.”
“My type? What, a male?” Naruto looked different from anyone Sasuke had ever met, and his brother hardly knew anything about him.
“A feisty male. Go away now, I have a work to do.”
Sasuke went back to his room to hide the extra set of keys he had stolen from Itachi. Now all he had to do was wait for his brother to go away on another trip and he would be out of here.
As he had been awake all night, Sasuke decided to get some rest. His new roommate hadn’t been back in the room since this morning, and Sasuke wasn’t looking forward to seeing him again.
It was unlike him to think about one person so much. He had spent the day worrying about Naruto, and trying not to actively look for him. If he continued this way, he was sure he would work himself into a crush based on two conversations in less then three hours.
Ah, well. It was unbecoming for Uchihas to lie to themselves. He had already worked himself into a crush. And it had much more to do with the fact that he’d been thinking a smile would look much better on Naruto’s face instead of that haunted expression he had been wearing.
...Of course, Sasuke also couldn't help but admit that Naruto was hot.
Itachi would laugh his ass off.
Sasuke dozed off, still musing, only to be startled awake by a loud sound. He was sitting up trying to calm his furiously beating heart before he was even aware that it had only been the door.
Naruto looked nervous. Adorable, his mind supplied.
“Did I wake you?”
“Hmn.” Not eloquent, damn it. Sasuke wasn’t very talkative when he was drowsy. It was better to keep his mouth shut around Naruto anyway, because he couldn't tell what would come out.
It wasn’t as if he was trying to impress anyone, anyway.
…Right.
“I’m sorry.” Naruto said, taking his mumbled answer as a ‘Yes’. “I tried to be quiet, but it’s kind of hard to be quiet and keep your pants up at the same time.”
“Then use a belt, moron.” Ah, well. He wasn’t trying to be rude; Naruto hadn't done anything to deserve that. It was just...stressful, lying to Itachi and sharing a room with someone who thought Sasuke's nose was the size of a mountain.
Sasuke figured that he should be a better roommate and help Naruto. He should offer to hold Naruto’s pants for him, at the same time giving Naruto a very good idea about the actual size of his nose. So the idiot could see that it wasn't that big. Then, Sasuke would drop his pants.
Naruto gave him an amused sort of glare, as if he couldn’t make up his mind on whether he had been insulted or not.
“I don’t have a belt. They burned my clothes, remember?”
“Take mine.” Naruto gaped at him, so Sasuke added, “I’ve already seen as much of you as my sanity can handle.” And then some.
“Thank you.” Naruto gave him a brilliant smile. Sasuke felt his breath catch in his throat, and he franticly cursed inside his head. It wasn't fair.
To cover any visible reaction, Sasuke fetched a belt from his bottom drawer and gave it to Naruto, carefully avoiding eye contact.
“So, are you feeling better now?”
“What?” Naruto lifted his head from where he was putting the belt on, confused.
“I haven’t seen you since breakfast. Are you feeling better now?”
“Oh… Yeah, I am. I was just upset. That's not exactly my favorite subject.”
Understatement or not, Sasuke was glad Naruto wasn’t apologizing. It was sort of hard for him to keep his voice flat when there were two big blue eyes looking at him worriedly. He would just get sappy, and then irritated with himself. That would lead into nerves snapping, and maybe even a fight.
“Am I in trouble? I heard Itachi called you into his office.”
“No, you're not in trouble. He just wanted to know what happened.”
Naruto was silent for a second.
“But he knows what happened? Before. What I did?”
“He does. He knew that before he brought you here.”
“And he put me in a room with his own brother?!”
Sasuke laughed. If Itachi was watching this from somewhere, he must be rolling in the aisles. Probably literally, as hard as that was to imagine if you didn’t know him very well.
“I can take care of myself, Naruto. But knowing him, he probably put you here hoping that I would have to. Nothing provides as much amusement for Itachi as an annoyed and fuming me.”
“That's… dysfunctional.”
“It is. How does it feel?”
There were surely better ways for him to ask that question, but Sasuke had asked on impulse.
“Ha?” Was Naruto's confused response.
“When you transform like that...how does it feel?”
“Why, so you can copy it?” Naruto glared at him a bit. At Sasuke's surprised look, he added, “I’ve met a lot of people today.”
“If Itachi couldn’t copy it, there's no point in me to trying at all. I was just curious.”
Naruto looked a little suspicious, but he answered anyway.
“It's like…there was fog all around before, but then it’s finally gone and I can see things clearly.” He continued, slightly embarrassed, “And my mouth runs off on me.”
“But it’s still you?”
“It’s still me when I’m the fox, too.” Sasuke tried to hide his snickering, but not hard enough. Naruto noticed. “Shut up. The fog is thicker then. I don’t always approve of the things I do when I'm like that.”
“Not always? What about last night?” Okay, that was already flirting. It wasn’t on purpose, it just came naturally to Sasuke. For the first time in his life.
Officially, someone should come in now and kill him. With an ax, maybe. That would be dramatic enough.
Naruto wasn’t that ignorant after all, if the blush that was creeping up his neck was anything to judge by. He found his way out of answering.
“I can’t buckle this up, damn it! Your belt is too short.”
Sasuke bit his tongue to prevent himself from making some blatant innuendo, and answered when the pain steadily making it's way to his brain made him lose the will to do so.
“Make another hole in it. Will that work?”
“Maybe, but it’d ruin your belt.”
Sasuke shrugged and moved closer to see for himself. Just to help Naruto with the belt. Really.
He took the ends of the belt in each hand and tried to overlap them. Naruto lifted his shirt a bit and exposed some skin. Sasuke tugged harder and it worked. There was enough space for another hole. His hands were trapped behind the belt though.
Naruto’s stomach was smooth and warm against his knuckles.
“It will work.” He said, almost whispering, and moved his hands away before he could do anything…unrequited.
Like push Naruto onto the bed behind, and follow him. And then procede to do several things that would likely get him killed.
“What can I use to make a hole?” Naruto asked, in a voice that was a little higher than usual. He was still keeping his pants up with one hand and his shirt with the other. "They don’t let you keep knifes and needles here, do they?”
“No.” Sasuke smirked and closed his fist. “But we can work something out.”
It hurt him, of course. No matter how many times he did it, it still hurt. He his arm felt cold from the elbow down, but the rest of his body was burning. This was just a cute little parlor trick, he told himself. It would be over soon.
When he opened his palm, there was a small spike there. Naruto laughed and moved right into Sasuke's personal space.
“Is that ice?” He looked like he was afraid to touch the spike, so he took Sasuke’s hand in his own instead. “You’re so cold!”
“It’s ice.” Sasuke said, closing his eyes and waiting for the dizziness to pass. “Have you meet Haku today? This is his talent. I copied it from him.”
“No, I haven’t. Can this cut through the belt?”
“No, I've risked fainting in a most inelegant way just so that I could show you something you could’ve snatched from the staff in the canteen.”
Naruto made a face at him.
“No need for sarcasm. I would love to see you faint, though. It would give me a perfect excuse to hit you in the face and say it was for your own good. No one could blame me.” Naruto offered a smile to show that he was only kidding, and Sasuke realized how was startlingly close Naruto was. “Why would you faint?”
“When thieves steal pants, they aren't always in the right size. My body just isn't built for this.”
“Um, I think that's probably why thieves are stealing money these days.”
Sasuke opened his eyes completely.
“I can steal their money but I don’t need it. I can’t buy their talents, though. Not yet. You can take this, you know. It won’t melt, I won’t fall down if you let go.” He didn’t want Naruto to let go, this was kind of nice, but it was better for him to avoid temptation. No one had ever called Sasuke restrained.
Mortified, Naruto immediately let go of his hand and took the ice spike. Feeling some sensation coming back into his arm, Sasuke tried a little circular massage Sai showed him once when he had stayed too long in an… uncomfortable position. It worked.
“Wait, what did you mean by ‘not yet’?”
“There's a group of doctors here that work on that.”
“Why would anyone… never mind.” Naruto turned towards the window to get more light and messed around with the belt.
“Done! This is really sharp.”
“Better give that back to me before someone accuses me of arming you.”
Naruto rolled his eyes, but gave him spike and started waving his hands around.
“They can accuse you of arming me just because you freed my hands. See, now I can do interesting and unspeakable things with them.”
‘To me?’ Sasuke wanted to ask. Instead, he said, “Yes, like shovel twice as much food into your mouth.”
“Hey, that sandwich had two kinds of cheese in it!”
“That explains it.” Sasuke said, and closed his palm around the ice stick. When he reopened it, only a tiny puddle of water was left.
Naruto looked impressed and grabbed Sasuke's hand one more time. Sasuke bit his lip, knowing he wouldn't find it in himself to ask Naruto to let go again.
“This doesn’t smell like normal water. It smells like you.”
“Well, I made it out of fluids from my body.”
“Oh.” Naruto said almost in his hair, because he was that much taller when Sasuke was leaned on the dresser between their beds. Naruto caught a couple of drops from the edge of Sasuke's palm with his tongue and licked them off, as if he was trying to taste Sasuke. “And this hurts?”
“For awhile.” He answered and when he lifted his head, their eyes met. Naruto was smiling dazzlingly at him and there was no force in the world that would stop Sasuke from reaching out this time.
But even if he was able and willing to ignore a rather loud knocking on the door, Naruto jumped away as though he had been caught with his hands in the cookie jar. He was blushing like a schoolgirl. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him, and told the person on the other side of the door to come in.
A head of pink hair showed through the crack.
“Hi.” Sakura said.
Naruto hesitated for a second and then waved.
Encouraged, Sakura opened the door a bit wider.
“Naruto, I wanted to apologize for this morning. It was stupid of me, but I really didn't mean anything by it. I was just curious. I’m sorry.”
Naruto looked bewildered and confused, but managed a nod.
“I’m sorry too.” He said. “I overacted.”
Sakura brightened.
“So...you have to come to this welcoming party we organized for you and Kiba!”
Naruto looked at Sasuke, as if asking for his opinion. He shrugged one shoulder in reply.
“They do it all the time. Just steal a bottle of drink from Dr. Tsunade and go to the basement where there are no cameras and throw a party. Itachi knows about it.”
“Okay then.” Naruto smiled at Sakura. “When?”
“Right now is good. Sasuke knows where, he can bring you along. I have to go tell the others, and invite Kiba.”
After she left, Naruto asked, “You don’t mind?”
“No. Do you really want to go?”
“They’ll think I’m some kind of maniac if I don’t.”
Sasuke wanted to tell him that they were all idiots and who cared what they thought anyway, but it seemed Naruto did. Sasuke also wanted to tell him that they should stay in the room and finish what they had started, but that was a bad idea because Sasuke would be out of this God forsaken place soon. Instead, he settled on, “Fine. Let’s go.”
And they did.
While AFF and its agents attempt to remove all illegal works from the site as quickly and thoroughly as possible, there is always the possibility that some submissions may be overlooked or dismissed in error. The AFF system includes a rigorous and complex abuse control system in order to prevent improper use of the AFF service, and we hope that its deployment indicates a good-faith effort to eliminate any illegal material on the site in a fair and unbiased manner. This abuse control system is run in accordance with the strict guidelines specified above.
All works displayed here, whether pictorial or literary, are the property of their owners and not Adult-FanFiction.org. Opinions stated in profiles of users may not reflect the opinions or views of Adult-FanFiction.org or any of its owners, agents, or related entities.
Website Domain ©2002-2017 by Apollo. PHP scripting, CSS style sheets, Database layout & Original artwork ©2005-2017 C. Kennington. Restructured Database & Forum skins ©2007-2017 J. Salva. Images, coding, and any other potentially liftable content may not be used without express written permission from their respective creator(s). Thank you for visiting!
Powered by Fiction Portal 2.0
Modifications © Manta2g, DemonGoddess
Site Owner - Apollo