Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Constellations (complete)	By : momhuey8 Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Naruto/Sasuke Views: 1362 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- 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.

Chapter List
- 26
- 27
- 28
Naruto had wondered how long it would take before Sasuke and Neji realized the purpose of Gaara’s visit. He had taken Gaara out into the garden in hopes of keeping their conversation private.
“The toad has been unable to find a thread as Sasuke did four years ago.”
“Damn. If Fukasaku can’t find it...,” he sighed. “And nothing from Kankuro or the other teams?”
“No. Yours?”
“No.”
“You’re managing the seal for now?”
“Yeah, but it’s exhausting.” They sat in silence for a few minutes.
“Do you ever think about just letting them have the demon and then dealing with it after?”
“You mean, assuming I live through the extraction?” Gaara nodded. “Actually, I have,” Naruto flushed. “We have two sages here and I know the toads would help. I keep thinking that maybe...,” his voice faded. “What do you think?” He glanced at Gaara. “What choice would you make?”
“I regret that my death did not kill the demon.” He laced his fingers elegantly in his lap. “I consider it my greatest failing. I would not let anyone have the demon if my life or death could prevent it.”
Naruto nodded. Then he sighed.
“What’s death like?”
Gaara looked thoughtful. “I found it lonely and quiet.” He blinked. “I had a sense of…waiting.”
“Waiting?”
“In reflection, I believe I was waiting for loved ones. Everyone with whom I have a bond is still among the living.”
He looked up at Naruto. “I do not believe you will be lonely. Or alone. And you will be joined with this family again.”
Naruto’s chin quivered. “I hope so.”
“I was angry with you for a time.”
Naruto looked surprised. “Really?”
“Yes,” he nodded. “Fatherless children.”
“I struggled with that myself. But then I decided that they wouldn’t be fatherless. They’ll still have two fathers.”
“I finally came to that same conclusion.”
Naruto laughed. “And you have no idea what Sasuke’s like when he wants something.”
Gaara tilted his head. “He is…ferocious in every aspect of his life.”
“Yeah.” Naruto’s smile was sappy.
“I wonder about a relationship such as that, having that much intensity directed at me.”
Naruto’s eyes lit up. “Definitely. You should do it. It’s…amazing.”
“Agreed. When I return to Suna, I shall begin making plans to acquire him.”
“Him?”
“Yes. Sasuke. Do you think he’ll mind?”
Naruto stared a moment and then burst into howling laughter. He fell against Gaara’s shoulder. “Man, I love you!”
And only Naruto, and Byakugan, could see the twinkle in Gaara’s eyes.
When Naruto walked into the kitchen, Neji, Sasuke and Gaara were already there.
“How long?”
Naruto was unsure how to answer. Was Sasuke asking when this had started? Surely he wasn’t asking how long Naruto thought he had left.
Sasuke seemed to realize the same thing and his rage could be felt as a rise in temperature in the kitchen.
“How long has this been going on?” He yelled and slammed his fist on the table.
“About a week,” Naruto sighed.
“Why are you here?” Sasuke pointed at Gaara.
“I sensed it as well. Suna is ready to help. And Naruto always has questions.” Naruto’s eyes widened in alarm.
“Questions?” Sasuke growled.
“Yes, such as…” Naruto grabbed Gaara’s arm.
“Hey, Gaara, I hear Tamari calling you.”
Gaara looked surprised. “From Suna?”
“Yeah, and she sounds really pissed. You better get going.”
“Oh. Okay. Well, I’ll come back and bring word when my teams report.”
The kitchen was silent for several moments after Gaara was gone. Then Sasuke slammed his fist on the table top again.
“A week? When the hell were you going to tell me?”
“When I have something to tell,” Naruto answered quietly, staring at the tabletop.
“Bullshit! Just tell me and I’ll fix it.”
“Sasuke,” Naruto looked up, “I don’t know how to fix it.”
Sasuke’s teeth ground for several moments, then he bit out, “Who the hell is it? Akatsuki?”
“We don’t know who it is, except that it isn’t Akatsuki. Our spy in Akatsuki says they have their own teams out trying to find these guys.”
Sasuke stared in silence again. His rising ire was generating popping sparks of electricity on the metal items in the room.
“Did you think that group from five years ago was kind of odd?” Naruto asked.
Sasuke didn’t answer. He didn’t actually remember that first group; he’d been so completely lost in his fury that when he thought back, all he could see was a red haze.
“They looked like they didn’t have the resources of the average homeless person, but they had the equipment to extract the demon.”
“Do you have a point to make?” Sasuke snapped.
Naruto leaned around and grabbed his pack from against the wall. After fishing around for a second, he tossed a pamphlet onto the table.
“Ever seen one of those?”
Sasuke snatched it up roughly and read, ‘How to Extract a Demon.’
His eyes closed and he swayed for a moment.
“Evidently, they’re floating around all the villages.”
Sasuke flipped through it. It contained the procedure Akatsuki had been using to extract and store the other demons in the statue.
“Probably written by that nut job Hidan,” Naruto supplied calmly.
“Doesn’t matter. We stopped them the last two times, we’ll continue to stop them.”
“Look at the last page; that handwritten note.”
“Uchiha: distance is key.” Sasuke clenched the document in his fist. “So? They tried that last time and we still stopped them.”
Naruto nodded evenly and picked absently at a hangnail. “Yeah, I figure that was added after they failed at that attempt outside the gates. They realized they’d never get passed Uchiha Sasuke, so someone reinvented the process and tried to take it from the border of Sky.”
“That’s right. And I found them and blew their fucking brains out.” Sasuke was tapping his foot in agitation.
“You’re either missing the point, or ignoring it.”
“And that point it?”
“They’re learning from their failures. Want to bet there are other booklets out there with more handwritten notes? Like…the ability to cloak our location is key?”
In his rage, Sasuke’s hand flamed and the book in his hand turned to ashes that floated to the floor like feathery black snowflakes.
Sasuke just glared and Naruto continued, “All three of us could figure a way to pull this off. What makes you think someone else can’t?”
“We’re brilliant.” Naruto understood that it wasn’t ego, but a discussion on statistics.
“That’s not true. You and Neji are. I’m not.”
Sasuke looked ready to argue.
“No. You two are brilliant. I have training. You two could figure this out starting from nothing. I can only do it because of the training I’ve had.”
“No difference.”
“Huge difference. With training anyone can understand anything.”
“So!”
“Look, if I only had to worry about the geniuses of the world, I would hardly worry. And it would have to be geniuses who want a demon. Seriously, there can’t be that many.”
He reached into bag and tossed another identical booklet onto the table and pointed at it.
“Training. Now everyone out there can do this. Bad guys. Good guys. People pissed that their neighbor built a fence a foot into their property and want to make a point by having a demon destroy the thing.” Naruto tapped the booklet with his finger. “I wonder how many fourteen year old boys are hiding in their sheds trying to build this, just to see if they can.”
Sasuke’s anger continued to rise until even the children in the yard fell into silence, sensing an impending eruption. Neji stood stiff, waiting, ready to do…something, hoping his instincts and insights would guide him if needed.
“You can stop this fucking shit right now!” Sasuke’s voice had risen with each word until he yelled, “Do you hear me?”
“What shit?” Naruto asked, not looking at Sasuke.
“This…this…” he slapped the tabletop again. He couldn’t say the actual words that brought his darkest fears into the light of day. “This fucking thing you do.”
Naruto understood Sasuke. He knew their relationship was the personification of the adage, “…change the things you can, accept the things you can’t.” The battle was deciding what actually went on each list. For Naruto, however, it never left his mind that the very existence of humanity hung in the balance. So he pressed his point.
“Bastard, one day, some twelve-year old is going to flip a switch and find a nine-tails standing on his chest eating his parents.” Naruto reached and pulled out another booklet. “What do I do?” He pulled out another still. “What would you do?”
“Geniuses.” Sasuke snapped. “You have two of them. That changes the odds back into your favor.”
Naruto didn’t like this. When this ended, Sasuke would accept full responsibility.
“If this falls apart, it won’t be your fault.”
“I am your protector. I am in charge of your safety, your life.”
Naruto studied him for a moment. “You’re fired. You’re not responsible for it any longer. You can keep working on it if it pleases you, but it’s no longer your responsibility.”
“This is no time for joking.”
“I’m not joking,” Naruto said with conviction. “You’re fired.”
“Go fuck yourself.” Then Sasuke turned on his heel and left the room.

Naruto was sprawled on the couch. Neji’s son was asleep in his lap, the book Naruto had been reading to him under his cheek. Naruto’s new baby was in his arms, wide awake and staring at this father with an intelligent gaze.
Neji came up behind the couch and wrapped his arms around Naruto’s shoulders.
“He’s so alert, so attentive for his age. One feels as though he is already working things out.”
Naruto nodded. “He looks more like the pictures of my father than the twins. Tsunade’s said the same thing.”
“Perhaps we should consider his mother for another child.”
Naruto was silent for several moments.
“There won’t be any more children. Not for me, anyway.”
Neji came around the couch and picked up his son. “Let me get him to bed. Stay here, I’ll be right back.”
A few minutes later, Neji curled up on the couch next to Naruto and fingered the golden curls on the baby’s scalp.
“It is time for you to pay up.”
Naruto raised a brow.
“Years ago, I told you there was a price.” Naruto’s jaw clenched. “You give me your concerns and plans, strategies and setbacks.”
“It’s fine, Neji. I don’t…”
“Don’t deceive yourself into thinking you have a choice. I will not allow it.”
“Neji,” Naruto sighed and dropped his head onto the back of the couch. “There’s no need for anyone else to have to deal with the daily ups and downs of this.”
“There is a need. I have a need. You have a need.” Neji smoothed Naruto’s hair back. “I would be fulfilled if you would lean on me, even if just a little.”
Naruto’s jaw worked and he looked back at his son, who was completely still as if waiting for his father’s decision.
“I already lean on you more than I’ve ever leaned on anyone before. I’m afraid,” he whispered, “that if I lean any more, I won’t be able to get back up.”
“Then I’ll help you stand up again.”
“We also agreed not to get any closer,” Naruto added quietly.
“It’s too late for that as well,” Neji said. “Isn’t it?”
Naruto said nothing, but it was true. He loved Neji so, so much and had almost from the beginning.
Neji took such care of everyone. He was the heart and soul of this family, and the true strength. He was so selfless, so considerate of Naruto and loved each and every child in the house, blond and brunette, as if they were his own blood. They all appreciated what they had, this family of orphans, but Neji truly lived for it.
And Naruto didn’t want to hurt him any more than what was already coming.
He caressed a tiny chin.
“I should never have agreed to have him. But it had been three years and I guess I just...” He sighed. “And Sasuke just kept pushing… Hell, I wish I could tell him no sometimes.”
“Do you?” Neji rubbed the bottom of a soft little foot. “Look at him. He is the most beautiful child I’ve ever seen. And feel the intelligence and power in him already. Your legacy will be strong and proud.”
“I know. But we each had two; it seemed like a good place to stop.” Naruto smirked. “That argument about two pregnancies each was just…lame.”
“But you understand him, right? He’d push you to have thirty children. The more you have, the less likely you are to ever leave us.”
Naruto rubbed his face in agitation.
“Doesn’t he know I wouldn’t leave if I could help it even if there were no children? What does he think I am?”
“Somewhere inside him he does understand that he is being irrational. But I have come to understand how fragile he really is. And he loves you so much; more than he’s ever loved anything or anyone.”
“God damn it. I don’t want to hurt him.” Naruto looked at Neji. “Or you. Or these children.” He looked back at his son and whispered, “What was I thinking?”
“Perhaps you were thinking about having a life.”
Neji straightened. “Anyway, don’t give up. It isn’t over.”
Naruto nodded his head slowly, looking into his son’s face. Then he took a deep breath and let it out.
“Okay, you’re right. One day at a time for now. Maybe we’ll figure something out this time, too.”
Neji nodded. “Tell me.”
“Nothing much to tell; we don’t really know anything. It’s the same basic pull that Akatsuki used on the other eight vessels and that was used the other two times. Same technology.
“But we can’t find them. Not using teams in the field, or our own technology or chakra theory.”
“You can’t find a direction of the pull? At all?” Neji sounded surprised.
“That’s the weirdest part. The toads have been trying. There just isn’t a direction.”
“How can there be a pull with no direction?”
“Got me. It’s like…there is a direction and then like a shifting wind, it’s gone, or…moves.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Okay. Tired. The pull is constant.”
“You look tired,” Neji agreed.
“I’m okay for now.” Naruto sighed, then he looked sideways at Neji. “I can’t do this forever, though.”
Neji felt his stomach lurch, but just nodded calmly, thinking this would serve Naruto best. “I wonder, what about the cuffs? Or the chakra chamber at the hospital? Has the seal actually been compromised?”
“The cuffs interfere with my own chakra too much. As they are, they would make things worse, although Shika has been looking into ways to tune in to the demon’s signature alone. Of course, he’s been working on that for over a year now.
“As for the hospital chakra chamber, that is a good idea. I pop down there for a rest every once in a while. It works for a while; but it’s designed to block chakra. They aren’t pulling with chakra. It’s more like…a magnet, or a vacuum. The chamber slows it down, but doesn’t stop it.”
Then Naruto smirked.
“The seal seems to be completely intact. You know Sasuke; change the furnace filters, replace the smoke detector batteries, reinforce the seal.”
Neji smiled.
Suddenly Naruto smiled and took Neji’s hand.
“Thank you. It is nice to be able to talk to you about this.”
Neji rested his head on Naruto’s shoulder.
“I really hate bringing the job home,” Naruto continued. “But this affects all of us so I can’t seem to just leave it. I’ve been walking around here feeling like…an outsider; the only member of my own little club.”
“You shouldn’t have to leave it,” Neji said. “We are your family. We are here to support you.”
“We won’t share this with Sasuke, though, right?” Naruto whispered.
After several moments, Neji sighed. “I know having him at your side is your dearest wish.”
“My dearest wish is not to hurt him.”
“You could try talking to him. He’s scared, but he does love you.”

Naruto opened the shower door and stepped into the spray.
Sasuke said nothing, just narrowed his eyes and went back to scrubbing his scalp furiously.
“So, are you pissed at me specifically? Or at the universe in general?”
“Are you here to tell me how to fix this?”
Naruto sighed. “I told you, I don’t know how to fix it.”
“Then what are you doing here?” Sasuke snapped.
“Here in the shower or here at home?”
“Take your fucking pick.”
Naruto’s chin quivered a moment. Then he nodded and slipped out of the stall and out of the bathroom.
He didn’t see Sasuke drop to his knees with a sob and then retch repeatedly over the shower drain.
- 26
- 27
- 28
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Constellations (complete)